Freebie Friday
It's Friday, and if it had come any later, I'd be a puddle of goo at my desk right now. However, I hope your week was pleasant, and your weekend is even moreso!
So let's get down to business: I just read "Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall," by Bill Willingham, with art by Charles Vess, Brian Bolland, (breath), John Bolton, Michael Wm. Kaluta, James Jean, Tara McPherson, (breath), Derek Kirk Kim, Esao Andrews, Mark Buckingham, Mark Wheatley and Jill Thompson. Whew!
It's actually a series of graphic novels, with reimagined fairy tales. This one focuses on 1001 Arabian Nights, with Snow White sent to Arabia as an ambassador from the Fables community, and kept as a doomed prisoner by the jilted sultan. It's gruesome but gorgeous, which is how the best ones are these days.
But back to important matters: the giveaway! Congratulations, Amy, you're this week's Freebie Friday winner. We hope you enjoy "In Praise of Doubt."
Next week, you could be the proud owner of Deborah Tannen's "You Were Always Mom's Favorite!: Sisters in Conversation Throughout their Lives." Tannen interviewed hundreds of women while researching the complex relationships between siblings, and if it's anything like her previous best-seller, "You're Wearing That?", it'll be plenty entertaining.
So give me your weekly book reviews! And by the way, I'm going to the Bahamas week after next, so I'll need plenty of ideas for what to download onto my Kindle!
Comments
My bookclub meets Sunday, so I'm on a sprint through "Fragile Branches: Travels through the Jewish Diaspora" by James R. Ross. It describes the small pockets of people in Uganda, India, Peru and other places who have embraced Judaism, but in non-traditional forms. It raises the question: Who is Jewish? (And who decides.)
Posted by: Dave | August 21, 2009 12:21 PM
When I grabbed Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure from the Return cart at the library, I thought it was going to be some slightly fey yarn in which HST might or might not actually be a character.
Turns out, this is a true story. In June, 1953, Harry and Bess, with nothing to do (and, since there was no Presidential pension at the time) very little money to do it with, set off on a three-week roadtrip from Independence to Washington DC (through Grantsville, Frostburg and Frederick, MD, by the way) and on to Philadelphia and New York City.
I'm not a big fan of nonfiction. It is, generally, laboriously detailed with enough numbers - dates and statistics - to choke a horse and, if I'd realized that Harry Truman... was that, I'd have taken the pass for sure. However, Matthew Algeo manages to describe the reactions and interactions of the populace when the Trumans pulled up at the gas pumps as well as the politics of the era (and Harry's views thereof) in a chatty style and interweave it with descriptions of his own attempts at following some or most legs of the journey.
It's a short book and a well-told story.
Posted by: Eve | August 21, 2009 1:20 PM
I just finished "The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green" by Joshua Braff - meh. Getting ready to start "This is Where I Leave You" by Jonathan Tropper. Very excited since I have loved his other stuff.
Posted by: Brian | August 21, 2009 2:25 PM