In My Mailbox #10 - July 10 - 16, 2011 Edition

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren.

The purpose of the meme is to highlight books that you have received in your mailbox over the past week.  So let's see what I got in my mailbox this week!

Sent for Review:

All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann

Purchased:

But I Love Him by Amanda Grace

Falling Under by Gwen Hayes

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

Covet List!

Cov·et

[kuhv-it]

–verb (used with object)

to wish for, especially eagerly: He won the prize they all coveted.

So I have decided to start a new feature for the blog called the Covet List!  This list is going to be comprised of all books, not just YA ones.  These are all books that have recently come across my radar to be added to my collection at some point.  Each of these books will contain all the information I can find on them out there.  Honestly this is what I have been working on for the past week (hence no reviews have been posted).  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think and if I should maybe make this a regular feature!

On to the books...

Title: The Legacy: A Novel

By: Katherine Webb
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Publication Date: August 30, 2011
ISBN: 9780062077301, 0062077309

Price: $14.99/$18.99 Can.

Pages: 496 pages
Format: Paperback / softback

Genre: Fiction / General

A Harper Paperback Original

A haunting debut novel about a secret family history stretching from present-day England to turn-of-the-century America.


Following the death of their grandmother, Erica Calcott and her sister Beth return to Storton Manor, a grand and imposing house in Wiltshire, England, where they spent their summer holidays as children. When Erica begins to sort through her grandmother’s belongings, she is flooded with memories of her childhood—and of her cousin, Henry, whose disappearance from the manor tore the family apart.


Erica sets out to discover what happened to Henry—so that the past can be laid to rest, and her sister, Beth, might finally find some peace. Gradually, as Erica begins to sift through remnants of the past, a secret family history emerges: one that stretches all the way back to Oklahoma in the 1900s, to a beautiful society heiress and a haunting, savage land. As past and present converge, Erica and Beth must come to terms with two terrible acts of betrayal—and the heartbreaking legacy left behind.

Title: Domestic Violets

Author: Matthew Norman
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: August 9, 2011
ISBN: 9780062065117, 0062065114
Price: $14.99/$16.99 Can
Pages: 352 pages
Format: Paperback / softback
Genre: Fiction / General


A Harper Perennial Paperback Original

In the tradition of Jonathan Tropper and Tom Perrotta comes Matthew Norman's darkly comic family drama about love, loss, and ambition.


Tom Violet has failed, once again, to have sex with his wife. And that’s not the worst of it. Besides his latest false start in the bedroom, there’s the 9-5 office job that’s slowly crushing his spirit, his lovelorn stepfather who’s in constant need of counsel, and the strange realization that his boozy stepmother is sort of stalking him. Then, of course, there's his own inappropriate crush on a 23-year-old colleague, the growing suspicion that his wife is having an affair with someone from her gym, and the family dog, Hank, who suffers from acute anxiety.


And then there’s the novel—the one he’s been slaving over for years, all the while haunted by the fear that it will never see the light of day. Too young to have these kinds of problems, but too old to see any easy way out, Tom finds himself mired in hopeless inaction. And then his philandering, borderline-estranged father, Curtis, shows up in the middle of the night and tells him: a) that he’s just been thrown out of his own house by wife #3; b) that he’ll be moving in with Tom for who knows how long; and c) that he’s just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 



Title: The Lantern - A Novel
Author: Deborah Lawrenson
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: August 9, 2011
ISBN: 9780062049698, 0062049690
Price: $25.99/$28.99 Can.
Pages: 400 pages
Format: Hardback
Genre: Fiction / General

Meeting Dom was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me. Drawn to a confident and artistic wealthy older man she barely knows, bookish Eve recklessly embarks on a whirlwind affair that soon offers a new life and a new home—Les Genevriers, a pretty yet decaying hamlet nestled amid the fragrant lavender fields of Provence. Each enchanting day at Les Genevriers delivers happy discoveries: hidden chambers, secret vaults, small treasures—a vase, a rusted iron birdcage, a candle lantern. Entranced by the old farmhouse, deeply in love, surrounded by music, books, and the glorious beauty and heady summer scents of the French countryside, Eve has never felt more alive.


But with autumn’s arrival the days begin to cool—and so too, does Dom. Though Eve knows her lover bears the emotional scars of a previous marriage, he refuses to talk about the past—silence that arouses suspicion and uncertainty. The more reluctant he is to explain, the more Eve becomes obsessed with finding answers—and to unraveling the mystery of his absent, beautiful ex-wife, Rachel.


