Sunday, December 16, 2012

Monday Mailbox




This is where we spotlight the books that came to our home in the last week. Caveat:  Mailbox Monday can cause your TBR pile to increase exponentially.December's host is Suko's Notebook.



From Harper Collins

Hardcover, 336 pages
Expected publication: January 2nd 2013 by Harper (first published April 24th 2012)

ISBN: 0062209841 (ISBN13: 9780062209849)
edition language: English


A riveting, brilliantly written debut novel-a coming-of-age story with the strong voice and powerful resonance of Swamplandia! and The Secret Life of Bees-in which two young sisters attempt to hold the world at bay after the mysterious death of their parents.

Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved.

Marnie and her little sister Nelly are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren't telling. While life in Glasgow's Hazlehurst housing estate isn't grand, they do have each other. Besides, it's only one year until Marnie will be considered an adult and can legally take care of them both.

As the new year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next door, realizes that his young neighbors are alone and need his help. Or does he need theirs? But he's not the only one who suspects something isn't right. Soon, the sisters' friends, their other neighbors, the authorities, and even Gene's nosy drug dealer begin to ask questions. As one lie leads to another, dark secrets about the girls' family surface, creating complications that threaten to tear them apart.

Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.



 
Received from Crown


Hardcover, 352 pages
Expected publication: January 22nd 2013 by Crown

ISBN: 0307590437 (ISBN13: 9780307590435)
edition language: English
 
Six marriages, six heartbreaks, one shared beginning.

In her forties – a widow, too young, too modern to accept the role – Becky Aikman struggled to make sense of her place in an altered world. In this transcendent and infectiously wise memoir, she explores surprising new discoveries about how people experience grief and transcend loss and, following her own remarriage, forms a group with five other young widows to test these unconventional ideas. Together, these friends summon the humor, resilience, and striving spirit essential for anyone overcoming adversity.

Meet the Saturday Night Widows: ringleader Becky, an unsentimental journalist who lost her husband to cancer; Tara, a polished mother of two, whose husband died in the throes of alcoholism after she filed for divorce; Denise, a widow of just five months, now struggling to get by; Marcia, a hard-driving corporate lawyer; Dawn, an alluring self-made entrepreneur whose husband was killed in a sporting accident, leaving two small children behind; and Lesley, a housewife who returned home one day to find that her husband had committed suicide.

The women meet once a month, and over the course of a year, they strike out on ever more far-flung adventures, learning to live past the worst thing they thought could happen. They share emotional peaks and valleys – dating, parenting, moving, finding meaningful work, and reinventing themselves – while turning traditional thinking about loss and recovery upside down. Through it all runs the story of Aikman's own journey through grief and her love affair with a man who tempts her to marry again. In a transporting story of what friends can achieve when they hold each other up, Saturday Night Widows is a rare book that will make you laugh, think, and remind yourself that despite the utter unpredictability and occasional tragedy of life, it is also precious, fragile, and often more joyous than we recognize.

 
That's it for this week. What showed up in your mailbox?
 


19 comments:

  1. I've seen the first book on several other blogs. The story sounds like a powerful one. Enjoy your reading week!

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  2. Saturday Night Widows is on a lot of lists today. Hope you love it!

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  3. I enjoyed The Death of Bees...and Saturday Night Widows looks wonderful. Enjoy!

    Here's MY MONDAY MEMES POST

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  4. Saturday Night Widows is a title that sounds interesting. Have a great reading week...

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  5. I've seen Death of Bees on several blogs this week. Enjoy both your reads.

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  6. Enjoy your new books!

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  7. Cute little mailbox penguin! The Death of Bees does look terrific. Looking forward to reading it. Saturday Night Widows is brightening a lot of mailboxes this week too. Happy reading!

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  8. I've seen these books around today, they sound great.

    http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/12/mailbox-monday_17.html

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  9. I've also seen these books "making the rounds" this morning. Enjoy them!

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  10. (P.S. Your Santa penguins are too cute!)

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  11. Both books sound really good! I'm adding them to my TBR list.
    Here's my MM

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  12. New authors to me in your post today!! Very cool as I will enjoy reading your thoughts on them and probably adding them to my list of books to blame on you!!

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  13. They both look good! Happy reading!

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  14. I received Saturday Night Widows too. :) ENJOY!!!

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My Mailbox Monday

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  15. I've seen Saturday Night Widows on a lot of MM posts. It looks good. Enjoy!
    2 Kids and Tired Books MM

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  16. I think I'm the only one who hasn't received a copy of Death of Bees! I can't wait to see what everyone thinks of it.

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  17. I got a copy of Saturday Night Widows too...we will see...

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