Tuesday Teasers: Madame Bovary

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1.) Grab your current read. 2.) Open to a random page. 3.) Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! 4.) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Every time Wednesday came round she would sigh as she awoke and say to herself, 'A week ago today...a fortnight ago...three weeks ago, I was there!' Little by little the faces of the people grew blurred in her memory, she forgot the tune of the quadrilles; the servants' liveries, the look of the rooms came back less plainly to her vision; some of the details faded away, but the void in her heart remained."



from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Spring "Vacance"

When my husband came home from work today he found me lying under my red cashmere blanket reading my Easton Classics edition of Madame Bovary for this month's book club.

"Did you have a hard day?" he asked.

"Worked my fingers to the bone," I replied, laughing.

"Worked them to the bone turning pages," he said, picking up the mail with a smile.

Ah, I loved the first day of Spring Break.

In The Woods

Title: In The Woods

Author: Tana French

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2007

Number of pages: 429

Rating: 4 out of 5

"The debut novel of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense. In Tana French's powerful debut thriller, three children leave their small Dublin neighborhood to play in the surrounding woods. Hours later, their mothers' calls go unanswered. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children, gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, Detective Rob Ryan-the found boy, who has kept his past a secret-and his partner Cassie Maddox investigate the murder of a twelve-year-old girl in the same woods. now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him, and that of his own shadowy past."

It's no wonder that In The Woods won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. The character development is supreme, the plot an intricately woven, finely detailed, multi-faceted work.

True enough, the surprises keep unraveling as one turns each page. But, I was left with a deeply seated sense of disappointment; although I've discovered the horrendously profound effects laid on the child left behind in the woods, I never discovered exactly what happened on that terrible night. We know how neatly wrapped up the most recent murder is, but not, unfortunately, the specifics of its antecedent on our boy turned detective. For this, a book I would have given five stars quickly became four.

However, you may not like things as neatly tied up as I do.

Sunday Salon: Eat Sleep Sit and Supermarket

Tomoe, from Kodansha International, sent me a copy of Eat Sleep Sit this week. I'm so excited to read it I almost want to start the Japanese Literature Challenge 3 right now! Here's a blurb to whet your appetite:

"At the age of thirty, Kaoru Nonomura left his family, his girlfriend, and his job as a Tokyo designer to undertake a year of ascetic training at Eiheiji, one of the most rigorous Zen monasteries in Japan and head temple of the Soto sect of Buddhism. This book is Nonomura's account of that year, and his quietly determined quest to imbue his life with Spiritual meaning."

Shocking, moving, insightful, funny and warm, Eat Sleep Sit is a warts and all story of the life of a novice Buddhist monk, grappling not just with the day-to-day mytsteries of Buddhist practice-how to eat, how to sleep, how to sit-but with fear, exhaustion, hunger and loneliness.

A bestseller in Nonomura's native Japan, this beautifully written and inspiring memoir is a fascinating insight into a life of hardship that few people could endure. Eat Sleep Sit will appeal to all those with an interest in Zen Buddhism and to anyone with an interest in the story of one ordinary man's search for spiritual enlightenment."

Also, thanks to Chris at Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of, I have this treasure, Supermarket by Satoshi Azuchi:

"A perennial bestseller and modern classic in Japan, Supermarket is an epic journey of one man's attempt to find meaning in life and a brilliant evocation of Japan's postwar economic and cultural upheaval.

Set in Tokyo in the aftermath of WWII, Supermarket tells the story surrounding the management of a supermarket chain at a time when the phenomenon of the supermarket, imported from the United States, was just taking hold in Japan.

When Kojima, an elite banker, quits his job in order to help his cousin manage Ishiei, a supermarket in one of Japan's provincial cities, a host of problems ensues. Kojima discovers that store managers are stealing products, the books are in disarray, and the workers seem stuck in old-fashioned ways of thinking. As he begins to devote all his time to the relentless task of reforming the store's management, a chance encournter with a woman from his childhood cuases him to ask the age-old question: Is the all-encompassing pursuit of business success really worth it?"

Look for reviews covering both of these books in April, and please, consider joining the Japanese Literature Challenge 3 when it comes around in July.

Quite possibly you'll discover them among the prize giveaways.

The Book of Lost Things

Title: The Book of Lost Things
Author: John Connolly
Publisher: Atria Books, 2006
Number of pages: 339
Rating: 3 out of 5

After happily delving into this book, I struggled with it until the last twenty pages. It was filled with such darkness that I wondered how I could finish it.

