The Great Animal Orchestra by Bernie Krause

Welcome to The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice

Rules:*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find any sentence (or a few) that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post to the Friday 56 Linky. It's that simple.

Here's a page 56 quote from my current read:The Great Animal Orchestra by Bernie Krause

"Quite literally out of nowhere, a quick succession of chest beats from one of the apes broke the spell of the remaining ethereal ambiance." (ch. 3)

Title: The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places by Bernie Krause, March 19, 2012

Musician and naturalist, Bernie Krause shares insight into how deeply animals rely on their aural habitat to survive and the damaging effects of extraneous noise on the delicate balance between predator and prey. But natural soundscapes aren't vital only to the animal kingdom; Krause explores how the myriad voices and rhythms of the natural world formed a basis from which our own musical expression emerged. (publisher's description)

Japanese Literature Challenge 6

The Japanese Literature Challenge is once again hosted by Dolce Bellezza at Japanese Literature Challenge 6. She has a few book suggestions as well, including one I really want to read - The Thief by F. Nakamura.

The challenge is to read one or more books by Japanese writers over six months. Click on the link to join in and be added to the linky.

Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta by Carol Nelson Douglas

Opening sentences in a book can give readers a sense of the style of writing and can influence their decision on whether or not to read a book. Here are the beginning sentences for Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta, a mystery featuring the cat Midnight Louie, by Carole Nelson Douglas.

Temple's fingers were doing the flamenco across her laptop keyboard, writing an e-mail press release, with Midnight Louie, her twenty-pound black cat, playing his usual role of paperweight beside her, when her phone rang.

She jumped.

Midnight Louie growled in alarm and rose up on his forelegs.

Temple wasn't the skittish type. You had to have nerves of steel to deal with the emergencies and sudden zigs and zags that a freelance public-relations person had to control, particularly in Vegas, and particularly in these Internet character-assassination days. (ch. 1)

Title: Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta: A Midnight Louie Mystery

I'm getting used to the idea of a cat being a sleuth, so I will be reading this book and hoping it will get me interested in the previous Midnight Louie mysteries. After all, this is the 23rd in the series!! I also think I may have won this book as it has been hiding on my shelves, waiting like a cat to pounce, to get my attention.

An Unexpected Guest by Anne Korkeakivi

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

"Madame," he said in heavily accented English, his voice low and guttural.
She suppressed the urge to cry out in surprise, her free hand flew up in front of her mouth. (ch. 5)

An Unexpected Guest by Anne Korkeakivi
Hardcover; April 17, 2012
Genre: fiction

Clare Moorhouse, the American wife of a high-ranking diplomat in Paris, is arranging an official dinner crucial to her husband's career. As she shops for fresh stalks of asparagus and works out the menu and seating arrangements, her day is complicated by the unexpected arrival of her son and a random encounter with a Turkish man, whom she discovers is a suspected terrorist. More unnerving is a recurring face in the crowd, one that belonged to another, darker era of her life. One she never expected to see again.

Anne Korkeakivi weaves the complexities of an age into an act as deceptively simple as hosting a dinner party. (publisher's description)

I received this book as a complimentary review copy.

Saturday Snapshot 2

Visit Alyce at At Home With Books to join in the Saturday Snapshot and post your picture on the linky there.

The irises in my backyard in full bloom right now. There is one yellow one that will soon open and I'm looking for the single blue one that sometimes shows up.

Before the Poison by Peter Robinson

Welcome to The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice

Rules:*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find any sentence (or a few) that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post to the Friday 56 Linky. It's that simple.

Here's a page 56 quote from my current read:

I told him what I did for a living, and he seemed genuinely interested. He gave a little chuckle when I said I wrote the music nobody listens to. "That must be hard to take sometimes," he said. "No matter how much they pay you."

Title: Before the Poison: A Novel by Peter Robinson
Published February 21, 2012

Book description: New York Times best selling author of the Inspector Banks series. A stand-alone novel in which a man's obsession with a decades-old crime leads him down a dark and winding path.

I received this book as a complimentary review/feature copy.

The Playgroup by Janey Fraser: Opening Sentences

Opening sentences of a book can give a taste of the writer's style, a sense of the story. Here are the beginning sentences for The Playgroup, a novel about a daycare, the Puddleducks Playgroup, by British author, Janey Fraser.

'Mrs. Merryfield. Mrs. Merryfield. Went to More-ishus. And it rained.'
Hi, Gemma! Nice tan! Listen, I'm pretty sure Molly is dry now but just in case she's not, there's a spare pair of pants in her sandwich box. That's the one with a picture of a giraffe on it - sorry I didn't have time to label it.'
'Morning, Miss Merryfield. Had a good break? Darren, have you said good morning to your playgroup leader?'
'Gemma, I'm so sorry. But we just had Beth checked again and it turns out she's allergic to wheat as well as salt, sugar, any kind of additives and - get this- any food that's yellow.Weird, isn't it? So can you make sure she doesn't have any biscuits at breaktime?'

Title: The Playgroup by Janey Fraser
Published February 2, 2012

It's the start of a new term at Puddleducks Playgroup. For Gemma Merryfield it'll be her first year in charge. Watching the new arrivals, she can already tell who the troublemakers will be, and not all of them are children!

What Gemma doesn't realise, thought, is that former banker Joe Balls, now head of Reception at the neighbouring school, will be watching her very move. As far as he's concerned, Puddleducks puts too much emphasis on fun and games, and not enough on numbers.

But when one of the children falls dangerously ill and another disappears, Gemma and Joe have to set aside their differences and work together. (publisher's description).

A good book for those with kids in daycare?

This book is a complimentary review copy.