Storm Front Readalong - Week 1

Welcome to week 1 of the Storm Front read along! Before getting into the questions,  I thought I would elaborate on why I decided to participate in this read along which is being hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings as part of RIP VI.

It is very unusual for me to reread a book, but this is in fact a reread. The major reason why I decided to join in this time even though I have already read the book is because in amongst the many other series I am reading this one seems to have fallen by the wayside. I originally read both this book and the second book in the series more than three years ago, but it took another year to read the third book and then I haven't read any more even though I had requested the fourth book from the library a number of times. In addition I have read a few short stories that appeared in various anthologies.

I must confess that normally I have a relatively good memory when it come to books, but I apparently didn't absorb a lot because apart from remembering certain characters like Murphy and Bob, I haven't really remember a lot about the plot. I also remembered certain characteristics more than actual characters.

1. What are your first impressions of our main character, Harry Dresden?

One thing I did remember is that I liked Harry. I liked that we had hard bitten detective trope but with the paranormal twist and the humour! Down on his luck in his business, in relation to money and most definitely not hitting home runs with the ladies! Whilst I don't think I would want to drive his car or live in Harry's house with Bob and Mister the cat but I love the idea of them!

So what is it that gives Harry the edge in investigating:

Wizardry is all about thinking ahead, about being prepared.. Wizards aren't really superhuman. We just have a leg up on seeing things more clearly than other people, and being able to use the extra information we have for our benefit. Hell, the word wizard comes from the same root as wise. We know things. We aren't any stronger or faster than anyone else. We don't even have all that much more going in the mental department. But we're god awful sneaky, and if we get the chance to get set for something, we can do some impressive things.

As a wizard, if you're ready to address a problem then it's likely that you'll be able to come up with something that will let you deal with it.

2. In the first section of the book we are introduced to a large cast of characters. Some in support of our main character and others who are involved in the multiple investigations with agendas unknown to us. Are there any of the these characters who stood out to you?

As much as I like the perpetually stressed police office Murphy, it really is difficult for me to go past Bob the sex obsessed skull! I love the back and forth between Harry and Bob and the fact that they really need each other to get ahead (no pun intended). I was kind of surprised at how far into this week's chapters we were before we met Bob! Here's part of his first appearance into the book:

"Tell you what," he said. "Let me out for a ride, and I'll tell you how to get out of it."

That made me wary. "Bob, I let you out once. Remember?"

He nodded dreamily, scraping bones on wood. "The sorority house. I remember."

I snorted, and started some water to boiling over one of the burners. "You're supposed to be a spirit of intellect. I don't understand why you're obsessed with sex."

Bob's voice got defensive. "It's an academic interest, Harry."

"Oh year? Well maybe I don't think it's fair to let your academia go peeping in other people's houses."

"Wait a minute. My academia doesn't just peep -"

I held up a hand. "Save it. I don't want to hear it."

He grunted. "You're trivializing what getting out for a bit means to me, Harry. You're insulting my masculinity."

"Bob," I said, "you're a skull. You don't have any masculinity to insult."

3. Did you ever watch the Syfy channel's Dresden Files TV adaption? If so did it effect how you approached the novel? Were there positive and/or negative differences that stood out to you?

I don't even know if this series was shown on TV here. I certainly don't recall seeing anything about it.

4. Any thoughts on Jim Butcher's magic system, Harry's Watcher, and/or the White Council?

I think that there is a lot more to find out about the world that Butcher is building up here. I like that not unlike Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series, the author has chosen very early on to make it clear that we are not just talking about wizards. I suspect (oh, alright I know) that this gives Butcher plenty of scope to keep on building onto the world thus preventing it from feeling too limited and giving a lot of freedom for future story lines.

I think that the events in Harry's past that have brought him to the attention of the White Council help give Harry a vulnerability that gives a real edge to the action. He knows that he is one step away from disaster a lot of the time and along with the reader is left treading a very fine line between potential 'doom' and certain 'doom'!

5. Lastly, Any guess on were Dresden's multiple plot threads will lead and/or any favorite scenes the first section of the book?

To guess where the final scenes are going would be cheating just a little bit!

In terms of favourite scenes, I really enjoyed the scene at McAnally's with Susan and the barely communicative barman Mac, and also the scene at the lake where Harry enticed Toots to help him out! Toot's enthusiasm about pizza had me smiling to myself:

"Pizza!" Toot cried, jubilant. "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!" His wings fluttered again, and I tried to blink the damned faery dust out of my eyes before I started sneezing.

"Faeries like pizza?" I asked.

"Oh, Harry," Toot said breathlessly. "Haven't you ever had pizza before?"

"Of course I have," I said.

Toot looked wounded. "And you didn't share?"

Click on the link at the top of the post to see Carl's thoughts and to find links to other people's posts about this first section of the book. I will be back next week with my thoughts about the second section of the book.

My dragon book...

Last week I was reading Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton. I visited my sisters house, and my nearly 4 year old  nephew saw the book in my bag and asked me what book is that. My answer - this is my dragon book! He proceeded to look through it. I think he was a bit disappointed that there were no pictures!

Fragile Things Readalong - Week 2

I was a little underwhelmed by the most of the reading during this second week of the Fragile Things readalong, hosted by Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings as part of RIP VI.

The Hidden Chamber - This is the second poem of the collection, and I liked it a lot more than the first one! In the introduction, Gaiman talked about being asked to come up with something gothic, and with an opening line of "Do not fear the ghosts in this house; they are the least of your worries." the tone is definitely set. At first I read it as a person telling another person about the house, but by the time I go to the end I had decided that it was actually a ghost telling the human. No idea if it is meant to be read that way or not.

Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire - pretty long title for a short story! This is a short story that Gaiman started years ago but it was rejected by the two people he showed it to. Fast forward twenty years or so and the story was reworked and published, winning a Locus award. Whilst I was left wondering what other hidden gems that Gaiman might have sitting around in his house, I am not sure that this was a gem for me! There were mythical creatures, seemingly haunted houses, a struggling author and more, but it just didn't quite come together for this reader!

The Flints of Memory Lane - This piece was written for an anthology of real life ghost stories. I think I missed the imagination!

