A Surname Meme

This Meme has been popping up on everyone’s blogs and Aaron pretty much tagged the world, so I thought I’d have a go at it, just because it looks cool. Here be the rules....

From the biggest bookcase you have, pick out one book whose author’s last name starts with each letter of your last name. If you have no books by an author whose last name starts with a particular letter, go to the next letter. If you have two of the same letter in your last name, get two separate authors, not two books by the same author. Bonus: If you can, pick the first book you haven’t read off your shelf, unless you’re one of those people who’s read all the books you own.

Post the first sentence of each book, along with the author and title. Feel free to skip prefaces and such, especially if they’re by a different writer.

* * *

French, Nicci – Secret Smile (she writes great psychological thrillers): I’ve had a dream recently, the same dream, over and over again, and each time I think it’s real.

Eugenides, Jeffrey – The Virgin Suicides (A surreal but brilliant book): On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide—it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese—the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope.

Radcliffe, Ann - The Mysteries of Udolpho (Ahhh, Gothic novels, how I love ‘em): On the pleasant banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony, stood, in the year 1854, the chateau of Monsieur St Aubert.

Ransom, Christopher – The Birthing House (fantastic novel): Conrad Harrison found the last home he would ever know by driving the wrong way out of Chicago with a ghost in his car.

Irving, John – The Hotel New Hampshire (I’m so envious of Irving’s writing style): The summer my father bought the bear, none of us was born—we weren’t even conceived: not Frank, the oldest; not Franny, the loudest; not me, the next; and not the youngest of us, Lilly and Egg.

Evans, Nicholas – The Horse Whisperer (Great story, but the ending...): There was death at its beginning as there would be death again at its end.

Shelley, Mary – Frankenstein (I collect copies – every time I see a cover I don’t have I buy it. They have their own little shelf): You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.

First lines rock.