June 2011
2 posts
September 2010
19 posts
The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult
Laura shook her head, her lips pressed tightly together, as if she was afraid to speak out loud. And he understood, because he’d felt this himself: Sometimes what we wish for actually comes true. And sometimes that’s the very worst thing that can happen.
She buried her face in her hands. ‘I don’t know what I meant and what I didn’t. It’s all mixed up. I...
Sleb - Andrew Holmes
And I just say, ‘Huh, probably a fan’s left it there. We’ll need to get it checked out before I can bring it in.’ Like I have teams of security on hand to taste my food or something.
Anyway, he seems happy enough, and off he trots, and when the car’s gone I go to fetch the Jack Daniel’s, take a seat in the sofa opposite the body and have a drink. The next...
Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult
‘It just… came out. And when it did - even when I realized that it could be the thing that saved me - I felt awful. But then I thought maybe you’d forgive me,’ he says. ‘I’d spent almost thirty years being someone I wasn’t, for you. So maybe you wouldn’t mind spending a week being someone you weren’t, for me.’
I do not tell my father...
Small Island - Andrea Levy
I held the baby awkward as I finally closed the door on that wretched little room. No compunction caused me to look back with longing. No sorrow had me sigh on the loss of the gas-ring, the cracked sink, or the peeling plaster. At the door to Mrs Bligh’s home I stopped. I tapped gently three times. There was no reply. I tapped again, this time calling her name. Still no one came. But with...
Missing - Mary Stanley
Becky talked to Brona. Their conversation was terse.
‘They found her.’
‘When?’
‘About half an hour ago.’
‘Are they sure?’
‘Conor says yes, but that the dental records will be used.’
‘Do you feel it is Baby?’
‘Yes… yes, I do.’
Silence.
‘You okay?’
‘Yes. You?’
...
Seymour: An Introduction - J.D. Salinger
I’m finished with this. Or, rather, it’s finished with me. Fundamentally, my mind has always balked at any kind of ending. How many stories have I torn up since I was aboy simply because they had what that old Chekhov-baiting noise Somerset Maugham calls a Beginning, a Middle, and an End? Thirty-five? Fifty? One of the thousand reasons I quit going to the theater when I was about...
How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff
I know all about those conditions, only this time they’re outside of me. And anyway, fighting back is what I’ve discovered I do best.
After all this time, I know exactly where I belong.
Here. With Edmond.
And that’s how I live now.
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters - J.D....
My last guest had evidently let himself out of the apartment. Only his empty glass, and his cigar end in the pewter ashtray, indicated that he had ever existed. I still rather thing his cigar end should have been forwarded on to Seymour, the usual run of wedding gifts being what it is. Just the cigar, in a small, nice box. Possibly with a blank sheet of paper enclosed, by way of explanation.
Me and Mr Darcy - Alexandra Potter
Now can you see why I want to kill him?
In short he can do no wrong. He is the perfect man. Or is he? As Ms Albright went on to point out on our first date, “He’s not actually real - you are.”
And so it seems I have the final advantage. Because although I might not be every woman’s fantasy (OK, I’m not any woman’s fantasy) and I’m certainly far from...
The Butterfly House - Marcia Preston
He opens my door and waits while I wedge into the passenger side. Then he climbs behind the wheel. It’s a slow season at the museum, so we’re taking a vacation, a last fling of freedom before the baby comes. Although it makes him nervous, we deliberately haven’t planned a route or made reservations. We’re going where the road leads us. Flexibility training, David says. As...
Down There - Pamela Redmond Satran
He was sexy, she could still give him that, but she was happy that in the end she realized that the love of her life was Paul, who was beaming at her from across the room, looking as if he was already about to burst into applause. And while she was thrilled for Anne, she was very glad that she wasn’t the one who was pregnant. As for Lisa, Deirdre was grateful she was finally getting a chance...
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
I hear my father-in-law’s response. ‘Oho, fine, Whiggish sentiments, Adam. But don’t tell me about justice! Ride to Tennessee on an ass & convince the red-necks that they are merely white-washed negroes & their negroes are black-washed Whites! Sail inalienable as the Queen of Belgium’s! Oh, you’ll grow hoarse, poor & grey in caucuses! You’ll be spat...
