Tuesday Memes

Teaser Tuesday
Halfhead by Stuart B MacBride

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. 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!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

There’s blood everywhere.

It sparkles in the artificial light like diamonds scattered onto dark red velvet. It fills the air with the scent of burning copper and hot rust, tugging at her belly. It soaks through her jump-suit, making the cheap fabric cling to her gaunt body like a second skin.

– page 1, Halfhead by Stuart B MacBride

Synopsis:
Glasgow, not too far in the future. A new punishment has been devised for the perpetrators of serious crimes — one that not only reduces the prison population but also benefits society at large. The process is known as halfheading: the offender’s lower jaw is removed and they are lobotomized. They are then put to work as cleaners in municipal areas like hospitals, where they serve as a warning to all that crime doesn’t pay. But for one halfhead, it seems the lobotomy hasn’t quite succeeded. Six years after her surgery, Dr Fiona Westfield ‘wakes up’ surrounded by the butchered remains of a man she has just brutally killed. As her mind slowly begins to return, she sets out on a quest for vengeance. William Hunter, Assistant Section Director of the ‘Network’ — a military wing of the police — attends the crime scene left behind by the newly awakened halfhead. Sherman House is a run-down concrete housing development full of undesirables and Hunter and his team quickly find themselves in a firefight with the locals. With the help of old comrades and a new friend in the form of prickly but attractive Detective Sergeant Josephine Cameron, Will gets on the trail of the killer. But before long the investigation leads back to a terrible tragedy in his own past, as well as to a terrifying conspiracy to sow violence and misery among Glasgow’s most vulnerable citizens.

What I think of it so far:
I actually read this quite a while ago, but it pretty much jumped off my shelf at me today and I thought I’d give you the opening paragraph. It’s a slightly futuristic crime thriller written with the same pitch-black gallows humour that MacBride shows in his Logan McRae series. If you’re not usually a fan of sci-fi, this can be a nice ease-in from the crime side of things.

Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Books On My Spring To-Be-Read List

For various reasons, from being given books to review to getting books out of the library, to books I have waiting on my shelf to be cracked open, here are the top ten books I’ll be reading this spring:

1. Insurrection by Robyn Young (for review)
2. Gladiator: Fight For Freedom by Simon Scarrow (from library)
3. Ultraviolet by R J Anderson (from library)
4. The Body at the Tower (The Agency 2) by Y S Lee (from library)
5. Huntress by Malinda Lo (from Xmas)
6. Praetorian (Romans #11) by Simon Scarrow (from Xmas)
7. A Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire 1) by George R R Martin
8. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
9. North By Northwest by Ernest Lehman
10. The Transformation by Catherine Chidgey

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Tuesday Memes

Teaser Tuesday
Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. 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!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

She was a fine young woman, rather above the average height, and had been used for the past four years to hearing herself proclaimed a remarkably handsome girl. She could not, however, admire her own beauty, which was of a type she was inclined to despise.

page 1, Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer

Synopsis:
It is in regrettable circumstances that beautiful Judith Taverner and her brother Peregrine first encounter Julian St. John Audley. The man, they both agree, is an insufferably arrogant dandy. But unfortunately for them, he is also the Fifth Earl of Worth, a friend of the Regent and, quite by chance, their legal guardian …

What I think of it so far:
Im’ barely past the first page, so I cannot comment. However, Stephen Fry lists one of Ms Heyer’s novels among his favourites, so she can’t be all that bad as Mr Fry is never wrong!

~***~

Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Favourite Covers

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted at Broke and Bookish.

