What Are You Reading

From Susan, of the Sarah persuasion....

Happy Anniversary to the Word Wenches, one month old today!                                                                                                                         

And it's Thursday already, and my turn again -- what to blog??!!

My amazing sister Wenches have posted fabulous keeper essays on writing, research, and other assorted good stuff. I've been thinking of possible topics. Hmm....

I could write about how to design yummy heroes from a few handy writerly ingredients...or list some books that I think every writer’s research library should have...or blog a bit more about experiential research (not 18th c. farms, or anything about corsets, fires, pigs or randy five-legged rams, because Susan/Miranda and Loretta are the CHAMPEENS of living history, imho!)....

Or maybe I could blog about adventures in field research, like tramping out into a meadow to fly hawks, or catching arrows shot by an eighth-degree black belt and former Marine...or maybe I could tell you about the time I set out to research Celtic harping, and ended up with a world-famous Celtic harper stranded overnight at my house, playing her gorgeous Irish harp in my kitchen (and later scrubbing her fussy two-year-old in the tub, long story)....

Ah but today is not about me, my friends, for this is the one-month birthday of Word Wenches!

And all the Wenches, and visitors, have been working very hard lately to make this a great blog.

So in honor of the occasion, I think we deserve a wee break from all the theorizin’ and expostulatin’ and wisdom-ness. I'm thinking we could play a little game that me and the other Wenches (yeah that's not grammatical but we're on a break here) were thinking of springing on you all from time to time.

This is called "Quick! What Are You Reading Now?"

Here’s how it goes:

Pick up a fiction book you’ve been reading most recently (if you have more than one book in play, like a true addict, choose the last one you had in your hands).

Now find...um...page 70! Then find the first sentence of the third paragraph (if there’s less than that, try the second paragraph).

Then type that sentence into the Comments area and post it for us (please let us know the title and author, since all writers, living or gone, should get credit)!

There are endless variations to this game, so let’s give it a whirl (hey if you feel like cheatin' a little, it's in the privacy of your own 'puter, and our game rules are very elastic <g>).

I’ll get us started...

Currently I'm on pg. 70 of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier  (I often re-read my keeper classics, especially when madly overworked, as lately):

"We should grow old here together, we should sit like this to our tea as old people, Maxim and I, with other dogs, the successors of these, and the library would wear the same ancient musty smell that it did now."

Okay –- now it’s your turn!

~Susan/Sarah 

                                                                           

Woman Reading, by Lord Frederic Leighton

Comments

[shscott21]

Good post, Susan/Sarah! And yes, I do still want to hear about the arrow-catching.

My book is "A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire" by Amy Butler Greenfield.

Third paragraph, page 70 (and quite by accident, it makes a great teaser for the whole book. :)

"But it was not only thieves who gave Seville its reputation for corruption. Its womenfolk, too, were a cause for concern, for as Sevillian men emigrated to the New World in droves, their wives, mothers, and sisters were left to manage affairs in their absence. Many of thes women took advantage of their new freedom to make investments, buy property, and run business. By 1525, Seville was said to be a city "in the hands of women" -- which the conventional considered a sure sign of moral decline."

Susan/Miranda

[Margaret]

I'm reading Sarah Smith's novel Chasing Shakespeares. She spoke at a writers' group meeting I recently attended.

Page 70, para 3:

"There was a market here for hundreds of years."

The modern-day characters are wandering through London's Covent Garden.

Fun question.

And congratulations on a successful month!

[Mary Jo Putney]

You need to tell us more about the Celtic harper and the fussy two year old, Susan/Sarah, but not today. :)

Let's see, my book is OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman by Malidoma Patrice Some. P. 70, 3rd paragraph:

>>Before the burial, the grave must be "muul," literally "looked into," a cermeony that allows a viewing of the final residence of the dead. >>

Not the cheeriest of quotes, but interesting in its way. :)

Mary Jo

[shscott21]

OK,so I've been informed by Susan/Sarah that I didn't play by the rules, that I was supposed to put up only a single sentence, and from a novel, not nonfiction.

So I bow my head in unlawful but contrite shame, and offer this instead, from "The King's Touch" by Jude Morgan. (This is a novel about the Duke of Monmouth, the unfortunate bastard son of Charles II.)

"It was a spring morning, dewy and soft -- uplifting, surely, to any spirit less crushed than mine, but I was merely rambling about in a sulky fashion, swiping at the grass with my stick."

