Tuesday, 14 April 2015
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.
To play along just do the following:
Sisters of Blood and Spirit by Kady Cross.
Turns out that I’m a sort of visual person after all, because I clicked on it simply based on the cover. But I definitely wouldn’t have it on my reader if that was the only redeeming factor if that’s any consolation. I haven’t read very much of it yet, but the premise of a (so far I think) willing participant in as living-body-snatcher/possession between sisters is a very interesting concept. And considering how often I thought that it would be awesome if someone else could please just live through yet another boring lecture for me, I suppose I wouldn’t be completely disinclined to at least try it ... possibly.
What is the last book you picked up because the cover appealed to you that you then ended up buying? Let’s hear from you in the comments.
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!
Sisters of Blood and Spirit by Kady Cross.
 |
| Sisters of Blood and Spirit – Harlequin Teen |
Talking out loud to someone no one else could see would make them all think they were right, that I was still crazy. I was supposed to be cured.
— Chapter 1
It was an untruth that the dead had all the answers. We just had different questions.
— Chapter 2
Turns out that I’m a sort of visual person after all, because I clicked on it simply based on the cover. But I definitely wouldn’t have it on my reader if that was the only redeeming factor if that’s any consolation. I haven’t read very much of it yet, but the premise of a (so far I think) willing participant in as living-body-snatcher/possession between sisters is a very interesting concept. And considering how often I thought that it would be awesome if someone else could please just live through yet another boring lecture for me, I suppose I wouldn’t be completely disinclined to at least try it ... possibly.
What is the last book you picked up because the cover appealed to you that you then ended up buying? Let’s hear from you in the comments.
Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.
To play along just do the following:
The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski.
I love a good second book in a trilogy and wow this one is an amazing second book. The first book ended with an emotional punch which I thought was quite hard to stomach already, but this book is downright an emotional pummelling. At the same time the plot is a gripping roller coaster that will grip you and before you know it you’re racing through the last chapter with your heart in your throat hoping that it will somehow work out but knowing that it can’t possibly. The author has an amazing ability to make you root for her characters and infuse you with hope for their well-being ... and then almost dangling it within reach before yanking it away. I’m so worried for some characters and heart-broken for others and no matter what will happen, even if it’s a happy end it will also be bitter, but can I please have the third book now?
Did you suffer any literary heartbreak over Easter or lots of sweets and sweetness? Also applicable if you didn’t celebrate the egg-festivities. Let’s hear from you in the comments!
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 Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski.
 |
| The Winner’s Crime – Farrar Straus Giroux |
“Winner take all,” said Arin.
She looked at him. “The Stakes?”
“The truth.”
— Chapter 19
She supposed that it had been lost, and found again. Sometimes things happened that way. But sometimes, Kestrel knew, what’s lost stays lost forever.
— Chapter 37
I love a good second book in a trilogy and wow this one is an amazing second book. The first book ended with an emotional punch which I thought was quite hard to stomach already, but this book is downright an emotional pummelling. At the same time the plot is a gripping roller coaster that will grip you and before you know it you’re racing through the last chapter with your heart in your throat hoping that it will somehow work out but knowing that it can’t possibly. The author has an amazing ability to make you root for her characters and infuse you with hope for their well-being ... and then almost dangling it within reach before yanking it away. I’m so worried for some characters and heart-broken for others and no matter what will happen, even if it’s a happy end it will also be bitter, but can I please have the third book now?
Did you suffer any literary heartbreak over Easter or lots of sweets and sweetness? Also applicable if you didn’t celebrate the egg-festivities. Let’s hear from you in the comments!
Tuesday, 31 March 2015
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.
To play along just do the following:
Before the Fall: Arrival by Ally Carter.
There is hardly a better way to encourage readers to buy a book than by giving them a short snipped of the background story and then telling them that there is more. At least if this short appetiser is well-written. And for that purpose this story does its job exceptionally well. I’m quite certain that you will be able to read the main series without this background knowledge, but if you’re uncertain about the author and want to have a peek if you like the writing and basic story layout, this will give you an excellent idea of what it’s all about.
What is your stance on prequel shorts and the like? Do you like having additional information or does it clutter up a series unnecessarily? Let’s hear about your opinions and teasers in the comments.
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!
Before the Fall: Arrival by Ally Carter.
 |
| Before the Fall: Arrival – Scholastic Press |
The woman who sat beside me on the plane is trembling and whispering to the people beside her, no doubt telling them that I had seemed so normal.
Dangerous psychos always seem so normal.
— Chapter 1
For the first time he’s not looking at me like I’m dangerous. He’s looking at me like I’m broken.
It’s a look I know too well.
— Chapter 1
There is hardly a better way to encourage readers to buy a book than by giving them a short snipped of the background story and then telling them that there is more. At least if this short appetiser is well-written. And for that purpose this story does its job exceptionally well. I’m quite certain that you will be able to read the main series without this background knowledge, but if you’re uncertain about the author and want to have a peek if you like the writing and basic story layout, this will give you an excellent idea of what it’s all about.
What is your stance on prequel shorts and the like? Do you like having additional information or does it clutter up a series unnecessarily? Let’s hear about your opinions and teasers in the comments.
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.
To play along just do the following:
The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead.
Slight contrast programme to last week, but even I (especially) can’t read the heavy stuff all the time. Sometimes I need fluff and romance and sweet happy ends ... with some plot and everything still in moderation and with logic, if at all possible, most of the time. As this is the end of the series and in fact the end of the Vampire Academy universe (for now at least) there are certain expectations as to what will have to happen in this book. Some might call it fan service, but I think that there will still be a great deal of thing happening before that final chapter. I’m curious how the author will tie up the plot and say goodbye to the characters. I imagine that it wasn’t easy after 12 books in that universe.
