Friday Finds is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading and gives readers a chance to highlight books they have discovered during the week. Here are mine:
Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work 
by Edwidge DanticatI found this one courtesy of the Shelf Unbound Magazine and thought it sounded like a good option for the Immigrant Stories Challenge. Here is an excerpt from the Publisher's Weekly:
Danticat reminds us that, in a cruel twist of fate, her native Haiti, earthquake-and-poverty-torn, gained independence, in a bloody slave uprising, not long after the U.S. did: our ties, usually unexamined, run painfully deep. Whether eulogizing her family, writing on leading journalist Jean Dominique' s assassination and exiled author Marie Vieux-Chauvet, or discussing Madison Avenue Primitive Jean-Michel Basquiat, Danticat documents what it means for an immigrant writer to create dangerously for immigrant readers who read dangerously, awakened and no longer participants in a culture of historical amnesia.And then at the other end of the spectrum entirely . . . .
If You Were Here
by Jen Lancaster was brought to my attention by fellow blogger Poof Books on Twitter yesterday. Jen Lancaster's earlier books have all been memoirs and have literally made me laugh out loud. This is her first novel and here is a short summary from Amazon:Told in the uproariously entertaining voice readers have come to expect from Jen Lancaster, If You Were Here follows Amish-zombie-teen- romance author Mia and her husband Mac (and their pets) through the alternately frustrating, exciting, terrifying-but always funny-process of buying and renovating their first home in the Chicago suburbs that John hughes's movies made famous. Along their harrowing renovation journey, Mia and Mac get caught up in various wars with the homeowners' association, meet some less-than-friendly neighbors, and are joined by a hilarious cast of supporting characters, including a celebutard ex- landlady. As they struggle to adapt to their new surroundings- with Mac taking on the renovations himself- Mia and Mac will discover if their marriage is strong enough to survive months of DIY renovations.What did you find this week?
I'm looking forward to IF YOU WERE HERE too. It reminds me of that Tom Hanks movie, The Money Pit. Home renovations are tiresome and time consuming and definitely a money pit. Having just gone through all that, I think I'll find this very, very funny. :-)
ReplyDeleteIf You Were Here is definitely on my radar. I've enjoyed Lancaster's memoirs, so I'm interested in seeing if her talent transfers to fiction writing. So far, she's off to a good start with a premise to which I think many of us can relate.
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing about JenL books, I look forward to trying one this year.
ReplyDeleteThe Danticat book looks good...I loved her Brother, I'm Dying.
ReplyDeleteI have If You Were Here on my WL too!
ReplyDeleteHere are my Finds
Those 2 books do seem to cover a broad range. The second could be very funny if it's true to John Hughes.
ReplyDeleteI've read a number of Lancaster's books, and found them hilarious. I didn't realize she had novel coming out -- thanks!
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