Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Has anyone had enough snow to make a mailbox look like this?
How is everyone doing with this quickly moving January?
I feel like burrowing into some good books and letting the world slide by.
Tell us about your new books by adding your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
At Mailbox Monday we encourage participants to not only share the books they received, but to check out the books others have received. Each week will share a few books that caught our eye from that weeks’ Mailbox Monday.
We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.
American socialite Lily Durham is known for enjoying one moment to the next, with little regard for the consequences of her actions. But just as she is banished overseas to England as a “cure” for her frivolous ways, the Great War breaks out and wreaks havoc. She joins her cousin in nursing the wounded at a convalescent home deep in the wilds of Scotland at a crumbling castle where its laird is less than welcoming.
Alec MacGregor has given his entire life to preserving his home of Kinclavoch Castle, but mounting debts force him to sell off his family history bit by bit. Labeled a coward for not joining his countrymen in the trenches due to an old injury, he opens his home to the Tommies to make recompense while he keeps to the shadows. But his preference for the shadows is shattered when a new American nurse comes streaming into the castle on a burst of light.
Lily and Alec are thrown together when a series of mysterious events threatens to ruin the future of Kinclavoch. Can they put aside their differences to find the culprit before it’s too late, or will their greatest distraction be falling in love?
“It’s not just WWII novels I love, but also those set during WWI.”
The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a long cold spell, warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota territory to venture out again, and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats–leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At just the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard struck without warning. Schoolteachers as young as sixteen were suddenly faced with life and death decisions: keep the children inside, to risk freezing to death when fuel ran out, or send them home, praying they wouldn’t get lost in the storm?
Based on actual oral histories of survivors, the novel follows the stories of Raina and Gerda Olsen, two sisters, both schoolteachers–one who becomes a hero of the storm, and one who finds herself ostracized in the aftermath. It’s also the story of Anette Pedersen, a servant girl whose miraculous survival serves as a turning point in her life and touches the heart of Gavin Woodson, a newspaperman seeking redemption. It is Woodson and others like him who wrote the embellished news stories that lured immigrants across the sea to settle a pitiless land. Boosters needed immigrants to settle territories into states, and they didn’t care what lies they told them to get them there–or whose land it originally was.
At its heart, this is a story of courage, of children forced to grow up too soon, tied to the land because of their parents’ choices. It is a story of love taking root in the hard prairie ground, and of families being torn asunder by a ferocious storm that is little remembered today–because so many of its victims were immigrants to this country.
“This sounds so engaging, especially as it is based on first-hand accounts.”
The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over.
1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart. 1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter–the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger–and their true enemy–closer…
“I like stories of codes and this sounds like an intense historical thriller ”
In this electrifying near-future thriller, five strangers guard government secrets, but only four can be trusted.
In the 21st century, information is king. But computers can be hacked and files can be broken into – so a unique government initiative has been born. Five ordinary people have been selected to become Minders – the latest weapon in thwarting cyberterrorism. Transformed by a revolutionary medical procedure, the country’s most classified information has been taken offline and turned into genetic code implanted inside their heads.
Together, the five know every secret – the truth behind every government lie, conspiracy theory and cover up. In return, they’re given the chance to leave their problems behind and a blank slate to start their lives anew.
But not everyone should be trusted, especially when they each have secrets of their own they’ll do anything to protect….
“Actually this cover didn’t grab me but the blurb did.”
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Blue jay standing on miniature mailbox.
I love this pretty bluebird but I don’t think the mailbox is big enough for books.
January is moving along quickly. Our weather has been cool with some rain. I’m glad that the short days of December are getting a little longer so it isn’t dark at 5pm anymore. Have you been getting some good books to tell us about?
Tell us about your new books by adding your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
At Mailbox Monday we encourage participants to not only share the books they received, but to check out the books others have received. Each week will share a few books that caught our eye from that weeks’ Mailbox Monday.
We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.
In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.
In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer’s, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.
But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .
“Sometimes you just need a time travel story, and this sounds unique.”
A powerful and incredibly moving historical novel inspired by an untold story of the Second World War.
Vancouver 1941
As the war rages around the world, Hitler’s fury is yet to be felt on the peaceful shores of Mayne Island. Sweethearts Hayden and Chidori are in love.
But everything changes after Pearl Harbor.
Now seen as the enemy, Chidori and her family are forced into an internment camp. Powerless to help them, Hayden joins the Royal Canadian Air Force to bring about an end to this devastating war – the thought of Chidori is all that keeps him alive.
Can they both survive long enough to be reunited? Or will the war be the only thing to separate their love?
“There were a few WWII-related books, but I rarely find ones that involve internment camps. It’s one of the parts of WWII history that many people don’t want to talk about — how fear imprisoned many innocent people.”
A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family—and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for—and everything she feared
Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had.
But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter—she doesn’t behave like most children do.
Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.
Then their son Sam is born—and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.
The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.
