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.
Last Monday of the month! And this one is Cyber Monday in the US. It’s going to be bigger than ever as crowds were down on Black Friday.
Hope everyone had a good book week. Add your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
Be sure to stop back later this week for Books That Caught Our Eye.
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 week’s Mailbox Monday.
We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.
Fix it and Forget it Best of Fall Recipes at Reviews from the Stacks.
Fall is here, and so is a busy season of Thanksgiving parties and cooking for big groups. But don’t let stress get in the way—simply take out your slow cooker and prepare holiday meals for the entire family with ease and joy.
Here, we have collected the very best slow cooker recipes and fan favorites that capture the spirit of fall. Wow your guests and loved ones with healthy and delicious seasonal offerings that cover appetizers, soups and stews, meaty and vegetarian mains, breakfast, beverages, and desserts. Selected from some of the best home cooks across the country, these more than 150 super-easy family-friendly meals will be the life of the party:
Butternut Squash and Apple Soup Fast and Fabulous Brussels Sprouts Honey-Maple Sweet Potatoes Applesauce Meatloaf Tortellini with Broccoli Overnight Scalloped Chicken Casserole Autumn Harvest Pork Loin Meatless Shepherd’s Pie Pumpkin-Pecan Pie Hot Mulled Cider
Accompanied with gorgeous, festive photographs, as well as tips on how to use your slow cooker, Fix-It and Forget-It Best of Fall Recipes is your one-stop solution for the country’s best-loved meals during everyone’s favorite time of the year. Happy fall and happy cooking!
“I’m always on the lookout for new recipes.”
——–
Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens at Silver’s Reviews.
For decades, people have been warned about the Cold Creek Highway. Hitchhikers have vanished along it over the years, and women have been known to have their cars break down… and never be seen again. When Hailey McBride decides to run away from an unbearable living situation, she thinks that her outdoor skills will help her disappear into the Cold Creek wilderness, and she counts on people thinking that she was the victim of the killer.
One year later, Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek to attend a memorial for the victims of the highway, but it might as well be one week for the amount of pain that Beth is still dealing with after her sister, Amber, was murdered the previous summer. Beth has quit university, is lying to her parents, and popping pills like Tic Tacs. Maybe this will finally bring her peace.
When she gets a job at a local diner where Amber once worked, she connects with people who knew her sister. Beth wants to find who killed her sister and put her own life back together, but as she gets closer to the truth, she learns that there is more than one person lying in Cold Creek.
“I have read all of her books so far.”
Of Darkness and Light by Heidi Eljarbo found at Library of Clean Reads.
In this first book of a new historical mystery series, a young art historian faces a tough choice in German-occupied Norway.
Oslo, 1944. Soli Hansen’s passion for art history is and always has been a way of life for her. While she spends her days working in an art shop, WWII is taking its toll on everyone. Apprehensive of the consequences, Soli avoids becoming entangled in the war resistance efforts. She closes her eyes in hopes the enemy will retreat and leave her beautiful country for good.
But when a woman is found dead in the alley alongside the art shop and a painting from the last auction goes missing, Soli is thrown into the thickest of the fray involving both Nazi art theft and the Norwegian resistance.
Once Soli finds her courage, there’s no turning back. Her personal life is turned upside-down with danger, lies, spying, and an incredible discovery.
“This sounds like an engaging historical mystery.”
——–
The Last Watch (The Divide #1) by J.S. Dewes found at Bookfan.
The Expanse meets Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes’ fast-paced, sf adventure The Last Watch, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.
The Divide.
It’s the edge of the universe.
Now it’s collapsing—and taking everyone and everything with it.
The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels—the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military.
At the Divide, Adequin Rake, commanding the Argus, has no resources, no comms—nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted.
They’re humanity’s only chance.
“This sci-fi is right up my reading alley!”
When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain at Book Reviews by Linda Moore.
Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna, desperate and numb, flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her. Yet the day she arrives, she learns that a local teenage girl has gone missing.
