Mailbox Monday - May 14th

Oh ....if you only get one book in your mailbox, and it arrives on your birthday, there is no other book I'd rather get than a signed ARC of Louise Penny's The Beautiful Mystery the next Chief Inspector Gamache Novel.   I won this one in a contest on Louise's newsletter, and am absolutely thrilled to get it.  I can't wait to read it.  Thank you Louise for making it a perfect birthday! A perfect fit for my May Murder and Mayhem reading, although I may not post the review until closer to the pub date of August 28, 2012.  Here's the publisher's blurb:

The brilliant new novel in the New York Times bestselling series by one of the most acclaimed crime writers of our time 

 No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. They grow vegetables, they tend chickens, they make chocolate. And they sing. Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as “the beautiful mystery.”

But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock on the monastery’s massive wooden door is drawn back to admit Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec. There they discover disquiet beneath the silence, discord in the apparent harmony. One of the brothers, in this life of  prayer and contemplation, has been contemplating murder. As the peace of the monastery crumbles, Gamache is forced to confront some of his own demons, as well as those roaming the remote corridors. Before finding the killer, before restoring peace, the Chief must first consider the divine, the human, and the cracks in between. 

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Then I got a book that arrived in my Nook Mailbox that was a birthday treat to myself.  Just released this past week,  The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer is the 2nd in the Clifton Chronicles.  I read and reviewed the first one Only Time Will Tell, last year and have been hanging on the cliff since then waiting to see what was going to happen to Harry.  As soon as I finish the Inspector Gamache, this one is next in the queue.  In the meantime, here are some publisher words to whet your interest:

On the heels of the international bestseller Only Time Will Tell, Jeffrey Archer picks up the sweeping story of the Clifton Chronicles….

Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry Clifton, hoping to escape the consequences of long-buried family secrets, and forced to accept that his desire to marry Emma Barrington will never be fulfilled, has joined the Merchant Navy.  But his ship is sunk in the Atlantic by a German U-boat, drowning almost the entire crew.  An American cruise liner, the SS Kansas Star, rescues a handful of sailors, among them Harry and the third officer, an American named Tom Bradshaw.  When Bradshaw dies in the night, Harry seizes on the chance to escape his tangled past and assumes his identity.

But on landing in America, he quickly learns the mistake he has made, when he discovers what is awaiting Bradshaw in New York.  Without any way of proving his true identity, Harry Clifton is now chained to a past that could be far worse than the one he had hoped to escape.

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 the host blog is Martha at Martha's Bookshelf.  If you haven't dropped by to visit her, be sure to pop in and let us all know what's in your mailbox this week.