Teaser Tuesday - 27th December

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

I looked to where two of the fat grey birds sat on a branch. 'A far different scene from the stinks of London,' Dyrick observed.

More from our current book-group read - C J Sansom's Heartstone. Getting nearer the nub...

Mutterings - 25th December

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Elves :: Goblins
2. Holiday :: Rest
3. Candles :: Advent
4. Family :: Celebration
5. Insight :: Depth
6. Sleigh :: Ride
7. Party :: Popper
8. Weather :: Clear
9. Presents :: Wrappings
10. Misfit :: Outsider

Make our garden grow

Last Sunday, Jessica Duchen posted a complete performance of Leonard Bernstein's Candide obn her weblog. Here's the finale (but I recommend a watch of more!): May your garden grow this Christmas!

Teaser Tuesday - 20th Dec

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The river was still crowded with supply boats heading east. I saw one barge laden with arquebuses, five-foot iron barrels glinting in the sun.

From our current book-group read - C J Sansom's Heartstone. A massive read I think he has become too popular and therefore isn't as sub-edited as much as he should be - I'm just over 100 pages in and spotted a few bits of (in my view) padding and pieces just to prove that the historical research has been done - it's a detective story set in the last years of Henry VIII.

Nantes

I listened to the Norman Lebrecht documentary on Barbara (Monique Cerf)last night - if you didn't, I'd recommend a listen while it is still available on iPlayer. Here, if like me you were frustrated by some of the voiceovers, is Barbara singing Nantes:

Understanding the words are vital, so understandably there were translations overlaying the songs especially here, where you are uncertain of the person being addressed until the last emotional bars - but they needed more space (in my view). She was separated from her father - having been abused by him in her early years, here the pain is all too plain. She's hardly known in the UK but there's lots on youtube and well worth the listen!

Mutterings - 18 December

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Sleepy :: Winter (Dopey)
2. Find :: Search
3. Scrutinize :: Ballot
4. Attempt :: Try
5. Playing :: Duet
6. Stupendous :: Huge
7. Charity :: Shop
8. Frozen :: Ice
9. Turn around :: 3 point turn
10. Urge :: Persuade

Teaser Tuesday - 13th Decemeber

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Since one in three Nazi voters were defectors from the conservative camp, it is important to comprehend it. The German National People's Party or DNVP was an unstable coalition of three pre-war parties, with an admixture from the völkisch fringe that sough to make it monomaniacally antisemitic.

From Michael Burleigh's The Third Reich - A New History - a comment from the Daily Telegraph review on the back says:

Burleigh has recreated the mental world in which it became unthinkable not to do the unthinkable, and the depraved became conventional.

So I'm reading with interest - though the first 100 pages (there are 800! of them), on the early Weimar Republic, is pretty heavy going!

Mutterings - 11th December

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Dedication :: Song (usually at the head of the score - also see below)
2. Dream destination :: Holiday
3. Games :: Console
4. Hard as :: Nails
5. Convict :: Jury
6. Submit :: Humiliation
7. Alcohol :: Wine
8. Clippers :: Nail
9. Hormonal :: Emotional
10. Diet :: Restraint

Trying to contact...

I'm trying to trace Michael Steward (ex of Storrington) who we believe to be in Thailand. Posting this here in case anyone who does know him googles him - or in case he does some self-googling. Contact details for him - either electronic or a postal address - would be much appreciated! - use my contact details at the side of the blog rather than commenting on this post ( I've disabled comments for this).

Teaser Tuesday - 6 December

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

His face was long and thin like some snouty animal's. He wore an old tweed jacket and grey flannel trousers and a flat cloth cap, with a scrap of dirty white cloth wrapped round his neck.

Amsterdam - Ian McEwan - I've not read this before - it dates from 1998 - but it is now even more contemporary dealing with the ethics of media intrusion.

Mutterings - 4 December

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Flannel :: Verbiage
2. Chairs :: Musical
3. Sporadic :: Violence
4. Difficult :: Crack - a section of the North Face of the Eiger - I was thinking the name came from a climb in North Wales but it's a little more serious!
5. Amusing :: Humourous
6. Collapse :: of stout party
7. Hurtful:: Words
8. Thump :: Hit
9. Frugal :: Food (an early Delia Smith recipe book
10. Collectibles :: Ornaments