Skip to main content

Friday Finds


A couple of books have gotten my attention this past week, especially with a new round of ER books being posted on LibraryThing.

The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y.K. Lee. Historical fiction set in 1940s and ‘50s Hong Kong , about a woman who finds work giving piano lessons (click here for a glimpse of the gorgeous cover art).

Drood, by Dan Simmons. Novel about Charles Dickens, “narrated” by Wilkie Collins, about Dickens’s last days and his last, unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Execution Dock, by Anne Perry. The latest in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series, to be published in March.

Lydia Bennet’s Story, by Jane Odiwe. Essentially, a continuation of Pride and Prejudice, told from the point of view of the youngest, most wayward sister. Won this in a contest.

Comments

Anna said…
I really enjoyed Lydia Bennet's Story. I'm looking forward to your thoughts.

--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
Anna Claire said…
That is gorgeous cover art for The Piano Teacher.

I requested all of these that you mention, but I'd be super excited if I got Drood.

The Woman in White is the only Wilkie Collins book I've read, but it was really good.
Andi said…
It's probably, technically, a good thing that I'm not an active Library Thinger because I already have such an expansive wishlist. Although, reading this post, it's growing some more!
Anonymous said…
The Piano Teacher is on my list! I am interested in reading fiction set in my hometown. :)
jenclair said…
Hearing about Dickens' last days and his unfinished novel from Wilkie Collins' view should be interesting. It should be fun to read Simmons writing as Wilkie Collins!

I no longer keep up with the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series. My favorites were the William Monk & Hester novels. I need to get back to both series.
Michelle said…
thanks for more great ideas of books to read. I will check out the Piano Teacher. Love your blog!
jenclair said…
This is where I read about Drood! Sometimes I check in on so many blogs, remembering which books were recommended where!
Bybee said…
Drood sounds cool.

That is beautiful cover art for The Piano Teacher.

Lydia Bennet's Story sounds like a fun read.
avisannschild said…
I really want to read both The Piano Teacher and Drood (although it sounds like it might be quite creepy!).
Anonymous said…
I think The Piano Teacher looks good, too.

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars...

Review: The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y.K. Lee

The Piano Teacher is a complicated novel. On the surface, it’s about a love affair between two British ex-patriots in Hong Kong in 1952-3. Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong with her husband Martin at a time when the world is still recovering from WWII; Claire takes up work as a piano teacher for the daughter of a wealthy Chinese family, where she meets Will Truesdale, the Chens’ enigmatic chauffeur. The book jumps back in time between the 1950s and the beginning of WWII, when Will is interned in Stanley, a Hong Kong camp for enemies of Japan. On “the outside” is Tudy Liang, Will’s beautiful Eurasian lover. There’s no doubt that Lee’s writing is beautiful. But there’s something lacking in this short, terse novel that I can’t quite put my finger on. First, I think it’s the tenses she uses when taking about each story: that which is set in the 1950s is in the past tense, while the war scenes are talked about in the present tense (confusing, no?) The interpersonal relationships of the m...