Friday Finds asks:

“What great books did you hear about / discover this past week? Share with us your Friday Finds!”

This week I’ve added four books to my GoodReads.com list. I’m actually a bit relieved because last week I added so many new books that the idea of posting about all of them was just to overwhelming. Never mind the task of actually acquiring and reading all these great books – talk about a job that will never be done! Anyway, here are my finds from this week:

• High Fidelity by Nick Hornby – After reading a review at Serendipity’s blog (she has got to be my best source for book finds) I decided I definitely wanted to read this novel. I have seen bits and pieces of the movie based off of it, but I’m guessing the book is even better. For those not familiar with the storyline: “Is it possible to share your life with someone whose record collection is incompatible with your own? Can people have terrible taste and still be worth knowing? Do songs about broken hearts and misery and loneliness mess up your life if consumed in excess?For Rob Fleming, thirty-five years old, a pop addict and owner of a failing record shop, these are the sort of questions that need an answer, and soon. His girlfriend has just left him. Can he really go on living in a poky flat surrounded by vinyl and CDs or should he get a real home, a real family and a real job? Perhaps most difficult of all, will he ever be able to stop thinking about life in terms of the All Time Top Five bands, books, films, songs – even now that he’s been dumped again, the top five break-ups?”
• Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater by Matthew Amster-Burton – My blogging friend Nancy @ Life With My Boys mentioned this book in this month’s What’s On Your Nightstand – a book carnival @ 5 Minutes For Books. I thought it was an interesting book to stumble upon after having just written a post about picky eaters the day before. “Hungry Monkey is the story of Amster-Burton’s life as a food-lover–with a child. It’s the story of how he came to realize that kids don’t need puree in a jar or special menus at restaurants and that raising an adventurous eater is about exposure, invention, and patience. He writes of the highs and lows of teaching your child about food–the high of rediscovering how something tastes for the first time through a child’s unflinching reaction, the low of thinking you have a precocious vegetable fiend on your hands only to discover that a child’s preferences change from day to day (and may take years to include vegetables again). Sharing in his culinary capers is little Iris, a budding gourmand and a zippy critic herself–who makes hug sandwiches, gobbles up hot chilis, and even helps around the kitchen sometimes.”
• Mum’s The Word (Flower Shop Mystery, Book One) by Kate Collins – This book series was recommended to me by Type A Mommy in response to my own What’s On Your Nightstand post, describing it as a “light, funny mystery series” – light and funny being exactly the kind of books I’m looking to read right now. “Law school dropout Abby Knight is the proud new owner of her hometown flower shop. She adores her job, but a new low-cost competitor is killing her profits and a black SUV just rammed her vintage Corvette in a hit-and-run. Determined to track down the driver, she accepts the help of hunky ex-cop Marco Salvare. But their budding relationship is threatened when the trail turns deadly.”
• The Funny Thing Is by Ellen Degeneres – Another book I stumbled across at Serendipity‘s blog. I am a huge fan of Ellen Degeneres and her humor – I think this book would be an excellent read and likely a good light read. “After years of painstaking, round-the-clock research, surviving on a mere twenty minutes of sleep a night, and collaborating with lexicographers, plumbers, and mathematicians, DeGeneres has crafted a work that is both easy to use and very funny. Along with her trademark ramblings, The Funny Thing Is… contains hundreds of succinct insights into her psyche and offers innovative features including:

More than 50,000 simple, short words arranged in sentences that form paragraphs. Thousands of observations on everyday life — from terrible fashion trends to how to handle seating arrangements for a Sunday brunch with Paula Abdul, Diane Sawyer, and Eminem. All twenty-six letters of the alphabet.

Sure to make you laugh, The Funny Thing Is… is an indispensable reference for anyone who knows how to read or wants to fool people into thinking they do.”

What books did you discover this week?