Five New Books -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

Mailbox Monday is a fun, weekly blog event where participants chare the books they recently acquired. What new books came into your house recently? 

Here's my roundup:

The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back by Shannon McKenna Schmidt 

I prefer historical biographies to general history books, so this story of Eleanor Roosevelt's personal involvement in the war effort appeals to me. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

In August 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt journeyed to the Pacific Theater, where the United States was at war with Japan. A goodwill tour, diplomatic mission, and fact-finding foray, the 25,000-mile trip was further, longer, and more dangerous than any previously undertaken by the well-traveled First Lady.

​The First Lady of World War II follows Eleanor on this daring trek, taken under arduous conditions in a theater of war that sprawled over vast ocean distances. The trip, which demonstrated how dramatically she had transformed the role of First Lady, still stands — in the words of a reporter at the time — as "the most remarkable journey any president’s wife has ever made."

No God Like the Mother by Kesha Ajọsẹ-Fisher

This book of short stories, published by Forest Avenue Press, won the Ken Kesey Award For Best Fiction in the 2020 Oregon Book Awards.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

Kesha Ajọsẹ-Fisher's No God Like the Mother follows characters in transition, through tribulation and hope. Set around the world--the bustling streets of Lagos, the arid gardens beside the Red Sea, an apartment in Paris, and the rain-washed suburbs of the Pacific Northwest--this collection of nine stories is a masterful exploration of life's uncertainty.

 

Blood from a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam S. McHugh

McHugh's memoir came out last fall from Intervarsity Press. I was fortunate to get a review copy from LibraryThing. It sounds terrific!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

"This is the story of how wine brought me back from the dead."

Thus begins Adam McHugh's transition through the ending of one career—as a hospice chaplain and grief counselor—into the discovery of a new life in wine among the grapevines of the Santa Ynez Valley of California.

With warmth and wit, Adam tells the story of what happens when things fall apart and when where you live no longer feels like home. From the south of France to Champagne to the California central coast, the trail winds toward new life and healing through the good gifts of wine, friendship, and a sense of place. Pour a glass and join the adventure.

Plums for Months: Memories of a Wonder-Filled, Neurodivergent Childhood by Zaji Cox

This new, lyrical memoir comes out next week from Forest Avenue Press. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

As a neurodivergent child in a hundred-year-old house, Zaji Cox collects grammar books, second-hand toys, and sightings of feral cats. She dances and cartwheels through self-discovery and doubt, guided by her big sister and their devoted single mother. Through short essays that evoke the abundant imagination of childhood, Plums for Months explores the challenges of growing up mixed race and low-income on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon.

He Said He Would Be Late by Justine Sullivan

I got this new domestic thriller (2023, Henry Holt) right before my hip surgery two months ago then forgot I had it. It looks like a good one! 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

A fast-paced, twisty psychological debut about the complexities of marriage and new motherhood, told through the frenetic lens of a wife seeking the truth about her husband, at all costs, as the validity of the life she once knew unravels page by page.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts. You can also find the hosts' favorites at posts titled Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

New to Me Books from Arches Bookhouse -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

I took a quick break between filing legal briefs last week to pop in to Arches Bookhouse. Arches is one of my favorite bookstores in the world and it just happens to be here in Portland! 

When I got there, my bookstore buddy Adam was cataloging new inventory for his website. The shop is packed (and stacked) with “good books” – mostly literature and “scholarly humanities books.”  The website is where to look for antiquarian, rare, and collectible books, like the 18th Century German theology book Adam had just added. Check out archesbookhouse.com if that’s your sort of thing.

For me, I’m happy to take my theology books in a more accessible form, like G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. I was looking for a book to fit the 1900-1910 decade in my nonfiction "10 Books, 10 Decades" challenge and this one is perfect. 

I’m excited about the others too:

• The Plumed Serpent by D. H. Lawrence, because every used book shopping spree turns up a D. H. Lawrence book I've never heard of. It's some rule of the book cosmos. 

• Clochemerle by Gabriel Chevallier is a French novel I’ve never heard of but sounds fun. There is also a movie apparently.

• Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man, is a novel by Thomas Mann, but I didn't realize until I got home that this is only Part One. Hmmmmm . . . . maybe I've taken on more than I can handle. 

• Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part One, on the other hand, I was excited to find because I picked up a copy of Part Two a couple of weeks back, also in a Signet Classics edition. Now I have a matching pair.  My collection of "Shakespeare in vintage white paperbacks" is coming together! My plan is to gather them all and then read them straight through. 

• The three Graham Green books all have covers by Paul Hogarth, which is what caught my eye. The Lawless Roads is a nonfiction book about his travels through Mexico in the 1930s when the state had destroyed or closed so many Catholic churches. The Man Within was his debut novel. The Ministry of Fear is one of his dark comedies.

• Main-Travelled Roads by Hamlin Garland I bought on a whim because I liked the Signet Classics cover. It is a collection of short stories about Midwest farm families, published in 1922. 

None of these are top hits, they are definitely B-sides. See any you’ve read? Which would you start with? 

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts. You can also find the hosts' favorites at posts titled Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Two Memoirs by Kristin Louise Duncombe on MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

I love what I think of as "random memoirs," meaning memoirs written by not-famous people who can make an interesting story out of their lives. Sometimes these people tell interesting stories because very interesting things happened to them. In the case of "expat" memoirs, a subgenre of the random memoir, it is because they moved to someplace interesting to most readers because we like the idea of living there too, or at least visiting. But always these books are good (when they are good) because the memoirists makes the ordinary details of their life interesting -- the day to day conflicts, universal lessons, and humorous observations.

Knowing what I like in a memoir, I was more than happy to grab review copies of Kristin Louise Duncombe's two memoirs about life as "trailing" spouse of a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor.  

In the first, Trailing, Kristin follows her new husband from New Orleans, where they met, to Africa and eventually Paris, not without conflict, trauma, heartache, and personal growth. In the second, Five Flights Up, Kristin and her family move from Paris to Lyon, which involves as much upheaval because her children are older and her professional life established in Paris. 

I have the feeling I am going to race through these. They make excellent additions to my French Connections list. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Trailing:

Kristin’s first book, Trailing: A Memoir, chronicles her experience becoming a “trailing spouse” and following her Médecins Sans Frontières husband to the frontlines of disaster and disease in East Africa. Critics say that “Few books offer so revealing a glimpse into the life of an American wife in Africa, where staying alive mentally and intellectually can be just as important as physical survival,” and that “Trailing speaks not just of adapting to alternative cultures, but about the responsibility we need to take for our own lives, even if the parameters are set by other people. A perfect novel for expats, or for any woman who is seeking a sense of purpose.”

Five Flights Up:

Five Flights Up chronicles the adventures of Kristin Louise Duncombe, a Paris-based American psychotherapist whose unique specialty is helping “trailing wives” maintain their independence while following their careerist husbands around the globe.

Kristin, a former trailing wife herself, now has a successful career, loving family, and has just published her first book about being a “trailing” spouse. When she suddenly faces being uprooted again – this time from Paris to Lyon – to once more follow her Argentinean doctor husband, she finds she has to redefine everything she thought she knew about transition and trailing.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts. You can also find the hosts' favorites at posts titled Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Painting Through the Dark by Gemma Whelan -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

I actually got this copy of Painting Through the Dark a few weeks ago. But I also got a new hip a few weeks ago! I am finally feeling a little normal and walking around again, so am back to my computer and a To Do list a mile long. That list includes sharing this new book I am excited about. 

Painting Through the Dark is a new novel by Irish-born author Gemma Whelan. It is the story of a young woman, Ashling O'Leary, determined to leave Ireland and her demons behind and make a life for herself as an artist in San Francisco.  

The book is a page-turner, filled with vividly visual scenes and dialog that make the story speed along. I look forward to reading it right through to find out what happens to Ashling!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Fleeing from the emotional shackles of her family in Ireland and the convent where she was training to be a nun, the feisty 21-year-old Ashling O'Leary arrives in San Francisco in 1982 with a backpack, a judo outfit, her artist's portfolio, a three-month visa, and a determination to find a way to speak up about the abuse of girls and women in Catholic Ireland. As she becomes embroiled in a whirlwind of love, art, and deception, Ashling learns that her success as an artist and a human being depends on dealing with the ghosts of her past and speaking out on behalf of others.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts. You can also find the hosts' favorites at posts titled Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

New Books for February Reading -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

Do you generally buy new or used books? The books that come my way, while "new to me," are not usually new copies. I almost always buy used books (I'm particularly fond of library shops). But the universe conspired to bring four new books to me last week.

