Mailbox Monday — May 20

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 4 the LOVE of BOOKS.

Here’s what I received:

Rutherford Park by Elizabeth Cooke — from Berkley for review

For the Cavendish family, Rutherford Park is much more than a place to call home.  It is a way of life marked by rigid rules and lavish rewards, governed by unspoken desires…

Lady of the house Octavia Cavendish lives like a bird in a gilded cage.  With her family’s fortune, her husband, William, has made significant additions to the estate, but he too feels bound — by the obligations of his title as well as his vows.  Their son, Harry, is expected to follow in his footsteps, but the boy has dreams of his own, like pursuing the new adventure of aerial flight.  Meanwhile, below stairs, a housemaid named Emily holds a secret that could undo the Cavendish name.

As the clouds of war gather on the horizon, an epic tale of longing and betrayal unfolds at Rutherford Park.  (publisher’s summary)

Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey — a surprise from Serena (thank you!!)

Through elegiac verse that honors her mother and tells of her own fraught childhood, Natasha Trethewey confronts the racial legacy of her native Deep South — where one of the first black regiments, the Louisiana Native Guards, was called into service during the Civil War.  Trethewey’s resonant and beguiling collection is a haunting conversation between personal experience and national history.  (publisher’s summary)

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Mailbox Monday — May 13

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 4 the LOVE of BOOKS.

Here’s what I received:

Mother’s Day gifts:

We Fought Back: Teen Resisters of the Holocaust by Allen Zullo — from The Girl (couldn’t find this one online; she bought it for me at her school’s Scholastic book fair)

Fifteen-year-old Paul just helped blow up a Nazi supply train.  Can he escape the Germans hunting him for revenge?

Fifteen-year-old Sarah has lost many loved ones to Nazi murderers.  Will partisan fighters accept her into their secret group?

Seventeen-year-old Frank and his team are preparing to attack a heavily armed German convoy.  Can they succeed against overwhelming odds — and survive?

These and other Jewish young people took on incredible risks to fight back against the Nazis in World War II.  You will never forget their true stories of courage and survival.  (publisher’s summary)

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson — from my husband

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife.  Ursula dies before she can draw her first breath.  On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual.  For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on toward its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula’s apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny?  And if she can, will she?

Startlingly imaginative, darkly comic, deeply poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.  (publisher’s summary)

For review:

Letters From Skye by Jessica Brockmole — from Ballantine

March 1912: Twenty-four-year-old Elspeth Dunn, a published poet on Scotland’s remote island of Skye, receives a fan letter from an American college student, David Graham.  Their correspondence blossoms into friendship, and eventually into love.  And when David volunteers as an ambulance driver during the Great War, Elspeth can only hope he survives.

June 1940:  Elspeth’s daughter, Margaret, has fallen for a pilot in the Royal Air Force, but her mother warns her against finding love in wartime.  Then, after a nightly air raid, Elspeth disappears, and Margaret is left with only a decades-old clue as to her mother’s whereabouts — and to what happened to her family long ago.  (publisher’s summary)

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Mailbox Monday — May 6

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 4 the LOVE of BOOKS.

Here’s what I received:

His Majesty’s Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal — from Bantam Books via LibraryThing Early Reviewers (Amazon/IndieBound)

World War II has finally come home to Britain, but it takes more than nightly air raids to rattle intrepid spy and expert code breaker Maggie Hope.  After serving as a secret agent to protect Princess Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, Maggie is now an elite member of the Special Operations Executive — a covert organization designed to aid the British effort abroad — and her first assignment sends her straight into Nazi-controlled Berlin, the very heart of the German war machine.  Relying on her quick wit and keen instincts, Maggie infiltrates the highest level of Berlin society, gathering information to pass on to London headquarters.  But the secrets she unveils will expose a darker, more dangerous side of the war — and of her own past.  (publisher’s summary)

I’ll Be Seeing You by Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan — from Harlequin MIRA for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

It’s January, 1943, when Rita Vincenzo receives her first letter from Glory Whitehall.  Glory is an effervescent young mother, impulsive and free as a bird.  Rita is a sensible professor’s wife with a love of gardening and a generous, old soul.  Glory comes from New England society; Rita lives in Iowa, trying to make ends meet.  They have nothing in common except one powerful bond:  the men they love are fighting in a war a world away from home.

Brought together by an unlikely twist of fate, Glory and Rita begin a remarkable correspondence.  The friendship forged by their letters allows them to survive the loneliness and uncertainty of waiting on the home front, and gives them the courage to face the battles raging in their very own backyards.  Connected across the country by the lifeline of the written word, each woman finds her life profoundly altered by the other’s unwavering support.