“I normally am not drawn to ‘drama’ but this one caught my attention”
This fascinating history of a literary and religious masterpiece explores the forces that obstructed and ultimately led to the decision to create an authorized translation, the method of translation and printing, and the central role the King James version of the Bible played in the development of modern English.
In the sixteenth century, to attempt to translate the Bible into a common tongue wasn’t just difficult, it was dangerous. A Bible in English threatened the power of the monarch and the Church. Early translators like Tyndale, whose work greatly influenced the King James, were hunted down and executed, but the demand for English Bibles continued to grow. Indeed it was the popularity of the Geneva Bible, with its anti-royalist content, that eventually forced James I to sanction his own, pro-monarchy, translation. Errors in early editions–one declared that thou shalt commit adultery–and Puritan preferences for the Geneva Bible initially hampered acceptance of the King James, but it went on to become the definitive English-language Bible. McGrath’s history of the King James Bible’s creation and influence is a worthy tribute to a great work and a joy to read.
“I read a fiction story about this (The Sword of Truth by Gilbert Morris) and I think the history would be interesting.”
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Titled a “Handy Mailbox”
Did any of you have heavy snow this week? We are cold for Florida, but no snow of course.
Well, the first week of 2021 did not turn out calm.
Maybe we all need to focus on enjoying our books. So what came your way this past week?
Tell us about your new books by adding your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
At Mailbox Monday we encourage participants to not only share the books they received, but to check out the books others have received. Each week will share a few books that caught our eye from that weeks’ Mailbox Monday.
We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.
‘Our parents were taken. And if we go home, the Nazis will take us too…’
Hamburg 1938. Fifteen-year-old Asta is hurrying home from school with her twin brother Jurgen. The mood in the city is tense – synagogues have been smashed with sledgehammers, and Asta is too frightened to laugh as she used to.
But when she and Jurgen are stopped in the street by a friend, her world implodes further. Her Jewish parents have been dragged into the streets by German soldiers and if she and Jurgen return to their house, they will be taken too.
Heartbroken at the loss of her parents, Asta knows they must flee. With her beloved brother, she must make the perilous journey across Germany and into Denmark to reach their only surviving relative, her aunt Trine, a woman they barely know.
Jammed into a truck with other refugees, Asta prays for a miracle to save herself and Jurgen. Crossing the border is a crime punishable by death, and what she and Jurgen must embark on a dangerous crossing on foot, through the snowy forest dividing Germany and Denmark. And when barking dogs and armed soldiers find Jurgen and Asta escapes, she must hold on to hope no matter what. One day she will find her twin, the other half of herself. Whatever the price she has to pay…
A gripping and poignant read that will break your heart and give you hope. Fans of Fiona Valpy, Kristin Hannah and Catherine Hokin will be gripped by the story of a brave brother and sister seeking safety during one of the darkest times in our history.
“Everyone probably realizes at this point that I love WWII fiction.
Paris, 1944. Charlotte Foret is working in a tiny bookstore in Nazi-occupied Paris struggling to stay alive and keep her baby Vivi safe. Every day they live through is a miracle until Vivi becomes gravely ill. In desperation, Charlotte accepts help from an unlikely saviour – and her life is changed forever.
Charlotte is no victim. She is a survivor. But the truth of what happened in Paris is something she knows she can never share with anyone, including her daughter. Can she ever really leave Paris behind, and embrace the next chapter of her life?
Seamlessly interweaving Charlotte’s past in wartime Paris and her present in the 1950s world of New York publishing, Paris Never Leaves You is a heartbreakingly moving and unforgettable story of resilience, love – and impossible choices. The war is over, but the past is never past …
Hudson Riggs has returned to his family’s ranch after years spent traveling the world. The former Navy SEAL accepted a position as a Personal Security Specialist, a job that didn’t leave much free time. He never expected his visit to his hometown to turn into another job.
His former High School flame has been arrested for murder but Hudson’s gut instinct is she didn’t do it. All he has to do now is prove it.
For Sunny Travers, being back in Canyon Springs is bittersweet. She desperately misses her life in California but her grandmother needs her. Sunny’s world flips upside down when she’s arrested for killing the local hero. Now the citizens of Canyon Springs have turned against her and she’s forced to accept help from the man who broke her heart all those years ago.
Hudson knows Sunny hasn’t forgiven him. Hell, he hasn’t forgiven himself for how he left things but all his emotions take a back seat when someone tries to kill Sunny. Can Hudson protect Sunny long enough to apologize to her and right old wrongs or will the killer get to her first?
“I like the combination of military and dogs so this series got my attention.”
In crossing another travel adventure off their bucket list, two retirees take a fascinating river cruise and find the heart and soul of the American South.
Born travelers Al and Sunny Lockwood seized their dreams of exploring America’s natural wonders. From hiking Sierra Nevada mountain trails to photographing wildflowers in Death Valley, they’ve documented their fascinating journeys to critical acclaim.
A serious car wreck changed their lives. They stopped postponing their dreams of ocean cruises.
Now, these veteran travelers embrace a new travel adventure: a river cruise up the magnificent Mississippi.