Susan/Miranda

[Nina P]

Alright, this is not a kiss-up. I swear. I got it in the mail yesterday. Started it last night. I contacted the author about where to purchase the book and she said to buy it used because it was out of print. So, here it is. THE SWORD MAIDEN by Susan King, p. 70.

“I expected to find her sister living here.” Lachlann fixed her with a steady, grim look. He seemed shadowed and weary suddenly, his beard recently shaven, his hair untrimmed, his eyelids drooping. But his eyes sparked with the viberent blue she rememberd so well.

I only got to page 12 last night. Then my brain began to sputter. (long day) Now I really psyched to get to page 70. My hubby is going to have to sleep with the light on tonight.

This is a lot of fun, btw. I like hearing about what others are reading.

I also really want to know what it’s like to catch an arrow. I’ve pulled a bow many times. But to catch an arrow… sounds dangerously fun. This is going on my “before I die” list.

[Susan/Sarah]

from Susan/Sarah...

Ooooh, lots of nice responses and variations, and reposts too!
--Susan/Miranda, you are so funny. DO-OVER!
--And thank you, Nina, though I hope Lachlann and Eva didn't put you to sleep!

Arright, new rules! (gotta pay attention to keep up with this game!) -- as in, forget rules, y'all lost the directions and I can't remember what I said anyway.

So pick up the book you're reading (whatever it is, fic or non-fic) and give us p. 70, para. 3, or the closest approximation.

It's fun seeing what others are reading -- I'm already curious about what's been quoted.

(but I read Sword Maiden!) ;)

~Susan

[Susan Wilbanks]

I'm between books, having just finished Diana Groe's MAIDENSONG last night. (An impressive debut romance, with an unusual take on a Norse/Viking setting.)

This morning I tossed Joan Wolf's SOMEDAY SOON into my bag to read on my lunch hour. First line, third paragraph, p. 70:

"Thanks to your father's profligacy, Highgate is mortgaged to the hilt," his mother replied even more wearily than before.

I've done versions of this game where you grab four books (in theory the first four you find, but it works best if they're from different genres or at least different authors) and assemble a paragraph from the first sentence on p. 25, the next-to-last sentence on p. 70, etc.

[Nina P]

Susan:

No, Eva and Lachlann did not put me to sleep. Six hours and 3000 words at my writing desk put me to sleep. What that says about my book, I’m not sure.

I am a tough reader. Have tossed books in the trash (and I do mean the waste can) by page 10. But, Sword Maiden is a great book. Your quill sucked me right in at the prologue. I love Eva's high spirits (and the way she tries, to no avail, to hide it). And I like the way Lachlann broods so dark and mysterious.

I am finding it to be a promising read.

Nina

[AgTigress]

I am re-reading Dorothy L. Sayers's 'Gaudy Night' for the umpteenth time.

I am going to cheat and take p.71 (well, the pagination must vary in the many editions):

'She informed Wimsey - who happened to be the nearest male person handy for scarifying - that this kind of vulgarity was typical of the average man's attitude to women's intellectual interests'.

[Kristol]

This is fun!! Okay I'm reading Sari Robins What to Wear to a Seduction

'Thinking back on that embrace, he realized that she was a woman who knew the touch of a man and hadn't reacted like an innocent.

[Susan Wilbanks]

I *LOVE* Gaudy Night. Love it. Love Lord Peter.

[.]

This is a great blog! I ejoy breaking the rules.

I just finished Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
"Barbies are too skinny to be real," Lucy told her.

I agree

By the way - I loved Sword Maiden

[Patricia Rice]

Barbies are too skinny to be real, snarf! I love Crusie and that's an unforgettable line.

Okay, like Nina, this isn't a puff. MJ just sent me a copy of THE MARRIAGE SPELL and even though I read it in draft, I'm using it as a palate cleanser after reading a really bad mystery.

Page 70 paragraph 3, right?:

"As Miss Barton had said, going outside wasn't comfortable, starting with an instinctive feeling of panic that he would fall over backward as the chair descended the ramp."

As usual, MJP has maimed, crippled, and nearly killed another of her heroes!

[Eva]

I'm reading Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian.

Here is the requested sentence:
"In 1490, I recalled, the Order of the Dragon lay in ruins, crushed by Ottoman might; Vlad Dracula was fourteen years dead and buried, according to legend, in the monastery at Lake Snagov."