Is there a series that has accompanied you for the better part of a decade (or longer)? Did it come to a conclusion you were satisfied with? Let’s hear from you in the comments.
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 Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead.
 |
| The Ruby Circle – Razorbill |
“What?” My mother-in-law’s voice came out extra shrill to my ears. “That creature’s staying?” It figured. Her daughter-in-law transforming into an animal? No problem. Having to take care of a cat? Crisis.
— Chapter 2
“Is he right?” I asked quietly, once we’d put some distance between the guest cabin and us.
“That I’m a terrible liar? No. I’m a fantastic liar.”
— Chapter 10
Slight contrast programme to last week, but even I (especially) can’t read the heavy stuff all the time. Sometimes I need fluff and romance and sweet happy ends ... with some plot and everything still in moderation and with logic, if at all possible, most of the time. As this is the end of the series and in fact the end of the Vampire Academy universe (for now at least) there are certain expectations as to what will have to happen in this book. Some might call it fan service, but I think that there will still be a great deal of thing happening before that final chapter. I’m curious how the author will tie up the plot and say goodbye to the characters. I imagine that it wasn’t easy after 12 books in that universe.
Is there a series that has accompanied you for the better part of a decade (or longer)? Did it come to a conclusion you were satisfied with? Let’s hear from you in the comments.
Tuesday, 17 March 2015
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.
To play along just do the following:
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein.
My first Elizabeth Wein book was Code Name Verity which totally blindsided me and then utterly destroyed me with feelings. So going in for this companion, I already expected this to wreck me again ... and it did, just not in the way I thought I had prepared myself for. I admired the bravery and friendship in Verity, which was very much about individual resistance and personal acts of fighting and I don’t know what else to say ... if you haven’t read Verity, I am urging you to do so. And after you’ve recovered, come back for Rose.
This book perfectly highlights the desperate fight for hope and survival and showcases the little victories among so much fear and loss on the bigger scale of prisoner groups within the organised industrial mass murder. It shows the brutality and efficiency of Nazi prisoner warfare from the very limited but still gruesome point of view of a prisoner who fared comparatively well, all things considered. And still it made my heart ache how humans could do this to other humans ... and possibly still can, who knows what’s going on behind certain front lines, it makes me sick and (like Rose) so mad that people can become so inhuman. With just a very few carefully selected words Elizabeth Wein manages to make the characters in her books come to live in all their devastating, seemingly hopeless beauty and devastating cruelty alike. I sobbed for a character I had known for only a few paragraphs when it became clear that she wouldn’t survive, not just because I liked her, but also because it illustrates the unfairness and randomness of these deaths.
This year, there are a lot of ceremonies and memorial events for the liberation of the concentration camps and the end of World War II in general and while I don’t feel responsible for a war and crimes a generation older than my grandparents caused, I still think that it is important to remember and to bear witness. I think Rose or Verity would be a amazing school reads (or just important literature anyway, considering how school reading lists are selected), but sadly enough no German publisher has picked them up ... possibly for fear of there being too much aviation talk and condemnation of Germans in it, even if neither is the case.
I was lucky to be able to visit a reading by an Auschwitz survivor and to experience this amazing person still alive. Because the reality is that these people are dying of old age, but books like this can help to ensure that what they had to endure will never be forgotten. And hopefully also help that something like this will never happen again.
What are you reading this week? Let’s hear from you in the comments.
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!
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein.
 |
| Rose Under Fire – Disney Hyperion |
It is just incredible that you can notice something like this when your face is so cold you can’t feel it any more, and you know perfectly well you are surrounded by death and the only way to stay alive is to endure the howling wind and stay on course. And still the sky is beautiful.
— Part 1, Chapter 3
I have scars that show and scars that don’t.
— Part 3, Chapter 2.2
My first Elizabeth Wein book was Code Name Verity which totally blindsided me and then utterly destroyed me with feelings. So going in for this companion, I already expected this to wreck me again ... and it did, just not in the way I thought I had prepared myself for. I admired the bravery and friendship in Verity, which was very much about individual resistance and personal acts of fighting and I don’t know what else to say ... if you haven’t read Verity, I am urging you to do so. And after you’ve recovered, come back for Rose.
This book perfectly highlights the desperate fight for hope and survival and showcases the little victories among so much fear and loss on the bigger scale of prisoner groups within the organised industrial mass murder. It shows the brutality and efficiency of Nazi prisoner warfare from the very limited but still gruesome point of view of a prisoner who fared comparatively well, all things considered. And still it made my heart ache how humans could do this to other humans ... and possibly still can, who knows what’s going on behind certain front lines, it makes me sick and (like Rose) so mad that people can become so inhuman. With just a very few carefully selected words Elizabeth Wein manages to make the characters in her books come to live in all their devastating, seemingly hopeless beauty and devastating cruelty alike. I sobbed for a character I had known for only a few paragraphs when it became clear that she wouldn’t survive, not just because I liked her, but also because it illustrates the unfairness and randomness of these deaths.
This year, there are a lot of ceremonies and memorial events for the liberation of the concentration camps and the end of World War II in general and while I don’t feel responsible for a war and crimes a generation older than my grandparents caused, I still think that it is important to remember and to bear witness. I think Rose or Verity would be a amazing school reads (or just important literature anyway, considering how school reading lists are selected), but sadly enough no German publisher has picked them up ... possibly for fear of there being too much aviation talk and condemnation of Germans in it, even if neither is the case.
I was lucky to be able to visit a reading by an Auschwitz survivor and to experience this amazing person still alive. Because the reality is that these people are dying of old age, but books like this can help to ensure that what they had to endure will never be forgotten. And hopefully also help that something like this will never happen again.
What are you reading this week? Let’s hear from you in the comments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)