The crime feels frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna’s childhood, when the unsolved murder of a young girl touched Mendocino and changed the community forever. As past and present collide, Anna realizes that she has been led to this moment. The most difficult lessons of her life have given her insight into how victims come into contact with violent predators. As Anna becomes obsessed with saving the missing girl, she must accept that true courage means getting out of her own way and learning to let others in.
Weaving together actual cases of missing persons, trauma theory, and a hint of the metaphysical, this propulsive and deeply affecting novel tells a story of fate, necessary redemption, and what it takes, when the worst happens, to reclaim our lives—and our faith in one another.
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.
Happy Monday! I can’t believe this year is heading into the last month. This Thursday is Thanksgiving in the US. And then Black Friday. A different kind of Black Friday this year, but I’m sure people will still be shopping… online! Stay safe out there.
Hope everyone had a good week. Add your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
Be sure to stop back later this week for Books That Caught Our Eye.
Books That Caught Our Eye
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 week’s Mailbox Monday.
We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.
How to Catch a Snowman by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton at Silver’s Reviews.
Our heroes’ entry for the snowman contest has magically come to life―and ran away! Can YOU help catch it? Get ready for snow much fun as you travel through a winter wonderland with running, skating, and bouncing through trap after trap to catch the snowman and claim the winning prize. Will the snowman teach our heroes a lesson they’ll never forget? Who snows!
I don’t thumpity-thump or give warm hugs―that’s for my snowman friends to do.
Clever kids will try to trap me,
but who will catch me…YOU?
“This looks like a good one for my daughter.”
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey found at Savvy Verse & Wit.
I’ve been in this life for 50 years, been trying to work out its riddle for 42, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last 35. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.
Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges – how to get relative with the inevitable – you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights”. So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is 50 years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops. Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears. It’s a love letter. To life. It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights – and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green, too. Good luck.
“I’m not a big fan of celebrities but this biography really sounds interesting to me.”
——–
To Con a Gentleman (Dalton Family #1) by Sarah Adams found at Colletta’s Kitchen Sink.
He was her target. She was his diversion. Falling in love was never something they wanted.
As a con woman who has spent her entire life fending for herself on the streets of London, Rose Wakefield knows how to scam a gentleman out of his money without ever getting caught. That’s until she knocks on the wrong earl’s door and is faced with Carver Ashburn Earl of Kensworth and not the notorious rake she thinks she is approaching.
Carver is a good man, but even a good man will not pass up an opportunity to escape his grief. What better way to avoid his feelings than to play into a con woman’s ruse and offer to marry her?
Things only grow more complicated when Carver sweeps Rose off to his family estate and circumstances force them both into continuing the ruse. Carver needs to protect his family, and Rose needs to protect herself—and her heart.
With so much set against them, will Rose and Carver have a chance at love and freedom? Or is the possibility of more heartache not worth the risk?
“I like historical romance and this sounds like a good one.”
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.
Another stressful week… Covid stress, election stress, work stress, family stress, holiday stress. I am glad to have books to escape into, but I had no idea dystopian novels would become reality! Hope everyone is staying sane.
Add your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
Be sure to stop back later this week for Books That Caught Our Eye.
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 week’s Mailbox Monday.
We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales From the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi at Sam Still Reading.
From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold comes Tales from the Cafe, a story of four new customers each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Cafe Funiculi Funicula’s time-travelling offer.
Among some faces that will be familiar to readers of Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s previous novel, we will be introduced to:
The man who goes back to see his best friend who died 22 years ago
The son who was unable to attend his own mother’s funeral
The man who travelled to see the girl who he could not marry
The old detective who never gave his wife that gift . . .This beautiful, simple tale tells the story of people who must face up to their past, in order to move on with their lives. Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?
“This sounds very interesting. I sometimes need a time travel book.”
——–
The Social Graces by Renee Rosen at Silver’s Reviews.
1876. In the glittering world of Manhattan’s upper crust, a woman’s value comes from her pedigree, dowry, and most importantly, her connections. They have few rights and even less independence—what they do have, is society, and society is paramount. The more celebrated the hostess, the more powerful the woman. And none is more powerful than Caroline Astor—the Mrs. Astor.
But times are changing.
