Mailbox Monday February 21

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! Mailbox Monday was started by Marcia at the Printed Page. Mailbox Monday is now on tour and this month's host is Laura at Library of Clean Reads. Thank you Laura for hosting this month!

I finally finished a book yesterday and made some progress in another book. These three books I received over the past few weeks. Two are for review and one was a win.




Friendship Bread by Darien Gee

An anonymous gift sends a woman on a journey she never could have anticipated.

One afternoon, Julia Evarts and her five-year-old daughter, Gracie, arrive home to find an unexpected gift on the front porch: a homemade loaf of Amish Friendship Bread and a simple note: I hope you enjoy it. Also included are a bag of starter, instructions on how to make the bread herself, and a request to share it with others.

Still reeling from a personal tragedy that left her estranged from the sister who was once her best friend, Julia remains at a loss as to how to move on with her life. She’d just as soon toss the anonymous gift, but to make Gracie happy, she agrees to bake the bread.

When Julia meets two newcomers to the small town of Avalon, Illinois, she sparks a connection by offering them her extra bread starter. Widow Madeline Davis is laboring to keep her tea salon afloat while Hannah Wang de Brisay, a famed concert cellist, is at a crossroads, her career and marriage having come to an abrupt end. In the warm kitchen of Madeline’s tea salon, the three women forge a friendship that will change their lives forever.

In no time, everyone in Avalon is baking Amish Friendship Bread. But even as the town unites for a benevolent cause and Julia becomes ever closer to her new friends, she realizes the profound necessity of confronting the painful past she shares with her sister.

About life and loss, friendship and community, food and family, Friendship Bread tells the uplifting story of what endures when even the unthinkable happens.

I received this book from Ballantine Books through Librarything's Early Reviewers. Looking forward to reading this one. I have had an Amish Friendship Bread Starter before and we really enjoyed the bread I made from it. That cover is yummy, don't ya' think?



The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel

The highly anticipated sixth book of Jean Auel's Earth's Children® series, THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES, is the culmination fans have been waiting for. Continuing the story of Ayla and Jondalar, Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived more than 25,000 years ago. THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES is an exquisite achievement by one of the world's most beloved authors.

I received this book from Crown Publishers through Shelf Awareness. My Mom is a huge fan of this series and is always trying to get me to read them so I had jumped on this book before my Mom got ill. When the book came, she was here so I handed it over to her. It is a chunkster with 757 pages! It should keep her busy for some time and hopefully I can get her to review it.




Bering Sea Blues by Joe Upton

This is a gripping memoir of a winter season of crab-fishing in the Bering Sea, filled with scary moments, killer ice, risky work, and for the lucky ones financial rewards. For others, surviving was their reward. Just 25, Joe Upton was the youngest guy aboard when the 104-foot Flood Tide pulled out of Seattle in March 1971 headed for Dutch Harbor with 700-pound crab pots stacked three deep on her deck. The top-heavy load caused some anxious moments later when the vessel iced up. The crew went to work with hammers and baseball bats as howling winds roughed up the seas and the Flood Tide rolled from side to side, threatening to capsize while everyone held their breath. BERING SEA BLUES is a thinking-man's book of the TV series 'Deadliest Catch' because Joe Upton did a lot of thinking that winter working 12- to 14-hour days in weather that would scare most mariners away. He figured if he challenged fate in the Bering Sea crab fishery too long he would wind up either rich or dead, or both.

I won this over at Rose City Reader. Thanks you Gilion and Mary! I am a huge Deadliest Catch fan so this book really appeals to me. If you ever want to know why crab is so expensive just learn a bit about the risk and life of a crabber. Their life is not easy and crab fishing is not an easy task at all!

So that is what has come to my mailbox lately. I am hoping to find time today to check out other MM posts. I have a home health nurse coming for Mom today so I may not be able to get to them until tomorrow. I am so looking forward to visiting blogs again and catching up. I have missed this more than you can imagine!