Booking Through Thursday: Skeletons

This week's BTT topic is skeletons. Not the spooky kind that rise up and dance around on Halloween, but the kind you hide in closets and cupboards. Literary skeletons, of course:

"What reading skeletons do you have in your closet? Books you’d be ashamed to let people know you love? Addiction to the worst kind of (fill in cheesy genre here)? Your old collection of Bobbsey Twin Mysteries lovingly stored behind your 'grown-up' books? You get the picture … come on, confess!"

So I have to confess . . . I really don't think I have any skeletons in the old closet, when it comes to my reading habits. I do have a lot of various literary (and semi-literary) addictions, and some of those might seem odd by another reader's standards (like my love of Little Lulu comics). And, yes, I do have a collection of old Bobbsey Twin books lovingly stored away, as well as Nancy Drews, Danny Dunns, and Happy Hollisters. But they're not in hiding - I just don't have room on the shelves for all the books I own.

I'm not embarrassed about any of the books I read. I guess I sort of agree with Oscar Wilde: "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."

Teaser Tuesdays: After Claude

This week my teaser lines come from Iris Owens' novel After Claude. The book was originally published in 1973 and is being reissued by New York Review Books. (The quote comes from an uncorrected proof of the book, so there might be some differences in the published version.) In this snippet Roger, a slick guru-type, is explaining to Harriet, the book's central character, why she probably wouldn't be a good choice for his "Institute" commune:

"The Institute is hard going, especially for the girls. They are the heart and hands of the Institute. You'd have cooking, farming, cleaning the cabins, and attending with joy to all the needs of the men." [p.201]

Sounds a little like marriage, doesn't it? Well, at least he's honest.

I'll be getting a review of this one up in a few days (the book is due to be released in November). This is the cover on the ARC that I read, and I have to say it gets my vote for ugliest cover of the year. Hope they change it for the published edition.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in a comment here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Well, last week wasn't a great reading week for me. Only finished one book, and didn't really do much blogging - didn't even post a "What Are You Reading?" update. I'm a little preoccupied with other stuff right now - mostly getting ready for our upcoming trip to Texas. We'll be leaving next week, and we'll be away from home for about three weeks. And since I'm not really such a great traveler, it takes me a couple of weeks just to get myself mentally prepared, not to mention all the list-making, errand-running, packing, unpacking, and re-packing. Which doesn't leave a lot of time for doing things I'd really prefer to be doing, like reading and blog-hopping. But, enough of that. Here's how things stand this week:

• Read in the last two weeks:
  
  Book of Shadows. Alexandra Sokoloff. Working on a review of this one. Read it for the RIP/V Challenge - a mystery with a Halloween setting and paranormal elements, perfect for this time of year.
  
  
  After Claude, by Iris Owens. This was an Early Reviewer book from Library Thing. I should have a review up, over there, later today. I'll probably wait until a little closer to the November release date before I post a review on my blog. Strange book - haven't really decided exactly how I feel about it.
  
  
  
• Recent reviews:
  
  The Inheritance, by Simon Tolkien. Interesting mystery novel set in 1950s England and France, by J.R.R.'s grandson. See my review here.
  
  
  
• Reading this week:
  
  I'm determined to finish up Stephen King's The Dark Half this week.
  
  
  Also want to start on the ARC of Kate Morton's The Distant Hours - I might be taking that along on the trip (it's such a chunkster, it just might need its own bag!).
  
  
  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

Booking Through Thursday: Foreign Favorites

This week's BTT topic ("Name a book (or books) from a country other than your own that you love. Or aren’t there any?") is a good one, but it presents an almost impossible task. At least, it seems pretty daunting to me.

Because so many of my favorite books are from countries other than my own, once I get started listing them, we could be here for the rest of the week. And choosing just one favorite would be seriously impossible.

What would it be? Lewis Carroll's Alice books? See – that's two already. Just about anything by Barbara Pym or Anthony Powell? Wuthering Heights? Something by P.D. James, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers? Du Maurier's Rebecca? Virginia Woolf's Orlando?

