In Mel’s Mailbox

Hey Em — thought I’d try to be helpful for once with the blog, so you can post this if you want (pic attached) — or just take note of what will eventually be borrowed if not

I may have gone a little overboard with the book shopping recently, but it’s so much fun to have a big box of new books land on your doorstep! I’m excited about all of these, but I especially can’t wait to read Silksinger — the first in the Dreamdark series, Blackbringer, was one of my favorite reads of 2010, just the sort of whimsical fantasy that I often look for yet rarely find. I simply couldn’t hold out for the paperback any longer, so I bought another copy of Blackbringer to match in hardcover

Airborn and the sequel Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel
Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn
Blackbringer and the sequel Silksinger (Dreamdark series) by Laini Taylor
Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Glimmerglass (Faeriewalker #1) by Jenna Black
Dull Boy by Sarah Cross
A Monstrous Regiment of Women (Mary Russell #2) by Laurie R. King
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

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In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie.

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Mailbox Monday

I haven’t posted my mailbox in about a month, so here are my latest mailbox acquisitions:

For Review:

Masquerade by Nancy Moser

From Paperbackswap:

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

From Amazon – from Bargain Bin or 4-for-3:

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen

Grace Under Pressure (Manor House Mysteries) by Julie Hyzy

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories: Or, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. by Washington Irving

Blameless (Parasol Protectorate #3) by Gail Carriger

Scarlet (King Raven #2) by Stephen Lawhead

Outbox:

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

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Mondays in September, Bermuda Onion is hosting Mailbox Monday, created by The Printed Page!

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. This meme is hosted by The Printed Page.

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie.

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In My Mailbox:

ARC from the publisher, Bethany House:

The Thorn by Beverly Lewis – debuts Sept 7, 2010

Book Blurb:

Lancaster County, with its rolling meadows and secret byways, may seem idyllic, but it is not without its thorns. THE ROSE TRILOGY is the stirring saga of two Amish sisters, and the events and decisions that change their lives.

Spirited Rose Ann Kauffman has long enjoyed a close friendship with the bishop’s rebellious foster son. Rose’s older sister, Hen–who knows more than she should about falling for the wrong man–cautions her against him, but Rose is being courted by another, and so dismisses the warnings.

Hen Kauffman Orringer’s impulsive marriage to an outsider divided her from the People, a decision she regrets now that she has a daughter of her own. As Hen struggles to reclaim aspects of Amish culture, her very modern husband pushes back, and the two soon come to an impasse. Can she find a way to reconcile her longing for the Old Ways with the life she has chosen?

From paperbackswap.com:

Random Magic by Sasha Soren – I’ve really been looking forward to this one. The girl on the cover looks like Nicole Kidman to me.  It’s been on my wishlist for some time. However, when my package came, it REEKED!! I could smell it through the packaging – a strong mix of cigarettes and some musky perfume, possibly trying to cover it up?? I don’t know, but it really stinks. I don’t have a blurb on my paperbackswap account about not accepting books from a smoking home and I’ve never had a problem before, so I’m really hoping it airs out soon! Any suggestions?

Book Blurb:

When absent-minded Professor Random misplaces the main character from Alice in Wonderland, young Henry Witherspoon must book-jump to fetch Alice before chaos theory kicks in and the world vanishes. Along the way he meets Winnie Flapjack, a wit-cracking doodle witch with nothing to her name but a magic feather and a plan. Such as it is. Henry and Winnie brave the Dark Queen, whatwolves, pirates, Struths, and fluttersmoths, Priscilla and Charybdis, obnoxiously cheerful vampires, Baron Samedi, a nine-dimensional cat, and one perpetually inebriated Muse to rescue Alice and save the world by tea time.

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Mondays in August, Chick Loves Lit will be hosting Mailbox Monday, created by The Printed Page!

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. This meme is hosted by The Printed Page.

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie.

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Mailbox Monday!

WON: from Julie @ My Own Little Corner of the World. Thanks so much Julie! This book was sent from the publisher: Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.  ~  One Season of Sunshine by Julia London

Purchased:

• Deeply, Desperately by Heather Webber
• Virgin River by Robyn Carr
• Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
• Hood by Stephen Lawhead
• The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

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Mondays in August, Chick Loves Lit will be hosting Mailbox Monday, created by The Printed Page!

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. This meme is hosted by The Printed Page.

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie.

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Mailbox Monday!

Happy Monday Everyone! I’m so excited I got all the books I wanted on my birthday list! Can’t wait to read them!

