Monday, August 23, 2010

Mailbox Monday August 23



Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

This month's hostess is Shanyn at Chick Loves Lit. Thank you Shanyn for hosting. Be sure to check out her blog.

This week I received two books. One for review and the other for the Barnes and Noble First Look Book Club.



Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie

Synopsis borrowed from Barnes and Noble

Andie Miller is ready to move on with her life. She wants to marry her fiancé and leave behind everything in her past, especially her ex-husband, North Archer. But when Andie tries to gain closure with him, he asks one final favor of her. A distant cousin has died and left North the guardian of two orphans who have driven away three nannies already, and things are getting worse. He needs someone to take care of the situation, and he knows Andie can handle anything....

When Andie meets the two children, she realizes the situation is much worse than she feared. Carter and Alice aren’t your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper since Mrs. Danvers. Complicating matters is Andie’s fiancé’s suspicion that this is all a plan by North to get Andie back. He may be right because Andie’s dreams have been haunted by North since she arrived at the old house. And that’s not the only haunting....

Then her ex-brother-in-law arrives with a duplicitous journalist and a self-doubting parapsychologist, closely followed by an annoyed medium, Andie’s tarot card-reading mother, her avenging ex-mother-in-law, and her jealous fiancé. Just when Andie’s sure things couldn’t get more complicated, North arrives to make her wonder if maybe this time things could just turn out differently....

I received this book for review courtesy of St. Martins Press



The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart


Synopsis borrowed from Barnes and Noble

On a moonless Texas night in 1895, an ambitious young landowner suffers the loss of “the only woman he’s ever been fond of” when his wife dies during childbirth with the couple’s fourth boy, Karel. From an early age Karel proves so talented on horseback that his father enlists him to ride in acreage-staked horseraces against his neighbors. But Karel is forever haunted by thoughts of the mother he never knew, by the bloodshot blame in his father’s eyes, and permanently marked by the yoke he and his brothers are forced to wear to plow the family fields. Confident only in the saddle, Karel is certain that the horse “wants the whip the same way he wants his pop’s strap . . . the closest he ever gets to his father’s touch.” In the winter of 1910, Karel rides in the ultimate high-stakes race against a powerful Spanish patriarch and his alluring daughters. Hanging in the balance are his father’s fortune, his brother’s futures, and his own fate. Fourteen years later, with the stake of the race still driven hard between him and his brothers, Karel is finally forced to dress the wounds of his past and to salvage the tattered fabric of his family.



Reminiscent of Kent Haruf’s portrayals of hope amidst human heartbreak and Cormac McCarthy’s finely hewn evocations of the American Southwest, Bruce Machart’s striking debut is as well wrought as it is riveting. It compels us to consider the inescapable connections between sons and their mothers, between landscape and family, and between remembrance and redemption.

I received this book to participate in the Barnes and Noble First Look Book Club. I can't wait to discuss this one.

What wonderful books made their way into your home?

14 comments:

  1. oooooooooooooooo.....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... oooooooooooooo.. you got Maybe this TIME! Very very very green like the hulk envious of this book! Let me know what transpires afterward... again i repeat.......oooooooooo.ahhhhhhhhh.ooooooooo ;)

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  2. They both look good to me! I hope you enjoy them.

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  3. I haven't read any books by Jennifer Cruise. I really should check her out sometime. Enjoy your new books!

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  4. Enjoy your books.

    http://silversolara.blogspot.com

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  5. I didn't participate in the First Look B & N club this time. I have too much going on with getting ready to start teaching school again. I was soo tempted by the book though. I was struggling..not to sign up. Can't wait to hear what you think.

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  6. Both of them look fantastic!!!

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  7. You have great-looking books. I've been wishing for the Jennifer Crusie book...I'll be waiting to see what you think of it.

    Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  8. I've heard great things about Jennifer Cruise - enjoy!

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  9. Both look good - I have read a few Crusie books... enjoyed them.

    Have a great week!

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  10. Am soo late, sorry but your books do look really good. I hope you enjoy them and have a wonderful week in reading.

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  11. I haven't heard of these, so I'm looking forward to your thoughts!

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