Book Beginning on Friday, May 11, 2012

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include  include the title and author so others know what you're reading.

This week my book beginning is from Great Negotiations, Agreements that Changed the Modern World by Fredrid Stanton.  This is a non-fiction book.  Those of you who follow my blog know this is not the norm for me.  I usually mention only fiction here but I like this one enough to make it an exception.  

There are eight chapters in the book.  Each chapter is a different negotiation starting with Franklin at the French Court in 1718 and ending with The Reykjavik Summit in 1986.  Each chapter stands along and is very well researched.  I was familiar with all but one chapter.  That one is The Portsmouth Treaty, 1905.  This is a treaty Teddy Roosevelt negotiated between Russia and Japan.  This is the first chapter I read. 

Here is my book beginning for Chapter 4.  The Portsmouth Treaty, 1905.

"With the balance of power holding Russian ambition in check in Europe in the late nineteenth century, Russia turned its attention eastward."

An interesting start but to me the most interesting was Roosevelt's comments after the treaty was signed.  Pick the book up and see what Teddy Roosevelt predicted would happen as a result of this treaty.