Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday a meme from Marcia at The Printed Page

I'm somewhat late posting MM this week! I had a tremendous amount of books to list as I CLEANED UP at two used book sales on Saturday...not to mention some giveaway prizes in the mail! Has the time come for an intervention for this book addict?  Nah, not yet! Now let's see what I got...

Won:

Set of books from Olivia Gates' backlist from a BBAW Giveaway

Blogger's note:  I am not a big reader of romance novels, but I will give one a try! If I'm less than thrilled, I hope it would be okay to do a giveaway so someone who loves romance could win them.

In the Mail:

Soul Catcher by Leigh Bridger (review galley from a BBAW giveaway)

From the gothic eccentricity of Asheville, North Carolina to the terrifying recesses of the Appalachian wilderness, from modern demonology to ancient Cherokee mythology, SOUL CATCHER follows the tormented journey of folk artist Livia Belane, who has been stalked through many lives by a sadistic and vengeful demon.

Livia and her loved ones, including her frontier-era soulmate and husband, Ian, a Soul Hunter, have never beaten the demon before. Now, in this life, he s found them again. (from Amazon)

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (from prize pack won from author Bree Despain--The Dark Divine)

For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along.

With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment.
But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.
For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

Violet Wings by Victoria Hanley (also from Bree Despain prize pack)

For Zaria Tourmaline, the three years without her mother and brother have been lonely ones, living with a cold and distant guardian while she completes her education. Just as she is ready to join the world of adult fairies and genies, she finds a spellbook written entirely in her mother's hand. But this treasured object is not safe from a new enemy, a fairy with more power than Zaria ever dreamed existed. Only among the humans-who must never know fairies and genies exist-can Zaria hide the spellbook; but hidden magic, it turns out, can expose a fairy in ways she never thought possible.

Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland (also from Bree Despain prize pack)

In a small New Jersey beach town, twelve-year-old Polly Madassa, who speaks like a character in her two favorite novels, "Pride and Prejudice" and "Anne of Green Gables," spends the summer making deliveries for her parents' bakery and playing matchmaker, with disastrous results. (from Borders)

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell (won from booktumbling giveaway)


Julie & Julia is the story of Julie Powell's attempt to revitalizeher marriage, restore her ambition, and save her soul by cooking all 524recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, VolumeI, in a period of 365 days.The result is a masterful medley of BridgetJones' Diary meets Like Water for Chocolate, mixed with a healthy dose oforiginal wit, warmth, and inspiration that sets this memoir apart from mosttales of personal redemption.When we first meet Julie, she's a frustrated temp-to-perm secretary whoslaves away at a thankless job, only to return to an equally demoralizingapartment in the outer boroughs of Manhattan each evening. At the urging ofEric, her devoted and slightly geeky husband, she decides to start a blogthat will chronicle what she dubs the "Julie/Julia Project." What follows isa year of butter-drenched meals that will both necessitate the wearing of anunbearably uncomfortable girdle on the hottest night of the year, as well asthe realization that life is what you make of it and joy is not asimpossible a quest as it may seem, even when it's -10 degrees out and yourpipes are frozen.Powell is a natural when it comes to connecting with her readers, which isprobably why her blog generated so much buzz, both from readers and mediaalike. And while her self-deprecating sense of humor can sometimes dissolveinto whininess, she never really loses her edge, or her sense of purpose.Even on day 365, she's working her way through Mayonnaise Collee and endingthe evening "back exactly where we started--just Eric and me, three cats andBuffy...sitting on a couch in the outer boroughs, eating, with Juliachortling alongside us...."Inspired and encouraging, Julie and Julia is a unique opportunity tojoin one woman's attempt to change her life, and have a laugh, or ten, alongthe way. --Gisele Toueg (from Amazon)

Dead in Dixie (three novel omnibus) by Charlaine Harris (ordered from Literary Guild.com)

Dead Until Dark

Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life-and one of her coworkers checks out....

Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.


Living Dead in Dallas

When a vampire asks Sookie Stackhouse to use her telepathic skills to find another missing vampire, she agrees under one condition: the bloodsuckers must promise to let the humans go unharmed.

Club Dead

Sookie's boyfriend has been very distant-in another state, distant. Now she's off to Mississippi to mingle with the underworld at Club Dead-a little haunt where the vampire elite go to chill out. But when she finally finds Bill-caught in an act of betrayal-she's not sure whether to save him...or sharpen some stakes.

Bought:


As I stated above, I obtained all these gems at two different used book sales (both Friends of the Library).  One sale had a $3.00 bag sale and the other had 1/2 price on everything.  As you can see, the majority are hardcovers! So all these books, plus a couple of VHS movies and a 98 Degrees Christmas CD for $ 22.00 total!

