Friday 23 July 2010

Friday Finds

Friday Finds is hosted by MizB at You Should Be Reading and you can find it here. MizB does a fantastic job with this meme every week, so do pop over and pay her a visit.

It has been ages since I have done a Friday Finds post and I seem to have added so many books to my list. I really need to do a whole week of these posts, to show all my wonderful finds in the blogging world.

1) The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth Von Armin.

I loved The Enchanted Apirl by this author, which I read last summer and I have been meaning to read more of her books. So I was pleased to discover this book at Ana's blog Things Mean ALot a few weeks ago.

Here is the blurb from Amazon.

The Solitary Summer, written by author Elizabeth Von Arnim, is a companion to her popular Elizabeth and Her German Garden. In The Solitary Summer, she focuses on a summer filled with rejuvenation in the midst of a search for finding indenity and meaning in her life. Successful in life with marriage and children, the main character finds that she need to find herself as she feels a large void in her life. This is an excellent book for those who are fans of the works of Elizabeth Von Arnim and for individuals who have read Elizabeth and Her German Garden.

I might have to buy this one with Elizabeth and Her German Garden and read them together.


2) Up In The Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell.

I thought this one might be good for my American Journey as it is a collection of short stories that were written for The New Yorker from the 1930's to the 1960's. I found this book over at Rose City Reader's blog.

Here is the blurb from Amazon.

Journalist Joseph Mitchell, whose death in in May 1996 at the age of 87 merited a half-page obituary in the New York Times, pioneered a style of journalism while crafting brilliant magazine pieces for the New Yorker from the 1930s to the early 1960s. Up in the Old Hotel, a collection of his best reporting, is a 700-page joy to read.
Mitchell lovingly chronicled the lives of odd New York characters. In the pages of Up In the Old Hotel, the reader passes through places such as McSorley's Old Ale House or the Fulton Fish Market that many observers might have found ordinary. But when experienced through Mitchell's gifted eye, the reader will see that these haunts of old New York possess poetry, beauty, and meaning.


3) The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman.
I will not give up on Alice Hoffman. I know I am going to find a book of hers that I will love soon.
This book has only just come out in England.
Here is the blurb from Amazon.
Her new novel, The Story Sisters, charts the lives of three sisters–Elv, Claire, and Meg. Each has a fate she must meet alone: one on a country road, one in the streets of Paris, and one in the corridors of her own imagination. Inhabiting their world are a charismatic man who cannot tell the truth, a neighbor who is not who he appears to be, a clumsy boy in Paris who falls in love and stays there, a detective who finds his heart’s desire, and a demon who will not let go.What does a mother do when one of her children goes astray? How does she save one daughter without sacrificing the others? How deep can love go, and how far can it take you? These are the questions this luminous novel asks. At once a coming-of-age tale, a family saga, and a love story of erotic longing, The Story Sisters sifts through the miraculous and the mundane as the girls become women and their choices haunt them, change them and, finally, redeem them.

4) Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

I saw this for sale in the shops today and I knew the title sounded familiar. It wasn't until I got home and looked in my little book that I realised it was one I hoped to read. Might have to pop back and buy it.
It is like a cross between Groundhog Day and If I Stay.
Here is the blurb from Amazon.
Sam Kingston is dead. Except she isn't.On a rainy February night, eighteen-year-old Sam is killed in a horrific car crash. But then the impossible happens: she wakes up in her own bed, on the morning of the day that she died.Forced to live over and over the last day of her life the drive to school, skipping class, the fateful party she desperately struggles to alter the outcome, but every morning she wakes up on the day of the crash.This is a story of a girl who dies young, but in the process learns how to live. And who falls in love... a little too late.


So there are my finds for this week. Have you read any of these or would you like to?

13 comments:

  1. I hope you enjoy The Solitary Summer when you get to it! And The Story Sisters does sound great.

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  2. Up in the Old Hotel sounds great. I could not get into The Story Sisters for some reason?

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  3. You're right not to give up on Alice Hoffman! I'm looking forward to Before I Fall too. Great finds!

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  4. One of my book clubs is reading Before I Fall next month and I'm very happy about that!!

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  5. I haven't read any of these but I have read a few books by Hoffman before and I plan on reading more some day. She's a brilliant author.

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  6. I have heard so much about that last one, everyone says it's so good

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  7. I've been wanting to read Before I Fall for a while too.

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  8. These all look really good. Intrigued by the first and last one especially.

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  9. Yay for Story Sisters. Totally pick it up.

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  10. Enchanted April is such a lovely book isn't it? I've been meaning to read another of her books in like forever and just haven't gotten around to it.

    I hadn't heard of the Lauren Oliver book but it sounds great. Oh dear, more books for my list!

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  11. nice finds! glad youre not giving up on Alice Hoffman. Have you tried Practical Magic?
    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

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  12. Looks like some good finds. I have The Story Sisters hanging around somewhere. It sounds good but I don't know. I've been curious about Before I Fall but not enough to pick it up.

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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.