And that's just the British Isles. What about Borges' Ficciones? Magister Ludi by Hermann Hesse? Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being? Nabokov's Lolita? The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez Reverte?

See my point? And I could go on. But I won't (you lucky people, you!). What I will do is direct you to a list of favorites, written several years ago (I really should update it one of these days), and then take myself off to look at your answers. Should be fun because you've got a long list, too – am I right? And I love reading lists of books almost as much as I love reading the books themselves!

Teaser Tuesdays: The First Inspector Barnaby

This week, my teaser lines come from Caroline Graham's 1987 whodunit, The Killings at Badger's Drift. It's the first book in her series of Chief Inspector Barnaby novels, and I haven't actually started it yet. I have read several of the later novels in the series and enjoyed them very much, but somehow I missed out on the book that started it all. Sounds like me.

This snippet is from page 12 and caught my eye because it establishes one of the funniest traditions of the novels (and one of the things I've always liked about them) - the fact that Joyce Barnaby, the Chief Inspector's wife, is a horrible cook. As he says, she has many other wonderful abilities, but cooking (alas) is not among them:

It was almost nine o'clock. Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby sat at the dining room table facing a plateful of leathery strips, black and shiny as liquorice, surrounded by coils of yellowish green paste.

"Your liver and greens are spoiled, dear," said Mrs Barnaby, implying that there had once been a time when they were not.

Again, sounds like me. I can definitely identify with poor Joyce because I have the same problem: I am probably the world's worst cook. Even though my husband has always said (lovingly, if rather un-diplomatically) that I'm only the world's second worst cook because his mother was the first. So I suppose I got lucky there, even if he didn't.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in a comment here.

It's a Wilde Day!

Celebrate the birthday of Oscar Wilde.
Do something unconventional!

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
(16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900)

Photo: Wikipedia

Booking Through Thursday: Rewrite

This week BTT asks: "If you could rewrite the ending of any book, which book would it be? And how would you change it?"

First, I want to say thanks to Deb for using one of my questions this week (thanks, Deb!). And second, I want to say what was I thinking???!!!

Seriously, it's not that it's such a terrible question; it's just that now I'll have to come up with an answer. And an answer that isn't too much of a spoiler, too! And after giving the question a lot of thought this morning, I have to admit I'm usually pretty satisfied with the endings of the books I read. Probably because I'm just not imaginative enough to think of anything else!

Of the books I've read lately, though, I can think of a couple that had endings that really disappointed. First, there was Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop. It's about a widow in the 1950s who opens a bookshop in a small English village. It's very hard to say much more about the book without giving away too much, so I'll just say that while I know the ending was inevitable, I found it really maddening. (But the book is definitely worth a read, even with the frustrating ending.)

More recently, a book that had an ending I found really disappointing is Brunonia Barry's The Map of True Places. Actually, I was a little disappointed by the whole book, but I thought the ending was especially weak – as if Barry had run out of steam and just wanted to tie everything up neatly. I felt the (**spoiler alert!**) relatively happy and uplifting ending just didn't really fit with the rather dark tone of the rest of the book. I would have been happier with a few loose ends and a more realistic wrap-up. (I should probably say here that I read an ARC of the book – I suppose it's possible that the ending of the published version might be a bit different; I should take a look at the finished product and check that out.)

I do remember, as a girl, being very upset about the ending of Little Women – I was really hoping Jo and Laurie would get together, and when that (** spoiler alert!**) didn't happen I was very disappointed. But then, if they had married, Jo would never have met Professor Bhaer, and they never would have decided to start a school together, and Louisa May Alcott never would have written Little Men, which turned out to be an even better book than Little Women. There's probably a lesson in there somewhere about authors knowing what's best for their characters and their readers.

If I gave it a little more thought, I'd probably come up with many more examples. Probably way too many examples. So I'll let it go at three. And how about ya'll? Any disappointing endings you'd like to rearrange?

