Mailbox Monday: staggering piles

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.  Visit MailBox Monday to find out what other bloggers received over the past week--you may find your next favorite book in their piles!

After going for weeks without doing a Mailbox Monday, here I am doing two in a row, but I have had a lot of books flying into my house over the past week.

Here's what I got:

Trains and Lovers, by Alexander McCall Smith - the stories of four strangers on an Edinburgh to London train.  I love stuff like this--maybe because I'm one of those people who imagines the stories of strangers on mass transit myself.  I really enjoyed his 44 Scotland Street series, and like the man-on-the-Scottish-street type of story.

The Last Kingdom, by Bernard Cornwell - book #1 in the Saxon Chronicles, this one has the Danes invading Britain. I've heard great things about this series so I'm eager to dive back in time.

Moon Tiger, by Penelope Lively - I enjoyed her Heat Wave so much that I wanted to read another Lively novel, and this Booker Prize winner seemed like a good choice.

Homeland and Other Stories, by Barbara Kingsolver - a collection of twelve stories, published in 1989.  I didn't start reading Kingsolver until just a few years ago, so I'm trying to fill in the gaps from her early years.

The Heather Blazing, by Colm Toibin - I seem to be on a Toibin kick lately, and like his work.  I found this at a book sale for $.50 so I figured I had nothing to lose.  I really liked his Brooklyn.

Kinds of Love, by May Sarton - I'm trying to read more contemporary fiction this year, and I have a couple of Sarton books on my TBR shelf, but again, I found this at a book sale, and thought it looked promising.

The Proud Tower, by Barbara Tuchman - part of the WWI reading project.  I have wanted to read this for years, but I had to have it in order to do so!