Closing Time - This was my favourite of the four chapters to be read this week.Take an atmospheric drinking club, some almost strangers and mix in a story from long ago which features abandoned mansions and mysterious events and you have the ingredients for a perfect spooky story! When a young boy wants to be accepted by a group of older boys, how far will he go in accepting the challenges they set for him, and what will be the consequences for them all!

Looking forward to reading the next section of the book for next week's post.

Sunday Salon: Sylvester or The Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer

Rank, wealth and elegance are no match for a young lady who writes novels...


Sylvester, Duke of Salford, has exacting requirements for a bride. Then he encounters Phoebe Marlow, a young lady with literary aspirations, and suddenly life becomes very complicated. She meets none of his criteria, and even worse, she has written a novel that is sweeping through the ton and causing all kinds of gossip ... and he's the main character.

When a young woman feels slighted by a member of the ton, what else is she do but write an anonymously authored novel about how terrible he is - pompous, arrogant and dictatorial when it comes to the welfare of his young ward. She makes a thinly veiled attempt to hide the identity of the main characters - Sylvester, Duke of Salford.

Sylvester can be a bit pompous and aloof, always aware of his duty to his role and his family and particularly aware of his role as guardian of his young nephew. When he decides that he needs to find a wife, he is not looking for love and passion. He is looking for suitability more than anything, so he makes a list of the eligible females in the ton. Running the list of names past his mother, she suggests that he speaks to his godmother, who in turn adds one more name - that of her granddaughter Phoebe Marlow.

Phoebe lives with her father and her very overbearing stepmother who thinks that she is too spirited and must be tamed. When Phoebe hears that her father is bringing Sylvester home with a view to matrimony she panics. Her stepmother insists that she will behave properly and so the Phoebe that Sylvester finds is a somewhat insipid disappointment and he is determined that he will leave as soon as he possible can. However, Phoebe is  even more determined, and with the help of her childhood friend Tom she decides to escape to her grandmother's house in London.

What follows is a series of adventures that starts with an accident that leaves Tom with a broken leg, Sylvester being snowed in at the same inn as Tom and Phoebe, and ends with Tom and Phoebe being kidnapped by Sylvester's ditsy sister in law and her new husband on a ill thought out escape to France.

Along the way, Phoebe proves to Sylvester over and over that she is anything but the insipid miss he thought she was. She is always willing to point out his faults to him but he finds himself becoming more and more intrigued by her. That is until he figures out that she is the author of the book that has the ton abuzz!

I liked Sylvester a lot! Yes, he was pomp and arrogant but I am not sure what else to expect when you have been bought up to be a duke. We did however get to see his devotion to family, and quite often he didn't realise his own faults. He didn't like having them pointed out to him, but then again, who does.

Phoebe was a harder character to pin down for me. I don't think I ever really got why it was that Phoebe felt so strongly about Sylvester that she could target him in her book. She also was quite impetuous which led her to bring both herself and her family into situations that otherwise could have been avoided.

The path to true love never runs smooth, misunderstandings abound and there were times where I wondered if our hero and heroine were ever going to realise their feelings and act upon them. Ably assisted by a vibrant set of secondary characters including Tom and Phoebe's grandmother, the reader is taken from one adventure to the next. Little do our main characters realise it is the adventure of love!

Rating 4.5/5

Thanks to Sourcebooks for the review copy.

Weekend Cooking: Neil Gaiman on writing and cooking

The ingredients of the story I had in the back of my head combined in ways that were better than I had hoped when I began. (Writing's a lot like cooking. Sometimes the cake won't rise, no matter what you do, and every now and again the cake tastes better than you ever could have dreamed it would.)

Neil Gaiman talking about writing the short story A Study in Emerald as explained in the introduction in Fragile Things which I am currently reading as part of the RIP VI readalong.

This particular mix won the Hugo Award in 2004 for the Best Short Story, so he obviously got the mix just right.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

BBAW: No guilt blogging

It's the end of BBAW for this year and we all made it to the end!  I always tend to feel a bit tired at the end of these kinds of events!

Today's prompt is:

The world of blogging is continually changing. Share 3 things you are essential tried and true practices for every blogger and 1-3 new trends or tools you’ve adapted recently or would like to in the future.

I am not really 100% sure what I want to say today that hasn't already been said! A bit of reiteration never hurt though so here goes.

Probably the most important practice is commenting. Yes, I know it takes time, and I know that it is often easy to feel overwhelmed by being 'behind' but the truth is that commenting is probably the best way to connect with new to you bloggers.

I do think that commenting is a bit of a habit, and like all habits it is easy to make a new bad habit and hard to break it but not so easy to create a new good habit and easy to lose it.

Over the years I  have developed a few strategies to help with commenting so I thought that I would share a couple of them here. It is however important to decide what suits you and what works for you! These helped me when I felt like I should be commenting more than I was.

• Sort your feed reader (Bloglines/Googlereader etc) into various categories. I have them sorted into Aussie Bloggers, Historical Fiction Bloggers, Must Read, Book Reviewers and others. If I can get through my Aussie blogger folders and the must reads then I am happy with my blogging day. On a really good day I get through everything!
• If you need to hit "Mark all as read" in your feed reader, then do it! (I feel guilty about this one sometimes but it will relieve unnecessary pressure)
• If you have limited time, set yourself a target. For example, if you only have half an hour to spend blog hopping, say that you need to leave 5 comments in that time.
• Make it easy as possible for other people to comment on your blog, and then return the favour when they do so.

What if the dreaded blogger's block happens? Again, a couple of strategies that have worked for me in the past.

• Most of the time I spend time blog hopping and then decide to write my own post with the left over time. Sometimes you need to put your own blog first!
• Try something new! This year for example I started participating in the Weekend Cooking meme hosted by Bethfish Reads. You might think that is because I have a passion for cooking, but I don't really. I am a functional cook at best. What I enjoy is looking for another post that may or may not be book related!
• Read some of your own old posts. I sometimes take half an hour to have a look through my archives and it gives me a lot of enjoyment when I do it. Often I get a little surprised at what I have posted about, or what I haven't posted about!
• It's okay for your blog to change and evolve. If my blog was exactly the same as it was when I first started I am pretty sure I would have quit ages ago.
• Preschedule posts. If you are feeling inspired, write a few posts and have them sitting there ready to go on days when you aren't feeling quite so inspired
• You don't have to post every day, or a certain number of times per week etc!

