Mailbox Monday

Welcome to Mailbox Monday. MM is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. Warning: MM can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

This month Mailbox Monday is being hosted on Mailbox Monday blog for the meme. You can check that blog to see the complete tour schedule in the left hand sidebar.


I have had a great influx of new books lately, between my birthday and recommendations from fellow bloggers, my mailbox runneth over.

Birthday Swag

Venice: Pure City, by Peter Ackroyd - my brother Mark knows that I love reading about Venice and hope to visit in 2014 for my 30-year anniversary trip with my husband! Plus I'm a big Peter Ackroyd fan, and am really looking forward to diving into this book.

Women Icons of the West: Five Women Who Forged the American Frontier, by Julie Danneberg - my husband heard about this book on Colorado Matters on Colorado Public Radio and knew I would love it as it chronicles the influence of some of my favorite women in history, Molly Brown and Isabella Bird. I hadn't heard of the other three women featured in the book,--namely Clara Brown, Nellie Cashman, and Sarah Winnemucca--so I expect to love this book. It's a slim book, so I should easily go through it during my flight to Toronto tomorrow.

The Little House Cookbook - my daughter Emily knows how much I love the Little House books and after reading Wendy McClure's The Wilder Life, I put this book on my Amazon wish list, and voila...I can now make my own Vanity Cakes. Maybe for Christmas? Maybe a new tradition?

PaperBack Swap

Notes on the State of Virginia, by Thomas Jefferson - I've been reading David McCullough's bio of John Adams for most of the year and was really struck by the friendship of Adams and Jefferson while they were serving in England and France as ambassadors after the Revolution, and Adams read Jefferson's book, so I thought I would too.

Waterloo: June 18, 1815: The Battle for Modern Europe, by Andrew Roberts - ever since I read Thackeray's Vanity Fair last year I've been trying to learn more about Waterloo, and Georgette Heyer's wonderful An Infamous Army earlier this year rekindled that desire. Scouting for good non-fiction books on the battle at Amazon yielded this one. Hope it's good.

Talking About Detective Fiction, by P.D. James - I'v heard about this book for awhile and I love reading about books and genre so I'm expecting it to be delightful.

Jane Austen in Scarsdale, by Paula Marantz Cohen - I really enjoyed her Jane Austen in Boca, which my mom gave me a few years ago, and a fan of Cohen's recently reminded me that I haven't read this Persuasion-inspired Austenesque story. So, with four plane rides over the next 2 weeks, I think this will going to either Toronto or Seattle with me!

George Knightley, Esquire (Book 2 - Lend Me Leave) by Barbara Cornthwaite - the author sent me a review copy that I can finally start this week. Be on the lookout for a giveaway here shortly! I am so looking forward to this continuation of the George Knightley POV story that Cornthwaite started in Book 1 of the set, and which I reviewed here.