Reading Report: The Inheritance

Written by Simon Tolkien
Minotaur Books, 2010; 325 pages

Description from the publisher:

When a famed Oxford historian is found dead in his study one night, all evidence points to his son, Stephen. About to be disinherited from the family fortune, Stephen has returned home after a long estrangement—and it happens to be the night his father is shot to death. When his fingerprints are found on the murder weapon, Stephen’s guilt seems undeniable. But there were five other people in the manor house at the time, and as their stories slowly emerge—along with the revelation that the deceased man was involved in a deadly hunt for a priceless relic in Northern France at the end of World War II—the race is on to save Stephen from a death sentence.

Everyone has a motive, and no one is telling the truth. Unwilling to sit by and watch the biased judge condemn Stephen to death, an aging police inspector decides to travel from England to France to find out what really happened in that small French village in 1945—and what artifact could be so valuable it would be worth killing for.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit I picked this one up because the Tolkien connection caught my attention: Simon is the grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien. And while I'm not a huge Lord of the Rings fan, I did read and enjoy the epic fantasy saga many years ago in college. (Frodo lives!) So I was immediately interested. And I was not too surprised (and very relieved) to find that Simon is his own man, literarily speaking. He has his own style and voice, and even though the story does revolve around the search for a lost ancient artifact, there are absolutely no intimations of Middle Earth in this book.

The blurb on the front cover calls The Inheritance "half Christie and half Grisham," and while I can't vouch for the Grisham comparison, Christie's Witness for the Prosecution did come to mind occasionally as I was reading. There's the courtroom setting, of course; but I believe the Christie-ish atmosphere is the result of the book's being set in the 1950s more than any similarity of plot or style.

There's a lot going on in this book, and it mixes several different genres – historical fiction, legal thriller, traditional whodunit, revenge drama, family saga. And Tolkien does a fine job of keeping the mix from getting confusing or off-balance. He does give away the identity of the murderer rather early in the book, but you have to be really observant to notice; and he still manages to keep you guessing and rethinking and going over the clues right up to the end. The book also includes some fairly disturbing bits of brutality and one or two really nasty characters – not uncommon in a thriller, of course, but definitely something to keep in mind if you're looking for something a little more "cozy."

So, would I recommend it? Well, it's probably not an "A" effort, but I'd say it's a solid "B+" – so, yes, I think it's definitely a book worth reading. And Tolkien's Detective Inspector William Trave of the Oxfordshire CID is a wonderful creation, worthy of his own series, or at the very least a sequel.

Teaser Tuesdays: Book of Shadows

Over the weekend, I started reading Alexandra Sokoloff's Book of Shadows, so I'm taking this week's teaser lines from that one. It's a mystery novel involving the search for a sadistic serial killer, but it also has supernatural elements that make it a really different and (so far) fascinating kind of thriller. This excerpt comes from page 101, a little farther along than I've actually gotten. And to set the scene – Adam Garrett, the Boston homicide detective in charge of the investigation, is meeting up with the mysterious Tanith Cabarrus, a practicing witch from nearby Salem who claims to have had psychic visions concerning the case:

He saw her instantly; she sat alone at a table near the fire, the flames flushing her face. She wore a silver blouse and black skirt, and her dark riot of hair was for the moment pulled severely back. His memory had not exaggerated – she was heart-stoppingly beautiful.

Is it just me, or does it seem like all the women in novels these days are always "heart-stoppingly beautiful"? Wouldn't you think at least one of these writers could come up with a character who was just slightly overweight or had a crooked nose or big ears, or at least a bad haircut once in a while?


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in a comment here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Well, I didn't manage to do a "what are you reading?" post last Monday, mainly because I was still reading the same books I'd been reading the week before. Same ol' same ol'. Also had a lot of family history info I needed to get entered in my databases, and that cut into my reading time pretty significantly. But now that that's done, I'm hoping to get back on track. Or at least figure out where the track is.

Anyway, here's an update of how things stand:

• Last two weeks -
  
  Finished reading Cards on the Table, by Agatha Christie (link is to my review).
  
