Closing the Book

Do you ever stop in the middle of a book?
It's hard to do. Sometimes I've done it because I wasn't enjoying the book. Other times, the book becomes too disturbing.
I read for pleasure and I have a hard time with cruelty or torture. Sometimes if characters make the same dumb choices over and over I put down the book too.
Two weeks ago on First Paragraph Tuesday, I started the book Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. I enjoyed the book and fretted that all those student papers I had to grade were keeping me from it, but at one point, I had to close it and set it aside. Image from Amazon.com
The book focuses on four female characters from three different generations. The matriarch remembers a night club fire in Boston during World War II that killed hundreds of people, including her sister. So, even though my sister died 30 years ago in a night club fire that killed more than a hundred people, I could keep reading until I came to this section:

Before she could turn the corner, she saw a handful of people inside the club who had managed to break the small windowpanes along Piedmont Street, but had gotten stuck in the windows' metal bars, their heads out, halfway to safety...

Well, I can't type the rest of it.
I put the book aside.
But if I didn't keep reading then that image stayed in my head. I had to go back to the book and let the rest of the words wash away that horrible image.
My own sister wasn't burned in the fire, but died of smoke inhalation, like most of the victims when the exits were chained shut.
I finished the book, and I did enjoy the writing, but when I came to the end, I realized that three of the four characters in the book were not really likeable. They treated people in their family rudely and seemed to make an excuse of the events that had happened to them in the past. What made it worse, I think, was that the characters were mothers who screwed up their own kids because of their past.
When we cleaned up the kitchen the other day, under a pile of papers, my husband found another book that I stopped reading in the middle: Suite Francaise. Image from Amazon.com.
This book was written by a Jewish woman who later was sent to a concentration camp and died there. The book chronicled the panic of Parisians as the Germans moved in to take over. Again, a series of characters shared their experiences. So what caused me to set this one down, never to pick it up again? A young priest is accompanying young male orphans out of the city and they stone him to death.
I just can't abide thinking that people have that ability to be cruel. I know this author was probably seeing worse things as the Germans moved into France and captured the Jewish people and sent them off to die. But I couldn't continue reading.
How about you? What makes you put down a book?

First Paragraph, Tuesday Teaser -- Maine

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.
Finally, I picked up the book Maine by Coutrney Sullivan. I've wanted to read it for quite awhile. Here's the first paragraph:

Alice decided to take a break from packing. She lit a cigarette, leaning back in one of the wicker chairs that were always slightly damp from the sea breeze. She glanced around at the cardboard boxes filled with her family's belongings, each glass and saltshaker and picture frame wrapped carefully in newspaper. There were at least a couple of boxes in every room of the house. She needed to make sure she had taken them all to Goodwill by the time the children arrived. This had been their summer home for sixty years, and it amazed her how many objects they had accumulated. She didn't want anyone to be burdened by the mess once she was gone.

What do you think? Would you keep reading?
If you aren't sure, take a look at this teaser.
Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays.

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!
Here's my teaser from page 119:
"She didn't want to leave him. She just wanted him to change, even as she recognized this as classic child-of-an-alcoholic behavior, even as she could hear her mother's voice in her head saying the only person you can ever truly change is yourself."
Are you intrigued?