I relieved a lot of the pressure that I was feeling by realising that I didn't have to review every single book that I read. Oh, sweet freedom. It does come back to haunt me when I realise that I would like to read a review of a book that I read a couple of years ago, but that is a small price to pay for the lack of blogging stress.

Decide what you can and can't do and don't feel guilty if you can't do more! There are always lots of new and shiny things coming along that can be distracting. Some examples are Google+, Klout, Pinterest, Tumblr and more! Personally, I have a pretty full schedule with my blogging, Facebook and Twitter and for the most part I am happy to keep it to that. I know that I am missing out on things by not being on some of these other sites, but like everyone else I have other responsibilities that need to be a priority for me. I am all for no guilt blogging!

At the end of the day blogging is meant to be fun. If it is becoming a chore that you dread having to do, then it is clearly not working for you and you might need to think about making some changes!

BBAW: Mini interviews

On Tuesday I offered up the opportunity to participate in mini-interviews for those people who had missed out on interview swap partners!


Here are the answers of those people who responded to the offer! First up, Kelly from The Written World

What is your blog called? What was the inspiration behind the name?
My blog is called The Written World. The inspiration is simply it sounded good at the time and I couldn't think of anything else.

What kind of books do you like to read?
I would say that fantasy is my favourite genre, but I also enjoy historical fiction, non-fiction, and try to read as much Canadian books as possible because I live there. Otherwise, I will branch out into other genres if books sound interesting.

What is your favourite recent read?
In September I have read two books that will make my best of list for the end of the year: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.

Where is your favourite place to read?
In bed. I put a pile of books in easy reach, arrange the pillows just so, and am set for a while!

E-book, paper book or both?
Both. I always said it would just be paper, but I have learned the benefits of an e-reader in the last few months.

Share one thing about yourself or your blog that your readers might not know.
My blog used to be called 'Kailana's Written World'. And, I still go by Kailana in comments and things. Kailana was a name I made up when someone I know needed a name for a web comic and then I just borrowed it as my nickname online. I have considered many times since just going by Kelly, but my name is so popular and I can think of about 5 bloggers that share it, so I stick with the original name. I like to be different. :)

Next up - Pamela from I Read. Do You? (great blog name!)

What is your blog called? What was the inspiration behind the name?
My blog is called "I read. Do you?" Choosing a blog name was a bit of a challenge for me because I really wanted to convey my blog's purpose in one short title.

What kind of books do you like to read?
I like to read the great classic works of literature but my heart belongs to the travel narrative genre. Since I can't afford to travel the world, I live vicariously through travel books. (Me too)

What is your favourite recent read?
My most favorite recent read combined both of my favorite genres! I recently read "Travels with Charley" by Steinbeck as part of the Classic Circuit blog hop.

Where is your favourite place to read?
I have a wonderfully large over-stuffed chair that sits in front of window facing the sun. During the summer I can open the window and smell the jasmine planted there. I love it.

E-book, paper book or both?
I steadfastly hold to the paper books. I do own a reader and have tried to read e-books, but the e-books don't hold the same charm.

Share one thing about yourself or your blog that your readers might not know.
Well, it's not really a secret, but I am a mom who homeschools her children. We have been schooling at home since 2005.

Next I welcome Pam from I Write in Books! Pam is a regular commenter here! Thanks Pam!

What is your blog called? What was the inspiration behind the name?
I'm at I Write In Books since I'm a hopeless dogear-er (is that a word??) and note writer. I really don't deface my books and often will take notes in a notebook or on stickies, these days, instead of actually writing IN the books but the name remains.

What kind of books do you like to read?
It depends on my mood. I like well-written, "literary", sometimes absurdist, off beat books but I do occasionally love my campy mysteries and good, fun YA too.

What is your favourite recent read?
I'm in the middle of Philippa Gregory's Cousin's War series which I love a lot. I'm not sure I can count it was my favorite, though, so let's see. Oh! Going Bovine by Libba Bray is probably my top pick, these days.

Where is your favourite place to read?
Anytime, anywhere! I think, these days, when things are so busy, I like my hot tea in my cafe at the bookstore. I like commotion but I like to watch it not be in it. I don't do well reading in quiet.

E-book, paper book or both?
Oh, paper. I know it's not green but I can't help myself.

Share one thing about yourself or your blog that your readers might not know.
I am not, generally, a big t.v. or movie fan but I'm a sucker for movies made by the Coen brothers. How's that for random trivia? :O)

This next blogger is a relatively newbie, having just started her blog earlier this year! Introducing Joy from Joy's Book Blog

What is your blog called? What was the inspiration behind the name?
Joy's Book Blog. Kind of obvious, but what isn't clear is that I actually went to a great deal of work, submitting lists of names to a bunch of friends and family. Nothing really popped, so I eventually decided that the straightforward name had stellar Search Engine Optimization characteristics, so I would go with that.

What kind of books do you like to read?
A wide variety -- history (fiction and non), fantasy, romance, self help, cookbooks, YA

What is your favourite recent read?
I just devoured All-American Girl by Meg Cabot. So much fun!

Where is your favourite place to read?
The bathtub

E-book, paper book or both?
Lots of paper (bathtub, remember?) but I've started using e-books for books that I work through like writing books and self help books with lots of exercises.

Share one thing about yourself or your blog that your readers might not know.
I grew up in a small Mississippi River town 30 miles south of Hannibal -- and read lots of Mark Twain before leaving for college

Finally, welcome to Bybee from Naked Without Books!

What is your blog called? What was the inspiration behind the name?
My blog is called Naked Without Books. I was inspired to name it that because I was moving to another country and I had to be without my collection for a few weeks. I felt so vulnerable.

What kind of books do you like to read?
I like early to mid 20th century fiction, Mark Twain, Biographies, History and have a love for GWTW, Little Women and the Little House books that borders on insanity.

What is your favourite recent read?
My favorite recent read is My Thoughts Be Bloody, which is about Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth's family.

Where is your favourite place to read?
My favorite place to read is outdoors at a cafe table.

E-book, paper book or both?
Both e-book and paper book. Absolutely!

