teaser tuesday

Teaser Tuesday | 12th July

Emma4 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme created at A Daily Rhythm. Its simplicity greatly appeals to me since all that you need to do is grab your current read, open to a random page and share two “teaser” sentences, being careful about spoilers.

This week was prompted by the slightly foolhardy decision yesterday to pick up a rather hefty book, as though I wasn’t already reading two books at the moment, one of which is A Clash of Kings, no small task itself. But, clearly, clearly just one tome isn’t enough for me and since this is the first time in a long while that I’ve had a sudden urge to read I decided to go along with it and see how I fare.

So, I’ve picked up one of my “project books”, one that I’ve meant to read for years at this point, one that I have actually got about 200 pages through in the past before I set it aside for some (probably stupid) reason… Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. So, today’s Teaser Tuesday will draw from that book. And I decided to bend the rules a little bit and instead of picking a random couple of lines I just had to pick the opening line of the novel because it’s just brilliant, in my opinion. (And I might have picked out three instead of two sentences – buy 2 get the 3rd free, I guess?)

Anna Karenina

“Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. 

All was confusion in the Oblonskys’ house. The wife had found out that the husband was having an affair with their former French governess, and had announced to the husband that she could not live in the same house with him.”

 

Have you read Anna Karenina or do you plan to sometime in the future? Do you have a Teaser Tuesday? Please do share/comment below!

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Teaser Tuesday | 1st March

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Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme created at A Daily Rhythm. Its simplicity greatly appeals to me since all that you need to do is grab your current read, open to a random page and share two “teaser” sentences, being careful about spoilers.

This week I am reading the follow-up to last week’s teaser book, the second book in Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series: Crown of Midnight. I’m excited to continue on with this series since I’m told by most that the series, if anything, improves with each book. This is something which I’m glad to hear since I enjoyed Throne of Glass enough but I could see so much more potential in it that wasn’t unlocked. (I gave the series the benefit of doubt and amused that all of these points would be addressed in the subsequent books – or at least I hope so since I bought the rest of them!)

As this is the second book, I’m going to bypass giving a synopsis of Crown of Midnight since it could ruin the first book for those who haven’t read it. (But if you would like one, you can find the synopsis on Goodreads here) Likewise I really tried to find a teaser that wouldn’t spoil Throne of Glass but that’s rather tricky, so I decided on sharing the opening lines of Crown of Midnight, which I don’t think entirely ruin the first book past what you could assume  anyway given there are four books currently published in this series.

“The shutters swinging in the storm winds were the only sign of her entry. No one had noticed her scaling the garden wall of the darkened manor house, and with the thunder and the gusting wind off the nearby sea, no one heard her as she shimmied up the drainpipe, swung onto the windowsill, and slithered into the second-floor hallway.”

Do you have a Teaser Tuesday? Please do share/comment below!

 

Teaser Tuesday | 23rd February

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Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme created at A Daily Rhythm that I discovered via Heather from Bits & Books. Its simplicity greatly appeals to me since all that you need to do is grab your current read, open to a random page and share two “teaser” sentences, being careful about spoilers of course!

This week I’m re-reading Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass, the first book in her Throne of Glass series, as I intend to finally get around to reading the next books in the series, having enjoyed the first some months ago. Maybe I will really get onto a roll with the series and catch up with all the currently published books in the next couple of months.

For those who have somehow managed to miss the hype about the series, Throne of Glass tells the story of Celaena Sardothien who, when the book opens, is an eighteen-year-old girl serving a life sentence in the mines of Endovier. Why? Because she was an assassin who made the mistake of getting caught.

The tale really begins when Captain of the Guard Chaol Westfall arrives at the mines suddenly to offer Celaena a surprising deal – if she will stand as Prince Dorian’s candidate in a contest to the death to find the King’s next Champion (read: Assassin), then she will also win her freedom from the life sentence in Endovier. The only catch? She must fight against the kingdom’s most brutish thieves and deadly assassins in a series of challenges – and survive them all.

