Tuesday Books and Other Things

Thanks to The Purple Princess for hosting Teaser Tuesday at her blog, The Purple Booker.  Thanks to Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea for hosting FCFP.

Thanks to Stephanie at Wife Mommy Me for hosting this link-up!  (Actually, it's hosted on a baker's dozen or so of blogs, so I guess I'll have to rotate where the link goes each week.  That's actually a 'note to self' because sure as shootin' I'll forget.

~~~oOo~~~

This book (or series?) is rather interesting.  They call it a 'serial novel', published in eight novella length installments, and written by a total of 4 different authors!  Both quotes are from part 1.)

SYNOPSIS

FBI Special Agent Lara Grant thought that she'd put her past behind her--finally--with her last case. But now a serial bomber is targeting Manhattan's elite power players, offering them a choice between saving hundreds of lives or seeing their darkest secrets exposed. Lara is working with the Crisis Management Unit to stop the bomber, but how will she react when she's the one who has to choose between truth...or death? 

As the clock ticks down, Lara braces for another confrontation with evil. And no matter what, she'll make sure her enemy's first mistake is also his last...

~~~oOo~~~

(***FYI - the book quotes contain two mild instances of 'adult language'.  If this may offend you, please skip directly to the bottom for the 'Tuesday Talk' section.  In movie rating speak, it would probably get a PG or PG13.)  

TEASER TUESDAY

from ~location 604 on the Kindle:

He left the bathroom and noticed that her spare bedroom door was cracked open a bit.  He'd never been in there and had assumed she either used it as a workout room or a home office.  The door had always been completely closed before.  

Curious, he shoved the door open a little farther and then froze.

What in the hell?

His heart dropped to the floor as he stared around the room in disbelief....

~~~oOo~~~

FIRST CHAPTER, FIRST PARAGRAPH

From the prologue:

Dammit, he'd been so careful.  And now this.

From yourworstnightmare@nowhere.net: 

I know what you did with all that money.  I'll keep your secret but it will cost the lives of innocent people.  Or confess to the press and nobody gets hurt.  The choice is yours.  You have until noon tomorrow.

~~~oOo~~~

TUESDAY TALK

Tuesday Books and Talk - May 10, 2016

This is week 4 of the Between the Lines series, hosted at Katherine's Corner.

Between the Lines features bloggers 'of a certain age', or in other words, 50+, whom you should be following, niche or no!

~~~oOo~~~

Thanks to Jenn for hosting Teaser Tuesday at her blog, Books and a Beat. Thanks to Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea for hosting FCFP. Click on their buttons to get all the details, to see what books others have found and to join in the fun!

My next review up is for an anthology, called, Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries, so I'll take the Tuesday bookish info from the first full-length book in the group, called, "Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun", by Lois Winston.  Here are the covers for the anthology and the book, respectively:

  

FCFP TUESDAY

I hate whiners.  Always have.  So I was doing my damnedest not to become one, in spite of the lollapalooza of a quadruple whammy that had broadsided me last week.  Not an easy task, given that one of those lollapalooza whammies had barged into my bedroom and was presently hammering her cane against my bathroom door.

TEASER TUESDAY

This is from location 427 in the MOBI file of the anthology:

Why is it that guys with wrinkles look sexy, but when women get wrinkles, they just look old?

And why on earth was I thinking of such things when my life was turning to week-old crap?  Maybe my brain decided I needed a shot of serotonin to give me a brief respite from the more pressing problems of newly acquired poverty and how to avoid being fitted for cement Manolos.

~~~oOo~~~

Reading challenges, read-a-thons and blogging link-ups.  Three things I love!  I participated in the following last Tuesday, but had already finished the post so I didn't add the graphic.  I know.  Forgive me. :O)  So I'm making it official!

Thanks to Keri Lynn at Our Pretty Little Girls for hosting this link-up!  (Actually, it's hosted on a baker's dozen or so of blogs, so I guess I'll have to rotate where the link goes each week.  That's actually a 'note to self' because sure as shootin' I'll forget.