Ghostwritten - David Mitchell
I don’t care who or what I’m trampling over as I reel myself in. With strength I never knew I possessed I prise open the doors to a fist-wide crack. I hear a grunt of panic. It’s me. I shove my arm through. The rubber seals squeal against my leather jacket. My knee, my thigh, my whole side. The guard glares at me, mouthing, That is forbidden, but the sound is lost. Will he try to...
Man and Wife - Tony Parsons
The boy, the girl, the baby.
The two born, the one unborn.
I looked at the stars ant thought of Peggy and Pat forming an orderly queue to feel Cyd’s gently expanding belly, Peggy open-mouthed with awe as she tried to feel the baby’s tiny, miraculous movements, and then, when it was his turn, Pat smiling secretly and murmuring to himself, ‘Oh, the Force is strong in this...
Man and Boy - Tony Parsons
In the early evening, the black cab headed slowly back towards the city. Cyd stared out at the first of the tower blocks along the Westway, lost in her own thoughts, and Peggy slept in my arms.
Sometimes this child could seem so grown up, so self-possessed and assured. But sitting on my lap with her head resting lightly against my chest, she felt like no weight at all. As though she were still a...
Hunting Unicorns - Bella Pollen
When Rory drives down the drive of Bevan for the last time, he will have Maggie in his car and the moose head strapped to the roof. God only knows where they think they’re going but at least together they might have some fun getting there. As for me… well who knows? Bob Dylan said, ‘I’ll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours,; and I think that’s a pretty good...
Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet - Shyama Perera
‘In that case you’ll have us to answer to: I don’t want any needles near my old lambswool sweaters.’
‘And I love you too, Caroline.’ Beth said gently.
‘Put the coffee on.’
I went out and pulled some cups together. It was three o’clock in the morning and I felt brilliant: I was twenty-one. Twenty-one! The previous morning, my story and...
Right of Thirst - Frank Huyler
And then I saw him. He waited just past the exit, and the rope, near a pillar. He was watching the line; his eyes flicked across their faces. He hadn’t seen me. He took a step forward. That was all - a solitary, expectant step.
I felt myself go calm for the first time. He was dressed in a dark suit, with a green tie, which was unlike him. He was searching for me like someone with news to...
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
He unhooked my overalls, leaned me against him, and pulled them off. He held me up with one hand and reached for my pajamas with the other.
“Yeah, an’ they all thought it was Stoner’s Boy messin’ up their clubhouse an’ throwin’ ink all over it an’ …”
He guided me to the bed and sat me down. He lifted my legs and put me under the cover.
...
March 2010
2 posts
Spellbound - Jane Green
Alice once had a dream of a house in the country, a house with wisteria growing over the front, and climbing roses tumbling over the back. She had a dream of acres of land filled with children running and jumping, and animals playing.
The wisteria is growing slowly but surely. The roses are climbing and tumbling happily and heartily, and Snoop has been joined by a Labrador called Floozy, Calvin...
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
A venerable grey moped chugged and popped its way past them. It was adorned not with one but with three girls, all dressed identically in the briefest of white dresses. Corelli caught a glimpse of slender golden thighs, new-grown breasts, arching eyebrows over black eyes, and long loose hair so dark it was almost blue. He heard a melody begin to rise up in his heart, something joyful that captured...
February 2010
1 post
Change of Heart - Jodi Picoult
By now the tears are here; they stream down my face and into my mouth. Loss always tastes like salt. I bend down over my old, sweet dog. ‘Dudley,’ I say. ‘Come on.’ But when I scoop him up - put my ear against his rib cage - he’s cold, stiff, not breathing.
‘No,’ I whisper, and then I shout it so loud that my mother comes scrambling up the stairs like a...
September 2009
31 posts
In the Still of the Night - Charlotte Lamb
Tom walked over the tea-stained carpet to stare down at Annie, who was oblivious of him, still holding Johnny, rocking him against her like a sleeping child.
Tom had been going to make sure that Johnny was dead, but, observing the red stain spreading across Johnny’s shirt, he knew there was no need check the pulse; no one could live with a hole like that in him.
It was clear to both Tom...
The Tales of Beetle and the Bard - J.K Rowling
But which of us would have shown the wisdom of the third brother, if offered the pick of Death’s gifts? Wizards and Muggles alike are imbued with a lust for power; how many would resist ‘the Wand of Destiny’? Which human being. having lost someone they loved, could withstand the temptation of the Resurrection Stone? Even I, Albus Dumbledore, would find it easiest to refuse the...
