MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — FEB. 27

Welcome to another Monday from the Interior, in which we share about the books we received in the mail (or bought), and talk about our bookish week, past and future.

Mailbox Monday is hosted this month by Metroreader; and Sheila’s Book Journey leads us in What Are You Reading?

MAILBOX MONDAY:

This week, I received one book as a contest win; two review books from Amazon Vine; and downloaded an e-book.

1.  The Girl in the Garden, by Kamala Nair (From Quirky Girls Read)

The redemptive journey of a young woman unsure of her engagement, who revisits in memory the events of one scorching childhood summer when her beautiful yet troubled mother spirits her away from her home to an Indian village untouched by time, where she discovers in the jungle behind her ancestral house a spellbinding garden that harbors a terrifying secret.

2.  Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, by Anna Quindlen (Vine)

In this irresistible memoir, the #1 New York Times bestselling author writes about her life and the lives of women today, looking back and ahead—and celebrating it all—as she considers marriage, girlfriends, our mothers, faith, loss, all that stuff in our closets, and more.

It’s odd when I think of the arc of my life, from child to young woman to aging adult. First I was who I was. Then I didn’t know who I was. Then I invented someone, and became her. Then I began to like what I’d invented. And finally I was what I was again.
 
It turned out I wasn’t alone in that particular progression.

3.  Gossip, by Beth Gutcheon (Vine)

“Did you know that the origin of the word gossip in English is ‘god-sibling’? It’s the talk between people who are godparents to the same child, people who have a legitimate loving interest in the person they talk about. It’s talk that weaves a net of support and connection beneath the people you want to protect.”

Loviah “Lovie” French owns a small, high-end dress shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Renowned for her taste and discretion, Lovie is the one to whom certain women turn when they need “just the thing” for major life events—baptisms and balls, weddings and funerals—or when they just want to dish in the dressing room. Among the people who depend on Lovie’s confidence are her two best friends since boarding school: Dinah Wainwright and Avis Metcalf.

Outspoken and brimming with confidence, Dinah made a name for herself as a columnist covering the doings of New York’s wealthiest and most fabulous. Shy, proper Avis, in many ways Dinah’s opposite, rose to prominence in the art world with her quiet manners, hard work, and precise judgment. Despite the deep affection they both feel for Lovie, they have been more or less allergic to each other since a minor incident decades earlier that has been remembered and resented with what will prove to be unimaginable consequences.

These uneasy acquaintances become unwillingly bound to each other when Dinah’s favorite son and Avis’s only daughter fall in love and marry. On the surface, Nick and Grace are the perfect match—a playful, romantic, buoyant, and beautiful pair. But their commitment will be strained by time and change: career setbacks, reckless choices, the birth of a child, jealousies, and rumor. At the center of their orbit is Lovie, who knows everyone’s secrets and manages them as wisely as she can. Which is not wisely enough, as things turn out—a fact that will have a shattering effect on all their lives.

An astute chronicler of everything that makes us human, Beth Gutcheon delivers her most powerful and emotionally devastating novel to date. Gossip is a tale of intimacy and betrayal, trust and fidelity, friendship, competition, and motherhood that explores the myriad ways we use and abuse “information” about others—be it true, false, or imagined—to sustain, and occasionally destroy, one another.

4.  Witch Woman (e-book), by Jeanette Baker

In two different centuries, four hundred years apart, the lives of Abigail March and her daughter, Maggie, play out along parallel lines, both women blessed and cursed by a selective birthright and marked with a startling mutation, heterochromia iridium, one brown eye, the other blue.

In 1692 Abigail and three-year-old Maggie, are accused of witchcraft. Most women who found themselves facing the hangman’s noose during this shameful time are innocent. Abigail is not. Summoning her powers, she sends her child through a time portal into twentieth century Salem.

Maggie grows to maturity knowing nothing of her birthright until her foster mother’s death bed confession. Using her clairvoyant abilities and the medium of an ancient spinning wheel, she resurrects her past through a series of troubling dreams.
Meanwhile Abigail locates the time portal and slips through, changing her identity, hoping to find her child and bring her home through the narrowing portal.

Unknown to both women are the dangers of the old world’s dark forces, a swiftly narrowing time portal, and a missing child who desperately needs Maggie’s “sight” a sight that continues to blur as her ties to old Salem strengthen.

***

And that’s my exciting mailbox.  What did you receive?

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Welcome to My Thoughts From the Interior, where I join in with the rest of you to celebrate the reading, blogging, and writing week.  As we share our interior world, we may ignite a spark that connects us.

On Tuesday, I mused about spring in Tuesday Potpourri:  Signs of Spring; on Wednesday, I hopped over to one of my writing blogs to excerpt from Defining Moments in  Retreat from Reality:  A Crisis.

Some Bookish Treasures followed at Story Corner; and in a moment of whimsy, I wrote “Snow” Stories.

Yesterday was a mixed bag of chores, errands, and rewards; find out more:   It’s Mimosa Time:  A Saturday Treat.

I summed up the weekend with Weekend Potpourri – Creative Expressions.

Reviews: (Click Titles)

1.  Started Early, Took My Dog, by Kate Atkinson

2.  Rogue, by Danielle Steel

3.   Whole Latte Life, by Joanne DeMaio (Review will be up 4/4/12 at Rainy Days and Mondays – blog tour).

4. Twenty-Five Years Ago Today (e-book), by Stacy Juba

 

What’s Up Next? (Click Titles or Photos for More Info)

1.  7th Heaven, by James Patterson

2.  Marilyn Monroe, by Barbara Leaming

3.  Unbroken, by Jamie Lisa Forbes (Review Book – Blog Tour)

***

If I finish all of these, I may start reading Alice in Bed, by Cathleen Schine.

***

What are the rest of you reading, blogging, and writing about?  Come on by and let’s chat about our week.