Initially, I found myself comparing it to Cornelia Funke's Inkheart. Both books have a masterful way of including a love of literature, as well as element of fairy tale, within the characters' lives. But, very quickly The Book of Lost Things became so convoluted that I felt almost as lost as David wandering through the forest, constantly taunted by The Crooked Man.

The Crooked Man is a very real trickster. Deceived by his lies, we must be careful not to believe his efforts to tarnish the good that we have in our lives. This part of the book, especially as it is so neatly concluded at the end, was my favorite part.

As David accomplishes his journey, with courage and strength, he learns the valuable lesson that our love cannot change things; it cannot save the lovers and children we hold so dear. At the same time, he learns to accept, if not cherish, that which he does have instead of longing for what is lost.

If anyone can grasp those lessons from a book (for who among us has not suffered loss?), it is a book well written indeed.

Horrid Henry: A Phenomenon in Children's Books

Who is this guy?

What?

You've never heard of Horrid Henry? He's the creation of Francesca Simon. He's the boy teachers hope are never in their class. He's the child every parent dreads to have. He's the hero of every rebellious male. And, Horrid Henry books are available this April 1, 2009, from Sourcebooks.

"HORRID HENRY is a publishing phenomenon-the world's most mischievous child has spawned a bestselling book series with sales of over 12 million copies in the UK alone, a TV show, and the love of children around the world. HORRID HENRY has been translated into 27 languages and has received incredible praise from the press, librarians, book sellers, parents, and most importantly, kids!
And now...
Horrid Henry invades the U.S.!"

I've been reading Horrid Henry books aloud to my class, for half hour stretches at a time, and they cannot get enough of him. Like Dennis The Menace, and Curious George, Horrid Henry is either finding trouble or creating it, and the kids are crazy about his antics. Personally, I think he needs a good spanking, or perhaps some time in a Thinking Chair (as one friend of mine spent his kindergarten years). But, this is what my students have to say:

"We love this book because at the end of the vacation story, Henry forced his family to go to the other site." ~Kody

"I think it's a good book because it's exciting and amusing." ~Jessica

"The first book grabbed me because it's so funny!" ~Joshua

Discover the Horrid Henry books for yourself which can be bought here.

Once Upon A Time III

How serendipitous: the day I finished The Book of Lost Things is the day I discover the King of Challenges, Carl V. Anderson himself, is hosting his third Once Upon A Time Challenge.

There's a frenzy in the book blogging world, which is all abuzz over his announcement, because Carl does several things during his challenges:

• he creates a community of bookish fiends (or, I should say, "friends"?)
• he opens our eyes to new authors
• he explores the arts within the theme he's chosen
• he entices participants with prizes
  

I'm not quite sure which fantasy novels I'll chose, but I'm considering the following:

• Magyk by Angie Sage
• Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
• City of the Beasts by Isabelle Allende
• The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
• Watership Down by Richard Adams
• A Game of Thrones by by George R. R. Martin
• A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Galbadon
• Tuck by Stephen Lawhead

Rest assured, I'm in for the ride. As you should be, too.

Friday Fill Ins

1. Why do we have to get wrinkles?

2. Cuddling two kitties and cleaning up after them are now habits.

3. I have a joyful heart because the joy of the Lord is my strength.

4. I had never heard the phrase "I look like a mad dog's breakfast" and it makes me laugh everytime I think of the older woman who said it while we worked together at the Chanel counter.

5. Don't hold impossibly high expectations for yourself, and everyone around you, the way I always do.

6. How am I to know what tomorrow brings?

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to my son driving to church group by himself, and please, Lord, let him feel a connection, tomorrow my plans include cleaning, like always!, and Sunday, I want to finish Tana French's In The Woods!

Blessings,

Helpful Spelling Hint

"Mrs. Smith! Mrs. Smith!"

I turned from the board to look at Kody.

"I know how to remember the way to spell "lasso"," he said.

"Yes, Kody?"

"Just take the "l" from the front, and the "o" from the back, and remember the bad word in the middle."

Thank you, Kody, for sharing that idea with all of the other third graders. I'm sure we'll never forget it now.

Word Filled Wednesday

This is a new to me meme which comes to us from 160 Acre Woods.