Share one thing about yourself or your blog that your readers might not know.
I first heard of blogging back in 2004 when I was heavily into frugality websites. Blogging was presented as a free pastime, so being short of money, I went for it. I'm shocked that I'm still at it 7.5 years later.

BBAW: Readers

Welcome to Day 4 of BBAW! Here's the daily topic for today:

Book bloggers blog because we love reading. Has book blogging changed the way you read? Have you discovered books you never would have apart from book blogging? How has book blogging affected your book acquisition habits? Have you made new connections with other readers because of book blogging? Choose any one of these topics and share your thoughts today!

My reading has definitely changed as a result of blogging. It's hard to believe that when I started blogging I didn't really read any fantasy, very few short stories and I didn't read a lot of YA (although to be the fair there wasn't anywhere near as much out there).

I thought though that today I would talk about more recent changes to my reading related habits - short stories.

In the past I would read anthologies only if one of the stories in a book was part of an ongoing series. It used to annoy me because often there were stories from other series also in the anthology and because I couldn't not read the whole book (it's the completist in me!)  I would be reading series out of order. Other than that I most certainly didn't make any effort to read any short stories and I was quite content with that!

I am trying to think how my short story odyssey began this year.

I think it was that I started talking to a blogger on twitter (I am thinking it might have been Sean) who then posted about the Galactic Suburbia podcast which is where I heard about Twelfth Planet Press who have published three (and a half) of the collections that I have read so far this year. I have enjoyed them all, and I have already pre ordered the next three collections that are due to come out later in the year.

In addition I have also discovered the awesome short stories of Margo Lanagan and I have a couple of different collections/anthologies sitting on my book shelf waiting to be read!

One thing I haven't yet figured out is how to count and record the short stories that I read online for example, or that I listen to on podcasts. When I read a complete collection or anthology I just count it as a book read, but when it is single stories I haven't quite worked that out! How do you do this?

I would encourage everyone to occasionally follow the links as you never know where you might end up and how your reading may well be changed as a result!

Click on the images below to go to the reviews of the short story collections that I have read so far this year.

And the best thing about all of the collections I have read so far - all the authors are Australian and with the exception of the Sprawl anthology they are all female authors!

R U Ok? Day

I am taking a break from BBAW posts to talk about RU Ok? Day.

What is R U Ok Day?

It’s a national day of action which aims to prevent suicide by encouraging Australians to connect with someone they care about and help stop little problems turning into big ones.

On that day we want everyone across the country, from all backgrounds and walks of life, to ask family, friends and colleagues: "Are you OK?".

Staying connected with others is crucial to our general health and wellbeing. Feeling isolated or hopeless can contribute to depression and other mental illnesses, which can ultimately result in suicide. Regular, meaningful conversations can protect those we know and love.

It's so simple. In the time it takes to have a coffee, you can start a conversation that could change a life.

Whilst I don't shout it from the rooftops, I also don't really keep it a secret that I walk the line pretty close to depression some of the time, and there are times when I cross that line. Most of the time I try to keep on a mask that I am coping but it is not always true. Other times, it is too hard to keep it all in and it just has to be expressed in some way or another.

Sometimes life just becomes too much. The loneliness, the money troubles, weight, the past, the present and often what I perceive the future to be. I have never seriously contemplated suicide but I know how bad I feel sometimes - how isolated and how without hope - and it isn't that much of a stretch to see how people get to a place where they just can't see any other way out. Maybe for some of those people who are at that point, just one person asking R U Ok might make all the difference.

So today, ask someone R U Ok?

As for me....today I am okay. Thanks for asking!

BBAW: Circles of Community (aka blogging as a venn diagram)

Today we are talking about community again, specifically about finding your place in the blogging community.

The world of book blogging has grown enormously and sometimes it can be hard to find a place. Share your tips for finding and keeping community in book blogging despite the hectic demands made on your time and the overwhelming number of blogs out there. If you’re struggling with finding a community, share your concerns and explain what you’re looking for–this is the week to connect!

When I have been thinking about what I wanted to write today, my mind kept on coming back to circles and so that is what I am going to blog about today - the circles of community within the book blogging world. This is a very different post to the one that I thought I would write when I started thinking about this topic a couple of days ago!

Events like BBAW are fantastic at increasing the sense of community which is a great thing. I know from personal experience that I always find many new to me blogs during events to this. Sometimes they are relatively new bloggers, but other times they have been blogging for years and our paths just haven't crossed before.

The thing is though, the book blogging community has grown exponentially over the years. When I started blogging nearly six years ago there was a vibrant community and most people connected in some way or another. These days though there is really no way that you can meaningfully connect with every blogger out there, or at least there is no way that I could, because there are just so many awesome blogs out there!

My tip for community relates to forming and participating in smaller circles of community within the community. There are a couple of different ways for this to happen.

Firstly, if you are a niche blogger, look for other bloggers who share your interests. If you really love romance and you are going to blog predominantly about romance, look for other romance bloggers. If fantasy is your thing, or poetry, or GLBT, look for others who you know that you will be able to start interact with by leaving comments about books you have both read, participating in events like readalongs or blog hops etc. That doesn't mean to say that you shouldn't read blogs outside of your niche, just that you are more likely to find people with similar interests.

This is sometimes harder if you don't blog exclusively or predominantly in one genre which is where I find myself! At times I find myself thinking that I don't quite fit into the any "community" simply because I read widely across genres. Some days  I feel kind of on the periphery of the romance and fantasy communities and at times wonder about my place in the historical fiction community! The thing is though, that actually reflects my own issues which is probably an important thing to remember. The one thing that you bring to blogging is yourself!

Another circle of community might be to look for bloggers who live in the same area as you. For me, this has meant finding ways to connect with other Australian bloggers whenever I can. Try organising to meet up with people if they are close enough. For example, this year I met up with a group of Sydney bloggers, attempted to organise a get together with Melbourne bloggers, have shared coffee and meals with Bree from All the Books I Can Read and a couple of other local bloggers.  There is nothing more interesting than chatting blogging and books with someone who shares your passion!

Is there something missing in your local area? Recently I noticed that a group of Perth bloggers have set up a project to try and get more authors to visit Perth! The project is called Perth YA Fans Unite, and I am willing to bet that not only will the project raise the profile and hopefully achieve their aims, but some friendships will be formed and strengthened through the process.

