•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
This weeks Teaser Tuesday comes from:
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
"Who could do that to a child?" Mom made a face. I wasn't sure if the face was because of what I had I'd just told her or because of the pee and antiseptic smell of the hospital.
Well I've finally got through the library list, although I have started adding to it again! Right now I want to get to a few books that have been on my kindle for awhile waiting my attention.
***************STOP PRESS***************
When I got to work today both Mockingjay and Shiver were on the holds shelf waiting for me. Shiver is only a two week loan (doubt it will take that long!) so everything else is shelved until they are read.
Saturday Shout-out comes from Kristin over at BookNAround. It's a chance to highlight some of the books you've discovered this week via other blogs.
I keep track of my suggestions from other blogs here.
So I'm doing my Saturday shout-out on Sunday. It's been that kind of weekend!
This week I've discovered:
Numbers by Rachel Ward and Outside In by Chrissie Keighery were both reviewed by Carly over at Writing From the Tub.
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman was reviewed by Sheila over at Book Journey.
Dirty Little Secrets by C.J Omololu was reviewed by someone, but I forgot to copy the link!! Was it you?? Please let me know, I'd love to find out who it was!
I can't remember NOT being able to read. In fact, losing my ability to read would have to rank up there as one of my greatest fears.
Sadly, not everyone gets the chance to learn. Only one in five indigenous children in remote areas of Australia can read. One. In. Five. That means four can't. Unbelievable.
The Wall of Hands is a project by The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation to try and raise money to help. As little as $5.00 can help by providing basic learning materials.
$25 could provide extra early learning support for Indigenous preschoolers.
$55 could provide a child with a Literacy Pack filled with books and reading resources.
$85 could assist with training for an Indigenous high school student mentor to assist Indigenous primary school children.
could help with the development of First Language reading materials and ALNF literacy program.
If you want to donate, go to The Wall of Hands. You could change a child's life.
This is not a Drill is the follow up and is filled with many more hilarious stories of life as a worker on the oil rigs. Mind you, several of those stories are only funny once you realise they made if off the rig alive. There is also a slightly more serious section that deals specifically with Afghanistan and the circumstances there.
Once again, I listened to this in the car and loved hearing Paul Carter read it. I'd love to invite Paul Carter over for dinner, although I don't think I would even attempt to match him drink for drink!
Way back in June, I added Minette Walters to the list of authors I wanted to read or reread the back catalogue of. Not long after I started with The Ice House, I (or more to the point, my husband!) put me on a book ban after discovering I had over 60 books to read. So here we are, several months on and I have finally managed to read the second of Minette Walters books, The Sculptress.
Olive Martin was accused of and what's more, confessed to, killing her mother and sister is a most gruesome fashion. A long time social misfit and object of scorn and disgust due to her gross obesity, Olive has few friends and even fewer champions.
Rosalind Leigh is a journalist who has been given the choice of writing a book about Olive or unemployment. She is fighting her own demons, but the more she looks into Olive's story, the more convinced she becomes that there has been a miscarriage of justice. The problem is, Olive doesn't agree!
I really enjoy Walters writing. Her books move along at a wonderful pace. There are stories within the main story, but not so many or so overwhelming you lose track. To start with the reader is scared of Olive, like the other characters in the book, but the further you go, the more you start to pity and feel sorry for her. Rosalind becomes stronger as you go too, yet her flaws are obvious and believable. The ending was brilliant and leaves the reader not really 100% sure of anything! I'm looking forward to Walters next book on my list The Scolds Bridle.
The first five of Walters books have been adapted for TV by the BBC. I borrowed The Ice House from the library after I read it and plan to put The Sculptress on request tomorrow. It has the brilliant Pauline Quirke in it and will do nicely for Friday night when the husband is off playing volleyball!
I've known about this series for awhile, but have only just decided to read it. And how glad I am that I did!
After his parents died, Will became a ward of Baron Arald. As one of five wards to turn 15, he will be part of the Choosing where the Craftmasters choose their apprentices. More than anything, he wants to go to BattleSchool, convinced his father was a great warrior. When Baron Arald's Ranger, Halt, attends the choosing, Will thinks little of it. The Rangers are a mysterious bunch, whose ability to move silently and seemingly appear out of nowhere have given them a reputation of being magical to the superstitious villagers. When the Battlemaster rejects Will due to his small size, he is surprised and a little concerned to find himself apprenticed to Halt. But as will is to discover, maybe being a Ranger isn't as bad as he thinks.
I often find Fantasy Fiction aimed at children to be over simplistic, with very little substance. I often feel that the writer rushes to the end, with problems that seemed completely unsolvable suddenly having a solution. It is almost like they have an idea for a series, but are unsure if they will be given the green light to write more, so end abruptly or simplistically, just in case. With The Ruins of Gorlan, I found none of this.
