Sunday, July 12, 2020

Fresh Ink New Books Out Today April 9, 2013

Fresh Ink New Books Out Today April 9, 2013 Floundering between  books, looking for something thatll hook you? Look no further, friends. Its a good day indeed. And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry (St. Martins Press)  Fellow Rioter Emily named this one of the  5 Books to Watch for in April, so Im going to let her speak for it here too. A quick read with high marks for heartstrings tugging. A woman and the daughter she placed for adoption are reunited through the power of Facebook. Patti was inspired by a real life experience from her own family, which she explains in the introduction. The whole reading experience was like watching a Lifetime movie in my jammers on a Sunday afternoon…and I loved it. Just try to tell me that doesnt sound like exactly what you want to read on the first perfect spring weekend of the year! Harvard Square by André Aciman (W.W. Norton) Acimans collection Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere was a highlight of my  reading year in 2012 (it was originally published in 2011), and Ive been looking forward to  seeing this book out in the world ever since. Aciman explores issues of place and identity with great depth and insight, and his sentences are just a pleasure to read. Aciman assumes intelligence and cultural awareness in his readerssomething I find refreshing and delightfuland he manages to teach without being didactic.  This novel is about a young Jewish man from Egypt who is studying 17th-century lit at Harvard and wants nothing more than to assimilate into  American culture when he meets an Arab cab driver who changes his whole life. Early reviews call it complex and beautiful, and I cant wait to find out for myself. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (Riverhead)   Its finally here! You know that feeling when you buy a friend a really great gift and youre just bursting at the seams to give it to them so they can enjoy the thing you just KNOW theyre going to love? The Interestings is that gift. I fell for it so hard when I read it over the holidays, and Ive been, like, making paper chains and counting the days til its release. Meg Wolitzer, yall. Shes the shit. The story here is about a group of friends who meet at an artsy camp one summer. They come from different worlds, but camp being the great equalizers that it is, they form mostly-fleeting couples and lifelong bonds. And its about privilege and money and the struggle of reconciling the realities of adulthood with the if-you-work-hard-enough-your-dreams-will-all-come-true promises of childhood. Mostly, its about the complexity of maintaining  relationships with people youve known forever but, if you met them today, might not have much in common with, and what happens to the dynamics of friendship as we grow and (inevitably) change. And its really fucking good. If Meg Wolitzer isnt widely recognized for  writing one of the best  books of the year, I will eat my shorts. _________________________ Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise. To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. So much bookish goodnessall day, every day. Sign up to Unusual Suspects to receive news and recommendations for mystery/thriller readers. Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.

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