"The purpose of Word filled Wednesday is to share God’s word (no famous quotes or other literature — only the beautiful word of our Father) through photographs and a Bible verse!"

So, for my first submission:

Jeremiah 29:11

(Place your mouse over the link to read the verse.)

It's Not Like A Moving Target, Or Anything...

it's just a teacup for goodness sake! But, I spent the better half of yesterday afternoon photographing (and editing) my favorite bone china teacup.

See, I'm having a tea party for all the women in our family for Mother's Day, and I want the invitations to be nice. I can't draw that well, so a photograph on the front seemed in order. Then, the dilemna: which photograph should I use?

Admittedly, none of them are spectacular, but I did have fun playing. And changing my header yet again...looking at the picture from Florida makes me sad after last weekend's cancelled trip.

Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. ~T'ien Yiheng

There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea. ~Bernard-Paul Heroux



There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. ~Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ~C.S. Lewis

Blessings,

Friday Fill-Ins

1. When I look to the left, I see "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you." (Find all the lyrics to this song here. ;)

2. The living room is the room that has the best view in my home because its huge picture window overlooks the river: a great source of peace in my life.

3. Let it work out because you don't have any control over it in the first place.

4. Every time I clean the bathroom it's done dirt cheap!

5. Respecting one another is a responsibility that all qualified citizens must share.

6. If you have any books feel free to send them to me!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to finishing The Book of Lost Things, tomorrow my plans include dinner with my husband's group of friends and Sunday, I want to get back to church because I've missed the past two weeks attending to my son!

State of Fear

State of Fear by Michael Crichton

Published in 2004 by Avon Books

623 pages

Maybe it's just me, but this has to be one of the longest books I've read this year. Long as in tedious. It didn't get exciting until page 500, and that's a long time to work with something that's touted as a thriller and acclaimed by such reliable sources as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Chicago Tribune.

The basic issue of this book is global warming; we must examine it from all sides, political and scientific, emotional and intellectual, until we come up with the premise that it's all subjective. No one knows how much of global warming is man-made, or how much of it is a natural phenomenon.

Perhaps the most interesting point of view that Crichton presented is that we are ruled by fear:

"...social control is best managed through fear. For fifty years, Western nations had maintained their citizens in a state of perpetual fear. Fear of the other side. Fear of nuclear war. The Communist menace. The Iron Curtain. The Evil Empire. And within the Communist countries, the same in reverse. Fear of us. Then, suddenly, in the fall of 1989, it was all finished. Gone, vanished. Over. The fall of the Berlin Wall created a vacuum of fear. Nature abhors a vacuum. Something had to fill it.

Evans frowned. "You're saying that environmental crises took the place of the Cold War?"

"That is what the evidence shows. Of course, now we have radical fundamentalism and post-9/11 terrorism to make us afraid, and those are certainly real reasons for fear, but that is not my point. My point is, there is always a cause for fear. The cause may change over time, but the fear is always with us. Before terrorism we feared the toxic environment. Before that we had the communist menace. The point is, although the specific cause of our fear may change, we are never without the fear itself. Fear pervades society in all its aspects. Perpetually." (p. 500).

Okay, that's a fascinating premise. And one that's rung true for me lately.

A Cord of Three

Guess who just walked in the door?

Maybe he expected rage, maybe he expected tears. Certainly I've delivered on both accounts before. But, I've run dry so it's probably good that he came home later rather than sooner.

Is there a valid excuse? No. But, there is an explanation. I spoke to my cousin's husband, with a PhD in psychology. He had a good analogy for me; my son's emotions were like a toilet with no pipe: all backed up and no where to go. He didn't stay away from home to wound us, he was sorting things out the best he could. The fact that he called showed that there was no sense of retaliation against us. That's a good thing, because all I've done is tried to love him the best I know how.

Now I have a guard. A protective barrier of sorts. I love him. I won't abandon him. But, I won't be run over like this. After the "I'm sorries", I told him, "If you ever do this to me again, you'll find another place to live." I won't be held hostage to his emotions.

There are not words enough to express my thanks to those of you who left a comment on my weekend from Hell. I wanted to respond to each one, but truthfully, when I wasn't praying I was crying; when I wasn't crying I was journaling, and I had no energy left. So here is a humble thank you: thank you, thank you, thank you. Your words of encouragement gave me great comfort, and I promise I'll be around to your blogs soon.

