Saturday, July 19, 2008

Friday Finds - a day late!

It's been a crazy week, but I made it to Saturday- thank goodness! Here are a couple of things I picked up or started reading this week that I'm excited about:

The Demon from Dakar, by Kjell Eriksson. I've had this galley since February, but between one thing and other, I haven't really got to read it until late last week. It came out in May; lately these Scandinavian crime novels have been popular so I thought I would give this one a try. I don't normally read a lot of crime fiction but I am really enjoying this book a lot.


The Bride Who Argued with God, a collection of Jewish folktales by Hava Ben-Zvi. This book is an anthology of 70-odd Jewish folktales compiled and translated by librarian and author Hava Ben-Zvi. I will have an interview with Ms. Ben-Zvi sometime in the next few weeks. In the mean time I've been enjoying reading the stories, many of which I'm already familiar with. Several of those I've read so far have been used as the basis for children's books and other literature, Jewish and not. It's good stuff and a great collection.

Last but not least, there's Dearest Anne, by Israeli novelist Judith Katzir. This book is the story of a woman recollecting an affair she had with a female teacher when she was younger. I read the first few pages in the bookstore and it looks to be both well-written and a page turner.


What did you find this week?

6 comments:

Ruth said...

It's been one of those weeks here too. I just got mine posted now as well.

Anonymous said...

The Bride Who Argued with God sounds fantastic, and I will check it out for sure.

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

You might know more about Jewish lit than I do. Cool! Teach me!!

Marie Cloutier said...

Susan, aww! I'm learning all the time too! :-)

Anonymous said...

Your finds look terrific, I'm not familiar with any of your new books (so many books, so little time).

I'm more of a slacker than you this week, posting my Friday Finds on Sunday!

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I found a book by an Israeli writer as well. Alon Hilu just released a new book but the one I found is called Death of a Monk. It's based on a historical blood libel against the Jews in Damascus, Syria, and offers an original homosexual interpretation for the historical events. I haven't started yet but the first few pages look interesting.