Tag Archives: Teaser Tuesdays

Tuesday’s Meme Things (on Wednesday): From Hazelmoor to L.A. and back again

Posted on July 29, 2009 by unfinishedperson | 6 Comments

I participate each Tuesday (this week Wednesday) in book blogging meme activities:

First up, It’s Tuesday … Where are You as hosted by raidergirl3:

Last Tuesday, I was in Hazelmoor in England with Major Burnaby in Agatha Christie’s Murder at Hazelmoor (aka as The Sittaford Mystery). I was reading it as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge hosted by Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise.

I wish I could say I was still there. However, I’m afraid the book was raptured. What do I mean? Well, you’ll have to read here to believe. The thing is that irks me more than losing the book is that I’m reading the books in order and now I have to wait either until Jesus returns the book or I have to buy a new copy for the library to continue the series. Dang it!

This week, I’m investigating the murder of a doctor in L.A. and on tracking down the world’s Third Most Wanted Criminal. The doctor was executed with two bullets in the back of the head on The Overlook (Michael Connelly). The world’s Third Most Wanted Criminal is Archeron Hades and is about to pluck Jane Eyre from the pages of her novel in The Eyre Affair (Jasper Fforde). This leads me to…

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, with the rules pretty simple: 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!), and then share the author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Lakes! Daffodils! Solitude! Memory! whispered the worms excitedly as Mycroft carefully closed the book and locked it. He connected up the heavy mains feed to the back of the book and switched the power switch to “on”; he then started work on the myriad of knobs and dials that covered the front of the heavy volume.

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library-loot friday-finds

The author this time again is Michael Connelly; the book, the aforementioned The Overlook.

The book is the 13th in the Harry Bosch series, with only one more left that has been published so far to read: The Brass Verdict. In October, Connelly will release the 15th in the series: Nine Dragons.

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Last but not least is this week’s Weekly Geeks, which is posted by Ali from Worducopia. I’m not going to give you an explanation of it. You just have to go see it (click on previous link). Bottom line: is this scene real or fake?

Here’s my scene:

“Wow, an every realm persists,” she thought. “If only I could fall into it, I wouldn’t have to be pumping gas here.” Then she snapped back to reality as the smell of ethanol overwhelmed her.

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Posted in Books, Mind, Weekly Geeks

Tagged Agatha Christie, Books, It's Tuesday Where are You?, Jasper Fforde, Library Loot, Michael Connelly, Teaser Tuesdays, Weekly Geeks

Tuesday’s Meme Things: More Christie, Westlake and favorite movie adaptations

Posted on July 21, 2009 by unfinishedperson | 21 Comments

I participate each Tuesday in book blogging meme activities:

First up, It’s Tuesday … Where are You as hosted by raidergirl3:

This Tuesday, I’m at Hazelmoor in England with Major Barnaby in Agatha Christie’s Murder at Hazelmoor (aka as The Sittaford Mystery). I’m reading this as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge hosted by Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise.

I also am in New York City with George “Clay” Clayton as he hunts down the killer of Mavis St. Paul or as his boss, Ed Ganolese, calls the killer The Cutie who framed one of his underlings.

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Outside was the city, and it had halitosis. The air was hot and damp, and breathing was a conscious matter.

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library-loot friday-finds

Next up, I’m combining Library Loot hosted by Eva and Marg and Friday Finds also hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. The first focuses on books that you’ve checked out from the library; the second, books that you’ve come across that you want to read. As usual, I’m cheating this week as again I haven’t returned to the library since I had quite a booty last time I was there.

The three authors, this time, are at the suggestion of a friend, John, who rarely has steered me wrong with his recommendations.

John Dickson Carr, who was popular during the Golden Age of Mysteries
James T. Farrell, who wrote the Studs Lonigan series
Simon Brett, who wrote the Charles Paris series.

I’m not sure exactly how in the course of our conversation we came across the three. I think, though, for Carr, we might have been talking about Agatha Christie and for Brett, I mentioned Jasper Fforde, about whom I wrote last week.

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Last but not least is this week’s Weekly Geeks, which since it was one I posted I better answer:

…what are some of your favorite movie adaptations of books? Include trailers or scenes from Youtube if you’d like.

Also along with that question, or instead of that question, what book or series would you like to see be made into a movie or movies? Tell us why you think it or they would work as a movie. If the book already has a book trailer, include that, to help make your point.

Among my favorites are the following five (with a favorite, a trailer or, in one case, how the movie should have ended):

Lord of the Rings (of course):

The Shawshank Redemption based off the short story by Stephen King (liked the movie better):

O Brother Where Art Thou based off The Odyssey (love this part for Ralph Stanley’s singing not because I’m a lover of the Klan):

Stardust based off the Neil Gaiman novel (liked the movie better mainly because of Robert DeNiro’s character):

Field of Dreams, much better than the book on which it was based Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella:

As for the second part of the question, I’d have to say C.S. Lewis’ The Space Trilogy: Out of The Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. I’d just like to see any attempt a director could make to bring this complex science fiction trilogy to the screen.

