Aussie Readers discussion

Marianne wrote: "I know it's not Tuesday, but I'm really enjoying And Fire Came Down by Emma Viskic and I couldn't resist sharing this with ..."

Haha - love it!

If recent behavior was any example of what it was like to have a husband, Eve told herself it couldn't be half bad. She'd been coddled into bed, which she was forced to admit had been for the best, and had been awakened five unremembered hours later by the scent of hot coffee and fresh waffles.

Roarke had already been up, dressed and poring over some vital business transmission.

Immortal in Death by J.D. Robb

My teaser is from Silent Child by Sarah A. Denzil

“…No one wants to believe they are weak, but we all have weakness inside us. We have strength, too, but there are times when the circumstances in our lives are so overwhelming that we easily succumb to the weakness…”

I am really sucked into this mystery am about 75% ish through - have narrowed the kidnapper/child abuser down to 5 people – so doing well – LOL!!!

Sounds good Sally!

Jigsaw Man by Elena Forbes


"He turned on the TV, the volume up high enough to cover any unwanted sounds, then carefully got onto the bed and straddled her. The wetsuit was a little on the tight side......When he felt ready, he put his hands around her neck, locked his thumbs..."

Sounds like some excellent reads! =o)

'To start with I was dazed by your disappearance, but then my senses became overly acute; I saw too many details and too many colors as if the world was animated by Pixar. Other senses were also on heightened alert; I heard the clank of the clocks hand, the chair leg scraping on the linoleum. I could smell a cigarette clinging to a jacket on the door. It was white noise turned up to full volume, as if my brain could no longer tune out what didn't matter. Everything mattered.'

by Rosamund Lupton

You don’t know this, but I watch you. I watch you a lot. And when you spend a lot of time observing someone , you often wish you could give them advice, tell them where they’re going wrong. Unfortunately, you are the sort of person who always knows best. The kind of person that carries on your merry way each and every day, oblivious to the danger that is right in front of your very face. Despite this, I would like very much to share something with you – as you would a friend, if you like. Even though I acknowledge you have no idea that it is possible to feel so much pain . . . yet. Here is what I would like to tell you; it’s a simple thing.

Blink by K.L. Slater

I only have one book at work with me today - and I haven't even opened it yet - so my teaser is the opening line:

The miracle happened on west Seventy-fourth Street, in the home where Mama worked.

Is from Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Soon they found themselves in the heart of town. Iron lace verandahs and heavy corrugated awnings lining the main street reflected a boom time now long past. There were hitching posts for phantom horses at intervals along the kerb. They turned off the main street into a lane and pulled up outside the Old Schoolhouse, a stone building with dormer windows.

Mr Chen's Emporium by Deborah O'Brien

Andrea wrote: "Soon they found themselves in the heart of town. Iron lace verandahs and heavy corrugated awnings lining the main street reflected a boom time now long past. There were hitching posts for phantom h..."

I loved that book!!! Was a 5 star read for me!!!

The scrap man had met his match. 'I'm afraid I must bid you goodbye, missus,' he said, trying for dignity but darting his gaze about for constables. He clicked his tongue at Irish.

Irish pulled, the wagon jerked into motion, and the woman shouted, 'How old is that girl? Six? Seven? She should be in school.'

Her by Garry Disher

"Mummy, why do you keep calling me Kirstie?"
I say nothing. The silence is ringing. I speak: "Sorry sweetheart. What?"
"Why do you keep calling me Kirstie, Mummy? Kirstie is dead. It was Kirstie that died. I'm Lydia."

From The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne

Carolyn wrote: ""Mummy, why do you keep calling me Kirstie?"
I say nothing. The silence is ringing. I speak: "Sorry sweetheart. What?"
"Why do you keep calling me Kirstie, Mummy? Kirstie is dead. It was Kirstie th..."

Chilling!

Ace wrote: "Carolyn wrote: ""Mummy, why do you keep calling me Kirstie?"
I say nothing. The silence is ringing. I speak: "Sorry sweetheart. What?"
"Why do you keep calling me Kirstie, Mummy? Kirstie is dead. I..."