Keep an eye out for local events and see if you can find other bloggers who are attending. Meet up for coffee or at arrange to meet up even if it is just to sit together. As much as I loved the author events that I attended at the recent Melbourne Writers Festival, my highlight of the weekend was getting to know Lisa from ANZ Litlovers.

So what if you don't have bloggers living near you? Perhaps your circle might include people who you see regularly on Twitter? If they keep the same hours as you on a regular basis maybe start interacting with them!

One of the most important circles that you can concentrate on are those people who you have already formed relationships with. For me, these are the people who I have become friends with, who started blogging about the same time as me, the people who comment regularly on my blog. If you find yourself thinking about emailing someone for any reason - do it! You never know, that one simple contact that you make could make their day!

At the end of the day, the only way to extend your circle of community is to reach out. Your effort might not always be reciprocated, but by the same token, you might find someone who is just as eager to extend their community as you are! One thing though, if you do have an established circle, don't forget to let new people in. We should be aiming for inclusion not exclusivity!

So there you have my theory on circles of community. Are there other circles that I should have included?

Library Loot: September 14 to 20

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Claire is hosting Mr Linky this week!

My loot is as follows:

Storm Front by Jim Butcher - This is going to be a reread for me, but I kind of stalled on the series so I am hoping that the RIP VI readalong is going to kick start my reading of the series again.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman - Another RIP VI readalong. I have already posted my thoughts about the first part of the book.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - Will this be the lending period when I finally read this book?

A Lady of Persuasion by Tessa Dare - I don't know what happened to this book. It was in transit between two branches for about two weeks. I went in and asked them to look for it and it showed up a couple of days later.

Imperial Highness by Evelyn Anthony - There really isn't a lot of fiction about Catherine the Great around, so when some people were chatting about this series on Goodreads it seemed like a good idea to get it ILL'ed to me.

Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville - Been waiting for this one for a while.

BBAW: Mini interviews

Last year I came up with a plan to host some mini-interviews because I thought my proposed swap had fallen through! This year though, I decided to do it again just because it was a lot of fun.

So, here's the deal.

If you didn't get to sign up for a BBAW blogger interview swap, and you are regretting that decision, answer some or all of the following questions in the comments, and over the next couple of days I will put the answers up in a series of posts. Click on the link to see some examples of what the posts looked like last year

What is your blog called? What was the inspiration behind the name?

What kind of books do you like to read?

What is your favourite recent read?

Where is your favourite place to read?

E-book, paper book or both?

Share one thing about yourself or your blog that your readers might not know.

Don't forget to check out my interview with Cass from Bonjour, Cass!, my answers to her questions and importantly to come back in the next few days to see the various posts!

BBAW Interview swap - Welcome Bonjour, Cass!

Today it is Interview Swap day and I am thrilled to welcome Cass from Bonjour, Cass! to my little corner of the blogosphere!


Your blog name is Bonjour, Cass, but you are not French! What was the inspiration behind your blog title? (I am currently a bit obsessed with all things French!)

I once had a pet unicorn who was French, and all she could say was "Bonjour, Cass!" (Even when we said goodbye. It was all very confusing.) I decided to honor her memory by calling my blog Bonjour, Cass!

Okayyyy, maybe that's not all true. The real reason is that I couldn't think of anything else to call my blog, and Bonjour, Cass! was the first thing that came to mind. It took me two weeks to think of THAT, so imagine how long a title that actually made since would have taken!

My story about the unicorn is way better. Lets go with that one.

What's the best book you have read recently and why should we all read it?

I'm a big non fiction reader, and I tend to get into these “I must know everything about ____” kicks where I have to read about one thing until I know everything I could possibly know about the topic. Earlier this year I was really into biographies and cultural histories about Old Hollywood. Currently I’m really into former US President Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal. So, the best book I’ve read recently is Nixonland by Rick Perlstein, but it’s like 900 pages of political historical goodness and I really doubt I could convince most folks to read the book, despite how UTTERLY AWESOME it is.

The best book I’ve read recently that won’t put non-US Presidential history nerdis to sleep is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, a dystopian novel about a time in the future where everyone avoids the harsh reality of every day life by entering a virtual reality world called OASIS. It’s an adventure story with amazing world building and lively characters and jokes that made me laugh out loud.

You have been shortlisted for Best GLBT Lit blog. Congratulations! What was your reaction when you got the news?

Thank you! I’m incredibly excited and honored to have been nominated. My instant reaction was: HOW CAN I FIND GLITTERLY UNICORNS TO GIVE TO EVERYONE SO THEY’LL VOTE FOR ME?? My next reaction was: wow this is great! AND TERRIFYING.

You are involved in a number of events in the blogging world (NerdsHeartYA, Indie Lit Awards as a couple of examples). What is the best thing about events like this?

I really like lists, so I’m going to write a list in answer to this question:

1. I get to have an excuse to chat with some of my favorite bloggers
2. There are tons of new-to-me books I discover through nominations for the awards
3. Sometimes people refer to me as Director or Judge and it makes me really happy. Much easier than changing my name.

When you are not reading or blogging what else do you like to do?

I’m trying to convince my cat to roll over on command. We already mastered “sit,” so I think it’s just a matter of time.

Beyond this, I’m brushing up on my trivia, marathoning some show or another on Netflix (right now it’s Buffy), searching for the perfect pair of vintage shoes (I guess all the women with good shoe sense were a size 7 back then?), and hitting the streets of Boston on a quest for the perfect strawberry martini.

BBAW: Community

Welcome to the first day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2011. This week's theme is Cultivating a Community of Bloggers and Readers and today's post topic is:

While the awards are a fun part of BBAW, they can never accurately represent the depth and breadth of diversity in the book blogging community. Today you are encouraged to highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you. They can be your mentors, a blogger that encouraged you to try a different kind of book, opened your eyes to a new issue, made you laugh when you needed it, or left the first comment you ever got on your blog. Stay positive and give back to the people who make the community work for you!

Today I thought I would spotlight a few bloggers for different reasons.

