Mailbox Monday -- July 2

Welcome to Mailbox Monday, the weekly meme created by Marcia, formerly from The Printed Page, where book lovers share the titles they received for review, purchased, or otherwise obtained over the past week. Mailbox Monday currently is on tour, and this month’s host is Mrs. Q: Book Addict.

Here’s what I received:

My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss, from Viking for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

It takes courage to turn your life upside down, especially when everyone is telling you how lucky you are.  But sometimes what seems right can feel deeply wrong.  My Berlin Kitchen tells the story of how one thoroughly confused, kitchen-mad romantic broke off her engagement in New York, quit her dream job, and moved to Berlin, where she found her way to a new life, a new man, and a new kitchen, with a few bumps along the way.

Luisa Weiss started cooking in her Italian mother’s kitchen in Berlin as a child and was living in New York when she decided she would bake, roast, and stew her way through the collection of recipes she had clipped and saved over the years.  The blog she wrote to document her adventures in and out of the kitchen, The Wednesday Chef, soon became a sensation.  But she never quite stopped hankering for Berlin.

Anyone who enjoyed Julie and Julia will laugh and cheer and cook alongside Luisa as she takes us into her heart and tells us how she gave up everything and turned her life upside down only to find love waiting where she least expected it.  After a romantic weekend in Berlin, she took the plunge and decided to move back.  She found a city that had changed as much as she had.  Luisa will seduce you with her stories of foraging for plums in abandoned orchards, battling with white asparagus at the tail end of the season, orchestrating a three-family Thanksgiving dinner, and mending her broken heart with batches (and batches) of impossible German cookies.  And she will convince you that while Paris has its magic, for real inspiration in the kitchen, and in life, there is nothing like Berlin.  (publisher’s summary)

How Angels Die by David-Michael Harding, from the author for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

In the darkest days of World War II, when France found itself at the mercy of a brutal dictator, the frontlines of resistance may just have been in the grasp of a few good women.  How Angels Die, the epic work of historical fiction by author David Harding, delivers a highly inventive and uncommon take on the French Resistance that is certain to appeal to anyone who relishes a blood-pumping drama, which also sheds searing new light on the astounding bravery, profound passion, and razor-sharp cunning of the fairer sex during the most trying times.

In four fateful days, two remarkable sisters, Monique and Claire McCleash, battle the German occupation of their coastal French town in the early days of June 1944.  While their mission is the same, their methods of upending the occupation are irreconcilably at odds.  The strikingly beautiful Monique puts her body and wit to work for the Resistance by dating and sleeping with German officers; her younger sister Claire elects instead to serve as an active combat guerrilla fighter for the cause.

Brimming with high drama that is punctuated by family humor, How Angels Die lifts the veil on a lesser-known side of the French Resistance.  Through the prism of two intrepid women, the novel illuminates how these women employ their formidable assets and fierce love of country to face down a vicious enemy.  With page-turning action, unstoppable passion, and historical accuracy, this heart-racing novel is a must-read for sisters, history buffs, and action enthusiasts alike.  (publisher’s summary)

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

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© 2012 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.