Tag: Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday: Wayfaring Strangers

As the school year races on at breakneck speed towards final exams, graduation, and – ultimately – summer break, I’m finding less time to read and blog.

Be that as it may, the wheel of time has once again turned to

Teaser Tuesday

Just in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share two 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.

This week I’m reading Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia by Fiona Ritchie of Thistle and Shamrock fame . 

For example, Scots and Ulster Scots are likely to 
feel a strong yearning for the sea. This is, for 
most Appalachian people, a long-forgotten emotion 
preserved only through ballads.

As an added bonus, the book comes with a twenty-track accompaniment CD, allowing me to listen to the music I’m reading about! Honestly, every book should come with its own soundtrack, and this one does not disappoint.

Wayfaring Strangers cover

In Retrospect

I gave Sam Kean’s The Violinist’s Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code 3 out of 5 stars for his vitriol towards religion and religious scientists as well as his unvarnished presentism.

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Teaser Tuesday: The Violinist’s Thumb

The past few days have been . . . not normal. I’ll post about that a bit later on.

Nonetheless, the wheel of time has once again turned to

Teaser Tuesday

Just in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share two 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.

This week I’m reading The Violinist’s Thumb by Sam Kean (the same Kean who wrote The Disappearing Spoon). 

They gnawed the cartilage off bones and 
sucked the marrow out, and cooked up all 
the fleshy victuals - the heart, kidneys, 
brain, and, most succulent of all, the
liver.  And with that meal, in a
godforsaken cabin at eighty degrees north
latitude, European explorers first learned
a hard lesson about genetics - a lesson
other stubborn Arctic explorers would 
have to keep learning over and over, a
lesson scientists would not understand 
fully for centuries.

Violinist's Thumb Cover

In Retrospect

I gave Neil Gaiman’s Trigger Warning 5/5 stars. My favorite story was “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury.”

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Teaser Tuesday: Trigger Warning

Today I’m off to the aquarium and maritime museum; look for photographs in the next Sunday Snapshots (a feature I just made up as I’m typing this – we’ll see how it goes).

Be that as it may, once again the wheel of time has turned to

Teaser Tuesday

Just in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share two 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.

This week I’m reading Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman. I haven’t technically started it yet, but it’s next on my TBR pile, so I’ll just open a page at random . . .

OK, this is from “November Tale” on page 109:

The brazier was small and square and made
of an aged and fire-blackened metal that
might have been copper or brass.  It had
caught Eloise's eye at the garage sale
because it was twined with animals that
might have been dragons and might have 
been sea-snakes.  One of them was missing
its head.

I don’t know about you, but that’s tantalizing, right there! Makes me want to read it right now! Unfortunately, other items require my attention. Things like grading papers and preparing for end-of-term exams and sending out summer school remedial class notices (hopefully not).

And today, a field trip! Huzzah!

Trigger Warning Cover

In Retrospect

I haven’t yet finished The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean, but of the 49% I have read, it’s absolutely wonderful; I plan on condensing and incorporating some of his anecdotes in next years’ classes.

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Teaser Tuesday: The Disappearing Spoon

The gnomes are hard at work crafting brilliant articles and staging stunning photographs.

However, once again the wheel of time has turned to

Teaser TuesdayJust in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share two 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.

This week I’m reading The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean. The book is an anecdotal walk through the table of elements, and I knew Mr. Kean was an author who really gets me – as they say – when I read these wonderful lines on page twelve:

Probably the biggest frustration for many 
students was that the people who got the
periodic table, who could really unpack 
how it worked, could pull so many facts
from it with such dweeby nonchalance. 

It was the same irritation color-blind 
people must feel when the fully sighted
find sevens and nines lurking inside
those parti-colored dot diagrams - - 
crucial but hidden information that 
never quite resolves itself into 
coherence.

Huzzah! Recognition of a plight afflicting eight per cent of men – myself included. Hopefully, the book will live up to my now-high expectations.

The Disappearing Spoon

In Retrospect

I gave  Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman five stars. I liken this selection of short stories to a packet of chips – or crisps, if you prefer – in that I sat down to read only one or two only to look up two hours later having devoured the whole thing. Honestly, it is that good. It’s difficult to pick out a favorite line or story, but this one from “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” best sums up my feelings:

You cannot hear a poem without it changing you.

 

Teaser Tuesday: Fragile Things

Allergies and back pain may have laid me low the last few days, but that hasn’t stopped me reading! Which means that . . .

Once again the wheel of time has turned to

Teaser TuesdayJust in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share two 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.

This week I’m reading Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. Having previously read The Ocean at the End of the Lane, I’m looking forward to this collection of short stories.

This selection comes from “Instructions”

Trust the wolves, but do not tell them
    where you are going.
The river can be crossed by the ferry.
    The ferryman will take you.
(The answer to his question in this:
If he hands his oar to his passenger, he
    will be free to leave the boat.
Only tell him this from a safe distance.)

fragile things

In Retrospect

I haven’t yet finished 1916: The Easter Rising, but it’s proving quite enlightening and a valuable asset in my MOOC.

I did finish The Long Mars (yesterday!). As a whole I thought it a satisfactory ending to the trilogy, yet some things bothered me as unnecessary or overtly contrived. Not quite a Deus Ex Machina, but close . . .

Teaser Tuesday: 1916: The Easter Rising

Once again the wheel of time has turned to

Teaser Tuesday

Just in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share two 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.

This week I’m reading 1916: The Easter Rising by Tim Pat Coogan. I’ve had the book for several years but never tried reading it until I started a MOOC on Ireland between 1912 and 1923.

Redmond Howard, a politically aware witness to the 
Rising and a critic of the rebels, wrote in its 
aftermath: 'There never was, I believe, an Irish 
crime -- if crime it can be called -- which had 
not its roots in an English folly.

Irish history is not my forte; hence my reason for taking the class.

Perhaps I’ve whetted your appetite!

1916 The Easter Rising

In Retrospect

I haven’t yet finished The Long Mars, but it’s proving quite enjoyable.

In case you missed it, here’s my 5-Star review of Amanda Palmer’s Art of Asking.
 

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