Since this is the first 'official' link-up for me, I thought I'd add a little bit about how I found Tuesday Talk and why I've gone back.  So sit back and relax.  Get a drink if you're thirsty.  I'll wait.  (No worries, it won't be that long a story.)

Katherine at Katherine's Corner is running a multiple week series on bloggers who are 50+.  Since I myself am 50+, I think it's a swell idea!  But I have met some really nice women and bloggers in the last four weeks and I truly am grateful to have some new bloggy friends.  (Nothing against younger women and nothing against the men...it's just nice to know have some women acquaintances who know that when someone says "911" they are not necessarily referring to the emergency services telephone number.  But I digress...

One of the bloggers who was featured in the same week as me, is Michelle at Grammie Time.  When I visited her blog as part of the tour, I found out she linked up to "Tuesday Talk".  And, link-up aficionado that I am, I stalked followed her and the rest is history!  (Or is that herstory?)

(And I actually found another link up while I was visiting Tuesday Talk links, but that's a story for another day.)

Tuesday Bookish Post - Auguest 19, 2016

Thanks to Jenn for hosting Teaser Tuesday at her blog, Books and a Beat.

Thanks to Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea for hosting FCFP.

~~~oOo~~~

Tuesday Bookish Post - March 1, 2016

Thanks to Jenn for hosting Teaser Tuesday at her blog, Books and a Beat.

Thanks to Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea for hosting FCFP.

SYNOPSIS

Three years ago, Julia Jackson was a well to do young woman from Boston whose fiancé, Jonathon, was killed right before her eyes. Obsessed with finding the killer, a man whose face she saw only in a flash as he walked up and shot Jonathon, she leaves her family and her life behind. She starts a new life as ‘Jacks’ Jackson—a cigar smoking, dead eye, female Pinkerton agent…pretending to be a man. 

Now Allan Pinkerton needs Jacks to find the man who kidnapped the wife and son of a railroad official, David Boyd. Their only clues are the severed finger from the man’s wife, complete with wedding ring, and a map of the Qualla boundary, the Cherokee reservation in North Carolina.&nbsp

Jacks doesn’t like the way the whole thing sounds from the beginning. David Boyd isn’t important enough to target for a kidnapping. And why travel so far with two hostages?

But Pinkerton tells her that he believes the man responsible for the kidnapping worked with Jonathon’s murderer in a train robbery five years ago. Jacks agrees to go after the kidnapper with hopes of catching him before he can reach his home grounds.

Pinkerton insists that Jacks bring three men with her—Boyd, her new partner, and a Cherokee guide named Running Wolf, who’s always watching her, like he’s trying to figure it out.

Can Jacks catch the kidnapper with her secret—and her life—intact?

~~~oOo~~~

FIRST CHAPTER, FIRST PARAGRAPH

"Are you sure they're gonna come through here, Jacks?" Davey Hume asked for the tenth time.

"Positive."

Davey shook his head.  "I hope so, or Pinkerton's gonna have our asses!  If we let that gang stroll out of the Mercantile after they robbed it, after he told us they were gonna do it, we're gonna be close enough to dead to reach out and touch his whiskers!"

~~~oOo~~~

TEASER TUESDAY

 (this is from 45% on the Kindle, in Chapter 24)

"I believe in my gun and my brain.  After that comes my horse, dynamite, and a lucky guess, not necessarily in that order."

Running Wolf didn't laugh.  "Your spirit is hollow without a faith in things you cannot see or control.  How have you survived?"

Bookish Tuesdays - Jan 5 2016

Thanks to MizB for hosting Teaser Tuesday at her blog, A Daily Rhythm.

Thanks to Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea for hosting FCFP.

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!

~~~oOo~~~

(links to GoodReads)

Blurb:

Life is good for Kit Marshall. She's a staffer in D.C. for a popular senator, and she lives with an adoring beagle and a brainy boyfriend with a trust fund. Then, one morning, Kit arrives at the office early and finds her boss, Senator Langsford, impaled by a stainless steel replica of an Army attack helicopter. Panicked, she pulls the weapon out of his chest and instantly becomes the prime suspect in his murder.