I thought that for this week I’d showcase some of the the most stunning covers I’ve come across recently. Many of them have been featured as my entry for the Cover Crazy meme in which I participate each Monday, but some others are just books I noticed or read that have, I think, striking and/or beautiful covers. I hope you’ll like them too:

Empire State
by Adam Christopher

The Sisters Brothers
by Patrick DeWitt

 

The Child Thief
by Brom

The Plucker
by Brom

 

Sisters Red
by Jackson Pearce

Tom-All-Alone’s
by Lynn Shepherd

 

The Invention of Hugo Cabret
by Brian Selznick

Mira, Mirror
by Mette Ivie Harrison

 

The Snow Empress
by Laura Joh Rowland

The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore
by Benjamin Hale

Tuesday Memes

Teaser Tuesday
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. 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!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

Some medical beast had revived tar-water in those days as a fine medicine, and Mrs. Joe always kept a supply of it in the cupboard; having a belief in its virtues correspondent to its nastiness. At the best of times, so much of this elixir was administered to me as a choice restorative, that I was conscious of going about, smelling like a new fence.

– Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Synopsis:
Considered by many to be Dickens’ finest novel, Great Expectations traces the growth of the book’s narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character. From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dickens’ most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Haversham and her beautiful ward Estella, Pip’s good-hearted room-mate Herbert Pocket and the pompous Pumblechook. As Pip unravels the truth behind his own ‘great expectations’ in his quest to become a gentleman, the mysteries of the past and the convolutions of fate through a series of thrilling adventures serve to steer him towards maturity and his most important discovery of all – the truth about himself.

What I think of it so far:
I’m about two-thirds of the way through this now and I’m enjoying it a fair bit, but not loving it. It seems ot be taking a hellishly long time to get to wherever it’s going, but I am finding quite a lot of humour in it – certainly more than I expected! I’m reading this on my Kindle and downloaded the e-book from Amazon for free HERE!

~***~

top ten Tuesday
Top Ten Books I’d Give a Theme Tune

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted at Broke and Bookish.

I hear a running soundtrack to my entire life, not just the books I read! Anyway, here are some of the books I’ev read with songs I think fit them well, either as overall theme tunes or as the soundtrack to a certain part of them. I hope you’ll enjoy them:

1. The Stand by Stephen King – Stand by Poison

2. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell – Uprising by Muse

3. The Plucker by Brom – Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Manson

4. Game of Thrones by George RR Martin – Icehouse by Icehouse

5. Heatwave by Richard Castle – Summer in the City by Lovin Spoonful

6. The Child Thief by Brom – Wild Boys by Duran Duran

And as I’m actually pushed for time this morning, I will just have to leave it at the six instead of the full ten. I hope you liked them and enjoyed watching the videos.

Tuesday Memes

Teaser Tuesday
Snuff (Discworld 39) by Terry Pratchett

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. 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!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

Vimes blinked. Things were looking up! Usually Sybil considered it her wifely duty to see to it that her husband lived forever, and was convinced that this happy state of affairs could be achieved by feeding him bowel-scouring nuts and grains and yoghurt, which to Vimes’s mind was a type of cheese that wasn’t trying hard enough.

page 31, Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Synopsis:
According to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder. He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment. They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all…

What I think of it so far:
I am now on page 115 and, as fans would expect from a Vimes / Watch novel, it is nothing short of sublime! Pratchett always seems to be at his best when Vimes it at the heart of the story and so far Snuff is no exception.

~***~

Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten books to save if the house were abducted by aliens (or some other major disaster struck)

Mine top few choices all be sentimental choices, really – all books that feature on my favourites list, apart from one which is actually worth quite a bit of money and, although it’s not one of my absolute favourites, I enjoyed it a great deal and it’s completely beautiful. The rest would be whatever I could grab from my shelves before the disaster struck, so I’ve left the rest of the list blank for that reason:

1. Philippa Gregory – The White Queen (special edition)
   I won this beautifully bound book and as it’s a numbered limited edition (only 750 available), these retail at £150 each. It’s also signed by the author, making it a bit more special.
2. Stephen King – The Stand (complete and uncut edition)
   One of my all-time absolute favourite novels. I don’t re-read it very often, but if it weren’t on my shelf and I thought I couldn’t re-read it, I’d be very sad.
3. Astrid Lindgren – Ronia, The Robber’s Daughter
   This is a childhood favourite and it’s every bit as magical now as it was when I read it at the age of twelve.
4. Margaret Wise Brown – Goodnight Moon
   This would have to be grabbed from Xander’s bookcase. It’s an old favourite which we read to him every night for about two years – he would have no other at bedtime! He still occasionally chooses this one now.
5. My Kindle!
   It’s loaded up with loads of books, but contemporary and classics, that I have never read and it would suck if I lost it!

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Tuesday Memes

teaser Tuesday
dead reckoning (Southern Vampires 11)
by charlaine harris

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. 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!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

I felt heat on my thighs and looked down to see that my apron had been ignited by one of the napkins. I’m ashamed to say that I screamed.

page 9, Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

Synopsis:
With her knack for being in trouble’s way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte’s, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover Eric Northman and his “child” Pam are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot-which is much more complicated than she knows…

What I think of it so far:
I was a little disappointed with some of the more recent books in the Southern Vampires series and felt they were kind of going off the boil a bit, but this one seems to be back on form and so far I love it. There’s a little more of the whole fairy business than I’d ideally like to see, but there is plenty of vampire and shapeshifter action in there too, so I’m happy.

~***~

top ten Tuesday
top ten books that broke your heART A LITTLE

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted at Broke and Bookish.

My top ten heartbreaking (well, a little heartbreaking, at least) reads are as follows (click the titles to be taken either to my review or the Fantastic Fiction info):

1. James Long – Ferney
2. Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner
3. Daniel Keyes – Flowers For Algernon
4. Nicholas Sparks – The Notebook
5. Terry Trueman – Stuck in Neutral
6. John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
7. Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre
8. David Baddiel – The Secret Purposes
9. Kim Edwards – The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
10. Maggie O’Farrell – The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

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Tuesday Memes

Teaser Tuesday
Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. 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!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

This coverage will play all night. Chloe, upstaged at last. They haven’t named the body yet, but I know it is Wilson. I know

page 8, Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth

Synopsis:
I’m sitting on my couch, watching the local news. There’s Chloe’s parents, the mayor, the hangers on, all grouped round the pond for the ceremony. It’s ten years since Chloe and Carl drowned, and they’ve finally chosen a memorial – a stupid summerhouse. The mayor has a spade decked out in pink and white ribbon, and he’s started to dig.

You can tell from their faces that something has gone wrong. But I’m the one who knows straightaway that the mayor has found a body. And I know who it is.

This is the tale of three fourteen-year-old girls and a volatile combination of lies, jealousy and perversion that ends in tragedy. Except the tragedy is even darker and more tangled than their tight-knit community has been persuaded to believe.

Blackly funny and with a surreal edge to its portrait of a northern English town, Jenn Ashworth’s gripping novel captures the intensity of girls’ friendships and the dangers they face in a predatory adult world they think they can handle. And it shows just how far that world is willing to let sentiment get in the way of the truth.

What I think of it so far:
Another review request to the BCF reviews team, this time from the publisher. I’m about half way through and although it keeps skipping backwards and forwards across time, it holds together well and I’m enjoying it. The mystery is unfolding bit by bit…

Top Ten Tuesday
Books I hand people who say they don’t read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted at Broke and Bookish.