Flanagan seems to have realised he was in this for the long haul. There would be more than one book, and he would tell his story properly. In an area of fiction where people are more than happy to jump on the band wagon and put out any rubbish to catch the current trend, Flanagan's book stand out as being well written, well thought out with substantial characters and a world that I am looking forward to exploring further.
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
This weeks Teaser Tuesday comes from:
The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
But the beast was too fast for him and the heavy knife glanced offone of its armoured forearms. At the same time, he found himself confronted by its red, hate-filled eyes and felt his mind leaving him, his muscles freezing in terro as he was drawn to the horrific beast before him.
Having really enjoyed Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games and Catching Fire (desperately waiting for Mockingjay to come into the library!), I went searching to see if she had written any other stuff and discovered the children's series - The Underland Chronicles.
I quite enjoyed this. It took a bit to get into, but it wasn't long until I was engrossed in the story of Gregor and his quest in the Underland.
Collins' has conjured a marvelous world. I love authors who can take the ordinary - cockroaches, rats and bats - and make them extraordinary. And who can resist a quest!
I'm looking forward to the sequel and discovering what happens next to Gregor, Boots and the rest.
Seadogs live along the coast in small burrows. In many ways they are like humans, they live in families, eat off plates and drink out of cups. When they have babies, they always have two (a boy and a girl) and the children are named at sunrise after treasures found on the beach.
When Left Shoe is born, his twin sister dies. As he grows up, he notices he is different - he has no twin.
One day, instead of going to the school sports day (which he hates) he goes fishing instead. There is a storm brewing, the giant squid to contend with, and a floating basket...
This was a beautiful book. The story is gorgeous and O'Dowd has a lovely writing style. The pictures are simply done and add to the beautiful feeling of the book. It would be a lovely read aloud for about 5 up.
So here's the thing. This book is a mammoth 550 pages long. It's intense. I'm about half way through, but I need a break. It's due back at the library in less than a week and I can't extend it because there are already 12 holds on it. There are four main chapters, (night one, night two, night three and night four - more about that soon.) I've just finished night two so I have decided to review the first half, return it to the library, put myself back on the request list (there are three copies and it's a reduced loans period of 2 weeks) and read and review the second half when I get it back. Got it? Right, onto the review!
Paul Kelly is a brilliant Australian singer/ songwriter. In October 2004 he was invited to do some shows in the Spiegeltent. They wanted something exclusive, something he wouldn't do elsewhere. Not long after, he woke in the middle of the night with the idea to sing one hundred of his songs, in alphabetical order, over four nights. 25 songs each night, a different play list every show. He started to annotate the songs. How they came about, feelings or memories they provoked, thus How to Make Gravy was born.
The book is broken up into nights. (one, two, three and four) The twenty five songs for that night are listed. Each sub chapter starts with the songs lyrics followed by an explanation, a memory or just a stream of thought.
I am really enjoying the book. It's not your typical autobiography or memoir. For a start, it's not lineal. Because the songs are alphabetical rather than in the order they were written, it does jump around. For Paul Kelly, song writing is obviously a very personal thing, making the book intense.
I won't add this to my read list until I have actually finished it! I do feel, however, that I need to share my picks from night one and two.
I don't think there is an adult in the English speaking world who doesn't know Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, Lucy, Linus and Schroder. I always loved Peanuts and when I came across all three volumes in this series at the library I work at, I thought I showed great restraint by just borrowing the first one!
This first volume explains the beginning of Peanuts, Schultz's "rise to stardom" and his determination to stay "normal." It includes a short history of Schulz's life and an indepth interview with him.
To tell you the truth, I only made it half way through the interview at the end of the book. I started to find it very repetitive and only scanned the second half of it. I did however read every single one of the comic strips, laughing out loud frequently. I'm looking forward to the other two volumes.
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
This weeks Teaser Tuesday comes from:
How To Make Gravy by Paul Kelly
OK, I'm going to cheat a bit here. Paul Kelly is an amazing singer/songwriter. His lyrics are pure poetry, so instead of posting a single quote, I'm going to post the lyrics to one of his songs. Each chapter of this book starts with song lyrics, so technically, it's still a quote! :)
From St Kilda to Kings Cross
From St Kilda to Kings Cross is thirteen hours on a bus I pressed my face against the glass and watched the white lines rushing past And all around me felt like all inside me And my body left me and my soul went running
Have you ever seen Kings Cross when the rain is falling soft? I came in on the evening bus, form Oxford Street i cut across And if the rain don't fall too hard everything shines Just like a postcard Everything goes on just the same Fair-weather friends are the hungriest friends I keep my mouth well shut, i cross their open hands
I want to see the sun go down from St Kilda esplanade Where the beach needs reconstruction, where the palm trees have it hard I'd give you all of Sydney harbour (all that land, all that water) For that one sweet promenade
And just so you know what it should sound like
I'd love to know what your teaser is this week. Leave me a link!
