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!).

Teaser Tusday - Feb 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!

A neon poodle prances across its sign for all eternity. It wears a little doggie bow tie.

Another teaser from David Mitchell's Number9Dream - I've nearly finished this now and I'm not sure that it's getting any clearer! First teaser of February - I've not been remembering! The poodle is, presumably, an illuminated street sign.

Teaser Tuesday - Jan 28

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 know that eye. It gleams, and the animal sidles away with a twitch of its tail.

David Mitchell's number9dream. I'm still early on in this book and at least there's some narrative I can get hold of! The first chapter left me struggling (well 15 pages in I was lost!)! Here's the Guardian review which might give a few pointers..

Teaser Tuesday - Dec 3

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!

We had not heard Boerhaave descend the companionway & nudge open my door! Torgny cried out in dismay, declaring his guilt in a trice.

A re-read of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas - I see it was nearly three years ago that I first read and teased it.

Cloud Atlas

I seem to be on a run of David Mitchell at the moment, here's the trailer for the forthcoming Cloud Atlas movie:

.. to be released in October! (h/t bookriot and twitter's suzyklein)

Teaser Tuesday - 5 April

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!

Last 100 pages now of last week's book, intentionally choosing a different style!

Do wonder if my brother liked boys as well as girls too, or if my vice is mine alone. Wonder if he died celibate. Think of those troopers, lying together, cowering, alive; cold, dead.

had to include that extra sentence! Or I could have chosen:

Meronym looked back anxin' diresome. Weren't no sign of our chasers yet so she swung down to the ground an' peered at the pain.

The switches in styles between sections makes a difficult read - David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas - let's see if it is rewarding!

Teaser Tuesday - 29 March

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'm afraid I was away last week so missed out on this post, but here is one for this week!

The engine makes a lazy, leonine roar - the VW reverses too fast. Joe Napier thumps into the back, yells, and Luisa glimpses him hopping like a slapstick actor.

This is David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas - I was tempted to include several teasers from various parts of the book but maybe that fact is too much of a spoiler, or is it? I don't know yet but it is a compelling read so far! Here's a good summary of what it's about.

Teaser Tuesday - 13 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!

But Oost, on whom Grote's rum is having a benign effect. `Aye it did'. "Oost" is from "oost-Indische Compagnie" who funded the orphanage, and who'd deny there's "East" in my blood?

(Another extract, see yesterday for a slightly different feel) From David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - was nearly put off this by an uncomplimentary Guardian review but having heard a Radio 3 review of it I decided to give it a go. The interaction of East and West, Holland and Japan at the end of the 18th century. Here's Geoff Coupe's thoughts on the book.
(apologies for folk who comment here from teaser tuesday - I'm in a hotel on a slow connection but will eventually get around to looking at your links, for which I am grateful!)

Stillness

DSCF8175
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Another week of working away - two books to read (or at least start) and I enjoyed the conjunction of these two passages:

I can remember, as quite a small boy, lying beneath a huge chestnut tree and staring up into its branches, wondering at its nascent fruitfulness, and resting not just under its presence but somehow within it. All this is part of the person I am, but, for the present, it is chiefly lost to me. I am much too busy....

from Stephen Cottrell's DO nothing to change your life.

Gardening is harder labour than Jacob is used to, and yet, he admits to himself, I enjoy it. His tired eyes are rested by the living green; rosefinches pluck worms from the ramped-up earth; and a black-masked bunting, whose song sounds like clinking cutlery, watches from the empty cistern

from David Michell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

The picture is another from Buxton's Pavilion Gardens - anyone want to name the plant?