Teaser Tuesday

by Carol3 Comments
TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given! Please avoid spoilers! My teaser: Up until then she was...I don't know how to explain it: extremely gifted and precocious, but on the whole a rather ordinary teenager. During the last year she was brilliant, getting top marks in every exam and so on, but it seemed as if she didn't have any soul. -186, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson I know I'm a day late. Sorry. Check out some other teasers and see if anything strikes you....
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The Heretic’s Daughter

by Carol2 Comments
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent Description: Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived. Kathleen Kent is a tenth generation descendent of Martha Carrier. She paints a haunting portrait, not just of Puritan New England, but also of one family's deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution.  My thoughts: This was an engrossing book for me, from beginning to end. Kent did a good job of exploring the family's dynamics...
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The Art of Compassion Giveaway

by Carol13 Comments
The Art of Compassion:  Stories of Music and Justice by Michael W. Smith, Martin and Anna Smith, Darlene Zschech, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Steven Curtis Chapman, Paul Baloche, Andy Park, Graham Kendrick, Stu Garrard, and Israel Houghton. Edited by Craig Borlase.  From the cover: There are two amazing forces that exist in the world: Compassion for those in need and Art that helps us see beyond ourselves. - Martin Smith What happens when musicians from around the world get together to dream, to write songs, to create an album and give away all the proceeds to the poorest of the world's poor? Challenged by the poverty he saw all over the world, musician Martin Smith of the band Delirious? gathered together twelve of today's most talented and respected Christian singer-songwriters, to write and record an album of songs with the direct aim of the relief of global poverty. This book is the record of the journeys that brought them there. My thoughts: This book...
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Running Hot

by Carol3 Comments
Running Hot by Jayne Ann Krentz From the jacket: Ex-cop Luther Malone, lifelong member of the secretive paranormal organization known as the Arcane Society, is waiting to meet Grace Renquist. Hired as an aura-reading consultant in the quest for a murder suspect, she's got zero field experience. She's from tiny Eclipse Bay, Oregon. She's a librarian, for heaven's sake. As for Grace, she's not expecting much, either, from Malone, who walks with a cane and isn't so good with a gun. Nice résumé for a bodyguard. But even before they reach their hotel in Maui - where they'll be posing as honeymooners - Grace and Luther feel the electric charge between them. Problem is, they need to remain vigilant day and night, because it soon becomes clear there's more going on here. Rogue sensitives - operatives for the underground group Nightshade - are pouring into the luxury resort as if there's a convention. While the pair's employers at Jones & Jones scramble to get them...
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The Old Man and the Sea

by Carol2 Comments
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway From the cover: The Old Man and the Sea is one of  Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal - a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in striking contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature. My thoughts: I was prepared to dislike this book. Most of the people I know are not Hemingway fans and 120 pages about catching a fish just didn't sound that great. I was suprised that I actually enjoyed it. I liked the writing style, you feel...
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Phantom Limb

by Carol10 Comments
Phantom Limb by Theresa Kishkan From the cover: Phantom Limb invites readers to explore culture and nature by looking at landscape and place through a series of historical lenses, ranging from natural history to family history to the broader notions of regional and human history. In her popular essay "month of wild berries picking" Theresa Kishkan reveals the extent to which native stories articulate the complexity and importance of rules that govern relationships between species. In essays such as "The One Currach Returning Alone" and "Well" she explores her affinity with Ireland, the weight of its history, the peace of its geography, the roads that lead to collective memory, or the magic of its wishing wells. Other travel essays remind us of the tolerance and diversity that new cultures elicit from us, while teaching us how bound we are to the soil and air of our homes. What resonates throughout this collection is a rich lyricism and a distinctive visceral imagery. Though...
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