Welcome to Mailbox Monday!
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.
Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy,
toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
During the past week I've received several wonderful titles...in fact, I'm finding it difficult to choose which to read next!
Nora Webster
A Novel
By Colm Toibin
Scribner
Pub Date Oct 7 2014
Description:
From one of contemporary literature’s bestselling, critically acclaimed
and beloved authors, a magnificent new novel set in Ireland, about a
fiercely compelling young widow and mother of four, navigating grief and
fear, struggling for hope.
Set in Wexford, Ireland, Colm
TóibÃn’s superb seventh novel introduces the formidable, memorable and
deeply moving Nora Webster. Widowed at forty, with four children and not
enough money, Nora has lost the love of her life, Maurice, the man who
rescued her from the stifling world to which she was born. And now she
fears she may be drawn back into it. Wounded, strong-willed, clinging to
secrecy in a tiny community where everyone knows your business, Nora is
drowning in her own sorrow and blind to the suffering of her young
sons, who have lost their father. Yet she has moments of stunning
empathy and kindness, and when she begins to sing again, after decades,
she finds solace, engagement, a haven—herself.
Nora Webster is a masterpiece in character study by a writer at the zenith of his career, “beautiful and daring” (
The New York Times Book Review) and able to “sneak up on readers and capture their imaginations” (
USA TODAY). In Nora Webster, TóibÃn has created a character as iconic, engaging and memorable as Madame Bovary or Hedda Gabler.
Rose of Sarajevo By Ayse Kulin
Amazon Publishing
Pub Date Aug 26 2014
Description:
From the internationally bestselling author of
Last Train to Istanbul.
Ever
since Nimeta was a child, she’d done exactly what was expected of her.
She married a responsible man she met in college, had two children, and
established a busy journalism career—and there was no reason to think
anything would ever change.
Then one day, while reporting on a
protest in Zagreb, Nimeta’s life takes a dramatic turn. Not only does
she lay eyes on a handsome reporter who captures her heart, but a
little-known politician by the name of Slobodan Milosevic delivers a
speech fanning the flames of long-dormant Serbian nationalism. As her
love affair intensifies and political tensions build, Nimeta is forced
to reconsider everything she thought she knew about family, love,
loyalty, and humanity itself. Navigating both the new landscape of her
heart and that of her beloved war-torn city, Nimeta must draw upon her
deepest reserves of inner strength to keep her family safe.
A moving drama set against the backdrop of the crisis that rocked the Balkans in the 1990s,
Rose of Sarajevo reveals the tremendous lengths people will go to in the name of love.
Season of Storms By Susanna Kearsley
Sourcebooks Landmark
Pub Date Sep 2 2014
Description:
A mystery trapped in time...
In 1921, infamous Italian poet
Galeazzo D’Ascanio wrote his last and greatest play, inspired by his
muse and mistress, actress Celia Sands. On the eve of opening night,
Celia vanished, and the play was never performed.
Now, two
generations later, Alessandro D’Ascanio plans to stage his grandfather’s
masterpiece and has offered the lead to a promising young English
actress, also named Celia Sands—at the whim of her actress mother, or so
she has always thought. When Celia arrives at D’Ascanio’s magnificent,
isolated Italian villa, she is drawn to the mystery of her namesake’s
disappearance—and to the compelling, enigmatic Alessandro.
But the
closer Celia gets to learning the first Celia’s fate, the more she is
drawn into a web of murder, passion, and the obsession of genius. Though
she knows she should let go of the past, in the dark, in her dreams, it
comes back…
When Lions Roar
The Churchills and the Kennedys
By Thomas Maier
Crown Publishing
Pub Date Oct 28 2014
Description:
The first comprehensive history of the deeply entwined personal and
public lives of the Churchills and the Kennedys and what their “special
relationship” meant for Great Britain and the United States
When Lions Roar begins
in the mid-1930s at Chartwell, Winston Churchill's country estate, with
new revelations surrounding a secret business deal orchestrated by
Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of future American president John F.
Kennedy. From London to America, these two powerful families shared an
ever-widening circle of friends, lovers, and political associates – soon
shattered by World War II, spying, sexual infidelity, and the tragic
deaths of JFK's sister Kathleen and his older brother Joe Jr. By the
1960s and JFK's presidency, the Churchills and the Kennedys had overcome
their bitter differences and helped to define the “greatness” in each
other.
Acclaimed biographer Thomas Maier tells this dynastic
saga through fathers and their sons – and the remarkable women in their
lives – providing keen insight into the Churchill and Kennedy families
and the profound forces of duty, loyalty, courage and ambition that
shaped them. He explores the seismic impact of Winston Churchill on JFK
and American policy, wrestling anew with the legacy of two titans of the
20th century. Maier also delves deeply into the conflicted bond between
Winston and his son Randolph and the contrasting example of patriarch
Joe Kennedy, a failed politician who successfully channeled his personal
ambitions to his children. By approaching these iconic figures from a
new perspective, Maier not only illuminates the intricacies of this
all-important cross-Atlantic allegiance but also enriches our
understanding of the tumultuous time in which they lived and the world
events they so greatly influenced.
With deeply human portraits of these flawed but larger-than-life figures,
When Lions Roar
explores the “special relationship” between the Churchills and
Kennedys, and between Great Britain and the United States, highlighting
all of its emotional complexity and historic significance.
