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
Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica at Lori’s Reading Corner.
In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her friend and roommate Quinn Collins to wonder where Esther is and whether or not she’s the person Quinn thought she knew.
Meanwhile, in a small Michigan harbor town an hour outside Chicago, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where eighteen-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher. He is immediately drawn to her charm and beauty, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something far more dark and sinister than he ever expected.
As Quinn searches for answers about Esther, and Alex is drawn further under the stranger’s spell, master of suspense Mary Kubica takes readers on a taut and twisted thrill ride that builds to a stunning conclusion and shows that no matter how fast and far we run, the past always catches up with us in the end.
A Chicago setting, a thriller, and an author I enjoy.
World Gone By by Dennis Lehane at BermudaOnion.
Late spring, 1943. The world is at war but the American mob is in its heyday. Former crime boss Joe Coughlin now works as a consigliere to the infamous Bartolo Crime Family, effortlessly handling their interests in Tampa, Boston, and Cuba. In the decade since he lost his wife in a cascade of bullets, Joe has made a home for himself and his son, and once again forged everything out of nothing: money, power, a relationship with a beautiful woman, and a privileged place in Tampa’s shadowy underworld.
But a rumor surfaces that someone wants Joe dead. And he has only days to figure out who, or he will die. And then there’s the ghost a young boy who appears on the fringes of Joe’s vision and seems to be trying to tell him something. Racing against time and fate, Joe hurtles through a violent yet intoxicating world on the brink of total collapse or epic triumph, a world on the cusp of reinvention and rebirth where the old codes, the old sins, and the old dreams may soon be swept away once and for all.
Another author I enjoy.
Serena
Integrity by Anna Borgeryd @ BookNAround
Vera is a nurse from Sweden who, while delivering a dangerous birth in the Colombian jungle, makes contact with indigenous people who give her a wholly different outlook on life. A traumatic experience takes her home, her life in pieces, just like the world as she now sees it. Her quest to put her life back together becomes tied up with her vision of a more sustainable world.
She meets the corporate heir to a company specializing in luxury travel who has a predatory attitude to women. Could such opposites really attract? And, if they came together, could they actually do something to halt the global march to self-destruction?
An exploration of the inter-connectedness of human life and an unexpected love story, Integrity delves deep into the choices and emotions of a woman trying to change the world, and a man trying to change with her.
This genre-bending novel has achieved cult status in Sweden where Anna Borgeryd heads one of the country’s most progressive companies.
I like books that are translated because they often provide a different perspective or culture. This might be intriguing given the setting and the circumstances.
Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas W. Tallamy @ Under My Apple Tree
As development and subsequent habitat destruction accelerate, there are increasing pressures on wildlife populations. But there is an important and simple step toward reversing this alarming trend: Everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity.
There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife — native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plants disappear, the insects disappear, impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. In many parts of the world, habitat destruction has been so extensive that local wildlife is in crisis and may be headed toward extinction.
Bringing Nature Home has sparked a national conversation about the link between healthy local ecosystems and human well-being, and the new paperback edition — with an expanded resource section and updated photos — will help broaden the movement.
I’ve been using companion planting in the vegetable garden, and I hope to continue that trend. However, I also like this idea of returning nature to its previous state, even though my yard is very small.
Vicki
The Edge of Nowhere by C.H. Armstrong @ 125 Pages
The year is 1992 and Victoria Hastings Harrison Greene—reviled matriarch of a sprawling family—is dying.
After surviving the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, Victoria refuses to leave this earth before revealing the secrets she’s carried for decades.
Once the child of a loving family during peaceful times, a shocking death shattered her life. Victoria came face to face with the harshness of the world. As the warm days of childhood receded to distant memory, Victoria learns to survive.
No matter what it takes.
To keep her family alive in an Oklahoma blighted by dust storms and poverty, Victoria makes choices—harsh ones, desperate ones. Ones that eventually made her into the woman her grandchildren fear and whisper about. Ones that kept them all alive. Hers is a tale of tragedy, love, murder, and above all, the conviction to never stop fighting.
I want to know the secrets she’s been keeping for so many years
Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery (Little Beach Street Bakery #2) by Jenny Colgan @ BookNAround
Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery is an irresistible novel—moving and funny, soulful and sweet—about happiness, heartache, and hope. And recipes.
A thriving bakery. A lighthouse to call home. A handsome beekeeper. A pet puffin. These are the things that Polly Waterford can call her own. This is the beautiful life she leads on a tiny island off the southern coast of England.
But clouds are gathering on the horizon. A stranger threatens to ruin Polly’s business. Her beloved boyfriend seems to be leading a secret life. And the arrival of a newcomer—a bereft widow desperately searching for a fresh start—forces Polly to reconsider the choices she’s made, even as she tries to help her new friend through grief.
Unpredictable and unforgettable, this delightful novel will make you laugh, cry, and long for a lighthouse of your own.
I have a copy of the first book in the series but haven’t read it yet. I’d like to read this book too
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