Monday, April 11, 2011

Teaser Tuesday 80: Ghost and the Haunted Mansion

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 book or recent read.

* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.

* 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 and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


I wasn’t intending to use another book by this author this week, though it was another good addition to the series, but I really liked what this book said about censorship and not judging what other people read, so hope you will forgive the length of this week’s post. This issue comes up as customers complain about a racy standee used to promote a new thriller. Here is a bit of what Penelope's Aunt Sadie says on the topic:



"[Customers] are perfectly free to purchase what they like to read. In this store, everyone is, and no one will ever be made to feel bad about reading whatever speaks to them, whatever makes them happy. Did you know a St. Francis (local college in the book) Ph.D. candidate once asked me in serious, earnest tones why I sell cozy mysteries?


"...Apparently this young man hadn't heard that Agatha Christie is one of the most widely read authors in the English language, and the genre in which she excelled is still very much alive and loved, not to mention one of our most popular sales categories.


"Should I stop selling the Yarn Spinners their favorite books because some young man, paying oodles of money to read a professor's syllabus, has an opinion about what some of my very best customers 'should' be reading?"



"I'm not saying...that this year's roster of bestselling authors will stand the test of time. But, you know, the novel itself was once considered a 'disreputable' genre; and some of the greatest books ever written—in my humble opinion—would be dismissed today as 'popular' fiction, given the literary theories of the moment. And I do mean moment, dear."


"Academia can be as changeable and trendy as the rest of society in what it decides to deem worthy, and people who go out of their way to make others feel bad about their enjoyment of a particular book, even an entire genre, are missing the bigger picture.


"At a time when fewer and fewer adults are reading anything, we should be celebrating enthusiasm, not condemning it.


"Be careful... 'My' books are good and yours are bad' is a dangerous Animal Farm game... For some people, 'erudition' is nothing more than a vehicle for hostility and arrogance; 'good taste' merely an excuse for condescension—or worse, censorship." (pg 96-98)



ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion (Haunted Bookshop 5)

By Alice Kimberly (aka Cleo Coyle)


Bookshop owner Penelope Thornton-McClure didn’t believe in ghosts—until she met the ghost of hard-boiled 1940s private investigator Jack Shephard. And when Pen’s friend and mailman, Seymour Tarnish, gets into deep trouble, Pen not only believes in her ghost—she also thinks he can help…


An elderly lady of leisure has been found dead on posh Larchmont Avenue, her will recently—and suspiciously—revised to name Seymour as heir to her mansion. Just as eyes turn to him as the murderer—and Seymour gets busy settling into his ritzy digs—the mansion’s ghosts begin plaguing him. So he hires a team of parapsychologists to exorcise all the spirits from the town of Quindicott—and that includes Jack. Pen must act fast, because losing Jack scares Pen more than rattling chains and cold spots...



9 comments:

Shelley Munro said...

I like it, Heather. Great teaser!

Here’s My Teaser

Jessica @ Laugh Love Write said...

:) I love that teaser and hadn't heard of the book before. Thanks for sharing.

My Teaser is a little different and based on author Olivia Cunning who is over at my blog today giving away free books.

Jessica @ Laugh Love Write

Alice Audrey said...

Yep. She said it, just what I think too.

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Oh, I enjoyed this post, as it speaks to important issues. I have seen some of that attitude..."your book is not as worthy as mine," etc.

I recall that when my older two boys began enjoying and collecting comics, I was just really happy that they were reading anything at all.

They went on to have lives that included college and other forms of reading, so the comics certainly didn't limit them.

Thanks for sharing...and for visiting my blog.

kayerj said...

great quotes! thanks for stopping by. Kaye—the road goes ever ever on

Heather said...

Thanks, Shelley!

Jessica: Thanks, I'm glad you liked. This is a really good series adn am now impatient to read book 6, which isn't out until fall.

Alice: Quite well-said, no? *g*

Heather said...

Laurel-Rain: I don't hold much stock in comics, but as you said--at least they're reading something. Reminds me of the movie Major League, where they show the team flying through a storm on a rickety airplane swapping classics in comic form.

Kaye: Thank you! :)

jlshall said...

What an amazing teaser! I do so agree that we should be "celebrating enthusiasm" for reading, no matter what someone chooses to read. This sounds like a book I'd love, so it's going on my wish list right now!

Jenny Q said...

Hear! Hear! I've been enjoying your teasers from this series. Thanks for stopping by today :)