Quote of the Week: Cutting for Stone

"Dr. Stone. Your patient," she said to the man who everyone believed to be my father, putting in his hands not only the life of a woman he chose to love, but our two lives - mine and my brother's - which he chose to hate." (page 49)

The above quote is a great teaser, but the following passage provides a better indication of the writing quality.

"The sight of that plain, weathered face pressed against the glass, the wet cheeks, the interlocking fingers... it was for Harris more powerful than anything she said. Here was a woman who could give up the restrictions of her order when it stood in the way. From her lips had come the kind of fundamental truth which, because of its simplicity, was unspoken in a church like Harris's where internecine squabbling seemed to be the purpose for the committee's existence, as well as a manifestation of faith. It was a small blessing that an ocean separated the doers like Matron from their patrons, because if they rubbed shoulders they'd make each other very uncomfortable" (page 188)

Cutting for Stone

by Abraham Verghese

My book club meeting is Friday and I'm reading as fast as I can. This is an excellent book!

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should be Reading.

Teaser Tuesday: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

"London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill."

Bleak House

by Charles Dickens

opening sentences

Amanda's read-along starts tomorrow. Would you like to join us?

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesday: Summer by Edith Wharton

"Never had her ignorance of life and literature so weighed on her as in reliving the short scene of her discomfiture. "It's no use trying to be anything in this place," she muttered to her pillow; and she shrivelled at the vision of vague metropolises, shining super-Netteltons, where girls in better clothes than Belle Balch's talked fluently of architecture to young men with hands like Lucius Harney's. Then she remembered his sudden pause when he had come close to the desk and had his first look at her."

Summer

by Edith Wharton

page 78

Summer is a wonderful book that has been referred to as 'Hot Ethan'. Today I will begin a reread of Ethan Frome and see if I agree.

Teaser Tuesday: Mariana

"People were kind and friendly and amusing, but they though that companionship and conversation were synonymous; and some of them had voices that jarred in your head. There was a lot to be said for dogs. They understood without telling you so, and they were pleasing to look at, awake or asleep..." (page 2)

Mariana

by Monica Dickens

I just started this morning, but I think Mariana is going to be an excellent summer read!

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays: Cheri and The Last of Cheri

"They had known each other for twenty five years. Theirs was the hostile intimacy of light women, enriched and then cast aside by one man, ruined by another: the tetchy affection of rivals stalking one another's first wrinkle or white hair. Theirs was a friendship of two practical women of the world, both adepts at the money game; but one of them a miser, and the other a sybarite. These bonds count. Rather late in their day, a stronger bond had come to link them more closely: Cheri." (page 21)

Cheri and The Last of Cheri

by Colette

This was going to be part of my Paris in July reading, but the travel bug hit early. How about if I save the review for next month?

Teaser Tuesdays is sponsored by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Ladies' Paradise

"At this time of night, the Ladies' Paradise, with its furnace-like glare, seduced her completely. In the great metropolis, dark and silent under the rain, in this Paris of which she knew nothing, it was burning like a beacon, it alone seemed to be the light and life of the city. She dreamed of her future there, working hard to bring up the children, and of other things too, she knew not what, far-off things which made her tremble with desire and fear." (page 28)

The Ladies Paradise

by Emile Zola

The Ladies' Paradise chronicles the development of the modern department store in late 19th century Paris. If the first chapters are any indication, I'm going to love this! Emile Zola will be touring with The Classics Circuit next month.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays: Six-Word Memoirs

"Inside suburban mom beats urban heart."

-Julie Gross

"Secret of life: marry an Italian."

-Nora Ephron

"Now I blog and drink wine."

-Peter Bartlett

Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure

(edited by Smith Magazine)

How would your six-word memoir read?