Emperor by Stephen Baxter (hardcover)

A woman gives birth to her child in a village in Northern England, the cold northern edge of the Roman Empire. As she struggles through a painful labour she begins to scream out a series of words in Latin. A language she has never heard before, much less spoken. One of the family recognises the words for what they are. Only later does it become clear that the women has spoken a prophecy. A prophecy that relates to the death of the Emperor Constantine/ A prophecy that if enacted will change the fate of the Roman Empire and all of the future beyond it. Stephen Baxter's new series takes ordinary individuals living at history's tipping points and presents them with a prophecy that challenges everything they believe about their world and prompts them to take action that could change it forever. The fourth volume reveals the nature of the prophecies and reveals a battle that has been fought through the ages.

Major Washington: A Novel by Michael Kilian (hardcover)



An adventure, a romance, and a historical novel in the tradition of Gore Vidal, Major Washington describes three pivotal years in the life of George Washington - years in which he loved and fought before finally changing the world forever. During the period of 1753-1755, Washington grew from a young, awkward major in the fledgling militia to a powerful leader as Colonial America evolved into an important player in the world's first global conflict, the French and Indian War. His adventures took him deep into the Allegheny wilderness, where bloody battles permanently changed the way war would be fought. His passion led him to a torrid affair with Sally Fairfax, the wife of his best friend, a relationship that flourished through ardent love letters and spanned a lifetime. George Washington was not always an American icon; once he was merely an ambitious young man, unsure of what the future held for him and his country.

The Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts (hardcover)

The neon sign had seemed appropriate when the Honk and Holler Opening Soon was being built. But twelve years later, the once-busy highway outside Sequoyah, Oklahoma, is little-traveled, and "opening soon" is a tired joke. Today the sign is as battered and beaten as the cafe and its owner, Caney Paxton, a Vietnam War veteran who hasn't ventured outside since its opening. The characters who drift in and out of the Honk don't change much: Molly O, a four-times married earth mother who recognizes a wounded spirit when she meets one; Life Halstead, a widower who eats three meals a day in the cafe so he can be near Molly O; Hooks Red Eagle, Soldier Starr, and Quinton Roach, Cherokee veterans of World War II; and Bilbo and Peg Porter--Bilbo steadily puffing his smokes while Peg struggles for breath through her oxygen mask. With Christmas only days away, their lives are to be forever changed with the arrival of Vena Takes Horse, a Crow woman on a quest, and Bui Khanh, a Vietnamese refugee looking for home. A story that crackles and sizzles like burgers on a red-hot grill, The Honk and Holler Opening Soon captures a small town's prejudice and tolerance, violence and big-heartedness. It convinces us that dark clouds can really have silver linings. And it leaves us hungry for more writing from Billie Letts and the Oklahoma she portrays with so much vitality and love.

The Queen of Bedlam by Robert McCammon (hardcover)

The unsolved murder of a respected doctor has sent ripples of fear throughout a city teeming with life and noise and commerce. Who snuffed out the good man's life with the slash of a blade on a midnight street? The local printmaster has labeled the fiend "the Masker," adding fuel to a volatile mystery...and when the Masker claims a new victim, hardworking young law clerk Matthew Corbett is lured into a maze of forensic clues and heart-pounding investigation that will both test his natural penchant for detection and inflame his hunger for justice.

In the strangest twist of all, the key to unmasking the Masker may await in an asylum where the Queen of Bedlam reigns -- and only a man of Matthew's reason and empathy can unlock her secrets. From the seaport to Wall Street, from society mansions to gutters glimmering with blood spilled by a deviant, Matthew's quest will tauntingly reveal the answers he seeks -- and the chilling truths he cannot escape.

Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton (hardcover)

These days, Anita Blake is less interested in vampire politics than in an ancient, ordinary dread she shares with women down the ages: she may be pregnant. And, if she is, whether the father is a vampire, a werewolf, or someone else entirely, she knows perfectly well that being a Federal Marshal, known for raising the dead and being a vampire executioner, is no way to bring up a baby.

The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children) by Jean M. Auel (hardcover)

(This is a small unabridged YA edition that is SO cute...I already have the book, but couldn't resist!)

This is the first novel in Jean M. Auel's epic of life 35,000 years ago when two kinds of human beings, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, shared the Earth. It follows the story of Ayla, who is adopted by a group of Neanderthals.



Blogger's Note:  This synopsis does not show how truly wonderful this book is...one fo the best books I ever read!

Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell (hardcover)

The year is 490 AD. Fiery 16-year-old Elaine of Ascolat, the daughter of one of King Arthur's supporters, lives with her father on Arthur's base camp, the sole girl in a militaristic world of men. Elaine's only girl companion is the mysterious Morgan, Arthur's older sister, but Elaine cannot tell Morgan her deepest secret: She is in love with Lancelot, Arthur's second-in-command. However, when yet another girl -- the lovely Gwynivere-- joins their world, Elaine is confronted with startling emotions of jealousy and rivalry. But can her love for Lancelot survive the birth of an empire?

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (hardcover)

A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy--jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel.

Gemma, 16, has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother's death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls' academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left wi! th the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the "others" and rebuild the Order. A Great and Terrible Beauty is an impressive first book in what should prove to be a fascinating trilogy. (Ages 12 up) -Patty Campbell

Wake by Lisa McMann (hardcover)

Not all dreams are sweet.

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.
She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.
Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

Divine Sarah by Adam Braver (hardcover)

"Loosely based on real circumstance," Braver's poignant and inventive second novel (after Mr. Lincoln's Wars) follows a week in the life of internationally renowned stage actress Sarah Bernhardt. As the story opens, she is 61 and on what should be a glorious Farewell Tour of America, but her career is losing steam. There's word that her California stage performances have suddenly been relocated to Venice from Los Angeles, and to make matters worse, a conservative religious group has boycotted Bernhardt, dubbing her show "immoral and unfit for performing downtown." Never one to succumb to pressure, and always primed for scandal, the resilient Bernhardt goes fishing. Before a ravenous audience of 50 reporters, she catches a sea bass, cuts it open with her hotel key and mashes her face into the bloody viscera—all "with a tragicomic smile." Bernhardt's antics are closely monitored by publicity guru Abbot Kinney and loving gay manager Max "Molly" Klein, who keeps her focused, protected and working harder than ever. Bernhardt's sudden mood swings are imagined with sympathetic verve and a light comical touch, but nothing rivals her cocaine-inspired Hamlet recitation to an enraptured Thomas Edison. As the novel closes, Bernhardt is still playing Marguerite Gautier in La Dame aux Camélias, rapturously enjoying multiple curtain calls with a prosthetic leg at 76. Braver has produced a gracefully inspired story about the unavoidable effects of age on fame. (synopsis obtained from Amazon)

Cemetery Dance (Book 9, Pendergast series) by Douglas Preson & Lincoln Child (hardcover)

Pendergast returns to NYC in New York Times bestselling authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's newest novel featuring the enigmatic FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast.

William Smithback, a NY Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archeologist, are found brutally attacked in their apartment on the Upper West side of Manhattan. Eyewitnesses claim and the security camera confirms the killer seen leaving the building was the strange, sinister man who had previously occupied Smithback and Kelly's apartment---and who had died horribly in it exactly one year ago.
Captain Hayward leads the official homocide investigation, while Pendergast and D'Agosta undertake a private quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them into a part of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive and deadly hotbed of Obeah, the West Indian Zombii cult of sorcery and magic. And it is here they find their true peril is just beginning.

The Secret Wife of King George IV by Diane Haeger (hardcover)

Although it was illegal, secret, and against the express commands of his famously mad father, King George IV of England married twice -- once for duty and once for love. While Caroline of Brunswick eventually became his lawful queen, it was the beautiful Maria Fitzherbert, recognized as his wife by the Catholic Church but not by the laws of England, who claimed his heart. In the hands of author Diane Haeger, their relationship becomes a mesmerizing love story, filled with intrigue and passion. The characters and drawing rooms of early 19th-century England come alive to create a portrait of the age that is colorful and resonant with historical detail.

The Fire by Katherine Neville (hardcover)

2003, Colorado: Alexandra Solarin is summoned home to her family's ancestral Rocky Mountain hideaway for her mother's birthday. Thirty years ago, her parents, Cat Velis and Alexander Solarin, believed that they had scattered the pieces of the Montglane Service around the world, burying with them the secrets of the power that comes with possessing it. But Alexandra arrives to find that her mother is missing and that a series of strategically placed clues, followed swiftly by the unexpected arrival of a mysterious assortment of houseguests, indicates that something sinister is afoot.

