Friday Finds 03/26/2010

It seems like I get around to doing Friday Finds about once a month so my list of books is a big long ...


Folly, by Laurie R. King - found at the author's blog - "Folly is the story of a woman who builds her house, and herself, under circumstances that straddle the line between drear and dire: her family lost, her blood chemistry ruled by antidepressants, a woman to whom extreme solitude is a positive alternative to the life she leads. Her decision is based on the feeling that, contrary to Dunne, a woman can be an island: bleak, solitary, silent. But, surrounded by other islands."



Mare's War, by Tanita S. Davis - found at Stuff As Dreams Are Made On - "Mare’s War is the story of a journey. Of a pair of journeys really. One journey is a car trip cross country that two young African American girls, Tali and Octavia are taking with their grandmother, Mare. The other journey is the story that their grandmother tells them. And what a beautiful, tragic, strong, admirable, courageous, and ultimately humbling story it is. But Tali and Octavia don’t see it that way at first. [...] But they take the journey with her and learn with her. Mare grew up on a farm [...]. When the opportunity came for Marey (Mare’s name) to go off to war, a new opportunity for women of color, she signed up and left, promising her sister a better life for the two of them. What unfolds in Mare’s story is an awe inspiring story, a story that likely many women of color actually shared in the 40’s. Something that I was not aware of before reading this book!"



The Disappeared, by Kim Echlin - found at Fizzy Thoughts - From the publisher: "A searing, fiercely beautiful love story for the ages, The Disappeared — already a best seller in Canada — traces one woman’s three-decades-long journey from the peaceful streets of Montreal to the humid, war-torn villages of Cambodia, as a brief love affair turns into a grand passion of loss, mourning, and remembrance, set against one of the most brutal genocides of the twentieth century." from Softdrink: "Please, read this book. It will break your heart, but you’ll forgive it because of the beauty of the writing and the things it makes you think."





Henrietta's War, by Joyce Dennis - found at Things Mean A Lot - According to Nymeth, this book "is a humorous epistolary novel set in a village in Devonshire during WW2. “Humorous?”, you might be thinking. “WW2?”. Well, yes. And unlikely though it may sound, it actually works rather splendidly. The story is told through the letters that Henrietta, a middle-aged woman, writes to her childhood friend Robert, who is fighting at the front. In these letters, she satirically describes life in her hometown during the war."




Long Way Home, by David Laskin - found in an email from Booktour.com - from the book summary: "When the United States entered World War I in 1917, one-third of the nation's population had been born overseas or had a parent who was an immigrant. At the peak of U.S. involvement in the war, nearly one in five American soldiers was foreign-born. Many of these immigrant soldiers—most of whom had been drafted—knew little of America outside of tight-knit ghettos and backbreaking labor. Yet World War I would change their lives and ultimately reshape the nation itself. Italians, Jews, Poles, Norwegians, Slovaks, Russians, and Irishmen entered the army as aliens and returned as Americans, often as heroes. [This book] traces the lives of a dozen men, eleven of whom left their childhood homes in Europe, journeyed through Ellis Island, and started over in a strange land."


Decoding the Universe, by Charles Seife - found at Twiga Tales - Regina says: "I was hooked from the moment I read the subtitle: "How the new science of information is explaining everything in the cosmos from our brains to black holes." How could I resist? Then I read the first line: "Civilization is doomed." Yep. This one was going to to be a winner. *grin*"





The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doige - found at books i done read - Raych says: "This book will fascinate your pants off. You think I'm being metaphorical here but I suspect that this is how Dr Doidge picks up chicks, with the fascinating. I can't even begin to explain to you how geekily awesome it is, because my Geeko-Mc-Geek-a-meter broke about half a chapter in, and that is how I measure geek-awesome. So." Seriously people, if you don't read Raych's reviews, you are missing out!





Did any of these books catch your eye as well? What books have I missed hearing about in recent weeks?

For more Friday finds please visit Should Be Reading.