This is a cool discussion that another of my groups is doing and since this group is the coolest group around, I thought it would be fun to start it here. Here's how it works:

take the realistic fiction book you are reading for this month and open it to page 46. Go five lines down the page and type in as much text as you want to give everyone else a feel for the book you are reading.

It is really neat, and of course has made me add several books to the slopes of Mt. TBR. If you guys like it we can do a "page 46" each month.

Cool idea! I like it. Another group I'm in does page 42.

I love this idea. I am past 46 and currently deciding what passage I want to add. Will update soon. As always sis, you are a cut above.

Lynne great Idea, I love it :0)

OOh, I get to be the first. Here is mine from Belong to Me A Novel: "We hadn't started out talking about The Women. We'd started out talking about the sorrows I was drowning or, to be more accurate, smothering under some three pounds of carbohydrates, and while the shift from my suburban life to the cattiest catfight film ever made may seem a natural one, it wasn't really, because while that film isn't exactly a flattering depiction of female friendship, it's about female friendship and funny. And my life in suburbia was friendless and dull. At that point, having Joan Crawford snatch my husband, or Rosalind Russell stab me in the back was looking pretty good; at least they snatched and stabbed with aplomb."

Glad you like the idea. Here's mine:

"Happily, the worst jobs, such as cleaning the toilets, were the resposibility of one of the elderly maids. But even though I worked as hard as I knew how, I never seemed to make the good impression I hoped to, because my chores every day were more than I could possibly finish; and the problem was made a good deal worse by Granny." - Memoirs of a Geisha

I really enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha and I was surprised at how well a male author captured the feelings of a woman. I thought this novel was way better then the movie :0), mind you most books are.

I intentionally have not seen the movie yet. I am enjoying the book so far even though I am only on page 45. Everyone I know who has read it says it is fantastic!

Here's mine:

"Their wives came to our door daily with whith whole, dripping legs of something not ten minutes dead. Before the great adventure is all over, Father expects his children to eat rhinoceros, I suppose. Antelope is more or less our daily bread. They started bringing us that the very first week. Even once, a monkey." - The Poisonwood Bible

As an aside I really enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha, the movie not so much.

Lyn,yours sounds intriguing, I look forward to the review.

Fun idea and a great way to get a better feel for the books I might want to read. I skipped ahead a few pages from 46 to a passage I felt gave a little better peek at the book.

"They were hurrying toward him over the cropped grass, while April slowly and heavily brought up the rear, pulling the lawnmower behind her, blowing damp strands of hair away from her eyes with a stuck-out lower lip. Everything about her seemed determined to prove, with a new, flat-footed emphasis, that a sensible middle-class housewife was all she had ever wanted to be and that all she had ever wanted of love was a husband who would get out and cut the grass once in a while, instead of sleeping all day." - Revolutionary Road

I love this idea!! I think it may be fun to do each month.
I read
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Since pg 46. is the end of the chapter and there were not 5 lines, I started with pg 45.

"Frankie couldn't stay angry, though she was sure Dean was lying about not remembering her. How could she be mad when they were so completely undignified? Magnificently silly. Willing to send themselves up at the slightest opportunity, prostate themselves, admit to frailties. Dean openly mocked himself and acted almost ashamed of his straight-A marks. Alpha wasn't embarrassed that he'd barely made it up the easy course on the rock wall; he sweated on people, and made fun of his own physique. And Matthew- well, she couldn't have been mad at Matthew, anyway.
These guys, they were so sure of their places in life- so deeply confident of their merit and their future- they didn't need any kind of front at all."

I am going to start Matrimony A Novel tomorrow so I figured I would go ahead and post the quote now. I like this... it actually helps me get excited about starting the book.

"As she drove on Julian fell asleep to the rhythm of the car, his nose, his whole face, pressed up against the window. 'Let's go out to dinner,' Mia said. She told him she knew of a good place to eat, elegant but not to elegant; she hated restaurants where the waiter pulled out your seat for you. Julian agreed; fancy restaurants made him uncomfortable."