Teaser:

"A burst of adrenaline propelled me into action.

I grabbed the Apache model with my right hand, 

Pulling with all my strength, The Apache model came out of his chest more easily than I had anticipated."

First Chapter, Fist Paragraph:

"Ascending from the underground depths of the Metro, I confronted the alabaster dome in the distance.  The sight never failed to leave me awestruck.  It was a imposing reminder of the city's fundamental purpose.  New York City has the Empire State Building, Paris the Eiffel Tower, and Washington, D.C., the Capitol Building.  The stillness of the morning on the hill was a rare gift.  Only a few ambitious politicos beat the nine o'clock cattle call, summoning over 10,000 congressional staffers to their lairs."

~~~oOo~~~

So, what do you think?

FCFP/Teaser Tuesday - Pale Highway by Nicholas Conley

Gabriel Schist is spending his remaining years at Bright New Day, a nursing home. He once won the Nobel Prize for inventing a vaccine for AIDS. But now, he has Alzheimer’s, and his mind is slowly slipping away.

When one of the residents comes down with a horrific virus, Gabriel realizes that he is the only one who can find a cure. Encouraged by Victor, an odd stranger, he convinces the administrator to allow him to study the virus.  Soon, reality begins to shift, and Gabriel’s hallucinations interfere with his work.

As the death count mounts, Gabriel is in a race against the clock and his own mind. Can he find a cure before his brain deteriorates past the point of no return?

~~~oOo~~

"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesdays" is a linkup hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea.

I'm going to use the first paragraph of the books prologue, because it is more ... evocative.  Let me show you what I mean....

"The patient had charcoal-black eyes, hard and cold, as if rounded chunks of volcanic rock and been shoved inside her eye sockets.  Her skin possessed a sickly white pallor, as if it had been sucked dry of all its nutrients and hung up on a clothesline.  Dark veins crawled over her body like wriggling snakes, pulsing with every unsteady heartbeat.  Her mouth hung open, and a pockmarked grey tongue hung uselessly over her lower lip.  Her bedridden form emitted the stench of necrotic flesh. 

Glenda Alvarez was 63 years old, young compared to the other residents.  Just last week she'd had her hair permed and her nails manicured.  The virus had hit fast."

~~~oOo~~~

"Teaser Tuesdays" is a linkup hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm.

This is from approximately 58% on the mobi file:

"If he died tomorrow, his nudity would be all they would remember, not the Nobel Prize, not the Schist vaccine.  No, his humiliation would be his legacy."

~~~oOo~~~

So, what do you think?  Too far out for you?  Not far enough?

~~~oOo~~~

Here's a little about the author:

Originally from California, Nicholas Conley has currently made his home in the colder temperatures of New Hampshire. He considers himself to be a uniquely alien creature with mysterious literary ambitions, a passion for fiction, and a whole slew of terrific stories he’d like to share with others. 

When not busy writing, Nicholas is an obsessive reader, a truth seeker, a sarcastic idealist, a traveler, and — like many writers — a coffee addict.

~~~oOo~~~

So, how did I come by this read, do you ask?  The book will be on tour (via Sage's Blog Tours) and I will post a review here on the porch this coming, Sunday, November 22, 2015.

Teaser Tuesday: Pane and Suffering by Cheryl Hollon

After Savannah’s father dies unexpectedly of a heart attack, she drops everything to return home to St. Petersburg, Florida, to settle his affairs–including the fate of the beloved, family-owned glass shop. Savannah intends to hand over ownership to her father’s trusted assistant and fellow glass expert, Hugh Trevor, but soon discovers the master craftsman also dead of an apparent heart attack.

