Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• 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!
My Teaser:
When I opened the books, and I could open as many as I liked because it cost us nothing, the pictures lay on my eyes like oil on water and the dancing letters settled on my tongue with the smell and taste of black-jack sweeties. While Ma bit at her lips, ripped at her cuticles and read old magazines, I was learning how stories could make me safe.
Page 112 - Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice-Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson
Ten year old Noel has lived with his Godmother Mattie in London since he was four. He has no family of his own so when she passes away he is looked after by her cousin and his wife before being evacuated to St Albans. He is sent to live with Vera (Vee) Sedge who has a plan to make money because of the war. When she takes Noel along with her she soon realises that he is a lot cleverer than she first supposed. Vee's son Donald is also making a living for himself by taking advantage of his heart condition, but will these schemes of the Sedge's go unnoticed or get them into trouble?
I love novels set during the Second World War and Crooked Heart was no exception. Noel is much older than his years; Mattie always encouraged him to read a lot and she also taught him about her time as a suffragette. I enjoyed reading about their relationship as well as seeing the one between him and Vee develop throughout the story. There were some funny lines that made me laugh out loud on occasion and, despite some of the things that happen, overall the story has a lovely feel to it. I would like a follow up to this set a few years down the line so I can meet the characters again and see what they're all up to.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Thanks to Transworld Publishers and Netgalley for a copy in return for an honest review.
Publication date: 6th November 2014
You can read more about Crooked Heart on Goodreads here
Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is
for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book
you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the
sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the
opener inspires. Please remember to include the title
of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on
the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.
My book beginning is Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans. It's due to be published by Doubleday on 6th November 2014 and I've been lucky enough to receive an ARC from Netgalley.
She was losing words. At first it was quite funny. 'The box of things,' Mattie would say, waving her mauve-veined hands vaguely around the kitchen.
Book Description:
When Noel Bostock –
aged ten, no family - is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he
ends up living in St Albans with Vera Sedge - thirty-six and drowning in
debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous
about how she gets it.
Noel's mourning his godmother, Mattie, a
former suffragette. Brought up to share her disdain for authority and
eclectic approach to education, he has little in common with other
children and even less with Vee, who hurtles impulsively from one
self-made crisis to the next. The war's thrown up new opportunities for
making money but what Vee needs (and what she's never had) is a cool
head and the ability to make a plan.
On her own, she's a disaster. With Noel, she's a team.
Together
they cook up an idea. Criss-crossing the bombed suburbs of London, Vee
starts to make a profit and Noel begins to regain his interest in life.
But
there are plenty of other people making money out of the war and some
of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isn't
actually safe at all…
There is a serial killer on the loose in Southampton but in a change from the usual they are targeting the men who use prostitutes rather than the girls themselves. The murders are quite gruesome with the victims' hearts being cut out, put in a box and sent to someone known to the deceased.
This is the second novel by the author in the Detective Helen Grace series. It is advisable but not essential to read the first (Eeny Meeny) before this one. This is because characters and events are referred to which would spoil your enjoyment of its predecessor if you read it out of sequence. Pop Goes The Weasel is set a year on; as well as having a difficult case to try and solve Helen has issues and secrets in her personal life to deal with.
This is quickly becoming my favourite crime series. The story is told from different points of view, is fast paced and the short chapters make it difficult to put down. I'm already looking forward to and eagerly awaiting the third in this series.
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books for a copy of this in return for an honest review
Rating: 4 out of 5
Published by Penguin Books (UK) on 11th September 2014
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.
It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here
The Kindle summer sale started on Friday, I was good and only got The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy. Just as well as there are still a few unread on my kindle from last year's summer sale, and possibly even from the one before that!