Like it’s owner, Les Genevriers is also changing. Bright, warm rooms have become cold and uninviting; shadows fall unexpectedly; lights flicker on their own; and Eve senses a presence moving through the garden. Is it a ghost from the past—or a manifestation of her and Dom’s current troubles? Do the eerie winds of the mistral chill her to the bone, or is it fear? Can she trust Dom—or could her life truly be in danger? Eve does not know that Les Genevriers has been haunted before. Benedicte Lincel, the house’s former owner, knew all too well the bitter taste of heartbreak and tragedy—long-buried family secrets and evil deeds that, once unearthed, will hold shocking and unexpected consequences for Eve.


An evocative and sensuous tale of romantic and psychological suspense set against an exquisite landscape, The Lantern is a gripping story of past and present, love and jealousy, secrets and lies, appearances and disappearances that captures our age-old terror of the dark. 

Title: Every Secret Thing
Author: Laura Lippman
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: August 16, 2011
ISBN: 9780062074898, 006207489X
Price: $12.99/$14.99 Can.
Pages: 448 pages
Format: Paperback / softback
Genre: Fiction / Suspense


Two eleven-year-old girls, banished from a summer birthday party, take a wrong turn onto an unfamiliar Baltimore street—and encounter an abandoned stroller with a baby inside. In an instant, dutiful Alice Manning and unpredictable Ronnie Fuller make a disastrous decision that will shatter three families.


Seven years later, Alice and Ronnie again make their way home, separately now, their fragile bond long shattered, yet their secrets still closely kept. If they stay away from each other, they have been promised a fresh start, a past wiped clean.


That promise is broken when another child disappears under disturbingly similar circumstances. And unless Alice, Ronnie, and all the adults involved finally confront ugly truths about the past and their own misguided notions of guilt and innocence, another young life will be lost—and another family irrevocably destroyed. 

So that is it for my covet list this week.  Leave me a comment and let me know if this is a feature you would like to continue!

In My Mailbox #9: July 3 - July 9, 2011 Edition

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren.

The purpose of the meme is to highlight books that you have received in your mailbox over the past week. So this week I went a bit nuts and added a bunch of books that have been on my wishlist for a while to my collection.  Sad part is that I am no where near done, lol!

On to the books...

Moonlight Mile - Dennis Lehane
Dexter by Design  - Jeff Lindsay
Dexter is Delicious - Jeff Lindsay
Shut Up, I'm Talking - Gregory Levey
Long Gone - Alafair Burke (ARC Copy)
Stuff White People Like - Christian Lander
Sacred Hearts - Sarah Dunant
Smile When You're Lying - Chuck Thomspson
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessel
Babycakes - Erin McKenna



What did you get in your mailbox this week?

In My Mailbox # 8: June 26 - July 2, 2011 Edition

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren.

The purpose of the meme is to highlight books that you have received in your mailbox over the past week.  For the books that I received that have not been released yet, I will give you the synopsis of the books and not just the names.

Now that the postal strike is over, I have started getting books again!  I think I may have done a happy dance around my office when I got the first package.

Anyway, on to what I received this week...

1. Philippa Gregory - The Red Queen
2. Maggie Stiefvater - Linger
3. Maggie Stiefvater - Shiver
4. Jay Asher - Thirteen Reasons Why
5. Laurie Halse Anderson - Speak
6. Lauren DeStefano - Wither
7. Tabitha Suzuma - Forbidden
8. Veronica Roth - Divergent

*Notes* So none of these books are new releases, but they have been on my wishlist for sometime and I figured I should make a dent in it.  I am kind of bummed that I didn't get Shiver and Linger in hardcover though.  I am going to the release and signing here in Toronto later this month and the book is going to be in hardcover.  I hate having a mis-matching series.  Drives me nuts.

So that was all I got in terms of books, but I did get something else!


I got a new e-reader.  I already had an Amazon Kindle and I picked up the Kobo touch e-reader this weekend.  Not sure just yet if I am going to keep both or sell one and keep the other.

The kindle is good for PDF format that some of the galleys from NetGalley and the Simon and Schuester Galley Grab come in (provided they are formatted correctly).  The Kobo touch is much better for ePub format than the kindle, but not so good for PDF's.  They don't re-size so they pretty much force you to look at the text in the most minimal size and you think you are going to go blind doing it.

Since I am still figuring out all the ins and outs of the Kobo, I will do an in-depth comparison of the two in a couple of weeks.  Knowing me, I am probably going to get a nook colour and an iPad next.  All in favour of figuring out which one works better for what.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

So that is all I got in my mailbox this week.  Hopefully next week brings more goodies!  What did you get in your mailbox this week?