Mailbox Monday and In My Mailbox - March 28, 2011

"Mailbox Monday" is the brainchild of Marcia at The Printed Page (A Girl and Her Books).  Mailbox Monday is on it's own blog here:  http://mailboxmonday.wordpress.com/

March's host is Laura at I'm Booking It, so head on over to her page to join this fabulous meme!  April's host will be Amy at Passages to the Past, so keep that in mind when joining in next week!

"In My Mailbox" is hosted by The Story Siren

Every week we'll post about what books we have that week (via your mailbox/library/store bought)! Everyone that agrees to participate will try to visit each other's list and leave comments!  Everyone is welcome to join! You can join at anytime and you DO NOT have to participate every week. 

MONDAY:

I had traffic court in the morning (for a ten-year-old offense that I hadn't realized was never cleared up) ... two and a half hours after I entered the courtroom, I celebrated not having to pay a fine by deciding to treat myself to "just one" book at our downtown Borders.   Here's what I came out with:

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford - Amazon / The Book Depository

Thank goodness for book bloggers!  Without them and their wonderful reviews, this title may never have made it into my TBR pile!!

In 1986, Henry Lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner displays and unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese girl from his childhood in the 1940s -- Keiko Okabe, with whom he forged a bond of friendship and innocent love that transcended the prejudices of their Old World ancestors. After Keiko and her family were evacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry could only hope that their promise to each other would be kept. Now, forty years later, Henry explores the hotel's basement for the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot even begin to measure. His search will take him on a journey to revisit the sacrifices he has made for family, for love, for country.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - Amazon / The Book Depository

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah - Amazon / The Book Depository

  

With Ms. Hannah's Night Road in my review pile, and already knowing that I will love it based on reviews by book bloggers with my same reading taste, I decided to pick this one up as well. 

From the author of the smash-hit bestseller Firefly Lane and True Colors comes a powerful, heartbreaking novel that illuminates the intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between the present and the past.

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard: the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time - and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya's life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother's life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.

Drood by Dan Simmons - Amazon / The Book Depository

A friend of mine (who was himself reading a borrowed copy), recommended this one to me some time ago.  It's definitely one for my Chunkster Challenge list - weighing in at over 900 pages - and will allow me to satisfy my taste for King-esque stories while mixing it up with some gothic elements.

On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens, at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world, hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever. Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?  Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final,unfinished work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.  Chilling, haunting,and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell - Amazon / The Book Depository

I don't think I have to explain why I bought THIS one :)

The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the "high-walled, fan-shaped artificial island" that is the Japanese Empire's single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and typhoons comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancée back in Holland.

But Jacob's original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city's powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob's worst imaginings.  As one cynical colleague asks, "Who ain't a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?"

A magnificent mix of luminous writing, prodigious research, and heedless imagination, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the most impressive achievement of its eminent author.

So I've now come to the (admittedly belated) realization that I have absolutely no book-buying willpower once I'm actually surrounded by books to be bought.  Which may mean that my best career path would be as a bookstore employee (it would be an ideal situation for the owners; they get an awesome employee and half of her paycheck goes back to them when she buys books), or a librarian (nothing like being able to get my hands on some great reads as soon as they come out for free - but I'd still have to buy some for my shelves at home) .. sigh ..

TUESDAY:

Dominance by Will Lavender - ARC for review from publisher - Releases July 5, 2011 - Amazon / The Book Depository

From the back of the book:

1994: Jasper College is buzzing with the news that famed literature professor Richard Aldiss will be teaching a special night class called Unraveling a Literary Mystery - from his prison cell.  Twelve years ago, Aldiss was convicted of the murders of two female grad student; they were killed with axe blows and their bodies decorated with the novels of notoriously reclusive author Paul Fallows. Even the most elite, obsessive Fallows scholars have never seen him.  He is like a ghost. 

Now, Aldiss entreats the students of his night class to solve the Fallows riddle once and for all.  he introduces them to the Procedure, a game that supposedly lets one get inside the novels themselves, books which scholars believe are maps to the authors true identity.  Soon members of the night class will be invited to play along . . .

Present Day:  Alex Shipley, now a professor at Harvard, made her name as a member of Aldiss's night class.  She not only exposed the truth of Paul Fallow's identity, but in the process uncovered information that acquitted Aldiss of the heinous 982 crimes.  But when a fellow night class alum is murdered - the body chopped up with an axe and surrounded by Fallows novels - can she use what she knows of Fallows and the Procedure to stop a killer before each of her former classmates is picked off, one by one?

THURSDAY:

Chime by Franny Billingsley - ARC for Review from publisher - Released March 17, 2011 - The Book Depository / Amazon

Before Briony's stepmother died, she made sure Briony blamed herself for all the family's hardships. Now Briony has worn her guilt for so long it's become a second skin. She often escapes to the swamp, where she tells stories to the Old Ones, the spirits who haunt the marshes. But only witches can see the Old Ones, and in her village, witches are sentenced to death. Briony lives in fear her secret will be found out, even as she believes she deserves the worst kind of punishment.

Then Eldric comes along with his golden lion eyes and mane of tawny hair. He's as natural as the sun, and treats her as if she's extraordinary. And everything starts to change. As many secrets as Briony has been holding, there are secrets even she doesn't know.

FRIDAY:

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda - Finished copy for Review from publisher - Releases April 5, 2011 - The Book Depository / Amazon

Secret Daughter, a first novel by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, explores powerfully and poignantly the emotional terrain of motherhood, loss, identity, and love through the experiences of two families—one Indian, one American—and the child that binds them together. A masterful work set partially in the Mumbai slums so vividly portrayed in the hit film Slumdog Millionaire, Secret Daughter recalls the acclaimed novels of Kim Edwards and Thrity Umrigar, yet sparkles with the freshness of a truly exciting new literary voice.

Honestly, I could pick up ANY of the books I received this week and be in book-reading heaven!

How about YOU?  What was in YOUR mailbox?  If you have a Mailbox Monday/In My Mailbox post, please leave your link; I love visiting!