Mailbox Monday

It's Mailbox Monday, a fun weekly meme, begun by Marcia at The Printed Page. Mailbox Monday is touring through blogs in the upcoming months. In August it will be hosted by Chick Loves Lit.   Just as the post office or mailbox is a place to gather to share the news, this gives readers  a chance to share the books that came into their house last week.  This has been a bonanza week for Tutu.  My daily trek to the Post Office proved well worth it.  Here are the four I got:

The Good Psychologist

By Noam Shpancer

 An ARC from Henry Holt and Company - due out this month.  I saw this one on Shelf Awareness last week, and am anxious to be among the first to read this on.

Noam Shpancer's stunning debut novel opens as a psychologist reluctantly takes on a new client—an exotic dancer whose severe anxiety is keeping her from the stage. The psychologist, a solitary professional who also teaches a lively night class, helps the client confront her fears. But as treatment unfolds, her struggles and secrets begin to radiate onto his life, upsetting the precarious balance in his unresolved relationship with Nina, a married former colleague with whom he has a child—a child he has never met. As the shell of his detachment begins to crack, he suddenly finds himself too deeply involved, the boundary lines between professional and personal, between help and harm, blurring dangerously.
With its wonderfully distinctive narrative voice, rich with humor and humanity, The Good Psychologist leads the reader on a journey into the heart of the therapy process and beyond, examining some of the fundamental questions of the soul: to move or be still; to defy or obey; to let go or hold on.

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 Keep the Change:

A Clueless Tipper's Quest to Become the Guru of the Gratuity

by Steve Dublanica

published by ECCO imprint of Harper Collins pub date 11/2010

Another interesting pitch from Shelf Awareness got me interested in this.  Thanks to Rachel Bressler, the publicist at ECCO for the ARC.  Her blurb:

For the many fans of Steve Dublanica's debut, the New York Times bestselling Waiter Rant, KEEP THE CHANGE is a natural foll up with all of the humor, wry observation and flat out honesty Steve's writing has come to be known for.  In this book he turns his sights on a subject rife with secrecy, confusion and general nervousness -- tipping.

In America, more than 5 million workers depend on tips to make a living, and Americans spend $66 billion dollars in tips each year.  That's right - billions. But who feels comfortable when it's time to leave a tip, and who knows how much is enough, not enough, or too much?  Dublanica aims to assuage all fears in his quest to become (as he calls it) The Guru of Gratuity.

I read the first 10 pages (the prologue) and I'm gasping for breath I'm laughing so hard.  This one is definitely going into the "read it quick" pile.  I know I'm going to love it!
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Eighteen Acres 

by

Nicole Wallace

This is an ARC I received from the Atria Galley Grab, pub date Oct 19,2010.  From the back cover:

To the world, it is simply know as "The White House."  To the staff who regularly clock twelve to fifteen hours a day there, it's the "Eighteen Acres"....Melanie Kingston, the White House Chief of Staff; Dale Smith, White House Correspondent, and Charlotte Kramer, the nations' 45th President, have made it to the top only to see all the accomplishments jeopardized by deception, infidelity, and one tragic mistake.  At the moment that the White House should have been securing the President's re-election, Kramer's administration implodes under rumors of her husband's secret love affair and a grave error of judgment on the part of her closest national security advisor....

After spending....five and a half (years) working in the White House, Nicolle Wallace is uniquely qualified to have written Eighteen Acres.....not just a story of a presidency, it is a study of a family, of relationships conducted under the bright lights of fame, and of the corrupting influences of ultimate power.

 I love political novels, and can't wait to get started on this one.  Thanks to ECCO for the ARC.
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and finally................how fun................an audio book I won in one of Bookin With Bingo's many giveaways.  Be sure to click her button over on the left hand side bar to enter and win something on your own.  I got

BackSeat Saints

by

Joshilyn Jackson

I really enjoyed Jackson's Gods in Alabama, and I understand that one of the main characters in this one was introduced back then.  I loved her then and really can't wait to get to know her better in this one.  It is going to be the perfect book to listen to as I sit on the beach for three days in Ocean City, MD watching my granddaughter dig sand castles.  I can't wait.

Many, many thank you's to Karen (aka Bingo).

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