Posted on May 29, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!
In The Price of Gold, Marty Nothstein, generally accepted to be the most accomplished American track (cycling) sprinter of the modern era, joins Ian Dille, Austin(TX)-based cyclist and journalist, to tell the story of his journey to greatness and Olympic gold, and what it cost him. I am enjoying this immensely: it kept my heart rate raised just about the entire time! Here’s a teaser for you:
“Never wear sandals to a bike race,” Whitehead chastises Gil one time. “You always bring sneakers. You never know when we’ll need to fight our way out of here.” These are the bike racers I aim to emulate.
I like this one because it’s a characteristic portrayal of what makes Nothstein, and really all track sprinters, sort of controversial: the aggression. I find it fascinating stuff. Look for my review a little closer to this book’s June publication date.
This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: bikes, nonfiction, sports | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 22, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!
Why did it take me so long to pick up another of du Maurier’s books, after I loved Rebecca so much? Ack! I ask you! Mary Anne is something rather different, but still wonderful. I see a number of other archetypal heroines (or anti-heroines) in the character of Mary Anne. The teaser I’ve selected for you rang a bell loud and clear, for me at least, reminding me very much of a certain young lady from another great book. Leave me a comment and name that other lady if it is equally reminiscent for you! Hint: the author of the other book shares the same set of initials with the author of The Song of Achilles. And without further chit-chat, here is your teaser.
She could not separate success from peace of mind. The two must go together; her observation pointed to this truth. Failure meant poverty, poverty meant squalor, squalor led, in the final stages, to the smells and stagnation of Bowling Inn Alley.
Go get ’em, Mary Anne. Check back for a review to come, but for now: I like it.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: historical fiction, misc fiction | 7 Comments »
Posted on May 15, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!
Head’s up, friends: expect a wildly raving review of The Song of Achilles in the next few days. I am mad for this book. I’ve chosen a teaser for you today that I especially enjoyed.
This was no slouchy prince of wine halls and debauchery, as Easterners were said to be. This was a man who moved like the gods were watching; every gesture he made was upright and correct. There was no one else it could be but Hector.
I reread this passage a few times, it made me so happy. Run out and get you a copy.
What are you reading this week?
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: classics retold, historical fiction, misc fiction | 5 Comments »
Posted on May 8, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!
I am listening to the most delightful collection of Dorothy Parker’s short stories and reviews and the like. Her style of humor is wry and cynical but right up my alley. Here’s your teaser, from the story Dusk Before Fireworks:
“Please don’t call me ‘women,'” she said.
“I’m sorry, darling,” he said. “I didn’t mean to use bad words.” He smiled at her. She felt her heart go liquid, but she did her best to be harder won.
Parker is frequently hard on her female characters.
And, bonus: Happy Birthday today to my beloved Bearded Husband!!
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: audio, humor, short stories | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 1, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!
I’ve just started this audiobook, randomly selected from the new-to-me series of mysteries by Lindsey Davis set in ancient Rome. (This book opens in AD 76.) It is rather late in the series, but that never stops me. So far I’m charmed by the humorous moments, and I like the audio-narrator, Christian Rodska, too. From almost the very beginning, here’s your teaser:
Pa gazed at me with those tricky brown eyes, running his hands through the wild grey curls that still clustered on his wicked old head. He was daring me to be flippant.
I like that “wicked old head” and the “tricky brown eyes.” There’s something a little bit engrossing about Pa, and I like the main character-narrator, Marcus Didius Falco. Hope you’re enjoying whatever you’re reading this week!
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: audio, historical fiction, mystery | 1 Comment »
Posted on April 3, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!
That’s right, you’re getting a repeat today. I teased you from this book two weeks ago, but this passage was too funny to me to skip. Enjoy.
The black alligator purse had been Constance’s. Supposedly it had been custom made for Constance in Paris by Mademoiselle herself. It was bigger on the inside than on the outside, and could get almost anything through an x-ray machine or a Geiger counter. It had pockets inside pockets, secrets inside secrets. The solution to approximately 17 mysteries could be found in this purse at any given moment. In a jam, it could unfold into a tent and I could live in it until circumstances improved.
As I said in my review of this book, there is a mystical element. Constance’s purse may very well actually unfold into a tent. I like these details. If you had a magic purse, what would you want it to do for you?
Be advised: I’m out of town, so you’re viewing pre-scheduled posts until April 9. I love your comments and will respond when I return! But I’ll be out of touch for a bit. Thanks for stopping by!
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: audio, mystery, noir | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 27, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!
A Queer and Pleasant Danger: the true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today. And that lengthy title-and-subtitle is the tamest part of the whole book.
Today’s teaser:
“Paul, Mildred, I have news for you. Albert is an artist.”
My mother gasped. My father muttered, “Oh, crap.”
I was thrilled with the diagnosis.
That, of course, was just the beginning for Albert and his parents Paul and Mildred. This is a wild, outrageous book, and I highly recommend it, but it may not be for the faint of heart.
This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: biography, nonfiction | 5 Comments »
Posted on March 20, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!
I’ve only just started this one, but this line struck me immediately.
New Orleans was a little like England. People were comfortable with class distinctions.
These two sentences are very expressive. I’m not your #1 expert on New Orleans or anything, but I live just 5-6 hours away and have been a number of times; I love the city and Katrina has certainly affected me and all Houstonians. With my moderate level of New Orleans knowledge, I see what she’s driving at here. I like this book so far.
What are you reading?
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: audio, mystery, noir | 6 Comments »
Posted on March 6, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!
I am continuing to love Edward Abbey (with that one outlier, Black Sun). I’ve just started Down the River but had to quote from page 3, already, because I find these lines funny.
None of the essays in this book requires elucidation, other than to say, as in everything I write, they are meant to serve as antidotes to despair. Despair leads to boredom, electronic games, computer hacking, poetry, and other bad habits.
Poetry lovers (and poets), keep your sense of humor as you’re lumped into the same category as boredom and electronic games! Ha. This is a very Abbey moment, seems to me.
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: Edward Abbey, nonfiction | 5 Comments »
Posted on February 28, 2012 by pagesofjulia
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!
I’m doing it again: getting slightly out of my usual reading habits to try something that sounded appealing. Juliet references Romeo and Juliet and is a romance in its own right, and that’s about what I knew of it when I started. I have selected an extra-special teaser for you today.
Within the coniferous greens of his eyes, I now got a warning glimpse of his soul. It was a disturbing sight.
Kids, I don’t know about you, but this is the sort of thing that concerns me about romance novels. Coniferous greens of his eyes? Really? Anybody love this or (ahem) anybody else find this ridiculous?
Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: audio, romance | 18 Comments »
pagesofjulia 