Mailbox Monday (Aug 1, 2011)

 Mailbox Monday's host for August is Staci at Life in the Thumb. In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren. Please visit these posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week! 

Blood Brothers

by Josephine Cox

Though they were raised by the same decent and well-respected parents, two brothers could not be more different than Frank and Joe Arnold.  The pair have nothing in common but blood. . . and Alice Jacobs.  Joe has fallen hard for the shy kindhearted young woman.  But it is Frank, a devious schemer, who is determined to have her.  He sees Alice as the key to his fortune, and will do everything, including hide his brutal nature, to succeed.

When Frank and Alice announce their engagement, Joe leaves home, determined to put distance between himself and temptation.  Despite his best efforts, the inevitable happens when Joe returns for the wedding.  And though Alice is drawn to Joe too, she ultimately chooses duty and Frank -- a decision that will have dark and violent repercussions for them all.

From number one Times of London bestselling author Josephine Cox comes a powerful and dramatic story of a love triangle gone terribly wrong.

In Search of the Rose Notes

by Emily Arsenault

Eleven-year-olds Nora and Charlotte were best friends.  When their teenage babysitter, Rose, disappeared under mysterious circumstances, the girls decided to "investigate." But their search -- aided by paranormal theories and techniques gleaned from old Time-Life books -- went nowhere.

Years later, Nora, now in her late twenties, is drawn back to her old neighborhood -- and to her estranged friend -- when Rose's remains are finally discovered.  Upset over their earlier failure to solve the possible murder, Charlotte is adamant that they join forces and try again.  But Nora was the last known person to see Rose alive, and she's not ready to revisit her troubled adolescence and the events surrounding the disappearance -- or face the disturbing secrets that are already beginning to reemerge.

Love Lies Bleeding

by Jess McConkey

Samantha Moore is the golden girl -- with a perfect job, a perfect man, a perfect life -- until a random act of violence changes everything.  Unconscious for two months, Sam awakens from her coma a different person -- bitter, in constant pain, and forced to endure medications that leave her nauseous, paranoid, and struggling to keep a grip on reality.

Furious with her family for sending her away to a small, remote town to recuperate -- placed completely under a physical therapist's care and robbed of what little freedom she has left -- Sam lashes out at the "nice people" all around her who claim to have only her best interests in mind.  But are her violent outbursts the by-product of her condition. . . or something else entirely?  Strange things are happening here -- and either Samantha Moore is losing her mind or her friendly new neighbors are far more dangerous than they appear to be. . .

Across Many Mountains

by Yangzom Brauen

A powerful, emotional memoir and an extraordinary portrait of three generations of Tibetan women whose lives are forever changed when Chairman Mao’s Red Army crushes Tibetan independence, sending a young mother and her six-year-old daughter on a treacherous journey across the snowy Himalayas toward freedom

Kunsang thought she would never leave Tibet. One of the country's youngest Buddhist nuns, she grew up in a remote mountain village where, as a teenager, she entered the local nunnery. Though simple, Kunsang's life gave her all she needed: a oneness with nature and a sense of the spiritual in all things. She married a monk, had two children, and lived in peace and prayer. But not for long. There was a saying in Tibet: "When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth." The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 changed everything. When soldiers arrived at her mountain monastery, destroying everything in their path, Kunsang and her family fled across the Himalayas only to spend years in Indian refugee camps. She lost both her husband and her youngest child on that journey, but the future held an extraordinary turn of events that would forever change her life--the arrival in the refugee camps of a cultured young Swiss man long fascinated with Tibet. Martin Brauen will fall instantly in love with Kunsang's young daughter, Sonam, eventually winning her heart and hand, and taking mother and daughter with him to Switzerland, where Yangzom will be born.

Many stories lie hidden until the right person arrives to tell them. In rescuing the story of her now 90-year-old inspirational grandmother and her mother, Yangzom Brauen has given us a book full of love, courage, and triumph,as well as allowing us a rare and vivid glimpse of life in rural Tibet before the arrival of the Chinese. Most importantly, though, ACROSS MANY MOUNTAINS is a testament to three strong, determined women who are linked by an unbreakable family bond.

The Berlin Boxing Club

by Robert Sharenow

In tumultuous 1930s Berlin, 14-year-old Karl Stern is coming to grips with what it means to be an outcast.  Bullied by his peers for being skinny and ostracized for being Jewish, Karl longs to prove his worth to everyone around him.  So when luck smiles upon Karl and delivers German boxing champ Max Schmeling as a coach, he has an opportunity he never dreamed of: to make something of himself in the boxing ring, and in Germany.  But when Nazi violence against Jews escalates, Karl must take on a new role as protector of his family.  Can Karl balance his dream of boxing greatness with his obligation to keep his family out of harm's way?