Blogger I would love to send a bunch of flowers and some chocolates to:

Zibilee from Raging Bibliomania  for her faithful support of my blog and constant comments, especially when I put up posts which no-one else seems to find interesting! Thanks again Zibilee!

Blogger who I would love to have a cup of coffee or three with

Beth Fish from BethFishReads.com. Pretty sure we could have a good old chinwag that might last quite some time.

Blogger who I have had coffee with but will hopefully do so many more times in the future

Bree from All the Books I can Read. One of the joys of being on Twitter is that over the last year or so I have met book bloggers and tweeps who live really close to me! We've met up quite a few times since then and I look forward to continuing to do so!

Blogger who likely doesn't know I exist but who I would love to chat books with

Julie from Booking Mama always posts about books that I think I would love to read!

Blogger who influences me the most in terms of adding the most books to my TBR list

This honour goes to Sarah from Reading the Past. She not only reviews lots of really interesting sounding historical fiction, but when she posts some of the upcoming releases I have been known to just add the whole list to my TBR list!

Blogger who I have known the longest, who I chat to all the time and who needs to come and stay in my spare room!

Kelly from The Written World.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are a ton of other bloggers who I could highlight, and feel a little bit bad that I haven't but you have to draw the line somewhere! Besides, I would have had to have thought of even more categories!

Have you shared about some of your favourite bloggers as part of BBAW?

Fragile Things Readalong - Week 1

Over the next 8 weeks a group of participants in RIP VI are also going to be participating in a couple of readalongs in conjunction with the challenge. The first of these readalongs to get started is Fragile Things, a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman.

The idea is that over the course of the 8 weeks each participant will read four of the short stories/poems and comment on them accordingly. Below are my thoughts on this week's reads.

Introduction - I must confess that as I saw the list of items to be read I was a little perplexed! I do love reading where the inspiration for particular stories came from, so from this perspective I was happy to be reading it, but before you actually read the stories didn't really feel right! It was a lovely surprise then to find that hidden inside the introduction is a story - The Mapmaker. I have read a couple of Neil Gaiman books before (not nearly enough though) but no short stories. I have also heard him speak on podcast interviews etc, so in the story I could clearly hear his voice as though he was reading to us.

In the Introduction there is quite a lot of name-dropping. To be fair though, if I happened to end up in a room with Neil Gaiman at some point in time I am pretty sure I would tell anyone who listens! Of the stories that we read this week, I really liked the way he described that the story October in the Chair came about.

I will be sure to be revisiting the intro as we read through the book!

Having said that it felt a bit odd, I think having read the introduction actually gave me more of a clue as to what I was looking for in

A Study in Emerald -Whilst I am familiar with Sherlock Holmes in a pop culture reference kind of way, I really haven't read anything from HP Lovecraft. These two different styles provided inspiration for this story which features the investigation of a prince who is one of the favourite nephews of Queen Victoria who....well, I don't think I should say much more. I really liked that the narrative travelled forward in what seemed like a very straight forward linear fashion and then, wham, the story was changed and then again at the end!


The Fairy Reel - I read across a lot of genres but poetry is one of the ones that I do neglect! I read this three times and can't decide if I didn't like it because it isn't that great a poem, or if I just don't get it because I am not a poetry read. Given that it is written by Neil Gaiman and read by, well, me, I think it is only fair to go with me being the one to blame in this scenario!

October in the Chair - Of the reading for this week, this is my favourite story! I have long been a fan of the story within a story concept, but I am not sure that I would have thought that it was possible to have two fully realised stories in a short story like this. The story starts with the months of the year coming together for what appears to be a semi-regular meeting, each personified with strong personality traits and identities. There are procedures to be followed (some of the months are more concerned with the importance of these than others) with each story expected to tell the others a story that they haven't heard before. The nested story is of a young boy who is known as Runt in his family and who decides to run away and ends up in the local graveyard. There are clear correlations between this nested part of the story and the story that Gaiman gave us in The Graveyard Book, and he acknowledges that this story was written with that then future book in mind.

There is a Mr Linky over at Stainless Steel Droppings where you can find links to other thoughts about these four books. Come back this time next week for discussion of four more stories from this collection.

Sunday Salon: Book Blogger Appreciation Week

This week is going to be a busy blogging week, mostly due to Book Blogger Appreciation Week.

We are very excited at Historical Tapestry because we made the shortlist for Best Historical Fiction blog! Wooo-hoooo. We have made the shortlist before (in fact, three out of the last four years) but never won so fingers crossed! The other two blogs (Medieval Bookworm and Passages to the Past) are both blogs I love to read though so they would be deserved winners too!

During this week I will be posting the daily topics (or at least that is the plan) plus my normal posts so there might be a few more posts than normal. Later today, for example, I will be posting my first post for the Fragile Things readalong which is being run as part of RIP VI. I am also planning to do the mini-interviews that I did last year, so keep an eye out for that post on Tuesday (I think!)

The theme for BBAW this year is "Cultivating a Community of Bloggers and Readers" and I would encourage book bloggers everywhere to participate in events like Book Blogger Appreciation Week because it does do help with just that - cultivating community and with feeling a part of that community. Events like this do really make you realise just how big the book blogosphere has become because I always find lots of new to me bloggers during events like this. Another good reason to participate is just because it is a lot of fun! It's not too late to sign up to participate this year if you haven't already done so!

Several weeks ago now I declared that I was going to start including my current and future reads at the end of each Sunday Salon. I have just realised that I completely forgot to do this on my last three Sunday Salon posts. I guess I just got carried away with the topics I was posting about!

Currently reading:

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman for the RIP VI readalong. My first post about this book will go up later today and My Husband's Sweethearts by Bridget Asher.

Up next:


Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna, Empire of Silver by Conn Iggulden or Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton.

Weekend Cooking: Kings of Pastry DVD

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Paris has been calling my name over and over and over again! Given that there is no way I am getting to Paris anytime soon you would think I would stop torturing myself but apparently not! Kings of Pastry is the very best kind of torture not only because of the locations and it's intrinsic Frenchness, but also because of the amazing sounding and looking food as well!

Kings of Pastry has been featured in a couple of Weekend Cooking posts. The first time I recall seeing it was when the host of Weekend Cooking, Bethfish Reads, posted about it a while ago. At that time, I checked the library catalogue and they didn't have it, but more recently someone else posted about it (and I apologise but I can't remember who that was) and this time, voila, it was on the catalogue so I requested it straight away!

