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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Teaser Tuesday

teasertuesdays31 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 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!
 Operation Mincemeat:  How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre:

"Hillgarth's own life reads like something out of the Boy's Own Paper or the pages of Rider Haggard."

     "The son of a Harley Street ear, nose, and throat surgeon, Hillgarth had entered the Royal Naval College at the age of thirteen, fought in the First World War as a fourteen-year-old midshipman (his first task was to assist the ship's doctor during the Battle of Heligoland Bight by throwing amputated limbs overboard), and skewered his first Turk, with a bayonet, before his sixteenth birthday."  p. 141

nonfiction

10 comments:

  1. It really is a fascinating book, and when I finish this one, I want to read another of Macintyre's books about WWII spying: Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal.

    Can't help but love his titles!

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  2. I am adding this one to my TBR pile. My TT: http://www.rundpinne.com/2010/11/teaser-tuesdays-heideggers-glasses.html

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  3. :) I've added Heidegger's Glasses to my list!

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  4. Here is my teaser from "The Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms" by Mark Whiteway (Prologue):

    It was early in the afternoon, when Kal first saw the flying rock.

    Well, perhaps "flying" was a slight exaggeration; a subtle embellishment that he might have used later when trying to impress his younger brother, or his friends after third-day prayers. It was a least enough to break Kal out of his reverie. Hymarr's reaction was the last thing he had expected.

    He has been rehearsing in his mind for days beforehand how he would ask her to accompany him to the Spring Gratitude Service. That morning, as he lay in his bedchamber, before even Ali-Gan, the yellow sun, has risen over the western horizon, he determined that today was going to be the day.

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  5. How very exciting and compelling! Thanks for sharing, and for visiting my blog.

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  6. This is something I could definitely read. And I totally picked mine for the cover, lol! Thanks for stopping by :)

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  7. TB Mama - Sounds like a good fantasy!

    Laurel - Truth really is often stranger than fiction!

    Wisdom - I'm so easily seduced by a good cover. It may be shallow, but it will often pique my interest enough to give a book a chance!

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  8. I can't imagine a child so young being thrust into this although I'm sure it has happened a lot during the war.
    Ann
    Cozy In Texas

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  9. Hillgarth's first adventures were in WWI; by the time of WWII, he had several careers, including that of novelist.

    The Royal Navy College originally began cadet training at 13 and began sea training at 17. The advent of the first WW probably hastened Hillgarth's move to active duty.

    The entry age was changed to 16 in 1948, and to 17 in 1955, according to Wikipedia.

    Originally, the RNC was a kind of specialized boarding school. Careers were planned early a century ago!

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