Mailbox Monday...the birthday edition

Remember, remember, the fifth of November....cuz it was my birthday!

This week's Mailbox Monday features bookish gifts from my lovely family.

First up is my very own plush bookworm, courtesy of my clever sister-in-law, who finds the best stuff out there. This is from Giant Microbes, and makes a wonderful friend on my TBR shelf.




My sister-in-law also gave me Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks From Jane Austen's Bath to Ernest Hemingway's Key West, by Shannon Mckenna Schmidt, Joni Rendon, and Matthew Pearl. I found this on another blogger's blog and promptly put it on my Wish List--Wish Lists are truly wonderful things. I'm planning on this being our family's travel guide for awhile...little do they know!



My brother gave me Bill Bryson's latest, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, which he is currently reading and absolutely loves. I'm a Bryson fan anyway and recently heard him talking about this book on NPR, so yeah! This is from the Amazon blurb:

While walking through his own home, a former Church of England rectory built in the 19th century, Bryson reconstructs the fascinating history of the household, room by room. With waggish humor and a knack for unearthing the extraordinary stories behind the seemingly commonplace, he examines how everyday items--things like ice, cookbooks, glass windows, and salt and pepper--transformed the way people lived, and how houses evolved around these new commodities.

And my son gave me Composed, a memoir by one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Roseanne Cash, daughter of the late great Johnny Cash. I might read this one first as it is so different from anything I've read recently that the change will do me good.




Stay tuned for reviews of all three books in the hopefully not-to-distant future!