I haven't managed much beyond page 70 in over a month (page 74 actually). The book review piqued my interest but the book itself isn't holding me captivated.

On the other hand, the book I'm currently reading, XML By Example, keeps putting me to sleep! Hurry up, Loretta, and publish another!

[Cathy]

As if the thought had reached him, there was a movement beside her. The light insouciant voice showed no inclination to dive into wells.

THE GAME OF KINGS, Dorothy Dunnett (First in the Legendary Lymond Chronicles)

I just started reading this book and haven't gotten to page 70. Sherrie recommended this book to me (kinda-sorta).

Cathy: "Sherrie, I don't want to go deeper than that and risk slandering the Knights Hospitallar."

Sherrie: "Dorothy Dunnett has already done it with impugnity."

Cathy (thinking) Dorothy Dunnett... why does that name sound familiar to me... hmmm...

I just started reading this book, and now remember reading it in college (though I think I skimmed it... late for a parties or some such thing)

[Val Jones]

I'm currently reading non-fiction, Richard Dawkins, "The Ancestor's Tale" so it doesn't qualify.

The last fiction book was "The Marriage Spell" by (drum roll please) Mary Jo Putney!

Pg 70, P3, 1st sentence:
As Miss Barton had said, going outside wasn't comfortable, starting with an instinctive feeling of panic that he would fall over backward as the chair descended the ramp.

[Dylan]

Whoa, you guys have a great blog here! I want to play..

Page 70, paragraph 3.

I'm reading To Sir Phillip with Love by Julia Quinn right now.

Instead, she'd arrived looking young and pretty and smart and self-confident, and good God, but why would a woman like that want to marry someone she didn't even know? Not to mention tie herself to a decidedly rural estate in the farthest corner of Gloucestershire. Phillip might know less than nothing about fashion, but even he could tell that her garments had been well made and most probably of the latest style. She was going to expect trips to London, an active social life, friends.

There you go, this was fun...now I'm off to read the rest of your blog, Happy Anniversary Word Wenches! =)

-Dylan from Sanctuary's Finest.

[merry]

I, too, love Gaudy Night. I am currently reading or re-reading several books, including Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh. I am cheating slightly; this is the first and only sentence of the 2nd paragraph on page 70.

The child showed every sign of bursting into tears, his father uttered his name with ominous displeasure, his brother invited him to see what he had done now, his sister called him a clumsy clot,Mrs. Derrick took a step closer to the tree,and Anthony or Ronald Culver--it was virtually impossible to tell them apart--went up it.

I often tell people that I won't read a book if the sentences are too short. I guess this illustrates that I'm true to form.
This has been a great month. This is the only blog I have ever posted on -- it has been great fun.
Merry

[Janga]

"No such thing! When you have met my latest acquaintance--ah a young cousin of mine!--you will perceive that this is no matter for idle joking."

Frederica, Georgette Heyer

Someone on one of the boards I frequent asked for recs from those of us who had been praising Heyer. Writing about my favorites gave me an appetite for rereading them, and I started today with Frederica, my favorite.

[talpianna]

As usual, I'm reading four different books (my attention span is shot, thanks to a new med I'm taking), and none of them offers anything very interesting:

"Along with the rest of her personal possessions. To be honest, I helped her pack." ---Jayne Ann Krentz, LIGHT IN SHADOW

"We've got to show this to Richard," he says, putting the little bundle beneath the shirt Katie lent him. --- Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason, THE RULE OF FOUR (billed as "THE DA VINCI CODE for people with brains")

"Do not touch him, any of you." --- Fay Sampson, SHAPE-SHIFTER: THE NAMING OF PANGUR BAN

From birth onward we had lived with the Poles, grown up with them, gone to school with them, but nevertheless to them we were always foreigners. A bridge of mutual understanding between a Jew and a non-Jew was a rarity. And nothing had changed in that respect, even though the Poles were now themselves subjugated. Even in our common misery there were still barriers between us. --- Simon Wiesenthal, THE SUNFLOWER: ON THE POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITS OF FORGIVENESS

I really recommend the Wiesenthal book.

[Sherrie Holmes]

From Sherrie:

I've *really* enjoyed reading everyone's comments and seeing what you all are reading! I'm not surprised we have some Heyer and Dunnett fans.