A collaboration of two authors whose own beautiful story mirrors that on the page, I’ll Be Seeing You is a deeply moving union of style and charm.  Filled with unforgettable characters and grace, it is a timeless celebration of friendship and the strength and solidarity of women.  (publisher’s summary)

The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas — from William Morrow for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

Berlin, 1935.  Wealthy and cultured, the Horowitz family enjoys a privileged position in German society.  Dedicated to the arts and musically gifted, they own a superb collection of exquisite instruments, including a rare 1742 Guarneri del Gesù violin that young Simon, the family’s second son, yearns to master.  But when the Nazis rise to power, they confiscate the prominent Jewish family’s possessions, including the violin they have owned for one hundred and fifty years, and condemn Simon, his brother, and his father to the horrors of Dachau.  Amid unimaginable cruelty and death, the adolescent boy finds unexpected kindness and a chance for survival thanks to his skill with a violin.

Suburban Chicago, 2008.  Fourteen-year-old Daniel Horowitz, Simon’s grandson, is a virtuoso on the violin.  But after winning a prestigious international prize, he rebels, because his mother has forbidden him from doing the one thing that makes him feel like an ordinary kid.  If he cannot play baseball, Daniel insists, he will not play the violin.

Awed by Daniel’s gift and sympathetic to his feelings, world-renowned conductor Rafael Gomez is determined to see the prodigy play again.  When he discovers that the Horowitz family once owned a precious Guarneri del Gesù violin — which they believe has been lost forever — Rafael devises an audacious plan.  He suspects that the violin miraculously survived the war, and he thinks he knows who has it — and how it can be used to inspire Daniel once again.

Skillfully, composed, heartrending yet ultimately uplifting, The Keeper of Secrets reminds us of the preciousness of life and family, and of the power of hope and art to conquer the darkest despair.  (publisher’s summary)

The Look of Love by Bella Andre — unsolicited from Meryl L. Moss Media Relations Inc. (Amazon/IndieBound)

Chloe Peterson vowed never to make the mistake of trusting a man again.  Her reasons are as vivid as the bruises on her cheek.  When her car skids off a wet country road straight into a ditch, she’s convinced the gorgeous guy who rescues her must be too good to be true.

As a successful international photographer, Chase Sullivan has his pick of beautiful women.  He’s satisfied with his life — until he finds Chloe and her totaled car on the side of the road in Napa Valley.

With every loving look — and every sinfully sweet caress — the attraction between them sizzles, and Chloe can’t help but wonder if she’s met the man who may be the exception to her rule…  (publisher’s summary)

Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence by David Samuel Levinson — unsolicited from Algonquin (Amazon/IndieBound)

Catherine Strayed is living a quiet, unremarkable life in a secluded college town following the mysterious death of her husband, a promising young writer whose death may have been an accident, a suicide, or perhaps even a murder.  When her former mentor (and onetime lover) — a powerful critic who singlehandedly destroyed her late husband’s chance of success — takes a teaching job at the college, Catherine’s world threatens to collapse.  For with him has come his latest protégé, an exotic young woman named Antonia Lively.  Antonia’s debut novel has become a literary sensation — but it is, in fact, an almost factual retelling of a terrible crime that she relates without any concern for the impact its publication will have on the lives of those involved.

As Antonia insinuates herself into Catherine’s life, mysterious and frightening things start to happen, because unbeknownst to Catherine, the younger woman intends to plunder her own dark, regrettable past — and the unsolved death of her husband — for her next literary triumph.

Provocative and cunning, Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence asserts that fiction is never truly fictional and asks, What does stealing another’s life do to your soul?  Levinson spins a tale of surprises, peeling back one revelation only to find another in this tightly wrought, wickedly cynical look at the worlds of academia, publishing, and celebrity.  (publisher’s summary)

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

Disclosure: I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Mailbox Monday — April 22

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 MariReads.

Here’s what I received over the past couple of weeks:

The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs — from Book It Northwest for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their rightful owners.  People like Annelise Winther, who refuses to sell her long-gone mother’s beloved necklace — despite Tess’s advice.  To Annelise, the jewel’s value is in its memories.

But Tess’s own history is filled with gaps:  a father she never met, a mother who spent more time traveling than with her daughter.  So Tess is shocked when she discovers the grandfather she never knew is in a coma.  And that she has been named in his will to inherit half of Bella Vista, a hundred-acre apple orchard in the magical Sonoma town called Archangel.