  Finished reading The House Next Door, by Anne Rivers Siddons (hope to get a review up later today or tomorrow).
  
  Also read Animal Farm, by George Orwell. Not much to say about that one. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I enjoyed 1984. Still, it's one of those books everyone should read.
  
  Posted a few more reviews:
  
  The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
  All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost, by Lan Samantha Chang
  The Spider Bites, by Medora Sale
  
  
• This week -
  
  I''m still reading The Dark Half by Stephen King, and Juliet by Anne Fortier. Also started a book I picked up last time I visited the library: Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff. Really shouldn't have done that, but so far it's too good to put aside.
  
  
• In the wings -
  
  Still have several ARCs to get to and many, many reviews to catch up on; but now that I've made a bit of a start I'm hoping I can keep up the good work.
  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

Reading Report: Cards on the Table

Written by Agatha Christie
First published 1936, by Collins Crime Club

At the start of Agatha Christie’s 1936 novel Cards on the Table, Belgian super sleuth Hercule Poirot runs into an old acquaintance at a charity exhibition of snuffboxes in London. Mr. Shaitana is well-known for his eccentric personality and the flamboyant parties he hosts. But his next soiree promises to be even more flamboyant than usual: Shaitana says he “collects” murderers, and intends to display a few of them at the party. Poirot obviously can’t pass up such an enticing invitation, even though he thinks it a most dangerous move.

It turns out that Shaitana has invited eight people to his dinner party: four “murderers” and four detectives. After dinner, the guests divide up to play bridge – sleuths in one room, and the alleged killers in another along with their host, who watches but does not take part in the games. And (you guessed it, right?) at the end of the evening, Shaitana is discovered dead in his chair by the fire. No one left the room. No one came into the room. No one witnessed anything. Perfect locked room mystery. Which one of the guests killed the host? And why? Did it have something to do with whatever crimes Shaitana suspected they’d committed in the past?

This work is a little different from most of Agatha Christie’s whodunits in that there are really only the four suspects, and we aren’t presented with the cast of thousands we usually get in her novels. It’s also a little unusual because in order to solve the mystery of Shaitana’s murder, Poirot and company have to investigate the past crimes (if any) of the other four guests. So Christie has to keep a lot of balls in the air, but she’s an expert juggler. For a while there I thought she might be getting a bit off balance in the last couple of chapters, but I needn’t have worried. Dame Agatha had everything completely under control, as usual.

This was a great read – but then, I always say that about all Agatha Christie mysteries. And one of the best things about the book is that it represents the first major appearance of Poirot’s friend and sometime-assistant, Mrs. Ariadne Oliver (she’d been introduced, briefly, in one of Christie’s early short stories). Ariadne Oliver is a wonderful character – a world-famous writer of mystery novels, and a sort of comic alter ego of Christie herself. She’s always dead certain she knows who the killer is, but she changes her mind at the drop of a hat. In this story, at one time or another, she declares each suspect to be absolutely the murderer (“I felt instinctively that there was something wrong with that man as soon as I saw him. My instincts never lie.”) But by the end of the book, I was in complete sympathy with her – after all Christie’s twists and turns and tricks and surprises, I suspected every one of them – even the four detectives!

Booking Through Thursday: Travel

This week BTT asks: "When you travel, how many books do you bring with you? Has this changed since the arrival of ebooks?"

Interesting questions. And timely ones, for me anyway, as I'm going to be doing some traveling in the near future.

I always take at least one or two books with me when I travel, even if it's just an overnight trip. Heaven forbid I should find myself with an extra ten minutes to kill without something to read! I generally take my current read (unless it's a library book – don't like to take those on trips) and a spare. Of course, the actual number of books I take along depends on the length of the trip – and also the means of travel (airplanes mean not so many books – one more good reason not to fly). And I also take fewer books along if I'm traveling to a place where I know there's a good bookstore or two.