As he did with 1960s New Orleans in his debut novel My Mother the Cheerleader, Robert Sharenow's colorful characters, vivid descriptions, and strong sense of place cause 1930s Berlin to spring to life for readers in The Berlin Boxing Club.  Sharenow beautifully marries the political and social upheaval happening around Karl with the life-altering events that take place in his own family to create a story with tremendous emotional impact.  Readers will understand, appreciate, and relate to Karl's quest to find his own unique talents in boxing and art -- and will be moved by his struggle for his family's survival in Nazi-era Germany.

Glow

by Amy Kathleen Ryan

If a violent battle destroyed the only world you’ve ever known, would you be brave enough to save who was left? Would love be strong enough to survive the fight? Either way, there’s no turning back.

The Empyrean is the only home 15-year-old Waverly has ever known. Part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space, she and her boyfriend Kieran will be pioneers of New Earth. Waverly knows she must marry young in order to have children who can carry on the mission, and Kieran, the handsome captain-to-be, has everything Waverly could want in a husband. Everyone is sure he’s the best choice. Still, there’s a part of Waverly that wants more from life than marriage, and she is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

Suddenly, Waverly’s dreams are interrupted by the inconceivable – a violent betrayal by the Empyrean's sister ship, the New Horizon. The New Horizon’s leaders are desperate to populate the new planet first, and will do anything to get what they need: young girls. In one pivotal moment, Waverly and Kieran are separated, and find themselves at the helm of dangerous missions, where every move has potentially devastating consequences, and decisions of the heart may lead to disaster.

Pulse-pounding and addictive, GLOW begins the most riveting series since The Hunger Games.

How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?

by Carla Ulbrich

How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? is a collection of short, inspiring, funny essays that help people thrive, celebrate life, and work through illness.  Carla Ulbrich -- the Singing Patient -- reveals how laughter has been pivotal to reclaiming her health after serious crises.  She offers heartfelt and humorous advice for navigating the medical system and explains how she's benefited from exploring better nutrition, exercise, and alternative therapies such as acupuncture.  This singer-songwriter's candid insights, wisecracking commentary, handy lists, and hilarious song lyrics provide smiles and gentle camaraderie to those who want to tackle health problems with courage, zest, and humor.

Lost Memory of Skin

by Russell Banks

The acclaimed author of The Sweet Hereafter and Rule of the Bone returns with a provocative new novel that illuminates the shadowed edges of contemporary American culture with startling and unforgettable results

Suspended in a strangely modern-day version of limbo, the young man at the center of Russell Banks’s uncompromising and morally complex new novel must create a life for himself in the wake of incarceration. Known in his new identity only as the Kid, and on probation after doing time for a liaison with an underage girl, he is shackled to a GPS monitoring device and forbidden to live within 2,500 feet of anywhere children might gather. With nowhere else to go, the Kid takes up residence under a south Florida causeway, in a makeshift encampment with other convicted sex offenders.

Barely beyond childhood himself, the Kid, despite his crime, is in many ways an innocent, trapped by impulses and foolish choices he himself struggles to comprehend. Enter the Professor, a man who has built his own life on secrets and lies. A university sociologist of enormous size and intellect, he finds in the Kid the perfect subject for his research on homelessness and recidivism among convicted sex offenders. The two men forge a tentative partnership, the Kid remaining wary of the Professor’s motives even as he accepts the counsel and financial assistance of the older man.

When the camp beneath the causeway is raided by the police, and later, when a hurricane all but destroys the settlement, the Professor tries to help the Kid in practical matters while trying to teach his young charge new ways of looking at, and understanding, what he has done. But when the Professor’s past resurfaces and threatens to destroy his carefully constructed world, the balance in the two men’s relationship shifts.

Suddenly, the Kid must reconsider everything he has come to believe, and choose what course of action to take when faced with a new kind of moral decision.

Long one of our most acute and insightful novelists, Russell Banks often examines the indistinct boundaries between our intentions and actions. A mature and masterful work of contemporary fiction from one of our most accomplished storytellers, Lost Memory of Skin unfolds in language both powerful and beautifully lyrical, show-casing Banks at his most compelling, his reckless sense of humor and intense empathy at full bore.

The perfect convergence of writer and subject, Lost Memory of Skin probes the zeitgeist of a troubled society where zero tolerance has erased any hope of subtlety and compassion—a society where isolating the offender has perhaps created a new kind of victim.

Deep Disclosure

by Dee Davis

After spending years in prison under deep cover, black ops agent Tucker Flynn joins A-Tac, an elite CIA unit masquerading as faculty at an Ivy League college. Nothing can shake him-except a vulnerable young woman marked for death.