When she inadvertently discovers from her aunt, the chess grandmaster Lily Rad, that the most powerful piece of Charlemagne's service has suddenly resurfaced and the Game has begun again, Alexandra is swept into a journey that takes her from Colorado to the Russian wilderness and at last into the heart of her own hometown: Washington D.C.
1822, Albania: Thirty years after the French Revolution, when the chess service was unearthed, all of Europe hovers on the brink of the War of Greek Independence. Ali Pasha, the most powerful ruler in the Ottoman Empire, has angered the sultan and is about to be attacked by Turkish forces. Now he sends the only person he can rely upon'"his young daughter, Haidee'"on a dangerous mission to smuggle a valuable relic out of Albania, through the mountains and over the sea, to the hands of the one man who might be able to save it.
Haidee's journey from Albania to Morocco to Rome to Greece, and into the very heart of the Game, will result in revelations about the powerful chess set and its history that will lead at last to the spot where the service was first created more than one thousand years before: Baghdad.
Blending exquisite prose and captivating history with nonstop suspense, Neville again weaves an unforgettable story of peril, action, and intrigue.

The Sign by Raymond Khoury (hardcover)

A remote shelf in the Arctic circle. A small TV crew is braving the harsh conditions to film the breaking off of a major ice shelf - yet another nail in the planet's eco-coffin. Then someone calls out, pointing at something up in the sky overhead. The camera pans up and they look up to see a blazing symbol clear, burning high over the bleak, deserted terrain. Thus begins a series of strange events worldwide as the mysterious sign appears over the sites of conflict, natural disasters and terrorist atrocities. What can it portend? The world is wracked with both fear and hope. Suddenly, all this is focussed onto one man. An obscure monk who recognises the symbol from the past and understands what it means for the future of humanity. But as he becomes the most sought-after man on the planet, the questions have to be asked: could this be the real deal? Or the most elaborate fake in world history? And - either way - what happens to the world now?

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (Hardcover)

Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature. A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Vanora Bennett (trade PB)

This title talks about passion, painting and politics in sixteenth-century England. The year is 1526. Hans Holbein the Younger is at the beginning of his remarkable career when he travels to England under the patronage of Sir Thomas More. His arrival brings the Renaissance in painting from Europe to Britain. As a guest in the splendid More household in Chelsea, Holbein begins to paint their first family portrait. Little could he know that in a few short years, the family, Tudor society and England itself would have changed beyond recognition. The great household of the courtier and scholar, Sir Thomas More, was famous for its liveliness and learning. More had taken under his patronage distinguished astrologers, artists, politicians and men of religion, as well as wards of court, proteges and many others. Two people visiting the great house find themselves irresistibly drawn to Meg Giggs, one of More's foster daughters. One of them is John Clements - dark, tall, elegant - an erstwhile tutor, now practising to become a medical doctor; a man of compelling presence and mysterious background. The other is Holbein himself - warm, ebullient, radical and foreign - sent by the great Erasmus to paint the More family portraits. Meg will find herself powerfully drawn to these two wildly contrasting men. She will love one, and marry the other. The two Holbein family portraits frame this remarkable story with its background of love, family, and of religious and political turmoil. Vanora Bennett has created an exceptionally rich novel, presenting the atmosphere of this Tudor household as rarely achieved.

Adam Bede by George Eliot (Trade PB)

This novel goes deep into the dark recesses of human nature and sets forth a philosophy of conduct and inexorable retribution for wrongdoing. Set in the countryside of the English Midlands at the start of the 19th century it relates a story of seduction, crime, remorse and suffering.

Ink: The Book of All Hours by Hal Duncan (Trade PB)

Once, in the depths of prehistory, they were human. But in a moment of brutal transfiguration, they became unkin, beings who possessed the power to alter reality by accessing the Vellum: a realm of eternity containing every possibility, every paradox, every heaven . . . and every hell. The Vellum became a battleground where forces of order and chaos fought across time and space. The ultimate weapon in that bloody war spanning through history and myth, dreams and memory, was The Book of All Hours, a legendary tome within which the blueprint for all reality is inscribed, a volume long lost amid the infinite folds of the Vellum.

Until, in 2017, it was found by Reynard Carter, a young man with the blood of unkin in his veins.
Until Phreedom Messenger and her brother, Thomas, were swept up in an archetypal dance of death and rebirth.
Until a hermit named Seamus Finnan found the courage to re-forge his broken soul, and a self-proclaimed angel called Metatron unleashed a plague of AI bitmites.
Now, in the aftermath of the apocalypse, several survivors search desperately for the remnants of themselves scattered across the Vellum like torn pages, determined to use the blood of the unkin to rewrite The Book of All Hours, and to forge a new destiny for themselves and all humanity. Reality will never be the same.

The Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan (Trade PB)

In Jennifer Egan's highly acclaimed first novel, set in 1978, the political drama and familial tensions of the 1960s form a backdrop for the world of Phoebe O'Connor, age eighteen. Phoebe is obsessed with the memory and death of her sister Faith, a beautiful idealistic hippie who died in Italy in 1970. In order to find out the truth about Faith's life and death, Phoebe retraces her steps from San Francisco across Europe, a quest which yields both complex and disturbing revelations about family, love, and Faith's lost generation. This spellbinding novel introduced Egan's remarkable ability to tie suspense with deeply insightful characters and the nuances of emotion.