• The King's General by Daphne du Maurier I'm reading for a buddy read with some bookstagrammer friends. We've been reading a du Maurier book each month since November and The King's General is our February book. I needed a copy to start reading this past weekend so got this one when I was at Powell's last week. 

• The Promise of a Normal Life by Rebecca Kaiser Gibson launches on February 7 and sounds so wonderful that I jumped at the offer of a review copy. It is a coming of age story about a young Jewish-American woman who encounters adventure and colorful characters as she crisscrosses the US and the ocean to Israel, eventually finding herself on her journey.

• Thirst by K.L. Barron is another new book that sounded too good to pass up. I was happy to accept a review copy of this fascinating novel about a young woman living among the nomadic Tuareg people in Niger.

• The Maid by Nita Prose seems incredibly popular right now, so I was excited that my book club picked it for our next read. But it is so popular that there is a four-month wait for the audiobook from my library and used copies are selling for the same as new ones. I hope it lives up to the hype. We've had a bad streak at book club of picking popular books no one in book club ended up liking. 

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts. You can also find the hosts' favorites at posts titled Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Books for Christmas, Finally! MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

Yes, the picture above is the stack of books I got for Christmas. I meant to do a Mailbox Monday post earlier, but I didn't get around to it until now. Holidays, work, and a sick cat intervened. Now the holidays are behind us, work is quiet this month, and Ella Cat is feeling a little better, so I have some time to catch up on the blog. 

• War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy in a fancy Easton Press edition. I asked for this one so I would be well kitted out for the W&P readalong I'm doing on Bookstagram that started New Year’s Day.

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. This is the one new book I’ve had my eye on so I am very excited about getting a copy.

• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky because Santa figured as long as he was dipping from that Easton Press well, it was easy enough to dip in twice. 

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham in a fancy Folio Society edition. I got one of these for my law partner for her baby gift and might have mentioned to Santa how much I would like one for myself. 

• Churchill in Punch, edited by Gary L. Stiles, was a complete surprise and is super cool. It is a compilation of all of the more than 600 cartoons of Winston Churchill in Punch magazine from 1899 to 1988, with captions, attribution, and contextual commentary.

Do any of these catch your fancy?  What good books did you get or give for gifts this year? 

Other books have drifted into my house in the last few weeks. I haven't even processed them, but when I do, I will do another Mailbox Monday post. 

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Winterland and Prisons Have a Long Memory -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

A couple of interesting -- and different -- books came my way last week. 

Winterland by Rae Meadows (2022, Henry Holt)

This novel starts in the Soviet Union in 1973 when eight-year-old Anya is chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program.  It is a story of competitive sports and the story of Anya missing mother. 

Winterland comes out November 29 and is available for pre-order. I was lucky to get an early review copy from LibraryThing. 

From the publisher's description:

In the Soviet Union in 1973, there is perhaps no greater honor for a young girl than to be chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program. So when eight-year-old Anya is tapped, her family is thrilled. What is left of her family, that is. Years ago her mother disappeared. Anya's only confidant is her neighbor, an older woman who survived unspeakable horrors during her ten years in a Gulag camp--and who, unbeknownst to Anya, was also her mother's confidant and might hold the key to her disappearance. As Anya moves up the ranks of competitive gymnastics, and as other girls move down, Anya soon comes to realize that there is very little margin of error for anyone.

Prisons Have a Long Memory: Life Inside Oregon's Oldest Prison, edited by Tracy D. Schlapp and Daniel J. Wilson (2022, Bridgeworks Oregon). 

This is a collection of essays, poems, and memoir written by prisoners at the Oregon State Penitentiary.  Schlapp and Wilson started and led a "storytelling" group inside the prison and then worked with an editorial board of adults in custody to compile this collection. 

This book is part of Schlapp and Wilson's efforts at Bridgeworks Oregon, which started with them forming the band Luther's Boots to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison album. I've known Danny since before we started college and I think this work he is doing in prisons is amazing. 

