Contents of blog copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2023
I've been gone a while. I started reading fanfiction to escape and I got sucked in an abyss.

I have no idea if someone else is hosting similar challenges. I just grabbed some of what I have hosted before.

Here's to a happy year of great reading
Jan2023: Not much has changed. Writing a fanfiction now O_o as well as reading but I bought 7 new books in December and hope to get those read soon. Crossing fingers about adding challenges (late!)

Friday, July 24, 2009

Friday Finds

A Weekly Event hosted by mizb at Should be Reading

The idea is to share, every Friday, about books that you’ve recently discovered (never heard of before) that sound really good!

Every Friday, those who have blogs will write a post at their own blog, and then come back and leave others a link to follow on that week’s “Friday Finds” post here at Should Be Reading. For those who don’t blog, you can just tell us about your “Friday Finds” in a comment on that week’s post. )

Let’s try to keep this clean… that’s all I ask, okay?

Last Night in Montreal
Emily St. John Mandel

Unbridled Books
June 2, 2009 (hardcover)
256 pages

I found this one at Books on the Nightstand, Ann went on a literary vacation (non-work related reading) and shared with us what she read. I read what amazon had to say and you'll notice it isn't posted here. Go ahead and read it but.....
from Ann:
Last Night in Montreal is the kind of novel that you want to read in one sitting. I made the mistake of starting it late at night, so it took me two sessions to finish. It's the kind of book that grabs you from the first chapter, and you know immediately that the rest of the day is spoken for. You want to cancel your plans, let the family forage for food, order takeout for dinner.

Author Emily Mandel opens the novel with Eli, who is telling the story of his girlfriend's disappearance. Lilia awoke one morning, showered, and went out to get the newspaper--and then never returned. It feels incredibly intimate in the telling, and I felt the heartbreak come through in a way that usually happens after I've "known" a character through hundreds of pages.

I don't want to say too much, because when I picked up the book, I had no idea what it was about. I'm not sure if knowing would have slanted my perception, so I'm going to just dance around the plot, which is wholly original, and surprising, and tightly constructed. But Mandel's writing is the true star. It's literary but accessible, precise and yet not at all cold. I described the opening as intimate, and it's the word that keeps popping back into my mind as I think about the novel. The other word I have settled on is "haunting."
Amazon.com's sales rank on July 9: #109,653 in books
#55 in books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Canadian > Women Writers



The author of this one commented on my bookblog page

A Circle of Souls
Preetham Granadhi


Cedar Fort
June 15, 2009 (per amazon.com)
352 pages
paperback (5.5x8.5)

(publisher's site says release date is "2009-06-05" AND "Availability: Pre-Order Today! Available August 2009!")

from cedarfort.com
The sleepy town of Newbury, Connecticut, is shocked when a little girl is found brutally murdered. The town s top detective, perplexed by a complete lack of leads, calls in FBI agent Leia Bines, an expert in cases involving children.

Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Gram, a psychiatrist at Newbury's hospital, searches desperately for the cause of seven-year-old Naya Hastings devastating nightmares. Afraid that she might hurt herself in the midst of a torturous episode, Naya's parents have turned to the bright young doctor as their only hope.

The situations confronting Leia and Peter converge when Naya begins drawing chilling images of murder after being bombarded by the disturbing images in her dreams. Amazingly, her sketches are the only clues to the crime that has panicked Newbury residents. Against her better judgment, Leia explores the clues in Naya's crude drawings, only to set off an alarming chain of events.

In this stunning psychological thriller, innocence gives way to evil, and trust lies forgotten in a web of deceit, fear, and murder.
Amazon.com's sales rank on 7-10: #316,453 in Books

I'm crossing my fingers that he sends me a review copy but I put it on my wish list, just in case. ;-) ~happy dance~ received!


being sent to me for review....

Benny & Shrimp: A Novel
Katarina Mazetti

Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Release Date: July 28, 2009
Pages: 224
paperback (7.6x5 inches)

"
Two middle-aged misfits and a love that should not be as complicated as it seems

It started in a cemetery, where they begrudgingly share a bench. "Shrimp," the childless young widow and librarian with a sharp intellect and a home so tidy that her jam jars are in alphabetical order, meets Benny, the gentle, overworked milk farmer who fears becoming the village's Old Bachelor. Both driven by an enormous longing and loudly ticking biological clocks, they can't escape the powerful attraction between them.

But how will she learn to accept that he falls asleep at the opera and has a house full of his mother's cross-stitch? And how could he ever feel at home in her minimalist apartment, bare as a dentist's waiting room?

An international sensation now available for the first time in the United States, this quirky, humorous, completely readable novel breathes new life into the age-old conundrum that is love. "


Amazon.com Sales Rank: #620,821 in Books

5 comments:

gautami tripathy said...

The second book is on my wishlist!

Here are my Friday Finds

Jess said...

Benny and Shrimp sounds like a great read... have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Remmers said...

I absolutely LOVED a Circle of Souls! I read it in one day! I received Benny and Shrimp last week also and look forward to reading it!

Mary (Bookfan) said...

Benny & Shrimp is on my TBR list!

Denise said...

I'm almost finished with a Circle of Souls and it has been a great book. I hope to see more from Mr. Granadhi!

Disclaimer

In accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Book Dragon's Lair. All books I review are either borrowed, purchased by me, given as a gift, won in some kind of contest, or received in exchange for an honest review.