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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Greetings book addicts. After a bit of a hiatus I’m back posting my Teaser Tuesday posts. This week my chosen text is ‘Midnight’s Children’ by Salman Rushdie; the read-along challenge I have been participating in. This monster of a book looks scary, but is great fun once you get into the groove of things. ‘Midnight’s Children’ has many twists and turns. Saleem’s imperfect narrative is also full of many colourful characters that come alive on the pages. If you loved ‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy, then you’ll like this one too. My teaser sentences are from page 145:
“To understand just one life, you have to swallow the world. I told you that.”
In brief, the story is about a young man, Saleem Sinai; whose birth, life and death are inextricably connected to the history of India. He calls himself ‘yoked to history’, as he discovers that he is one of the 1001 ‘midnight’s children’ who were born at the stroke of midnight; the very moment of India’s Independence from British rule. His parent’s realise he is a special child, but they live in ignorance of who he actually is, and the extraordinary powers he inherited due to the circumstances of his birth.
The teaser is short and sweet, but it kind of sums up the whole book. If you ever get a chance to read it, you’ll know why.
I love this book!! Great quote.
Oh, I like that one…it really makes me think….
Here’s mine:
http://rainysnowday.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/teaser-tuesdays-dec-7/
Now that would be a real mouthful 🙂 Thanks for sharing. Here’s my teaser
Such a powerful teaser.
Love that teaser! Happy Reading!
Teaser Tuesady: Miss Hildreth Wore Brown by Olivia deBelle Byrd
Ignorant parents can make for a difficult childhood. Interesting book you picked.
Thanks Alice. That’s very true about ignorant parents. Unfortunately Saleem has his share of them. I wasn’t going to read ‘Midnight’s Children’ this year. I was sort of saving it for next years book challenge, but when I saw the readalong I couldn’t resist.
Here is my teaser from Witchgrass: A Pipe Dream by Dave Wilkinson (Page 1):
Most gardeners hate witchgrass. Of all weeds it is one of the most persistent and adaptable. Any small piece of rhizome left in the soil can become an aggressive plant ready to take over the plot. Witchgrass is hard to pull. Roots are deep, and break off easily. Any part left in the ground will grow again. Farmers say the species isn’t even good as hay, not as good as timothy or alfalfa. Some call it quickgrass.
Early New England colonists blamed evil people for this garden invader. In the seventeenth century villagers would speak this way:
“The surly woman living alone on her dead husband’s estate. She goes into the woods and consorts with the Devil. Signs his book. Fornicates with him. Eats mushrooms. She and the Devil send witchgrass to harass the virtuous and the Godly. Let us hang this witch and seize her rich farm.”
Wow. So this witchgrass has a story behind it, kind of like the mandrake. Thanks for posting your teaser. If not for you I’d never have known about it!
Indeed, I loved “The God of Small Things,” so thanks for the comparison. That alone sold me on adding “Midnight’s Children” to my to-read list.
It’s so hard finding a book that measures up to ‘God of Small Things’. Although Rushdie’s book is a lot longer and rambles a lot; I have at least found a little flavour of Roy in there to keep me satisfied. I wish she would consider writing again.
This is a fantastic book. It brought back so many memories of my time in India and I loved every word.
Aisle B has Distant Hours so come on over if you get the chance
http://aisleb.tumblr.com/post/2130887225/teaser-tuesday
Fabulous book!
My post is also up along with my first giveaway. please do come visit.
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Excellent teaser! I’m glad you mentioned The God of Small Things in reference to Midnight’s Children, because I’ve read Roy’s book & thought it was remarkable, so I know Rushdie’s book is worth a shot.