From the publisher's description:

Danny Wilson and Tracy Schlapp assembled the storytelling group Ground Beneath Us at Oregon State Penitentiary in May 2019. For the past three years, they have mentored men in writing about life inside, using questions posed by middle and high school students as a springboard. Over seventy thousand children in Oregon are impacted by incarceration. These kids have questions they may be afraid to pose to their family members who serve time: fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters. Prison life requires a person to do difficult personal work and redefine oneself. This writing is testimony to that work. The result is a rich anthology filled with poetry, essays, and memoir that together present a picture of life at OSP and an exploration of the internal struggle to atone, find peace, and create community. Adult in Custody editorial board members have assembled a selection of powerful stories to be shared with the outside world. Wilson and Schlapp provided editorial support and guidance to the writers. Prisons Have a Long Memory will be presented within prisons and neighboring communities throughout Oregon thanks to support from the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, Oregon Humanities, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

New Books of Poetry and Historical Fiction -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

What new books came into your house lately?

I'm excited about these two new books, out recently. Although the books are completely different, I love both covers and how gorgeous they look together!

A Story Interrupted by Connie Soper (2022, Airlie Press)

This is Soper's first book of poetry. From the description and flipping through it, it looks like these are sort of poems I am drawn to. They are poems about actual places and experiences, not abstract ideas. I like something I can latch onto and relate to when I read a poem. I don't like to feel like the whole thing is going over my head. 

From the publisher's description:

Connie Soper’s first book of poetry invites readers to wander the trails of Oregon’s lush and fertile forests, and to celebrate its beaches, coastal cliffs, and headlands. She explores her native terrain with a reverence for the wild and untamed, as well as smaller moments spent in solitude. A Story Interrupted opens its map of place, memory, and inheritances—a map both familiar and uncharted. These poems offer glimpses, as well, of more distant traveled lands, always rooted in a keenly observed sense of place and belonging. These poems recall tender moments and conjure memories that connect us with our past, even if that past is sometimes difficult to acknowledge. Here, open-endedness is not melancholy but joy, each poem a small celebration.

Water Fire Steam by Mitzi Zilka (2022)

This new historical fiction novel is based on real life events and sounds excellent. The story sounds terrific and like it has broader themes that give it appeal beyond the exciting plot.

From the publisher's description:

The year is 1884. Rolla Alan Jones, an ambitious dreamer fresh out of an East Coast engineering school, is commissioned to design and build the first water system in Spokane Falls, Washington, a booming town of twenty-thousand. He is everyone's golden boy for five years until the city burns down on August 4, 1889. The once-celebrated engineer is scapegoated for the catastrophe alleging his system yielded inadequate water pressure. Asked to resign, betrayed by his friends, shunned by the community, and abandoned by his pregnant wife and three-year-old son, Rolla must find the strength to reinvent himself or return to New York as an abject failure. Based on a true story, Water Fire Steam is a story of forgiveness and redemption for anyone who has ever had to claw their way back from an unwarranted accusation.

 

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Velvet of VVB32 Reads graciously host Mailbox Monday. Velvet wants to hand off hosting duties so they are looking for a new helper. If you are interested, see the website for details.

Friends of the Library -- MAILBOX HOLIDAY MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

Thanks to a client meeting south of Portland, I had a chance to swing by two of my new favorite Friends shops. I don't get out to the exurbs often and when I do, I like to hit the library shops. I came home with a nice little book haul. 

See any in this batch of new-to-me books that catches your fancy? (Links here so you can read more about them. See gobbledygook section here.)

• The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper by Dominick Dunne. I love coffee table books and books about mid-century American "society," so this looks like fun!

• Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison is a favorite book of mine but I couldn't remember if I had a copy. I do, so I'll give this one away. Happens!

• Lark Rise to Candleford is Flora Thompson's lightly fictionalized memoir describing English life in a hamlet, a village, and a country town in the 1880s. I read about this trilogy in Foxed Quarterly and it sounds delightful! While I’d love to get my hands on a fancy Slightly Foxed edition, I’ll settle for good over perfect for now.

• Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane. I've read a couple of books in his Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro series and liked them, so want to read more.

• Devil's Breath by G. M. Malliet is another book in her Max Tudor series. I read the first book in the series and want to get back to it. 

• The Pope's Daughter: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia by Dario Fo sounds terrific and I love the Europa edition!

• Middlemarch by George Eliot is one I recently reread, but I couldn't resist the Signet Classic edition from the 10¢ box.

