Teaser Tuesdays: Time For a Little Rumpus

This week I'll be starting The Unit by the Swedish writer Ninni Holmqvist. It came to me through the Early Reviewer program at LibraryThing, so I know I did request it. But after skimming a few pages, I'm really wondering how I'll be able to get through such a depressing book. Well, at least it sounds depressing – people over a certain age being harvested for body parts. But for now, I'll reserve judgment and just throw out a few teaser lines:

Time was passing, inexorably. I would soon be fifty-one. Johannes had just turned sixty-four, which was old for a dispensable person. [p.176]

Don't know about you, but that just made me shiver a bit. So I'll include a couple of teasers from a happier book. I've been reading Knight's Castle by Edward Eager, for the Once Upon a Time III Challenge. When I was young, I used to love Eager's magic fantasies; and this is one I never managed to get to until now.

What they saw was a perfectly ordinary-looking rumpus room. If it hadn't been so big it might have looked rather jolly. [p.133]

Hmmmm. Wonder whatever happened to rumpus rooms? They used to be all the rage in the '50s. I guess now they've turned into family rooms, haven't they? Cut out all that "rumpus." Sounds much more well-behaved, doesn't it? But not quite so jolly.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or participate yourself, head on over to her blog. And these are the rules: Grab your current read; Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. 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! Please avoid spoilers!

Southern Reading Challenge 2009

Now how could I pass this up? I've lived in the South most of my life, and always enjoyed reading its literature. Besides, who could ignore that gorgeous button?

The Southern Reading Challenge runs from May 15th to August 15th, and is being hosted (as it was last year) by Maggie of Maggie Reads. The goal is to read at least three books during that time, and they can be any genre or style, just as long as they have something to do with the American South. The challenge announcement page has all the rules, as well as links to several lists of books, if you need ideas for reading material. So if you've got a hankerin' to get back to the magnolias and the mint juleps (and you know what it means to miss New Orleans), head on over and sign up.

For my three books, I'll probably read The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty, Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, and Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist. Then, if I have time left over (she said, laughing insanely), I might choose one from this list:

Lunch at the Piccadilly by Clyde Edgerton
The Floatplane Notebooks by Clyde Edgerton
To Dance With the White Dog by Terry Kay
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter
Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty

And the Mrs. Murphy Mysteries by Rita Mae Brown, set in southern Virginia, are also possibilities.

Friday Finds: 8 May 2009

Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Participants are asked to share with other bloggers about the new-to-you books found during the week – books you either want to add to your TBR (to be read) list, or that you just heard about that sounded interesting.

Just two new finds this week, both of them first entries in mystery series that have been around for a while but are new to me. I think it's very likely that both of these will be going on my TBR list.

The Novice's Tale (Sister Frevisse Medieval Mysteries, Book 1), by Margaret Frazer. I'm generally not a big fan of mystery novels set in the distant past, but these Sister Frevisse stories sound really intriguing. I discovered them while browsing the Teasers last Tuesday, in a post over at Bookishgal's blog. Here's a brief description from the publisher:

"It is the year of Our Lord's grace 1431, and the nuns of England's St. Frideswide sweetly chant their Paternosters behind gracious, trellised walls. But their quiet lives are shattered by the unwelcome visit of the hard-drinking, blaspheming dowager Lady Ermentrude, with her retinue of lusty maids and men, baying hounds, and even a pet monkey in tow. The lady demands wine, a feast, and her niece, the frail and saintly novice Thomasine. What she gets is her own strange and sudden death. Sister Frevisse, hosteler of the priory and amateur sleuth, fears murder. The most likely suspect is pious Thomasine...but Frevisse alone detects a clever web spun to entangle an innocent nun in the most unholy of passions — and the deadliest of deeds."

Blessed Is The Busybody (Ministry Is Murder Series, Book 1), by Emilie Richards. Emilie Richards has written more than sixty books, so she's obviously been around for a while! Why am I just now discovering her? Blessed Is The Busybody is the first book in the Ministry Is Murder series, set in the (I assume fictional) town of Emerald Springs, Ohio. The series even has its own website with "Perish News." Here's a bit about this first book, from the Emilie Richards website:

"Meet the unconventional Aggie Sloan-Wilcox, a minister’s wife with her own calling: helping troubled souls in need of justice. . . Aggie’s free-spirited ways have been raising many an eyebrow at the Consolidated Community Church, tucked away in cookie-cutter perfect Emerald Springs, Ohio. But nothing is more shocking than the naked body of a murdered woman turning up on her front porch. Suspicion falls on Aggie’s husband, who counseled the victim before her death. Now Aggie doesn’t have a prayer of clearing his name unless she can uncover the truth in a town not known for confessing its sins. . . "

Booking Through Thursday: Graphic

May 2 (last Saturday) was Free Comic Book Day. So this week's BTT topic is in celebration of graphic novels and comic books:

• Do you read graphic novels/comics? Why do/don’t you enjoy them?
• How would you describe the difference between “graphic novel” and “comic”? Is there a difference at all?
• Say you have a friend who’s never encountered graphic novels. Recommend some titles you consider landmark/”canonical”.