The quote I chose for my teaser dispels the initial notion held by the court that such a young and unassuming girl couldn’t possibly be a serious contender in the competition, let alone a threat to anyone else involved. For that reason alone, I love this quote:

“She found herself torn between the hunting daggers and a lovely rapier with an ornate bell-guard.
She could cut out his heart from a safe distance with that.” (p. 81)

Do you have a Teaser Tuesday? Please do share/comment below!

Teaser Tuesday | 16th February

Emma3 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme created at A Daily Rhythm that I discovered today via Heather from Bits & Books. Its simplicity greatly appeals to me since all that you need to do is grab your current read, open to a random page and share two “teaser” sentences, being careful about spoilers.

This week I’m reading Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel, the first book in her The Infernal Devices trilogy. Set in 1878, it tells the story of Tessa Gray who arrives in England, hopeful to find her brother Nate, only to become embroiled in the supernatural underworld of London after meeting Shadowhunters, Jem and Will, whilst escaping from the clutches of the mysterious Dark Sisters. Together, they dig deeper only to come up against the mysterious organisation “The Pandemonium Club”, with its vampire, demon, warlock and human members – and their odd clockwork creations. My teaser relates to that clockwork:

“[Leonardo da Vinci] was the first to suggest that human beings are only complex machines, that our insides are like cogs and pistons and cams made of muscle and flesh. So why could they not be replaced with copper and iron?” (p.160)

Confession time: I’m not especially a Cassandra Clare fan due to the multiple accusations over her writing career regarding plagiarism. I could never buy a Cassandra Clare book, I’m afraid, knowing I was in some small way condoning what could (potentially) be, at worst, plagiarism and, at best, a complete lack of creativity. You see, I tried to read City of Bones on three separate occasions and couldn’t get past how annoying the world building process was, along with an annoying narrative voice, but I did decide to give Clockwork Angel a chance when I saw it at my local library.

It’s very different to what I was reading last Teaser Tuesday but it’s a fun romp so far and I’m enjoying the characters in The Infernal Devices much much more than their Mortal Instruments counterparts. The author still doesn’t sit entirely right with me but separating the author and their work is a common occurrence in the arts so I guess I can manage that for something that turns out to be a lot of fun and enjoyable to read, even if it isn’t the greatest literary masterpiece. Plus my NaNoWriMo attempt in 2015 was set in a Victorian, steampunk-ish London, so it will be useful for me to get a feel for what else is already out there in this setting.

Do you have a Teaser Tuesday? Please do share/comment below!

Teaser Tuesday | 2nd February

Emma17 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme created at A Daily Rhythm that I discovered today via Heather from Bits & Books. Its simplicity greatly appeals to me since all that you need to do is grab your current read, open to a random page and share two “teaser” sentences, being careful about spoilers.

I’ve recently been talking to a friend about the upcoming adaptation of John le Carré’s The Night Manager which I’m greatly anticipating because of the cast. I had to share a section with her because I could vividly picture Hugh Laurie (who has been cast) as the character, Roper. Roper promises to be despicable and I’m looking forward to that, but the turn of phrase used in the initial description of him and his gaggle of friends made me laugh aloud on a crowded train so… that’s definitely worth sharing as a teaser or two.

tt2feb“The doors swung open again, disgorging everyone at once, so that suddenly an entire leftover delegation of the English affluent society was ranged under the chandelier, each of its members so sleekly groomed, so sun-rich, that together they seemed to share a corporate morality that outlawed sickness, poverty, pale face, age and manual labour.”

“The stance that arrogant Englishmen do the best, one knee cocked, one hand backed against the colonial arse.”

I don’t know why, but I just love the narrative voice so far in The Night Manager – it’s proving to be a lot more entertaining of a read than I first imagined based on my last attempted foray into John le Carré novels! And, as far as teasers go, this is probably the best one I could possibly find without spoiling other people and myself.

Do you have a Teaser Tuesday? Please do share/comment below!