Mailbox Monday, Dec 24

I know I announced last week that there wouldn't be anymore Mailbox Mondays from me for 2012, but I lied! So many books arrived this week I couldn't wait until back from my trip to share. Happy Christmas to me, for serious!

Here is this week's Mailbox Monday (hosted in December at Suko's Notebook) -- what did you get?

For Review




















Gifted/Swapped/Purchased



Gifted to me from my boss!

Comments

  1. I have some of the same books this week - The Arab & The Brit and A Murder at Rosamund's Gate. The Painted Girls looks good :)

    Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete

  2. Wow, so many of them look good I don't even know where to begin. Enjoy your new books and have a Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete

  3. I'm especially curious about The Painted Girls. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete

  4. Wow, you have so many new books! Some of those covers are gorgeous and hopefully portend a great read! Happy Holidays!

    ReplyDelete

  5. Lots of great looking books. A couple of the covers grabbed my attention.

    ReplyDelete

  6. You got a lot of great looking books. I am really looking forward to reading the painted girls.

    ReplyDelete

  7. I don't know which book to look at first of all because they all look so good. They are all new to me as well other than the Hemingway.

    Have a very merry Christmas.

    ReplyDelete

  8. Her Majesty's Will: *snork*
    The Master of Verona: What is happening?
    The Forgotten Queen: Maybe they would have remembered her if they hadn't cut her head off.
    The Painted Girls: I love how un-dainty those ballerinas look doing their stretches.
    A Murder at Rosamund's Gate: Rude. Can't they kill someone outside their own gate? Poor Rosamund!
    The Hangman in the Mirror: Sure doesn't look like he's in the mirror.
    The Demon Lover: I love this cover, but I DNFed the book. Oh well.
    Performance Anomalies: THIS MAKES ME DIZZY.
    The Death of Bees: I'm on this tour too. The book is GORGEOUS!
    Between Two Thorns: Very curious about that one.

    ReplyDelete

  9. I am very much looking forward to many of these. I think 2013 is going to be a very good reading year!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Winter 2017 Bloggiesta To Do Post

Image
I love Bloggiesta for reminding me to brush up and take of my blog, and doing it "in community", so to speak, makes this housework a little more fun.

Given my earlier whining about feeling out-of-it with my blog, I'm really excited there's a mini-event this coming weekend in which I can do some backend work here.

My to do list is pretty simple:
make a top 10 of 2016 post (even if it is just a list!)review the book I just finished!I'd like to start 2017 without a backlog of reviews, so it feels important I keep up. We'll see if I'll tackle my 2016 backlog. (Perhaps for another Bloggiesta!)
Read more

Weekend reads and my first vlog!

Image
It feels like summer is over in Boston -- it's brisk and beautiful and while I love it, I'm also mourning the end of summer because I don't feel like I did enough summer stuff!

So, after fumbling with many different apps, I've made my first vlog/booktube, below. Don't judge me too harshly; I decided to just do it and not agonize, and I'll figure it out along the way. (But helpful tips always welcome!)

My weekend reads are more of Middlemarch as well as The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper. What are you reading this weekend?


Read more

A novel about E.M. Forster not getting some is surprisingly moving

Image
I grabbed this book from the library in my usual, arbitrary way: I liked the spine and the binding, and the cover; then I saw it was a Europa Edition and decided to check it out. Then I never got around to reading it, and had forgotten about it until noticing it on my Overdrive wishlist.

Arctic Summer is biographical novel of English novelist E.M. Forster; it's mostly about Morgan's desperate search for love and companionship and sex, and how he basically didn't get those things. It's gorgeous and emotional and restrained, and I loved every word.

Overwhelmingly, this novel is just bittersweet. Morgan is so sweetly likeable (I know it's trendy these days to want unlikable characters, but there's something to be said for characters you also just want to squish) but his life so empty despite the people, jobs, and travel that fill it. He finds some intense emotional relationships, a few that translate into physical/sexual ones, but all seem lopsided and unequal -- s…
Read more

Weekend reads and considering closing the blog...

Image
I'm not sure what provoked it, but was struck very strongly this week that I should consider closing this blog.

I think it's maybe that I'm trying to renew my work on it -- I'm trying out different review formats, attempting some YouTube vids, hoping to integrate my tarot and woowoo research -- but I'm so aware of how little interaction I have through it all. I know -- or 'know' -- many bookish folks online, but my interactions are fleeting and quick. I started my blog to connect with other readers -- a virtual book club, I imagined -- and I'm just not doing that.

Reviewing books to help authors and publishers promote them has become the meat-and-potatoes of my blog, and I'm not that excited about it. Certainly my free-range reading of these last few months have been refreshing and fun, but even writing about those reads feels like I'm talking to myself.

So, if that's the case, why continue here?

This post is kind of me "thinking out l…
Read more