So far, ebooks haven't really affected my reading to any great extent, either at home or while traveling. I don't own a Kindle or a Nook. And while I've downloaded a few texts onto my iPad, I haven't done much actual e-reading yet. I think that might change soon, though – I can definitely see the advantage of e-readers on long trips. Not taking along so many books means there's room in the suitcase to bring more books home with me!

Reading Report: The Spider Bites

Written by Medora Sale
Raven Books/Orca Books, 2010; 132 pages

Description from the publisher:

When detective Rick Montoya returns to the city to try to clear his name after being accused of taking a bribe, he discovers someone is living in his apartment. Before he can find out who it is, the apartment house goes up in flames. Rick watches covertly as the police remove two bodies. Was the firebombing meant for him? Who exactly was killed in the fire? And why? What was his landlady Cheryl doing at home in the middle of the afternoon? And why is her daughter Susanna acting strangely? Then his estranged wife arrives at the scene of the fire. The questions mount up, along with the suspects.

About the series:

Rapid Reads, by Orca Book Publishers, is a new line of short novels for adult readers. On their website, Orca explains: "In our increasingly fast-paced world we believe there is a need for well-written, well-told novels that can be read in one sitting. Rapid Reads feature great writing and great storytelling in a small package."

My Thoughts:

The Spider Bites wasn't a terrible read – there just wasn't a lot there. The plot was certainly simple and easy to follow; in fact, it was so simple that there was almost no suspense involved – not a good thing in a mystery novel. And the lack of description and character development left me feeling like I was reading just part of a whole book. It also kept me from forming any real interest in or sympathy for the protagonist, or any of the other characters, for that matter. But while the book may be slight, it's well-written, there was a bit of humor thrown in along the way, and some of the dialogue did have the ring of truth. As I said, not terrible.

The idea of a series of short, easy-to-read books for adults sounds interesting, although I'm not sure how practical it is, in reality. I think it's possible that it might work well for (as the Rapid Reads brochure says) "those struggling with literacy challenges." Otherwise, I can't really see how the books are likely to hold anyone's attention long enough to finish them, even though they can definitely be read in one sitting.

However, I was definitely intrigued by the writing of author Medora Sale who also writes as Caroline Roe (not sure which is the real name and which the pseudonym). I think I'd like to give her other, more substantial works a try.

[Note: I received my copy of this book from the publisher, free of charge, through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. No other compensation was received, and the opinions expressed here are my own.]

Reading Report: The Egypt Game

Written by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2009; 215 pages
Originally published 1966

Description from the publisher:

The first time Melanie Ross meets April Hall, she's not sure they'll have anything in common. But she soon discovers that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt. When they stumble upon a deserted storage yard behind the A-Z Antiques and Curio Shop, Melanie and April decide it's the perfect spot for the Egypt Game.

Before long there are six Egyptians instead of two. After school and on weekends they all meet to wear costumes, hold ceremonies, and work on their secret code. Everyone thinks it's just a game, until strange things begin happening to the players. Has the Egypt Game gone too far?

My Thoughts:

I loved this little book! I've heard about it for years, and the title always intrigued me. As a kid, I was fascinated by anything about ancient civilizations, especially Egypt. That's still one of my interests, so I'm not sure why it took me so long to get to Zilpha Keatley Snyder's wonderful story. And although I actually read this back during the summer, it would have been a perfect read for Banned Books Week - it's been challenged several times over the years, mostly because of the concentration on magic and "pagan" religious ceremonies. But, being something of a pagan myself, that didn't bother me at all.

On the contrary, I think the book teaches a lot of good lessons without being at all preachy. I loved the fact that while the characters represent a mix of several different ethnic groups, Snyder doesn't make too big a deal about it. And I really enjoyed the emphasis on learning about other times and cultures. I think any book that tries to convince kids that studying history can be fun should be welcomed and rewarded. And, thankfully, others agree with me on that - The Egypt Game was a winner of the Newbery Honors award in 1967.