Alva Vanderbilt has recently married into one of America’s richest families. But what good is dizzying wealth when society refuses to acknowledge you? Alva, who knows what it is to have nothing, will do whatever it takes to have everything.
Sweeping three decades and based on true events, this is the mesmerizing story of two fascinating, complicated women going head to head, behaving badly, and discovering what’s truly at stake.
“This era fascinates me.”
Cover Your Tracks by Daco Auffenorde found at Book Reviews by Linda Moore.
Margo Fletcher, eight months pregnant, is traveling by train from Chicago to Spokane, her childhood home. While passing through an isolated portion of the Rockies in blizzard conditions, the train unexpectedly brakes. Up ahead, deadly snow from a massive avalanche plummets down the mountain. Despite the conductor’s order for the passengers to stay seated, former Army Ranger Nick Eliot insists that survival depends on moving to the back of the train. Only Margo believes him. They take refuge in the last train car, which Nick heroically uncouples in time to avoid the avalanche. The rest of the train is hurled down the mountainside and is soon lost forever in a blanket of snow. Margo and Nick, the sole survivors, are stranded in the snowstorm without food, water, or heat. Rescuers might not arrive for days.
When the weather turns violent again, the pair must flee the shelter of the passenger car and run for their lives into the wilderness. They must fend off the deadly cold as well as predatory wild animals foraging for food. Eventually, Nick leads Margo to shelter in a watchtower atop a mountain. There, we learn that both Margo and Nick have secrets that have brought them together and that threaten to destroy them.
“The cover, title, and description of this suspense caught my eye this week”
——–
In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren found at Sam Still Reading.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year . . . but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.
But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favourite place in the world – the snowy cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born. Mentally melting down as she drives away for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy.
The next thing she knows, everything goes black . . . When Mae gasps awake, she’s back on an airplane, beginning the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop – and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.
“I really am being drawn to Christmas titles and this blurb reminds me of Groundhog Day fun.”
Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe at Fiction Books.
In the heady summer of 1977, a naïve young woman called Calista sets out from Athens to venture into the wider world. On a Greek island that has been turned into a film set, she finds herself working for the famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing. But the time she spends in this glamorous, unfamiliar new life will change her for good.
While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself is living with the realisation that his star may be on the wane. Rebuffed by Hollywood, he has financed his new film with German money, and when Calista follows him to Munich for the shooting of further scenes, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the dark heart of his family history.
In a novel that is at once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of one of cinema’s most intriguing figures, Jonathan Coe turns his gaze on the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia. When the world is catapulting towards change, do you hold on for dear life or decide it’s time to let go?
“Historical fiction from the golden age of Hollywood sounds interesting to me.”
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.
Happy Monday! It’s been a crazy week for me, and it didn’t help that I was staying up late every night watching election returns and spending too much time preoccupied with the news.
Hope everyone had a good week. Add your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
Be sure to stop back later this week for Books That Caught Our Eye.
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 week’s Mailbox Monday.
We encourage you to share the books that caught your eye in the comments.
The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin found at Silver’s Reviews.
Inspired by the true World War II history of the few bookshops to survive the Blitz, The Last Bookshop in London is a timeless story of wartime loss, love and the enduring power of literature.
August 1939: London is dismal under the weight of impending war with Germany as Hitler’s forces continue to sweep across Europe. Into this uncertain maelstrom steps Grace Bennett, young and ready for a fresh start in the bustling city streets she’s always dreamed of—and miles away from her troubled past in the countryside.
With aspirations of working at a department store, Grace never imagined she’d wind up employed at Primrose Hill, an offbeat bookshop nestled in the heart of the city—after all, she’s never been much of a reader. Overwhelmed with organizing the cluttered store, she doesn’t have time to read the books she sells. But when one is gifted to her, what starts as an obligation becomes a passion that draws her into the incredible world of literature.
As the Blitz rains down bombs on the city night after night, a devastating attack leaves the libraries and shops of London’s literary center in ruins. Miraculously, Grace’s bookshop survives the firestorm. Through blackouts and air raids, Grace continues running the shop, discovering a newfound comfort in the power of words and storytelling that unites her community in ways she never imagined—a force that triumphs over even the darkest nights of war-torn London.