It's a pretty creepy book Ace!

Carolyn wrote: "Ace wrote: "Carolyn wrote: ""Mummy, why do you keep calling me Kirstie?"
I say nothing. The silence is ringing. I speak: "Sorry sweetheart. What?"
"Why do you keep calling me Kirstie, Mummy? Kirsti..."

Sounds like it! Happily, my library has it so it's another addition to my TBR!

Once we'd made it to the northern coast of Poland by ferry, a driver met us at the landing. He was a young man from Warsaw, one of more than one hundred former Polish Air Force pilots who'd joined Britain's Royal Air Force and risked their lives fighting the Luftwaffe. He was only a few years my senior, but at twenty two, I had the limp and posture of an old crone.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

"People were running. And he ran, too. Red was sprawled on the road. Bubbling from her lips and darkening her dress. He'd been here before, seen the spreading pool, smelled it's iron sweetness."

From the end of Chapter 1 of And Fire Came Down by Aussie author Emma Viskic.

Brenda, loved Lilac Girls.

It was amazing Bette! I reviewed it last night but it'll stay with me for awhile!

A bit late - My teaser is from Risky Business by Amy Andrews

'I suddenly realised I am Sally.’
‘Oh no’ Bec’s sigh was loud in Sam’s ear. ‘I should never have given you When Harry Met Sally for Christmas last year. You are Sam not Sally. And it is just a movie’
‘No, see, Sally had a point.’ Samantha couldn’t keep the wobble out of her voice. ‘It wasn’t that Greg didn’t want to get married and have kids, he just didn’t want to do it with me’

In the last twenty four hours, everything that was said and done inside that house has replayed in my head a hundred times. I see the expression on his face when he told me he didn't kill his wife. I hear the truth in Sadie's voice when she relayed the story about the stranger in the house the night her mamm was killed. Was someone there that night?

Down a Dark Road by Linda Castillo

"Flying. They are flying. And as they rise up through the foggy white, talking and laughing, serenaded by the songs of 1950s crooners and the white noise of the long at bat, none of them has any idea that sixteen minutes from now their plane will crash into the sea"

From the opening chapter of Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

Another turn and they were heading down a curving track lined with remnant rainforest. When the track climbed once again and took a final turn, they emerged out of the forest into a grassy field where a shed-style house was set into the side of a hill and gorgeous views reached all the way to the indigo ranges in the west.

The Country Wedding by Barbara Hannay

Each year this brush box ent reaches closer to the glass, towards the map of Middle-earth beside me. He filters my light green. I imagine his closest limb stretching out, kinking down through the open window while my back is turned, and exploring my wooden desk - a distant relative, perhaps - searching for what it is I do all day, as slow-moving as a tree. I would like to place my fingers against his just for a moment, to hear what he would say, and to convey all that I feel

Understory: a life with trees by Inga Simpson

My at work book today is Just Good Friends by Rosalind James.

I haven't started reading it yet - so my teaser is the opening line:

Please, Please don’t let him get in. Don’t make me have to do this. Please, somebody help me!

"Was it better to die in the illusion of sunshine and warmth or face death in a cold darkness of reality? Was it better to die in happy ignorance or terrified knowledge. The answer, if you’re a Londoner, is that it’s better not to die at all. So that is when I came up with the most ridiculous plan since I’d decided to take a witness statement from a ghost. It was a plan so stupid that even Baldrick would have rejected it out of hand."

From Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

Love that series Carolyn:) The audio is just brilliant!

"It was the first week of Twelfthmoon, on the far side of the Elmuthaleth, and Strange the dreamer - library stowaway and scholar of fairy tales - had never been thirstier or more full of wonder."

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

"A stiff wind swept in from the sea, a hint of the coming storm. Rashid al-Umari shivered beneath his quilted anorak. His wardrobe no longer reflected his wealth and his years in London, as had in the past. Kohl had pointed out this mistake........maintain a disheveled appearance."