There's also a mystery running through the book - another reason to like it. But it does involve some violence (nothing graphic), which might be a little frightening for younger readers; so I'd definitely advise parents to read it first before passing it on to the little ones. Also, a lot of the slang is very firmly situated in the era in which the book was written: Being an archaeologist is said to be a "kooky" ambition for a girl; when something is good it's "tough"; the kids "play it cool," and they use other quaint expressions like "holy cow," "oddball," "man-oh-man," and "sheesh." Most kids today (and probably most of their parents, too!) are likely to need some explaining there. Of course, being undoubtedly kooky and definitely an oddball (and an ancient oddball, at that), I found it all wonderfully nostalgic and completely charming - the slang, the book, and the Egypt game itself.

**********
Awesome Authors Challenge, A-Z Challenge, Banned Book Project, Bibliophilic Books Challenge, Fall Into Reading 2010, New Authors Challenge

Review: All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost

Written by Lan Samantha Chang
W.W. Norton, 2010; 192 pages

This review refers to an advance reading copy of the novel.

Description from the publisher:

At the renowned writing school in Bonneville, every student is simultaneously terrified of and attracted to the charismatic and mysterious poet and professor Miranda Sturgis, whose high standards for art are both intimidating and inspiring. As two students, Roman and Bernard, strive to win her admiration, the lines between mentorship, friendship, and love are blurred.

Roman's star rises early, and his first book wins a prestigious prize. Meanwhile, Bernard labors for years over a single poem. Secrets of the past begin to surface, friendships are broken, and Miranda continues to cast a shadow over their lives. What is the hidden burden of early promise? What are the personal costs of a life devoted to the pursuit of art? All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost is a brilliant evocation of the demands of ambition and vocation, personal loyalty and poetic truth.

My Thoughts:

Lan Samantha Chang's All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost is a beautifully written novel about the lives of the poets. In this case, the poets are three members of a poetry writing program in a Midwestern university – a program not unlike (I suspect) the Iowa Writers' Workshop of which Chang is the director – and the poet-professor who influences their lives far beyond the seminar room.

The story is told in three major sections. We first meet Roman, Lucy, and Bernard in the poetry-writing class led by the famous (and feared) poet Miranda Sturgis. After graduation, we follow Roman as he begins his own teaching career, marries Lucy, and struggles to complete a long-worked-on volume of poetry. When Bernard becomes homeless for a while, he spends several months with Roman and Lucy – so the friends are together again after many years, and their relationships are renewed and undergo changes. Then, in the third section of the book, we drop back in on the group ten years later for a final look.

I enjoyed the book as I was reading it. The academic settings seemed very authentic, and the book moved along at a nice pace. And while I can't say I really liked any of the characters, they did seem real to me – sometimes frustratingly real. However, I have to admit that a week after finishing it, I found myself struggling to remember much about the characters or the incidents. Perhaps it was a little too realistic to be really memorable. Or maybe it's just that the writing life – or any life devoted to the pursuit of art – is never easy to portray in writing.

Still, I definitely think the book is worth reading, if only for Chang's gorgeous and elegant prose style. She's a new discovery for me, and now I'm eager to read her earlier work.

[Note: My advance copy of this book was provided free of charge, by the publisher, through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. I received no other compensation. No one attempted to influence my review, and the opinions stated here are my own.]

Teaser Tuesdays: The House Next Door

OK, this really is my Teaser Tuesdays post, even though I had Booking Through Thursday in the title for a while there. I just might be getting too old for this blogging business.

Last week I finished reading The House Next Door (by Anne Rivers Siddons) for the RIP V Challenge. It's a spooky tale about a very modern haunted house, and I hope to get a short review up soon (I'm way behind on reviews, so I can't really say what I mean by "soon").

This bit comes early in the book, and has the book's narrator and main character, Colquitt Kennedy, thinking that the new house next door is beginning to frighten her a little too much:

Our friends are going to think we have taken leave of our senses, and we are going to lose many of them.... We cannot worry about that either.
For the Harralson house is haunted, and in quite a terrible way. And it is up for sale again. [p.4]

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in a comment here.