Teaser Tuesday: The Museum of Mary Child

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 a few “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.

Confession time: I read a lot of the same books as my 10-year-old daughter. It's nice because then we talk about them (when I'm not teasing her about boys she likes). She got this particular book, The Museum of Mary Child, as a Christmas gift and when I asked her to tell me about it, I was pretty confused by her rendition. The one thing I did understand was that dolls were very important to the plot. No other option, but to read it myself, then.

Heloise has had a very quiet childhood. She stays at home with an unaffectionate godmother, who is also the caretaker of a strange museum next door, and a stern housekeeper, keeping to her studies and her charitable sewing, all while avoiding anything deemed A Waste of Time. But when the discovery of a hidden doll leads to a secret happiness, Heloise's world must change. Her godmother shows her the museum that she has never been allowed to set foot inside, shows her the madness of Mary Child.

Here's the Teaser:

"The girl's cheek against her own was the warmest thing to have touched her in all her life. 

All Heloise's joints seemed to have turned to honey. 

And yet, she did not hug back. 

She did not know how."

- pg. 135, The Museum of Mary Child by Cassandra Golds

What are you reading?

It's Finally Ironic!

Remember that song by Alanis Morissette called? She named it "Ironic" when really it was full of things that were really just rather unfortunate, not actually ironic. I tried explain this to my friends as they screamed the lyrics in the car. They didn't listen. Such is the plight of the grammar dork.

Then I saw this link on Facebook (thanks, Brent and Grammar Girl!). 

Finally! The song is now ironic! (even if the singing is not so great…)

How to Ruin A Perfectly Lovely Recipe...

…and still have it turn out rather tasty.

Rice Krispie Treats
3 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 10 oz pkg marshmallows
            or 4 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups Kellogg's Rice Krispie cereal

Step 1: In a large saucepan melt butter over low heat.
Step 2: Decide that it would be more fun (and tasty) to use Cocoa Pebbles instead.
Step 3: And since you happen to really like having Cocoa Pebbles for breakfast, decide to make only half a recipe.
Step 4: Realize you now have too much butter, carefully scoop out what you think might be about half the butter. Measuring is for wimps.
Step 5: Search the pantry for plain mini marshmallows. Find none. Search for regular plain marshmallows. Still none. Now resort to any type of marshmallow. Find half a bag of mini peppermint marshmallow and some lemon meringue ones. Decide to eat the lemon meringue version after the kids are in bed.
Step 6: Add peppermint marshmallows to butter and stir to coat. After sneaking one, notice that they are rather stale. No worries. Commence melting.
Step 7: Watch as the pink marshmallow yumminess slowly deflates.
Step 8: Stir in cereal anyway. No turning back now.
Step 9: Press the sticky pink and brown lump into a greased 9x13 pan, keeping it as even as possible.
Step 10: Notice that despite the rather lovely pink coating, these treats still look a little dry. No one likes a crumbly treat.
Step 11: Fret about the dry treats for about an hour or so, until they've cooled down.
Step 12: In a small saucepan, pour 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream and turn heat to medium. Stir until it gets nice and warm. Add a big handful of chocolate chips (still no measuring allowed). Let sit for another five minutes while you play a game of Candy Crush Saga on your phone. Stir until chips are melted and your chocolate rescue plan is smooth.
Step 13: Drizzle ganache over your cocoa treats and deem them acceptable.
Step 14: Have your kids sample them first. Just in case.

What recipe have you ruined lately?

Teaser Tuesday: Steel

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 a few “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!

One of my favorite authors is Carrie Vaughn. Her Kitty and the Midnight Hour series is about a werewolf radio host. It was also my first introduction to urban fantasy. I know…I was totally missing out. I read on her blog that she had a YA novel so I added it to my TBR list and waited to get my hands on a copy. My local library finally came through! 

Teenage Jill lost an important fencing match and has felt aimless ever since. So on a family vacation to the Bahamas when she finds an old rapier tip buried in the sand, she holds on to it as her own special buried treasure. Then a sight-seeing boat ride through choppy water ends with Jill falling overboard into the ocean only to surface back in the times of swashbuckling pirates. Dark magic is at work.


Here's the Teaser:

"In the captain's mind--and in the minds of the crew--by signing that page she'd agreed to obey the captain, no arguments. She wondered if pirates really did make people walk the plank."

- pg 51, Steel by Carrie Vaughn

What are you reading?