Where Is Your Bookmark? (02/23/2016)

It has turned into such a lovely day. I hate to be cooped up in the office all day. Oh well. There are bills to pay and mouths to feed. Or as my daughter would say, "We don't want to live in a cardboard box, Mother." (Yes, she calls me "Mother;" I miss "Mama".) I currently am enjoying North of Here by Laurel Saville, which I will be reviewing next week for a tour. In the meantime, I thought I would share a bit of the last book I read, Death Sits Down for Dinner by Tessa Arlen. This is the second in Arlen's Lady Motford Edwardian mystery series.

Every Tuesday Diane from Bibliophile By the Sea First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where participants share the first paragraph (or a few) of a book they are reading or thinking about reading soon. It is also where I share my first impressions about the book I am sharing.

A wet and miserable late-autumn day had turned into a bitterly cold winter night as the sun sank unseen below a horizon obscured by a bank of thick gray clouds. The wind veered to the east and the first strong gust gathered force from the estuary and bellowed up the Thames, blowing sprays of puddle water into the air and plastering wet leaves against the legs of those unfortunate enough still to be hurrying homeward. 

Tucked away in the quiet comfort of her bedroom at Montfort House, Clementine Talbot, the Countess of Montfort, and her maid, Pettigrew, were absorbed in the leisurely business of dressing her for dinner. As they went diligently about their work, engrossed in the particulars of choosing the right shoes for her evening dress and making difficult decisions on the appropriate jewels for the occasion, they enjoyed an intermittent exchange of information on the new cook who had recently taken up her appointment at Montfort House.

Every Tuesday, Jenn from A Daily Rhythm hosts Teaser Tuesdays at which time participants grab their current read, open to a random page, and share two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page while avoiding any spoilers.

Teaser from 12% of Death Sits Down for Dinner:

A wave of nausea burned her throat and she heard herself observe in a neutral and dispassionate voice, "I think that's a knife handle sticking out of his chest." 

and at 75%:

"So what will you do if you discover who killed Sir [. . .]? Will you make a citizen's arrest?" He was laughing now, no doubt at the thought of his mother and her housekeeper tracking down a desperate killer. Did he think this was some sort of parlor game she had invented to while away the empty hours?

*[. . .] Name removed to avoid spoilers.

What do you think? Would you keep reading?  

I love a historical setting, and in this one, we leave the English countryside and spend time in London. While the opening two paragraphs are more set-up than revelation as to what is to come, they do set the tone nicely. The first of the teasers is much more to the point, I'm sure you would agree. And the final one, well, her son makes a valid point.

What are you reading at the moment?  Is it anything you would recommend?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely ladies at Broke and Bookish.

This week's Top Ten Tuesday theme is Top Ten Book I Enjoyed Recently (yearish) That Weren't My Typical Genre/Type of Book.

Poetry ~ Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost have been favorite poets of mine since childhood. I enjoy reading and writing poetry, but I am also intimidated by it. I am so sure I will miss the deeper meaning behind the words. I find it hard to review poetry, and yet, when offered the chance to be a part of three different tours within the past year, I decided to give it a try. I set aside my insecurities and went with how the poems made me feel and what I got out of them, trying hard not to think about how I might get it wrong. Each of the collections brought me something different, and reminded me of why I enjoy poetry. From the sparse beauty and sadness of the poems in Wet Silence to the relateable poems of Paradise Drive, and the joy and self-discovery in Joy Street.

Paradise Drive by Rebecca Foust

Wet Silence: Poems About Hindu Widows by Sweta Srivastava Vikram

Joy Street by Laura Foley

Nonfiction ~ While I enjoy nonfiction quite a bit, I tend to pass it over for fiction all too often. I was proud of the fact that I read two nonfiction books this past year, after having read none the year before.  Both books were historical in nature--oh, how I love history!

The Santa Claus: 

The Rise and Fall of a Jazz Age Con Man and the Invention of Christmas in New York 

by Alex Palmer

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of Women who Helped Win World War II 

by Denise Kiernan

Science Fiction ~ I actually have a handful of science fiction novels I am eager to read this year.  It is not a new to me genre, but, like nonfiction, it is one I do not read often. I have long been a lover of fantasy, and science fiction doesn't fall far from that tree. Both of the science fiction novels that made my list are quite different from one another. One takes place in outer space and is action packed, and the other is more literary, set in near modern times on Earth.

Erased by Liz Strange  

The Curiosity by Stephen P. Kiernan

Contemporary Romance ~ I went from not reading straight romance for over two decades to slowly coming back to it. My common refrain for many years has been that I prefer romance on the side and not as a main course. The urban fantasy/paranormal romance cross-overs and romantic suspense are among my favorite types of romance novels--and remain so. In the past couple years, I have been reading more contemporary romance than I have in a long while. It's been hit and miss, but I have read some good ones, and these titles are among them. Admittedly, they are both holiday romances as well.  

A Cold Creek Christmas Story by RaeAnne Thayne

Sleigh Bells in the Snow by Sarah Morgan

Contemporary Young Adult (YA) & Audiobooks ~ I am combining these two because they both fit on today's list. My history with audiobooks is hit and miss. It is not my preferred way to take in a book, but I keep at it, hoping the format will grow on me. I enjoy a good YA novel now and then, especially one that is fantasy based. I find myself less drawn to contemporary YA, although I do read it too on occasion.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, 
narrated by: Rebecca Lowman & Sunil Malhotra

While it is hard for me to classify some of the above books as outside my comfort zone because they all have elements in them that intrigue and interest me, they do fall into categories I do not read often--or at least not in the last several years. Mysteries and general fiction tend to make up most of my reading, with fantasy, particularly urban fantasy, come in soon after.

What have you read recently that was outside your usual norm?

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