Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by The Purple Booker.
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!
This is my choice of the day:
Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory
70% There are no memories of future poker games. This is the last he will ever play. He will never win 
another hand from his brother, or watch his sister frown over her cards. And he will never see Cerise again.
Irene touches his arm. “Buddy?”
He tries to focus on his cards. There are no sevens in this hand, merely a loosely connected series of cards that will never become a straight or a flush, and he knows better than to try to bluff Irene. He mucks his cards, folding.
BLURB: The Telemachus family is known for performing inexplicable feats on talk shows and late-night television. Teddy, a master conman, heads up a clan who possess gifts he only fakes: there’s Maureen, who can astral project; Irene, the human lie detector; Frankie, gifted with telekinesis; and Buddy, the clairvoyant. But when, one night, the magic fails to materialize, the family withdraws to Chicago where they live in shame for years. Until: As they find themselves facing a troika of threats (CIA, mafia, unrelenting skeptic), Matty, grandson of the family patriarch, discovers a bit of the old Telemachus magic in himself. Now, they must put past obstacles behind them and unite like never before. But will it be enough to bring The Amazing Telemachus Family back to its amazing life?
It took me a while to fully connect to this one, as the family lurches from one disaster to a steady downward slide. I’m aware humour is highly personal, but I haven’t found their situation remotely hilarious as promised by the front-cover blurb. Though now I’m caught up in the story, I’m enjoying the strong writing and really, really hoping they get out of this in one piece – especially poor tormented Buddy…
Sounds like an interesting story but not one that would be hilarious. I do like that teaser.
Yes – while there are definitely some farcical moments in there, I didn’t find this one at all hilarious. There was too much suffering, for starters. But it is a really interesting read that I ended up very much enjoying.
The teaser leaves me guessing because I know nothing about cards. The book does sound interesting, though. My TT is at http://powerfulwomenreaders.wordpress.com
Oh, it is certainly interesting. I’ve now finished it and I find myself thinking about it a lot… Glad the courses are working out, Rae:)
I loved this book! Agree that it takes some time for all the story threads to come together, but once I fell into the rhythm, the going got easier!
Yes – I finished it a couple of days ago and ended up by thoroughly enjoying it. I think the ending, in particular, is very neatly and cleverly done:)
Not sure if this is for me. Glad you are enjoying the writing:)
Yes… it definitely isn’t for everyone – it either gets rave reviews or folks plain don’t like it.
I would genuinely say it took me about 30% of the book before I got into it but then I just loved it. And the ending is so clever.
Lynn 😀
Oh absolutely. That beginning somewhat threw me – and after that it took me a while to warm to the family. But, like you, I grew to really care for them – and the ending is terrific.