Mailbox Monday

This month's Monday Mailbox is being hosted by Gwendolyn at A Sea of Books. 

Caveat: Monday Mailbox can lead to an exponentially exploding TBR list.  Here's what showed up in the past week chez moi:

Paperback, 592 pages
Published August 6th 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (first published 1995) ISBN0006512070 (ISBN13: 9780006512073)

This was sent to me by the ever-so-wonderful Staci of Life in the Thumb. Thanks a million, Staci! I'm looking forward to reading it.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

The gripping new suspense story by the bestselling author of LADY OF HAY and ON THE EDGE OF DARKNESS, is set in richly mysterious Egypt, where past and present elide. Recently divorced, Anna Coburn decides to cheer herself up by retracing a journey her great grandmother made in the nineteenth century: a Nile cruise from Luxor to the Valley of the Kings. Anna carries with her on the voyage two mementoes of her great-grandmother Louisa: an ancient Egyptian scent bottle, and the diary of that original Nile cruise, which has lain unread for a hundred years. As she follows in Louisa's footsteps, Anna discovers in the diary the chilling secret of the scent bottle and is pursued by the same terrifying spectres as her great grandmother.

Paperback, 478 pages
Published May 11th 2011 by Allison & Busby (first published April 15th 2011)
ISBN0749009519 (ISBN13: 9780749009519)
primary languageEnglish

A review copy was received from Sourcebooks for review in October.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Eva's film star sister Katrina dies, she leaves California and returns to Cornwall, where they spent their childhood summers, to scatter Katrina's ashes and in doing so return her to the place where she belongs. But Eva must also confront the ghosts from her own past, as well as those from a time long before her own. For the house where she so often stayed as a child is home not only to her old friends the Halletts, but also to the people who had lived there in the eighteenth century. When Eva finally accepts that she is able to slip between centuries and see and talk to the inhabitants from hundreds of years ago, she soon finds herself falling for Daniel Butler, a man who lived - and died - long before she herself was born. Eva begins to question her place in the present, and in laying her sister to rest, comes to realise that she too must decide where she really belongs, choosing between the life she knows and the past she feels so drawn towards.

288 pages

Expected publication: September 13th 2011 by Atria Books

ISBN1416575758 (ISBN13: 9781416575757)

 primary languageEnglish

 
A copy of the book was received from Atria.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In bestselling author Lisa Tucker’s latest, a family discovers that it’s only when the walls between the present and past crumble that the future can bloom.

Together for over a decade, Kyra and David Winter are happier than they ever thought they could be. They have a comfortable home, stable careers, and a young son, Michael, who they love more than anything. Yet because of their complicated histories, Kyra and David have always feared that this domestic bliss couldn’t last - that the life they created was destined to be disrupted. And on one perfectly average summer day, it is: Michael disappears from his own backyard.

The only question is whose past has finally caught up with them: David feels sure that Michael was taken by his troubled ex-wife, while Kyra believes the kidnapper must be someone from her estranged family, someone she betrayed years ago.

As the Winters embark on a journey of time and memory to find Michael, they will be forced to admit these suspicions, revealing secrets about themselves they’ve always kept hidden. But they will also have a chance to discover that it’s not too late to have the family they’ve dreamed of; that even if the world is full of risks, as long as they have hope, the future can bloom.

Lyrical, wise, and witty, The Winters in Bloom is Lisa Tucker’s most optimistic work to date. This enchanting, life-affirming story will charm readers and leave them full of wonder at the stubborn strength of the human heart.