Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Teaser Tuesday, June 22

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!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta LacksI'm in the middle of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is a fantastic book. Review should be coming soon. In the meantime, here's a teaser:

Henrietta knew nothing about her cells growing in a laboratory. After leaving the hospital, she went back to life as usual.

Sounds like sci fi, doesn't it? True story, though.

***
Previously on Teaser Tuesday: Well, I slogged my way through Touch the Dark, skimming large swaths of it to see if a plot finally kicked in, which it didn't. Two main problems that I saw: one was the risible number of supernatural creatures. First it was just vampires. Then, as our hero is clairvoyant, there were ghosts (which vampires don't believe exist). Then werewolves. Then mages, witches, fairies, pixies (!) and a golem (!!) for good measure.  Also were-rats, and something involving the Oracle of Delphi.  I lost track.

But the real problem for me was that the book was ALL exposition, leading to dialogue like this:

A: "But why...?"
B: "explain explain explain"
A: "And where...?"
B: "explain explain explain"
A: "Then who...?"
B: "explain explain explain"

Which is fine at the beginning of the book, but when you're on page 200-something and you're still doing this, there's probably something wrong. I could go on, but will just say I didn't care for it.  I need some good trashy novels, people!  Your recommendations welcome.

11 comments:

Jess. said...

Interesting teaser, the fact that it's a true story makes it even more interesting.

My teaser is up at Find the Time to Read

Natasha said...

Cool teaser!! I'll have to check that book out!!
Here's mine if your interested.. http://bookmarkyourthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/06/teaser-tuesday_22.html

Beth(bookaholicmom) said...

It does sound like sci-fi! Very interesting to know it's a true story! Thanks for visiting my teaser!

Aimee said...

Great teaser! I would have though it was sci-fi!

My TT is here.

Jackie said...

Different teaser that is for sure, thanks for coming by to see mine today also....

jackie b central texas

Anonymous said...

How funny! I know someone else who is reading exactly the same book ...

Trashy reading? What about the immortal prose of "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Serpents" - or perhaps "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter"?

Lorin said...

For trashy summer reading, how about mystery classics? Agatha is always good, but Dorothy L. Sayers is my favorite.

And I love medieval mysteries - Brother Cadfael being the best known, I also really like Margaret Frazer's Sister Frevisse series.

TexasRed said...

Very interesting teasers.

Here's my light summer reading: TexasRed Books

Jay said...

Ooh, sounds interesting!

Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier :)

Rhoni@ckybooks.com said...

Sounds like "Touch the Dark" had alot of overcompensation!

Your teaser sounds cool though...it does sound very sci-fi. I love that it's a true story.

rajm said...

that sounds interesting (the Lacks rather than the other!) Thanks for your visits!!