Aussie Readers discussion

'Yes...Well, not everyone is as strong as you. I'm certainly not.'
She turned from her work then, quickly pivoting at the hip and flicking out her cleaning towel, catching him as always with remarkable precision on the temple.
'Of course, you're not, Mr Monsarrat. That's why you need me -- it's why you pay me the pittance that you do to keep me around.'

The Unmourned (The Monsarrat Series #2) by Meg Keneally & Tom Keneally

Bless Mrs Mulrooney! I just love her character to bits!

"Are you okay, love?"
Georgie gasped and jumped. Hot liquid rushed over her hand, and she righted her mug, wiped her hand on her jeans. She shrugged free of her daydream to find a woman leaning towards her. She wore a crisp white apron over street clothes and had an airforce style envelope cap perched on her mop of brown hair. Georgie recalled she'd been served by her earlier, from behind the bakery counter.

Dead Again by Sandi Wallace

My teaser is from Mine Till Midnight by Lisa Kleypas

No doubt the vicar’s wife had heard one too many stories of Gypsies stealing children, placing curses on people, and attacking females in a frenzy of uncontrolled lust. Cam was tempted to tell the woman that, as a rule, he never kidnapped or pillaged before the second course.

"New information demanded at least as much action as discussion. It was Diana Taverner's role to leave to see about the action, and everybody else's to get the discussion under way. She was halfway to the lift when the Barrowboy caught her - almost literally: she turned to find him reaching for her arm. The look she bestowed upon him would have stuck six inches out the back of a more sensitive man"

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

Hi Tien; you quoted the second Monsarrat book. I was wondering, do you think it is a good idea to read the second without having read the first? Only, my library only has the second, which sounds good....

by Steve Lewis

"He felt the reassuring familiarity of the handle and the well-balanced weight of an expensive bat. His first swing was a square cut that burst a computer into ....acrid smoke"

Jax tried calling Arian's number before boarding their flight but got no response. It went directly to voicemail. He left a message and hung up, switching off his phone in preparation for the flight.

Finding Paradise by Juanita Kees

"You have chosen to focus on your career, neglected your children and now here you are." She dismissed Frankie's life with a flick of the wrist. "Why have children if you don't want them?"
Frankie slapped her hand on the table."I love my children but I have to use my brain as well, otherwise I'll -" she was about to say "become a narcissist like you" but modified it to say "go mad."

from The Fence by Meredith Jaffe

Deborah wrote: "Hi Tien; you quoted the second Monsarrat book. I was wondering, do you think it is a good idea to read the second without having read the first? Only, my library only has the second, which sounds g..."

oops, sorry, I missed this post, Deborah. This book sort of give away who the baddie is in the first book so it's probably best to read book 1 first as it will also fill you in on the backgrounds of the characters esp. Hugh Monsarrat.

Anna stared, perhaps a little too intently, at Leonard's face. 'You never said you were Jewish.'
Leonard looked taken aback. 'I assumed you knew.'
'I think I thought you must be but then you never mentioned it.'
'I don't practice.'
'There just... there weren't any Jewish kids at my school. I think sometimes I just assume anyone who seems English is English.'
'I am English,' said Leonard. Pointedly.
'I know...but I meant Anglo-Saxon Protestant English. Fruit scones; Book of Common Prayer; Henry-the-Eighth-had-six-wives English. You know. English English.'
'You're eating a bloody teacake; what more d'you want?' Leonard worked a currant out from between his teeth. 'Nothing can ever be too English, can it? Nothing can ever be too pure. It's like there's an entry test for Englishness and only twenty people pass it every year. Are you clever? Are you virtuous? Are you kind? It doesn't fucking matter. All that matters is that you're English.'

Miss Treadway & the Field of Stars by Miranda Emmerson

Sorry, it's a bit long but I got carried away and I'm just loving this book so much! Lots of issues being tackled and transferable to Oz as well :)

“He picked up a twist of straw and began to rub her down. In the space of a blink, the twist of straw became a brush of boar’s hair. The mare stood with her ears flopping, loose-lipped with enjoyment. Vasya went nearer, fascinated. “Did you change the straw? Was that magic?” “As you see.” He went on with his grooming. “Can you tell me how you do it?” She came up beside him and peered eagerly at the brush in his hand. “You are too attached to things as they are,” said Morozko, combing the mare’s withers. He glanced down idly. “You must allow things to be what best suits your purpose. And then they will.” Vasya,”

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

" He roused himself from his melancholy and walked into the kitchen, pouring himself another drink before returning to the balcony. He gazed at the giant flag........people's house.


by Steve Lewis

"Her head was covered with a black scarf, folded in some complicated way around the cheekbones and drawn tightly under a miniature chin. Her face was less a face than a crumpled piece of origami. She was possibly the oldest person Alexandra had ever seen. If the woman had eyes, seeing or not, they seemed to have disappeared into the folds of her skin, along with her eyebrows and the colour of her lips. Alexandra thought she could trace some delicate lines there, in the thin, transparent nose and arched forehead. Eighty years ago, Baba Yana might have had a birdlike beauty - might have been the tiniest belle in the village. Perhaps she had never grown up, only grown old."

