Tuesday 11 February 2014

Teaser Tuesday: The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • 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!

The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen.

The Runaway King – Scholastic Press

I had arrived early for my own assassination.
— Chapter 1

Fixed on his eyes, I said, “Do you laugh at me?”
He was quiet for a moment and finally the tension drained from him. “No, Jaron,” he said darkly. “I curse you with every breath I exhale. But I do not laugh.”
— Chapter 5



Being early to my own assassination is something that could definitely happen to me as I’m constantly early. While some people need to be told a time 15 minutes before you actually want to meet, I could use a time 15 minutes after that ... but no one ever does that. Why would they? And no, please don’t start this with me now, it won’t end well. Anyway, I don’t know how this sequel to The False Prince slipped past me, but I’m rectifying this now as a contrast programme to reading a bunch of Adam Blade’s Deep Dive (strictly for professional purposes, even if they have some entertaining aspects ... if you’re looking for something to give to your eight-year-old).

Are you the early bird out to catch the worm or the clever worm who knows that the early ones get eaten? Let me know along with your teaser in the comments.

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Teaser Tuesday: Boys, Bears and A Serious Pair of Hiking Boots by Abby McDonald

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • 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!

Boys, Bears and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots by Abby McDonald.

Boys, Bears and A Serious
Pair of Hiking Boots – Candlewick Press

“What did I even do?”
“Besides have a major freak-out last night?”
— Chapter 9

Fiona rolls her eyes and tries to push past me, but I stand firm in the middle of the dark road. Jeremiah B. Coombes would probably tell me to flee the wild beast and retreat to safety, but I’m sick of tolerating all her crap. No more.
— Chapter 20



I am so not a winter person. Sure, some snow for Christmas, but this sticky, wet, and cold weather with crystallising fog and literally days of no sunshine at all? Not my thing. So what’s better than some light reading that most would dub summer entertainment? ... she said while still stuck in the trilogy from last week. But I read this recently and thought I’d keep these teasers for some dreary weather. It has some interesting aspects and a good range of not uninteresting guys, but you have to accept it as a light and fun read. But who says that everything you read has to be of profound critically appraised literary value?

Do you have any winter-escape-recommendations? Share them with your teaser in the comments.

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Teaser Tuesday: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • 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!

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

The Knife of Never Letting Go –
Walker

You cheat even if you don’t mean to and everybody means to.
And then one day Mayor Prentiss decided to burn all the books, every single one of them, even the ones in men’s homes, cuz apparently books were detrimental as well
— Chapter 2

A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don’t. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again.
— Chapter 8


Suddenly I sat there with a 1000+ pages trilogy and I can’t quite say how that happened. I’ll have to admit that the sheer size of it is daunting, especially considering that my grammar-perfectionist brain is silently suffer-struggling against the writing. Maybe if I didn’t know more about English language rules than I probably do about my native language ... maybe not. I’m not far enough along to say anything substantial about the book or the series apart from mentioning that the style is definitely something of an acquired taste and that the idea puts an interesting spin on the dystopian theme. (I also realise that I’m somewhat late to the party as the first book was published in 2008 and already received a bunch of prizes.)

Let me know if you have read the Chaos Walking trilogy and what you thought about it. And let’s hear about your teasers in the comments.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Teaser Tuesday: This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • 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 Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith.

This Is What Happy Looks Like –
Poppy

Childhood memories were like airplane luggage; no matter how far you were traveling or how long you needed them to last, you were only ever allowed two bags. And while those bags might hold a few hazy recollections—a diner with a jukebox at the table, being pushed on a swing set, the way it felt to be picked up and spun around—it didn’t seem enough to last a whole lifetime.
— Chapter 7

He didn’t want to be half asleep the first time he kissed Ellie. For that, he wanted to be wide awake.
— Chapter 10

How many spam mails do you get ... should I say per day or per week? In my case, I would have to say per week because that’s about as often as I check mine to see if I missed something. And with that I’m more than unlikely to find myself in a story like this. Well that and the fact that my address isn’t a slightly obscure combination of letters and numbers. But imagine you got a legitimate not spam mail from a stranger. Would you be curious about the content? Would you write back?
This is a really cute and nonthreatening romance. A falling-in-love-story. Maybe a little too forced at some points in terms of plot, but that’s quite easy to accept within the overall feel of the book. And the writing is beautiful. A great comfort-read which I would have loved to go on for a little longer, if only for the reason that I didn’t want to leave the two protagonists to themselves just yet, to see more of their happiness.

Have you ever missent an email (and did you get a reply)? Or have you responded to a missent email? Tell me about your email stories or just your teaser choice in the comments.

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Teaser Tuesday: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • 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!

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.

Eleanor & Park –
St. Martin’s Press

Park noticed the new girl at about the same time everybody else did. She was standing at the front of the bus, next to the first available seat.
— Chapter 1

There was something about the music on that tape. It felt different. Like, it set her lungs and her stomach on edge. There was something exciting about it, and something nervous. It made Eleanor feel like everything, like the world, wasn’t what she’d thought it was. And that was a good thing. That was the greatest thing.
— Chapter 2


Welcome back and a slightly belated happy 2014. I hope the first couple of weeks have treated you well enough. I had everything on my mind but the Internet for the past week, but I hope you’ll forgive me. I read this over the break because I’d heard so many good things about it. And it is good. The writing is beautiful and the characters are just so likable in their outcast way. It also has the amazing 80s charm complete with mix tapes and vinyl records. I liked it a lot, very much so. I believe in this love story: it’s not elaborate or achingly sweet or over the top incredible, but very realistic and sweet and ... I don’t want to say wholesome because that would make it sound like healthy food, but it is so refreshingly not love at first sight. I understand why so many love it. This book deserves to be loved.

What did you read the last few weeks? Let’s hear from you in the comments with your teasers.