From page 46 of Savvy by Ingrid Law:

"Stepping inside the open double doors of the church, I had the bad luck of running immediately into Ashley Bing and Emma Flint, both combed and brushed and dressed up pretty for the party. I had hoped I would never have to see either of those girls ever again after leaving Hebron Middle School for the last time. But that day, what I wanted and what I got were two very different things.

Ashley looked from me to Fish to Will Junior, resting her eyes on Will an extra-long time. Maybe it was because I was thirteen now, or because Fish and Will were there next to me, but I felt braver than I'd been at school, and I stood up tall in front of that snotty girl and her rubber-stamp sidekick."

From page 46 of The Wednesday Sisters A Novel by Meg Waite Clayton

"By the time I came back to the room with the steaming cup, Brett had gotten Ally to sit up. She was leaning against a pile of pillows, and the light on her nightstand was on now, raising the room fro mthe dreary colorlessness to chalky blue. I handed Brett the tea, discreetly picked up the tissues, added them to the pile in the basket, and sat back down on the end of the bed."

Luann wrote: "From page 46 of Savvy by Ingrid Law:

"Stepping inside the open double doors of the church, I had the bad luck of running immediately into Ashley Bing and Emma Flint,..."

This one sounds intriguing. I might have to pick it up.

Lynne wrote: "This one sounds intriguing. I might have to pick it up."

I liked it a lot! 5 stars! I just posted my review, if you would like to read it.

"A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess:

"'I viddy,' I said. 'I viddy horrorshow.' I knew where he meant - Oldtown, just beyond Victoria Flatblock. Well, the real horrorshow leader knows always when like to give and show generous to his like unders. 'Very good, Georgie,' I said. 'A good thought, and one to be followed. Let us at once itty.' And as we were going out the old baboochkas said: 'We'll say nothing, lads. Been here all the time you have, boys.' So I said: 'Good old girls. Back to buy more in ten minutes.' And so I led mt three droogs out to my doom."

Jacob Have I Loved - Katherine Paterson

There were tales that Captain Wallace's ghost appeared to chase off intruders. It took me years to figure out that the purpose of the ghost story was to keep young courting couples from wandering down the path to the old Wallace place and taking advantage of the privacy. One day I had talked Call into exploring the house with me, but just as we stepped onto the porch, a huge orange-colored tomcat came shrieking out a broken window at us. It was the only time in our lives that Call outran me.

A Walk to Remember - Nicholas Sparks

"...but the homecoming dance was supposed to be special. Most of the girls bought new dresses and the boys wore suits, and this year we were brining in a photographer to take our pictures. I knew Jamie wasn't going to buy a new dress because she wasn't exactly well-off. Ministering wasn't a profession where you made a lot of money, but of course ministers weren't in it for the monetary gain, they were in it for the long haul, if you know what I mean.

Andrew wrote: ""A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess:

"'I viddy,' I said. 'I viddy horrorshow.' I knew where he meant - Oldtown, just beyond Victoria Flatblock. Well, the real horrorshow leader knows alwa..."

I really enjoyed A Clockwork Orange. Once you get used to the Nadsat they speak it just flows.

Nadsat isn't too hard to understand, especially in context. Of course it helps to be familiar with Slavic languages, but one helpful poster has cited a dictionary of sorts.

Familiar Scars : "Self respect or virtue doesn't feed you or keep you warm, yet we've sacrificed those things many times to avoid the profession. I would do anything to save Rosalyn from that, even suffer your inabillity to stand my existence."

From pg 46 of The 19th Wife A Novel by David Ebershoff

"What first struck Elizabeth was the quality of the man's voice - the hand-bell clarity and the force it acheived without the spectacle of bulging eyes and a throbbing throat. " You won't believe what I tell you, nor because you lack wits, or knowledge, but because it is not easy to believe. But if you can believe this tale, you will know the truth of all things, and your presence in the life after this one will be secure." ....."

From Page 46 of The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews

"I put my face close to Min's and told her again that I loved her. I told her what I had told her so many times as kids. You'll be be fine, you'll get better. I promise.
She opened her eyes and looked at me, but she didn't say anything and she didn't smile. I told her I'd be right back. I just wanted to talk to her doctor for a minute. As I walked towards the door I heard her whisper my name, so I went back to her bed and said, Yeah? And she asked me please not to come back."