• The Golden Calf by Helene Tursten is a Swedish mystery I picked up because I'm gathering Soho Crime editions. I love the books' color block spines and the stories' (usually) foreign locations. 

• Death at the Alma Mater by G. H. Malliet is from her St. Just series, which I haven't tried, but it looks so good I wanted to read start.

• The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. I was drawn to the striking Modern Library cover. 

• Set This House on Fire by William Styron. I like Styron's books but have never heard of this one.  

• Not in the Flesh by Ruth Rendell is from her Inspector Wexford series which I've started and want to keep reading. It turns out I also have a copy of this one already. That's the good thing about Friends of the Library shops. I don't feel guilty about spending $1 on a duplicate copy I can pass on to a friend, especially knowing the dollar went to the library. 

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf graciously host Mailbox Monday. They are looking for a helper. If you are interested, see the website for details. 

Sleuthing Out Books with My Private Eye -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

I was having lunch with my private eye the other day . . .

That really has nothing to do with anything, but saying it always makes me laugh. And I really do have a private eye. She's amazing! She helps me and my law partner with our sex abuse cases because they usually involve child abuse that happened decades ago. Most often, our clients were molested in the 1980s or 1990s, but we have cases involving abuse as far back as the 1960s. Our private eye finds witnesses and documents to help us prove our cases. 

But what does that have to do with this stack of books? That is a mystery! The solution is that we met for lunch in a suburb of Portland that has a Friends of the Library store I had never explored. It was a really good one. I came home with an overflowing tote bag of books.

See anything here you’d like to investigate?

• Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. I read this as an audiobook years ago, loved it, and wanted a book book on my shelves.

• Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather, which I want to read because I love Cather.

• The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro are two plays by Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais, on which the operas by Rossini and Mozart are based. 

• The Spoils of Poynton is a Henry James book I've never heard of.

• The Major Plays of Chekhov is a Signet Classic edition of a book I already have but haven't read. I'm enchanted by Signet Classic covers these days. 

• The Heart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad is another Signet Classics edition. I got this one because I haven't read The Secret Sharer.

• The Egoist is a tragicomical novel by George Meredith published in 1879. I've never heard of it, but might read it for Victober.

• The Wings of the Dove by Henry James. This is another one I read years ago but wanted to add a Modern Library edition to my collection.

• Hetty Dorval by Ethel Wilson is a book I know nothing about, But I've never found a Persephone edition at library store so nabbed it. 

• Jane Austen's "juvenilia," because I haven't read any of these and liked the Penguin Classics edition. 

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Again, I read it a long time ago and have a fancy edition. But I wanted a paperback if I want to reread it. 

• The Long Day Waned is Anthony Burgess's "Malayan Trilogy" and all three novels sound really good. 

• Tales of Old Inns by Richard Keverne is a vintage travel guide to England's historic inns and hotels. Pure charm!

• Faith Fox by Jane Gardam I got because I read her Old Filth trilogy last year and now want to read everything she wrote. 

The last books are five Soho Crime books. I realized about a month ago that I had a nice little collection started of Soho Crime mystery books published by Soho Press. Since then, I've looked for more at library stores and found another dozen or so. I like the collection because the color block spines look so cool together. But I like the books because Soho Crime's theme is publishing mystery series set all around the world. For example, Qiu Xiaolong's series is set in China and Eliot Pattison's is set in Tibet.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Velvet of vvb32reads graciously host Mailbox Monday.

I Meant to Tell You and The Reservoir -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

What books came into your house last week? 

Two new books came my way. Both look like fun!

I Meant to Tell You by Fran Hawthorne

Fran Hawthorne's new novel, I Meant to Tell You, starts with the disclosure of a little secret and follows the ripple effects of that disclosure. 

Miranda and Russ are engaged to be married and Russ is ready to start a new job in the U.S. Attorney's office. As part of a routine FBI background check, both must disclose any criminal history. Miranda had never told Russ that years earlier, she had tried to help a friend and her child leave the US for Israel during her friend's nasty divorce. Although Miranda did not know this trip was illegal, is was, and she and her friend were arrested at the airport. Miranda was sentenced for a misdemeanor, which was later expunged. Because the conviction was not on her record, she didn't mention it to Russ or the FBI. Big mistake. 

The story unspools from there. Hawthorne narrates the book through the multiple voices of those affected.

