Friday Finds: October 24, 2008

Time to check in with MizB at Should Be Reading and share my book finds for the week:

I won a copy of Douglas W. Jacobson’s Night of Flames: A Novel of World War II from Shana at Literarily.  This was published in paperback at the beginning of October, and is said to

 ”paint a vivid and terrifying picture of war-torn Europe during WWII. It’s the tale of a Krakow university professor Anna and her husband Jan, a Polish cavalryman. Separated and forced to flee occupied Poland, Anna soon finds herself caught up in the Belgian Resistance, while Jan becomes embedded in British Intelligence efforts to contact the Resistance in Poland. He seizes this opportunity to search for his lost wife Anna.”

Author Jayne Pupek sent me a copy of her debut novel, Tomato Girl.  I have read so many great reviews of this book, I’m looking forward to diving in to it!  Here’s the back-of-the-book blurb:   

For eleven-year-old Ellie Sanders, her father has always been the rock that she could cling to when her mother’s emotional troubles became too frightening. But when he comes under the thrall of the pretty teenager who raises vegetables and tomatoes for sale at the general store that he runs, Ellie sees her security slowly slipping away. Now she must be witness and warden to her mother’s gradual slide into madness. 

Told from Ellie’s point of view, Tomato Girl takes the reader into the soul of a terrified young girl clinging desperately to childhood while being forced into adulthood years before she is ready. To save herself, she creates a secret world, a place in which her mother gets well, her father returns to being the man he was, and the Tomato Girl is banished forever.

The last book I’ll share this week is Maragaret Cezair-Thompson’s The Pirate’s Daughter.  Margaret will be on a panel at our local Festival of Authors this weekend.  Many thanks to Caitlin at Unbridled Books for sending me this gorgeous hardcover copy of the book.  How does this summary grab you: 

In 1946, Hollywood’s most famous swashbuckler, Errol Flynn, arrived in Jamaica in a storm-ravaged boat. After a long and celebrated career on the silver screen, Flynn spent the last years of his life on a small island off the Jamaican coast, where he fell in love with the people, the paradisiacal setting, and the privacy, and brought a touch of Tinseltown glamour to the West Indian community.  

Based on those years, The Pirate’s Daughter imagines an affair between the aging matinee star and Ida, a beautiful local girl. Flynn’s affections are unpredictable but that doesn’t stop Ida from dreaming of a life with him, especially after the birth of their daughter, May. 

Margaret Cezair-Thompson weaves stories of mothers and daughters, fathers and lovers, country and kin, into this compelling, dual-generational coming-of-age tale of two women struggling to find their way in a nation wrestling with its own independence.

Three novels in one week is unusual for me, I usually have some non-fiction, or maybe a kid’s book or “how-to” mixed in.  I’m looking forward to reading each of these, and to seeing Margaret on Sunday (keep crossing your fingers that a babysitter will materialize for me … it doesn’t have to be Mary Poppins, just someone to keep the kids safe, and fairly happy, for two hours!).  What’s new on your bookshelf?