Theme Thursday: Ending

Theme Thursday is a weekly event hosted by Reading Between the Pages. Each Thursday, a theme is posted for that week. Participants select a conversation, snippet, or sentence from whatever book they're reading and post it for everyone to read. It's a great way to discover new books and authors, so here goes.

This week's theme is Ending (last sentence from the last page of the book), which is a little tricky for some books (spoilers and all that). But this one from The Other Side of the Fire by Alice Thomas Ellis is nicely ambiguous, and brings to mind the old Buddy Holly/Paul Anka song:

It really didn't matter any more.

Teaser Tuesdays: Seven-Day Magic

This week my teaser lines are the opening lines of a book I've been reading for the Once Upon a Time VI Challenge. Edward Eager's children's fantasy novel Seven-Day Magic was first published in 1962, and it's the story of five young friends who discover a very special book, one day at the public library:

"The best kind of book," said Barnaby, "is a magic book."
"Naturally," said John.
There was a silence, as they all thought about this and how true it was.
"The best kind of magic book," said Barnaby, leaning back against the edge of the long, low library table and surveying the crowded bookshelves..."is when it's about ordinary people like us, and then something happens and it's magic."

Of course, it could be said that all books are magic books; but Edward Eager's certainly have some of the most delightful magic to be found.


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 your comment here.

Once Upon a Time VI

Spring is finally here, and with spring comes the wonderful Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge (Number VI this year!), hosted annually by Carl V. over at Stainless Steel Droppings. (Yay, Carl!) And even though I don't always manage to read as many books for the challenge as I intend to, I still think it's one of the nicest things about the season.


This year, I'm once again signing up at the first level ("The Journey"). That way, I'm really only committing to one book even though (as always) I'm hoping to do better than that. And although I generally like reading fantasy and fairy tales more than I like watching them in movies and TV shows, this year I think I'm going to give the "Quest on the Screen" a try too, and see how I do with that.

I'll probably be reading mostly fantasy, and don't have a very detailed list of possible reads yet, but I've got a few I'm considering:

1. The Castle of Llyr. Lloyd Alexander. I read the first two books in Alexander's "Prydain Chronicles" many years ago, but never went beyond that. Now might be the time.
   
2. Inkheart. Cornelia Funke. I've had this one on my TBR list for quite a while now. Sounds like a great read, but it's soooooo looooong!
3. The Mists of Avalon. Marion Zimmer Bradley. Another long-time "must read" book, another chunkster. But I've always loved the Arthur tales, so this could be a good choice.
4. The Prince of Mist. Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Loved the author's Shadow of the Wind, but was a little disappointed by The Angel's Game. This one sounds really intriguing, so it's a definite possibility.

And during the course of the challenge, I'll be adding to my list of possible reads and tracking my progress on my challenge blog, here. Now I should just get reading!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Wow, March 19th! Hard to believe the month is half over, with spring just around the corner. This year is ripping right along, and I really haven't had a chance to catch my breath. Earlier this month, M and I took the big step and put the condo up for sale after talking about it for the last four or five years! And keeping the place primped and ready for potential buyers to look at has been much more time-consuming (and frustrating) than I expected. Not much chance for blogging or reading during the last couple of weeks -- or visiting other blogs (and I apologize for that), but I think things are settling down a bit now.

Anyway, all that means is that I'm still reading pretty much the same things I was reading two weeks ago. Haven't finished any books lately, haven't done any reviews. Boo-hoo, right?

At present, I've got several books started (as usual). But this week I'm mainly trying to finish up The Solitary House by Lynn Shepherd, The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, and The Other Side of the Fire by Alice Thomas Ellis. So I've got plenty to keep me busy while I'm waiting for the house hunters to show up.



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.

Theme Thursday: Food

Theme Thursday is a weekly event hosted by Reading Between the Pages. Each Thursday, a theme is posted for that week. Participants select a conversation, snippet, or sentence from whatever book they're reading and post it for everyone to read. It's a great way to discover new books and authors, so here goes.

This week's theme is Food, and my offering is from The Solitary House, by Lynn Shepherd. The excerpt is from page 15 of the advance reader's edition. (Please remember that this quote may be different in the published edition.) I'm not sure that this is the very first reference to food in the book (this month's themes are supposed to be "pick what you see first"), but it's the first one that jumped out at me.

There's a snort and Charles looks round to see Wheeler staring down into the gaping grave, a half-eaten apple in his hand.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Inn at Lake Devine

This week my teaser lines come from Elinor Lipman's The Inn at Lake Devine (first published in 1999). I read this one earlier this year and loved it; should be getting a review posted sometime soon (I'm trying to play catch-up this week). In this snippet (from page 32 of the paperback edition), it's the summer of 1962, and teenaged Natalie Marx and her mother are packing, getting Natalie ready to go away for a week's visit to the inn mentioned in the book's title:

We pressed and packed for days: Bermuda shorts and Villager shirts; a sleeveless shirtwaist dress of a muted plaid with a braided rope belt; a new Catalina bathing suit in blue jersey; a terry-cloth cover-up piped in pinpoint blue gingham; tops, shorts, and something then in fashion called a skort. New Keds and new Peds. A bathrobe of yellow seersucker, and two new pairs of baby dolls. A white cable-knit cardigan for cool evenings and a Radcliffe sweatshirt for cool days.

Gosh, that takes me back! Never owned a skort, but everything else on the list was part of my wardrobe in '62. Well, maybe not the Radcliffe sweatshirt -- that would have been a little exotic for a San Antonio girl back then.


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 your comment here.

Teaser Tuesdays: Elizabeth the Queen

This week my teaser lines come from the new biography of Queen Elizabeth II, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch, by Sally Bedell Smith. It was an early reviewer book from Library Thing that got delayed, so even though it's been out a while I'm just getting to it. Looks interesting -- and as it's over 700 pages long, I'll likely be reading it all spring. This bit comes from page xvii of the Preface:

The routine of the Queen's life -- outlined a year ahead, mapped in detail six months in advance -- has been practical and reassuring. One of her friends, John Julius Cooper, the 2nd Viscount Norwich, jokingly said the secret of her equanimity might be "never having to look for a parking place."

Don't you suppose the humongous fortune has something to do with it, too?


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 your comment here.

Booking Through Thursday: Different Kind of Romance

This week BTT asks: "Have you ever fallen in love with a fictional character? Who and what about them did you love?"

Well, yes and no. I don't think I could say I've ever really fallen in love with a literary character. But then, I don't fall in love easily. I can think of quite a few favorite characters, but my interest in them stops short of any emotional attachment.

OK, I suppose I'd have to say Rhett Butler came close. But that was long long ago, on a planet far far away. And when I read Gone With the Wind back in the Pleistocene Era, I was just as much in love with Ashley Wilkes as Scarlett was. Both guys are dashing and romantic and brooding and handsome and virile and all those things a 13-year-old girl would be looking for in a man. Come to think of it, I guess they're all those things a 60-something-year-old girl would be looking for in a man, too.

The one fictional creation I can remember actually falling in love with wasn't a literary character (at least not at the time) -- he was a character in a TV show. And I wouldn't really call it love so much as obsession. For a while, back in the '70s, I was a Star Trek junkie, and I was completely besotted with Mr. Spock. I liked Captain Kirk too, but Spock was my real sweetie. Bless his green and pointy little ears.