Mailbox Monday - an ode to book blogging

Lest anyone doubt the efficacy of book blogs to publicize books amongst readers, I am noting that 5 of the 6 books I received over the past couple of weeks are ones I specifically sought out due to reading reviews on fellow book blogger sites.  Thanks for the great recommendations!

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 Here to view other Mailbox Monday lists.

Here's what I can't wait to read...

Blonde, by Joyce Carol Oates - I have never read anything by this classic American author, and it's high time I did.  I read about this book on BooksPlease and thought it sounded fascinating.  I have always admired Marilyn Monroe since I stumbled across Bus Stop on TV when I was a kid and I was just mesmerized by her.

The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan - I also learned about this from Margaret on BooksPlease. I am trying to read more classic mysteries, and this sounded terrific.  I love that it takes place in Scotland.  Short--a good airplane book.

Mount Joy, by Daisy Newman - I heard about this from CLM from Staircase Wit.  I'm always on the lookout for books about the Camino de Santiago--so many, like the Shirley MacLaine one and the Paolo Coelho one, are quasi-mystical, mumbo-jumbo--but this looks good.  Published in 1968, it's a novel about a college-age girl who walks the Camino.

Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives by Daisy Hay - this has been on my wish list for years--I can't remember where I first heard about it, but I know it was an internet book friend. Here's the Amazon blurb:

The book focuses on the network of writers and readers who gathered around Percy Bysshe Shelley and the campaigning journalist Leigh Hunt. They included Lord Byron, John Keats, and Mary Shelley, as well as a host of fascinating lesser-known figures: Mary Shelley’s stepsister and Byron’s mistress, Claire Clairmont; Hunt’s botanist sister-in-law, Elizabeth Kent; the musician Vincent Novello; the painters Benjamin Haydon and Joseph Severn; and writers such as Charles and Mary Lamb, Thomas Love Peacock, and William Hazlitt. They were characterized by talent, idealism, and youthful ardor, and these qualities shaped and informed their politically oppositional stances—as did their chaotic family arrangements, which often left the young women, despite their talents, facing the consequences of the men’s philosophies.

I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb - I've been hearing a lot about Lamb and Joann at Lakeside Musing recommended this book as one of his best.  It's a chunkster at 900 pages, but I think it will go quickly.

Winter Study, by Nevada Barr - Next in the Anna Pigeon series for me--I'm a few years behind--always a fun read.  I'm heading off on a road trip to 4-5 National Parks in May, so this will get me in the spirit for NP exploring.