Teaser Tuesdays: The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak

Are the Romanovs the new Tudors? First Robert K. Massie comes out with a blockbuster biography of Catherine the Great -- and it's a damned good book, too. Now Eva Stachniak gives the story the fictional treatment with The Winter Palace, a novel about Catherine's Russia written from the point of view of a Polish servant who becomes a confidant -- and spy -- for the German princess who will become Russia's greatest empress. The Teaser Tuesday rules: open to a random page, pick two sentences and post. If you wish, add your blog post in the comments section of the Should Be Reading blog.

So here's mine:

"Sprawled in her gilded armchair, chewing on a pork-belly slice, the Empress surveyed the scene of her making. Her feet rested on an embroidered footstool; folds of her purple dress framed her like soft drapery." (p. 292)

Yikes! I just started the novel -- but having read the biography I have a good idea what a formidable character Catherine turns out to be. Hope it's an entertaining journey ...

Teaser Tuesdays: In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood

It's that time. Time when the approaching Key West Literary Seminar starts to morph from concept to reality. And what a reality this one will be, especially if you are a fan of speculative fiction -- or, in some cases, what people call scifi. High-quality scifi to be sure. We've got your William Gibson, we've got your Douglas Coupland and yeah, we have your Margaret Atwood. Along with a couple other people like Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Lethem, Gary Shteyngart and ... well, just check out the link above. The bad news, by the way, is that the Seminar is totally, completely, utterly and without hope sold out. There are something like 400 people on the waiting list. So there's no buying a ticket at this point. But there is the Sunday afternoon session, free and open to the public. I imagine the line for this one might start forming on New Year's Day.

Margaret Atwood, conveniently, has just written a book that is one of my absolute favorite kind of books -- literary criticism, or analysis, or description for the non-academic. Rescuing the examination of literature from the academy! God bless her! So anyway, In Other Worlds is my Tuesday Teaser this week, just under the wire since I started reading it on my lunch hour. The rules, as always, are to take two sentences from anywhere, then post the link in the comments section on the Should Be Reading blog.

"My field of specialization was the nineteenth century, and I was busying myself with Victorian quasi-goddesses; and no one could accuse [Rider] Haggard of not being Victorian. Like his age, which practically invented archaeology, he was an amatuer of vanished civilizations; also like his age, he was fascinated by the exploration of unmapped territories and encourters with 'undiscovered' native peoples." -- p. 109

Teaser Tuesdays: Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard

I am definitely on a nonfiction jag these days -- punctuated by bouts of mostly trashy fiction -- and the current one is Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard. I'm a little over halfway through and it's great so far -- I'm fond of 19th century American history, especially about lesser known figures, and of historical true crime. This fits both categories. What I've learned so far is fascinating though heartbreaking: James Garfield, assassinated a few months into his unlikely presidency, was a good man who would have been a real asset to the nation in the middle of its Gilded Age excesses. And Charles Guiteau, the assassin, was even more of a wackjob than I realized after reading Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation. Anyway here's the teaser:

To submit your own teaser, post two sentences (spoiler free, please!) and submit your blog post in the comments section of Should Be Reading. Don't have a blog? Then post the teaser itself in the comments.

"To Americans in 1881, the principal danger their presidents faced was not physical attack but political corruption. With a determination that shocked even the most senior politicans, they turned their wrath on the spoils system, the political practice that had made Garfield the target of the delusional ambitions of a man like Guiteau." -- p. 249

Teaser Tuesdays: Contested Will by James Shapiro

Still prepping for arguments about Anonymous -- which still hasn't made it to Key West -- by reading up on the Shakespeare authorship issue. My current title is Contested Will by James Shapiro, acquired via Interlibrary Loan (thanks, Alachua County!). Here's my teaser:

"This was no parlor game for Twain, nor was his interest in Shakespeare and the authorship question a passing fancy. Quite the contrary; no writer of his day had wrestled longer with both." - p. 131

Want to play along? Check out all the Teasers in the Comments section of the Should Be Reading blog -- post your own link or, if you don't have a blog, just post your teaser in the comment. Happy reading!

Teaser Tuesdays: The Leftovers by Tom Perotta

I gave up on The Victorians by A.N. Wilson yesterday and turned to some newly published fiction -- Tom Perotta's The Leftovers. As I expected, his engaging style had me humming along in no time -- 116 pages in without realizing it. The novel, in case you haven't read the reviews, takes place about three years after a Rapture-like event in which millions of people are taken up. Actually they simply disappear, without regard to religious affiliation or devotion level. The titular leftovers are those left behind and they cope in a variety of ways.

"Laurie wanted to do her part for the G.R. [Guilty Remnant], she really did. But the thought of walking over there, ringing the doorbell, and asking Kevin for half of everything she'd turned her back on filled her with shame."

Want to play along? Post your own teaser on your blog and then link to it int he comments section of Should Be Reading. Don't have a blog? You can just post the teaser in the comments.

*10/29 update: Finished the book, liked it a lot, wrote a recommendation for the Staff Favorites section of the Library's website, which you can read here.