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

Lots of tantalising quotes today! I want to read them all!!!

The little town of Sitka is probably the most inviting place in Alaska. It sits on Baranof Island facing the Gulf and is kept maternally mild by the warm currents of the Pacific Ocean. The monthly average temperature never drops below freezing, making the climate benignly hospitable for the few thousand people who live there. Not much has ever happened in Sitka, except for a few days in 1867 when the whole world focussed upon it briefly.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Sorry can't tag this book as I'm on my IPad but this memoir of trees, science and love is wonderful!

Well it's not Tuesday - but it is a teaser

Just started reading my ARC of Beartown by Fredrik Backman which is released next month.

This is the opening paragraph:
Late one evening toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barreled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else’s forehead and pulled the trigger.

This is the story of how we got there.

WOW!!! I mean what a hook! Not even a quarter of the way in and there are several teenagers front and centre - both male and female - who are all contenders for the role in that opener (doesn't specify sex) - one is going to be the shooter - but will one will be the shootee (aka victim)? Or will that role be played by an adult? Which one, there are a few contenders here too? So who? And why?

I do not like ice hocky in way, shape or form - but even though this is about a small town obsessed with the game - it is the emotions, and the characters, that have me glued to the story.

There she is, that girl, on a planet of grass. Her wants are simple: to tilt her face to the sun and feel its warmth. To clutch the earth beneath her fingers. To escape from and return to the house she was born in.

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline

Yes it suddenly hit me that it was Tuesday!!! lol

"In a corner of the yard, a man lies bleeding. Everyone else backs away and assumes their usual see-nothing........fallen man.:"


The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen

"And there he was. A surprisingly slight man weaving his way cautiously through the forest's crinoline of fluffy bushes. The expression on the man's face was nearly religious as he approached the flank of the motel, but that wasn't the only part of what identified him as the killer. His clothes were covered in dried blood, his shoes too."

Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward

This had me in hysterics, from White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

"I GIVE YOU A GLORIOUS NAME LIKE MAGID MAHFOOZ MURSHED MUBTASIM IQBAL!" Samad had yelled after Magid when he returned home that evening and whipped up the stairs like a bullet to hide in his room. "AND YOU WANT TO BE CALLED MARK SMITH!"

Sally906 wrote: "Well it's not Tuesday - but it is a teaser

Just started reading my ARC of Beartown by Fredrik Backman which is released next month.

..."

Can't wait to get this one!

Brenda wrote: "Yes it suddenly hit me that it was Tuesday!!! lol"

Completely forgot!

I didn't forget, but was feeling too bruised and battered after having a large molar extracted (in pieces) at the dentist to do any serious reading so here's a Wednesday Teaser instead (and for a change it's not from a thriller!):

"Grief, I suppose, is something you think you understand once you have seen its colours, its shapes. But the thing about grief is that it is forever changing. A swell, subsiding. The waves, their curl and height and depth, each different."

from In the Quiet by Eliza Henry-Jones

Hope you are feeling better now Carolyn. I hate dentists!!!

Me too, but the tooth had had a long and chequered history and was long overdue for extraction, so it's good to have it done. Now I have to go back in two months to be asessed for an implant. More visits, more pain, more money!

Carolyn wrote: "Me too, but the tooth had had a long and chequered history and was long overdue for extraction, so it's good to have it done. Now I have to go back in two months to be asessed for an implant. More ..."

If it's not visible, don't do it Carolyn :) Take care and look after yourself :)

And BTW - I thoroughly enjoyed the book you're reading!

I have had two molars extracted from my lower jaw, one on each side, never had anything further done, far enough back that it's not noticeable unless I open my mouth really wide. I don't miss them one bit!

I'll move this over to the chat thread so the Tuesday Teaser doesn't get overtaken by dental matters :)

Could be Toothy Tuesday ;)

lol!

Hahahaha!!!

From LaRose by Louise Erdrich

"Landreaux took the shot with fluid confidence. When the buck popped away he realized he'd hit something else - there had been a blur the moment he squeezed the trigger. Only when he walked forward to investigate and looked down did he understand that he had killed his neighbour's son."

