Friday Finds 03/05/10

It has been months since I’ve done a Friday Finds post but my TBR list hasn’t suffered too greatly in that time. For that, I am immensely grateful. Here are the six books I’ve discovered since late January:


The Passage, by Justin Cronin – found at The Book Case – This book “was inspired by his 9-year-old daughter—she asked him to write a novel about a girl who saved the world. Four years later, Cronin, known for his quiet literary works, had completed a 700-page manuscript that was the talk of the 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair and sold for $3 million. Layered and complex, The Passage is the type of vividly imagined book that really draws readers in. Cronin is able to make characters who only appear on 10 pages as alive as his main characters, and in the novel’s first 100 pages he has set the stage for what promises to be an epic saga: a young girl is abandoned; a scientific team on an expedition in South America discovers a mysterious, deadly virus; a death row inmate is released and transported to a secret location by a military operative for experimentation.”


The Curse of the Pharaohs, by Elizabeth Peters – found at Historical Tapestry – I’ve been wanting to try out the Amelia Peabody series (this is book 2) - I really must get to it soon! “When Lady Baskerville’s husband Sir Henry dies after discovering what may have been an undisturbed royal tomb in Luxor, she appeals to eminent archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson and his wife Amelia to take over the excavation. Amid rumors of a curse haunting all those involved with the dig, the intrepid couple proceeds to Egypt, where they begin to suspect that Sir Henry did not die a natural death, and they are confident that the accidents that plague the dig are caused by a sinister human element, not a pharaoh’s curse.”


Dreamers of the Day, by Mary Doria Russell – recommended to me by Dreamybee – I’m a huge fan of this author and I think it is her only book I have yet to read. “A forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio still reeling from the tragedies of the Great War and the influenza epidemic, Agnes has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as the Peace Conference convenes, Agnes, with her plainspoken American opinions–and a small, noisy dachshund named Rosie–enters into the company of the historic luminaries who will, in the space of a few days at a hotel in Cairo, invent the nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan.”



A Darker Place, by Laurie R. King – profiled on the author’s site – I’m already a fan of her Mary Russell series, but this book sounds very intriguing as well. It has a combination of religion, science, and illegality that sounds like it could be really good!



Frozen In Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition, by Owen Beattie & John Geiger – found at Naked Without Books – I love polar stories, and I’m somewhat familiar with the Franklin expedition so this book is right up my alley. “In 1845, Sir John Franklin set out to find the Northwest Passage with his two ships the Erebus and the Terror and a crew of 129 men. (With ship names like that, wouldn't you have been tempted to turn back?) When no one had heard or seen them by 1848, search parties were organized. The ships were never found, but there was evidence the whole party had perished. […] Fast-forward to the early 1980s. Forensic anthropologist Owen Beattie took a team back to the Arctic and dug up and examined 3 of the victims, who were perfectly preserved in ice.”



The Italian Slow Cooker, by Michele Scicolone - found at Wordsmithonia – I am NOT a chef, nor do I particularly like to cook, so crock pot meals are a wonderful thing in my world. And this book seems to have some tasty and unique recipes that I’d love to try.


That's what I've got this week - what did YOU find? Be sure to drop by Should Be Reading to check out more other amazing books.