Teaser Tuesday - March 25

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!

And why would you want to be goin' on a diet, Jamie? Sure there's nothing much wrong with the way you are.

From Christina McKenna's The Misremembered Man. Alternating humour and dark tragedy, it's our book group book of the month. Here's a review

Teaser Tuesday - July 29

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 pain of her relationship with Bruno lay in separation - not just in times and distances but sometimes, she felt, in the very fact that they were different beings. Even together they were apart.

From Sebastian Faulks A Possible Life about choices but I'm still unsure what it's really about! I need to re-read and study - for example - this review.

Teaser Tuesday - May 20

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 wanted to let you in on something very serious. The pope just phoned me from the Vatican, really pissed off at you.'

from Andrea Camilleri's The Shape of Water - our book group book of the month. An Inspector Montalbano mystery - here's a review. Needless to say that wasn't the Pope....

Teaser Tuesday- May 6

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!

And a day late...

In the middle of the trip
he picked some ripe lemons
and was throwing them at the water
until the water seemed golden.
And in the middle of the trip,
under the branches of an oak treee
the police came along and took him away.

Another from The Journals of Thomas Merton 'Run to the Mountain' - a bit of a cheat as here Merton is quoting from Lorca's poem The Arrest - Prendimiento de Antoñito el Camborio - here's the whole poem. Difficult in view of the circumstances of Lorca's own death.

Teaser Tuesday - Dec 10

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!

They were invented in Norman times to get round some daft law that said only the gentry could own smart, majestic breeds like the wolfhound or deerhound. Commoners were effectively barred from owning a sight hound, in case they used them to poach game.

The 'they' are lurchers - from Clare Balding's autobiography 'My Animals and Other Family' - and explicit homage in the title to the Gerald Durrell book about his early years. This is our book group for the month - something relaxing for over Christmas! Here's the Telegraph review.

Teaser Tuesday - Nov 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!

And he took out his pocket-book and began adding over his accounts, - a process which many gentlemen besides Mr. Haley have found a specific for an uneasy conscience.
The boat swept proudly away from the shore, and all went on as before.

Haley the slave trader in Uncle Tom's Cabin, of Harriet Beecher Stowe, carefully closes his eyes to the moral issue! I was prompted to read this - for the first time after our book group reading of Tracy Chevalier's The Last Runaway - the original underground railway book!

Teaser Tuesday - Nov 5

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 look out, through the steamed-up window; through the mist hiding most of the view, but not all, no; there's not enough of it to hide the thick black smoke that pours out above the trees. Our trees.

Now there's a dramatic moment - Stef Penney's The Invisible Ones our book group book of last month. We had the discussion meeting last night and I think it was uniformly liked. A tale of the relationships between the Gipsy community and the surrounding community. A detective(?) story where things are not quite what they seem. Like her earlier book this is about isolated communities - though in a completely different context! Loved the telling of part of the story through JJ's eyes - a young gipsy. Here's the Guardian review.

Teaser Tuesday - Oct 29

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!

Your wife has written for you to the king. Asking for mercy. You have a great many friends.

Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies. I see I've not teased this month's book group book - I'll have to fake an entry later this week!

Teaser Tuesday - Sep 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!

Honor was hoping to surprise the Haymakers with blackberry junket, a sieving of the berries to turn them into a thick paste that concentrated the nutty flavour. She began to suspect, however, that these berries would be better for jelly or cordial.

Another teaser from our book group book of the month - Tracy Chevalier's The Last Runaway - Honor still adjusting to the American way.

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 6

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 garden was in bloom and we had a maypole with garlands all the way up to the little banner at the top. But it was too bad that we never had any wind.

Tove Jansson The Summer Book. Last year the book group read Jansson's The Winter Book - for various reasons I was persuaded against choosing this one but it's so much better! A lovely tale of a small child and her grandmother in among the islands of the gulf of Finland. Very much recommended!

