Book Game

Zinnia inspired today's post with her Book Game. I was going to include this as a comment on her blog but then realised I wanted to say more than the space would allow.

Zinnia asked us to:
Take your favourite book (or, if you don’t have a favourite, then a book you like very much). Turn to page 123. Read the first three sentences to yourself. Then type the next five sentences into a comment on this blog, together with the title and author of the book. If you want to share a little background information about why you like it, how you came across it, or anything else you associate with it, please do.

I couldn't single out a favourite and some of my real favourites had boring or meaningless sentences if taken out of context.
After a very pleasant time flicking through some old friends I choose three very different books that I enjoyed immensely (two of which were listed in my Desert island books).



I wondered whether Fleur saw it too or whether she slept, exhausted, her thumb in her mouth, in a house of strangers.

"Shh, Fleurette." In my daughter's absence, it was to Mouche that I spoke, stroking the woolly head as if it might have been Fleur's hair beneath my fingers. "I'm here. It's all right."

Holy Fools by Joanne Harris (author of Chocolat)
The cover note says '... this is the story of Juliette, one-time actress and rope-dancer. Forced by circumstances to seek refuge with Fleur, her young daughter, in the remote abbey of Saint Marie-de-la-Mer, ... But times are changing ... A new appointment is made, and Juliette's new life begins to unravel. For the new Abbess ... has brought with her a ghost from Juliette's past, masquerading as a cleric, a man she has every reason to fear.'

Harris' books have something other-worldly about their lead characters. They have a depth to them that is not revealed but hinted at throughout the story. Holy Fools is no different. You learn about Juliette's past through the telling of the story. It's set in an historical and religious context but that never overpowers the story of the woman and her child hiding from the past.



Barak, who was also dismounting, laughed. "I've often thought that the secret language might be useful to know," he said, "but fingers built to grip a sword are not nimble enough for it." He held out his huge hand and shook his head.

Durnik lifted his face and sniffed at the air. "It's going to be cold tonight."

Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings (fist book from the Belgariad)
Excerpts from the book blurb 'Long ago, so the storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion and drove men and gods to war. ... But that was only a story, and Garion did not believe in magic dooms, ... For a while his dreams of innocence were safe, untroubled by knowledge of his strange heritage. For a little while.'

This is an epic sword and sorcery but if that isn't your thing, don't let the setting necessarily put you off. There are about twenty to thirty "supporting actors" surrounding Garion, the protagonist, all of whom are drawn with the same care and attention to those little details that make characters come alive. You not only care for Garion but you find yourself deeply involved with all the main players as you follow their part in the saga. It is a classic good against evil story. There are morals and themes within the plot - some critics say Eddings has a tendancy to preach but I never find the author's voice intruding. I would put Eddings on a par with Tolkien for the detail of his created world and would recommend reading this first book to see if you'd enjoy the rest.



Richard was thunderstruck: it had been like watching Emma Peel, Bruce Lee, and a particularly vicious tornado, all rolled into one and sprinked with a generous helping of a mongoose killing a king cobra. That was how she had moved. That was how she had fought.

Richard normally found displays of real violence unnerving. But he found watching this woman in action exhilarating, as if she were finding a part of him he had not known existed.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The blurb from the back of the book says 'Richard Mayhew is a plain man with a good heart - and an ordinary life that is changed forever on a day that he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. From that moment forward he is propelled into a world he never dreamed existed - a dark subculture flourishing in abandoned subway stations and sewer tunnels below the city - a world far stranger and more dangerous than the only one he has ever known.'

Gaiman is in a class of his own. I think he has a wonderfully unique way of writing. Neverwhere is a very entertaining and thought provoking novel. It takes you into a completely different world where Earls Court is an empty carriage on a tube train where an earl really does hold court; there really is an angel at Islington; and Night's Bridge is a dark and dangerous place. Gaiman mixes fantasy story lines with real locations and the result is excellent.