Friday 3 July 2009

Friday Finds


Friday Finds is hosted by MizB at You Should Be Reading and you can find it here.

My first find this week is Ruined by Paula Morris. A ghost story set in New Orleans. After reading Voodoo Season, I really want to read more books based in New Orleans. Don't you just love the cover! I found this on Carries YA Bookshelf.

Here is the blurb from Barnes and Noble.

Rebecca couldn't feel more out of place in New Orleans, where she comes to spend the year while her dad is traveling. She's staying in a creepy old house with her aunt. And at the snooty prep school, the filthy-rich girls treat Rebecca like she's invisible. Only gorgeous, unavailable Anton Grey seems to give Rebecca the time of day, but she wonders if he's got a hidden agenda. Then one night, in Lafayette Cemetery, Rebecca makes a friend. Sweet, mysterious Lisette is eager to talk to Rebecca, and to show her the nooks and crannies of the city. There's just one catch: Lisette is a ghost. A ghost with a deep, dark secret, and a serious score to settle. As Rebecca learns more from her ghost friend - and as she slowly learns to trust Anton Grey-she also uncovers startling truths about her own history. Will Rebecca be able to right the wrongs of the past, or has everything been ruined beyond repair?


The Broken Thread by Linda Smith. This has a Twilight feel to its cover, but I do love it.

I am struggling to remember where I found this one. Thankfully Popin's Lair let me know where I had seen it. So you will find the link here.

Here is the blurb from Fantastic Fiction.

Fifteen-year-old Alina comes from a long line of women who have gone to serve on the Isle of the Weavers, and she has always dreamed of doing the same. Her older sister is going to inherit the farm. She hasn't found any boy in the village that she's attracted to, like her other sister. And she loves her 10-year-old brother, but he's getting to be a pain to look after all the time.
Still, a girl must be chosen to be a weaver, and Alina's already older than others were when they were called.Then the weavers come. Her dreams come true, and she's taken to the Isle of Weaving, where the destiny of the world is born. Alina enters a long period of mental/spiritual training to prepare her to be a weaver. But she struggles with her trademark impatience.To the amusement of her trainers, she's anxious to begin weaving after only a few months training.
Then Alina is asked to take spools of thread to the weaving room, and she gets her first glimpse of the awesome tapestry, with its multitude of threads, and colours, and shifting patterns. Left alone for a minute, she discovers a red thread - red like her own hair - which is short and broken, and she impulsively takes a strand of her hair and ties the red thread to a tawny thread nearby. Immediately, thousands of other threads in the tapestry break.What has she done? The tapestry reflects what goes on in the world, as well as affecting events. By reconnecting a thread that was meant to be broken, she has caused the end of thousands of other threads/lives. She must undo what she has done and the story begins.


The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillips. I found this over at Beth Fish Reads. This book travels backwards and forwards between the present day and the 17th Century and has an air of mystery.

Here is the blurb from Amazon.
In seventeenth century Venice, Alessandra Rossetti, a courtesan, becomes entangled in a dangerous political intrigue that threatens to destroy the Venetian Republic. She alone has the power to reveal a Spanish plot. But to do so would threaten the life of the one she loves. Centuries later, postgraduate student Claire Donovan is writing her dissertation on the young courtesan. She has discovered that Alessandra wrote a secret letter to the Venetian Council exposing the Spanish conspiracy. But until now, no one knows how Alessandra learned of the plot, or what happened to her once it was revealed. Claire hopes that she will uncover the secrets of the young courtesan's life within the heart of Venice's ancient libraries and prove Alessandra deserves her place in history. But upon arrival in Venice, Claire learns that Cambridge professor Andrew Kent is to present a paper on The Spanish Conspiracy, asserting that Alessandra was a co-conspirator of the Spanish. If he can prove his theory, all of Claire's work - and her academic career - will be ruined. She knows she must discover the facts of Alessandra's role in order to save her own future. And as she races to find the truth, the boundless beauty and romance of the old city will also bring the passion back into Claire's own life.



The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley. Now I know this is a really old one, but when I saw it Rebecca's site Lost in Books it took me straight back to my childhood. I remember watching this with my parents and I never realised it was actually a book. I do recommend you go over to Rebecca's site on the weekend as she is presently working her way around the world and bringing us fiction books from different countries. This was one of her choices for Kenya.

In 1913, at the age of six, Elspeth Huxley accompanied her parents from England to their recently acquired land in Kenya, "a bit of El Dorado my father had been fortunate enough to buy in the bar of the Norfolk hotel from a man wearing an Old Etonian tie." The land is not nearly what its seller claimed, but Elspeth's parents are undaunted and begin their coffee plantation. Her mother, a resourceful, adventurous woman, "eager always to extract from every moment its last drop of interest or pleasure," keeps an eye on Elspeth's education but also allows her extensive freedom. Through Elspeth Huxley's marvelous gift for description, early twentieth-century Kenya comes alive with all the excitement and naive insight of a child who watches with eyes wide open as coffee trees are planted, buffaloes are skinned, pythons are disemboweled, and cultures collide with all the grace of runaway trains. With a free-wheeling imagination and a dry wit, she describes the interactions of Kikuyus, Masais, Dutch Boers, Brits and Scots, mixing rapid-fire descriptions with philosophical musings.

So they are my top four finds this week? What have you found?

19 comments:

  1. Ruined is going to be awesome.
    You should read Shadowed Summer -- Saundra Mitchell it is set in New Orleans & is a bit *creepy*.

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  2. Hi, have you ever read Laura Child's scrapbooking series set in New Orleans? I think you might like it if you haven't read any. Have a good weekend and happy reading.

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  3. That review for The Rosetti Letter caught my eye too!

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  4. I am drawn to the first and the Rosetti letters book

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  5. I'm feeling sorry for my TBR list - all of these sound wonderful!

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  6. That cover for Ruined is gorgeous. That alone would attract me to the book.

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  7. Ruined and the Broken Thread look really good; thanks so much

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  8. Some more good finds here - am starting to look really greedy on my wishlist now :D But it's a good way to keep track of all these books.

    Not a find as such for me but I have won a set of F.E. Higgins books this week so shall enjoy working my way through those.

    You've probably read them but if not The Vampire Chronicles series by Anne Rice is steeped in New Orleansiness. Not all are set there but many are and you really feel like you are there.

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  9. The Broken Thread was on my finds last week, it looks really good, eh?

    I'm in love with your first find. The cover is gorgeous. Off to the wish list it goes!

    ~ Popin

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  10. I featured The Broken Thread in my Friday Finds post this week too! Did you come across it at Popin's Lair by any chance? I also meant to mention some of the Kenya fiction that Rebecca posted about and I forgot! Maybe next week...

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  11. Ruined sounds so awesome and that is such a breathtaking cover. Wow, I love it.

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  12. Ruined looks really good. :) Lots of great finds this week!

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  13. I am adding Ruined to my wish list...it sounds good!

    This is what I found:
    http://missysbooknook.blogspot.com/2009/07/friday-finds-july-3-2009.html

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  14. I do love the cover of Ruined! The Rossetti letter also sounds like one I'd enjoy.

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  15. Some great books there. I think the cover and the write up of Ruined has grabbed my attention. I wrote it in my reading log. Thanks.

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  16. I like the sound and look of Ruined!

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  17. The ghost one of RUINED interests me too! Reminds me a bit of Gothics, love those. I'm finding lots more to this list going through here! Thanks

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Hiya, thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to hear what you have to say, so do leave a comment if you have time.