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Posted in Books, Mind, Weekly Geeks

Tagged Books, It's Tuesday Where are You?, Library Loot, Movies, Teaser Tuesdays, Weekly Geeks

Tuesday’s Meme Things: England, England and the rest of the world

Posted on July 14, 2009 by unfinishedperson | 15 Comments

I participate each Tuesday in book blogging meme activities:

First up, It’s Tuesday … Where are You as hosted by raidergirl3:

This Tuesday, I’m in St. Mary Mead in England with Miss Marple investigating her first case, The Murder at The Vicarage, as presented by, who else, Agatha Christie. I’m reading this as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge hosted by Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise.

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Hawe’s appearance distressed me very much. His hands were shaking and his face kept twitching nervously.

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library-loot friday-finds

Next up, I’m combining Library Loot hosted by Eva and Marg and Friday Finds also hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. The first focuses on books that you’ve checked out from the library; the second, books that you’ve come across that you want to read. This one, though, is a bit of a cheat this week as the two books aren’t from the library but ones I bought from a local bookstore.

Blogger Jenn Thorson of Of Cabbages and Kings, recommended this series (of which these are No. 2 and No. 3 of 5) to me when she and another blogger, Kathy Frederick of The Junk Drawer, were visiting my wife and I earlier this summer. The only problem is that while the first of the series, The Eyre Affair, was available at the bookstore, it was a brand new paperback and was $15. The others were used and much less. So I’m going to wait until the owners can see if they get me a copy in the next couple of weeks for only a few bucks. I have plenty to read in the meantime, including a host of Agatha Christie.

For more on Fforde, visit his website.

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Last but not least is this week’s Weekly Geeks, which asks us to tell about our globetrotting via books.

Are you a global reader? How many countries have you “visited” in your reading? What are your favorite places or cultures to read about? Can you recommend particularly good books about certain regions, countries or continents? How do you find out about books from other countries? What countries would you like to read that you haven’t yet?

No. Not many. England? No. I don’t. I’m a xenophobe. And last but not least, I prefer to be insular.

Okay, seriously, though:

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

Okay, I guess I am pretty insulated, in that I’ve only visited 16 countries or 7 percent of the world’s countries, according to this map. So revised answers: No. 16. The U.S., in particular The South. Anything by William Faulker and Flannery O’Connor. Book bloggers. All the ones from which I haven’t read yet.

I guess I can’t sing this song, at least, not with much conviction, can I?

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Posted in Books, Mind, Weekly Geeks

Tagged Books, Friday Finds, Library Loot, Teaser Tuesdays, Tuesday\'s Meme Things

Tuesday Meme Things: Summertime is the right time for crime…

Posted on July 8, 2009 by unfinishedperson | 10 Comments

Back to our regularly scheduled program, where I participate each Tuesday (this week Wednesday because of a busy day yesterday) in book blogging meme activities:

It’s Tuesday … Where are You as hosted by raidergirl3:

This Tuesday, I’m still with private detective Harry Bosch as I was last week, but with him in Los Angeles a different book on a different case in The Closers. Bosch is back with the LAPD with former partner Kiz Rider and he’s on a mission of closing unsolved cases. First case: a 1988 case where a 16-year-old girl, who disappeared from her home, was later found dead of a gunshot wound to the chest.

I also am in Brooklyn with Parker in The Outfit, a Parker novel by Richard Stark, a pseudonym of Donald E. Westlake. Even though he has a new face, The Outfit, the mob, has found him and still want him dead, but he’s turning the tables and going after them with heist after heist.

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When the woman screamed, Parker awoke and rolled off the bed. He heard the plop of a silencer behind him as he rolled and the bullet punched the pillow where his head had been.

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library-loot friday-finds

Since I got quite a load of loot (and here) from the library last week, this week I only have two books:

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline, which I thought I’d never get. I was put on a waiting list a month or two ago and now finally it is here.
Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie, which is an unexpected find.

How so? Last week I mentioned getting four by Agatha Christie: Murder at the Vicarage, Peril at End House, Thirteen at Dinner and Murder on the Orient Express. I also mentioned how I had to order The Sittaford Mystery, which chronologically comes between the first two mentioned, through interlibrary loan and would have to await reading them in order for the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge in which I am participating.

On my Challenges page, I had listed all the Christie books in order, but unlike with some other titles, I neglected to add the alternate title for The Sittaford Mystery: Murder at Hazelmoor. Luckily, Sandy, one of the librarians at the Green Free Library in Wellsboro, Pa. (our library caught my error and found the book in the Green Free’s own collection. Sandy was nice enough to attach this note from information she found online:

The Sittaford Mystery is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1931 under the title of The Murder of Hazelmoor and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on September 7 of the same year under Christie’s original title. It is the first Christie novel to be given a different title for the US Market.

The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shilling and sixpence.

Whew! Now I can get back to reading her novels in order. Thanks, Sandy.

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Last but not least is this week’s Weekly Geeks, brought to us this by Wendy of Caribousmom, where this week’s “task” is, to paraphrase Wendy, to talk about the Fourth of July and summertime reading.

As I already gave away in the title of this post, “summertime is the time for crime” for me with my reading. Of course, I guess I should add that I read mostly crime novels year-round, one only has to look at my reading last year and so far this year to see that. In addition to continuing the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge this summer, I also am undertaking my own personal challenge to read all of the Harry Bosch novels written by Michael Connelly. I am on No. 11 of 14 written so far with a 14th, Nine Dragons, to come out this October. Besides Christie and Connelly, I am especially looking forward to getting the Scottoline book from the library today. Mentioning that, I think I need to go…

RIGHT NOW.