DUAL DECEPTION

When Tucker is assigned to protect-and secretly investigate-Alexis Markham, he expects a routine mission. But this mysterious beauty has a past even darker than his: her father created a horrifying new biochemical weapon-and was murdered to keep it secret.

Alexis has spent the last decade racing to stay one step ahead of the shadowy operatives who will stop at nothing to possess her father's formula. She can trust no one, not even her handsome new bodyguard. But the heat that flares between them is impossible to resist. Will giving in to passion bring her the safety she's always craved, or will her love for Tucker draw him into a killer's sights?

Don't Mess with Texas

by Christie Craig

Nikki Hunt thought her night couldn't get worse when her no-good, cheating ex ditched her at dinner, sticking her with the bill. Then she found his body stuffed in the trunk of her car and lost her two-hundred-dollar meal all over his three-thousand-dollar suit. Now not only is Nikki nearly broke, she's a murder suspect.

Former cop turned PI, Dallas O'Connor knows what it's like to be unjustly accused. But one look at the sexy-though skittish-suspect tells him she couldn't hurt anyone. The lead detective, Dallas's own brother, has the wrong woman and Dallas hopes a little late-night "undercover" work will help him prove it . . . 

Spycatcher

by Matthew Dunn

Matthew Dunn spent years as an MI6 field operative working on some of the West’s most clandestine missions. He recruited and ran agents, planned and participated in special operations, and operated deep undercover throughout the world. In Spycatcher he draws on this fascinating experience to breathe urgent, dynamic new life into the contemporary spy novel.

Featuring deft and daring superspy Will Cochrane, Dunn paints a nerve-jangling, bracingly authentic picture of today’s secret world. It is a place where trust is precious and betrayal is cheap—and where violent death is the reward for being outplayed by your enemy.

Will Cochrane, the CIA’s and MI6’s most prized asset and deadliest weapon, has known little outside this world since childhood. And he’s never been outplayed. So far…

Will’s controllers task him with finding and neutralizing one of today’s most wanted terrorist masterminds, a man believed to be an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general. Intending to use someone from the man’s past to flush him out of the shadows, Will believes he has the perfect plan, but he soon discovers, in a frantic chase from the capitals of Europe to New York City, that his adversary has more surprises in store and is much more treacherous than anyone he has ever faced—and survived—up to now.

Life Changing Bible Verses You Should Know

by Erwin and Rebecca Lutzer

After Erwin Lutzer, senior pastor of the Moody Church, and his wife, Rebecca, realized that memorizing Scripture has nearly become a lost pursuit today, they decided to create this practical, relevant resource filled with powerful verses and insightful explanations to help stimulate a spiritual hunger in readers’ own lives. With more than 35 topics and questions for reflection and further study, readers will discover how God’s Word will:

• sustain them in times of need
• comfort them in seasons of sorrow
• strengthen their hearts in times and areas of weakness
• direct their steps and decisions toward God’s will

These handpicked verses provide a foundation of wisdom and hope to show readers who God is and what He has done for them, as well as who they are and how they can successfully live the Christian life. 

 PURCHASED:

 Love Kills Slowly: 30 Cross-Stitch Patterns From Ed Hardy

This ain't your grandmother's cross-stitch. Ed Hardy's Love Kills Slowly Cross-Stitch is a counted cross-stitch book for a new generation of crafters. From pierced hearts to images of skulls and crossbones, Hardy's colorful, tattoo-inspired designs are perfect for stitchers looking for something bold and graphic. Each pattern comes complete with a full-color illustration of the original art, an illustration of the final product, and a full-color pattern and key. A how-to section teaches the basics of counted cross-stitch.

Hard Truth

by Nevada Barr

Just days after marrying Sheriff Paul Davidson, Anna Pigeon moves to Colorado to assume her new post as district ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park.  When two of three children who'd gone missing from a religious retreat reappear, Anna's investigation brings her face-to-face with a paranoid sect - and unspeakable evil. . .

PAPERBACK SWAP:

 Hourglass

by Claudia Gray

After escaping from Evernight Academy, the vampire boarding school where they met, Bianca and Lucas take refuge with Black Cross, a fanatical group of vampire hunters.  Bianca must hide her supernatural heritage or risk certain death at its hands.  But when Black Cross captures her friend - the vampire Balthazar - hiding is no longer an option.

Soon, Bianca and Lucas are on the run again, pursued not only by Black Cross, but by the powerful leaders of Evernight.  Yet no matter how far they travel, Bianca can't escape her destiny.

Bianca has always believed their love could survive anything. . . but can it survive what's to come?

PURCHASED: 

Never Look Away: A Thriller
Promise Me
Lipstick in Afghanistan
I Still Dream About You: A Novel