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Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia.
I received two ARCs in my mailbox:
1) Daughters of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt
2) The Girl Made of Cool by Alan Fox
Are your bookshelves strictly books only? Or have knick-knacks invaded? Do your shelves also shelve DVDs? Photos? 
Unmentionables by Beth Ann Fennelly
Synopsis (Amazon.com)
A pretty babysitter’s boyfriend gives a young, nightgown-clad girl in her charge a ride on his motorcycle, thus igniting the wild heart of a poet. Or so Fennelly describes in a poem titled “When Did You Know You Wanted to Be a Writer?” Insouciant, sexy, funny, and dead-on, Fennelly crafts perfectly metered lines and quick-turn stanzas steeped in the blues and rock and roll in which she riffs on sights, sounds, and moments at once ordinary and suffused with implication.
I know, I know! I am late but it is never to late to join in the bloggiesta fun! Hosted by Natasha of Maw books, it lets us do everything that has to do with blogging!
What are my plans? I am going to list only a few:
1) Catch up with my 2009 reviews. I have too many books lined up for that.
2) Schedule posts for the weekly memes
3) I have been kind of lax in visiting/commenting. Will try catching up.
4) Try to streamline my google reader. I have too many in there, whom I never ever read!
5) Anything else that makes my blog, reader friendly! Any suggestions?
I wish luck to all the other participants. Have fun with your bloggiesta postings!
What books did you get for Christmas (or whichever holiday you may have celebrated last month). Do you usually ask for books on gift-giving occasions or do you prefer to buy them yourself?
TItle: The Valentine Legacy
Author: Catherine Coulter
ISBN: 0515118362
Publisher: Jove Books/1996
Pages: 406
Book Blurb
In the early 1820s, horse racing was a down and dirty sport. James Wyndham, who owns racing stables in both England and America, finds his racing nemesis in red-haired Jessie Warfield, renowned hoyden and champion jockey, who knows as many dirty racing tricks as James does. When either wins a race, the other's nose gets rubbed in the dirt.
Jessie has known James for six years, since she was fourteen years old. She often wants to kick him for the way he treats her, but more importantly, she adores him. She just doesn't know how to show it.
When chance throws Jessie out of a tree, landing her on top of James, she is pronounced Ruined. When she decided to run, she really goes for it, all the way to England, to James's cousins Marcus and Duchess Wyndham...James arrives, laden with guilt, to find a Jessie who sounds like the old Jessie but isn't. Jessie has undergone a transformation worthy of Pygmallion.
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A female jockey in historical settings does make an interesting read, what with weird set of characters and a pirate's wisdom thrown in at good measure. The hero and the heroine are well suited. I liked the sparring conversation and als those other characters who are bent on getting them married. The book did drag in the middle a bit and that can be set right by skipping those pages. A good one time satisfying romance.
"Do you belive in...past lives?"
She's waited a week to get the gumption to ask him, but now she's home guessing.
Title: Saving Cicadas
Author: Nicole Seitz
ISBN: 9781595545039
Publisher: Thomas Nelson/2009
Pages: 320
A mother starts a journey along with her two daughthers, Rainey, 17 years and a special need child and Janie, 8 years old. Priscilla is again expecting a child and doesn't know where she is going. other than looking for Janie's father Harlan Bradfield, who left them one day on his motorcycle. Her parents seem to disapprove of her ways and she has some issues with them. She loves Rainey to distraction at the expense of her other child. Janie is attuned to her thoughts and doesn't really mind much. Janie is unaware of who is and what role Mona, her grand mother plays in her life. Priscilla Lynn Macy reaches her family home in Forest Pines, S.C. There they find family secrets, ghosts of the past and so much more that explains Priscilla's behaviour and her compulsion. There she takes a decision, which might affect everyone, including her daughters.
Told in alternate chapters from the view points of Janie and Mona, the story moves forward very well. Mona loves Janie and yet doesn't show it much. The mystery pf their love-hate relationship is retained till the end and comes as surprise. This is a book about difficult choices, its effect on everyone in the family and also about letting go, which is one of the most difficult thing in life. Anyone's life.
As we all know saving the cicadas is not easy but we can try. Thanks to Thomas Nelson for my copy!
Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia.
