Maybe I should have just rented the movie

My dear friend Karla tagged me for this book meme:

• Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages.
• Open the book to page 123.
• Find the 5th sentence.
• Post the next 3 sentences.

So here goes: the book closest at hand is the one I just finished, Atonement by Ian McEwan. The movie came out a couple of weeks ago, and I heard such good things about the book I thought I'd get it from the library. It's . . . not a cheery read, and I hesitate to recommend it since the entire plot revolves around the misunderstandings brought about by the utterance of a really vulgar word, but it was extremely well-written and had the twists and turns that I love in a good story. Here's the selected passage:

"It came down to this: go in now and face her anger and disgust, give an explanation which would not be accepted, and most likely be turned away--unbearable humiliation; or go home now without a word, leaving the impression that the letter was what he intended, be tortured all night and for days to come by brooding, knowing nothing of her reaction--even more unbearable. And spineless. He went over it again and it looked the same."

Feel free to copy this meme for yourself; let me know if you do, because I'm interested to know what you're reading! Maybe your choice is cleaner than mine, but we should just be glad my marketing book was on the other side of the room.