The Assassin by Andrew Britton

Phrynne wrote: ""It was the first week of Twelfthmoon, on the far side of the Elmuthaleth, and Strange the dreamer - library stowaway and scholar of fairy takes - had never been thirstier or more full of wonder."
..."

Are you enjoying that, Phrynne?

Marianne wrote: "Phrynne wrote: ""It was the first week of Twelfthmoon, on the far side of the Elmuthaleth, and Strange the dreamer - library stowaway and scholar of fairy takes - had never been thirstier or more f..."

Oh yes, very much. Lazlo Strange is such a great character and it is certainly very original:)

I hope we won't have to wait too long for the sequel...

Phrynne wrote: ""It was the first week of Twelfthmoon, on the far side of the Elmuthaleth, and Strange the dreamer - library stowaway and scholar of fairy tales - had never been thirstier or more full of wonder."
..."

That one's on my kindle awaiting reading. Looking forward to it :)

Riley came across as a hard-nosed reporter, yet with a softness he found intriguing - and attractive. He thought the softness reflected the real person. At least, he hoped so. Palmer, on the other hand, was harder in more ways than one, in spite of his apparent easy going attitude. His background was clearly that of someone not unaccustomed to death or violence, and therefore hardened to it, but it hadn't made him immune to its consequences.

No Kiss for the Devil by Adrian Magson

Somebody swore that they could see her. People began trying the handles on the doors. Staring out the window of the Cadillac, Evdokia knew this crowd was here for her. They were hunting her. They were here to prevent her escaping through the terminal, onto the plane.

From Document Z: A Novel by Andrew Croome, a fictionalised account of the Petrov affair.

"It wasn't until I opened my own door that trouble hit me. I switched on the overhead lights. And saw every paper I owned on the floor. The file cabinets had been dumped, the drawers flung aside so that they perched at crazy angles. My ordnance maps dangled from the lips of their shelves.
'No,' I heard myself whisper. Who hated me so much they'd wreak this kind of fury against me?"

Body Work by Sara Paretsky

Oooh sounds good Phrynne!

I have two teasers this week - and was hard to limit it to only two let me tell you!

I have lots of favourites. That's the trouble with books. You can never choose your favourite. It changes depending on your mood.

AND

There's a book for everyone, even if they don't think there is. A book that reaches in and grabs your soul

The book is just jammed packed with beautiful meaningful sentences like this.

Loving it!

What book is it?

How to Find Love in a Book Shop by Veronica Henry

Ooh good, that's somewhere in my enormous TBR :)

"There's snorkelling stuff, so go for a swim if you're bored with barrels. These reefs are live coral, so they're worth a look. Stand up paddleboard..." It was hung neatly under the awning where they were gathered. She knocked on its deck.

On the Java Ridge by Jock Serong

I flipped off the bench and grabbed a hanging saucepan in the process. Great. I was going to fight these two very skilled strangers with a saucepan and a knife. I was fucked.

From by our own, AA, very skilled new novelist Maria Lewis

Deborah wrote: " I flipped off the bench and grabbed a hanging saucepan in the process. Great. I was going to fight these two very skilled strangers with a saucepan and a knife. I was fucked.

From [bookcover:Who'..."

LOL!

"I froze, my whole body tense. I don't think I even breathed.......even if my life depended on it my body wasn't going to move an inch. I felt tears sliding down my cheeks."

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

Ahh that's a good one Phrynne!

Brenda wrote: "Ahh that's a good one Phrynne!"

Very much so! I wrote more than read today, but I always enjoy reading this thread.

I like it when you are writing Leonie:)

Phrynne wrote: "I like it when you are writing Leonie:)"

:-)

Yes - more starcats???

Not at the moment, but I have tucked away another starcat story idea. Well, not so much as tucked, but have written the first few paragraphs it so I don't forget it :-)

I thought I'd finished with them, but they decided otherwise apparently.