Mailbox Monday, Dec 9

It's been more than a month since I've posted a Mailbox Monday update, so, here's my immense haul for the last five or six weeks.

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme, hosted in December by Rose City Reader. The creator of the meme is polling bloggers about the future of Mailbox Monday, so if you care or are interested, check out the post and vote.

To learn more about any title, click on the cover; it'll open to the GoodReads page in a new tab/window.

What did you get this week?

For Review






























Won



Won, thanks to Dark Jane Austen Book Club!



Won, thanks to the author

Comments

  1. wow, want want want want those books

    ReplyDelete

  2. I am really out of it - most of those books are new to me. I hope they're all terrific!

    ReplyDelete

  3. Great mailbox! The only book on the list I've read in The Splendour Falls, which although not my favourite of Susanna Kearsley novels is still really good.

    I hope you enjoy each and every one of your new acquisitions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. I'm very excited for it -- Kearsley is a new favorite!

      Delete

  4. Wow, that is a book list to envy! I snagged Longbourn from the library and I hope to find time to read it before it goes back

    ReplyDelete

  6. I'm also going to be reading Mrs. Lincoln's Rival and I'm very excited! It seems like a fun one to pair with some non-fiction about the same topic, which is something I really love to do :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. I always wish I could do that but I rarely read non-fiction -- I'm slower reading NF than fic!

      Delete

  7. how do you manage to read so quickly?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Amy, I doubt I'll even read half of these (sadly!) -- and I get my reading done by staying up all night to an ungodly hour until I finish! If I'm on a roll, I can get through three or four books in a week.

      Delete

  8. Give me a minute to not die of sheer envy right now! You get such fantastic books (and some interesting ones I never see anywhere else).

    I know you're a busy lady and don't have time to read all the books, but I would love to see what you think of:

    While Beauty Slept
    The Mapmaker's Daughter (lotta hype for this one!)
    Mistress of the Wind (I think this is an interesting book for Diener to write!)
    Frog Music (I remember you as iffy about the author's Room)
    THE SPLENDOUR FALLS (you know how I feel about Kearsley!)

    I am also on the tours for Becoming Josephine and Last Train to Paris! I hope they work out well for you :)

    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

Interview with Mary Sharratt on her newest novel, Ecstasy

Image
I'm an enormous Mary Sharratt fan; her novels are rich, detailed, evocative, complicated, lush, and compelling. (See my reviews for Illuminations and The Dark Lady's Mask.) I'm sharing my review of her newest novel, Ecstasy, tomorrow, but needless to say, it'll be all gushing praise. Sharratt's portrait of Alma Mahler, Gustave Mahler's beautiful, talented wife, is so good. I couldn't say I liked Alma's choices, but Sharratt allowed me to imagine why she would have made them.

I'm delighted to share my interview with Ms. Sharratt about Ecstasy. There's also a giveaway at the end, too!

How did Alma's story cross your path?

I’ve always been a huge Gustav Mahler fan. I adore his music and he appears like the perfect tragic hero, rising up from rural obscurity and facing insurmountable struggles in his life, and meeting his untimely death with great courage and dignity. But then I became intrigued by the figure of his wife, Alma, especially after …
Read more

Weekend reads and wow, it's been a while...

Image
Yikes, it's been a while.

Winter did a number on me, as it always does; although I can say that while I wasn't reading much (and clearly not blogging about it), I've been filling my time. This year I've finished six knitting projects, which is a record for me given that I normally only manage one piece a year!

A few weeks ago, we adopted two cats since Unabridged Kid and I had reached our limit of cat-less living. After bickering over names for two weeks, we finally reached agreement: Gus, from Gus's Garage, and Stanley, from Stanley's Garage. (Notice a theme?)

I've fallen terribly behind on my novel; I pretty much stalled out after the winter holidays, and I've just gotten back into a morning writing habit (one hundred-ish agonizing words a day, le sigh).

This weekend I'm starting Mary Sharratt's Ecstasy, a historical novel about Alma Mahler. Gifted in her own right, she put all that away for her marriage, and I'm kind of shoulder tense i…
Read more

Book Review: Ecstasy by Mary Sharratt

Image
First line: Nineteen years old, Alma Maria Schindler longed body and soul for an awakening.

I knew, from the previous novels of Sharratt's that I've read (the astounding Illuminations and fascinating The Dark Lady's Mask) that I would love Ecstasy -- even though I feared the story of Alma Mahler's life would frustrate me. However, I should have trusted that Sharratt would somehow manage to make me not just enraptured of/with Alma but also the people in her life, including the frustrating Gustave Mahler.

Alma Schindler is beautiful and clever, growing up in Vienna's glittering world of art and intellect. She composes and wishes to devote herself to music, but aspires to a passionate love as well. She eventually marries Gustave Mahler, a genius who demands she give up her composing and devote her entire self to his art. The cost, unsurprisingly, is enormous.

This probably sounds miserable, but Sharratt somehow manages to make it deeply compelling and kind of understan…
Read more