Happy Tuesday! It’s time again for another edition of Teaser Tuesdays…

Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• You also need to share the title of the book where you get your teaser from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given
• Please avoid spoilers

I’m smack dab in the middle of two books right now, but the one nearest to me is Fallen by Lauren Kate and so that will be from where the teaser is pulled.

This week’s teaser:

“Even from this distance, Luce could see black mold covering the face of the dorm. All the windows were obstructed by rows of thick steel bars.” pg. 17 Fallen by Lauren Kate

So far the writing is smooth, but there has only been one small bit of action that’s piqued my curiosity. In fact, I’ve already developed a few quibbles.

I don’t know what to make of Luce just yet, but she’s teetering perilously close to the edge of being a whiney heroine and I believe nearly nothing about her new “friend” Arriane; her actions are anything but consistent with what we’re told. But there’s still time for character development. I might be surprised.

At best I feel the book will redeem itself by the end, and at worst, it will just turn out to be another average read. (I’m hoping for the former.)

I’m lazing away this Sunday afternoon, about to dig into a patty and coco bread. The dark clouds outside are teasing me, but I still have hope they will open up and provide the perfect atmosphere to get my creative juices flowing. In the meantime, I figure now is the perfect time to offer the “where has Ann-Kat been?” update.

For a little while, I was sick (think delirious and semi-conscious) with the flu. It’s an experience I’d rather not repeat and luckily I’m all better now (yay!). The downside is that I’m racing to catch up with everything that’s fallen behind…

Writing

I’m now nearly 16,000 words behind on my NaNoWriMo project, but I hope to fill most of the gap by the end of the day—cloud inspiration permitting.

I did, however, manage to get most of my NaNo board finished and discovered the face of my female lead along with a few secondary characters. Since I promised to bring this blog back to all things bookish, you can read all about the NaNo board (and my writing progress in general) at Today, I Wrote….

Reading

After finishing Wuthering Heights, from which my head is still reeling (Kidnapping and extortion? Really?!?), I’ve moved on to The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Fallen by Lauren Kate. I’m about a third of the way through both.

The former I remember from childhood; reading it as an adult brings some new perspectives. The latter is interesting so far, but I’ve already found a few items of contention—here’s hoping it will redeem itself by the end.

Reviews

My review queue is backlogged a bit, but I hope to have that sorted just after the holidays. Some of the books awaiting review include The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett, Dawn by Kevin Brooks, and Soulless by Christopher Golden.

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much was enthralling. I thought I was in for a true crime read, but it was more a journalist’s memoir of the book collecting world and the misguided lengths to which one man would go for his passion.

I managed to get up a mini review of Dawn since I read it for the 24 Hr. Read-a-Thon, but I do need to get a proper review online. This book certainly deserves one.

I expected to like Soulless a bit more than I did. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it. Then again, I’ve always been fond of those B zombie movies with cheezy overacting and that’s the feeling I got from the book. Plus, it had an original premise in how the zombie apocalypse started. There are some book notes up (and a Sunday Sketch depicting a scene), but like the others, this deserves its own full review.

Arrivals

Thank goodness the book fairy didn’t forget about me while I was infirmed. A number of books made their way across my threshold and I’m excited to read all of them. The list includes:

• Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
• Defenders of the Scroll by Shiraz
• i sold Andy Warhol (too soon) by Richard Polsky
• Raiders’ Ransom by Emily Diamand
• Madapple by Christina Meldrum

Soon I’ll get a proper “recent arrivals” post up along with synopsis for each of the titles. But for now, that ends my Sunday Salon week end round-up. You have been updated.

Happy Tuesday! It’s time again for another edition of Teaser Tuesdays…

Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page
• You also need to share the title and author of the book where you get your teaser from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given
• Please avoid spoilers

This week’s teaser:

“He endeavoured to pronounce the name, but could not manage it; and compressing his mouth he held a silent combat with his inward agony, defying, meanwhile, my sympathy with an unflinching, ferocious stare. ‘How did she die?’ he resumed, at last—fain, notwithstanding his hardihood, to have a support behind him; for, after the struggle, he trembled, in spite of himself, to his very finger-ends.” pg. 98* Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Thinking back to high school, I would have much preferred reading this to Jane Eyre. Don’t get me wrong, JE rocked, but Wuthering Heights…it’s like an eighteenth century soap opera with ghosts and betrayal and gold-digging and revenge that spans generations.

Every other page my eyes are bugging out and I’m saying WTF?!? in the back of my head. So far, everybody, save Mr. Lockwood and maybe Ellen Dean, is nuts. And by nuts, I mean dose-dive off a cliff CRAZY.

Right now I’m savoring as I read, so it’s slow going—I’m only about halfway through, and even though I’m anxious to realize the conclusion of this engrossing tale, I must pace myself.

* Although I linked to the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of the book (because I love that cover), I’m actually reading it from my Project Gutenberg printout—therefore, the page number may not correspond with any of the traditionally published volumes.

On another note, if you’d like my cleaned up & pre-formatted Word document to print a copy for yourself, just leave a comment and I’ll email it to you.

1. What are you reading right now? Dawn by Kevin Brooks

2. How many books have you read so far? 2 (I got a late start)

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I can’t choose just one. But I know Soulless by Christopher Golden, Fallen by Lauren Kate, Wait Until Twilight by Sang Pak is definitely in the mix.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? Yes and No. While I thought not, initially, I realized too late that yes, I needed to. *sigh*

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Does a nap count as an interruption? If so, then I dealt with it by sleeping. Luckily it was only a short one (about an hour).

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? Everybody’s so nice. Yeah, I knew that everyone was nice, but not this nice. It’s awesome.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Um…not yet. Try me later.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? Have a ready bookmark of participating blogs to visit during my break times rather than digging through my links every time.

9. Are you getting tired yet? Nope. I’m fresh as a daisy.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? Can’t say that I do, but when I think of something, I shall make it known.

This week’s Sunday Sketch is a bit late because I’ve been swept up by the book for most of the day. And the weather has been delightfully cooperative—dark, eerie rainstorms.

I’m about halfway through and it has been smooth sailing. I’m soaking up the spooky—and oddly romantic—atmosphere and I’m surprised at how much I’ve learned about New Orleans. I’m mentally booking a trip.

For this week’s sketch, I decided on Anton Grey and Rebecca Brown because I’m liking their dynamic so far. (And it’s super quick because I’m anxious to get back to the book. )

Next week, I promise to spend a bit more time and create a more detailed sketch. For now, I’m off to read!

P.S. If you haven’t already entered, I’m holding a Book Giveaway—5 winners will receive a copy of this book.