I received two books in my mailbox and bought one:
1) Leaving Yesterday by Kathryn Cushman
As a police officer arrives on the doorstep of Alisa Stewart's home, she fears that her only living son, Kurt, has been killed in the course of his dark lifestyle, living on the streets and using drugs. Her terror is calmed when she learns her son is only needed for an investigation into the beating death of a local dealer, and she's further assuaged when Kurt himself calls to say he is now in rehab. Latching onto this unexpected and desperately needed ray of hope, Alisa is deceived by her own optimism. As past secrets are revealed, she is forced to consider justice and mercy's conflicting demands. Though Kurt's struggle dominates the novel, Alisa faces additional personal crises— her husband threatens divorce and she's tempted by the possibility of an affair. The number of crises facing her is overwhelming and at times distracts from the power of the central conflict.
2) Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Pineiro
Mick Carrera is a mercenary and an expert at capturing elusive, clever prey. Yet the woman he’s hunting down is far from the vicious killer he’s been told to expect: Caterina is wounded, vulnerable, and a startling mystery of medical science. Even more, she’s a beautiful woman whose innocent sensuality tempts Mick to show her exactly how thrilling pleasure can be. The heat that builds between them is irresistible, but surrendering to it could kill them both . . . for a dangerous group is plotting its next move using Caterina as its deadly pawn.
3) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (Graphic Novel):
I bought it. I already own the novel. I wanted to check out the graphic version.
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With the New Year here already, do you have any reading resolutions or goals (challenges aside) for 2010? Perhaps a new author? Genre? Want to read more non-fiction? Write more reviews?After a long time I got back to read Thrillers/Supense/Mystery books. I rediscovered the thrill again and will continue with it for as long as I can. Do check out my reviews by clicking on the titles. I will go backwards for it from December to Jan. I will star the books I liked best:
1) The Undertaker's Widow by Phillip M. Margolin
2) Cold Skin by Steven Herrick*
3) 72 Virgins by Avi Perry
4) The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
5) The Secret Hour by Luanne Rice
6) The Sister Pact by Cami Checkett
7) Nightshade by John Saul*
8) Deep Freeze by Lisa Jackson
9) Wait Until Twilight by Sang Pak**
10) Faces In The Fire by T. L. Hines**
11) The Reincarnationist by M J Rose*
12) Best Intentions by Emily Listfield
13) Prince Rupert's Teardrops by Lisa Glass*
14) Kill For Me by Karen Rose*
15) Tommy Gun Tango by Brant Randall/Bruce Cook
16) One Scream Away by Kate Brady
17) A World I Never Made by James Lepore
18) Baby Shark by Robert Fate
19) The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson*
20) The Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill
21) Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill
22) In the Shadow Of the Glacier by Vicki Delany
23) Chinatown Angel by A. E. Roman
24) the rivers run dry by Sibella Giorello*
25) Six Seconds by Rick Mofina*
26) Disco of the Departed by Colin Cotterill
27) The Curse of the Holy Pail by Sue Ann Jaffarian
28) Frantic by Katherine Howell*
29) Long After Midnight by Iris Johanson
30) Fiction by Ara 13
31) Blood Harvest by Brant Randall
32) Dante's Inferno by Sarah Lovett*
33) The Unseen by T. L. Hines**
34) Fault Line by Barry Eisler*
Wow! I read a lot! I like that.
2009 was a good poetry reading year. Except for Carl Sandburg, the others were new to me poets and I truly loved to read the varied shades of it. I like to explore poetry in any form. Only in poetry you can say a lot in fewer words. It contains the world!
I read the following poetry books in 2009:
A Climb Through Altered Landscapes by Ian Parks
Mainline to the heart and other poems by Clive Matson
Magdalene and the Mermaids by Elizabeth Kate Switaj
A House of Bottles by Robin Merrill
Selected Poems of Carl Sandburg
Judah's Lion by Anne Caston
I plan to read the following in 2010
1) Selected Poems by Robert Lowell (1917-1977)
2) Renascence and Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950)
3) Thirst: poems By Mary Oliver
4) Becoming The Villainess by Jeannine Hall Gaily
5) At the Threshold of Alchemy by John Amen
6 Poetic Musings of an Old, Fat Man by Harry E. Gilleland, Jr.
7) Slamming Open The Door by Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno
This is the first post of 2010. Foremost I wish everyone a Very Happy Book-filled 2010. May you all read very good books and to your heart's content!
Happy New Year to you all!
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As I love poetry (I write it and post it on my other blog, rooted), it's no surprise that the first post is a poetry book as my friday find.
Unrest by Joanna Rawson
Product Description from amazon
The sky threatens to answer a prayer but then won't.
It is not exactly our own minds we go out of.
-from "The Insurgency"
