Teaser Tuesday - 28th May

Teaser tuesdays now hosted here.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The procession was suitably stately. This was in a part of town where funeral cortèges were not uncommon - a hazard of playing host to a crematorium, you might say - and were always treated with ceremony and respect.

from Touching Cloth - Rev Fergus Butler-Gallie - tales of a young priest. His anecdotes though funny tend to be long winded, but worth the wait, and then the occasional emotional punch!

Teaser Tuesday - 22nd May

Nearly Tuesday! Teaser tuesday's now hosted here.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

A sad Sunday: on the radio some glum piece for cello and piano by Shostakovich. I can't stand cello sonatas, this impossible combination of banging and scraping, helplessness and pathos, with the piano's silvery cascade of notes paying not the slightest heed to the desperate actions of the cello as it scrapes away in its tartly tormented fashion.

Hans Werner Henze in his book Bohemian Fifths - a diary entry while working in Cuba in the 1969. I assume that was the Shostakovich D minor - a lovely work! I see Henze wrote a work for cello 20 years previously

Teaser Tuesday - 16th May

Or nearly Tuesday... Teaser tuesday's now hosted here.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Being a waiter is like being in a gang, a mafia. There are ancient rictuals and unspoken rules and everything exists under an uneasy truce.

from A Waiter in Paris - Edward Chisholm. Interesting details but a bit slow!

Teaser Tuesday - 16th April

Teaser tuesday's now hosted here.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

It was going to be Arabic. Then, he had to make a living, so, computer science

from Lessons by Ian McEwan, not an easy read dealing with abuse in the context of music lessons. But a study of Britain in the years from WWII to the present.

Teaser Tuesday - 19th March

Teaser tuesday's now hosted here.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

In the Faustian seriousness of the B minor Sonata there is no room for ambiguities. One has to take Liszt seriously in order to play him well.

Alfred Brendel 'Music, Sense and Nonsense' And I've just got rid - clearing music I'm never going to seriously attempt - of my score of the Liszt B minor! A difficul read - at least at first! Skip though to the 'Music Classical Music be entirely serious' essay and that got me going - and interested. Brendel on music, lots of fascinating information.

Teaser Tuesday!

Oh does my login here still work?! Maybe (maybe??!!) I still have things to post and catchup, but starting gently with this Teaser tuesday's now hosted here.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

They'd both kept up, however, their veneer of wry humour - unlike Colette prowling angily in her pink dress, which had a ribbon under her bust just like her mother's, except that Colette's bust was more cumbersome. She'd picked at a bowl of stuffed olives until they were all gone.

from Tessa Hadley's Free Love. I've not read any of her books before, this was published in 2022. With its tangled relationships, and its era, I found it reminiscent of Iris Murdoch's Severed Head.

Teaser Tuesday - Oct 5

Teaser tuesday's now hosted here.

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) • Share the title \& author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

...by a former Pope in his place; or John XII who was consecrated at the age of seventeen and during whose reign, according to Gibbon, 'we learn with some surprise that the Lateran Palace was turned into a school for prostitution; and that his rapes of virgins and widows had deterred the female pilgrims from visiting the tomb of St Peter, lest, in the devout act, they should be violated by his successor.' Phew - that's only one sentence from John Julius Norwich The History of Venice - one of the racier, more unpleasant bits of Italian history!

Teaser Tuesday - Sept 15

Let's do another of these (and maybe make it a regular event!) I think it's now hosted here.

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) • Share the title \& author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

"You know that this is the time when people lose control," I say. "It's not worth having a big fight over the stuff. Please be careful." Kim is five-foot-two; her husband is a big, burly Irish guy who likes to drink.

Yes I know that's 3 sentences! From Martina Reaves' "I'm still here" about her fight with cancer, hugely inspiring, moving stuff, the above quote is rather away from the thread of the memoir. Here's the Goodread's page Also reflections on many facets of her life, as one reviewer (Mary McNeill) puts it

Her insights on romance, marriage, discrimination, activism, the law, parenting, family, friendship, and more, are imbued with emotional literacy, which made the process of hearing her story a very uplifting gift.

Teaser - err Tuesday - Jan 21

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!

He took a beer out of the fridge or made himself a mug of tea, and while Roxana perched on the sofa to paint her toenails with deft strokes of silver glitter he told her about providing technical support to editors who could spend days honing a manuscript, somehow manage to lose all their work with a couple of keystrokes, and want him to recover it for them.

It sounds highly responsible business.

From a book group book of a few months back - `Constance' - Rosie Thomas - I'm a little uncomfortable with some of the phraseology in that quote, but I was very impressed back when I read this very powerful story of loss and re-connecting - see this review

Teaser Tuesday is hosted here if you wish to go and thank Ambrosia or get other ideas.

Teaser Tuesday - 13 Feb

Well a bit late but lets try to bring this back!
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!

Mrs Ellis had spotted them: Tom and Gabiella. She'd been a witness, one of the last people to have seen my sister.

