Mailbox Monday (Aug 25, 2012)

Welcome to Mailbox Monday, the weekly meme created by Marcia from A girl and her books.  This is where I share the titles I have received for review or purchased during the past week.  Mailbox Monday will be hosted in August  byJennifer D at 5 Minutes for Books.

Eve and Adam

by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate

In the beginning, there was an apple.

And then there was a car crash, a horrible, debilitating injury, and the hospital.  But before Evening Spiker could even lift her head out of the fog of unconsciousness, there was a strange boy checking her out of the hospital and rushing her to Spiker Biopharmaceuticals -- her mother's research facility.  Just when Eve thinks she will die -- not from her injuries, but from boredom -- her mother gives her a special project:  Create the perfect boy.

Using an amazingly detailed simulation that her mother claims is designed to teach human genetics, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up: eyes, hair, muscles, even a brain, and potential personality traits.  Eve is creating Adam.  And he will be just perfect. . . won't he?

Heaven Should Fall

by Rebecca Coleman

Alone since her mother's death, Jill Wagner wants to eat, sleep and breathe Cade Olmstead when he bursts upon her life -- golden, handsome and ambitious.  Even putting college on hold feels like a minor sacrifice when she discovers she's pregnant with Cade's baby.  But it won't be the last sacrifice she'll have to make.

Retreating to the Olmsteads' New England farm seems sensible, if not ideal:  they'll regroup and welcome the baby, surrounded by Cade's family.  But the remote, ramshackle place already feels crowded. Cade's mother tends to his ailing father, while Cade's pious sister, her bigoted husband and their rowdy sons overrun the house.  Only Cade's brother, Elias, a combat veteran with a damaged spirit, gives Jill an ally amidst the chaos, along with a glimpse in to his disturbing childhood.  But his burden is heavy, and she alone cannot kindle his will to live.

The tragedy of Elias is like a killing frost, withering Cade in particular, transforming his idealism into bitterness and paranoia.  Taking solace in caring for her newborn son, Jill looks up to find her golden boy is gone.  In Cade's place is a desperate man willing to endanger them all in the name of vengeance. . . unless Jill can find a way out. 

A Father First

by Dwyane Wade

Dwyane Wade, the eight-time All-Star for the Miami Heat, has miraculously defied the odds throughout his career and his life.  In 2006, in just his third season in the NBA, Dwyane was named the Finals' MVP, after leading the Miami Heat to the Championship title, basketball's ultimate prize.  Two years later, after possible career-ending injuries, he again rose from the ashes of doubt to help win a gold medal for the United States at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  As co-captain, he helped lead the Heat to triumph in the 2012 NBA Championship.  Little wonder that legendary coach Pat Riley has called Dwyane "B.I.W." -- Best in the World.

As incredible as those achievements have been it's off the court where Dwyane has sought his most cherished goal: being a good dad to his sons, Zaire and Zion, by playing a meaningful role in their lives.  Recounting his fatherhood journey, Dwyane begins his story in March 2011 with the news that after a long, bitter custody battle, he has been awarded sole custody of his sons in a virtually unprecedented court decision.  A Father First chronicles the lessons Dwyane has learned as a single dad from the moment of the judge's ruling that instantly changed his life and the lives of his boys, and then back to the events in the past that shaped his dreams, prayers, and promises.

As the son of divorced parents determined to get along so that he and his sister Tragil could have loving relationships with both of them, Dwyane's early years were spent on Chicago's South Side.  With poverty, violence, and drugs consuming the streets and their mom descending into addiction, Tragil made the heroic decision to take her younger brother to live with their father.  After moving his household to suburban Robbins, Illinois, Dwyane Wade Sr. become Dwyane's first basketball coach.  While this period laid the groundwork for Dwyane's later mission for fathers to take greater responsibility for their kids, he was also inspired by his mother's miraculous victory over addiction and her gift for healing others.  Both his mother and his father showed him that the unconditional love between parents and children is a powerful guiding force.

In A Father First, we meet the coaches, mentors, and teammates who played pivotal roles in Dwyane's stunning basketball career -- from his early days shooting hoops on the neighborhood courts in Chicago, to his rising stardom at Marquette University in Milwaukee, to his emergence as an unheralded draft pick by the Miami Heat.  This book is a revealing, personal story of one of America's top athletes, but it is also a call to action -- from a man who had to fight to be in his children's lives -- that will show mothers and fathers how to step up and be parents themselves.

Every Day

by David Levithan

Every day I am someone else.  I am myself -- I know I am myself -- but I am also someone else.  It has always been like this.

Every morning, A wakes in a different person's body, a different person's life.  There's never any warning about where it will be or who it will be.  A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live:  Never get too attached.  Avoid being noticed.  Do not interfere.

It's all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon.  From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply.  Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with -- day in, day out, day after day.

With his new novel, David Levithan has pushed himself to new creative heights.  He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A's world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day. 

Murder Most Austen

by Tracy Kiely

A dedicated Anglophile and Janeite, Elizabeth Parker is hoping the trip to the annual Jane Austen Festival in Bath will distract her from her lack of a job and her uncertain future with her boyfriend, Peter.

On the plane ride to England, she and Aunt Winnie meet Professor Richard Baines, a self-proclaimed expert on all things Austen.  His outlandish claims that within each Austen novel there is a sordid secondary story is second only to his odious theory on the true cause of Austen's death.  When Baines is found stabbed to death in his Mr. Darcy attire during the costume ball, it appears that Baines's theories have finally pushed one Austen fan too far.  Aunt Winnie's friend becomes the prime suspect, and Aunt Winnie enlists Elizabeth to find the professor's real killer.  With an ex-wife, a scheming daughter-in-law, and a trophy wife, not to mention a festival's worth of die-hard Austen fans, there are no shortage of suspects.

This fourth in Tracy Kiely's charming series is pure delight.  If Bath is the number-one mecca for Jane Austen fans, Murder Most Austen is the perfect read for those who love some laughs and quick wit with their mystery.

What books came home to you this week?