Teaser Tuesdays: The Peach Keeper

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted at Should Be Reading. For one reason or another Sarah Addison Allen’s latest two novels aren’t making me jump hoops like her earlier ones. This is either because they’re becoming formulaic, which was the case for The Girl Who Chased The Moon, or my literary sensibilities are changing (i.e. growing?). Regardless, there are some things I appreciate about The Peach Keeper that do make it unique from her earlier works. I’ll clue you in when I post my review. For now, here’s a teaser:

If anyone had been paying attention to the signs, they would have realized that air turns white when things are about to change, that paper cuts mean there’s more to what’s written on the page than meets the eye, and that birds are always out to protect you from things you don’t see. (4)

Peter Pan: Chapter 2

Last night’s reading of Peter Pan went slightly better than the previous, although this is likely because I was more prepared for how depressing of a book it is. Chapter 2 begins with Peter’s shadow getting trapped in the nursery when he jumps out the window, and Mrs. Darling keeping it and trying to find a time to tell Mr. Darling about it. A week later the opportunity presents itself on the evening of a party. Looking back on that night, Mr. and Mrs. Darling and Nana sit talking about how much they miss the children who, I think, have been taken to Neverland. The story of that night, and how Mr. Darling tricks Michael into taking his medicine, is awful. Mr. Darling pretends to be brave and his children goad him into taking his medicine to prove to Michael that it’s easy; except Mr. Darling only pretends to take it, and the children catch him. In an attempt to deflect, he pours the medicine into Nana’s bowl and tricks her into drinking it. When the children gang up on Mr. Darling for being a real asshat, he drags Nana from the house and chains her up outside. Mr. and Mrs. Darling leave for the party, and this is presumably when Peter Pan comes back for his shadow and whisks the children off to Neverland, only I can’t be sure since that’s in Chapter 3 which we’ll get to tonight.

Slightly less toxic, but still depressing. Mr. Darling is quite a weak man, pressured into tricking his children and then taking his anger at his own deficiencies out on poor Nana. Avery seemed to enjoy it, though she did nod off toward the end. 

But unfortunately Mrs. Darling could not leave it hanging out at the window, it looked so like the washing and lowered the whole tone of the house. She thought of showing it to Mr. Darling, but he was totting up winter great-coats for John and Michael, with a wet towel around his head to keep his brain clear, and it seemed a shame to trouble him; besides, she knew exactly what he would say: “It all comes of having a dog for a nurse.” (10)

 

Teaser Tuesday: The Girl in the Garden

Here’s a long-awaited teaser from The Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair.

In the months leading up to our trip I used to hear Amma weeping at home, but it had always been soft, subdued, somehow more bearable than this. I felt sick listening to her–I could stand my own sorrow, anyone else’s sorry, but not Amma’s. (154)

Teaser Tuesdays: And Yet They Were Happy

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted at Should Be Reading.

Currently I’m reading a very unconventional type of book, And Yet They Were Happy (May 2011, Leapfrog Press) by Helen Phillips. Best described as a series of short, fable-like stories lasting only the span of a spread of pages, each tale is different, unique. Some are incredibly lighthearted and whimsy, some are depressingly dark and tragic. Each brings about something unexpected. Here’s a teaser and I strongly encourage you to support the independent author and booksellar by visiting Helen’s website and buying her book next month.

I want this to be published so Bob Dylan might read it before he dies. These sentences are the closest I can get to rock ‘n roll. How pathetic. This is the closest I can get to a skateboard, a shadowed face. May there be some kind of drums or darkness in the white spaces between the worlds. (34)

Teaser Tuesdays: Inkheart

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted at Should Be Reading. I’m working my way through Inkheart this week, but I’ll probably have to put it aside today or tomorrow to begin the copyediting phase of A Long-Forgotten Truth. Curious as to what that is? Find out at Rozlyn Press! For now, here’s a teaser from Inkheart.

Obviously very few creatures move easily from one world to another. We both know what fun it can be to get right into a book and live there for a while, but falling out of a story and suddenly finding yourself in this world doesn’t seem to be much fun at all. (144)

Teaser Tuesdays: The Looking Glass Wars

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted at Should Be Reading. This week’s teaser comes from the first book of The Looking Glass Wars Trilogy by Frank Beddor.

Alyss never found out if she was the only one of the orphans who’d been caught that day (she was), but even before she’d been roughly escorted to the Charing Cross Foundling Hospital, where she would live until she was adopted by the Liddells, and even before she realized that she would never see Quigly Gaffter again, she had started to think that maybe it wasn’t worthwhile getting attached to people. All they ever did was betray you. (117-118)

I’m really enjoying TLGW so far. At times the writing is too simplistic to be emotionally charged, but for the most part it’s well done and I love the fantasy of Wonderland and the way Beddor took the original characters and transformed them into something different, something dark and twisted. Can’t wait to see what happens in the rest of the book!

Teaser Tuesdays: Skylight Confessions

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted at Should Be Reading. I’m treating myself this week and picked up an Alice Hoffman instead of one of the books I have to review. I needed a break from books that weren’t getting me excited, and Hoffman always makes me adore reading.

The entire room was washed out by darkness, shadow upon shadow, so that a person had to squint to see anything. There was only one bit of color, a dark blue feather on the floor, the color of the sky when it’s broken in half and the core of the universe can be seen. (149)

Teaser Tuesdays: The Sherlockian

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted at Should Be Reading.

This week’s teaser comes from Graham Moore’s debut novel, The Sherlockian, a mystery novel alternating between present day America and London, and 1893 London as Arthur Conan Doyle writes his Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Arthur had never before challenged a man to a duel, but in this moment he understood the magnificent reasonableness of the tradition. It was either that or slugging him outright this very second, which didn’t seem nearly so gentlemanly. (62)

Teaser Tuesdays: The Paris Vendetta (2)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted at Should Be Reading. I am still reading the fifth book in the Cotton Malone series by Steve Berry, The Paris Vendetta, and have had to slow down on reading and blogging a bit due to a busy work schedule, the holidays, and final read-throughs for Rozlyn Press. Here’s a teaser to tide you over while my blogging takes a bit of a back seat. News on Rozlyn Press coming soon!

Paris had always mystified him. He’d never been impressed. He actually liked a line from Pulp Fiction, one John Travolta’s character had casually uttered. Things are the same there as here, just a little bit different. (278)

Teaser Tuesdays: The Paris Vendetta

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted at Should Be Reading. This week my teaser comes from the fifth book in the Cotton Malone series by Steve Berry, The Paris Vendetta.

The shadowy form motioned at Gustave with his light. “Buried in this bugger’s backyard. Six crates.” The voice paused. “Full of gold bars bearing the swastika.” (76)