From our BATS (book group) book of the month - `The Missing Girl' Jenny Quintana - we're currently working our way through the Author alphabet and this month is (surprise!) Q. I think this is heading to be traumatic if it isn't there already!

I see Teaser Tuesday is now hosted here if you wish to go and thank Ambrosia or get other ideas.

Teaser Tuesday - May 15

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!

Shelley and Stanley passed a joint between them and we all drank tea and talked and then went out and stood crowded on their tiny balcony to watch the muted sunrise through columns of blown rain. It was a good night.

from Gwendoline Riley's Cold Water our book group book of March, I selected this having been asked for a book of local interest. This book of a worker in a Manchester Northern Quarter bar with an ex-boyfriend in Macclesfield appeared to fit the bill! I was though one of the few who enjoyed the book - a bit dank and dismal but wonderful observations!

Teaser Tuesday - Mar 18

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've not done one of these for a bit, but am enjoying this book!

She changed tack. "This watch is for Anna's own good, to disentangle her from her web of deceit

From The Wonder Emma's Donoghue's novel of moral complexity in 19th century Ireland.

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 29

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 instinctively performed an appraisal comparable to a Homeland Security Threat Assessment. Were we facing a Low, Guarded, Elevated, High, or Severe Threat Level?

from Jesus, My Father, The CIA and Me by Ian Morgan Cron. This was our book group book of the month. I wanted to like this and it tried very hard (too hard!) to be liked, but I just couldn't engage with this. It's a story of US minister growing up with an alcoholic father who worked for the CIA and sidelong looks at how his childhood affected his life. Glowing testimonies by well known Christian writers prefaced the book I wondered whether they'd read the same book! It was a book you either loved or hated the ceaseless rush of peripheral anecdotes just turned me off! Another sentence

Every eleven-year-old boy in the Western Hemisphere chooses to play one of two instruments: the snare drum or the trumpet.

- no they don't!

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 15

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!

Most of the temple soldierly had died along with them, and for the first three days Ish had been just a volunteer with a shovel, fighting fires, filling sandwalls, clearing debris. On the fourth day the surviving priests and temple military apparatus had pulled themselves together into something resembling a command structure, and now Ish had this scratch squad, himself and three soldiers from different units, and this mission, mapping the flood zone, to what purpose Ish didn't know or much care.

An apocalyptic vision from David Moles' 'A Soldier of the City' in the collection Engineering Infinity (ed Jonathan Strahan) a free volume from Kobo - hard science fiction - i.e. with strong technological component, ages since I read any in this style but quite enjoyed it.

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 1

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!

"It's not easy to open, Mr Okada," said Creta Kano. I realized she was standing there - and in her early sixties outfit.

from Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Our book group book of the month, some seriously weird stuff here! A novel on contemporary Japan and its development from World War II.

Teaser Tuesday - Nov 22

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 office moved out of London. Adelaide became a shop assistant in a very superior shop and hoped to become a buyer.

From Iris Murdoch's Bruno's Dream, I've head this on my to be re-read pile for a number of years and have just got around to it. A deeply frustrated Adelaide. A creepy but fascinating read!

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 24

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!

Nombeko answered him in English and told the truth: that the Israeli Mossad had just barged into the house with the aim of commandeering the atomic bomb in the potato truck. And maybe, while he was at it, killing one or two of the people in the room.

I don't think this is really a spoiler, nothing would surprise me with this plot of The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden (Jonas Jonasson). But I found it hard to be involved - or amused.

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 9

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!

But perhaps this arrangement was the solution to Nombeko's dilemma. She could move in with the engineer, let her wounds heal and run away on the day she felt that the National Library in Pretoria could no longer wait.

The Girl who saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson. Our book group book of the month - I think this was a book set in a foreign country. Fast paced but maybe a little too fast for its own good? Early days yet! Here's the goodreads comments - looks like a book to either love or hate!

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 4

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!

He was a great worker, something unsuspected by those who knew him only in his public role, dressed in his festive robes to conduct the great Games, or receiving delegations from abroad. He was said to be a cool, even icy rationalist, whose relationship to the arts was one of mere distant civility

Hermann Hesse The Glass Bead Game I've been meaning to re-read this for a number of years - I'd lost the copy I used to have - so eventually picked up a copy in a charity shop. I read it last - I think -at University - and I seemed to have moved from one elite to another! I find it a fascinating tale of the tussle between elegant systems and the 'real' world. Not to everyone's taste! Here's an enthousiastic review. Hesse writing pre internet (and before television was popular) of isolated elites and the long slow death of culture.

Teaser Tuesday - July 12

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!

She hears the tap, tap, tap of the women's tobacco pipes.
During the night, fleas or lice feasted on her neck, breast and midriff.

This is a re-read of David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumn's of Jacob de Zoet. I originally read it back in 2010 and had been hoping our book group would get around to it, but it is a bit long for a month and there's some bits that are tough to read! But as a historical novel of the interaction between East and West it is fascinating. Set at the end of the 18th century in Nagasaki, I am much enjoying the re-read - here's my (few) thoughts from first time (with the other entry tagged so that it can be found!).