~Friday Finds~

The Oxygen Man by Steve Yarbrough

In this powerful and gritty first novel, Steve Yarbrough takes us into the deep-South world of Ned Rose, who works nights checking the oxygen levels in fish-farm ponds and does all the dirty work his wealthy boss requires. He silently shares the family home with his sister Daze, who is nearly blinded by bitterness, obsessed with her mother's reputation as a loose, lustful woman. Since his angry teenage years as a scholarship student at a posh, segregated school, Ned's life has been marred by a violence that erupts loudly and quickly disappears, leaving him filled with secrets and regret. When one last hope for deliverance emerges, however, both brother and sister are forced to come to terms with their heritage.

The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford
In his latest novel, the author of The Girl in the Glass (2005) and The Empire of Ice Cream (2007), among other genre-bending tales, takes us back in time to the 1960s, when strange doings are afoot in a small suburban community. A schoolboy has vanished; a stranger has appeared; a prowler (possibly a pervert) is lurking about; and a librarian is losing her grip on reality. Keeping track of it all are several young chums, including the sixth-grade narrator; his older brother, Jim; and their sister, Mary, who may somehow be affecting what’s happening as she rearranges figures on the toy model of the community in her basement. Imagine a young-reader amateur-sleuth novel written by someone like Kafka, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of this one: surreal, unsettling, and more than a little weird. Ford has a rare gift for evoking mood with just a few well-chosen words and for creating living, breathing characters with only a few lines of dialogue. Give this one to readers who appreciate the blending of literary fiction, fantasy, and mystery --David Pitt --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Colored Garden by O.H. Bennett

When his parents split up, Sarge moves with his mother and older sister to his grandparents' farm in Kentucky. After living in Germany, where his father is posted, Sarge finds down-home country life strange and the neighboring hillbillies even more so. Sarge's grandmother Ruth helps him gain a connection to the place when she asks him to help her tend the garden. The garden is really an ancient slave cemetery, and Ruth knows stories for everyone buried there--except one. The mystery of who baby "Kate" is leads Sarge on a surprising hunt into the past, with devastating and illuminating consequences. Ruth's stories will come alive for readers, as they do for Sarge. Bennett's first novel is beautiful and real; impossible to put down until the final page

What did YOU find today?