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.

Every Wednesday Leslie, Serena and I will each share 2 books that caught our eye from that week’s Mailbox Monday.

We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.

 

Leslie:
Calming the Chaos: A Soulful Guide to Managing Your Energy Rather Than Your Time by Jackie Woodside at Library of Clean Reads and I’d Rather Be At The Beach
Far too many people in contemporary culture feel they don’t have enough time to “get it all done.” The stress of this chronic overwhelm creates a disorganized mind that leads to a chaotic life. Based on her highly acclaimed “Energy Management” workshops, and drawn from over 25 years of counseling and coaching experience, professional trainer and speaker Jackie Woodside shares her breakthrough methods that lead to becoming the least stressed, most productive person you know!

More energy and less stress sounds like a dream come true!

 
The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack at Dolce Bellezza 
What if there was a drug that could help you remember past lives?

What if the lives you remembered could lead you to your one true love?

What if you learned that, for thousands of years, a deadly enemy had conspired to keep the two of you apart?

Two lovers who have traveled across time. A team of scientists at the cutting edge of memory research. A miracle drug that unlocks an ancient mystery.

Not sure how I missed hearing about this one but it was new to me. I’m a sucker for the time travel stories.
 
 

Serena:
The Beautifull Cassandra by Jane Austen @ Sam Still Reading
A selection of Austen’s dark and hilarious early writings – featuring murder, drunkenness, perjury, theft, poisoning, women breaking out of prison, men forging wills and babies biting off their mothers’ fingers…

I love my Jane Austen books, and the spin-offs and re-tellings.  And this one sounds great since there are so few collections of her writing from her younger years.

 
 

Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius @ Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf 
In the tradition of Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic, one girl chooses to change her fortune and her fate by falling in love.

Love is real in the town of Grimbaud, and Fallon Dupree has dreamed of attending high school there for years. After all, generations of Duprees have successfully followed the (100% accurate!) love fortunes from Zita’s famous Love Charms Shop to happily marry their high school sweethearts. It’s a tradition. So she is both stunned and devastated when her fortune states that she will NEVER find love.

Fortunately, Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. Fallon is determined to take control of her own fate—even if it means working with a notorious heartbreaker like Sebastian.

Will Fallon and Sebastian be able to overthrow Zita’s tyranny and fall in love?

I love these kinds of books in which choices made by main characters determine their lives.

 
 

Vicki:
Find Momo Coast to Coast by Andrew Knapp @ Bermudaonion and Book Referees
Momo loves to hide—and you’ll love looking for him! In this follow-up to the New York Times best seller Find Momo, the canine Instagram superstar (and his best buddy, Andrew Knapp) travel across the United States and Canada, visiting iconic landmarks and unique off-the-map marvels. Look for Momo hiding in Grand Central Station, in front of the White House, and in the French Quarter of New Orleans . . . as well as at diners, bookstores, museums, and other locales that only a seasoned road-tripper like Andrew could find. It’s part game, part photography book, and a whole lot of fun.

When I saw this book I knew immediately that it was going to be one of my picks. I’ve been following Momo’s blog for a few years and I love trying to find him.
 
 

Burning Down George Orwell’s House  by Andrew Ervin @ Dolce Bellezza
A darkly comic debut novel about advertising, truth, single malt, Scottish hospitality—or lack thereof—and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Ray Welter, who was until recently a high-flying advertising executive in Chicago, has left the world of newspeak behind. He decamps to the isolated Scottish Isle of Jura in order to spend a few months in the cottage where George Orwell wrote most of his seminal novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Ray is miserable, and quite prepared to make his troubles go away with the help of copious quantities of excellent scotch.

But a few of the local islanders take a decidedly shallow view of a foreigner coming to visit in order to sort himself out, and Ray quickly finds himself having to deal with not only his own issues but also a community whose eccentricities are at times amusing and at others downright dangerous. Also, the locals believe—or claim to believe—that there’s a werewolf about, and  against his better judgment, Ray’s misadventures build to the night of a traditional, boozy werewolf hunt on the Isle of Jura on the summer solstice.

This is definitely not like my usual reads, but for some reason it sounds fascinating.