Friday Finds-June 19

Should Be Reading asks you to share what books you discovered this week that interest you!

A couple of books have caught my eye this week. The first one is The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein. Peeking Between the Pages(who is also giving away this book) and Redlady's Reading Room both gave great reviews of this book. I've always loved books that give me a glimpse into another culture so this one is right up my alley.

Here is a summary of The Painter from Shanghai from the W.W. Norton website:

Down the muddy waters of the Yangtze River and into the seedy backrooms of “The Hall of Eternal Splendor,” through the raucous glamour of prewar Shanghai and the bohemian splendor of 1920s Paris, and back to a China ripped apart by civil war and teetering on the brink of revolution: this novel tells the story of Pan Yuliang, one of the most talented—and provocative—Chinese artists of the twentieth century.

Jennifer Cody Epstein’s epic brings to life the woman behind the lush, Cezannesque nude self-portraits, capturing with lavish detail her life in the brothel and then as a concubine to a Republican official who would ultimately help her find her way as an artist. Moving with the tide of historical events, The Painter from Shanghai celebrates a singularly daring painting style—one that led to fame, notoriety, and, ultimately, a devastating choice: between Pan’s art and the one great love of her life.

When I saw Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen over at Lynne's Little Corner of the World I just laughed! I love the cover and the title and it appears that Lynne enjoyed the book so that's enough for me!

Here is a summary of Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen from the Random House website:

Sometimes you have to return to the place where you began, to arrive at the place where you belong.

It’s the early 1970s. The town of Ringgold, Georgia, has a population of 1,923, one traffic light, one Dairy Queen, and one Catherine Grace Cline. The daughter of Ringgold’s third-generation Baptist preacher, Catherine Grace is quick-witted, more than a little stubborn, and dying to escape her small-town life.

Every Saturday afternoon, she sits at the Dairy Queen, eating Dilly Bars and plotting her getaway to the big city of Atlanta. And when, with the help of a family friend, the dream becomes a reality, Catherine Grace immediately packs her bags, leaving her family and the boy she loves to claim the life she’s always imagined. But before things have even begun to get off the ground in Atlanta, tragedy brings her back home. As a series of extraordinary events alters her perspective–and sweeping changes come to Ringgold itself–Catherine Grace begins to wonder if her place in the world may actually be, against all odds, right where she began.

So has anything new caught your eye this week?