The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen.  A half sister she’s never heard of.

Against the rich landscape of Bella Vista, Tess begins to discover a world filled with the simple pleasures of food and family, of the warm earth beneath her bare feet.  A world where family comes first and the roots of history run deep.  A place where falling in love is not only possible, but inevitable.

And in a season filled with new experiences, Tess begins to see the truth in something Annelise once told her:  if you don’t believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you’ve not made the right kind of memories.  (publisher’s summary)

The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley — from Atria for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

La Côte d’Azur, 1998:  In the sun-dappled south of France, Emilie de la Martinieres, the last of her gilded line, finds herself sole inheritor of her childhood home, a magnificent chateau and vineyard.  With the house comes a mountain of debt — and almost as many questions.

Paris, 1944:  A bright, young British office clerk, Constance Carruthers, is sent to Paris to be part of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive during the climax of the Nazi occupation.  Separated from her contacts in the Resistance, she stumbles into the heart of a prominent family who regularly entertain members of the German elite even as they plot to liberate France.  In a city rife with collaborators and brave members of the Resistance, Constance’s most difficult decision may be determining whom to trust with her heart.

As Emilie discovers what really happened to her family during the war and finds a connection to Constance much closer than she suspects, the chateau itself may provide clues that can unlock the mysteries of her past, present, and future.  (publisher’s summary)

The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein — from W.W. Norton & Company for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

In this evocative and thrilling epic novel, fifteen-year-old Yoshi Kobayashi, child of Japan’s New Empire, daughter of an ardent expansionist and a mother with a haunting past, is on her way home on a March night when American bombers shower her city with napalm — an attack that leaves one hundred thousand dead within hours and half the city in ashen ruins. In the days that follow, Yoshi’s old life will blur beyond recognition, leading her to a new world marked by destruction and shaped by those considered the enemy: Cam, a downed bomber pilot taken prisoner by the Imperial Japanese Army; Anton, a gifted architect who helped modernize Tokyo’s prewar skyline but is now charged with destroying it; and Billy, an Occupation soldier who arrives in the blackened city with a dark secret of his own. Directly or indirectly, each with shape Yoshi’s journey as she seeks safety, love, and redemption. (publisher’s summary)

The Mysterious Death of Mr. Darcy by Regina Jeffers — from Ulysses Press for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

Fitzwilliam Darcy is devastated.  The joy of his recent wedding has been cut short by the news of the sudden death of his father’s beloved cousin, Samuel Darcy.  Elizabeth and Darcy travel  to Dorset, a popular Regency resort area, to pay their respects to the well-traveled and eccentric Samuel.  But this is no summer holiday.  Danger bubbles beneath Dorset’s peaceful surface as strange and foreboding events begin to occur.  Several of Samuel’s ancient treasures go missing, and then his body itself disappears.

As Darcy and Elizabeth investigate the mysteries and unravel their tangled ties to the haunting legends of dark Dorset, the legendary couple’s love is put to the test by sinister forces striking close to home.  Some secrets should remain secrets, but Darcy will do all he can to find answers — even if it means meeting his own end in the damp depths of a newly dug grave.  (publisher’s summary)

All the Appearance of Goodness (Given Good Principles Volume III) by Maria Grace — from the author for review (Amazon)

What is a young woman to do?  One handsome young man has all the goodness, while the other the appearance of it.  How is she to separate the gentleman from the cad?

When Darcy joins his friend, Bingley, on a trip to Meryton, the last thing on his mind is finding a wife.  Meeting Elizabeth Bennet changes all that, but a rival for his affections appears from an unlikely quarter.  He must overcome his naturally reticent disposition if he is to have a chance of winning her favor.

Elizabeth’s thoughts turn to love and marriage after her sister Mary’s engagement.  In a few short weeks, she goes from knowing no eligible young men, to being courted by two.  Both are handsome gentlemen, but one conceals secrets and the other conceals his regard.  Will she determine which is which before she commits to the wrong one?  (publisher’s summary)

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

Disclosure: I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Mailbox Monday — April 8

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 MariReads.

Here’s what I received:

If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan — from Algonquin Young Readers (Amazon/IndieBound)

**I wasn’t sure what books were going to be in this box of galleys from Algonquin Young Readers.  This one sounds interesting, so I’ll be keeping it.**

Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend, Nasrin, since they were six.  They’ve shared stolen kisses and romantic promises.  But Iran is a dangerous place for two girls in love — Sahar and Nasrin could be beaten, imprisoned, even executed.