As if the coincidence of the two deaths wasn’t suspicious enough, Savannah discovers a note her father left for her in his shop, warning her that she is in danger. With the local police unconvinced, it’s up to Savannah to piece together the encoded clues left behind by her father. And when her father’s apprentice is accused of the murders, Savannah is more desperate than ever to crack the case before the killer seizes a window of opportunity to cut her out of the picture. . .

~~~oOo~~~

TEASER

Puffing like an espresso machine, Amanda said, "It's all right.  Two trips take too much energy.  My aura has been weak since I heard the terrible news about Mr. Webb."  She made a beeline for the classroom.

~~~oOo~~~

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Cheryl Hollon now writes full-time after she left an engineering career of designing and building military flight simulators in amazing countries such as England, Wales, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, and India. Fulfilling the dream of a lifetime, she combines her love of writing with a passion for creating glass art. In the small glass studio behind her house in St. Petersburg, Florida, Cheryl and her husband design, create, and produce fused glass, stained glass, and painted glass artworks. Visit her online at http://cherylhollon.com, on Facebook

~~~oOo~~~

So, does this teaser pique your interest?  What do you think makes a good teaser quotation?

Be sure to come back tomorrow for my full review of this title!

Connecting to this link up: 

Teaser Tuesday - Rhyme of the Magpie by Marty Wingate

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. 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!

~~~oOo~~~

GoodReads

Teaser Tuesday/1st Chapter 1st Paragraph/Top Ten Tuesday

Every Tuesday, Bibliophile by the Sea hosts the First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where readers share the first paragraph or (a few) of a book s/he is reading or thinking about reading soon. Care to join us?  

The early morning sun spattered honeyed light over the village as Lucy steered off the road near the town's sole church.  Fromelles was like many of the rural communities Lucy passed en route from Paris, seemingly unremarkable aside from the blood-soaked history entrenched in the soil.

Lucy locked her car, headed across the lush fields where, within the earth, soldiers' remains have laid in wait for nearly one hundred years.  She beheld the red-brick perimeter walls of the unfinished cemetery, gaze drawn to the Cross of Remembrance.  it pulled her towards it, like a beacon beckoning.

Click on the cover to see the book on GoodReads.  I will post a review of Beyond Coincidence tomorrow, September 24th.

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!

- Click on the button above to go to the linkup!

"That would explain why he vanished," said Melody, so softly she might have been talking to herself, "I couldn't understand.  I thought he was still beside me.  And then he was gone...."

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. They love to share their lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week they will post a new Top Ten list. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

TOP TEN BOOKS ON MY FALL TBR LIST

1.  The Unexpected Earl by Philippa Jane Keyworth (review/interview posting 9/26)

2.  Montreal: Street Photography by Debra Schoenberger (review posting 9/30)

3.  Catwalk (An Animals in Focus Mystery #3) by Sheila Webster Boneham (review posting 10/1)

4.  Embellished to Death (Faith Hunter Scrap This Mystery #3) by Christina Freeburn (review/interview posting 10/1)

5.  The Heavens are Telling by B. D. Riehl (review posting 10/4)

6.  Fit to Be Dead by Nancy G. West (review posting  10/7)

7.  Lost Under a Ladder by Linda O. Johnston (review posting 10/8)

8.  Yakimali's Gift by Linda Covella (review posting 10/9)

9.  Captain Shelby by Jesse Giles Christiansen (review posting 10/10)

10.  A Tangled Web: Allan's Miscellany 1846 by Sandra Schwab (review posting 10/10)

Three things of note:

1.  I've got several books that I've already finished to be reviewed in this same time frame.

2.  Although I generally do enjoy the books I review, I'd like to fit in at least one "just for fun".

3.  Omigosh, I'd better GET READING!

Teaser Tuesday/First Chapter First Paragraph

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!

The Agincourt Bride by Joanna Hickson tells the story of Catherine of Valois, a Princess of France who eventually married Henry V of England.  Catherine was as much a pawn as a princess, to be used to further the cause of France.  One of the queen's lovers, the powerful Duke of Burgundy, was busy solidifying his position by marrying off the princes and princesses to relatives of his.  But his designs on Catherine were of a more sinister nature.

