Mailbox Monday 3-9-2009

It's time for this week's edition of Mailbox Monday! Ok all you book lovers out there - I received five ARC's this week, so in no particular order we have:



The Only True Genius in the Family by Jennie Nash which I received from Berkley Trade (Penguin) via Shelf Awareness.

Claire's father always said that in their family, genius skipped a generation. Maybe he was right. The daughter of a legendary landscape photographer and the mother of a painter whose career is about to take off, Claire has carved out a practical living as a commercial photographer. It may not earn her glory, but it's paid for a good life in a beautiful house on the beach.

When her father suddenly dies, Claire loses faith in the work she has devoted her life to - and worse, begins to feel jealous of her daughter's success. But as she helps prepare a retrospective of her famous father's photographs, Claire uncovers revelations about him that change everything she believes about herself as a mother, a daughter, and an artist. . .

Palace Circle by Rebecca Dean was received from Broadway Books (Random House via Shelf Awareness.

"From London to Cairo, in the glittery world of high society before WWII, Dean taps into an exotic and distant world in her page-turning debut. After 18-year-old Virginia belle Delia marries older British aristocrat Ivor Conisborough, they decamp to London and get to work on producing an heir for the aging viscount. Delia is agog at her new friends in high places, but her idyll is trampled when she learns a painful secret about Ivor. Even so, Delia is endlessly infatuated with London, and she eventually has two girls, Petronella and Davina. The family, to Delia's chagrin, is relocated to Cairo on a long diplomatic mission, and here the novel really sings, as Hitler's campaign hits closer to home and everyone seems to have ulterior motives. Davina and Petronella, meanwhile, grow into young women who think of Cairo as home and fall in love with men they meet there. Dean beautifully captures the mood and color of the era - her descriptive passages are marvelous and complement the layered intrigue, romance and deception." (Publishers Weekly)

I received Miranda's Big Mistake by Jill Mansell from Danielle at Sourcebooks! Look for my review of Jill's book An Offer You Can't Refuse in early April.

Even the worst mistake of your life can lead to true love in the end. . .

Miranda's track record with men is horrible. Her most recent catastrophe is Greg. He seems perfect - gorgeous, witty, exciting. And he and Miranda are in love. . . until Miranda discovers he left his wife when he found out she was pregnant.

With the help of her friends, Miranda plans the sweetest and most public revenge a heartbroken girl can get. But will Miranda learn from her mistake or move on the next perfect man and ignore the love of her life waiting in the wings. . .

Rachel's Tears by Beth Nimmo and Darrell Scott with Steve Rabey was received from Thomas Nelson Publishers.

"I am not going to apologize for speaking the Name of Jesus. I am not going to justify my faith to them, and I am not going to hide the light that God has put in me. If I have to sacrifice everything. . . I will."

"This will be my last year Lord. I have gotten what I can. Thank you."

- excerpts from Rachel's journals.

Rachel Scott was a typical teenage girl who was incredibly dedicated to following and serving Christ. Though she was mocked for her beliefs, at times doubted her faith, and constantly struggled with personal issues every teenager faces, she remained faithful to God. Then on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School, she was killed while affirming that faith.

To this day, more than a million lives are impacted each year as her story is told to students all over the country. Rachel's Tears, which has sold more than 350,000 copies in 6 languages worldwide, is a moving meditation on the life, death, and faith of Rachel as seen through the eyes of her parents and through the writings and drawings from her journals.

Last is Life Sentences by Laura Lippman which I received from Harper Collins through Shelf Awareness.

Author Cassandra Fallows has achieved remarkable success by baring her life on the page. Her two widely popular memoirs continue to sell briskly, acclaimed for their brutal, unexpurgated candor about friends, family, lovers—and herself. But now, after a singularly unsuccessful stab at fiction, Cassandra believes she may have found the story that will enable her triumphant return to nonfiction.

When Cassandra was a girl, growing up in a racially diverse middle-class neighborhood in Baltimore, her best friends were all black: elegant, privileged Donna; sharp, shrewd Tisha; wild and worldly Fatima. A fifth girl orbited their world—a shy, quiet, unobtrusive child named Calliope Jenkins—who, years later, would be accused of killing her infant son. Yet the boy's body was never found and Calliope's unrelenting silence on the subject forced a judge to jail her for contempt. For seven years, Calliope refused to speak and the court was finally forced to let her go. Cassandra believes this still unsolved real-life mystery, largely unknown outside Baltimore, could be her next bestseller.

But her homecoming and latest journey into the past will not be welcomed by everyone, especially by her former friends, who are unimpressed with Cassandra's success—and are insistent on their own version of their shared history. And by delving too deeply into Calliope's dark secrets, Cassandra may inadvertently unearth a few of her own—forcing her to reexamine the memories she holds most precious, as the stark light of truth illuminates a mother's pain, a father's betrayal . . . and what really transpired on a terrible day that changed not only a family but an entire country. (Description from Harper Collins website)

Visit Mailbox Mondays over at The Printed Page and see what everyone else received!

(All descriptions are from book covers unless otherwise noted.)