Books That Caught Our Eye

Here at Mailbox Monday, we want to encourage participants to not only share the books they received, but to check out the books others have received. We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.

Here are the books that caught our eye this week:

Serena

1. The Qualities of Wood by Mary Vensel White from Everything Distils Into Reading.

I find that I really love well-written debut novels about writers, and this one has a mystery woven in. How can I resist a novel with a writer and a mysterious death? This time the wife joins her husband as he writes his second novel, but the mysterious death and the strange neighbors clearly bother her and force her to try to make things make sense.

I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira from Words and Peace.

I love art, and Mary Cassatt is one of my favorites….and this is a historical fiction book about her romance with Degas and the time after the Civil War when she moves to Paris to study art. It’s about the most defining period of her life, and her fateful meeting with Degas, who begged for the introduction. I cannot tell you how much I would love to get my hands on this one.

Vicki

The Hollow Ground by Natalie S. Harnett @ Book Of Secrets.

This is about underground mine fires ravaging Pennsylvania coal country, and a girl named Brigid who makes a grisly discovery in a long-abandoned bootleg mine shaft. On top of that, her family had a curse put on them generations earlier by a priest who ran afoul of the Molly Maguires.

While this is a work of fiction, the book is inspired by real-life events in Centralia, Pennsylvania. My dad was a coal miner in West Virginia during his late teens and early 20’s, and this subject has always fascinated me. Plus, I love books based on true events.

Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden by Laurel Dewey @ BookNAround,

This book is about 58 yr. old Betty who is a widow and has also lost her son. Her house is in dire need of fixing up and her gourmet chocolate shop is faltering. She realizes that she’s wasted her life, so she decides to change. What follows is a way of life she would never have believed possible.

It sounds like an intriguing story.

Leslie

Bittersweet By Colleen McCullough at Kimberly’s Bookshelf.

“This is the story of two sets of twins, Edda and Grace, Tufts and Kitty, who struggle against all the restraints, prohibitions, laws and prejudices of 1920s Australia.”

First thing that caught my eye was that lovely book cover, plus I enjoy the 1920s time period. Second was the author’s name – I haven’t read anything by Colleen McCullough recently but I did love her bestseller, The Thorn Birds, and her ability to write sweeping family dramas.

Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini at Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf.

Another book where the cover was the first thing to catch my eye! Fantasy is a hit or miss genre with me. In this one we have an alternate universe overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women and magic. Could be good escape reading.