I Meant to Tell You doesn't launch until November, but is available for pre-order. I am excited to get my hands on an early review copy. This is Fran Hawthorne's second novel after her 2018 debut, The Heirs. 

The Reservoir by David Duchovny

Yes, David Duchovny from The X-Files writes books. He's also a singer/songwriter. Maybe everyone knew this already, but it was news to me when I watched The Chair with Sandra Oh. Duchovny steals the show with this scene (the clip has a 10 second trailer at the beginning before it starts for real with her knocking on the door -- stick with it). 

The Reservoir is Duchovney's new novella, which he wrote during the pandemic, about a man stuck in his New York apartment during the pandemic. The man becomes convinced a woman across Central Park is signaling to him in Morse code and that the key to the mystery lies at the bottom of the reservoir in the park. It's part dark rom-com, part mystery, part psychological delusion.

The Reservoir is out now. I scored a review copy from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. It looks like a perfect summer read so I plan to read it this month.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Velvet of vvb32reads graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Dorothy L. Sayers' Dante -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

Well, isn’t this divine?

Dorothy L. Sayers was one of the Queens of the Golden Age of mysteries, along with Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, and Josephine Tey. Her series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and (in some of them) Harriet Vane, is one of my very favorites.

But Sayers was also a classical scholar. In her 50s, she undertook to translate Dante’s Divine Comedy from the 14th Century Italian. She worked on the project until her death in 1957, completing the first and second volumes and most of the third before handing the project to Italian scholar Barbara Reynolds to complete.

Unlike other English translations, including the one I read in college, Sayers maintained the aba bcb cdc rhyming scheme of the original. Not an easy task! But it makes hers a more lively translation. She also included an explanation and notes after each canto. Her essays make the epic poems accessible to ordinary readers.

Sayers’ translation of Hell (Inferno) was published in 1949 as one of the first Penguin Classics. Purgatory (Purgatorio) followed in 1955. Paradise (Paradiso) was published after Reynolds completed it in 1962. Penguin Classics has continued to offer Sayers’ translation of The Divine Comedy ever since.

I was excited to find this set of blue and white Penguin Classic editions of the Sayers’ Dante at the Rose City Book & Paper Fair a couple of weeks back, at the Arches Book House booth. My goal is to do a deep dive and reread them, with all her notes and essays. But we will see when I get around to that. I may “read in” them rather than “read” them.

How about you? Have you read The Divine Comedy or plan to? What translation?

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Velvet of vvb32reads graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary by Laura Stanfill -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

Work obligations and family life have kept me hopping the last few months and I haven't visited Mailbox Monday as often as I would like. 

But I am so excited about Laura Stanfill's new novel, Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary, that I had to post it on Mailbox Monday. Even if I am typing this post while keeping one eye on the zoom trial of the Boy Scouts' bankruptcy so I don't miss my turn to cross examine this BSA witness!

Singing Lessons is historical fiction set in France and America during the 1800s. Henri Blanchard is the son of a music-box maker who would rather make lace than follow in his father's footsteps. Henri discovers his father had son born before him to one of his father's American customers. When circumstances drive Henri to flee to America, he meets his half-brother and discovers a world beyond his small French village.

Laura Stanfill is the editor and publisher at Forest Avenue Press, a prize-winning independent publisher of literary fiction and memoir. She is a fine essay writer whose work has appeared in
Shondaland, The Rumpus, Catapult, The Vincent Brothers Review, Santa Fe Writers Project, and several print anthologies.

Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary is Stanfill's debut novel. It launches on April 18 from Lanternfish Press and is available now for pre-order. For those in the Portland area, Laura is reading from Singing Lessons at Powell's City of Books on Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 7:00 pm. Signed copies are available for pre-order from Powell's or available at the event.

Read a glowing review of Singing Lessons, recommending the book for fans of Joanne Harris, on Publishers' Weekly.

Read Beth Kephart's review of this "utterly beguiling" novel on Cleaver.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

As a firstborn son of a master craftsman, Henri Blanchard is expected to inherit the family barrel organ workshop, but he would prefer to make bobbin lace like his best friend Aimée. In an effort to put his misgivings aside and prove himself a worthy heir, he attempts dramatic feats that draw derision from the townsfolk and finally land him in jail, accused of murder. Threatened with the hangman’s noose, he is forced to flee the cozy village of Mireville—and discover a world beyond that may be big enough for even the rarest bird to find a nest.