From Paperbackswap:

• Rekindled (Fountain Creek #1) by Tamera Alexander

Birthday Bash Books:

• The Sorceress (Nicholas Flamel #3) by Michael Scott – Review for #1
  
• A Matter of Magic (Mairelon the Magician and The Magician’s Ward) by Patricia Wrede
• The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
• Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
• Tracing Your Mississippi Ancestors by Anne S. Lipscomb and Kathleen Hutchison
• Doodle Stitching by Aimee Ray
  
• Get It Scrapped!: Organize, Visualize, Create by Debbie Hodge
  

My Outbox:

• The Sisters Grimm #1 & #2
• Dead Until Dark
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas – Review

Edited to Add:

I forgot I bought some clearance books from bn.com…sad but true...o:-)

	Foreign Affair: A Novel of Victorian England (A+ Series)	1		06-30-2010	$2.99
	Ghost at Work (Bailey Ruth Raeburn Series #1)	1		06-30-2010	$3.99
	Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier	1		06-30-2010	$3.99
	America’s Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation	1		06-30-2010	$3.99
	Dead Sexy (Garnet Lacey Series #2)	1		06-30-2010	$1.99
	The School of Essential Ingredients	1		06-30-2010	$3.99

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Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. This meme is hosted by The Printed Page.

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie.

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Mailbox Monday – June 21 – Hello Summer!

How Come They Always Had the Battles in National Parks? by Peter Bales has been on my wish list on Paperbackswap for over a year and I finally got it in the mail this week! I listened to part of the audio book a while back and really wanted the paper version. This is a very humorous approach to learning US history and I absolutely love visiting our National Parks…I even collect the cancellation stamps in the Passport book!

Also in the mail this week…

Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails 1851 (Covered Wagon Women #3) Edited and Compiled by Kenneth L. Holmes

I also got a few cross-stitching pattern books in the mail which I look forward to working on soon.

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. This meme is hosted by The Printed Page.

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie.

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It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? & MAILBOX Monday

This is a weekly Meme run by Sheila @ One Persons Journey through a world of Books. Post the books completed last week, the books you are currently reading, and the books you hope to finish this week.

Just Finished:

Well I’m back at work today after being off since June 4th.  I took a little trip to southeast Alabama (about a 12 hr car ride) and then was home for 4 days running around like crazy as well as lazing about the house.  I managed to only finish 1 book during this time – Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman – 4.5/5 – Review to Come!

Before I left for Alabama I finished and reviewed The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne – 4/5 – A very haunting story.

Currently Reading:

• The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell for the June Read-Athon
• Finishing up – The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and Sin Killer by Larry McMurtry
  

Up Next:

Mel & I came up with a summer reading challenge for us to work on – from June 21 – Sept 21 – to catch up on some much needed reading time. You can read more about it here!

I think I’m gonna go with Breaking Out of Bedlam by Leslie Larson next!  I recently featured this one on Friday Finds!

Mailbox Monday!

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. This meme is hosted by The Printed Page.

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie.

This week I received 4 books in the mail!! After the confusion from the sender of Christmas Jars on paperbackswap, I finally got the book in the mail. (She mixed up the order and sent me A Vampire’s Seduction and poor Melody Christmas Jars, but all has been put to rest. We were both surprised when we went to the mailbox the first time!)

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Mailbox Monday – May 24

This will be my last book purchasing haul for awhile…(if I can control myself ;o) ) I still have a few coming from paperbackswap, but these are free books (kinda!)…SO MANY BOOKS TO READ!!

These all arrived in my mailbox from Amazon – most are 4-for-3′s – and yes, I bought them with my own money:

• Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman – Can’t wait to start this one!
• Brimstone (Everett Hitch & Virgil Cole Western #3) by Robert B. Parker
• Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede
• Evernight & Stargazer (Evernight Series #1&2) by Claudia Gray
• The Ghost and the Dead Deb (Haunted Bookshop Mystery #2) by Alice Kimberly
• Eyes Like Stars: Theatre Illuminata, Act I by Lisa Mantchev
• Changeless (The Parasol Protectorate #2) by Gail Carriger
• The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley

Some more new books and some from PBS…

Received From Paperbackswap.com:

• A Garden in the Rain by Lynn Kurland
• The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
• Stolen Innocence: My Story Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer

Outbox – via Paperbackswap:

• Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel – My Review
• Inkheart by Cornelia Funke – DNF
• The Runaway Quilt (Elm Creek Quilts #4) by Jennifer Chiaverini – duplicate copy

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Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. This meme is hosted by The Printed Page.

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie.

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It’s Monday and Mailbox

It’s Monday, what are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books. It is a chance for us to share with other book bloggers what we have just finished reading, what we are currently reading and what we are reading next.