Teaser Tuesday - June 25

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 Iris Murdoch is still being read but we're getting to the end of the month so I really need to make progress on this one:

The driver was woken from sleep, Sir Selwyn and Dr Belcher got back into the coach and Darcy and Stoughton waited at the open door until the vehicles clattered out of sight.
As Stoughton turned to go back into the house, Darcy said, `Hand me the keys Stoughton. I'll see to the locks. I want some fresh air'

PD James Death Comes to Pemberley a Jane Austen murder mystery sequel - our BATS (book group) book of the month. I'm not a great fan of Austen and there seems to be some knowledge assumed but I'm getting on fairly well with it. Here's James writing about her book and her reaction to Pride and Prejudice.

Teaser Tuesday - June 18

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!

Her neck was dry and wrinkled, faintly reptilian, her face was smoother, more made-up than usual, and wearing the expression the French call maussade. She seemed to have lately washed her hair which made a smooth frizzy ball around her head.

Bradley Pearson observing women - another teaser from Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince. Maussade is sullen - I had to look it up!

Teaser Tuesday - June 11

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!

It was Priscilla. She marched past me into the sitting-room and immediately began to cry.

Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince. A mediation on art and ethics (and the Post Office Tower).

Teaser Tuesday - April 23

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 watched the strange programmes that the television pumped out in the small hours. Open University documentaries about glaciers.

From Mark Haddon's A spot of bother our book group book of the month like the teaser for last week. For some reason I'm reminded of a Brian Rix farce! Still trying to identify the period, late night OU programmes are reminiscent of a certain era.
(fixed title - was I that far ahead of myself?!)

Teaser Tuesday - Jan 8

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!

George had met Stokes once before, in Cambridge, when they'd all gone out in a punt, Cecil clearly exciting his guest by his lordly thrust and toss of the pole and the intermittent recital of sonnets. Stokes seemed not to remember that George had been of the party, and George didn't remind him, when the talk turned to their Cambridge days.

Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child for which there was an earlier teaser last week. A carefully chosen extract....

Teaser Tuesday - Jan 1

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!

Was this it, the sudden helpless breaking of the news? Perhaps not or George would have said something more.

Having finished our current book group book of the month on society around the first World War, I'm now starting another - though more time elapses in this - Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child. Myth and memory - reflections over the course of the 20th century, it's a long read but I've enjoyed most of his novels - here's the Guardian's review, and here's another from a blogger. I see the Independent review compares it to Middlemarch, maybe I should suggest it for our book group?

Teaser Tuesday - 28 Aug

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!

When I noticed the first book missing, I thought I had simply misplaced it, but then I saw the outlines of some feet on the floor in certain patches of the light.
It made me smile.

Getting towards the end of my re-read of Markus Zusak's Book Thief.

Teaser Tuesday - 14th August

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 followed him over to the right and jabbed him once more and opened him up with a punch that reached into his ribs. The right hand that ended him landed on his chin.

Dramatic stuff! A re-read of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief - I teased this a few years ago it is now my book group's book for the month so I'm reading both this and continuing to progress slowly through Dicken's Bleak House!

Teaser Tuesday - 24th July

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!

Late again! I hope things will get back to normal next week! Another teaser from a book read on holiday, I read this one on the boat on the way home..

Dad was telling Mum a funny story about how his boss Craig Salt'd let Dad's trainee Danny Lawlor drive Criag Salt's DeLorean sports car round a go-karting track on a team building weekend. So instead of sloping off upstairs I went into the living room to watch Tomorrow's World on TV.

As you may guess this is set in the 80s lots of loving period detail! David Mitchell's Black Swan Green I'm not sure whether you had to be there then to appreciate this book and its study of adolescence but I was and I did!

Teaser Tuesday - 29th May

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!

After dinner Ma tells me Hansel and Gretel and How the Berlin Wall Fell Down and Rumpelstiltskin. I like when the queen has to guess the little man's name or else he'll take her baby away. "Are stories true?"

Ah, there's the question - what is real and who tells it! A very dark book - Emma Donoghue's Room - triggered by the Fritzl case, tells of a little boy and his mother and the boy's growing up in a strange isolation where the world is only seen through the TV and what his mother feels able to tell him. A hard but absorbing read.