Monthly Archives: August 2010

Mailbox Monday is a weekly post where I talk about the books that have arrived in my house over the last week.

Marcia at The Printed Page is no longer hosting this meme at her blog, she’s now hosting the Mailbox Monday Blog Tour.  This month’s  home is Chick Loves Lit.  Come over and check out what other bookish people had appear in their to-be-read piles, and share your new acquisitions.

Next week, Mailbox Monday will travel on to Bermudaonion’s Weblog. Thank you to Shanyn for hosting August and Kathy for hosting September.

This week, 1 book arrived in my mailbox, and 3 books (or maybe 1 book) came in through other paths.

One review book each week is a good pace.  I feel the book love, but can still make progress on my backlog.

This week’s review book is an unsolicited copy of
A Geography of Secrets by Frederick Reuss .

Two men: One discovers the cost of keeping secrets, of building a career within a government agency where secrets are the operational basis. Noel Leonard works for the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center, mapping coordinates for military actions halfway around the world. One morning he learns that an error in his office is responsible for the bombing of a school in Afghanistan. And he knows suddenly that he is as alone as he is wrong. From his windowless office in DC to an intelligence conference in Switzerland, and back to his daughter’s college in Virginia, Noel claws his way toward a more personally honest life in which he can tell his family everything every day.

Another man learns that family secrets have kept him from who he is and from the ineluctable ways he is attached to a world he has always disdained. This unnamed narrator, a cartographer, is the son of a career diplomat whose activities in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and then in Europe during the Cold War may not have been what they were said to be. He, too, travels to Switzerland, but his quest is not to release himself from secrecy—it is to learn how deep the secrets in his own life go.

I had reluctantly passed on a chance to request it earlier, but was really excited to see it in my mailbox. I’ve enjoyed every book I’ve read from Unbridled Press, and strongly expect this will not be an exception.

For the other book/books that arrived this week: I bought 3 copies of Mockingjay.

Yep, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins was released this week.

My name is Katniss Everdeen. Why am I not dead? I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss’s family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans — except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels’ Mockingjay — no matter what the personal cost.

I’d pre-ordered a copy from my local indie bookstore, and planned to pick it up at their release party on Tuesday evening.  I ended up downloading it onto my Nook at release time, and then bought the audiobook from Audible.com on Saturday.  3 copies, although arguably the paper copy is more for my daughter, and I haven’t been listing her books, even when I’m interested in reading them.

(Yes, I’ve read Mockingjay, although I’m holding off a little on my review. For some early thoughts (no spoilers) on the experience of reading it, see my Mockingjay not a review post.

So, what was in your mailbox this week?

Mailbox Monday is a weekly post where I talk about the books that have arrived in my house over the last week.

Marcia at The Printed Page is no longer hosting this meme at her blog, she’s now hosting the Mailbox Monday Blog Tour.  This month’s  home is Chick Loves Lit.  Come over and check out what other bookish people had appear in their to-be-read piles, and share your new acquisitions.

See the mailbox in the picture here?  It has letters, magazines, but no books.  Just like mine.

I can’t actually complain, since it had more books than it could hold last week, and I have more books than I can read here at my house.

That didn’t keep me from being sad about it, in part because I wouldn’t have anything to list here.

Then I went to pick something to read on my Nook.  I realized I had some books e-mailed to me (for review) that I hadn’t loaded yet, and hadn’t listed here.  We’ll count the loading on my Nook as time as arrival, since I didn’t list them here when I received the e-mail:

So, from Harlequin I have

Crazy for Love by Victoria Dahl
(I’ve read and enjoyed this one, my review should post this week)

Chloe Turner thought she was going to marry the perfect man—until her fiancé’s plane crashed. And then she got the really bad news: he’d tried to fake his own death to avoid marrying her. Now America’s most famous bridezilla (a tag she most definitely does not deserve), Chloe escapes to a remote island to avoid the paparazzi. And right next door is a man who just might be the cure for Chloe’s heartache….

A magnet for wild, complicated women, Max Sullivan is relieved to have finally found someone “normal.” Chloe is his girl-next-door fantasy come to life, and best of all, she gets him. With her, he can be himself, a treasure-hunting millionaire who desperately wants out of his sexy but reckless job. But when Chloe’s notoriety catches up with them, will their torrid romance make it to the mainland?

Sureblood by Susan Grant

Five years ago rival space pirate captains Val Blue and Dake Sureblood stole one incredible night together. But their brief, passionate history ended with the assassination of Val’s father and the condemnation of Dake’s clan. Now Val struggles to prove her mettle—to herself and to the dissenters amid her own people. Every successful raid is a boot heel ground into the burning memory of Dake Sureblood—and their secret son is a constant reminder of their shared past….

Ambushed and captured before he can clear his name, Dake Sureblood returns from a hell like no other to expose the true killer of Val’s father. But as the identity of their enemy becomes chillingly clear, the former lovers must put aside their mistrust and join forces to protect their clans and their precious son.

The House on Olive Street by Robyn Call

The loss of their close friend draws four women together. And a summer spent sorting through personal effects offers the perfect challenge—and the perfect escape.

Sable—her bestselling novels have made her a star, but the woman who has everything, in fact, has nothing but a past she is desperate to hide

Elly—the intellectual who has hidden herself within the walls of academia, afraid to admit she is tired of being alone

Barbara Ann—the talent behind twenty-six romance novels wakes up one day to discover she’s lost control of her career, her sanity and her family

Beth—her popular mysteries have become the only way she can fight against the secret tyranny of an abusive husband

In the house on Olive Street, away from their troubles, the four women discover something marvelous: themselves. And along the way they realize a dream. For, in telling the story of a remarkable woman, their own lives begin to change.

What books showed up at your house this week?