Mailbox Monday: March Madness

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Caitlin of Chaotic Compendiums this month.   It's a place to share what new books bloggers have recently acquired, and one of my favorite memes.

I have a wealth of new books that have just arrived on my doorstop, begging to be read and tempting me to discard my TBR Pile Challenge good intentions.  Luckily I have a couple of long plane rides over the next couple of months, which does wonders for my reading time.

Here's what is trying to lead me astray right now.

Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear - so many fellow bloggers and Janeite friends have recommended this book that I simply couldn't not get a copy to read.  Here's the Amazon blurb:

Hailed by NPR’s Fresh Air as part Testament of Youth, part Dorothy Sayers, and part Upstairs, Downstairs, this astonishing debut has already won fans from coast to coast and is poised to add Maisie Dobbs to the ranks of literature’s favorite sleuths.

Maisie Dobbs isn’t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence—and the patronage of her benevolent employers—she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.

The Pilgrimage, by Paulo Coelho - another book about walking, pilgrimage and El Camino de Santiago.  My own pilgrimage on the Camino is now on my calendar for spring 2015 and between now and then I will be reading all sorts of books related to it as part of my preparation.  I haven't yet read  Coelho's The Alchemist, but Amazon seems to think it grew out of this book.

The Space Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar - this author was listed on a fellow blogger's Top Ten Favorite Authors, and I thought it a good way to broaden my reading horizions.  Here's what Amazon had to say:

The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar's poignant novel about a wealthy woman and her downtrodden servant, offers a revealing look at class and gender roles in modern day Bombay. Alternatively told through the eyes of Sera, a Parsi widow whose pregnant daughter and son-in-law share her elegant home, and Bhima, the elderly housekeeper who must support her orphaned granddaughter, Umrigar does an admirable job of creating two sympathetic characters whose bond goes far deeper than that of employer and employee.

Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill, by Gretchen Rubin - I'm willing to give Rubin a try, though she seems to have as many detractors as fans.  I do want to learn more about Churchill and I like the premise of looking at multiple facets, some contradictory, of one of the most important people of modern times.

The Prodigal Son, by Colleen McCullough - back when I read McCullough's atrocious The Independence of Mary Bennet, I vowed never to read another McCullough novel.  But then, a fellow blogger was doing a giveaway of this book recently, and I liked the premise and remembered liking some of McCullough's novels once-upon-a-time, so I entered and won.  I do hope it's good.  Perhaps finally the healing will begin!

Here's what Amazon thinks it's about:

HOLLOMAN, CONNECTICUT, 1969. A lethal toxin, extracted from the blowfish, is stolen from a laboratory at Chubb University. It kills within minutes and leaves no trace behind, and worried biochemist Dr. Millie Hunter reports the theft at once to her father, Medical Examiner Dr. Patrick O’Donnell.  Patrick’s cousin Captain Carmine Delmonico is therefore quick off the mark when the bodies start to mount up. A sudden death at a dinner party followed by another at a gala black-tie event seem at first to be linked only by the poison and the presence of Dr. Jim Hunter, a scientist on the brink of greatness and husband to Millie. A black man married to a white woman, Dr. Jim has faced scandal and prejudice for most of his life, so what would cause him to risk it all now? Is he being framed for murder—and if so, by whom? Carmine and his detectives must follow the trail through the university town’s crowd of eccentrics, no matter how close to home it may lead.

Best wishes for a wonderful week and happy reading!