Friday, April 9, 2010

Friday Finds

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading.
Here are a few new finds I discovered this week at my new library job. (This is going to be bad for my TBR stacks -- I can tell) .

(the cover is awesome on this one. It is a 3/4 cover and the colors/photo is so very vivid).
(AMAZON) Starred Review. Anthony's compulsively readable debut novel stars Rovar Pfliegman, who sells meat out of a bus in Virginia. Rovar is a peculiar, troll-like man: he is short and hairy, has not spoken since childhood, keeps a pet beetle and lives in the same broken-down bus that houses his meat business. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about Rovar is his precarious singularity. He is the last of the Pfliegmans and, by his own account, he is falling apart. Although he halfheartedly seeks treatment for his various ailments, he seems far more bent on fulfilling the destiny of self-destruction all Pfliegmans (according to Rovar) are subject to. Rovar's explanation of his family sprawls deep into the past, probing beyond his chaotic childhood all the way back to the origins of the Pfliegman clan in premedieval Hungary. Along the way, the narrative nods to all sorts of greats—Kafka, Rushdie, Darwin and Grass, to name a few. But Anthony's style—funny, immediate and unapologetically cerebral—carves out a space all its own.

(AMAZON) Starred Review. Harding's outstanding debut unfurls the history and final thoughts of a dying grandfather surrounded by his family in his New England home. George Washington Crosby repairs clocks for a living and on his deathbed revisits his turbulent childhood as the oldest son of an epileptic small time traveling salesman. The descriptions of the father's epilepsy and the cold halo of chemical electricity that encircled him immediately before he was struck by a full seizure are stunning, and the household's sadness permeates the narrative as George returns to more melancholy scenes. The real star is Harding's language, which dazzles whether he's describing the workings of clocks, sensory images of nature, the many engaging side characters who populate the book, or even a short passage on how to build a bird nest. This is an especially gorgeous example of novelistic craftsmanship.

(this one I just found on Amazon)

(AMAZON) In this powerful novel from award-winning Israeli writer Appelfeld, two discarded souls form an unlikely bond in the chaos of occupied Ukraine during WWII. When the Jews are being rounded up, 11-year-old Hugo's mother hides him with her childhood friend, Mariana, a prostitute in a brothel. Locked in a closet every night, Hugo hears Mariana at work and disappears into dreams and visions about his family and friends. Mariana takes loving if sporadic care of Hugo and slowly she becomes Hugo's whole world. Hugo returns Mariana's kindness by lifting her spirits as her moods swing from frivolity and disregard for the destruction around her to deep depression about the indignities she endures. Mariana is an exhilarating tragicomic heroine, a woman who is both alcoholic, manic-depressive, and believer in a God she long ago abandoned. The lean, spare prose does not shy away from harsh realities. A simple story that encapsulates the joy and sadness of a coming-of-age novel with the trauma of a world in the midst of destruction.
What did you discover this week?

17 comments:

  1. How great to be able to see the latest books and borrow them right away! Enjoy!

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  2. Blooms of Darkness sounds amazing. It seems I never tire of WW2 novels!

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  3. How I would love to work in a library or bookstore and see all the latest books, right at my fingertips!! Hope you enjoy reading your special finds :)

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  4. I am really digging the covers of 1 & 3... can't wait to hear if the inside pays off!

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  5. I agree - the cover of The Convalescent is fantastic!

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  6. Oh, these all sound fabulous! The covers are captivating.

    Now I'm practically salivating for these books!

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  7. You are right! The cover of The Convalescent is very vivid!! I like the sound of Blooms of Darkness. Got to look that one up!

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  8. Those look like some pretty nice reads!

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  9. I'm drawn to Tinkers...want that one!

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  10. I am glad it is you and not me working with such temptations. I would be a nightmare around all those books. They all sound fabulous.

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  11. The Convalescent cover is unforgettable and very strange - I like it!

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  12. great job!

    Here is my Friday Find.

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  13. These all look most interesting.

    Your work will definitely enocourage the TBR pile. I used to be a librarian and temptation is always right there. Enjoy!

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  14. Ugh...I think I'm going to be sick. :) With your new job you should be on the cutting edge of new books. Look forward to your "finds".

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  15. Blooms of Darkness looks intriguing to me. I'm going to look into it some more. Thanks.

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  16. I just added all three to my wish list. They look like amazing books!

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  17. Blooms of Darkness sounds quite good. I don't know if that first one if for me though.

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