“I don’t want to imagine a “last bookshop”. This WWII story sounds good. I’m pretty sure I saw this on another blog too.”
——–
Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy by Janice Lynn found at Bookfan.
When a quilt shop owner finds a former Marine’s journal, she longs to heal his heart… When Sophie Davis sorts through a box of donated books to her church, she’s surprised to find a soldier’s journal. As the daughter of a veteran who watched her father struggle over the years, she feels a deep connection to the man who wrote the emotional entries.
Former Marine Cole Aaron battled to find peace after returning to civilian life. He’s always needed to protect others. Now, fighting fires helps him put out the demons within him. He’s embracing his life in Pine Hill, KY, and strives to call a truce with his past. When Sophie shows at the fire hall with his journal from when he’d first returned stateside, Cole can’t believe it was in the box he’d donated. The book is old news and he tells her to trash it.
Sophie and Cole are drawn together as they both volunteer for their community, but it’s hard for Cole to let down his guard, and he doesn’t need anyone’s pity. After all he’s been through in the past, can he find faith in a more hopeful future…one touched by joy?
“I’m reading to start some Christmas reading and this one caught my eye.”
I’ll Be Seeing You by Elizabeth Berg at An Interior Journey.
Elizabeth Berg’s father was an Army veteran who was a tough man in every way but one: He showed a great deal of love and tenderness to his wife. Berg describes her parents’ marriage as a romance that lasted for nearly seventy years; she grew up watching her father kiss her mother upon leaving home, and kiss her again the instant he came back. His idea of when he should spend time away from her was never.
But then Berg’s father developed Alzheimer’s disease, and her parents were forced to leave the home they loved and move into a facility that could offer them help. It was time for the couple’s children to offer, to the best of their abilities, practical advice, emotional support, and direction—to, in effect, parent the people who had for so long parented them. It was a hard transition, mitigated at least by flashes of humor and joy. The mix of emotions on everyone’s part could make every day feel like walking through a minefield. Then came redemption.
I’ll Be Seeing You charts the passage from the anguish of loss to the understanding that even in the most fractious times, love can heal, transform, and lead to graceful—and grateful—acceptance.
“This tackles some tough choices for families like mine where parents are aging, and caring for them becomes an emotional roller coaster”
The Stranger in the Mirror by Liv Constantine at Silver’s Reviews.
Addison’s about to get married, but she’s not looking forward to the big day. It’s not her fiancé; he’s a wonderful man. It’s because Addison doesn’t know who she really is. A few years ago, a kind driver found her bleeding next to a New Jersey highway and rescued her. While her physical wounds healed, Addison’s memory never returned. She doesn’t know her real name. Or how she ended up injured on the side of a road. Or why she can’t shake the notion that she may have done something very, very bad . . .
In a posh home in the Boston suburbs, Julian tries to figure out what happened to his loving, caring wife, Cassandra, who disappeared without a trace two years ago. She would never have left him and their seven-year-old daughter Valentina of her own free will—or would she?
As these two lives intersect, The Stranger in the Mirror hooks readers with riveting drama, told with Liv Constantine’s hallmark blend of glamour, tense psychological thrills, and jaw-dropping twists.
“I’m always up for a good thriller.”
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.
Happy Monday! I am back to host November. I have not had a lot of time for my blog or writing reviews, but I am still reading and still interested in what everyone else is reading and doing!
I am back to work … part time … at my town library. And they don’t mind if we listen to audio books while we work. My dream job: Listening to books while surrounded by books and helping people find books!
Hope everyone had a good week. Add your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
Be sure to stop back later this week for Books That Caught Our Eye.
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.
Happy Monday! This month has flown past quickly. I’m back to work and back to having visitor appointments at the bird shelter where I volunteer. Hope everyone is staying safe at work and at school. Trying times!
Tell us about your new books by adding your Mailbox Monday post to the linky below:
Be sure to stop back later this week for Books That Caught Our Eye.
Mailbox Monday 