Teaser Tuesday: Coulrophobia & Fata Morgana

Like a raven as it turns to talk to you, the Wheel of Time has turned ’round to Teaser Tuesday.

Just in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share a few sentences from that page. But make sure you don’t share any spoilers!*

*I wish I could take credit for this introduction, but I shamelessly stole it from Heather over at bitsnbooks. To help me make amends, you should go check out her blog.

A week or so ago I received some good news from Goodreads: I’d won one of their giveaways! Even better, it’s signed! w00t! The book is a collection of short stories, Coulrophobia & Fata Morgana by Jacob M. Appel.

Coulrophobia is a fear of clowns; appropriate given the news of late. Now, I suppose clowns have an effect on me: they make me angry. No, I don’t like clowns, but I don’t want to run from them – I want to chase them down and wipe that smile off their face . . . permanently. I am not a fan of the fair.

Fata Morgana is a mirage.

So, translated, the title would be “Fear of Clowns and Mirages.” I wonder if the clowns are mirages? They’d better be, for their sake.

The Goodreads’ Blurb

In his ninth book and fifth collection of stories, Jacob M. Appel introduces readers to a a diplomats wife who attempts to seduce her chimney sweep through Norwegian lessons, a minister whose dead wife is romantically involved with Greta Garbo and a landlord menaced by a rent-delinquent mime.

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The Truly Random Number Generator sends us to page 110.

There is also no way - merely by looking at Rita and Carnation - that a passerby might guess their history. They are just another suburban mother and daughter on an early morning grocery run.

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In Retrospect: You May Also Like

I picked this book up at my library because of the cover; tellingly, the author began his discussion of taste by asking us why we started reading the book, and if the cover attracted us.

This book is fun, relatable, and readable. Vanderbilt talks about food, music, drink, and art in a way that makes one step back and ask “why do I like that?”

What I found most intriguing was the idea that simple repetition increased liking for something; I suppose this explains why intellectually I dislike certain songs on the radio, but my body tells me I’m enjoying things. I hate it when my body betrays my ideals.

4 stars = I really liked it

What are you reading today?