So they carry on in secret — until Nasrin’s parents announce that they’ve arranged for her marriage.  Nasrin tries to persuade Sahar that  they will be able to go on as they had before, only now with new comforts provided by the well-to-do doctor Nasrin will marry.  But Sahar dreams of loving Nasrin exclusively — and openly.

Then Sahar discovers what seems like the perfect solution.  In Iran, homosexuality may be a crime, but to be a man trapped in a woman’s body is seen as nature’s mistake, and sex reassignment is legal and accessible.  As a man, Sahar could be the one to marry Nasrin.  Sahar will never be able to love the one she wants in the body she wants to be loved in without risking her life.  Is saving her love worth sacrificing her true self?  (publisher’s summary)

The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick — from Algonquin Young Readers (Amazon/IndieBound)

**The Girl is keeping this one to read.**

Under normal circumstances, a Time Fetch sends out its foragers to collect only those moments that will never be missed or regretted.  The Fetch then rests, waiting to be called back by the Keeper, who distributes the gathered time where it is needed in our world and others across the Great Web.

When eighth-grader Edward innocently mistakes a sleeping Fetch for an ordinary rock, he wakes its foragers too early, and they begin to multiply and gobble up too much time.  Soon the bell rings to end class just as it has begun.  Buses race down streets, too far behind schedule to stop for passengers.  Buildings and sidewalks begin to disappear, as the whole fabric of the universe starts to unravel.

To try and stop the foragers, Edward must form an uneasy alliance with three classmates.  Feenix (given name Edith) calls him “Dweebo” and seemingly exists to annoy him.  Danton, a self-confident, easy-going athlete, has never before shown the slightest interest in Edward.  Brigit is brand new at school, painfully shy and mysteriously silent.  But all four have touched the Fetch, which has changed them in ways they don’t quite understand and has drawn them together in a strange and thrilling mission to save the entire universe.  (publisher’s summary)

Anton and Cecil: Cats at Sea by Lisa Martin and Valerie Martin — from Algonquin Young Readers (Amazon/IndieBound)

**The Girl is keeping this one to read, too.**

Cat brothers Cecil and Anton are as different as port and starboard.  Cecil, stocky and black with white patches, thirsts for seafaring adventure as he roams the docks of his harborside home, taking daytrips on fishing boats when the chance comes along.  Slim, gray Anton prefers listening to the sailors’ shanties at the town saloon, venturing to port only for the day’s catch.  But one day when Anton goes in search of fresh mackerel, he’s impressed as a ratter onto a ship bound for the high seas.

Knowing little of the wide-open ocean that lies beyond the harbor, Cecil boards another ship in hopes of finding Anton.  But what begins as a rescue mission turns into a pair of high-seas adventures, with thrills and danger bubbling under every wave.

Anton takes on a fierce rat, outwits hungry birds, and forges a forbidden friendship, while Cecil encounters dolphins and whales and finds himself in the middle of a pirate raid.  On an ocean as vast as the one Anton and Cecil have discovered, will they see home — or each other — ever again?

Young readers drawn to this tale by its charming cat brothers will cherish it for its colorful cast of characters, vivid imagery, lyrical storytelling, and rich historical detail.  Black-and-white line drawings illustrate each chapter.  (publisher’s summary)

The Show Must Go On (Three-Ring Rascals, Book 1) by Kate Klise, illustrated by M. Sarah Klise — from Algonquin Young Readers (Amazon/IndieBound)

**The Girl is too old for this one, so I gave it to Serena to share with Wiggles.**

When Sir Sidney, a kindly circus owner, becomes too tired to travel with his show, he places an ad in the newspaper:

HELP WANTED
Good person needed to manage circus.
Must love children, animals, popcorn, and travel.
Apply in person at Sir Sidney’s Circus.

Enter Barnabas Brambles: “I have a degree in lion taming from the University of Picadilly Circus.”

But does Leo the lion need taming?  Will Elsa the elephant still get her gourmet peanuts?  And what will Brambles say when he discovers Bert and Gert, the two mice who travel with the circus on popcorn cleanup patrol?