Book Description:
As World War II draws
closer and closer to Guernsey, Vivienne de la Mare knows that there will
be sacrifices to be made. Not just for herself, but for her two young
daughters and for her mother-in-law, for whom she cares while her
husband is away fighting. What she does not expect is that she will fall
in love with one of the enigmatic German soldiers who take up residence
in the house next door to her home. As their relationship intensifies,
so do the pressures on Vivienne. Food and resources grow scant, and the
restrictions placed upon the residents of the island grow with each
passing week. Though Vivienne knows the perils of her love affair with
Gunther, she believes that she can keep their relationship and her
family safe. But when she becomes aware of the full brutality of the
Occupation, she must decide if she is willing to risk her personal
happiness for the life of a stranger.
When Mitch Quillen's
life begins to unravel, he fears there is no escape. His marriage and
his career are both failing, and his relationship with his father has
been a disaster for decades. Approaching forty, Mitch doesn't want to
become a middle-aged statistic. When his estranged father, Jim, suddenly
calls, Mitch's wife urges him to respond. Ready for a change, Mitch
heads to Montana and a showdown that will alter the course of his life.
Amid a backdrop of rugged peaks and valleys, the story unfolds: a
violent episode that triggered the rift, thirty years of
miscommunication, and the possibility of misplaced blame. Craig
Lancaster follows his award-winning debut, 600 Hours of Edward, with a
powerful novel that invites readers into a family where conflict and
secrets prevail, and where hope for healing and redemption is possible.
Mitch receives some confusing phone calls from his Dad Jim and decides to visit him in Montana to find out what's wrong. They've had a difficult relationship since 1979; Mitch's parents were divorced and he would spend every summer with his Dad and older brother Jerry who worked for him. During that fateful summer Mitch was sent home early by Jim and it has affected their father son relationship ever since, by the end of the story we know the reason why. The story moves between 2007 and the summer of 1979 and gradually we discover more things and some family secrets are revealed. Mitch and his wife Cindy, who have four year old twins, have been having marital problems and while seeing his Dad it also gives him a chance to think, away from the family home.
The
Summer Son is very different to and a much more serious novel than two
of the author's others that I loved; 600 Hours Of Edward and Edward
Adrift, but I'm pleased to say it was equally as good as both of those. I've been struggling a bit with reading recently but The Summer Son has got me back on track again. I could relate to certain parts of the story as I'm sure a lot of people will be able to and I finished it in two days. The ending, when it came, was something I never would have guessed.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is
for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book
you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the
sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the
opener inspires. Please remember to include the title
of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on
the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.
My Book Beginning is The Summer Son by Craig Lancaster. I loved 600 Hours Of Edward and Edward Adrift which are both by the same author and I'm pleased to say that so far this one is also very good (at the time of writing this post I'm 14% in).
The first call came on Tuesday night. I yelled at Cindy from the garage to pick up. On the fourth ring, I dropped the armful of newspapers I was packing into the recycling bin and ran to the extension in the kitchen.
"Hello?"
"Mitch"
My guts coiled.
Book Description:
He owed a lot of
people, but I was the only one left to collect. I told myself that I
didn’t care about him, only about what he owed me, whatever that was.
I even tried to believe it.
When
Mitch Quillen’s life begins to unravel, he fears there is no escape.
His marriage and his career are both failing, and his relationship with
his father has been a disaster for decades. Approaching forty, Mitch
doesn’t want to become a middle-aged statistic. When his estranged
father, Jim, suddenly calls, Mitch’s wife urges him to respond. Ready
for a change, Mitch heads to Montana and a showdown that will alter the
course of his life. Amid a backdrop of rugged peaks and valleys, the
story unfolds: a violent episode that triggered the rift, thirty years
of miscommunication, and the possibility of misplaced blame. In Craig
Lancaster’s powerful novel, The Summer Son, readers are invited into a
family where conflict and secrets prevail, and where hope for healing
and redemption is possible.
Do you read books in translation? What are the last 3 books in translation you read?
I do read books that have been translated into English. A couple of the last 3 I've read are also two of my favourite books, Beside The Sea by Veronique Olmi and The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. I also enjoy Niccolo Ammaniti's novels.
Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is
for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book
you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the
sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the
opener inspires. Please remember to include the title
of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on
the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.
Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
This will be a good weekend for reading. I picked up a dozen of Vernie Crabtree's killer chocolate chip cookies at the French Club bake sale yesterday. (I don't know what she puts in them, but they're chewy and crispy at the same time.) Those, a pot of coffee, and a good book are all I will need for the rainy weekend rolling in.
Book Description:
Nestled in the Blue
Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the tiny town of Big Stone Gap is home to
some of the most charming eccentrics in the state. Ave Maria Mulligan is
the town's self-proclaimed spinster, a thirty-five year old pharmacist
with a "mountain girl's body and a flat behind." She lives an amiable
life with good friends and lots of hobbies until the fateful day in 1978
when she suddenly discovers that she's not who she always thought she
was. Before she can blink, Ave's fielding marriage proposals, fighting
off greedy family members, organizing a celebration for visiting
celebrities, and planning the trip of a lifetime-a trip that could
change her view of the world and her own place in it forever. Brimming
with humor and wise notions of small-town life, "Big Stone Gap" is a gem
of a book with a giant heart.
Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is
for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book
you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the
sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the
opener inspires. Please remember to include the title
of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on
the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.
The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North
The second cataclysm began in my eleventh life, in 1996. I was dying my usual death, slipping away in a warm morphine haze, which she interrupted like an ice cube down my spine.
Book Description:
Harry August is on his deathbed. Again.
Every
time Harry dies, he is reborn in exactly the same time and place, a
child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen
times before.
No matter what he does or the decisions he makes,
when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, and nothing
ever changes. He only knows that there are others like him, living with
but apart from the rest of us.
As Harry nears the end of his
eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. 'I nearly missed
you, Doctor August,' she says. 'I need to send a message. It has come
down from child to adult, child to adult, passed back through
generations from a thousand years forward in time. The message is that
the world is ending, and we cannot prevent it. So now it's up to you.'
This
is the story of what Harry August does next - and what he did before -
and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot
allow.
Loner Maggie has been earning a living as a Nanny since dropping out of University. She's now working for her cousin Nula in Oxford, arriving at her house every morning to look after two year old Samuel while both his parents go out to work full time. One day Maggie takes Samuel, grabbing just a few items of his clothing along with his change bag before heading to Anglesey where she lived as a teenager.
The book doesn't have chapters but is split into sections which move between the present day and the past, when Nula was staying with Maggie's family during the summer holidays. We learn about Maggie's brother Joe, parents Fiona and Alan, and her Uncle Ralph (Nula's Dad) as well as obviously Maggie and Nula themselves.
As with all the author's previous books I found this to be a well written, compelling read that I got through quickly. I was desperate to find out the reasons behind Maggie abducting her young nephew and clues to this are hinted at throughout the story which kept my interest from beginning to end.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for a copy in return for an honest review.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is
for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book
you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the
sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the
opener inspires. Please remember to include the title
of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on
the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.
I haven't been reading as much as I normally do recently. As I mentioned in last week's post I gave up on a book and this week after finishing The Honk And The Holler Opening Soon (which I enjoyed) I wasn't sure what to start next. I was going to take a few days break when I remembered I had Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani sitting on my shelf, picked it up to read a few pages and loved it so carried on. I'm taking my time reading it and not forcing myself to get it finished quickly, I often get through at least two novels a week and I think I subconsciously put myself under pressure to continue with this. It can very occasionally make reading feel like a chore rather than a pleasurable activity. I've also stopped requesting ARCs for the time being for exactly he same reason. I want to read and enjoy a book without having to think what I'm going to say about it, if I want to review one great but if not I won't have to.
I've been busy as well because my youngest daughter had her 10th birthday, where has the time gone! She was very excited and we had a great week which included a meal out at a restaurant of her choice.
