Teaser Tuesdays – Page 11

Teaser Tuesday – The Severed Head

Published on May 5, 2009 by Margaret7 Comments

It’s Tuesday again – the day for posting two or three sentences as teasers from a book you’re currently reading without giving away any spoilers, hosted by Mizb.

Today my teasers are from Iris Murdoch’s A Severed Head.

I needed Georgie, I loved her, I felt I could not possibly, especially now, do without her. Yet I did not quite see myself marrying her.

Martin, who is having an affair with Georgie, is shocked when he discovers that his wife, Antonia, has also been having an affair and is leaving him.

Ferney: Tuesday Teasers

Published on April 21, 2009 by Margaret10 Comments

It’s Tuesday again – the day for posting two or three sentences as teasers from a book you’re currently reading without giving away any spoilers, hosted by Mizb.

Today my teasers are from Ferney by James Long. I’m not very far into it but so far I think it’s absolutely fascinating. It’s a bit historical, and a bit mysterious with characters who can see what the landscape looked like in centuries long gone.

He lifted his head from the ghost of the wrecked tree and let his gaze wander across the landscape, changing, turning. The pylons in the valley flicked out, the cluster of new houses beyond them melted like butter, the woods writhed, grew ragged and stretched their boundaries, the fields divided themselves back with old, forgotten walls, and a hard, brash metal barn shrivelled back into a thing of sagging tile and stone. (page 30)

In addition it has a young couple who have bought their dream cottage in the country – one that is derelict and in need of some tender loving care. But this brings their relationship under strain and Ferney, the old countryman who seems to know everything about the house and the countryside complicates matters.

Tuesday Teaser

Published on April 7, 2009 by Margaret17 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can 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!

My teaser today is from page 107 of The Cipher Garden by Martin Edwards, a Lake District murder mystery.

For a wild instant she imagined sidling up behind the woman. It would be so easy to slip off the scarf, loop it around her neck – and squeeze.

Teasers

Published on March 31, 2009 by Margaret15 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. You grab your current read and pick two or three sentences from somewhere on a random page, taking care not to include spoilers and share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Today my teaser sentences are from page 37 of Ian Rankin’s Doors Open:

‘Look’, Mike argued, ‘I agree it’s a nice thought – I like the idea of planning some sort of … heist.’ Gissing, listening intently, had folded his arms again.

‘It’s been preying on my mind, too,’ he said eventually.

Teaser Tuesday

Published on March 24, 2009 by Margaret13 Comments

Today’s teaser is from Wuthering Heights which I’m reading for the umpteenth time, although it’s been years since I last read it and I’m enjoying it immensely. This quotation is from the beginning of the book when Heathcliff first came to Wuthering Heights (page 34):

He seemed a sullen, patient child; hardened perhaps, to ill treatment: he would stand Hindley’s blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my pinches moved him only to draw in a breath and open his eyes, as if he had hurt himself by accident and nobody was to blame. This endurance made old Earnshaw furious, when he discovered his son persecuting the poor fatherless child as he called him. He took to Heathcliff strangely, believing all he said (for that matter, he said precious little, and generally the truth) and petting him up far above Cathy, who was too mischievous and wayward for a favourite.

And so the tragedy is set in motion.

For more teasers click here.

Tuesday – Where Am I? & Today’s Teaser

Published on March 10, 2009 by Margaret9 Comments

Today I’m in Dante’s Inferno, an invisible spectator following Dante and Virgil as they make their way down into Hell. Charon, the boatman ferries the dead across the river Acheron to the Hall of Death with the dread words “Lay down all hope, you that go in by me” has let us enter from a word of power from Virgil. And so we descend …

(Click the button for more teasers)

My teaser is from pages 30 & 31 of Dante The Descent Into Hell translated byDorothy L Sayers. This in the 2nd Circle of Hell where the souls of the sexually promiscuous are being punished tossed eternally in a howling wind:

The blast of Hell that never rests from whirling

Harries the spirits along the weep of its swath ,

And vexes them, for ever beating and hurling.

When they are borne to the rim of the ruinous path

With cry and wail and shriek they are caught by the gust,

Railing and cursing the power of the Lord’s wrath.

Dante is so overcome with pity that he swoons: “And, as a dead man falling, down I fell.”

William Blake’s painting captures the scene:

blake_dante_hell_v