I happen to be reading two books right now. Because I am the discussion leader this month on the Heyer List, I am leading the discussion of my favorite Heyer, These Old Shades: "The duke lay back in his chair. Beneath his heavy lids his eyes glittered coldly." (Be still, my heart!)

The other book I am reading--for the 10th time--is Checkmate, the 6th and last book in the fabulous Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett: "No," said Lymond. The double candlelight underlit his hair and his eyes and his cheekbones, all of them untrustworthy evidence. Philippa, from long experience, watched his hands, long-fingered and resilient, pressed hard on the walnut frieze of the sideboard. He removed them. He said, "In this far from seemly conversation I suppose I had better bring in the name of Guzel." I love Dunnett! She's one of my comfort reads.

And actually, I'm not "reading" the above books. I'm listening to them on unabridged audiobook. No time to read! Plus, I love having someone read to me.

I'll end by adding a scholarly note. (g) I'm critiquing a client's manuscript, and have my Chicago Manual of Style open on the desk. I turned back to see what was on page 70. It's a discussion of en dashes and em dashes. While that is the kind of thing that makes my little editor's heart go pitter-pat, I decided it was too dry to be of interest to anyone but me!

What can I say? Adjectives make me pant, and I grow weak-kneed over nouns. I'm also a secret book sniffer--I love the smell of books. Which, come to think of it, is pretty weird. But then I'm a freelance editor by choice, and that's even more weird!

Sherrie
http://www.holmesedit.com

[Denise]

"It had been absurd for a mere drive in the park to fill her with such elation."

The Trysting Place by Mary Balogh.

[Susan/Sarah]

Wow, it's fun to have a glimpse of so many different books. Now I have even more books to add to my TBR list....

I'm a longtime Lord Peter Wimsey fan and haven't read the Sayers stuff for a while, so now I want to go find them again. Same with Dunnett -- what IS it about Lymond?! I devoured THE MARRIAGE SPELL and loved it, and I've read lots of the books, or other books by the same authors, that have been mentioned here.

So many lovely books! Thank you all. Keep posting snippets here and we'll keep checking back.

And now and then we'll call for another book reveal!
(I like Susan W's suggestion of making a paragraph of sentences from different books.)

~Susan

[LorettaChase]

Uh-oh. You caught me reading Charles Dickens's BLEAK HOUSE for the umpty-bazillionth time. In my Norton Critical Edition, p. 70, paragraph 3 is in the middle of a dialogue dealing with Mr. Skimpole's having been "took" for nonpayment of debt:
"My dear Miss Summerson," said he, shaking his head pleasantly, "I don't know. Some pounds, odd shillings, and halfpence, I think, were mentioned."

[Lefsley]

I'm reading three books at the moment...sort of. I'm valiantly TRYING to read Dune--just so I can say I have read Dune--and am half way through and DEADLY BORED!!!
So I picked up Dorothy Dunnett's "Gemini" and Stephanie Laurens "An Unwilling Conquest."

I'll give you page 69 of Dorothy Dunnet, as page 70 doesn't have paragraph three.

The store was empty. Having been made free of the place, the attackers were not likely, surely, to endanger their souls by harming holy men and innocent people. They could only vent their disappointment on wood and stone and glass.

(picture me closing the book and taking a bow here).

[talpianna]

This reminds me a bit of an ancient form of divination:

The sors Vergiliana, also spelled sors Virgiliana (Latin: "Vergilian lot"), plural sortes Vergilianae or sortes Virgilianae, is a form of divination by bibliomancy in which advice or predictions of the future are sought by randomly selecting a passage from Vergil's Aeneid.

The sors Vergiliana was most widely practiced in the later Roman Empire and in medieval times, when Vergil was often thought to have magic powers or a gift of prophecy. Clyde Pharr, in the introduction to his edition of the Aeneid, notes that

In the mediaeval period a great circle of legends and stories of miracles gathered around [Vergil's] name, and the Vergil of history was transformed into the Vergil of magic. He was looked upon not only as a great magician but as an inspired pagan prophet who had foretold the birth of Christ. It was at this period that the spelling Virgil came into vogue, thus associating the great poet with the magic or prophetic wand, virga.

In the Christian era, this was done with the Bible.

Maybe we could do it with whatever we're reading--we don't even need a specific question, or you Wenches could pose one for all of us.

