Friday Finds - More Fairy Tales!

If you thought the last fairy tale book I found on a Friday had a strange name, you'll have to agree that this one tops it. From Russia, Ludmilla Petrushevskya brings us "There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales."  This is actually the second book of Russian fairy tales I have added to my wish list in the past week.

On a much lighter note, my next addition to the fairy tale wish list is "A Tale Dark & Grimm" by Adam Gidwitz.  Gidwitz has taken Hansel and Gretl out of their own story and into eight other fairy tale for young readers.

Ron Rash's "Serena" was one of my favorite books last year so I'm excited to see that his latest, "Burning Bright" is now out.  This I don't get though--why does it have exactly the same name as one of Tracy Chevalier's books?  Her book was only published two years ago so it shouldn't have been too hard to find out that there was already a book with this title.  Gonna read it anyway, though.

Thanks to Miz B of Should Be Reading for hosting Friday Finds!  What new books did you find this week?

Friday Finds - The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia

Technically, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia is not a book I just found this week.  I've seen it around the blogosphere and the author, Mary Helen Stefaniak, was the host of one of the panels I attended at the Omaha Lit Fest, where she talked about the book.  But Thursday I had the great pleasure of attending a reading by Stefaniak at one of our local independent book stores.

I brought my daughter along for two reasons: 1) I think it's good for a non-reader to see other people enjoying books and 2) as I told her, when we get a known author into town, we should make sure they are well-received so that we can get more authors to visit Omaha.  Imagine how silly I felt when the first thing that Stefaniak said was that she is a writing teacher at Creighton University.  In Omaha.  Where she lives. 

Stefaniak has a great sense of humor, which really comes out in the book, and an ease in front of audiences which made the evening great fun.  I'd passed on buying the book at the Lit Fest but I couldn't resist it again so I'm now the proud owner of a signed copy and cannot wait to find time read it. Now the wheels are really turning in my head.  I'm envisioning convincing my book club to read The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia and having Stefaniak join us.

Friday Finds - "My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me

I haven't done a Friday Finds for a while but a book I actually discovered a couple of weeks ago at the Omaha Lit Fest is being released today and I'm eagerly awaiting a review copy from Penguin!

"My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales" includes stories Neil Gaiman and Joyce Carol Oates.  The title refers to an old fairy tale that's been told in many countries; in Germany it is known as "The Juniper Tree," in Scotland as "The Milk-White Doo," and in England as "The Rose Tree."

The authors of the new stories have taken as their inspiration everything from Hans Christian Andersen to Goethe and Calvino and from Japan to Norway, Russia and Mexico.  The book also includes a foreword from Gregory MaGuire, author of "Wicked" and was edited by Kate Bernheimer, who was lucky enough to meet at the Lit Fest.

Kate Bernheimer

**Update**
I had no sooner posted this than the doorbell rang and the FedEx man handed me a package.  I must admit to embarrassing my daughter in front of her friend when I squealed with excitement as I opened the package and discovered that this very book had just been delivered into my hands.  Must go now and enjoy a beautiful evening on the patio with my new book and a big glass of wine!

Friday Finds - April 16

A couple of weeks ago, I heard Anchee Min talking with Melissa Block on NPR's All Things Considered about her latest novel, "Pearl of China." Min was 14, and living in Shanghai, when she first heard of American author, Pearl Buck. At the time, Buck was out of favor in China and Min could find almost no information about her. Years later, a fan gave her a copy of Buck's "The Good Earth" and as soon as Min read the way Buck wrote about the Chinese peasants, "Pearl of China" was born.