For those of you who may not have heard about it before Kings of Pastry is about the chefs who compete to become Meiulleur Ouvrier de France (MOF), which basically is the Best Craftsmen in France. The competition is run every four years and aims to recognise those craftsmen who are the best of the best of the best. In this case the competition for pastry makers, but there are MOF competitions in many other trades.

The film follows three of the sixteen competitors as they perfect their designs and recipes to come up with amazing, amazing creations. The key to success, as the judges say, is that the competitor must be ready, not only with their ideas and recipes, but also to face three gruelling long days in unfamiliar environs, with weather conditions that they cannot predict (important because sugar behaves differently depending on humidity and heat for example) and knowing that reputations and futures could well be on the line. These men devote years in trying to get everything right, trying to become one of the few people who are entitled to call themselves MOFs and to wear the all important tricolor collar that denotes their status. There is no one winner for the competition. At the end of it, the panel judges which of the competitors has displayed the necessary skill, the necessary readiness, to be worth of the honour of the collar.

Many of the spun sugar components are so fragile that it doesn't take much for the whole creation to come crashing down. Here are a couple of examples of the types of creations:

The craftmanship is amazing! For example, in the second image above, the flowers and the ribbon are both made from spun sugar.

I know that I don't have the skill to even attempt one of these desserts or cakes, let alone having to make more than 40 in the space of three days. Heck, I don't even think I have the imagination to begin thinking about what such intricate pieces would look like if it was up to me to design them!

If anything, I would have loved to have been able to get closer views of all of the amazing creations, but this was the first time in history that the MOF judges allowed outsiders into the competition and so there were very strict rules about where they could shoot from etc so that they didn't get in the way of the competitors and cause any accidents - they happen enough on their own without having the competitors fall over a cameraman.

If you like reality TV cooking shows, if you enjoy watching mounting tension and drama unfolding, and if you love looking at jaw droppingly intricate and beautiful foodie creations, then this is a DVD that you may really enjoy.

Here are two clips. The first one is the trailer and the second a short section of the film where one of the contestants talks about his chocolate creation.












Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Second Chance at the Sugar Shack by Candis Terry

Kate Silver’s back in town, and her dead mother just won’t leave her alone.


Kate usually spends her days dressing Hollywood A-listers, but after her estranged mother dies she finds herself elbow-deep in flour in her parents’ bakery in Deer Lick, Montana. She thought she’d left small town life far, far behind, but it seems there are a few loose ends.


The boy she once loved, Deputy Matt Ryan, is single and sexy and still has a thing for her – and handcuffs.


Her mother, who won’t follow the white light, is determined to give maternal advice from beyond the grave.


And somehow Kate’s three-day stay has, well – extended. She never planned to fill her mother’s pie-baking shoes – she prefers her Choos, thank you very much. But with the help of a certain man in uniform, Kate quickly learns that sometimes second chances are all the more sweet.

There's only one reaction when you suddenly realise that you actually only have one day before e-galley expires, you haven't even transferred it onto your e-reader yet and it can't be downloaded again! Panic!! Or maybe there is really a second reaction - decide that you are going to start reading it at 10pm on a Sunday night and you will just push hard to finish it the next day and hope that you get it finished before zero hour.

Fortunately for me, this is the kind of book that you can start at 10pm at night and just keep on reading and suddenly it is 1am and you have to get up in 5 hours but you close the now finished book with a contented sigh!

Kate Silver is stylist to the stars - country stars, pushy starlets  - you name it she tells them what to wear and when and can name drop with the best of them! She's worked hard to get to where she is and she needs to work twice as hard to stay there.

When her mother dies, Kate returns to the small town she escaped from 10 years before. She couldn't get out of Deer Lick fast enough not even to say goodbye to anyone, especially after a terrible argument with her mother, and now she is not in such a hurry to get back again, except she knows that her dad needs her. The other reason why she is a bit apprehensive about going back to town - the chance that she might run into her ex, Matt Ryan. She figures, though, that he will have let himself go so it shouldn't be a problem.

Matt Ryan has, however, done anything but let himself go. He is now a very handsome man in uniform - deputy sheriff uniform at that. When he meets Kate at her mother's funeral she can't believe her eyes, anymore than she can believe what she hears when she finds out he has written up a list of the most eligible women in town to choose a wife from. And Matt is determined that Kate is not going to go on the list even if they do still have incredible chemistry.

Second Chance at the Sugar Shack is another entry in the contemporary romances with a small town setting that I have been really enjoying this year. The author has tried to make it a little different than normal by adding in the ghost of Kate's mother who tries to push her in the right direction as well as to try and heal the hurts that still are smouldering despite 10 years of virtual estrangement.

With a title like this, you know that there is bound to be some sugar involved somewhere in the book. In this case it is the family bakery that Kate's parents have run for many years. After being strong armed into staying to help her dad by her siblings (who will of course get their own book in due course) Kate eventually begins to see Deer Lick in a different light and begins to reevaluate exactly what it is that she wants for her life.

The baked goods sound delicious and I really wished that I had some while I was reading (except for that whole crumbs in the bed thing) and the descriptions added an extra something to the book!

With the combination of small town contemporary romance, ghostly mother visitations, baked goods and more it wouldn't have been too difficult for this to stray into the territory of saccharine sweet, but Candis Terry manages to keep it just the right side of the line. I will certainly be looking forward to reading the next book, preferably with a sweet snack or two placed conveniently close at hand.

Rating 4/5

Review copy provided by Netgalley - thanks!

White Time by Margo Lanagan

Lose yourself in White Time

White Time is mind time, body time, soul time, heart time.

White Time is other worlds, other dimensions, other states of being.

White Time is out of time.

In this transcendent collection of short stories, Margo Lanagan, author of the award-winning story collection Black Juice, deftly navigates a new set of worlds in which the boundaries between reality and possibility are paper-thin . . . and sometimes disappear altogether.

My odyssey through the short story collections of Margo Lanagan continues. This time, I travel through White Time. Once again, the worlds that Margo Lanagan creates vary from similar to our worlds to completely different but the emotions that we are exposed to are always familiar and always moving!