I invite you to return to the back porch tomorrow for my review of this book.

There was no other interaction between them, for Catherine's way of preserving her sanity was to withhold all communication ... Somehow while the devil was with her, she managed to keep control but, afterwards, anguish flowed from her like wine from a split barrel.

~~~oOo~~~

Every Tuesday, Bibliophile by the Sea hosts the First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where readers share the first paragraph or (a few) of a book s/he is reading or thinking about reading soon. Care to join us?

In Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy:  Four Women Undercover in the Civil War, Karen Abbott illuminates one of the most fascinating yet little known aspects of the Civil War: the stories of four courageous women—a socialite, a farmgirl, an abolitionist, and a widow—who were spies.

I'll be reviewing this book a week from Wednesday, on October 10, 2014.

In the town of Martinsburg (VA) on the lower tip of the (Shenandoah) Valley, a seventeen-year-old rebel named Belle Boyd sat by the windows of her wood-frame home, waiting for the war to come to her.  It was July 4 and the war was still new, only two and a half months old, but Belle - known by one young rival as "the fastest girl in Virginia or anywhere else for that matter" - had long been accustomed to things operating on her schedule, and at her whim.

~~~oOo~~~

These books both tell stories about actual historical events, but are eminently readable.

Teaser/First Chapter Tuesdays - Thread End

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!

p. 215

"You weren't ready for your mother and me to meet when she came into the shop the other day."

"You sound like we're going to a war zone rather than out to dinner."

~~~oOo~~~

Every Tuesday, Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where she shares the first paragraph or (a few) of a book she is reading or thinking about reading soon. Care to join us?

My selection for today is from the above book, "Thread End":

It was almost lunchtime on Friday, and I was pacing.  The museum exhibit I'd been anticipating for two months was finally opening that evening!  My boyfriend, Ted; my friend Rajani "Reggie" Singh; her husband, Manu; and I were all going together.  The guys weren't overly excited about the Padgett Collection textile exhibit, but they knew we were - and they were great guys, so they were taking us.  Reggie was library director for Tallulah Falls's one and only library, Manu was chief of police and Ted was his head detective.  I almost felt that we should be VIP guests, given the extra security Reggie and I would be bringing along.

Angus, my Irish wolfhound, could sense my excitement, and he paced with me.  I perched momentarily on one of the red club chairs that helped make up my embroidery shop's sit and stitch square, and he sat and placed his head on my lap.

"It's all right," I said soothingly as I scratched his head.  "I'm just excited about tonight.  Reggie will be here to see you soon.  Yes, she will!  She's bringing lunch!"

Another book in this series, "Thread on Arrival" was one of the first books I read when I discovered reading for myself again, and reading challenges.  It is also one of the first cozies to land on my shelf.

Come back next Monday for my review of "Thread End".

Teaser/First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesdays

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 copy of this book is in PDF format.  The teaser comes from page 5 of 163.)

The sun was setting, shrouding the construction area in shadows and making me shiver with apprehension. I didn’t believe the body found its way under that gravel pile by accident.

~~~oOo~~~

Every Tuesday, Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where I share the first paragraph or (a few) of a book she is reading or thinking about reading soon. Care to join us?

Hansum had been watching his younger self for about an hour when Arimus said,

"See, my boy, it's not so hard, and after a while it doesn't seem so odd."

The elder from the 31st century was right.  When Hansum arrived in his own past and saw his ten-year-old self playing in the commons of his 24th century home village, he got the oddest sensation.  He felt queasy and dizzy.  But as Arimus predicted, those sensations were soon replaced with a growing sense of what had made Hansum the you adult he no was.

"Self-knowledge, my boy, self-knowledge," Arimus explained, "You will go back in time and discover the whys and wherefores that made your present therefores."

Do either or both of these look interesting?  Come back on Thursday, May 29th, 2014 for my reviews of both these books!