Teaser Tuesdays is sponsored by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - My Life in France

"They did a splendid roast chicken: suspended on a string, the bird twirled in front of a glowing electric grill; every few minutes, a waiter would give it a spin and baste it with the juices that dripped down into a pan filled with roasted potatoes and mushrooms. Oh, those were such fine, fat, full-flavored birds from Bresse - one taste, and I realized that I had long ago forgotten what real chicken tasted like!" (page 40-45)

My Life in France

by Julia Child

This is my audiobook for the car, but I ended up getting a copy from the library, too. It was difficult to understand the reader's French (my fault) and seeing the names of foods and places has helped.

Warning: DO NOT read/listen to this book if you are hungry!

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - Marcelo in the Real World

...The real world.

As vague and as broad as this term is, I have a sense of what it means and of the difficulties it entails. Following the rules of the real word means, for example, engaging in small talk with other people. It means refraining from talking about my special interest. It means looking people in the eye and shaking hands. It means doing things "on the hoof", as we say at Paterson, which means doing things that have not been scheduled in advance. It means walking or going to places I am not familiar with, city streets full of noise and confusion. Even though I am trying to look calm, a wave of terror comes over me as I imagine trying to walk the streets of Boston by myself." (page 20-21)

Marcelo in the Real World

by Francisco X. Stork

This book is about a 17-year-old boy with an Asperger's-like condition who is trying out life in the "real world" with a summer job at his father's law firm. It reminds me, so far, of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - Let the Great World Spin

"We seldom know what we're hearing when we hear something for the first time, but one thing is certain: we hear it as we will never hear it again. We return to the moment to experience it, I suppose, but we can never really find it, only it's memory, the faintest imprint of what it really was, what it meant." (page 47)

Let the Great World Spin

by Colum McCann

This book won the 2009 National Book Award and I'm starting to see why! Although I began with an audio version, I decided to borrow the book from the library, too. Quite a reading/listening experience!

More Teaser Tuesdays can be found at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - The Hours

"She has dreamed of a park and she has dreamed of a line for her new book - what was it? Flowers; something to do with flowers. Or something to do with a park? Was someone singing? No, the line is gone, and it doesn't matter, really, because she still has the feeling it left behind. She knows she can get up and write." (page 30)

The Hours

by Michael Cunningham

This is a reread, but a perfect follow-up to Mrs. Dalloway. I'm even more appreciative of Cunningham's brilliance this time around.

More teasers can be found at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - Pride & Prejudice (Graphic Novel)

A visual 'teaser' this week...

Pride & Prejudice (Graphic Novel)

from Marvel

Nancy Butler (adapter), Jane Austen (author), Hugo Petrus (Illustrator)

product description:

Tailored from the adored Jane Austen classic, Marvel Comics is proud to present Pride & Prejudice! Two-time Rita Award-Winner Nancy Butler and fan-favorite Hugo Petras faithfully adapt the whimsical tale of Lizzy Bennet and her loveable-if-eccentric family, as they navigate through tricky British social circles.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - Nine Parts of Desire

"Their idea of a fun night out was to go to one of Tehran's husseinias - Shiite study centers - to listen to a radical mullah lecturing on Islamic revolution. The two would, of course, sit separately - Khadija in her heavy black hijab always in the back with the other women, where their presence wouldn't distract the men." (page 61)

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

by Geraldine Brooks

... my book club's January selection.

For more teasers, visit MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - Mrs. Dalloway

"She held her hands to her head, waiting for him to say did he like the hat or not, and as she sat there, waiting, looking down, he could feel her mind, like a bird, falling from branch to branch, and always alighting, quite rightly: he could follow her mind, as she sat there in one of those loose poses that came to her naturally and, if he should say anything, at once she smiled, like a bird alighting with all its claws firm upon the bough." (page 147)

Mrs. Dalloway

by Virginia Woolf

That's actually only one sentence, but what a sentence it is!

For more teasers, visit MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - Wolf Hall

"He knows by the way people look at him that his face is still bruised. Morgan Williams had done an inventory of him before he left: teeth (miraculously) still in his head, and two eyes, miraculously seeing. Two arms, two legs: what more do you want?"

Wolf Hall

by Hilary Mantel

page 11

There's been very little progress on this non-renewable library book. Is anybody getting much reading done in the pre-holiday frenzy? I'm hoping Santa will bring me a copy of my very own!