All American Girl - Meg Cabot
I followed him out of the room and down the hall to where we had first had burgers together, looking over the White House’s back lawn.
And there, on the window sill where David had carved my name, I saw that he had added something. A plus sign. So now it said:
David + Sam
Which, all things considered, is not a bad way to leave your mark on history.
Eleven Hours - Paullina Simons
They stopped again, and Didi and the other woman oohed and aahed over each other’s baby. When was he born? July 13? Wasn’t that the hottest day in seventy years? Yes, said Didi. It was. Oh, look how cute. How big was he? Was the labor terrible? Oh, mine was the pits, said the other woman. Mine wasn’t too bad, said Didi.
Rich stood silently with his arm around his wife.
The baby...
My Lover's Lover - Maggie O'Farrell
Lily watched as she turned her back to the road, watched as she saw something, and as she exclaimed, pointed, and reached her hand behind her, like a relay runner stretching back to grasp the baton. Lily knew even before she looked at the man she’d failed to notice before. He withdrew his hand gently from Sinead’s and passed it instead around her waist, pulling her towards him, looking...
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
“But will Mr Norrell like it?” she asked, doubtfully. “He was never fond of travelling - not even as far as Portsmouth.”
“Ah! But that is one of the advantages of our particular mode of travel. He need never leave the house if he does not wish it. The world - all worlds - will come to us.” He paused and looked about him. “I had better not go further....
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
When Ada reached the story’s conclusion, and the old lovers after long years together in peace and harmony had turned to oak and linden, it was full dark. The night was growing cool, and Ada put the book away. A crescent moon stood close upon Venus in the sky. The children were sleepy, and morning would dawn as early and demanding as always. Time to go inside and cover up the coals and pull...
Ways to Live Forever - Sally Nicholls
In my dream, we were all asleep. Ella was sleeping on her back, next to me. Her face was pink and I could see the muscles moving under her skin, so I knew she was dreaming. Dad has his arm around her. The back of his hand was just brushing against mine. Mum was sleeping on her side. She was curved around me. I could feel her hair against my neck, soft and light.
I was sleeping too, warm there in...
Friday's Girl - Charlotte Bingham
Celandine and Sheridan founded the Newbourne Art School, where Celandine made sure that the intake of female artists was as great as the male. She continued to paint local personalities, as Sheridan continued to promote his ideas of naturalism. Today their paintings hang side by side in the school’s gallery at Newbourne. They are greatly admired by the kind of people who would never have...
Angel - Colleen McCullough
Flo took three crayons - yellow, blue and green - from her pink pocket and drew a cockatoo and a budgie on the glossy white wall between 17d and The House.
Somehow I think that Mum isn’t going to be a scrap surprised when I ask her for permanent custody of Willie; undoubtedly it’s already been arranged.
Family Baggage - Monica McInerney
Molly couldn’t believe it. First Gloria started crying and then so did Harriet. Even her mum and dad and Austin looked like they had tears in their eyes. Molly looked up at Lara. She was crying too. What had got into everyone?
Molly didn’t think it was sad. She thought it was brilliant. The whole family was together again. Now they could really have a party.
Slumdog Millionaire (Previously Published as Q&A)...
‘I have been wanting to ask you something,’ I tell Smita. ‘Shoot.’ ‘That evening, when you saved me from the police station, why didn’t you tell me straight away you were Gudiya?’ ‘Because I wanted to hear your stories and find out the truth. Only when you narrated my own story, without realizing I was in front of you, did I know for sure that you...
Stories We Could Tell - Tony Parsons
But Terry had built his dreams around the one in front of him, and there was a baby growing inside her, he had to follow those dreams through now. Then she winked at him, and similed, and he was aware of the old feelings, felt them rising up inside him, as strong as they ever were. Maybe it would be all right after all. Maybe it would. He looked up as a whistle lew, knowing that, either way, it...
The Cupid Effect - Dorothy Koomson
‘Friend?’ I glance over my shoulder. Jess is staring at us, open-mouthed. She thought I was coming over to start a fight, which I was, and now we’re grinning at each other and I’m stealing his chips. She’s going to faint when I tell her about dinner. Oh, Jess, Otley.