Hmmm. On the Jennifer Crusie/Robert Mayer blog, HE WROTE, SHE WROTE, we're discussing Latin grammar. On RUNNING WITH QUILLS, we're discussing ancient Roman books and scrolls.

I guess I just had to infect this blog, too, with classical scholarship....

(Incidentally, the late great Avram Davidson wrote a couple of novels about Vergil Magus.)

[Jane]

I'm late -- can I still play?

I've been having fun looking at page 70 in various recently-read books, but I won't bore you with all of them!

So, what am I reading? Yesterday I started "Miss Wonderful" by Loretta Chase. Third paragraph on page 70:

"Miss Oldridge had done her work cleverly, the devious creature. Alistair hadn't foreseen the attack, and he'd been unforgiveably slow to catch on."

So far (I'm not quite halfway through), this book is wonderful, like the title.

But the most interesting third paragraph on page 70 that I ran across, comes not from a novel, but from a guide book that I picked up at a used book store for a quarter!

Guide-book Garmisch-Partenkirchen and its Environs

"The 4½ km long tunnel which ends at the Schneefernerhaus (7950 ft.) begins here. It took 1½ years to drill this tunnel through the mountain. First at several places along the mountainside openings (so-called windows) were made. To these openings, hard to reach in certain places, a crampon path was constructed. Then caverns were blasted out, and light cable car boxes built, to hoist machinery, tools as well as the workmen to these windows in the rocks. The lodgings were built in these caverns; the workmen and engineers lived there, and during the winter, the only connection they had with the outside world, was by cable car box. Abundant use of electricity, that gave not only electric power and light, but heated the lodgings as well, contributed greatly to the quick construction of the tunnel. About 1200 men were occupied in this project."

From the section on the Bavarian Zugspitze Railway.

This was fun! I may never look at a page 70 in quite the same way again!

[Chris]

I just picked up Suzanne Enoch's "Sin and Sensibility" because I read "An Invitation to Sin" and loved, loved, loved it. So, I have read about oh, 4 pages of this one, and here's the quote from page 70.

"'No, we can't. Please promise me, Deverill - Valentine - that you won't tell anyone about where I was or what Stephen...what he did.'"

Hmm, can't wait. :)

[Jo Beverley]

Got to play, even at the end of a days' old long thread because I happen to be reading two slightly odd books.

One is Barozzi, or the Venetian Sorceress, a gothic from the Regency. I think I'll blog all about this on Wednesday.

Page 70, para 3? Who was it who liked long sentences?

"Augustino obeyed the summons with alacrity; and without the least remorse, or even breathing a sigh, he quitted France, in company with his brother,leaving Marian prey to the horrors of poverty,infamy, and the pangs of disappointed love!"

The other is THE ILLUSTRATED CHRONICLES OF MATTHEW PARIS. Observations of Thirteenth-Century Life.

This, presumably following the chronicler himself has no paragraphs, so I've chosen the 3rd sentence.

(Who was it, again, who said they liked long sentences?)

"And the lord king ordering it to be officially announced and proclaimed throughout the whole city of London and elsewhere by public crier that he had instituted a new fair to be held at Westminster, to continue for a full fortnight, and, in order that the Westminster Fair should more copiously abound with people and merchandise, he absolutely forbade, on penalty of weighty forfeiture and fine, all markets usually held in England for such a period of time, for instance the fairs held at Ely and elsewhere, as well as all trade normally carried on in London, both in and out of doors."

Talk about restraint of trade!

Despite the above, Matthew Paris is pretty interesting.

Jo :)

[Vicki Sheets]

I am late. Story of my life. "You knew," I said to Eisen, "about your wife's relationship to Rowley." From Bad Business by Robert B. Parker
Its a Spencer book. Am I the only one who loves romance and detective fiction? I am also reading Its in his Kiss by Julia Quinn, but that one is at home by the bed and I have Bad Business in my desk drawer at work for lunch breaks and slow days......

[Merry]

Romance in detective fiction--yes. Actually I used to read mysteries written by women, before moving on to romance. It was the characters and the romance that interested me, rather than the mystery.I didn't know I would like romance until I stumbled into it one day. Now, of course, I'm totally hooked. Main examples of romance in detective fiction favorites:
Dorothy Sayers (strong poison, gaudy night, busman's honeymoon) Elizabeth Peters (crocodile on the sandbank) Amanda Cross (aka Carolyn Heilbrun) (not so much romance in her books, but reflections on life)
Merry