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Saturday, August 8, 2009

In My Mailbox

I've cut back on my library loans and I'm ordering fewer books on trade because I really have more than enough. Still, there are always those gems you snatch up when you can. Kristi at Story Siren created In My Mailbox. Marcia hosts Mailbox Monday and I focus on multicultural lit with New Crayons at Color Online. Here's our goodies for the week:

An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah. Saw this at Lotus reads. Requested it from my library and then missed picking it up. Requested it again. Was excited when I got a notice yesterday that it was in.

Petina Gappah was born in Zimbabwe and currently works as a lawyer in Geneva. This, her first published work of fiction, is a collection of 13 stories, all but one of which are set in her homeland and feature characters struggling with the hyperinflation, bureaucracy and misogyny that beset life in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. See full review at guardian.co.uk.

Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse. Saw this on Paperback Swap. This is our second copy so this gem could be yours. Adding it to our Prize Bucket.

Karen Hesse is the queen of the free verse novel. When interviewed after the publication of the Newbery Award Winning Out of the Dust, Hesse said she wrote in free verse because the writing style best matched the sparseness of her characters’ lives. The same seems to hold true for the tales she also tells of girls’ lives in Witness and now in Aleutian Sparrow. While there are fewer words, they are rich, well intentioned words that affect us as they describe the setting, bring life to characters and tell the story. See full review at Crazy Quilts.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I read mostly women. I don't read much fantasy and I'm not a big audio fan. Well this easy-on-the-eyes Brit is all the reason I need to ignore my biases. I love Gaiman's voice. He's a master storyteller. A donor sent us a hardcover copy. Thank you, anonymous.

Over eight chapters, or stories, we watch Bod grow from a toddler into a young man. We watch him walk the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead, and gather knowledge about both. And in the end, we watch him learn the meaning of being alive. See full review at things mean a lot.

Refugees by Christine Stine. Saw this at Marjolein's. Premise sounds interesting. Requested it from PaperBack Swap.

Two teenagers on opposite sides of the globe flee everything they know. In a world turned upside down by tragedy, they are refugees. 16 year-old Dawn runs away from her unhappy foster home in California and travels to New York City. Johar, an Afghani teenager, sees his world crumble before him. He flees his war-ravaged village and the Taliban, and makes a dangerous trek to a refugee camp in Pakistan. Thanks to his knowledge of English, Johar finds a job at the camp assisting Louise, the Red Cross doctor--and Dawn's foster mother. Through e-mails and phone calls, Dawn and Johar begin to share and protect each other's secrets, fears, and dreams.

13 comments:

Rebecca said...

Great books you got this week. I've been meaning to read The Graveyard Book but haven't yet. Enjoy reading all your books.

Serena said...

I've heard great things about The Graveyard book.

Shalonda said...

I hope you enjoy! Refugees sounds promising. And I still have yet to read any of Neil Gaiman's books.

susan said...

Thank you all for stopping by.

Lizzy said...

The Graveyard book sounds really interesting. Hope you enjoy yours books!

Unknown said...

Interesting week. Hope you enjoy your books.

Anonymous said...

I love the cover and summary for An Elegy for Easterly. Can't wait to hear your review of it!

Jessie Carty said...

i picked up the heese book used as well but haven't gotten to it in my stack yet!

instead i'm reading coraline, speaking of mr. gaiman :)

susan said...

Coraline was fun.

Briana said...

I don't know much about these books except for Graveyard. I heard it's really great!

-Briana

Mary (Bookfan) said...

They look good!

Cackleberry Homestead said...

They all sound good, but Refugees sounds especially good.

Kelly said...

I'm really late getting around to checking out everyone's mailboxes this week! You got some really interesting selections this week, I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of all of them! Gaiman is an interesting guy. My mailbox is here.