I get up, ‘I’ve got a prior engagement, I’d better be going,’ I say. Then I...
Starter For Ten - David Nicholls
But anyway, like I say, here we are. I’m not really where I expected to be, or even necessarily where I wanted to be, but then, who is? And I didn’t expect her to be here with me either, to be honest. She still swears too much of course, but she makes me laugh a lot too. Which doesn’t sound like much, but actually didn’t even seem possible just a few months ago. So...
A Place Called Here - Cecelia Ahern
We all get lost once in a while, sometimes by choice, sometimes due to forces beyond our control. When we learn what it is our soul needs to learn, the path presents itself. Sometimes we see the way out but wander furthur and deeper despite ourselves; the fear, the anger or the sadness preventing us returning. Sometimes we prefer to be lost and wandering, sometimes it’s easier. Sometimes we...
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
I might go to Canada eventually, but I think I’ll stop along the Columbia on the way. I’d like to check around Portland and Hood River and The Dalles to see if there’s any of the guys I used to know back in the village who haven’t drunk themselves goofy. I’d like to see what they’ve been doing since the government tried to buy their right to be Indians....
Oystercatchers - Susan Fletcher
I think this, as my comfort: that you existed. And by existing, there will always be traces of you, blowing over over the earth.
*
I have thought this in a hundred different places. In snow. In a dark wood.
I think it now.
I think it, as I follow my husband down a track to a small hut, in a clearing, after a day of sun. His shirt is damp on his back, his left arm is behind him, his hands open,...
The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult
Laura shook her head, her lips pressed tightly together, as if she was afraid to speak out loud. And he understood, because he’d felt this himself: Sometimes what we wish for actually comes true. And sometimes that’s the very worst thing that can happen.
She buried her face in her hands. ‘I don’t know what I meant and what I didn’t. It’s all mixed up. I...
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
Someone has already taken out a Minolta cellular phone and called for a car, and then, when I’m not really listening, watching instead someone who looks remarkably like Marcus Halberstam paying a check, someone asks, simply, not in relation to anything, “Why?” and though I’m very proud that I have cold blood and that I can keep my nerve and do what I’m supposed to do,...
The Island - Victoria Hislop
‘It’s all over. I realised how pointless it was, how half-hearted,’ she began. ‘When I sat listening to Fotini describe your family and what they went through, what really struck me was how powerfully they loved each other. It was through sickness and health, thick and thin, until death parted them… I knew I didn’t feel like that about Ed - and certainly...
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I stare in amazement. Jaja has never noticed what anybody wears. Mama hastily unties and reties her scarf - and this time, she knots it twice at the back of her head.
“Time is up!” The guard comes in the room. Jaja says a brief, distant “Ka o di,” not making eye contact with either of us, before he lets the guard lead him away.
“We should go to Nsukka when Jaja...
The Romanov Prophecy - Steve Berry
Thorn and his wife climbed three short steps onto the plywood platform.
He and Akilina stepped to one of the merlons.
Beyond the Kremlin wall, as far as the eye could see, people spread. Press reports had earlier put their number at two million. They’d flocked into Moscow over the past few days. In Nicholas’s time there would have been pageantryand balls to celebrate a coronation....
Where There Is Evil - Sandra Brown
However, we made a pact. We were not giving up. We had got nothing from the authorites but apathy and resistance to our quest to find Moira. The book would also detail our fight to get the final truth under the Freedom of Information Act, our pressure campaign to see the release of the paedophile dossier, and it would describe our final efforts to find her sister’s remains. We were prepared...
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
Paige goes, and I go. The four of us dig with our hands under the edge of the rock. In the dark, the feeling is rough and cold and takes forever, and all of us together, we struggle to just put one rock on top of another.
“You know that ancient Greek girl?” Paige says.
Who drew the outline of her lost lover? I say, yeah.
And she says, “You know that eventually she just forgot...
Dear John - Nicholas Sparks
He had told Gus about it one night, and not only had Gus understood, but he had been the first to explain why. He said simply, “My daddy used to tell me that the first time you fall in love, it changes your life forever, and no matter how hard you try, the feelin’ never goes away. This girl you been tellin’ me about was your first love. And no matter what you do, she’ll...