Teaser Tuesday!

Have any of you ever read Gregory Maguire?  He's one-of-a-kind, and so I figured I should probably dedicate one of my Teaser Tuesdays to him.  Here's how I play -- and how you can, too:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title and author of the book, so we can investigate on our own if we like the teaser you've given.
5. Please avoid spoilers!

 This one comes from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, the book that's up for my next review:

"'And what makes you think beauty should go in and out of fashion like -- like a rage of eating with forks, or an obsession with the music of the virginal -- or a madness to adore tulips, for that matter? Will future generations look at this child and not be stunned by her perfection?'"

 Still waiting for Cinderella to show, but perhaps the above quotation is foreshadowing?! Eh? Eh?

Teaser Tuesday!

This week's Teaser Tuesday comes from the book(s?) -- (I'll explain in a minute) -- I plan on reading next.  I have 27 pages left in No Turning Back, so I hope to get a review up for you by tomorrow night.  Not quite "early week," but midweek is still pretty good, right?  Right.

Anyhow, on to my next teaser, and then I'll go into the whole s-question-mark-in-parentheses thing.

1. Grab your current read.*
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2)** "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title and author of the book, so we can investigate on our own if we like the teaser you've given!
5. Please avoid spoilers!

*To keep this feature periodic, I will be using both teasers from current reads, and from books I've read before, but haven't discussed on this blog.

**Quantity of sentences may vary, depending on how long it takes to finish the thought within those line parameters. Teasers should still make sense!

So exciting this week for me!!!  From The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening, by L. J. Smith:

"'What?' said Elena.
'Badly bitten, I mean. It must have bled a lot, and it hurts her to talk now.'"

Spooky, right?!?!?  RIGHT.

Now.  What I meant by that whole book or books? confusion was that when I bought my copies in The Vampire Diaries series, they did not come as four separate books.   Kind of like a poor man's Lord of the Rings thing, they came with the first two books in one volume, and the second two books in a second volume.  So.  I don't know yet if I'm going to review each book separately (I probably should, seeing as how that's how she wrote them, and I think they will all have individual elements, even if they are all in the same series...though if it does turn out to be like Lord of the Rings, maybe I'll review them all at once), or if I should review them two at a time, counting a volume as one book.  I guess it will depend on how quickly I get through them.  They are teen romance novels about vampires, though, so I can't imagine them taking me as long as Jane Eyre, or The Forever War, or even Free Food for Millionaires.  I would probably check myself into a hospital if that happened.  For VAMPIRE POISON.  Oh, I have so much to learn.

Anyway, I hope you don't mind this whole vampire kick of mine.  I'll admit I'm sort of into Twilight, but that's more to keep up with the trends than anything.  My desire to read The Vampire Diaries actually stems from the fact that I love (like, LOVE) the new CW show based on these books...but I didn't realize it was based on books when I started watching it.  Of course, when I found out it was based on books, I ran right out and bought the books.  I am really hoping they don't ruin the show for me.  Separate mediums, separate mediums.

Honestly, I haven't been this psyched about a CW show since Roswell.  Back when the CW was the WB.  I think.  And Roswell? ALSO based on books.  But I heard those books were no good.

Teaser Tuesday!

To get you ready for my upcoming review on No Turning Back (by the beginning of next week, I promise), I chose to do this week's Teaser Tuesday on one of my favorite works of literature.  Ready for the teasing?  Begin!

1. Grab your current read.*
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2)** "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title and author of the book, so we can investigate on our own if we like the teaser you've given!
5. Please avoid spoilers!

*To keep this feature periodic, I will be using both teasers from current reads, and from books I've read before, but haven't discussed on this blog.

**Quantity of sentences may vary, depending on how long it takes to finish the thought within those line parameters. Teasers should still make sense!

The quote is from Helen Zenna Smith's Not So Quiet..., a feminist account of British women volunteering as ambulance drivers during WWI.  The title is a response to Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. 

"The Bug was sitting up screaming about men with no faces when Commandant stalked in in her God-Almighty way and ordered her to stop this nonsense immediately, with the result that The Bug wrenched herself free, flew outside, started up her bus, and was off like a rocket before one could say knife."   

Shivers. 

Teaser Tuesday!

I realized last week that I've been reading the same book for almost a month and I still haven't teased you with it.  So here it is, dangling in front of you, for this month's first Teaser Tuesday!

1. Grab your current read.*
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2)** "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title and author of the book, so we can investigate on our own if we like the teaser you've given!
5. Please avoid spoilers!

*To keep this feature periodic, I will be using both teasers from current reads, and from books I've read before, but haven't discussed on this blog.

