First Chapter ~ First Paragraph & Teaser Tuesday

I can't believe April is almost over! I swear it was only January the other day and now another year at university is almost over and I'm even closer to the inevitable doom that is "the real world". But I'm going to ignore that pesky thing called my future for a bit longer and focus on all the lovely books I'm reading at the moment. First Chapter ~ First Paragraph is hosted by Diane over at Bibliophile by the Sea. This week I'm using a book I'll hopefully be starting at the end of the week; The 53 Parallel by Carl Nordgren.

In The 53rd Parallel, book one of the River of Lakes series, Brian Burke emigrates from 1950s West Ireland to the wilderness of Northwest Ontario with his partner Maureen O’Toole. He’s been exiled from his village, and she is running from her IRA past. 

The dreams of an Ojibway clan elder bring the Irish to the sacred place on the River, where they build The Great Lodge of Innish Cove. The dreams tell of a white man who will destroy the River and another who will protect it. While the Ojibway believe Brian and Maureen are the River’s guardians, Maureen’s IRA connections and the construction of a pulp mill upstream threaten to destroy the newly created Eden before it even begins.

Under the watchful eye of a warrior spirit, the clan and their Irish companions risk all they love to protect the River and the promises it holds for their future. The fates of the two groups will intertwine as both seek to ward off the encroachment of the modern world. 

Here are the opening paragraphs:

'With so much light absorbed in the full rolling clouds of fog floating over the River's lake and shrouding the fir and birch forests it seemed like dusk all day. At the far end of the lake, where the current collected its force to return to the River's channel, some of the clouds were smoke. 

A large animal was swimming in the middle of the lake, lost now in a fog cloud, then seen as a shadow before it emerged. It was a big bull moose, his heavy muzzle held just above the water's surface, his dewlap submerged, his large ears folded back, a massive tack of antlers trailing a stalk of broken reed behind. The drifting silver white clouds just above hid the sky. The big bull's bulk was hidden under the water and his neck cut a modest wake.' p.1

I'm not quite sure how I'm feeling about this one, but I guess I'll see when I'm actually reading it. The description is quite nice.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading. This week I'm teasing you with Gone Are The Leaves by Anne Donovan, which I'm really enjoying so far.

Feilamort can remember very little of his childhood before he became a choir boy in the home of the Laird and his French wife. Feilamort has one of the finest voices in the land. It is a gift he believes will protect him...Deirdre has lived in the castle all her short life. Apprentice to her mother, she embroiders the robes for one of Scotland's finest families. She can capture, with just a few delicate stitches, the ripeness of a bramble or the glint of bronze on a fallen leaf. But with her mother pushing her to choose between a man she does not love and a closed world of prayer and solitude, Deirdre must decide for herself what her life will become. When the time comes for Feilamort to make an awful decision, his choice catapults himself and Deirdre head-first into adulthood. As the two friends learn more about Feilamort's forgotten childhood, it becomes clear that someone close is intent on keeping it hidden. Full of wonder and intrigue, and told with the grace and charm for which Anne Donovan is so beloved, Gone Are the Leaves is the enchanting story of one boy's lost past and his uncertain future.

Here's the teaser:

'After the first hauf-hour, though, as dawn started tae show pink and orange above the treetops, I found mysel with energy renewed. I was in the fresh air again, hearing the chitter of the birds, seeing shoots start tae form on bare brances; I breathed freedom intae my lungs.' 33%

No, I have not suddenly lost the ability to write correctly. This book is written in dialect, Scottish I think, and although it was quite hard to get into at the beginning, I feel it somehow fits the description of nature perfectly.

So, what are you teasing with? And what's the first paragraph in your read?