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis (Trade PB)

Set in Los Angeles in the early 1980's, this coolly mesmerizing novel is a raw, powerful portrait

of a lost generation who have experienced sex, drugs, and disaffection at too early an age, in a
world shaped by casual nihilism, passivity, and too much money a place devoid of feeling or
hope.
Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of
limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago,
and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his
best friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling and heroin. Clay's holiday
turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the relentless parties in glitzy
mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs and also into the seamy world of L.A. after dark.

The Gift: Two Holiday Tales by Nora Roberts (Hardcover)

Home for Christmas



After years spent abroad, reporter Jason Law returned home determined to win back the girl he left behind. It would take all his skills--and then some--to win Faith back. But this time, nothing would stand in his way--it was time faith was rewarded.


All I Want for Christmas


Identical twin boys Zeke and Zach wanted only one gift from Santa this year: a new mom! But convincing their love-wary dad that their music teacher, Miss Davis, was his destiny and part of Santa's plan wasn't as easy as they'd hoped--.

Blogger's Note:  This book even has some of Nora Roberts' family holiday recipes in the front!

Glad Tidings: Two Holiday Tales by Debbie Macomber (mass market PB)

This is a time for families, for togetherness, for memories. On Christmas Eve, Maryanne and Nolan Adams tell their kids the story they most want to hear--how Mom and Dad met and fell in love. It all started when they were reporters on rival Seattle papers…and next thing you know, Here Comes Trouble!

Christmas is also a time for…fruitcake. Rookie reporter Emma Collins hates fruitcake; for that matter, she hates Christmas, too. When three Washington State women are finalists in a national fruitcake contest, the story is assigned to her. That's bad enough. It gets worse when she has to fly in a small plane (scary!) with a smart-aleck pilot named Oliver Hamilton (sexy!) and his scruffy dog (cute!). In the end she meets three wise women, falls in love and learns There's Something About Christmas.

Christmas Wishes: Two Holiday Tales by Debbie Macomber (mass market PB)

Christmas Letters

Katherine O'Connor (known as K.O.) adores her five-year-old twin nieces -- and strongly objects to her sister's plans to dispense with Christmas. Zelda is following the theories of child psychologist Wynn Jeffries, author of The Free Child (and, as it happens, K.O.'s neighbor). K.O. is particularly horrified by his edict to "bury Santa under the sleigh," and she's out to prove that Wynn and his ideas are full of . . . snow. He's not going to ruin her nieces' Christmas! Too bad the guy's so darned attractive . . .

Rainy Day Kisses

Seventeen years ago, Susannah Simmons was a career girl who knew nothing about babies. But after babysitting her infant niece, Michelle, Susannah learned that one determined -- and screaming -- baby can make the corporate world look like . . . child's play. Thank goodness for her charming neighbor Nate Townsend. Now he's her charming husband, and Susannah's a mother as well as an aunt. And every Christmas, Michelle tells her cousins how their mom met their dad -- a story in which she plays a starring role!



Note:  All synopses from Fantastic Fiction unless otherwise noted.


Whew, that was tiring! But SO worth it =o)

Hope you got some great stuff too!

Happy Reading!

5 comments:

Thank you for visiting and taking the time to comment. It means so much.

I apologize for word verification, but as soon as I changed the settings from only users with Google accounts, I started receiving a ton of spam comments...within one hour of changing the settings. The bots are on high alert apparently.

  1. You got quite a good load there. Great and Terrible Beauty is one of my favorites. I've heard amazing things about The Name of the WInd (the adult Harry Potter, I've heard) and I just got The EIght which is the book before The Fire.
    I like your holiday picks too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! What a list. I saw several on there that I've enjoyed, like the Billie Letts book, The Invisible Circus, and Julie & Julia.

    My Mailbox Monday is here:

    http://laurelrainsnowcreations.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. You really did clean up!! Hush, Hush is awesome, I enjoyed Julie and Julia also as well as the Sookie Books. You have lots of choices for Saturday, I'm so excited that you are doing the challenge also. I love that you are going to buy more books on Saturday too-HA!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Some great books this week. I've been meaning to read The Fire since The Eight is one of my favorite books but I haven't picked it up yet.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the comments guys!

    Ryan, I know...I couldn't believe my luck when I found The Fire, after we lost out on that one contest! Granted, it doesn't have the dust jacket, but it's a hardcover and it's in great condition!

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