Suspenseful and heartwarming by turns, Laura Stanfill’s debut is a whimsical journey full of friendship, adventure, and self-discovery.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Velvet of vvb32reads graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Brooklyn Neo-Noir, Burgundy Boats, and Big Sur -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

So many books have come into my house since I last put up a Mailbox Monday post that I can't begin to catch up. Work and life got in the way of book blogging, which happens. Now when there is a short, perhaps illusory, lull between work insanity and the holidays, I'll try posting more often.

The three books that came into my home last week all look wonderful. I want to read them immediately! I will settle for as soon as reasonably possible. 

What books have come your way lately?

MY MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

Shoot the Moonlight Out by William Boyle, brand new from Pegasus Books. At first glance, this new crime novel reminds me of a Brooklyn-themed Dennis Lehane book and looks amazing! It starts in 1996 with a run in with criminals that ends in tragedy then the main story takes place in the summer of 2001, right before 9/11. I like the slightly vintage vibe, the Brooklyn setting, and the whole neo-noir feeling. 

Hubby just read Lehane's blockbuster, Mystic River, so I gave Shoot the Moonlight Out to him to see how it stands up. Stand by for his report. 

To Live and Die in the Floating World by Stephen Holgate. This one came out last month from Blank Slate Press. It looks great! An American working on a tourist barge in France has an affair with a gangster's girlfriend. 

At first glance, that reminds me of a Burgundy-themed Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone. But since I may be the latest person to read that 1975 National Book Award winner, I may be the only one who can make the comparison.  

Read my review of Stephen Holgate about his earlier novel Tangier, here. 

On the Edge by Edward St. Aubyn, author of the Patrick Melrose novels. This is a reprint of his 1998 novel satirizing New Age goofiness, set in Big Sur. It's the first American edition of the book. 

I was excited to find this in a Little Free Library on my walk to work the other day. I read Lost for Words, his satirical novel about book awards that won the Wodehouse Award for best comic novel, which he wrote after Mother's Milk, the penultimate Patrick Melrose novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize but didn't win. Lost for Words was brilliant and got me to binge the five Melrose novels, which were excellent, but so sad. 

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

 
Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Velvet of vvb32reads graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Between Two Kings and More Dumas Musketeer Books -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

I can't resist matching editions! How about you? 

I also can't resist Alexander Dumas books because, well, we are related, obviously! 😉

This set of Alexander Dumas books are five books in the "Musketeers Cycle" -- a series of books that started with The Three Musketeers and ends with The Man in the Iron Mask. 

I'm excited about this set in particular because it is the new translation by Lawrence Ellsworth, the first new translation in over 100 years. The stiff, long-winded Victorian language is gone. Ellsworth's translation is fresh and lively. If you thought the Musketeers were fun before, wait until you see how they swashbuckle now!

All told, there will be nine volumes in the series, published by Pegasus Books:

• The Three Musketeers (2018).
• The Red Sphinx (2017). This Musketeer novel, called The Count of Moret in France, has not been translated into English before. This was the first book of the project. In the storyline, it comes after The Three Musketeers. I have it in the wrong place in my picture.
• Twenty Years After (2019). This is traditionally published as one books. Ellsworth edition is split into two, Twenty Years After and the next one.
• Blood Royale (2020). This is the second half of what is traditionally published as part of Twenty Years After.
• Between Two Kings (2021). Ellsworth is breaking down Dumas's mega-novel, The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, into five separate volumes. It was originally serialized over two and a half years and is traditionally published in three, four, or five volumes. Between Two Kings is Vol. 1.
• The Court of Daggers (Vol. 2) (coming in 2022).
• The Devil’s Dance (Vol. 3) (2023).
• The Shadow of the Bastille (Vol. 4) (2024).
• The Man in the Iron Mask (Vol. 5) (2025).

Ellsworth's translation project is a huge literary undertaking. I admit, it wasn't even on my radar. Pegasus Books kindly sent me a review copy of the new one, Between Two Kings, and I went bonkers. I had to get my hands on the earlier four immediately. I can't wait to reread The Three Musketeers in this new translation and then read the rest of the books. What an adventure!