In the small southern town of Chin-kiang, in the last days of the nineteenth century, two young girls bump heads and become thick as thieves. Willow is the only child of a destitute family, Pearl the headstrong daughter of zealous Christian missionaries. She will ultimately become the internationally renowned author Pearl S. Buck, but for now she is just a girl embarrassed by her blonde hair and enchanted by her new Chinese friend. The two embark on a friendship that will sustain both of them through one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history.
Moving out into the world together, the two enter the intellectual fray of the times, share love interests and survive early marriages gone bad. Their shared upbringing inspires Pearl’s novels, which celebrate the life of the Chinese peasant and will eventually earn her both a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize. But when a civil war erupts between the Nationalists and Communists, Pearl is forced to flee the country just ahead of angry mobs. Willow, despite close ties to Mao’s inner circle, is punished for loyalty to her “cultural imperialist" friend. And yet, through love and loss, heartbreak and joy, exile and imprisonment, the two women remain intimately entwined.
In this ambitious new novel, Anchee Min brings to life a courageous and passionate woman who is now hailed in China as a modern heroine. Like nothing before it, Pearl of China tells the story of one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers, from the perspective ofthe people she loved and of the land she called home.

Friday Finds is hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading.

Friday Finds March 26

Trish of Hey Lady Whatcha Reading is peeing her pants in anticipation of this one. I don't know that I'm that excited but I'm definitely adding it to my wish list after seeing it on her blog.

Still Missing: A Novel
Chevy Stevens

On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a thirty-two-year-old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she’s about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all. Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent as the captive of a psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor. The truth doesn’t always set you free.

Friday Finds is hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading. What did you find this week that you absolutely have to read?

Friday Finds - March 19

This week's Friday Find isn't exactly a book I found this week. In fact, I've known about The Threadbare Heart for some time. I came across Jennie Nash's blog months ago and I like to think that we've struck up a friendship since then. In October, I read her book The Last Beach Bungalow (my review is here) and I fell in love with the characters she created. I also read Raising A Reader (review here) and highly recommend it for parents of young children.

Jennie and I were talking about her most recent book (at that time) The Only True Genius In The Family (which I'll be reviewing soon) and the book she was working on at the time. I told her I couldn't wait to read it and she made my little book loving heart do a flip when she said that she'd send me a copy of the manuscript. Really? Little old me? The day the manuscript arrived, I literally grabbed it to my chest. Then a little part of me started to panic. What if I didn't like it? What if it didn't touch me in the same way as the other books? Not to worry--I did and it did. Now I cannot wait for the rest of you to be able to read it! And Jennie has the most amazing plans for launching the book--you'll be hearing much more about this book come May!

To learn more about this book, Jennie and her other books, check out Jennie's website. And to get some insight into the daily workings of an author, follow her blog, Meet Your Muse.

Friday Finds is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.

Friday Finds - February 19

Okay, okay, I know it's not Friday. But Friday I was celebrating Christmas. Yeah, I know that Friday wasn't Christmas either. Not for anyone except, perhaps, my family. We weren't all able to get together in December, thanks to Mother Nature, and this was the earliest we could celebrate with each other.

I do seem to have something of a theme going this week--must have been hankering for books that were really centered on character.

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Heidi W. Burrow

The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell

The Man From Saigon by Marti Leimbach





Of these, I think that The Man From Beijing is the one I'm most anxious to get my hands on. I had, earlier in the week, heard a radio program about the Chinese presence in Africa and then Friday I heard about this work of fiction which deals with that same subject. Mankell is also the author of the series of books featuring Kurt Wallander, which have been seen on Masterpiece on PBS starring Kenneth Branagh.

Thanks to Miz B, of Should Be Reading, for sponsoring Friday Finds.

Friday Finds - February 12

Friday Finds is hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading. This is my first time to give it a go--frankly, it's the first time I remembered to write down a few of the books I discovered this week. What great books did you hear about/discover this past week? Share with us your FRIDAY FINDS!

I've seen the ads for the movie version of The Last Station but only just discovered that it, like so many movies was a book by Jay Parini first.

The Immortal Life of Henriette Lacks was first brought to my attention by All Things Considered on NPR. I'm generally not one to read much about scientific matters but this case really intrigues me so I'm going to give Rebecca Skloot's book a chance.

Last but certainly not least is Citizens of London by Lynne Olson. The subtitle to this one is "The Americans Who Stood With Britain In It's Darkest, Finest Hour." One of those Americans was Edward R. Murrow whom I find endlessly fascinating. And after being immersed in history growing up, a love for it was bound to wear of on me!