A cord of three is not easily broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

Blessings,

Killing The Fatted Calf

I have to unpack my suitcase sometime. I've been stepping around it all weekend, unable to open it and replace my things into my drawers.

We were supposed to go to Naples on Friday night. The days had been taken off of work, lesson plans were written; I had my hair cut, a manicure and pedicure. Our dog, Henry, and two kitties, Minou and Samantha, were boarded at the vet's. The limousine was coming to pick us up at 4:10 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. flight out of Chicago's O'Hare airport.

Friday was an anxious day from the beginning. My son woke up at 5:00 a.m. crying. (I haven't seen him cry since he was six.) His girlfriend and he were having troubles; this, on top of the joy he feels about school. I prayed for him on my way to school, and called my parents to ask them to do the same.

By 9:00 Friday night, he wasn't home from work at the corner grocery store. At 11:00 p.m. he still wasn't here. At 2:00 a.m. I called his girlfriend who hadn't seen him. At 3:00 a.m. we cancelled the limo. At 3:30 a.m. he called to say, "This is a courtesy call. I'm all right."

I haven't seen him, or heard from him, since.

Who know where he is? Who's boarding him? Why has he refused to come home? I've spent the weekend fluctuating between anxiety and anger. He must be hurting terribly...how dare he do this to us?

To top it all off, our furnace broke yesterday. The circuit board arced, there was a terrible burning smell, and we are freezing until Monday when it can be fixed. Did we stay home in case our house burned down?

I opened Our Daily Bread Saturday morning. The verse passage was from Romans 5:1-11. Following the scripture is this text:

"Franklin Graham regrets it now, but in his youth he was wild and rebellious. One day he went roaring up to his dad's house on his Harley Davidson motorcycle to ask for some money. Dressed in his leathers, dusty and bearded, he burst into his father's living room-and walked right into a meeting of Billy's executive board.

Without hesitation, Billy Graham identified Franklin as his son. Then he proudly introduced him to every member of the board. Billy did not apologize for his son to show any shame or guilt. Franklin wrote later in his autobiography, Rebel With a Cause, that the love and respect his father gave him that day never left him, even during his rebellious years.

Our children don't have to earn our love. To withhold love for our own selfish purposes is to follow the enemy, not God. God's love for us is undeserved. We did nothing to earn it; no good in us merited us...In all our relationships, especially with our children, we must genuinely show that same kind of love."

Imagine that text appearing just when I needed it most?!

My father says, every time we're going to get together, "I've killed the fatted calf for you." He's referring to the story of the Prodigal Son, who came home in rags to find his father's open arms. I've never flaunted my father's love, being extra appreciative of it because of my adoption, but the expression's meaning remains the same: I love you unconditionally, and I want to show you how much."

When my son comes home, I want to be able to hold out a plate of beef for him.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Sending Sara a great book I'd just finished was my last random act of kindness.

2. Another place, another time, and I could have had you for my own.

3. I try to be wise in matters of the heart "because the heart is deceitful above all things, and who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17: 9)

4. Coffee, tea or Dolce cinnamon latte?

5. The road of good intentions is paved with separate paths.

6. Our stocks remind me that there is no reason to trust in money.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to packing, tomorrow my plans include flying to Naples, again, and Sunday, I want to walk on the beach with my mother!


Blessings on your weekend,

Sunday Salon

I was recently invited to sign up for a book give away at this site: Free Book Friday. Apparently, there is a book and several copies of it, given away each Friday. All you have to do is go sign up and cross your fingers! I was asked to spread the word, so I'm spreading it. Go, sign up, and lessen my chances of winning. ;)

Nymeth is hosting a Mini-Challenge in March, where participants are paired with a partner and decide on a new genre within which to venture. My partner is Kailana, of The Written World, and we've decided on a great book from Dewey's list. We're planning on finishing it March 15, and we'll be interviewing each other as well as reviewing it, so look for something exciting around the middle of March from us.

My copy of Whitethorn Woods, by Maeve Binchy, fell into the tub last night. Now, it's waterlogged and smells of Honeysuckle bubble bath. That's okay, I'm almost done with it, and eager to get to my next book which is Mudbound. This is for one of my book clubs, and it also qualifies as a read for the Book Awards II Challenge since it won the Bellwether prize founded by Barbara Kingsolver for social awareness.

Have a good week, everyone, and may you find some quiet time in there somewhere.

Blessings,

Six Word Sunday

Meet Minou, we couldn't resist her~