Mailbox Monday, Sept 5

Seen both at Mailbox Monday (hosted in September at Amused By Books) and The Story Siren, my Mailbox Monday/In My Mailbox on a don't-want-summer-to-end Sunday.   Read any of these?  What did you get?


For Review



Ragnarok: The End of the Gods (Canongate Myths #16) by A.S. Byatt
Waiting for Robert Capa by Susana Fortes
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

Purchased/Swapped




Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Comments

  1. AmySeptember 4, 2011 at 9:21 AM

    Wow, you got some great books there, Audra! I have an old copy of Catherine the Great by Massie, can't wait to hear your thoughts!

    Enjoy your new reads and have a great holiday weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. FrancesSeptember 4, 2011 at 9:23 AM

    Coveting your Ragnarok and Angela Carter!

    ReplyDelete
  3. pickySeptember 4, 2011 at 10:02 AM

    I am super curious about Ragnarok. It's on NetGalley, and I keep considering requesting it. Let me know what you think.

    ReplyDelete
  4. HollySeptember 4, 2011 at 11:28 AM

    I really want the Catherine the Great book but I'm trying to talk myself out of it. I see all these non-fiction books I think I'd really like and then I end up reading nothing but fiction all the time and never get to them :(

    Suite Francaise is on my to read list this year too. Enjoy all your books!

    ReplyDelete
  5. ZibileeSeptember 4, 2011 at 12:20 PM

    Lots of amazing things there. I am excited about the Catherine the Great book and also by the Byatt. I have a whole collection of Carter's short fiction and am excited to make time for it soon. I hope that you enjoy all your new reads and that they all excite you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AudraSeptember 4, 2011 at 12:41 PM

    @Amy: I'm really looking forward to it -- Catherine is one of those figures I've always been fascinated by! Hope you're enjoying your weekend, too!

    @Frances: I am, too! ;) Reading Ragnarok now and it's good!

    @Picky: I really love the Canongate myth series and this fits in so well. I was telling a friend that Byatt really expertly catches that sensation of being young and reading something so imaginative it takes over your waking thoughts.

    @Holly: It's a massive book so I think it won't be a fast read but I feel you on the non-fic -- fic is definitely easier for me to pick up and finish!

    @Heather: I love Carter so much -- really excited to read this one (someday, someday)...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Melissa @ Confessions of an Avid ReaderSeptember 4, 2011 at 12:51 PM

    Lots of great books! I have a few on my wish list.

    Is the Catherine the Great book non-fiction?

    ReplyDelete
  8. ElysiumSeptember 4, 2011 at 2:38 PM

    I've really wanted to read the Catherine the Great book. Haven't read any of his books but I've heard good about those.

    ReplyDelete
  9. BlodeueddSeptember 4, 2011 at 3:57 PM

    enjoy! :D
    I liked Shiver

    ReplyDelete
  10. Col (Col Reads)September 4, 2011 at 4:24 PM

    I would totally pick up the Carter just for the gorgeous cover! I hope it's as awesome inside as it is outside!

    ReplyDelete
  11. bermudaonionSeptember 4, 2011 at 5:09 PM

    Most of your titles are new to me, but Waiting for Robert Capa has piqued my interest. I hope they're all winners!

    ReplyDelete
  12. SusieBookworm (Susanna)September 4, 2011 at 5:21 PM

    Ragnarok looks great! Though my experience with the story is more from Ignatius Donnelly's weird theories regarding it than from the Norse tale.

    ReplyDelete
  13. JessieSeptember 5, 2011 at 1:50 AM

    Ok. Ridiculous how awesome this (and every haul of yours!) is!

    Review copies of Ragnarok? AND Massie's Catherine the Great?

    Amazing.

    Shades of Milk and Honey is one of those "must read before I die" books for me. Shiver is also up there for books I'd like to read soon.
    Nicely done!

    ReplyDelete
  14. LauraSeptember 5, 2011 at 9:00 AM

    I have Nights at the Circus but I haven't read it yet. Your new books all look very exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  15. vvb32 readsSeptember 5, 2011 at 10:35 AM

    i'm being drawn to nights at the circus. happy reading.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Jenny QSeptember 5, 2011 at 12:41 PM

    I'm jealous of Catherine the Great! Looks so good!

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousSeptember 5, 2011 at 7:27 PM

    I got Waiting for Robert Capa too and I am very excited to read it!

