Mailbox Monday (Sept 5, 2011)

 Mailbox Monday's host for September is Amused by Books. 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! 

Following Atticus

by Tom Ryan

Following Atticus is the remarkable true story of a man and a dog embarking on the challenge of a lifetime. This is author Tom Ryan’s inspiring tale of how he and his miniature schnauzer companion, the “Little Buddha” Atticus M. Finch, attempted to scale all forty-eight of New Hampshire’s four thousand foot White Mountains twice in the dead of winter. It is a story of love, loss, and the resilience of the human and animal spirit that’s as thrilling as Into Thin Air and featuring the most endearing and unforgettable canine protagonist since Marley and Me.

The Lady of the Rivers

by Philippa Gregory

Jacquetta, daughter of the Count of Luxembourg and kinswoman to half the royalty of Europe, was married to the great Englishman John, Duke of Bedford, uncle to Henry VI. Widowed at the age of nineteen she took the extraordinary risk of marrying a gentleman of her house-hold for love, and then carved out a life for herself as Queen Margaret of Anjou's close friend and a Lancaster supporter - until the day that her daughter Elizabeth Woodville fell in love and married the rival king Edward IV. Of all the little-known but important women of the period, her dramatic story is the most neglected. With her links to Melusina, and to the founder of the house of Luxembourg, together with her reputation for making magic, she is the most haunting of heroines.

Heather Song

by Michael Phillips

Newly married, Marie and Alaster Reidhaven's life seems idyllic. But things start to fall apart when the Duke's sister's curses and spells start to plague them. Alaster dies and again Marie is widowed. Marie returns to Canada to visit her dying father. The reunion is tender and healing for them both.
Unexpectedly months later, Marie is astonished to learn that back in Scotland, her deceased husband Alaster never signed their pre-nup and had instead undertaken the legalities necessary to insure his estate would indeed go to Marie. Olivia is furious and full of threats and attempts to kill Marie and then disappears. Marie inherits and again assumes the title and role of duchess.


But now the other half of her former "love triangle" bubbles up from out of her past. Marie and Grahm begin seeing each other "as friends" awaiting God's leading.


Olivia reappears and again tries to kill Marie. Olivia eventually dies of cancer, unrepentant. The Reidhaven family line is at an end, the legacy of their memory to be carried forward by Marie who loved, in the end, all of them.

I Didn't Ask to be Born (But I'm Glad I Was)

by Bill Cosby


Over the past century, few entertainers have achieved the legendary status of William H. Cosby Jr. His successes span five decades and virtually all media, remarkable accomplishments for a kid who emerged from humble beginnings in a Philly housing project.


And the world's most beloved funnyman is back with I DIDN'T ASK TO BE BORN, his first humor book since the best selling Cosbyology. Cosby brings us more of his wonderful and hilarious insights into the human condition.

The Last Blind Date

by Linda Yellin

In this sparkling true story of falling in love long distance and staying in love up close a commitment-phobic, newly single father and a woman cosmically burned by marriage meet through friends.  On the telephone.  The old-fashioned way.  And against all odds, they connect.

Fresh, funny, and charmingly honest, Linda Yellin's memoir takes on the perils of courtship, marriage, and parenthood as she shares her discovery that moving for love just might work -- if you leave your baggage behind.

Spin the Plate

by Donna Anastasi


Time has done nothing to heal childhood wounds inflicted more than a dozen years ago, nor fade the memories. Now as an adult, Jo has given up on the human race, men in particular, investing her energies in tattoo artistry and animal rescue. Francis meets Jo during an altercation between Jo and another passenger on the Boston subway. Francis, the brains and speech writer for Charles Davis a Boston philanthropist and billionaire, is painfully lonely as his job requires that he maintain anonymity plus have constant exposure to the shallowness, corruption, and cruelty of humankind. From the moment he lays eyes on Jo, Francis sees beyond her rough exterior to the genuine, passionate, fearless, and beautiful person Jo is and pursues her with unwavering passion.
In a compelling story on living as an incest survivor and the how-to's of love, faith, and healing, Jo discovers she is not alone in her fight to leave her past behind and move beyond sorrow into joy.

