MONDAY MEMES: MAILBOX & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — MAY 2

MONDAY MEMES

Welcome to our first Monday Memes in May.  This month, Mailbox Monday is hosted by MariReads.

What Are You Reading? is hosted by Book Journey.

MAILBOX MONDAY:

This week, I received 3 books in the mail (1 review book) and downloaded one on Sparky, my Kindle.

1.  The Magnolia League, by Katie Crouch (bought on Amazon)

When her free-spirited mother dies in a tragic accident, sixteen-year-old Alexandria Lee is forced to leave her West Coast home and move in with a wealthy grandmother she’s never known in Savannah, Georgia. By birth, Alex is a rightful if unwilling member of the Magnolia League-Savannah’s long-standing debutante society. But white gloves and silk gowns are a far cry from the vintage t-shirts and torn jeans shorts she’s used to.

Alex is the first in decades to question the Magnolia League’s intentions, yet even she becomes entangled in their seductive world. The members enjoy youth, beauty and power…but at what cost? As Alex discovers a pact between the Magnolias and the Buzzards, a legendary hoodoo family, she discovers secrets-some deadly-hidden beneath the glossy Southern veneer….

2.  The Violets of March, by Sarah Jio

In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after.

Ten years later, the tide has turned on Emily’s good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life….

3.  The Ghost of Greenwich Village, by Lorna Graham (Amazon Vine)

In this charming fiction debut, a young woman moves to Manhattan in search of romance and excitement—only to find that her apartment is haunted by the ghost of a cantankerous Beat Generation writer in need of a rather huge favor.

4.  Townie, by Andre Dubus III (e-book)

Long before he became the highly acclaimed author of House of Sand and Fog, Dubus shuffled and punched his way through a childhood and youth full of dysfunction, desperation, and determination. Just after he turned 12, Dubus’s family fell rapidly into shambles after his father–the prominent writer Andre Dubus–not only left his wife for a younger woman but also left the family in distressing poverty on the violent and drug-infested side of their Massachusetts mill town. For a few years, Dubus escaped into drugs, embracing the apathetic “no-way-out” attitude of his friends. After having his bike stolen, being slapped around by some of the town’s bullies, and watching his brother and mother humiliated by some of the town’s thugs, Dubus started lifting weights at home and boxing at the local gym. Modeling himself on the Walking Tall sheriff, Buford Pusser, Dubus paid back acts of physical violence with physical violence. Ultimately, he decided to take up his pen and write his way up from the bottom and into a new relationship with his father….

That’s it for this week!

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WHAT ARE YOU READING?

This past week has been busy with blogging and reading adventures.  Here are some of my posts, in case you missed them:

Q & A with Author Wendy Wax

Interview with Author Alretha Thomas

An Unexpected Guest – An Excerpt

The Essence of the Whirlwind – An Excerpt

Saturday Snapshot – Moments in Time

April Reading Wrap-Up

Books Read & Reviewed-Click Titles for Reviews:

1.  Ten Beach Road, by Wendy Wax

2.  Friday’s Daughter, by Patricia Sprinkle

3.  Old Loves Die Hard, by Lauren Carr

Currently Reading:

Tapestry of Love, by Rosy Thornton

Domestic Pleasures, by Beth Gutcheon

What’s Up Next?

1.  I’ll Walk Alone, by Mary Higgins Clark

In I ll Walk Alone, Alexandra “Zan” Moreland, a gifted, beautiful interior designer on the threshold of a successful Manhattan career, is terrified to discover that somebody is not only using her credit cards and manipulating her financial accounts to bankrupt her and destroy her reputation, but may also be impersonating her in a scheme that may involve the much more brutal crimes of kidnapping and murder. Zan is already haunted by the disappearance of her own son, Matthew, kidnapped in broad daylight two years ago in Central Park—a tragedy that has left her torn between hope and despair.

2.  Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson

In her witty and wise debut novel, newcomer Helen Simonson introduces the unforgettable character of the widower Major Ernest Pettigrew.  The Major epitomizes the Englishman with the “stiff upper lip,” who clings to traditional values and has tried (in vain) to pass these along to his yuppie son, Roger. The story centers around Pettigrew’s fight to keep his greedy relatives (including his son) from selling a valuable family heirloom–a pair of hunting rifles that symbolizes much of what he stands for, or at least what he thinks he does….

3.  Getting to Happy (e-book), by Terry McMillan

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….

So that’s my week!  I hope you will stop by and share your own tidbits about the week (and the month of April!)…..