this little life of mine

Teaser Tuesday: Helen and Anna: Two Ghost Stories

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!

 

Last week I started and finished Wait Till Helen Comes a ghost story by Mary Downing Hahn. This popped up on my Amazon suggestion list and the cover looked great, so I bought it. The story is perfectly creepy, and suspenceful, and really well written. It is, however, very similar to the novel I've been working on for the past couple of years, which freaked me out a bit, but considering this book was written in 1986, and mine is being written now (although technically it's set in the mid-70s), I think I'll be able to tweak mine enough to make it unique. Anyway, here's my teasers from page  60  on my nook:

 Too frightened to breathe, I saw the glimmer of blue light shape itself into the figure of a girl no bigger than Heather. She wore a white dress, and her hair, as dark as Heather's, tumbled in waves down ther back. Her features were indistinct, her eyes in shadow, but I knew who she was.

 

And, this week I started reading Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake. Actually I keep forgetting the name of the book. I just call it The Second Anna Book because it's the sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood.  So far it's really good - just like the first book - and wonderfully creepy! Here's my teasers from page 125 on my nook:

Anna blinks. When she looks at me again, her eyes are red with blood. A ripple of pain passes through her jaw as phantom cuts open and close across her chest, grotesque flowers of red blooming and disappearing down her arms. 

Teaser Tuesday: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

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!

 This week I'm reading Gone Girlby Gillian Flynn. It was on my TBR list for a while, but I decided not to go for it because I had so many other books to read, but then it ended up on my Book Club, and I thought, what the heck, I'll read it!  It's pretty good so far (I'm only on page 42). Very well written, engaging, interesting story and character I think I might want to know a little more about. It's not as good as Shine Shine Shine, but then I'm still a little enamoured by that novel, so pretty much anything is going to pale in comparison. Anyway. Here's my teaser from Gone Girl page 16. One line only this time; yeah, it's that good a line:

There's something disturbing about recalling a  warm memory and feeling utterly cold.  

Teaser Tuesday: The Kill Order by James Dashner

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!

This week I started reading The Kill Order by James Dashner. This is the prequel to The Maze Runner trilogy, which I really enjoyed, and I've been SO looking forward to reading this book!  My teaser comes from page 122:

"Stop it!" Mark yelled. "Stop it!"

He jerked on his own rope and started to get up, but the boot came back, slamming him into the dirt once again.

Teaser Tuesday: Small Medium at Large by Joanne Levy #teasertuesday

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!

This week I'm reading another MG book called Small Medium at Large by Joanne Levy. I thought it sounded really cute and I'm interested in reading books about ghosts (especially since I'm currently writing one!). Here are my teasers from page 52 on Nicky the nook:

My eyes went really wide. 

"What?" Alex asked, obviously noticing my sudden change of expression.

"Who is there?" I asked, looking up at the ceiling.

Happy reading! Cheers!

Teaser Tuesday: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

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!

This week I'm reading Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I really enjoyed Divergent and waited patiently for WEEKS to get the second book from the library! Well, I finally did, and have been busting through it! Here's my teasesr from page 252:

"I should inform you that this will not be a negotiation," Max says. "In order to negotiate, you have to be on even footing, and you, Jack, are not."

Cheers!

Teaser Tuesday: Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire #teasertuesday

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!

Happy Tuesday! This week I'm reading Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire. This is the final book in the Wicked series and I'm both excited and sad about that. I'm excited to read another Wicked book, but I'm sad it'll be the last one. I've enjoyed this alternate version of the Oz books, originally written by L. Frank Baum, a great deal.  Here are my teasers from page 25 on my nook:

She began her descent. She passed the eight floor and the seventh. About a quarter past five on the morning of April 18, 1906, the buildings of San Francisco started to shake.  

 

Teaser Tuesday: Above by Leah Bobet #teasertuesday #above

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!

This week I'm reading Above by Leah Bobet. I wasn't too sure about this book when I first started it, but it's really grown on me now, and I'm really enjoying it. I hate to put it down and can't wait to pick it up again. Here are my teasers from page 74 of my nook:

The Whitecoat house in the park stands silent, window-broke and windblown in the middle of the overgrown field. Empty as  a bricked-off subway tunnel. The shadows flow into it, stripping the sparkel from the bits of broken glass. They puddle darkness on its rooftops like a growing sore: Whitecoat place. Bad place. Abandon hope all ye who enter here.

Teaser Tuesday: 420 Characters by Lou Beach

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!

 This week I started reading 420 Characters by Lou Beach. The book is a series of short stories composed in only 420 characaters much like the status updates on social networking sights such as Facebook. It's interesting to see how much emotion, complexity and description can actually be crammed into such a tiny amount of writing.

It also sounds like a great writing exercise that I might have to try!

Anyway, here's my teaser from page 15,  a story called "Mouse and I":

The little bridge spans the stream two feet below and the sun lays its hands on our backs. We drop pebbles into the creek and strtle water sriders, add to the trove of shining rocks and stones.

New Reading Challenge: The Spring Reading Thing

So, I completely forgot about The Spring Reading Thing this year untll I saw a post for it on Should Be Reading. Gah! Luckily, this reading challenge goes from March 20th to June 20th, so I still have time to jump on board! And, so do you, if you'd like to join! I've chosen 10 books - some on my nook and some real books -  to read between now at June 20th (obviously not counting Under the Never Sky, which I'm halfway finished with right now):

1. Fear (a Gone novel) by Michael Grant
2. 5th Avenue, 5 A.M.  by Sam Wasson
3. Above by Leah Bobet
4. The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
5. Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire
6. 420 Characters by Lou Beach
7. Mariel of Redwall  by Brian Jacques
8. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
9. The Game by Monica Hughes
10. Mystwood by Leah Cypess

 Happy Reading!

 

Teaser Tuesday: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi #teasertuesday #undertheneversky

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!

This week I'm reading Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. So far I'm enjoying it, but it's hard after finishing such a remarkable book as The Snow Child. Under the Never Sky is a good story and the characters are interesting, but the book itself isn't as lyrically or as beautifully written as the The Snow Child. There are so many short, choppy sentences that I was unable to find only two to share that would make any kind of sense, so I'm cheating with my teaser and sharing several sentences from page 73:

Aria tried cruising to a beach Realm. One of her favorites. She stiffened as the wrong images streaked through her mind. Burning trees. Smoke that moved like waves. Paisley's wide-eyed terror. Soren on top on her. 

Happy Tuesday!