Mailbox Monday October 17

It's Monday and we all know what that means! Mailbox Monday! This months hostess is Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit.

This week I received two very great sounding books! I am loving the cover on Duty Free! The ARC I received has little headlines running on top of the pages of the book. I am not sure if the finished copy has it but it has me very intrigued! The Dressmaker is a book I am very excited about! I love reading stories set on the Titanic and am really looking forward to this one. I was thrilled to receive both of these books!

Duty Free by Moni Mohsin
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Broadway (September 6, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307889246
ISBN-13: 978-0307889249

Jane Austen's Emma, transported to the outrageous social melee of 21st-century Lahore.

Our plucky heroine's cousin, Jonkers, has been dumped by his low-class, slutty secretary, and our heroine has been charged with finding him a suitable wife -- a rich, fair, beautiful, old-family type. Quickly. But, between you, me and the four walls, who wants to marry poor, plain, hapless Jonkers?

As our heroine social-climbs her way through weddings-sheddings, GTs (get togethers, of course) and ladies' lunches trying to find a suitable girl from the right bagground, she discovers to her dismay that her cousin has his own ideas about his perfect mate. And secretly, she may even agree.

Full of wit and wickedness and as clever as its heroine is clueless, Duty Free is a delightful romp through Pakistani high society -- though, even as it makes you cry with laughter, it makes you wince at the gulf between our heroine's glitteringly shallow life and the country that is falling apart, day by day, around her Louboutin-clad feet. Moni Mohsin, already a huge bestseller in India, has been hailed as a modern-day Jane Austen, and compared to Nancy Mitford and Helen Fielding. Duty Free is social satire at its biting best.

This was a win from Read It Forward.

The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Doubleday (February 21, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385535589
ISBN-13: 978-0385535588

Just in time for the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic comes a vivid, romantic, and relentlessly compelling historical novel about a spirited young woman who survives the disaster only to find herself embroiled in the media frenzy left in the wake of the tragedy.

Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she's had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the Titanic's doomed voyage. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men, one a roughly-hewn but kind sailor and the other an enigmatic Chicago millionaire. But on the fourth night, disaster strikes.

Amidst the chaos and desperate urging of two very different suitors, Tess is one of the last people allowed on a lifeboat. Tess’s sailor also manages to survive unharmed, witness to Lady Duff Gordon’s questionable actions during the tragedy. Others—including the gallant Midwestern tycoon—are not so lucky.

On dry land, rumors about the survivors begin to circulate, and Lady Duff Gordon quickly becomes the subject of media scorn and later, the hearings on the Titanic. Set against a historical tragedy but told from a completely fresh angle, The Dressmaker is an atmospheric delight filled with all the period's glitz and glamour, all the raw feelings of a national tragedy and all the contradictory emotions of young love.

PRAISE FOR THE DRESSMAKER
“We all know how the Titanic went down, we all saw the movie. But what happened after? This brilliant book shows the aftermath of the tragedy, seen through the eyes of a brave, young girl who was on board, on her way to America, to start a new life as a dressmaker. From the minute Tess sets foot on the doomed ship, this is the kind of novel you simply cannot put down and cannot forget.”
--Tatiana de Rosnay, author of Sarah's Key and A Secret Kept

“The Dressmaker achieves the remarkable -- it makes the sinking of the Titanic feel like a story never told before. By focusing on the search for justice in the aftermath of the tragedy, this compelling first novel examines humanity at its best and worst, as seen through the eyes of one of the ship's survivors, a courageous young woman who is determined to make her own way in America.”
--Lauren Belfer, author of A Fierce Radiance and City of Light

“This is a fascinating premise for a novel as well as a powerful, page-turning read. It's also a very valuable contribution to our understanding of the events surrounding the sinking of The Titanic, and its aftermath.”
--Isabel Wolff, author of A Vintage Affair

I requested a copy of this through Shelf Awareness but they ran out of copies. They were nice enough to offer me an e-book copy through Netgalley. Thank you Knopf Doubleday!

That is what came into my home last week. What wonderful reads made their way into your home?