My top ten books I hand people who say they don’t read are actually some of my favourite books of all time (although not all):

1. The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis
   I generally tell people not to bother with A Horse and His Boy, but the rest of the series is just wonderful.
2. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
   This is actually my favourite of all her books. It’s all very well loving Pride and Prejudice or Emma, but I think people who haven’t read Austen get put off by those two and this one is far more accessible and exciting.
3. The Plucker / The Devil’s Rose / The Child Thief by Brom (aka Gerald Brom)
   All three of these books are nothing short of brilliant. Brom’s artwork is astounding – dark and beautiful to the extreme – and his writing skills live up to their promise. These are the books I recommend to people most often and I’ve not heard of anyone being disappointed yet. The first two are illustrated novels; the third is a full length novel (with some ink drawings) and a reworking of the Peter Pan legend that, in my opinion, outstrips the original!
4. The Princess Bride by William Golding
   Have you seen the film? It’s brilliant, isn’t it? The book is even better (although the film is an excellent adaptation) and has all the things you love about the film plus extra! If you loved the fact that Grandpa kept skipping bits, you’ll love that the book actually mentions doing the same and goes into some detail as to why. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hamper the flow – it adds to the experience. Everyone should own a copy of this book, so put it on your Xmas wish list immediately!
5. Mort by Terry Pratchett
   I know, I know – it’s the fourth Discworld novel, but it’s where the series starts getting really good. I’ve never been a fan of the first two books, and although I love the third one (Wyrd Sisters) it’s still not quite as good as Mort at being a “feeder” into the series.
6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling
   It’s the book that got a nation of non-reading children to read. Then it got the adults addicted to the series too. You can’t go far wrong with that, can you? It’s pretty much assured that if someone reads the first one, they’ll continue with the rest of the series!
7. Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
   First in the Women of the Otherworld series. This one sinks its teeth into you and won’t let go.
8. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
   This was the one that really grabbed me and got me seriously into historical fiction. I’d barely dallied with the genre before this but I found myself fascinated and just kept going with more after this one got me hooked!
9. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
   It’s one of those novels that is very easy to get into but really makes you think. Incredibly moving and beautifully written, it’s a surefire winner.
10. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
    If you’re looking for action, adventure, espionage and comedy, this has got the lot! It’s a really fun read and easy to go to in small bites which makes it less intimidating than you might imagine. It’s absolutely brilliant from start to finish.

Even if you’re already an avid reader, I hope you’ll give some of these a try!

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Tuesday Memes

Teaser Tuesday
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. 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!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

That’s how quickly New York City comes about – like a weather vane – or the head of a cobra. Time tells which.

– page 161, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Synopsis:
In a jazz bar on the last night of 1937, watching a quartet because she couldn’t afford to see the whole ensemble, there were certain things Katey Kontent knew: the location of every old church in Manhattan; how to sneak into the cinema; how to type eighty words a minute, five thousand an hour, and nine million a year; and that if you can still lose yourself in a Dickens novel then everything is going to be fine.

By the end of the year she’d learned: how to live like a redhead and insist upon the very best; that riches can turn to rags in the trip of a heartbeat; chance encounters can be fated; and the word ‘yes’ can be a poison.

What I think of it so far:
Another review request to the BCF reviews team, this time from the publisher. I’ve only just started this one so I can’t really comment on it so far, apart from to say that the writing is wonderful. I can only hope the plot and characters live up to that promise…

Top Ten Tuesday
Books That Would Make Great Book Club Picks

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted at Broke and Bookish.

My top ten books that would make great book club picks are:

1. Vikas Swarup – Q&A
   I loved this one – the sight and sounds of India are all wrapped up in the intrigue of a fascinating life and the excitement of a televised big-money quiz show. This is way better than the film (Slumdog Millionaire).
2. Lionel Shriver – We Need To Talk About Kevin
   I hated this one, but it certainly got discussion going in our group. I think it’s one of those Marmite books – you either love it or hate it.
3. Patrick Süskind – Perfume
   This is a beautifully written account with an almost sympathetic view of a serial killer that really gets your heart and mind racing.
4. John Boyne – The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas
   Incredibly poignant – this one moved us all to tears but was absolutely wonderful for it.
5. Bret Easton Ellis – American Psycho
   A darkly satirical urban thriller. I think most people do not expect there to be such humour in a novel about a serial killer, but its here in spades.
   
6. Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale
   A harsh look at how the sexuality of women is taken to extremes in society, even without such harsh restraints.
7. Kazuo Ishirugo – Never Let Me Go
   Hauntingly beautiful and sad, this makes us question the ethics of where modern medicine may be headed.
8. Natsuo Kirino – Out
   It’s not often that women are the killers, but in this novel, life goes askew for a small group of women who find that when it comes to the crunch, they can do pretty much anything they set their mind to it.
9. Jed Rubenfeld – The Interpretation of Murder
   An interesting look at how the mind of a murderer works, from the point of view of the pioneering psych-analysts Freud, Jung et al.
10. John Wyndham – Day Of the Triffids
    A great look at how society adapts to overcome astronomical odds when disaster strikes.

You’ll notice I’ve not included any classics. That’s because it goes without saying that the likes of Austen, Dickens, the Brontë sisters et al are automatically great picks and it’s inevitable that a handful of those will get chosen and discussed at some point, but these more modern ones were all novels I’ve enjoyed discussing with other members of various books groups and they have a broad appeal, so anyone can get into them and find something discussion-worthy between the covers.

You’ll also see that murder plays a heavy role in my choices, but I only noticed this after compiling my list. I suspect it’s because I find the inner workings of the psychotic mind fascinating – they’ve certainly always got everyone talking at book group meetings I’ve attended!

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Teaser Tuesday – Mrs. Darcy Versus the Aliens by Jonathan Pinnock

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. 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!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

“The truth is out there,” he added significantly. “Though it is not yet universally acknowledged.”

page 4, Mrs. Darcy Versus the Aliens by Jonathan Pinnock

Synopsis:
A year or two into her marriage, Elizabeth Darcy has much on her mind: she has still not produced an heir for Mr Darcy, there are preparations to be made for the Pemberly summer ball, and her youngest sister Lydia has been abducted by aliens. As Regency England sleepwalks towards tentacled oblivion, will she be able to reunite with her old foe Wickham and put a stop to their evil plans?

Meanwhile, in the East End of London, the repulsive Mr Collins is running a Mission for fallen women whilst his poor wife Charlotte has fallen under the malign spell of Lord Byron and is now a laudanum addict. But is everything at the Mission all that it seems? What is Mr Darcy doing there? And why are there strange lights in the sky over Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s seat at Rosings?

What I think of it so far:
Not quite as clever as Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, nor quite as funny as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but still a fun read. Pinnock pits our beloved Elizabeth against invaders from another planet and, on the whole, it does well, but some of the pop-culture in-jokes will probably not age quite as well as the ones based on more classic areas. This really is a major mash-up, not just between Austen and aliens, but also time, as the Regency meets the Victorian age too.

If you’re a fan of mash-ups, especially of Austen-based ones, you’ll probably enjoy this. If not, then you’re probably best to steer clear, as you simply won’t get it.

Teaser Tuesdays – Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. 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!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut. Whether this be the case with my history or not, I am hardly competent to judge.

– page 1, Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

Synopsis:
Drawing directly on her own unhappy experiences, Anne Brontë’s first-person narrative describes the almost unbelievable pressures endured by nineteenth-century governesses – the isolation, the frustration, and the insensitive and sometimes cruel treatment meted out by employers and their families. Distinguished by its sharp, often ironic observation of middle-class social behaviour, this deeply personal novel also touches on religious belief, moral responsibility, and individual integrity and its survival.

What I think of it so far:
I’m about a third of the way through and although I can’t say an awful lot has happened, it is certainly holding my interest. Agnes is rather a lovely character and I can’t help thinking I should have liked to be friends with Anne Brontë if Agnes is anywhere close to being true to her own character.

I’m actually reading this on my Kindle so the actual page number isn’t listed, but this quote is the opening lines of the novel, hence I’ve noted it as being the first page.

Teaser Tuesdays – The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. 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!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!