Posted on May 6, 2014 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
A new Stephen King! HOORAY! I think it will be as excellent as I hope it will be.
Hodges eats this diet of full-color shit every weekday afternoon, sitting in the La-Z-Boy with his father’s gun – the one Dad carried as a beat cop – on the table beside him. He always picks it up a few times and looks into the barrel. Inspecting that round darkness.
He can really paint a scene in a few words, can’t he? I won’t say too much more; the book will be out in just a few weeks and I think I’ll be able to recommend it.
This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: mystery, Stephen King, thriller | 2 Comments »
Posted on April 29, 2014 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
From essay #2, “The Place, the Region, and the Commons,” I wanted to share a Thoreau reference.
Thoreau says in “Walking” that an area twenty miles in diameter will be enough to occupy a lifetime of close exploration on foot – you will never exhaust its details.
And it rather makes sense. We travel far and wide, but if we only made our world smaller and noticed it more, we’d be satisfied with less space. This is an observation also made by Harold Fry in another book I’m reading; he’s a fictional character, but I think that’s okay.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: essays, Gary Snyder, nature | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 22, 2014 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
Laidlaw was originally published in 1977, and is back in this new reissue, due out in June. McIlvanney has a unique style, literary and lyrical but also gritty and dark. I liked these lines for their nuance and contradictions…
The entry was dank. The darkness was soothing. You groped through smells. The soft hurryings must be rats. There was a stairway that would have been dangerous for someone who had anything to lose.
…by which I mean, Hemingway, right? Short sentences and a lots of sensory detail; and an almost tongue-in-cheek overdoing of the tension in that final line. I like it. Stay tuned.
This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: mystery, noir | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 15, 2014 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
I am really loving this treat: a glimpse into the lives (fictionally rendered here) of Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett, in their irresistible, funny, dry voices. Here, from inside Hellman’s head:
Store detectives. Hammett once held such a job, briefly. He quit. He identified too closely with the shoplifters.
Of course he did, dear.
Do check out Lillian & Dash; it’s great fun, and this audio edition is tops.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: historical fiction | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 8, 2014 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
This is a remarkable novel I have here, from the author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. I don’t want to say too much about it now… but there is a library.
Now Karen is at the lay-by, waiting for the blue (bookmobile) van to come. She is worried that someone else will get there first, and take out the book before she can, so she has formed a queue of one.
Isn’t that charming? And maybe a little sad…
This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.
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Posted on April 1, 2014 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
My limited experience with Bill Bryson has been positive; he’s a funny man. And a story of hiking the Appalachian Trail sounds appealing. So here we are with Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. I must say, though, he does go out unprepared! For example, on waking up his first morning out on the trail:
It seemed very strange, very novel, to be standing outdoors in long johns.
Please tell me he had CAMPED before setting out on this adventure?! He did an awful lot of reading & purchasing, both of which are fine things to do in preparation for a new adventure, but I would also have advised some hiking and camping beforehand as well… we shall see.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: memoir, nature, nonfiction | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 25, 2014 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
Call me crazy, but I think this might be the sexiest Reacher novel yet. It’s early days, of course; I’ve only just begun. I had a long car trip alone up to a mountain bike race at some of my most favorite trails in Texas, and chose to start this latest Reacher book (narrowly edging out Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, which I think is up next). I am not disappointed. For one thing, I was thrilled to learn early on that Reacher has been recalled – he’s back in the army! This can only mean excitement…
My teaser for today:
Reacher led the way. Sullivan went next. The tall guy brought up the rear. They walked in single file, through the dog-legs, left and then right, to the cell door, which was unlocked and unbolted, because Reacher wasn’t in it. Reacher pulled it open and held it for the others. The tall guy smiled and took the door from him and gestured: after you. He was dumb, but not brain damaged.
Stay tuned; I don’t think this will take me long.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: mystery, Reacher, thriller | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 18, 2014 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
I am enjoying this audiobook on Pops’s recommendation; recall his review here. And I am enjoying, particularly a little joke like this one, in which author Petterson has his narrator note a very strange coincidence and then comment that he does not appreciate it when novelists put such strange coincidences in their books, since they are so unbelievable. It takes humor as well as guts for a novelist to poke at himself in this way! Here is the line that follows…
It may be all very well in Dickens, but when you read Dickens you’re reading a long ballad from a vanished world, where everything has to come together in the end like an equation, where the balance of what was once disturbed must be restored so that the gods can smile again.
A Dickens reference is always welcome as well; and I think this is a fine way of describing Dickens, as coming from a vanished world. It does feel that way sometimes, and perhaps recognizing his work in this way could help us enjoy him.
Well done, Pops. I will carry on.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: historical fiction | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 11, 2014 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
I am, of course, enjoying immersion in the beautifully composed Hotel Florida, a history of six individuals in the Spanish Civil War.
“THE PICTURE WAS BEYOND PRAISE AND SO WAS YOUR ATTITUDE,” wired Scott Fitzgerald after the screening he saw, at which Hemingway had spoken about la causa and the loss of Lukács and Heilbrun. Fitzgerald sensed in his old and now distant friend an attachment to the film project, and to the war in Spain itself, that had “something almost religious about it.” As so often, he saw Hemingway more clearly than Hemingway saw himself.
I appreciate the larger truth in these lines about the relationship between Fitzgerald (who doesn’t much play into this story) and Hemingway (who is one of its stars).
Also, I am thrilled to note just a handful of pages later an extended excerpt from Goethe’s poem, Der Erlkönig, which I memorized in its entirety for my German class in high school. (In German.) That was fun.
This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: Hemingway, history, nonfiction | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 4, 2014 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
I have only just begun this audiobook but have very high hopes that it will follow A Garden of Marvels beautifully. Booze & botany, where can we go wrong? The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks makes perfect sense to me. In her introductory pages, Amy Stewart writes:
If you’re a gardener, I hope this book inspires a cocktail party. If you’re a bartender, I hope you’re persuaded to put up a greenhouse, or at least plant a window box.
I think that puts it very well and succinctly, and I’m on board.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: botany, nonfiction, science | Leave a comment »
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