How can it possibly be Tuesday already!!!
That is a really good book by the way Carolyn:)

I've just started it (as you can see) but I really enjoyed The Round House by the same author so I'm hoping this will be as good :)

Carolyn wrote: "From LaRose by Louise Erdrich

"Landreaux took the shot with fluid confidence. When the buck popped away he realized he'd hit something els..."

I really want to read this soon!

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Dr. Eleven is a physicist. He lives on a space station, but it's a highly advanced space station that was designed to resemble a small planet. There are deep blue seas and rocky islands linked by bridges, orange and crimson skies with two moons on the horizon. The contrabassoon, who prior to the collapse was in the printing business, told Kirsten that the comics had been produced at great expense, all those bright images, that archival paper, so actually not comics at all in the traditionally mass-produced sense, possibly someone's vanity project. Who would that someone have been? There is no biographical information in either issue, initials in place of the author's name. "By M. C." In the inside cover of the first issue, someone has written "Copy 2 of 10" in pencil. In the second issue, the notation is "Copy 3 of 10." Is it possible that only ten copies of each of these books exist in the world?

I loved that novel Tien!

Carolyn wrote: "I loved that novel Tien!"

That's good to hear, Carolyn. I'm not that far in yet, abt. 15% & I'm reading it as breaks between reading non-fiction but so far I am liking it though finding it a little strange...

When Heather Drake came home with the groceries, she saw his truck in the drive. She felt it, that mutinous little lift in her heart, that tug on the corners of her mouth. She brought her car to a stop. There was a rattling sound when she turned the ignition off. What could that be? She wondered. And how much was it going to cost to fix it? She tried not to do that thing she did, where she thought about how much money was in the account, what she still had to buy, and what was due.

The Red Hunter by Lisa Unger

"And as the light in her eyes dimmed, he tried to find something in them that betrayed a fear of dying, a desire to live another second. But he found nothing. She ought to have tried harder. Maybe she didn't have much imagination. Didn't love life enough. He hated it when they gave up on life so easily."

The Thirst by Jo Nesbø

Tien wrote: "Carolyn wrote: "I loved that novel Tien!"

That's good to hear, Carolyn. I'm not that far in yet, abt. 15% & I'm reading it as breaks between reading non-fiction but so far I am liking it though fi..."

Yes, definitely a little strange!

"My father doesn't like me doing nothing. When I was little, I was allowed to play in the garden once I'd finished studying. But now that I'm almost five, I have less free time. 'You mustn't waste your time,' my father says. 'Focus on your duties.'

I don't have much free time anyway. Between schoolwork, music, my share of the housework, and serving my father, my days are very full."

The Only Girl in the World: A Memoir by Maude Julien

It's not my 'currently-reading' but seeing what today is, I thought you may forgive me & appreciate this nonetheless :)

Suddenly one [shell] again lands fair in the trench and a great heavy duckboard is thrown yards out of the trench. 'Men hit!' comes the call from nearby and Dark and I race up towards it. A man is crawling along through the mud, crawling on his stomach and dragging his shattered legs after him. He wears no trousers, only underpants, sodden wet with blood. We make to lift him up. 'No,' he moans. 'Get Scotty, Scoo, Sc...' and he sags and is out of it. Mate before self, as ever.

Somme Mud Kids: An Australian Teenager in the First World War by Edward P.F. Lynch

"Amethyst is an embarrassment," Jeremiah growled. "She used to do the most outrageous things to just get on the newspapers. People we know back in New Addison would send us copies. Father's lawyer would send them and beg my parents to rein her in."
Wicked Treasure by Jordan Elizabeth Mierek

"She grasped the door and leaned there breathless, heart battering in her chest.
What was he doing, turning up where he wasn't welcome? And why had he come? Staring at her with those washed-out blue eyes that hadn't lost their intensity over the years. She dropped her stick and swung away."

from The Lightkeeper's Wife by Karen Viggers

I have this one to read too Carolyn :) Must get to it - that sounds enticing!

“… it really was rude to allow oneself to daydream while somebody was talking to you. In a way, it was every bit as discourteous as taking a telephone call while engaged in conversation with another, or closing one’s eyes and drifting off to sleep in a concert in full view of a performer. And yet, how did you prevent thoughts coming into your mind? And once they were there, how did you stop yourself from entertaining them?”

As always, Isabel Dalhousie ponders life in A Distant View of Everything by Alexander McCall Smith

Brenda wrote: "I have this one to read too Carolyn :) Must get to it - that sounds enticing!"

Will be interested to see how you like it Brenda. It wasn't really for me - after that promising beginning, I found the story a bit flat but enjoyed the descriptions of the island.