MONDAY MEMES: MAILBOX & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — JAN. 17

A WEEK IN READING & BLOGGING

Good morning, and welcome to our Monday Memes, in which we share our thoughts about reading and blogging.

Mailbox Monday is hosted this month by Rose City Reader.

What Are You Reading?  is hosted by Book Journey.

MAILBOX MONDAY:

This week, I received several books via Whispernet (for my Kindle!).

1)  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, has been on my wish list for awhile.  I’ll be reading it for the Awesome Author Challenge.

Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family’s remote island retreat north of Stockholm, nor do fiction debuts hotter than this European bestseller by muckraking Swedish journalist Larsson. At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden’s dirty not-so-little secrets (as suggested by its original title, Men Who Hate Women), this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker.

2)  Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, by Beth Hoffman – another one for the Awesome Author Challenge….

Hoffman’s debut, a by-the-numbers Southern charmer, recounts 12-year-old Cecelia Rose Honeycutt’s recovery from a childhood with her crazy mother, Camille, and cantankerous father, Carl, in 1960s Willoughby, Ohio….

3)  Circling My Mother, by Mary Gordon (a memoir)

Anna Gagliano Gordon, who died in 2002 at the age of 94, was the personification of the culture of the mid-century American Catholic working class. A hard-working single mother – Mary Gordon’s father died when she was still a girl – she managed to hold down a job, dress smartly, raise her daughter on her own, and worship the beauty in life with a surprising joie de vivre….

4)  Getting to Happy, by Terry McMillan (sequel to Waiting to Exhale)

For McMillan fans (and they are legion, given the immense popularity of her novels and film adaptations), the publication of Getting to Happy will be welcome news. The novel is full of the juicy romantic entanglements, family dysfunction, and high drama that readers have come to anticipate….

I’m very anxious to delve into each of these!  Soon….

***

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

This week’s journey has been a busy and productive one.  Here are a few of my favorite blog posts.

Restless Energy

Defensive Characters

ROW 80 Check-In Post

Saturday Snapshot

Exploring the Road Not Taken – A Movie Review

Now for my reading week….Here are Books Read & Reviewed (click title for reviews)

1)  Made in the USA, by Billie Letts

2)  Final Payments, by Mary Gordon

3)  Reading Women, by Stephanie Staal

What’s Up Next?

1)  1022 Evergreen Place, by Debbie Macomber (Amazon Vine Review)

Dear Reader,

Guess what? I’m falling in love! With Mack McAfee.

My baby daughter, Noelle, and I have been living next door to Mack since the spring. I’m still a little wary about our relationship, because I haven’t always made good decisions when it comes to men. My baby’s father, David Rhodes, is testament to that. I’m so worried he might sue for custody.

In the meantime, the World War II letters I found are a wonderful distraction. Both Mack and I are trying to learn what happened to the soldier who wrote them and the woman he loved.

Come by sometime for a glass of iced tea and I’ll show you the letters. Plus I’ll tell you the latest about Grace and Olivia, my brother Linc and his wife, Lori (who tied the knot about five minutes after they met!), and all our other mutual friends. Oh, and maybe Mack can join us….

Mary Jo Wyse

2)  My Formerly Hot Life, by Stephanie Dolgoff (Amazon Vine)

“Remember all those deep and important life transitions going on amongst a group of smart, beautiful women that the last, tepid Sex and  the City movie tried—and failed—to capture? Skip the film; Dolgoff’s got it all in her book, and in a far more genuine way….Dolgoff’s style is energetic, funny, highly engaging, and self-aware….Bottom Line: Whether you’re going through the Formerly transition yourself or looking back on it (or catching hints of it down the road), Dolgoff’s book is a wonderful take on the early 40s….”

3)  Straight Into Darkness, by Faye Kellerman (From my TBR Stacks)

In 1920s Munich, the body of Anna Gross, a young society wife, has been found in the English Gardens, still clothed in finery. Soon a second body is discovered, also a woman of high society. When a third body is found, homicide detective Axel Berg realizes he’s dealing with unprecedented evil….

So that’s it for this week.  I’m excited and looking forward to discovering new adventures within these pages.  What do you have on your list this week?