This extraordinary book has its genesis in a series of concerts first staged in 2004. Over four nights Paul Kelly performed, in alphabetical order, one hundred of his songs from the previous three decades. In between songs he told stories about them, and from those little tales grew How to Make Gravy, a memoir like no other. Each of its hundred chapters, also in alphabetical order by song title, consists of lyrics followed by a story, the nature of the latter taking its cue from the former. Some pieces are confessional, some tell Kelly's personal and family history, some take you on a road tour with the band, some form an idiosyncratic history of popular music, some are like small essays, some stand as a kind of how-to of the songwriter's art – from the point of inspiration to writing, honing, collaborating, performing, recording and reworking. Paul Kelly is a born storyteller. Give him two verses with a chorus or 550 pages, but he won't waste a word. How to Make Gravy is a long volume that's as tight as a three-piece band. There isn't a topic this man can't turn his pen to – contemporary music and the people who play it, football, cricket, literature, opera, social issues, love, loss, poetry, the land and the history of Australia … there are even quizzes. The writing is insightful, funny, honest, compassionate, intelligent, playful, erudite, warm, thought-provoking. Paul Kelly is a star with zero pretensions, an everyman who is also a renaissance man. He thinks and loves and travels and reads widely, and his musical memoir is destined to become a classic – it doesn't have a bum note on it.
I love Paul Kelly. He is a true icon of Australian rock music. He is currently touring How to Make Gravy - four nights, different song list each night. It would be magic! Trying to work out if I could manage to go to one of the four when he comes to Brisbane - if it's not already sold out and I can work out which night I'd most like to go to! For all of you Paul Kelly virgins out there, here is the title song, How To Make Gravy.
Expect a few other songs when I post the review!
What's next?
Still working on the library books. Everything listed here was from the library so I am making progress!
Staci loved the Rosenblum's and I can only say I agree with her wholeheartedly!! From the first the page where Jack is listening to the weather report on the radio (because that's what an Englishman would do) to the last page where...(I won't tell you), I was cheering for the Rosenblum's, wanting them to succeed, wanting them to be happy.
Mr Rosenblum's List is a lovely, whimsical, read. But not only that, it gives you food for thought. When you immigrate to another country, is it essential to divulge yourself of your old identity and totally embrace the new? Do you have a right, or are you able to be happy when you have lost all of your family? What is the true value of dreams and good friends?
I totally enjoyed this book. It left me feeling warm, uplifted and happy. What more could you want in a book!
I listened to this in the car, the only way I can do audio books. It was read by Paul Carter, which I love as it makes the voice authentic.
From Goodreads:
Paul Carter has been shot at, hijacked and held hostage.
He's almost died of dysentery in Asia and toothache in Russia, watched a Texan lose his mind in the jungles of Asia, lost a lot of money backing a mouse against a scorpion in a fight to the death, and been served cocktails by an orang-utan on an ocean freighter. And that's just his day job.
Taking postings in some of the world's wildest and most remote regions, not to mention some of the roughest oil rigs on the planet, Paul has worked, gotten into trouble and been given serious talkings to in locations as far-flung as the North Sea, Middle East, Borneo and Tunisia, as exotic as Sumatera, Vietnam and Thailand, and as flat out dangerous as Columbia, Nigeria and Russia, with some of the maddest, baddest and strangest people you could ever hope not to meet.
The description from Goodreads sums it up too well to not use. Paul Carter has managed not only to live an amazing life working on rigs, but is lucky enough to have the talent to write about it. I found myself laughing out loud so many times while reading this. His description of a plane journey home with dysentery had me not only laughing, but clenching my bum in sympathy! As for the flight home with a tooth abscess, hilarious! In between you get an amazing view of the world from the view of oil rigs. Nigeria sounds terrifying, Russia crazy and Japan brilliant. I'm looking forward to the sequel, This is Not a Drill: Just Another Glorious Day in the Oilfield.
This link here takes you to a page where you can watch and hear and a few interviews with Paul Carter, well worth it!
I borrowed this awhile ago from the library and to tell you the truth, had been putting off reading it. While I enjoyed The Hour I First Believed, I did have to wade through it a bit and I was reluctant to start another wader type book.
I need not have been worried. I loved this. Everything. The characters were engaging and believable, the writing beautiful and the story moved along, every twist leaving you in despair or cheering.
"so beautifully written you trust it from the first sentence."
OK! Magazine
The quote above that appeared on the back of the book sums it up beautifully for me.
I felt so many things for the main character Dolores. At times I got so angry with her, at others I just wanted to gather her up and fix all her ills. Her journey from childhood through to adulthood enthralled me. Lamb's writing flows like water and you really feel for the characters, can visualise the setting and totally immerse yourself in the world he has created.