Brambles has big plans: More cities!  More shows!  No more free popcorn.  He’s made a big mess of Sir Sidney’s Circus, but Leo, Elsa, Bert, Gert, and the rest of the performers agree: The Show Must Go On!  (publisher’s summary)

Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon — from Algonquin Young Readers (Amazon/IndieBound)

**This one isn’t my cup of tea, so I’m passing it on to my husband’s co-worker.**

Smart-mouthed and funny, sometimes raunchy, Richard Casey is in most ways a typical seventeen-year-old boy.  Except Richie has cancer, and he’s spending his final days in a hospice unit.  His mother, his doctors, and the hospice staff are determined to keep Richie alive as long as possible.  But in this place where people go to die, Richie has plans to make the most of the life he has left.  Then Sylvie, the sixteen-year-old girl across the hall, enters the picture with some remarkable plans of her own…

Hollis Seamon creates one of the most original voices to appear in young adult literature, narrating a story that is unflinching, graphic, heartbreaking, funny, and above all life-affirming in its depiction of what it really means to be a teenager dying of cancer.  Caring for her own young son, the author spent years visiting a children’s hospital, fascinated and touched by the young people she met there, who remained teenagers no matter how ill they were.  This is her first novel for young adults.  (publisher’s summary)

The Butternut Tree by Maureen Ann Richards Kostalnick — unsolicited from Meryl L. Moss Media Relations (Amazon/IndieBound)

**I’m passing this one on to my husband’s coworker as well.**

Can a single act of violence change the lives of an entire family for generations?  In 1928, Laura Dechant is brutally raped.  A rape that is covered on the front of newspapers but denied behind closed doors of the family home.  Laura was not considered to be a victim during those times, but instead “Tarnished.”  So begins a tale of love, denial and condemnation.

The Butternut Tree is both moving and intense, and author Maureen Ann Richards Kostalnick displays a gift for poetic story telling.  Maureen relates events of her childhood in Avon, Ohio, during the 1940s and 50s.  A beautifully written novel based on a true story of an unspeakable crime that is not easily forgotten, The Butternut Tree will capture readers and draw them into the life of which Kostalnick so eloquently writes.  (publisher’s summary)

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

Disclosure: I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Mailbox Monday — April 1

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 MariReads.

Here’s what I received:

Falling for Mr. Darcy by KaraLynne Mackrory — contest win from Austenprose (Amazon/IndieBound)

When Mr. Darcy encounters Elizabeth Bennet injured after a fall, his concern for her welfare cracks the shell of his carefully guarded heart, and a charming man emerges.  Elizabeth sees an appealing side of him she never believed possible from the stoic, proud master of Pemberley.  They find the simple gentlemanly act of assisting her home will test both Mr. Darcy’s resolve to keep his heart safe and Elizabeth’s conviction that this is the last man on earth she might have ever been prevailed upon to marry.  Soon, falling for Mr. Darcy becomes a real possibility.  (publisher’s summary)

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

Disclosure: I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Mailbox Monday — March 25

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 chaotic compendiums.

Here’s what I received:

Wasteland by Susan Kim & Laurence Klavan — from Harper Teen (Amazon/IndieBound)

Population Over Age 19: 0
Welcome to the Wasteland

The citizens of Prin don’t have the problems that plague typical teens.  At 15, they marry.  At 17, they reproduce.  And at 19, they die.

There’s also the looming threat of rampant disease, acid rain, starvation, and brutal attacks by the variants — hermaphroditic outcasts that live on the outskirts of Prin.

Esther thinks there’s more to life than toiling under the relentless sun.  Her best friend is a variant, and she longs to join the fringe community, to escape the judgment of Levi, the corrupt ruler who controls the Source.  When a mysterious stranger named Caleb arrives in town, shady pasts begin to unravel, and the two rebels realize that they must team together to fight for their lives and for the freedom of Prin.  (publisher’s summary)

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

Disclosure: I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Mailbox Monday — March 18

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 chaotic compendiums.

Here’s what I received over the past couple of weeks:

The Annotated Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, annotated and edited by David M. Shapard — a purchase for my Austen collection (Amazon/IndieBound)

From the editor of the popular Annotated Pride and Prejudice comes an annotated edition of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility that makes this tale of two sisters in love an even more enjoyable read.  Here is the complete text of the novel with more than 2,000 annotations on facing pages, including:

• Explanations of historical context
• Citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings
• Definitions and clarifications
• Literary comments and analysis
• Multiple maps of England and London
• An introduction, bibliography, and detailed chronology of events
• More than 100 informative illustrations

Filled with fascinating information about everything from the rules of inheritance that could leave a wealthy man’s daughters almost penniless to the fashionable cult of sensibility that Austen so brilliantly satirizes, David M. Shapard’s Annotated Sense and Sensibility is an entertaining and edifying delight.  (publisher’s summary)

The Red Kimono by Jan Morrill — from The University of Arkansas Press for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

In 1941, racial tensions are rising in the California community where nine-year-old Sachiko Kimura and her seventeen-year-old brother, Nobu, live with their family.  When Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, anger erupts, and one afternoon Sachiko and Nobu witness three teenage boys taunting and beating their father in the park.  Sachiko especially remembers Terrence Harris, the boy with dark skin and hazel eyes, and Nobu cannot believe the boys capable of such violence toward his father are actually his friends.