For more teasers, visit MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - Wishin' and Hopin'

"The year I was a fifth-grade student at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parochial, our teacher, Sister Dymphna, had a nervous breakdown in front of the class. To this day, I can hear Sister's screams and see her flailing attempts to shoo away the circling Prince of Darkness."

Wishin' and Hopin'

by Wally Lamb

(opening sentences)

If you like that teaser, let me give you a few more sentences from the opening paragraph. It sets up the book so well.

"I am, today, what most people would consider a responsible citizen. I have an advanced degree in Film Studies, a tenured professorship, and an eco-friendly Prius. I vote, volunteer at the soup kitchen, compost, floss... That said, my conscience and I have unfinished business. What follows is both my confession and act of contrition. Forgive me, reader, for I have sinned. It was I, who on that long-ago day triggered Sister's meltdown. For this and all the sins of my past life, I am heartily sorry."

Now if you're still interested, I urge you to pick up this funny holiday story set in the 1960's. It's very quick reading (I read half of the 271 pages last night) , and reminds me of A Christmas Story (you know... Ralphie and the Red Ryder BB gun). This book has 'movie' written all over it. I'll finish it tonight - the Christmas cards will just have to wait!

For more teasers, visit MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - Downtown: My Manhattan

"It [the New York version of nostalgia] involves an almost fatalistic acceptance of the permanent presence of loss. Nothing will ever stay the same. Tuesday turns into Wednesday and something valuable is behind you forever. An “is” has become a “was.” Whatever you have lost, you will not get it back: not that much-loved brother, not that ball club, not that splendid bar, not that place where you once went dancing with the person you later married. Irreversible change happens so often in New York that the experience affects character itself. New York toughens its people against sentimentality by allowing the truer emotion of nostalgia. Sentimentality is always about a lie. Nostalgia is about real things gone."

Downtown: My Manhattan

by Pete Hamill

Downtown: My Manhattan is my current audiobook. This passage really struck me yesterday as I was listening, and I was happy to find the quote on the author's website. Pete Hamill is the next speaker at the Rosamond Gifford Lecture Series.

Visit MizB at Should Be Reading for more Tuesday Teasers.

Teaser Tuesdays - North River

"The textbooks were filled with the medical ignorance of the day, now worthless rubbish that could not even be sold to the dealers on Fourth Avenue. And yet he could not throw them out. Once he loved them and learned from them. They were like aging teachers whose time had passed." page 33

North River

by Pete Hamill

Hamill will be the next speaker for the Rosamond Gifford Lecture series. I plan to read this and one of his nonfiction titles within the next month.

The rest of the above paragraph (just because I love it):

"Then his eyes fell to the lower shelves, full of treasures. Dickens and Stevenson and Mark Twain. Conrad and Galsworthy, Henry James and Edith Wharton. On one shelf, Theodore Dreiser leaned against Dostoyevsky, and he remembered how sure he once was that they were snarling at each other, each filled with certainty. To their left, unable to soothe them was the good Dr. Chekhov. With any luck these books will be the patrimony of the boy. And who will teach him how to read?"

and finally...

"...he would read novels to know more about human beings, who were, after all, his basic subject, and still were. The medical books didn't tell such stories. Only novels did."

Thanks for letting me indulge in this (very) extended teaser. Find more teasers at MizB's blog, Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesdays - November 10

"Agatha remembered when she was at school, she vowed that when she had her first pay cheque, she would walk into a sweet-shop and buy all the chocolate she wanted. By the time it happened, her desires had focused on a pair of purple high-heeled shoes with bows. She enjoyed having enough money that enabled her to buy what she wanted." (page 85)

The Quiche of Death

by M.C. Beaton

This is the first Agatha Raisin mystery, and a delight to read!

Visit MizB at Should Be Reading for more teasers.

Teaser Tuesdays - November 3

"Life can be so hard," I said, moved.

"Yes. But if a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is. ..."

Kitchen

by Banana Yoshimoto

page 41

To see more teasers, visit Miz B at Should Be Reading.