White Time explores a situation that most of us would have been familiar with during our teenage years - work experience (although in the story it is called occupation tasting). Sheneel is disappointed when she is allocated to the Commonweal White Time Laboratories for her occupation tasting. She wanted the far more glamorous release party tasting that will give her access to celebrities and parties! One of her jobs whilst she is at the lab is to help Lon redirect entities in white time - time travellers who end up stuck in the little corner of white time that he is responsible for. Where these time travellers are redirected to is never quite clear. It could be that they are sent onwards on their journey, or it could be much more final redirection. Will Sheneel be drawn into the world of White Time?

In Dedication, the Royal Dresser is called to the palace urgently even though it is the dedication day of his own children. The urgent task that is to be performed? He is to make the body of the princess look presentable for presentation to her father the King. At first, this reads as a simple request but in the space of less than 20 pages Lanagan manages to show that this simple task is anything but when you take into account the girl's identity, the family dynamics and grief.

Tell and Kiss was a very interesting concept for me for reasons that will be obvious. The basic premise of the story is what if you are not overweight because of the food that you consume, but rather because of the emotional baggage that you carry around with you and don't let go of. Evan is nearly at the end of his year long program that has helped him shed his kilos, but what happens if he can't tell his stories anymore. I think that all of us feel the weight of our stories at one time or another - I certainly do!

What happens when an ordinary ant catches The Queen's Notice. The reader is taken inside the world of the ant. The Queen Bee is almost ready to choose who will be her next mate and Dybbol catches her attention when he helps repel attacks on the nest. Before he can step up into his new role, there are preparations to be made.

In Big Rage, Billie is a woman in turmoil. Her husband is manipulative and is always belittling her, and in the past she has always waited for him to make the first move. She is staying at the beach following yet another argument when she comes across a warrior dressed in armour who is obviously wounded. At first she thinks he is a role-player, but it doesn't take long before she realises that he is something more than that! This was one of my favourite stories in the collection. At the end of the story I wanted to stand up and cheer - not always the smartest move on public transport.

Just as in Yellowcake there was a story exploring the idea of the way that children are affected during times of war, this is a theme in The Night Lily also. I am not sure if it is the theme, but just like the corresponding story that explored similar themes in Yellowcake, I wasn't all that drawn into this story, or at least not as much as I have been into the other Lanagan short stories I have read.

Tess Maxwell is the main character in The Boy Who Didn't Yearn. She sees much more than the average person. She can give readings about those who have gone before, and see just by looking what is going on in a person's life. In her own words (page159-160):

My work makes it hard for me to like people. They seem so despicable sometimes, going around inside out, all their weaknesses showing in their walk, in their clothes, in their I'm-in-control-of-it-all faces let alone the visible holes in them, the baggage-people they drag around with them. Mum says these things are only obvious to me, though. I must remember, not everyone can see what's so shatteringly clear to me. I envy other people that,  and I despise them. I can't see how they can live, so cluttered up with other people's lives and influences; I'd hate to live in someone else's shadow. Worse, I'd hate to go around with my insides all blurted out like that, moaning my wants to the whole world, mourning what I'd lost.

It is therefore no surprise then that when she meets someone who has no baggage that she can see, she finds him completely fascinating and is drawn to him. What is the secret of The Boy Who Didn't Yearn? This was another of my favourites from the collection.

Midsummer Mission had me very confused for a little while. Who or what were the main characters who travel to a designated place and time to carry out a specified mission. They must influence Nawbair while he sleeps in a particular emotional direction. It is not however a mission without danger for our intrepid team - Hat, Snap, Motto and Trinket - for they need to report back...alive...with the result of their mission. In the end, this was a really fun little story, with humour, salty language, touches of whimsy - a delight to read.

Welcome Blue features a young girl named Eleanor who has recently been employed by Quaid to assist him in harvesting his Welcome Blue flowers. It is clear that Eleanor has experiences in her past that make her wary of mean in particular and so at first she doesn't trust Quaid. As the day draws on though, it becomes apparent that Quaid is just what he says he is. A man whose only agenda is to harvest his flowers. He is not tempted to sell the flowers to the many towns people who are travelling to the local showgrounds in anticipation of the scheduled arrival of the gods, no matter how much money he is offered.

Without providing any background at all, Eleanor's emotional frailties are revealed with great subtlety and a deft touch.

One thing I find very interesting about the reading experience is how two totally different works can connect together. For example, I am currently reading The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar which examines the idea of caste, of servitude to a superior race and of relationship in a book that I would classify more as literature. Here, with a made up setting and nationalities, many of the same themes are explored in the final short story of the collection - Wealth.

When Rill's brother is arrested (again) and put in jail it is up to her to raise the money using the only way she knows how - her talent for growing wealth, which in her world is the hair on a Leet man's head. This is despite the fact that she knows her brother will be ungrateful and her grandmother will still not acknowledge either her or the work that she does to support the family. When she is offered a substantial amount of money to grow wealth, it could very well be her chance to become something more despite her status as an Ord. Or, there could be another outcome - with much greater consequences.

The only thing left to say really is bring on Black Juice or Red Spikes! Or maybe it is time to move away from the short story form and read Tender Morsels. Decisions, decisions.

Rating 4/5

**This book of short stories is my first read for the Short Story component of RIP VI.

Library Loot: September 7 to 13

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Only one library book for me this week!

In My Skin:a Memoir by Kate Holden - this is my next book club book. I am not sure I would have ever picked it to read by myself!

What loot did you get this week? Share your link in Mr Linky below so that we can all have a look at the loot that you picked up this week!

Teaser Tuesday: Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming

One of my favourite discoveries this year has been the Reverend Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mysteries by Julia Spencer-Fleming, mainly because the dynamic between the main two characters is so interesting!


My teaser this week comes from page 224:

Evening prayer had a whopping seven attendees, but they were evidently as eager to get home as Clare, and after she concluded the service with a verse from Ephesians, they all scattered, and she was back in the rectory by dinnertime.

She figured that the rare-collections librarian would never have approved reading the diaries while scarfing down pasta, so she plunked her plate in front of the tube and ate with Jim Lehrer, who was never put off from discussing the day's events by the sight of her chewing rigatoni.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!