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Velvet of vvb32reads are the gracious hosts of Mailbox Monday.

5 New Books for End of Summer Enjoyment -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

It's time again for Mailbox Monday, where we share the books that have come our way in the past week (or so). What new books do you have to share?

I have a stack of enticing new books, all sure to provide end of summer summer enjoyment and autumn anticipation:

Rizzio by Denise Mina. This new novella is a historical thriller about the bloody assassination of David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1566. 

I adore Mina's contemporary crime fiction so am excited to get my hands on a preview copy of this new dark tale. Rizzio launches September 7 from Pegasus Books and is available for pre-order. 

You Are Enough! Reclaiming Your Career and Your Life with Purpose, Passion, and Unapologetic Authenticity by Charlene Wheeless (2021, Mascot Books). Charlene Wheeless shares the wisdom she's learned from her years as a Black woman executive and cancer survivor in her new book that is part memoir, part inspiring essays.

Welcome to Kamini by Don Engebretson. This is the debut novel from a seasoned magazine and short story writer.  It looks like a new(age) twist on a mid-life crisis story, with the hero heading to the Canadian woods to get over his failed marriage and professional tailspin. He meets an Ojibwe fishing guide and three powerful women who change his plans, and his life. 

This one comes out October 1 from Guernica Editions. I was lucky to get a review copy early and just hope I can get to it soon. It is available for pre-order now. 

Deep Hanging Out: Wanderings and Wonderment in Native California by Malcolm Margolin (2021, Heyday Books). Malcolm Margolin is a fixture in California's Native American community. Although not Native American himself, Margolin has been “deep hanging out” – immersing himself in a social, informal way – in California’s Indian country since the 1970s. 

This new book from Heyday Books is a collection of 30 articles and other pieces, mostly collected from News from Native California, a quarterly magazine Margolin founded in 1987.

A Few Words about Words: A Common-Sense Look at Writing and Grammar by Joseph J. Diorio. I love any and all grammar books! This new one from Beaufort Books comes out next week. Diorio is the author of a popular newsletter of the same name that has been around for 30 years.

Share your own new books on Mailbox Monday with other book lovers. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to share your post link, find links to the other participants' posts, and read more about Books that Caught Our Eye the week before.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Velvet of vvb32reads are the gracious hosts of Mailbox Monday.

Four New Books: Memoir, Novel in Stories, History, Poetry -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

I've been Mailbox Monday MIA for a few weeks while getting ready for a trial. In the meantime, several new books have come my way and stacked up on my desk. What do you think of these new releases? Does anything catch your eye? 

What new books came into your house lately?

I Have Not Loved You with My Whole Heart by Cris Harris (OSU Press). This gripping memoir came out in June and I can't wait to read it. 

Cris Harris grew up in a difficult household with an alcoholic father, learning to live with the uncertainty, chaos, and neglect of living with addiction. What he didn't expect was that his father, an Episcopalian priest, would come out as gay during the height of the AIDS crisis and die of HIV in 1995. 

The Image: A Novel in Pieces by Steven Faulkner (Beaufort Books). This short novel launches today!

The Image is the tale of a timeless work of art told in three linked stories. It's a story of how art and faith are often entwined and what it takes to cherish both.

Darrow's Nightmare: The Forgotten Story of America's Most Famous Trial Lawyer: (Los Angeles 1911-1913) by Nelson Johnson (Rosetta Books). This one came out in April. Nelson Johnson wrote Boardwalk Empire that was made into such a terrific TV show. 

Darrow's Nightmare is the nonfiction account of how America's most famous criminal trial attorney was almost a convicted criminal himself. in 1911, Darrow went to Los Angeles to defend two union agitators on trial for mass murder. While there, he was indicted and tried for bribing a juror. A conviction would have ended his career.

Plume Poetry 9, edited by Daniel Lawless. Plume is an online magazine dedicated to publishing the best of contemporary poetry. Since 2012, Plume has published an annual anthology of new poems. 

In this 9th anthology, editor Daniel Lawless did something a little different. Instead of choosing all the poems himself, he chose 49 poems and then let those poets chose another poet to be paired with. The 49 poem pairings appear side-by-side, in dialog, as they say in artsy circles. There is also a selection of nine poems by and an interview with Diane Seuss. 
  

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Velvet of vvb32reads.