Mailbox Monday - Feb 20th

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house recently, but here's a warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists!

Created by Marcia at The Printed Page, Mailbox Monday, now has its own blog. Hosting duties are rotated every month.  This month one of my favorite blogs Metroreader: Reading One Mile at a Time has the hosting honors.  Be sure to stop by and discover a new and wondrous (for me anyway) addition to your blog roll and take a look at everyone's Mailbox lists.

My mailbox this week delivered an eclectic assortment.  I finally got a highly readable publication copy of Juliette Gordon Low : the remarkable founder of the Girl Scouts by Stacy A. Cordery which I reviewed yesterday.

Then I won a contest for a copy of a young adult book by Barry Hoffman.  Thanks Edge Books.  I'm going to read this one so I can hopefully recommend and pass it on to my granddaughter:

 The first of three books in the series, the blurb promises us

"When the peaceful and isolated land of the Shamra is invaded and its people enslaved, a young Shamra girl named Dara must lead a ragtag resistance to defeat the enemy.  But even as she fights the invaders, Dara grapples with self-doubt and is criticized by her own people for being outspoken and different.

Venturing into uncharted territory to seek allies, Dara encounters unusual creatures and dangerous lands.  But is her rebellious spirit enough to help her overcome the patriarchal and oppressive rules of her own people and convince them that she is the only hope the Shamra have to regain their freedom?

I'm not a big fantasy fan, but young ones are these days, so I'm going to try to expand my reading horizons with this one.  I do like strong female characters, and this certainly promises to deliver.
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The Good Father ARC arrived unsolicited from Doubleday this week.  All I had to do was read the publisher's write-up to land this one on the "read very soon"pile.

As the Chief of Rheumatology at Columbia Presbyterian, Dr. Paul Allen's specialty is diagnosing patients with conflicting symptoms, patients other doctors have given up on. He lives a contented life in Westport with his second wife and their twin sons—hard won after a failed marriage earlier in his career that produced a son named Daniel. In the harrowing opening scene of this provocative and affecting novel, Dr. Allen is home with his family when a televised news report announces that the Democratic candidate for president has been shot at a rally, and Daniel is caught on video as the assassin. 
    
Daniel Allen has always been a good kid—a decent student, popular—but, as a child of divorce, used to shuttling back and forth between parents, he is also something of a drifter. Which may be why, at the age of nineteen, he quietly drops out of Vassar and begins an aimless journey across the United States, during which he sheds his former skin and eventually even changes his name to Carter Allen Cash.
    
Told alternately from the point of view of the guilt-ridden, determined father and his meandering, ruminative son, The Good Father is a powerfully emotional page-turner that keeps one guessing until the very end. This is an absorbing and honest novel about the responsibilities—and limitations—of being a parent and our capacity to provide our children with unconditional love in the face of an unthinkable situation.

 Can't you see why I'm itching to get to this one?
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And finally, our local DownEast publishing sent me the perfect little volume to lighten up all the heavy heavy reading I've been doing this month. Cartoons From Maine, by Jeff Pert is not terribly intellectual, not quite politically incorrect, but certainly pokes fun at stereotypes.  Just the thing to remind us not to take ourselves too seriously.

Several of these cartoons are actually residing on my refrigerator as magnets.  We have a "Bob" in the Tutu household, and Bob takes a bit of ribbing whenever lobsters appear in the kitchen.  You can see some of Jeff Pert's work at entertainyamania.com. I'm particularly fond of his "Women Who Behave rarely make History."

Nuff said.......back to reading.  Enjoy your week.