What Sachiko and Nobu do not know is that the morning of the beating, Terrence’s family received a telegram with news that Terrence’s father was killed at Pearl Harbor.  Desperate to escape his pain, Terrence rushes from his home and runs into two high-school friends who convince him to find a Japanese man to get revenge.  They do not know until later that the man they attacked is Sachiko and Nobu’s father.

In the months that follow, Terrence is convicted of his crime and Sachiko and Nobu and their mother are sent to an internment camp in Arkansas.  While behind bars and barbed wire, each of the three young people will go through dramatic changes.  One will learn acceptance.  One will seek a path to forgiveness.  And one will remain imprisoned by resentment.  (publisher’s summary)

I also won these awesome bookmarks from Dogear Diary. They are so cute, and The Girl and I are using them already! Thanks, Jeane!

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

Disclosure: I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Mailbox Monday — March 4

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 chaotic compendiums.

Here’s what I received over the past couple of weeks:

Spies and Prejudice by Talia Vance — from Egmont for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

Berry Fields has life under control.  She’s top-notch surveillance expert in her dad’s investigation firm.  She’s sworn off dating — especially Collin, the annoying football player who won’t leave her alone.  She may finally be getting closer to answers about her mother’s death — was it suicide or something more sinister?  But when arrogant — and gorgeous — Tanner Halston rolls into town, her world starts to unravel — especially after she overhears him telling his friend she’s “nothing amazing.”  She’ll forget him, even hate him — but why does he seem connected to the questions about her mother’s death?  And what exactly is Pemberley, the mysterious organization he’s a part of?  Most important, can she ignore the crazy way she feels when Tanner looks into her eyes?

Riveting, sexy, and romantic, this is a twisty, edge-of-seat spy thriller written with an enticing nod to Jane Austen.  (publisher’s summary)

Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust by Leanne Lieberman — from Saima Agency for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

Lauren Yanofsky doesn’t want to be Jewish anymore.  Her father is a noted Holocaust historian, and her mother doesn’t understand why Lauren hates the idea of Jewish youth camps and family vacations to Holocaust memorials.  But when Lauren sees some of her friends — including Jesse, a cute boy she likes — playing Nazi war games, she is faced with a terrible choice: betray her friends or betray her heritage.

Told with engaging humor, Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust isn’t simply about making tough moral choices.  It’s about a girl caught up in the turmoil of bad-hair days, family friction, changing friendships, love — and, yes, the Holocaust.  (publisher’s summary)

The Crooked Branch by Jeanine Cummins — from NAL for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

After the birth of her daughter, Emma, the usually resilient Majella finds herself feeling isolated and exhausted.  Then, at her childhood home in Queens, Majella discovers the diary of her maternal ancestor Ginny — and is shocked to read a story of murder in her family history.

With the famine upon her, Ginny Doyle fled from Ireland to America, but not all of her family made it.  What happened during those harrowing years, and why does Ginny call herself a killer?  Is Majella genetically fated to be a bad mother, despite the fierce tenderness she feels for her baby?  Determined to uncover the truth of her heritage and her own identity, Majella sets out to explore Ginny’s past — and discovers surprising truths about her family and, ultimately, about herself.  (publisher’s summary)

Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter’s Tribute by Marta Fuchs — from Smith Publicity for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter’s Tribute tells the story of the author’s father, Morton (Miksa) Fuchs, and Zoltan Kubinyi, the man who saved him and over 100 other Hungarian Jewish men during the Holocaust. Zoltan Kubinyi was a devout Seventh Day Adventist and a Hungarian army officer who was assigned to be the Commanding Officer of Morton Fuchs’ forced labor battalion in the last year of the war. A year later, as Germany was retreating, Zoltan Kubinyi received orders to march the Jewish men from Russia where they were working toward a concentration camp in Germany since they were no longer needed for the war effort. Instead he defied the Nazi orders and marched the men back into Hungary, arranging to have them hidden in farmhouses along the way.  (from the publisher’s summary)

Georgiana Darcy’s Diary by Anna Elliott — a free ebook (Amazon)

Mr. Darcy’s younger sister searches for her own happily-ever-after…

The year is 1814, and it’s springtime at Pemberley. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have married. But now a new romance is in the air, along with high fashion, elegant manners, scandal, deception, and the wonderful hope of a true and lasting love.