**Quantity of sentences may vary, depending on how long it takes to finish the thought within those line parameters. Teasers should still make sense!

This week's teaser comes from No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women, by Estelle B. Freedman.  Seeing as how it's also Black History Month, I thought these sentences were particularly appropriate:

"Once again, African American women struggled on several fronts for suffrage, to improve conditions for their race, and to achieve equality with white women.  Black women wanted the vote not only for themselves but also as a way to represent their race in those northern states where blacks could exercise the franchise." 

Curious yet?  Happy teasing!

Teaser Tuesday!

 We had our first snow this week!  Perfect weather for curling up with a good book.  Or, for doing a teaser!

1. Grab your current read.*
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2)** "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title and author of the book, so we can investigate on our own if we like the teaser you've given!
5. Please avoid spoilers!

*To keep this feature periodic, I will be using both teasers from current reads, and from books I've read before, but haven't discussed on this blog.

**Quantity of sentences may vary, depending on how long it takes to finish the thought within those line parameters. Teasers should still make sense!

I'm feeling Christmasy all of a sudden (Haul out the holly!), and I'm pretty disappointed I'm not going to be able to afford a Christmas tree this year after all.  So, to cheer me up, this week's teaser comes from my most favorite Christmas book of all time.  My grandma bought it for me at a garage sale one summer, and for Christmas two years later she made me a rag doll just like the one on the cover.  The book is called The Christmas Dolls: A Butterfield Square Story, and it's by Carol Beach York.  I lurve it.

Snowflakes flew in their faces, and melted on Florabelle's green glass-button eyes.  Everything looked wet to her after that, as if she were looking at the world under water.

Thanks once again, MizB, for your wonderful meme!  I'm off to decorate the rest of the house!

Teaser Tuesday!

Props to MizB at Should Be Reading for giving us readers this fun meme.  Too bad I forgot to post this earlier and we're now officially twenty-two minutes into Wednesday.  But here goes...I give you: "Whodunit Wednesday" (what? It was the only "w" synonym for teaser on Thesaurus.com):

1. Grab your current read.*
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2)** "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title and author of the book, so we can investigate on our own if we like the teaser you've given!
5. Please avoid spoilers!

*To keep this feature periodic, I will be using both teasers from current reads, and from books I've read before, but haven't discussed on this blog.

**Quantity of sentences may vary, depending on how long it takes to finish the thought within those line parameters. Teasers should still make sense!

This week's teaser showcases... ::drum roll! buhduhduhduhduhduhduh::

The Dread Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods by Kate Inglis!  I was fortunate enough to win this book through a giveaway on Kate's web site, Kate...Tells Stories (and for those looking for more of her writing, she also runs the blog sweet|salty).  It finally arrived on my doorstep yesterday, and I just started reading it, but we're off to a good start!  I didn't even open the book at random for the teaser this time because I wanted to share how much I absolutely love the first sentence of Chapter 1. (Sorry, rule-sticklers, but I think if you've already made peace with Whodunit Wednesday, you'll also be ok with me not following Normal Teaser Procedure -- or NTP, as we in the biz like to say): 

"The boy was never seen without his backpack, although naturally, no one knew what it was for, because a pirate tracker is only a pirate tracker if that pirate tracker is so in secret."

If you're into YA (or pirates), you should pick this one up!  I'm so excited I could squeal.

Teaser Tuesday!

This novel-writing thing is a bitch and a half.  I am so far behind I think I might puke.  Again.  Because I was home sick for three days last week, and my queasiness followed me into the weekend, too, so needless to say...writing was not the number one thing on my mind.  Finding the toilet at the right time took some precedence there.  And what the hell am I going to do about the rest of November?  November = Thanksgiving.  November = scrambling to start Christmas shopping.  November = decorating the house.  I am thinking about taking another night off from writing in order to put together a scathing petition to the NaNoWriMo bosses.  Can't we change the month to May?  To February?  To some other month that doesn't occupy my time so completely already?  How do real writers do it?  I'm already bored with my storyline.

You'll have to excuse my bitching.  I'm being really juvenile just trying to get into character.  Writers are moody, right?  With glasses and berets?  (That's another thing.  I HAVE NO BERET.  How can I even hope to succeed?  I must be a giant fool, because I'm still not giving up.)

This is pathetic.

Anyway, it's Teaser Tuesday again!  Live it up:

1. Grab your current read.*
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2)** "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title and author of the book, so we can investigate on our own if we like the teaser you've given!
5. Please avoid spoilers!

*To keep this feature periodic, I will be using both teasers from current reads, and from books I've read before, but haven't discussed on this blog.

