Thursday, July 23, 2009

Friday Finds

repeat after me by Rachel DeWoskin

On Manhattan's Upper West Side, several months after 1989's Tiananmen Square massacre, young college dropout Aysha Silvermintz is recovering from an emotional collapse. Teaching an adult class on English as a second language, she meets a young Chinese student named Chen Da Ge, an even more unstable soul she finds herself falling for. Under the pretense of helping him gain citizenship, but hoping for a romantic relationship, Silvermintz agrees to marry Chen, whose feelings and past she still finds a mystery. Silvermintz narrates her story from 13 years later, and the parallel narrative finds Chen dead and Silvermintz living in Beijing with their daughter. Immersing them both in the world of Chen's past, Silvermintz struggles to gain a better understanding of her husband and their time together.

Far North by Marcel Theroux

Global warming has decimated civilization, and narrator Makepeace Hatfield is the sole survivor of her Siberian settlement. After coming across another survivor and seeing a plane in the sky, Makepeace heads out to find other settlements. Unfortunately, Horeb, the first settlement she finds, is Hobbesian, and the camp's leader, Reverend Boathwaite, sells her into a slave gang. Marched a thousand miles west to an old gulag, Makepeace spends five years as a slave and eventually escapes after she's dispatched as a slave-guard to a ravaged city now known as the Zone. Teaming up with another escaped slave, the two try to trek back to Makepeace's original home, but tragedy strikes again.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

I loved Paperchase by Marcel Theroux and am waiting for a copy of Far North to appear in the library - despite it being released in Feb. I am still waiting!

serendipity_viv said...

They both sound good. Don't know which one appeals to me more!

Suko said...

How does Friday Finds work? Do you actually have to find the books on a Friday--or just mention them then?

Which will you read first?

The Reading Momster said...

Both sounds good :)

Nikki in Niagara said...

Far North was excellent. I loved it. It's not quite global warming though that ended the world as we knew it.

Jess said...

These both sound great. Fantastic finds!

jlshall said...

"Repeat after me" is going on my TBR list right away! Sounds like a great read - but sad.

Kelly said...

Great finds!! Gonna look for both of them!

Serena said...

both of these covers are eye-catching...and the stories sound wonderful.

Marie Cloutier said...

both of those look great!

avisannschild said...

Repeat After Me sounds interesting!

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

Repeat after Me seems like my kind of book; thanks

Shonda said...

Repeat After Me is such a pretty cover! This sounds like it will be a great read.

bermudaonion said...

Repeat after Me looks especially good.