Friday, February 6, 2009

Friday Finds

It's been an interesting and varied week for new books. Bookmooch brought me Nicole Krauss's The History of Love, a novel I'd had my eye on for awhile now, as well as Our Lady of the Lost and Found, a novel I saw in a used bookstore first, about an encounter with the Virgin Mary.













I received Love and Other Natural Disasters, by Holly Shumas, via a giveaway over on The Bermuda Onion's blog. Thank you! I can't wait to get started- it looks like a fun book.

Finally, I received And From There You Shall Seek, by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, from the Catholic Library Association for a professional review assignment. It was originally published in Hebrew in 1978 and this is its first appearance in English. Rabbi Soloveitchik is famous around the Boston area as the founder of the Maimonides School, an Orthodox Jewish dayschool. I've already glanced at the first chapter or two and have found it readable and interesting. I always get nervous with very academic, religious books- I worry they'll be a little dry. This book is a meditation on the search for God using The Song of Songs as a framing device. We'll see how it goes!

What book has surprised you recently?

10 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I hope you enjoy your book!

Lenore Appelhans said...

A friend of mine has History of Love and I have been meaning to borrow it.

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

I have Our Lady of the Lost and Found on my shelf also :)

avisannschild said...

I couldn't get into The History of Love, but I may just have picked it up at the wrong time. I've heard so many good things about it that I intend to give it another shot one of these days. I hope you enjoy Love and Other Natural Disasters!

I just gave you an award on my blog here.

Serena said...

Love and other natural disasters looks like a good read. congrats.

LorMil said...

Marie: Let me know what you think of The History of Love, when you finish it.

I really enjoyed the story line.

Anonymous said...

I hope you enjoy The History of Love. I read it 2 years ago and loved it to pieces. I recently got my copy back (it's been circulating friends all that time!) and I'm afraid it disappointed me on the reread, though. Still, it's beautifully written, and the first time I read it, it almost broke my heart.

Marie Cloutier said...

booktrash, thanks. i'm looking forward to getting to it. i've been eyeing it in bookstores for ages! :-)

The Bookworm said...

great finds :) From There You Shall Seek sounds very interesting.

The last book to pleasantly surprise me was In The Land of Invisible Women. I didnt expect to enjoy it as much as I did, it was fascinating.
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

I enjoyed The History of Love immensely. It led me to Nicole Karuss' husband's novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which definitely surprised me.