**Quantity of sentences may vary, depending on how long it takes to finish the thought within those line parameters. Teasers should still make sense!

This week's teaser showcases Daggerspell by Katharine Kerr.   I've had this series on my mind lately, so what better way to memorialize it than to take a teaser from the first of the books?

"And in a while," the master went on, "she'll die to that other world and be born again to this one.  I can't know if your paths will ever cross again."

Thanks to MizB at Should Be Reading for providing the meme.  Until next time, everybody!  ::Reading Rainbow theme song::

Teaser Tuesday!

Brought to you by MizB at Should Be Reading.

And we're off!

1. Grab your current read.*
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2)** "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title and author of the book, so we can investigate on our own if we like the teaser you've given!
5. Please avoid spoilers!

*To keep this feature periodic, I will be using both teasers from current reads, and from books I've read before, but haven't discussed on this blog.

**Quantity of sentences may vary, depending on how long it takes to finish the thought within those line parameters. Teasers should still make sense!

This week's teaser showcases Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  My first(?) honest-to-goodness classic!

"She shut her book and slowly looked up; her hat-brim partially shaded her face, yet I could see, as she raised it, that it was a strange one.  It looked all brown and black: elf-locks bristled out from beneath a white band which passed under her chin, and came half over her cheeks, or rather jaws; her eye confronted me at once, with a bold and direct gaze."

Shivers.  I'm definitely not that far into the book, but I am pretty excited about getting there!

Happy Tuesday. 

(Got your own teaser?  Post this meme on your own blog and leave a link in the comments here...or just add your teaser to a comment by itself.) 

Teaser Tuesday!

Thanks again to MizB at Should Be Reading for coming up with this meme.  And thanks to ShabbyBlogs.com for providing me with the sweet new background!

Ready?  Go!

1. Grab your current read.*
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2)** "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title and author of the book, so we can investigate on our own if we like the teaser you've given!
5. Please avoid spoilers!

*To keep this feature periodic, I will be using both teasers from current reads, and from books I've read before, but haven't discussed on this blog.

**Quantity of sentences may vary, depending on how long it takes to finish the thought within those line parameters. Teasers should still make sense!

This week's Teaser Tuesday showcases Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (a book I started, but never finished...and hope to someday pick up again):

Mrs. O'Dowd said that her 'Glorvina was not afraid of any man alive, let alone a Frenchman,' and tossed off a glass of beer with a wink which expressed her liking for the beverage.

And how cool is this?  As I was flipping through my copy of this book, I came across two pictures of me with each of my parents.  I love these pictures because we are all cracking up in them.  I thought they'd been lost for 2 years.  Literary classics to the rescue!

You'll have to excuse the poor positioning...these pictures were taken long before the digital age...and time is still standing in B.S. at my house (Before Scanners).

Teaser Tuesday!

Time to play!

Here's how:

1. Grab your current read.*
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2)** "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title and author of the book, so we can investigate on our own if we like the teaser you've given!
5. Please avoid spoilers!

*To keep this feature periodic, I will be using both teasers from current reads, and from books I've read before, but haven't discussed on this blog.

**Quantity of sentences may vary, depending on how long it takes to finish the thought within those line parameters. Teasers should still make sense!

This week's Teaser Tuesday showcases Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee (my current read):

"Listen," he said.
"I don't have to listen to you. You're a fucking clown."

Gotta love the swears. Tune in next week for another Teaser Tuesday!

Do this on your own blog, and leave a link in the comments here...or just leave a comment with your own teasers and titles! Super fun.

Meme courtesy of MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesday!

I got this idea from my good friend, who writes a blog called Fickle Words; she got the idea from MizB at Should Be Reading. The premise is cute, kind of like a meme, and definitely an interesting way to make book recommendations -- so I hope to make this my own Dog-Eared regular.

Here's how to play:

1. Grab your current read.*
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2)** "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. You also need to share the title 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!
5. Please avoid spoilers!

*To keep this feature periodic, I will be using both teasers from current reads, and from books I've read before, but haven't discussed on this blog.

**I will probably cheat sometimes, depending on how long it takes to finish the thought within those line parameters. Teasers should still make sense!

Here's a teaser from my current read, The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins:

"In an odd but real way, my five-mile runs up Abu Nawas Street made me wonder what the war in Iraq was about. All day long reporting in the country I encountered hostility and chaos, which was intense and growing and real. And yet at night when I hit the streets, in the fall of 2003, I could not find a trace of it."

Wow, I don't know about you, but if I wasn't already reading it, I'd be totally roped in.

Do this on your own blog, and leave a link in the comments here...or just leave a comment with your own teasers and titles! Interactive and educational. Ta da!