Teaser Tuesdays: The Transcriptionist

This week my teaser lines come from The Transcriptionist, the debut novel by Amy Rowland.  I haven't actually started this one, but it's next up, right after I finish my current read (Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham -- which I'm enjoying much more than I expected to). 

This snippet comes from page 85 of the ARC.  And since I'm quoting an advance copy, please remember that the published edition might be different (I've never had that happen, but in theory...you never know). So, here we go:

"Carol, why didn't you correct Morris just now when he called you Lena?"
"Oh, it's not that important."
"It's your name, Carol, of course it's important."
..."Russell, it's just that" -- she takes a deep breath and says it quickly, quietly, on the exhale -- "my name is Lena."

Poor guy. Poor girl.

This exchange really resonated with me because I've always had that problem of people calling me by some name that's not my own. Usually when they hear "Joy" they think "Joyce" -- so over the years I've learned to answer to Joyce a lot of the time. Or Jane. Or Joan. Or Jill. Sometimes it's just not worth correcting. Although that has occasionally led to rather surreal incidents. For a while I did temporary office work in Washington DC, and at one of my assignments one of the junior execs invariably called me Amy. Even though I did correct him repeatedly. But after a while I got fed up and just answered to Amy. Then one day he upped the weirdness level by saying, with a perfectly straight face, "You know, you really don't look like an Amy." Fortunately, that temp job ended soon after, before we had more encounters of the bizarro variety.

And I think I actually DO look sort of like an Amy.  I wonder if Amy Rowland ever gets called JOY?

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.

Monday Reading Update: and the slump continues

Yes, I'm still in the midst of this weird reading dry spell. Only finished one book in May:

The Bookman's Tale, by Charlie Lovett

But June's here now, and I usually get a lot of reading done in the summer months. So I have high hopes.

This week, I'll be getting back to a book I started in May:

Love Story, with Murders, by Harry Bingham

and beginning a new one:

The Good Suicides, by Antonio Hill

Both of those are Early Reviewer books from Library Thing, even though at least one has been out for several months!  Yes, I'm WAY behind schedule there, so I really need to shape up and get reading.

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.