Friday, July 9, 2010

Friday Finds

Is anyone besides me curious about this newly released debut novel: Mr. Peanut; Adam Ross?  I think it sounds so creepy but fascinating. Here is what I found on Amazon about it:




Ross's inspired debut explores the proximity of violence and love and begins with the death of Alice Pepin, whose lifelong struggle with depression, insecurity, and obesity comes to an abrupt end at her kitchen table when she is found dead with a peanut lodged in her throat. She has suffered suicide by anaphylactic shock—or so claims her husband, David, a quiet computer game programmer obsessed with M.C. Escher, Hitchcock, and working and re-working a draft of his unpublished novel, a violent possible masterpiece. Gradually, the two detectives on the case begin to see disturbing parallels between their own marital dramas and the Pepins' cruel rotations of brinkmanship and adoration. Ross's depiction of love is grotesque and tender at once, and his style is commanding as he combines torture and romance to create a sense of vertigo-as-romance. It's a unique book—stark and sublime, creepy and fearless—that readers into the darker end of the literary spectrum won't want to miss.

How about this one? - Sounds good and Great Cover too
Devil Amongst Lawyers; Sharon McCrumb

(Amazon)......In 1935, when Erma Morton, a beautiful young woman with a teaching degree, is charged with the murder of her father in a remote Virginia mountain community, the case becomes a cause célèbre for the national press.

 Eager for a case to replace the Lindbergh trial in the public’s imagination, the journalists descend on the mountain county intent on infusing their stories with quaint local color: horse-drawn buggies, rundown shacks, children in threadbare clothes. They need tales of rural poverty to give their Depression-era readers people whom they can feel superior to. The untruth of these cultural stereotypes did not deter the big-city reporters, but a local journalist, Carl Jennings, fresh out of college and covering his first major story, reports what he sees: an ordinary town and a defendant who is probably guilty.

This journey to a distant time and place summons up ghosts from the reporters’ pasts:  Henry Jernigan’s sojourn in Japan that ended in tragedy, Shade Baker’s hardscrabble childhood on the Iowa prairie, and Rose Hanelon’s brittle sophistication, a shield for her hopeless love affair. While they spin their manufactured tales of squalor, Carl tries to discover the truth in the Morton trial with the help of his young cousin Nora, who has the Sight. But who will believe a local cub reporter whose stories contradict the nation’s star journalists? For the reader, the novel resonates with the present: an economic depression, a deadly flu epidemic, a world contending with the rise of political fanatics, and a media culture determined to turn news stories into soap operas for the diversion of the masses.
A stunning return to the lands, ballads, and characters upon which she made her name, The Devil Amongst the Lawyers is a testament to Sharyn McCrumb’s lyrical and evocative writing.

What great looking books have you come across this week?

19 comments:

  1. Mr Peanut - what a fascinating cover. The kind that makes you want to pick up the book to find out more.

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  2. I like the title and cover of the second one!

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  3. The Peanut book seems a bit too creepy for me, but the Devil Amongst Lawayers catches my eye!

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  4. That doesn't look like the Mr. Peanut I know!

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  5. I received a copy of MR PEANUT from Poisoned Pen Bookstore the other day - signed. I belong to a debut book club through that store and I'm never quite sure what they will send me. However, this one looks very intriguing.

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  6. I would definitely read Devil Amongst Lawyers. Not a fan of The Peanut...too spooky.


    "For the reader, the novel resonates with the present: an economic depression, a deadly flu epidemic, a world contending with the rise of political fanatics, and a media culture determined to turn news stories into soap operas for the diversion of the masses."

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  7. mr. Peanut does sound interesting -- great find!

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  8. That DOES sound intriguing! I will be checking that one out for sure.

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  9. Hmm Mr. Peanut sounds really disturbing but fascinating. I want it. :) My Finds are at The Crowded Leaf.

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  10. I think Mr. Peanut sounds intriguing.

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  11. I have a copy of Mr. Peanut for review and I am really looking forward to it. It sounds like it's going to be a very dark book!

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  12. One creepy cover and one pretty one!

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  13. McCrumb is a fabulous author. I started reading her books after meeting her at a writers conference in Tennessee - where we were both speakers...

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  14. Creepy and unforgettable cover for Peanut.

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  15. I want to read it..I like creepy in the daytime!!

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  16. Mr. Peanut - what a name!
    Honestly how do u find these titles :P

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  17. Mr. Peanut has an awesome cover ... and the decription sounds good too.

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  18. I added Mr. Peanut to my tbr list a couple of weeks ago. I feel that same way about it--creepy sounding but there's just something that makes me want to read it.

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