Teaser Tuesdays

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!

 At moments of departure and a change of life, people capable of reflecting on their actions usually get into a serious state of mind.  At these moments they usually take stock of the past and make plans for the future.


~p. 105, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Unbroken: a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption - Laura Hillenbrand

Title: Unbroken : a World War II story of a survival, resilience, and redemption
Author: Laura Hillenbrand
Pages: 496
Published: 2010
Genre: Non-fiction, Biography, History
Rating: 5/5

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

Thoughts: I really, really, really liked it and it really lived up to the hype that I have heard about this book.  It was also a book that was very much an emotional journey and the emotions that I experienced were very much unexpected.  While there were times that the book felt a little dry, like the description of a B-24 bomber, the story always had a point and it was building to something that was going to be written later on in the book.  I am not going to spoil the book for those of you who are planning are reading the book, but I will say its an amazing journey, especially emotionally.  Highly recommended. 

2141 / 15000 pages. 14% done!

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon - Update #1

I finished Unbroken this evening.  What an amazing book!  I can't recommend this book any more than I have.  Unfortunately, I haven't read anything else.  I tried to start reading The Hunger Games last night, but for some reason couldn't get myself to start it.  I hope that I will be able to get something else read or at least started in the next few days.  Sometimes I find it frustrating that I sometimes can't get myself to read more at times.  Hopefully finishing this book will allow me to start something new.

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon - Opening post

I realize that I am starting this later than I had hoped to, but here I am.  My hopes for the read-a-thon is to finish "Unbreakable" by Laura Hillenbrand, start reading "War & Peace" for the read-a-longs that I am involved with, and get some books started for a couple of reading challenges that I am doing.

Teaser Tuesdays

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!

 Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive.  Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his nephew's Harry's room.


       ~p.7, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon

 

The First read-a-thon of the New Year is just about 3 days away! I can't wait! Here are the dates and times for the read-a-thon: Monday, January 17 at 12 am until Sunday, January 23 at 11:59 pm (your time of course!)

The 'thoners will be using the hashtag #readathon on Twitter so definitely join in on the conversation!
This is a pretty flexible event so you can read as little or as much as you'd like.

So you know you wanna join! I know you do! Click the button up top and that ought to take you to the sign up page on The True Book Addict's blog! 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling

Title: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Author: J.K. Rowling
Pages: 332
Published: 2004 (originally published in 1997)
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Rating: 5/5

When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord''s curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Escaping from his unbearable Muggle guardians to Hogwarts, a wizarding school brimming with ghosts and enchantments, Harry stumbles into a sinister adventure when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers which could be valuable, dangerous, or both.

Thoughts: I really liked it.  I had forgotten how much I liked the book until I sat down and read it again.  While the book seems to start off slowly, it has a purpose and once I was in the middle of the book, the action seemed to get quicker and that more intense and I really didn't want to put it down, but my body wouldn't allow for me to do so.  I really like how Rowling allows to go into a world that is one of pure fantasy, but also one that entirely enjoyable.

1645 / 15000 pages. 11% done!