I don't believe I've ever read a graphic novel. Not one that I can remember, anyway. So I can't recommend any. And I guess I really shouldn't have a firm opinion about them until I've tried one. But I love illustrated books, so I'm thinking I'll probably like graphic novels when I do try them.

Are they the same as comic books? Well, to me, yes they do seem very similar. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, though. I've always loved comic books; as a child, some of my earliest reading matter was comic books – much to my mother's chagrin. And I still have a large collection of classic Little Lulu and Bugs Bunny comics. I really identified with Lulu when I was a tyke. She was funny and feisty and resourceful, and was always getting punished for "no reason at all." And her curls were never out of place.

Hmmmm. I seem to have strayed from the subject a bit. So I should shut up and start reading all the other BTT posts – maybe I can find some good recommendations for a graphic novel to start with.

Tuesday Thingers: Clouds

This week's Tuesday Thingers subject is all about cloud gazing:

Have you looked at your LT Clouds? Were you surprised at any of the larger tags within the Tag Mirror? Any thoughts on the clouds in general?

This is a really good topic, and something I would never have come up with. But I should probably say right up front that I have no idea what to make of the "tag mirror." Even after I've looked at it, I don't really understand what it is.

I think I may have played with the clouds back around the time I first joined LibraryThing, but not since then. Or maybe when the feature was first introduced. I think clouds are interesting, but I guess they're just not really my thing. I've never been exactly sure what I'm supposed to do with my clouds. I tend to think of them as clutter.

And it bothers me that they're so automatic. I'd like it better if I could have a little more control over which words or terms pop out. Yes, I know they're just a reflection of my collection, but I don't like being reminded that I have more Ruth Rendell than Jane Austen on my shelves. Or that I have more books tagged "amateur sleuths" than I have "history of ideas"!

I guess I need to be more imaginative. And you know, now that I look at it – that author cloud would make pretty cool wrapping paper, wouldn't it?

Tuesday Thingers is hosted by Wendi of Wendi's Book Corner. If you'd like to see more or participate yourself, head on over to her blog and leave a comment.

Teaser Tuesdays: Teasing the Old Man

Well, this week I'm still making my way through Elaine Dundy's The Old Man and Me. Seems like I've been reading it for weeks. It's really not a long book, and shouldn't be taking this much time, even for a slow reader. April was not a good reading month for me, for some reason. Hoping to do better in May. Anyway, here's our Heroine (Honey), the little gold digger, working on C.D. McKee, the Old Man of the novel's title:

"Oh, well, he's awfully handsome and all that," I said this slowly and looked worlds at C.D. while I was talking to see if he was receiving what I'd put into 'all that' and if it was disconcerting him. He had and it was. [p. 132]

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or participate yourself, head on over to her blog. And these are the rules: Grab your current read; Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. 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! Please avoid spoilers!

Friday Finds: 1 May 2009

Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Participants are asked to share with other bloggers about the new-to-you books found during the week – books you either want to add to your TBR (to be read) list, or that you just heard about that sounded interesting.

I found most of this week's books while researching possibilities for various reading challenges. They may not all make my TBR list, but they all look interesting. My "new finds" list:

The Reserve. Russell Banks
The Dark Lantern. Gerri Brightwell
The Unquiet. John Connolly
Dreaming of the Bones. Deborah Crombie
Water Like a Stone. Deborah Crombie
Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain. Kirsten Menger-Anderson

I think the two Deborah Crombie mysteries look especially promising. Dreaming of the Bones was short-listed for the 1997 Edgar Award, and won the 1998 Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel. I hadn't known about Crombie's Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series. Kincaid is a Scotland Yard superintendent and Sergeant James is his partner in solving crimes, and the two are also (as they say) romantically involved. Hmmmm. Not sure I'll be able to accept that very easily. And does the Yard really allow that sort of thing?