Teaser Tuesdays: Seduction

This week my teaser lines come from Seduction, the latest novel by M.J. Rose.  I haven't actually started the book yet, but it looks so tempting I might just have to drop all the other books I've got going and jump into this one.  The quote comes from an advance uncorrected proof, so please remember that the finished copy may differ.  Here's the snippet, from page 78:

"I know there's crime on the island," I said. "Fights, drunken brawls, thievery, but are there many unexplained crimes here? Have there been many murders?"

"She's a missing child, Monsieur Hugo, not a dead one."

But I had a feeling -- one I wished I didn't have -- that she was dead....

I read Rose's The Hypnotist a few years ago, and really loved it. Hoping this one will be a great read, 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.

Teaser Tuesdays: Farewell, Dorothy Parker

This week my teaser lines come from Farewell, Dorothy Parker by Ellen Meister.  I haven't actually started this one yet, but it's next up.  Apparently the book's central character, movie critic Violet Epps, somehow summons up the spirit of Dorothy Parker.  Sounds interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading it.  My teaser comes from an uncorrected proof of the novel, so please remember that the quote could be different in the finished edition.

Mrs. Parker was sounding particularly morose, even for her.
"Are you okay?" Violet asked.
"I'm dead, my dear child, so the answer to that is unequivocal -- I am most definitely not okay." (p.241)

I've always loved Dorothy Parker's writing.  She could be so deliciously nasty -- like the quote that begins Meister's book: "The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue."

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.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

So now it's February!  This year seems to be zipping by just as fast as the last one zipped by, doesn't it?

In January I read three whole books!

Cat on the Scent, by Rita Mae Brown

Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution, by Rebecca Stott

The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown

I know that doesn't seem like a lot of books to some of you speed-readers out there, but for me it's a real accomplishment!  And I even posted reviews! Will wonders never cease?

OK, this week I'm reading a couple of Early Reviewer books from Library Thing:

The Heat of the Sun, by David Rain, and

Farewell, Dorothy Parker, by Ellen Meister

And for the Pre-1960 Classic Children's Books Reading Challenge, I'm continuing to read:

First Edition (Wikipedia)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

I'm reading that last one on my iPad, without the illustrations by W.W. Denslow, which I think is really a bad idea.  So I might have to pull out my old paperback copy and switch to that -- don't want to miss out on all those wonderful pictures.


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.

Review: Darwin's Ghosts

Written by Rebecca Stott
Spiegel & Grau, 2012; 410 pages

Publisher's Description:

Darwin’s Ghosts tells the story of the collective discovery of evolution, from Aristotle, walking the shores of Lesbos with his pupils, to Al-Jahiz, an Arab writer in the first century, from Leonardo da Vinci, searching for fossils in the mine shafts of the Tuscan hills, to Denis Diderot in Paris, exploring the origins of species while under the surveillance of the secret police.... Evolution was not discovered single-handedly, Rebecca Stott argues, contrary to what has become standard lore, but is an idea that emerged over many centuries, advanced by daring individuals across the globe who had the imagination to speculate on nature’s extraordinary ways and who had the courage to articulate such speculations at a time when to do so was often considered heresy.

With each chapter focusing on an early evolutionary thinker, Darwin’s Ghosts is a fascinating account of a diverse group of individuals who, despite the very real dangers of challenging a system in which everything was presumed to have been created perfectly by God, felt compelled to understand where we came from. Ultimately, Stott demonstrates, ideas -- including evolution itself -- evolve just as animals and plants do, by intermingling, toppling weaker notions, and developing over stretches of time. Darwin’s Ghosts presents a groundbreaking new theory of an idea that has changed our very understanding of who we are.

In 1859, around Christmas time and only a month after the publication of his earth-shaking work On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin received a letter accusing him of failing to acknowledge his predecessors in the study of evolution.  Deeply disturbed by the letter, Darwin set about trying to trace all those individuals who had laid the groundwork for his new theory.  The list of names he eventually came up with was to expand and change over time, and proved more frustrating than he imagined when he began.  In Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution Rebecca Stott tells the story of Darwin's research and traces the histories of some of those forerunners. 

What an interesting book this was. I was familiar with the basics of Darwin's work, of course, but really didn't know much about his precursors -- or that there were so many of them! As a non-scientist, I found the information fascinating; and I loved that Stott was able to fit so much data into such (relatively) short and readable sketches.  She also includes a substantial section of notes, and and a wonderful bibliography for further study.

I was a bit bothered at first by her habit of portraying Darwin (and her other subjects as well) actually "thinking" or "imagining" or "feeling" one thing or another -- a little bit too much of the omniscient narrator, for nonfiction, I thought.  I suppose it was an attempt to add some immediacy to the work by "getting inside their heads" -- if so, I don't think it was really necessary. But even with that one problem, I still enjoyed the book even more than I expected I would. Definitely recommended to anyone interested in the history of science, although probably more appealing to the non-specialist.

Disclaimer: My copy of this book was furnished free of charge, by the publisher, through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. No other compensation was received, and no one attempted to influence my opinion of the book.