Shy Georgiana Darcy has been content to remain unmarried, living with her brother and his new bride. But Elizabeth and Darcy’s fairy-tale love reminds Georgiana daily that she has found no true love of her own. And perhaps never will, for she is convinced the one man she secretly cares for will never love her in return. Georgiana’s domineering aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, has determined that Georgiana shall marry, and has a list of eligible bachelors in mind. But which of the suitors are sincere, and which are merely interested in Georgiana’s fortune? Georgiana must learn to trust her heart–and rely on her courage, for she also faces the return of the man who could ruin her reputation and spoil a happy ending, just when it finally lies within her grasp. (publisher’s summary)

Story of a Secret State by Jan Karski — from Georgetown University Press for review (Amazon/IndieBound)

Jan Karski’s Story of a Secret State stands as one of the most poignant and inspiring memoirs of World War II and the Holocaust. With elements of a spy thriller, documenting his experiences in the Polish Underground, and as one of the first accounts of the systematic slaughter of the Jews by the German Nazis, this volume is a remarkable testimony of one man’s courage and a nation’s struggle for resistance against overwhelming oppression.

Karski was a brilliant young diplomat when war broke out in 1939 with Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Taken prisoner by the Soviet Red Army, which had simultaneously invaded from the East, Karski narrowly escaped the subsequent Katyn Forest Massacre. He became a member of the Polish Underground, the most significant resistance movement in occupied Europe, acting as a liaison and courier between the Underground and the Polish government-in-exile. He was twice smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto, and entered the Nazi’s Izbica transit camp disguised as a guard, witnessing first-hand the horrors of the Holocaust.

Karski’s courage and testimony, conveyed in a breathtaking manner in Story of a Secret State, offer the narrative of one of the world’s greatest eyewitnesses and an inspiration for all of humanity, emboldening each of us to rise to the challenge of standing up against evil and for human rights. This definitive edition — which includes a foreword by Madeleine Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary — is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history. (publisher’s summary)

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

Disclosure: I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Mailbox Monday — February 18

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 Unabridged Chick.

Here’s what I received:

For review:

New Images of Nazi Germany: A Photographic Collection compiled by Paul Garson — from McFarland through LibraryThing Early Reviewers (Amazon/IndieBound)

With its battlefields paved over and its bunkers crumbled, the Third Reich of Nazi Germany nevertheless lives on in countless photographs that record an era of extraordinary brutality.  This collection of more than 500 photographs taken by amateurs and by professional propagandists provides a panoramic overview of Nazi Germany, offering intimate glimpses into living rooms and killing grounds, kitchens and concentration camps, movie theaters and battle fronts.  The explanatory text explores the context of the images.  Together, these photographs, most never before seen, create a time capsule, capturing the faces of Hitler’s soldiers as well as those who suffered under the Nazi onslaught on humanity.  (publisher’s summary)

Back From Tobruk by Croswell Bowen, edited by Betsy Connor Bowen — from Potomac Books (Amazon/IndieBound)

In 1941 photographer Croswell Bowen joined American Field Service volunteer ambulance drivers and served alongside the British Eighth Army during World War II.  As the war continued to escalate, he would have his mental, emotional, and physical well-being tested beyond anything he ever imagined.

Back From Tobruk is the remarkable account of one man’s journey across a world torn apart, with only his camera and his moral convictions to guide him.  As Bowen watched the number of wounded and dying soldiers rise, he struggled to understand the very nature of war itself.  A lifelong Catholic and devoted pacifist, he tried to reconcile his commitment to nonviolence with his growing belief that the end of this war would finally bring peace to the world.  Spending time in hospital and field dressing stations as both a caregiver and a patient, he witnessed soldiers reaching out to their former battlefield enemies, showing grace and compassion in a world seemingly bereft of both.  “When the great leaders sit down at the peace table,” he wrote of his fellow servicemen, “they might take a lesson from those men.”