Join Al and Sunny on the decks of an antebellum paddle-wheel riverboat as they experience the culinary delights, rich architecture, breathtaking vistas, and famous hospitality of southern culture.
You’ll visit lavish plantation mansions, honor the fallen at Civil War memorials, and be swept away by the magical beat of authentic New Orleans jazz. Before the journey ends, you’ll witness how the couple’s first impressions are challenged, changing their hearts forever.
In Cruising the Mississippi, you’ll discover:
-Fascinating histories of riverside cities
-Little-known facts about famous landmarks
-Personal reflections and insights from their daily experiences
-Tested travel tips and advice for embarking on your own river cruise adventure
-The lifelong benefits of immersing yourself in different customs and cultural experiences
-A detailed tour of the historic paddle-wheel riverboat, and much, much more!
If you like cultural exploration, American history, practical travel insights, colorful characters, and authentic personal stories, you’ll love Al and Sunny Lockwood’s illuminating exploration of America’s mightiest waterway.
Buy Cruising the Mississippi today and embark on a breathtaking adventure for the young at heart!
“I have always wanted to go on a Mississippi cruise and this looks like a fun read.”
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Wish I could find more New Year mailbox images. I’ve found some creative though for the rest of the month.
Welcome to the New Year 2021! I hope everyone is looking forward to reading in 2021. And may our lives become calmer with less fear and less chaos.
Did you get some reading in over the last week of holidays?
Tell us about your new books by adding your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
At Mailbox Monday we encourage participants to not only share the books they received, but to check out the books others have received. Each week will share a few books that caught our eye from that weeks’ Mailbox Monday.
We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.
A comprehensive analysis of the political, economic, cultural and technological factors that contributed to America’s decline and inadvertently paved the way for Trump’s presidency.
The presidency of Donald Trump is commonly seen as an historical accident. In When America Stopped Being Great, Nick Bryant argues that by 2016 it had become almost historically inescapable. In this highly personal account, drawing on decades of covering Washington for the BBC, Bryant shows how the billionaire capitalised on the mistakes of his five predecessors – Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama – and how also he became a beneficiary of a broken politics, an iniquitous economy, an ailing media, a facile culture, disruptive new technology and the creation of a modern-day presidency that elevated showmanship over statesmanship. Not only are we starting to see the emergence of a post-American world, Bryant fears we are seeing the emergence of a post-American America.
The history of Trump’s rise is also a history of America’s fall.
“I don’t think any one man (or woman) is responsible for our political divide and I am not sure I agree with the premise of this book. Still, I am interested in how this history is presented.”
Walk in the footsteps of history with this stunning volume that brings more than thirty Civil War battlefields to life.
From the “First Battle of Bull Run” to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House four years later, this book celebrates the history and scenic beauty of these hallowed grounds in a large-format, beautifully produced volume.
Explore more than thirty Civil War battlefields– from Antietam to Chancellorsville, Gettysburg to Shiloh–including the first five national battlefield parks preserved by veterans in the 1890s. Each battlefield features extensive photos of the key sites and monuments, as well as beautiful landscapes and historic archival photography. The essays enable the reader to understand each battlefield from a strategic perspective–its topography, geography, and military value–the battle’s seminal moments, and its historical significance, and guide the reader on how best to tour the grounds on foot.
With maps, rarely seen archival photos, and stunning contemporary photography, this photo- and information-packed book is an inspirational bucket list for Civil War and history buffs, as well as those who wish to walk in the literal boot steps of American history.
“I do enjoy history of the Civil War and have visited some of the battlefields. This looks like an impressive gathering of historical sites.”
At Mailbox Monday we encourage participants to not only share the books they received, but to check out the books others have received. Each week will share a few books that caught our eye from that weeks’ Mailbox Monday.
We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…
“This sounds like a cute romance. I could use cute and fun about now.”
Day in, day out, bombs fall on Daraya, a town outside Damascus, the very spot where the Syrian Civil War began. In the midst of chaos and bloodshed, a group searching for survivors stumbles on a cache of books. They collect the books, then look for more. In a week they have six thousand volumes. In a month, fifteen thousand. A sanctuary is born: a library where the people of Daraya can explore beyond the blockade.
Long a site of peaceful resistance to the Assad regimes, Daraya was under siege for four years. No one entered or left, and international aid was blocked.
In 2015, French-Iranian journalist Delphine Minoui saw a post on Facebook about this secret library and tracked down one of its founders, twenty-three-year-old Ahmad, an aspiring photojournalist himself. Over WhatsApp and Facebook, Minoui learned about the young men who gathered in the library.
“This is a story about preserving books in a book santuary. It gets my support!”
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Would you be okay getting your books from this mailbox? I have had fun doing the October images! I also wear my share of orange during October.
I am sure we will all be anxious in a week or so to see voting returns. I will look forward to being back to host in 2021! Meanwhile, enjoy your reading, being Thankful in November (and always) and being more at Peace during December (remember the reason for the season and don’t let the commercialization stress you out!)
How has your reading week been?
Tell us about your new books by adding your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