Review: The Lost Symbol

Written by Dan Brown
Doubleday, 2009; 509 pages

Publisher's Description:

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object -- artfully encoded with five symbols -- is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation...one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom. 

When Langdon’s beloved mentor, Peter Solomon -- a prominent Mason and philanthropist -- is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations -- all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

I love Dan Brown.  There. I've said it.  His books are so wonderfully exciting, and beautifully implausible -- such absolutely perfect guilty pleasures!

This is Brown's third book about Harvard professor Robert Langdon, so I guess that's enough to call it a series now.  Langdon is still the same likable, self-effacing, modest-though-brilliant guy we got to know in the previous two books.  Still getting into incredible amounts of trouble through no fault of his own.  Still out there saving civilization as we know it, clad in Harris tweed and cordovan loafers, and with only his intellect as weapon.  What a guy.

I picked this novel to start the year with because I figured it would be something I could stick with and get through quickly.  And that was all true.  Even though it's a bit of a chunkster (well, for me 500 pages is a lot), it was a very fast read.  And informative, too: Brown always includes lots of nice detail for Langdon and all the other characters to pass along -- this time all about the Masons, our nation's Founding Fathers, and Washington DC.  (Thrilling and educational! Can't beat that.)

I love the cinematic style of Brown's thrillers -- short, succinct chapters that keep you right there on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what's going to happen in the next scene.  With each vignette, Brown grabs your attention and then rapidly pulls the ground out from under your feet, dumping you into the next bit of the story.  And before you can get bored with that bit, the whole process repeats itself.  Very like a movie, and very effective for this sort of tale.  In this book, all of the action (500+ pages of it) takes place over just one day and night! And what a 24-hour roller-coaster ride it is!

Review: Cat on the Scent

Written by Rita Mae Brown (and Sneaky Pie Brown)
Bantam Books, 1999; 320 pages

Publisher's Description:

Things have been pretty exciting lately in Crozet, Virginia -- a little too exciting if you ask resident feline investigator Mrs. Murphy. Just as the town starts to buzz over its Civil War reenactment, a popular local man disappears. No one’s seen Tommy Van Allen’s single-engine plane, either -- except for Mrs. Murphy, who spotted it during a foggy evening’s mousing. Even Mrs. Murphy’s favorite human, postmistress Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen, can sense that something is amiss. But things really take an ugly turn when the town reenacts the battle of Oak Ridge -- and a participant ends up with three very real bullets in his back. While the clever tiger cat and her friends sift through clues that just don’t fit together, more than a few locals fear that the scandal will force well-hidden town secrets into the harsh light of day. And when Mrs. Murphy’s relentless tracking places loved ones in danger, it takes more than a canny kitty and her team of animal sleuths to set things right again.

I always enjoy the Mrs. Murphy series, and this is one of the best of the lot. Rita Mae Brown (or is it maybe Sneaky Pie?) has a tendency to become a bit preachy at times, making conversations among her characters seem stilted and less real.  But there's very little of that in this book, I'm happy to say.

There's also a lot more action involving Mrs. Murphy and her critter cohorts -- another plus.  Of course, when a cat, a Corgi, and a mixed bag of kitties, birdies, and other pets and domestic animals are the lead investigators in a crime story, there's an awful lot of disbelief to be suspended.  Which I love, but others might find hard.  In this novel, there's one especially wonderful (and totally not believable) episode where Murphy, along with her pals Tucker the Corgi and Pewter (another cat), manage to save the day by actually driving a vehicle.  And without a license, too!

My one real quibble with the book was the ending -- everything was wrapped up, but just not as neatly as I would have liked.  I won't say any more -- don't want to give too much away, but I would have ended it a bit differently.  Still, a fast, entertaining read.  Definitely recommended if you like cozy mysteries.

Booking Through Thursday: On Loan

This week, BTT asks: "Do you lend your books? Are any out on loan right now? Do you have any that have been loaned to you? Do you put a time limit on these? Do you think people should make an effort to read the loaned book quickly?"

And I must say those questions are sending shivers down my spine. Lend my precious treasures?  Are you mad?

OK, just joking. Sort of.  Let me answer the last question first: Yes, of course, when you've borrowed a book (whether from a library or from another human entity), you should definitely make an effort to read the book quickly and return it as soon as possible.  That's only good manners, isn't it?

Do I lend books?  Yes, I do lend books, although there are some books I probably would think twice about handing over.  And there are some people I'd lend to more readily than others.  Don't think I'd ever try to enforce time limits, though -- that seems a little extreme (especially as I'm such a slow reader myself).

At the moment I don't have any books "out on loan," and I don't have any I've borrowed.  All the books around here belong to me (and the hubby, of course).  All mine, do you hear?  MINE!!!!

Not really related -- but this all reminds me a little of my childhood when I used to play librarian and lend out my books to my little cousin MB-B (she now has her very own blog) and force her to read them and return them on time.  And she really had to read them, too, because there was definitely going to be a quiz when she brought them back!

See -- I always had the soul of a librarian.

And maybe some wicked KGB genes.