''Lara Ivory stepped carefully toward the camera, managing to appear cool and collected under the crushing weight of a heavy crinolined gown, her slender waist cinched in to an impossible seventeen inches, lush cleavage spilling forth above.'' From JACKIE COLLINS' latest novel, Thrill! (Simon & Schuster, $25)
''My mother awoke in the holy hour before dawn, rumple-eyed and irritable. From the branches of the coral jasmine tree, a night-flowering wonder, small orange-centered blossoms fell to the ground in slow rhythms outside her window.'' From INDIRA GANESAN's coming-of-age novel Inheritance (Knopf, $22)