The Kingdom of Childhood

by Rebecca Coleman


The Kingdom of Childhood is the story of a boy and a woman:  sixteen-year-old Zach Patterson, uprooted and struglling to reconcile his knowledge of his mother's extra marital affair, and Judy McFarland, a kindergarten teacher watching her family unravel before her eyes.  Thrown together to organize a fundraiser for thier failing private school and bonded by loneliness, they begin an affair that at first thrills, then corrupts each of them.  Judy sees in Zach the elements of a young man she loved as a child, but what Zach does not realize is that their relationship is -- for Judy -- only the latest in a lifetime of disturbing secrets.

Lethal

by Sandra Brown


When her four year old daughter informs her a sick man is in their yard, Honor Gillette rushes out to help him. But that "sick" man turns out to be Lee Coburn, the man accused of murdering seven people the night before. Dangerous, desperate, and armed, he promises Honor that she and her daughter won't be hurt as long as she does everything he asks. She has no choice but to accept him at his word.


But Honor soon discovers that even those close to her can't be trusted. Coburn claims that her beloved late husband possessed something extremely valuable that places Honor and her daughter in grave danger. Coburn is there to retrieve it -- at any cost. From FBI offices in Washington, D.C., to a rundown shrimp boat in coastal Louisiana, Coburn and Honor run for their lives from the very people sworn to protect them, and unravel a web of corruption and depravity that threatens not only them, but the fabric of our society.

Ebooks:

Aefle and Gisela

by Libby Malin


DeeDee and Tom share a history, a fling more than ten years ago, before he went off to graduate school and started ascending the career ladder of academe and she took over her father's car dealership in sleepy Oyster Point, Maryland, building it into a coveted business treasure. Their reconnection sets sparks flying between them -- from the original passion that bonded them and the class differences that parted them.


Meanwhile, what started as a prank leads to serious legal issues for both Tom and DeeDee as the groom sues them, DeeDee countersues, and Tom is caught in the middle. Concerned that this distraction will affect his quest for tenure, Tom encounters an unsympathetic department chair eager to replace him with a renaissance expert from the UK and a women's studies professor committed to challenging the "validity" of Thomas's signature research into an obscure poetry-writing medieval monk, Aefle, and his lady-love, Gisela.


AEFLE AND GISELA delivers laughs and love as Thomas learns, along with his "little monk," that life outside the “scriptorium” requires him to find real courage at last.

Promissary Payback

by Laurel Dewey


Laurel Dewey’s Detective Jane Perry is quickly becoming one of the most distinctive, dynamic, and unforgettable characters in suspense fiction today. She’s rock hard, but capable of extraordinary tenderness. She’s a brilliant cop, but she’s capable of making life-altering mistakes. She’s uncannily talented, and she’s heartbreakingly human.


In this novelette, Jane is called in to investigate the gruesome murder of a woman who profited greatly from the misfortunes of others. The case leaves Jane with little question about motive...and with a seemingly endless number of suspects.

Won:

Descended by Blood

by Angeline Kace


Brooke Keller is a high school junior who has never spent much time living in one place. She is finally in a town long enough to almost snag the boy of her dreams, until her life is threatened after killing a fanged man in his attempt to kidnap her. Brooke begins a dangerous journey in an effort to find out who is after her and how to stop them. In a world with powerful and prejudiced vampires, Brooke must tap into the side of her that she never knew existed at the risk of losing her life in order to save it.

Purchased:

The Open Canvas

by Carolyn Ambuter

Experts and beginners alike can create extraordinary works of art with the openwork techniques explored and richly illustrated in The Open Canvas.  Providing clear, thorough instructions for hundreds of different decorative stitches, Carolyn Ambuter brings to life this centuries-old embroidery art, in which fabric is pulled, cut, and stitched to produce beautifully intricate designs.

The Open Canvas offers six books in one, assembling and cataloging techniques for the full range of openwork styles, including Pulled Canvas, Needleweaving, Hemstitching, Filet, Hardanger, Reticello and Hedebo.  Lessons build in a systematic sequence, with multiple diagrams and step-by-step directions for every stitch from the basic Buttonhole Edge to the refinded  Point D'Angleterre.

In each discipline, all stitches are diagrammed on large-mesh canvas and shown in black-and-white photographs.  Sixteen pages in full-color offer close examination of thread shadings and are resplendent with sampler patterns.  Notes on the history and lore of openwork are included, as well as checklists of required materials.

The Open Canvas is a complete, accessible, and inviting primer that makes it easy to turn an ordinary canvas into a special and unique creation.

What came home to your mailbox this week?