    ReplyDelete
  18. LuSeptember 6, 2011 at 5:25 AM

    Great mailbox! Enjoy :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. SerenaSeptember 6, 2011 at 8:25 AM

    Looks like a great list of books. I'll look forward to your comments about Catherine the Great!

    ReplyDelete
  20. AmySeptember 6, 2011 at 5:06 PM

    Ooooh wow, you have some great looking/sounding books here! I'm especially besotted with the A.S. Byatt, Shades of Milk and Honey and Nights at the Circus oh and Seven Gothic Tales!

    Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  21. AnnaSeptember 7, 2011 at 2:24 PM

    You certainly had a great week in books! Serena gave me Suite Francaise ages ago but for some reason, I still haven't read it. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kris Waldherr's The Lost History of Dreams

Image
...he had the sense of viewing a man's life reduced to words. Black ink on white paper. Sentence after sentence. The grey minutia of daily routine flashed with occasional color...

This Gothic historical novel was a nearly perfect read: it held a snaky plot and thorny characters nestled in compelling narrative and deeply resonant themes. All love stories are ghost stories, we'll read more than once in this book, but this novel is more than a love story, more than a ghost story.

The Lost History of Dreams by Kris Waldherr
Touchstone, 2019
Review copy provided by publisher
Historical Fiction challenge

At the center of the novel is an imagining of the life of a Byron-like literary genius (and in those parts, I was reminded of Possession) touched with the unabashed, insistent naming of the woman behind such a figure. But surrounding that outward story is tortured emotions stretched taut to the point of madness (I was reminded of Sarah Waters and the way she writes about grief, ghosts…
Read more

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

Image
Title:The Orchardist
Author: Amanda Coplin

Genre: Fiction (Historical / early 20th Century / Pacific Northwest / Oregon / Horticulture / Teenage Pregnancy)
Publisher/Publication Date: Harper Perennial (3/5/2013)
Source:TLC Book Tours

Rating: Liked, possibly loved. This one will grow on me, I suspect, as time goes on.
Did I finish?: Oh yes.
One-sentence summary: Set in early 20th century Oregon, a orchardist helps two pregnant girls on the run and the experience has explosive results for all.
Reading Challenges:Historical Fiction

Do I like the cover?: I'm of two minds: a little bit I like it for the colors, and the bucolic setting; but up close, the image is sort of rendered like one those paint programs that makes photos look like canvases. It's odd.

I'm reminded of...: Alice Hoffman, Doris Lessing

First line: His face was as pitted as the moon.

Buy, Borrow, or Avoid?: Ohemgee, borrow or buy, especially if you like narratives set in the American West.

Why did I get this book?: I re…
Read more

Alyssa Cole's A Prince on Paper

Image
Love was for brave fools and Johan was entirely too clever and too cowardly to succumb to it.

Take one international playboy and one wallflower determined to change the story people tell of her and you get this wickedly charming romance.

A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole
Avon, 2019
Digital ARC provided by publisher

This was my second Cole book, but the first contemporary romance of hers I've read. As with the first book of hers I read, An Extraordinary Union, I was immediately smitten.

This is technically the third book in her Reluctant Royals series so I was a tiiiiiiny bit lost at the start when the characters from the earlier books were crowding for reader reunion time. But enough backstory is provided that I wasn't lost when it came to Nya and Johan, and their super cute, super sexy romance won me over immediately.

I loved this modern take on the romancing royalty trope -- I haven't read any modern royal romances, actually so I didn't know what to expect -- and now C…
Read more

Caitlin Starling's The Luminous Dead

Image
Words flashed up on her cracked screen.

DON'T SPEAK

Gyre choked down the faint, nascent sound that threatened to leak from her throat.

The words on her screen disappeared, and were replaced with:

IT HEARD THE SINGING. IT DOESN'T LIKE HUMAN VOICES

I won this book via GoodReads' First Reads and I really had no idea what it was about; but I loved the title and the cover so dove right in. What I landed in was a creepy, claustrophobic thriller pitting/partnering two damaged people in a place determined to kill them.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
Harper Voyager, 2019
Review copy from publisher

Starling doesn't waste time plunging us (literally) into her world, an alien place where mining dominates but some kind of alien known as Tunnelers make it dangerous. Cavers identify lodes -- if they survive the Tunnelers -- and a good caver can make lucrative money surviving one or two expeditions. Surviving being the operative word.

Gyre is desperate to leave her home planet…
Read more