Just Finished:

The Book of Story Beginnings by Kristin Kladstrup – rating this one a 4.5/5. Really great time traveling adventure where Lucy’s great uncle that was thought to have gone missing as a young boy in 1914 is finally discovered in present time. Read my teaser for this one!

Twilight: The Graphic Novel Vol. 1 by Stephenie Meyer, Art and Adaption by Young Kim – rated 5/5…If you’re a Twihard, you probably have already heard about this one.  It follows the book very closely but the manga is phenomenal!

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle – need to review this one as well as A Wrinkle in Time…just can’t seem to bring myself to do it.  I listened to the audio book which is narrated by the author.  I’m not sure when she did this, but she seems to have terrible speech issues that are at times hard to get past.  If she wasn’t such a well known, respected and loved author, I seriously doubt they would have let her narrate anything.  Pretty bad and this series is just not my cup of tea and leaves me feeling disappointed that I didn’t get it.

Currently Reading:

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn – Just started this one last night. I love epistolary novels and this one seems to be a great addition to the genre.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Current Audiobook:

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin and narrated by Richard Thomas, abridged, 9.5 hrs – Currently on disc 6 of 8…how Lincoln managed to get into the Presidential office and he has just signed into action the Emancipation Proclamation.

Up Next:

Need to read a King Arthur book by end of March…maybe Sword in Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff (my copy of this one has a seriously creepy looking guy on it…not sexy…at all…) or Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country by Rosaline Miles…

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (so behind on the Lord of the Rings Read-a-long)

Next Audiobook:

Eragon by Christopher Paolini – Read this one back in March of 2005 (WOW!! 5 YEARS AGO…GEEZ!!) and I read Eldest back in January of 2006.  I loved both of these and I’ve had the third book in the series, Brisingr, since it came out (I’m afraid to look…) so I thought the audiobook of Eragon would be a great way to get me to finally read the third book.

Movies watched this week:

Inkheart – meh, I’ve only read about half of this book and as much as I want to like it, I just couldn’t get into it. Hoping to finish it. I know the movie is NOT like the book and although I LOVE Helen Mirren, this movie was blah…

October Road: Season 2 – Love this series and so sad it only lasted 2 seasons…watched it on TV and received the DVD for my birthday last year. I’ve finally put it in the DVD player while walking on the treadmill…40 min episode = 2 mile walk…not too shabby. This DVD set also has the series finale (~10 min) that was never aired on TV to wrap up most of the characters’ stories.

In my Mailbox…Mailbox Monday Meme…

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. This meme is hosted by The Printed Page.

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie.

From paperbackswap.com:

Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn – See Above.

A Hoe Lot of Trouble (Nina Quinn, Bk 1) by Heather Webber – LOVED LOVED LOVED Heather’s Truly, Madly so I’m definitely looking forward to this one.

The Yellowstone Forever! by David Michael Delo

The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (#2 is still in the mail somewhere…)

In my Outbox…I’ve been a VERY GOOD swapper!!

Have Swapped several audio books on CD on pbs.com lately, including:

Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire, Just Like Heaven by Marc Levy,New Day, New You: 366 Devotions for Enjoying Everyday Life by Joyce Meyer – could not listen to this one for very long so I gave it up…, Baseball Great by Tim Green, Essential Dickens: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – received 2 of these in an ebay lot so I kept one and swapped the other,Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – didn’t like the narrator, The Cat Who Talked Turkey by Lilian Jackson Braun

Books swapped: Love Story by Erich Segal, Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry – had 2 of these for some reason…

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Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. (Just what I need!!)

Received a rather large group of books to add to my collection this week so I thought I’d share for my first Mailbox Monday!

• From paperbackswap.com:

Miss Potter by Richard Maltby Jr. – He first wrote the screenplay for the amazing Miss Potter movie with Renée Zellweger as Beatrix Potter.

• From amazon.com (!! – Gotta love those 4-for-3 books…I seem to always find one book I want and then feel the need to find 3 more…):

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (4-for-3) – the movie looks wonderfully creepy…

If Books Could Kill: A Bibliophile Mystery (#2) by Kate Carlisle (4-for-3) – I have the first one in the series…

Snow: A Retelling of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ (Once Upon a Time Series) by Tracy Lynn (4-for-3) – after reading Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire, I wanted to read more about Snow White and read somewhere in the blogworld that this was a good series…

Belle: A Retelling of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (Once Upon a Time Series) by Cameron Dokey (4-for-3) – love Beauty and the Beast…what other reason do you need?

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaption by Michael Keller

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelley

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Bargain Book)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Bargain Book) – Have heard really great things about this one.

• I’m also trying out SimplyAudiobooks and this is what I got in the mail this week:

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