Later a successful journalist and author, Bowen never forgot what he had witnessed during his time in Africa and the Middle East.  Back From Tobruk documents the brutality of war and the resilience of the human spirit.  (publisher’s summary)

Thinking of You by Jill Mansell — from Sourcebooks (Amazon/IndieBound)

Are you in the midst of one of those “exciting” phases of life, like the eerily quiet empty nest…or the new job with the distractingly attractive, off-limits boss…or a wacky new roommate who isn’t at all as advertised?  What about all of those at once…

You may begin to think you’re living someone else’s reality.  And maybe that’s not a bad thing…

International bestselling author Jill Mansell spins a poignant and funny story of mothers, daughters, friends, and lovers…and what happens when everything takes a turn for the unexpected.  (publisher’s summary)

Ebook purchases:

“Emma & Elton: Something Truly Horrid” by Alexa Adams (Amazon)

Few heroines evoke such diverse emotions as Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse, for whom readers profess everything from disdain to devotion. In “Emma & Elton,” Alexa Adams explores what might have befallen the supercilious Miss Woodhouse if she were made aware of Mr. Elton’s affection prior to his proposal. This short story was first published on Adams’ blog in tribute to Halloween, and though you’ll find no ghost or ghouls gracing its pages, tenderhearted Janeites be warned: here lies “something truly horrid.” (publisher’s summary)

A Pemberley Medley by Abigail Reynolds (Amazon)

Five Pathways to Pemberley

It’s the best of all worlds.

Five short Pride & Prejudice variations by bestselling writer Abigail Reynolds gathered in one volume. Can Mr. Darcy win Elizabeth Bennet’s heart…or will they misunderstand each other forever? Can he stand by and watch Elizabeth lose everything she holds precious…including him? (publisher’s summary)

From Serena:

The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander (Amazon/IndieBound)

Though the events are almost a century old, the imprisonment and execution of Tsar Nicholas and his family still hold an aura of mystery that fascinates.  In haunting prose, Robert Alexander retells the story through the eyes of Leonka, once the kitchen boy to the Romanovs, who claims to be the last living witness to the family’s brutal execution.  Mysteriously spared by the Bolsheviks, the boy vanished into the bloody tides of the Russian Revolution.  Now, through Alexander’s conjuring, he reemerges to tell his story.  What did the young boy see in those last days of the Imperial Family?  Does he have answers to long-standing questions about secret letters smuggled to the Tsar, thirty-eight pounds of missing tsarist jewels, and why the bodies of two Romanov children are missing from the secret grave discovered in 1991?  (publisher’s summary)

From the library sale for a total of $1.50:

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels (Amazon/IndieBound)

Anne Michaels’ fiercely beautiful debut novel tells the interlocking stories of three men of different generations whose lives are transformed by the events and shifting effects of the same war.

At its center is poet Jakob Beer: traumatically orphaned as a young boy during the Second World War, rescued from the mud of a buried Polish city and secreted to a Greek island by Athos Roussos, scientist, scholar, and above all, humanist.  In the seclusion and tenderness of Athos’ small house, they spend the last years of the Occupation in a precarious refuge insulated and made lavish with poetry and cartography, botany and art, geology and ancient history.

After the war, in Toronto, where Athos has accepted a teaching post at the University, Jakob is faced with the tangible, insistent nature of the recent past: his own surfacing in all its darkness and profundity, the question of his beloved sister’s fate its harrowing focus.  Yet this is also the time when he meets the woman who will become his first wife, and begins his life-long work as a translator and poet (“The world could disappear…in the purity of white pages.”)  And in this layered process of reentering life, Jakob learns the power of language — to destroy, to omit, and to obliterate; but also to witness and tell, conjure and restore.

And it is in Toronto as well that, late in his life, Jakob will cross paths with Ben: a young professor, expert in the dramas of weather and biography but naive in the drama of his own life.  The quiet elation Ben senses in the older man, and Ben’s own connection to the wounding legacies of the war, kindle a fascination with Jakob and his writing, upsetting and then opening that part of himself long since shut down against his knowledge of the past.  (publisher’s summary)

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear (Amazon/IndieBound)

Jacqueline Winspear’s marvelous and inspired debut, Maisie Dobbs, won her fans from coast to coast and raised her intuitive and resourceful heroine to the ranks of literature’s favorite sleuths.  Birds of a Feather finds Maisie on another dangerously intriguing adventure in London between the wars.  It is the spring of 1930, and Maisie has been hired to find a runaway heiress.  When three of the heiress’ old friends are found dead, Maisie must race to find out who would want to kill these seemingly respectable young women before it’s too late.  As Maisie investigates, she discovers that the answers lie in the unforgettable agony of the Great War.  (publisher’s summary)

What books did you add to your shelves recently?

Disclosure: I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

Read Full Post »