Teaser Tuesdays 10/19/10

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!

Bound is a retelling of the Cinderella story, set in Ming China. I've chosen several teasers from it, just because I liked the way they sounded, and I think they're a good example of Napoli's intriguing style, which seems to change and adapt to fit the theme of each different story she tells.

There is an order to guidance. A Ruler guides a subject. A father guides a son. A husband guides a wife. An elder guides a younger. A friend guides a friend. -- pg. 78 She stared at a bramble leaf, just a breath away from her. At this distance she could study every detail of the leaf. A principle of order guided the patterns of veins in that leaf. In every leaf. In everything on earth. Had not Stepmother said her ancestors would protect her? Certainly it was Xing Xing's job to protect father, not vice versa. But her other ancestors should be looking after her, guiding her. Somehow they had guided her to this very spot. She must trust in their wisdom. -- pg. 79 Learning is not the accumulation of knowledge, but rather, one thing only: understanding. -- pg. 145 Bound by Donna Jo Napoli