The Printed Page

If you’re new to Mailbox Monday welcome! Thank you to everyone who stops by Mailbox Monday. Whether you comment or visit I appreciate your taking the time to drop in.

Books just seem to keep making their way to my house. Yay!

Chick lit/romance ~ For the Love of Pete by Julia Harper (aka Elizabeth Hoyt) (new-to-me author/Hachette) (Claimed by Cindy)

Zoey Addler moved back to Chicago to stay near her sister and take care of her baby niece, Petronella—Pete, for short. Unfortunately Pete’s father is the key witness in a Mob trial, and Tony the Rose decides to exert some pressure by having Pete kidnapped. Luckily, Zoey’s upstairs neighbor Dante (or Lips of Sin, as she calls him) is an undercover FBI agent. Zoey and Dante chase the kidnapper across the city until the kidnapper’s baby and Pete are accidentally snatched by two bumbling Indian aunts who are trying to track down their illegally imported saffron. Zoey, Dante, and the Indian ladies take a journey from the top of the state to the bottom, and amid all the gunfights and federal business, Zoey and Dante discover they might be drawn together by more than just the need to get Pete home safe and sound.

Fiction ~ The Wish Maker by Ali Sethi (new-to-me author/Shelf Awareness) (Claimed by Staci)

The unforgettable story of a fatherless boy growing up in a household of outspoken women, The Wish Maker is also a tale of sacrifice, betrayal, and indestructible friendship. Zaki Shirazi and his female cousin Samar Api were raised to consider themselves “part of the same litter.” Together they watched American television and memorized dialogue from Bollywood movies, attended dangerous protests, and formed secret friendships. In a household run by Zaki’s crusading political journalist mother and iron-willed grandmother, it was impossible to imagine a future that could hold anything different for either of them.

Memoir ~ A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy by Thomas Buergenthal (new-to-me author/Hachette) (Claimed by Melanie)

You think you’ve heard it all: the roundups, deportations, transports, selections, hard labor, death camps (“That was the last time I saw my father”), crematoriums, and the rare miracle of survival. But this one is different. The clear, nonhectoring prose makes Buergenthal’s personal story––and the enduring ethical questions it prompts––the stuff of a fast, gripping read. Five years old in Czechoslovakia at the start of World War II, Buergenthal remembers being crowded into the ghetto and then, in 1944, feeling “lucky” to escape the gas chambers and get into Auschwitz, where he witnessed daily hangings and beatings, but with the help of a few adults, managed to survive. In a postwar orphanage, he learned to read and write but never received any mail, until in a heartrending climax, his mother finds him. In 1952, he immigrated to the U.S., and now, as human-rights lawyer, professor, and international judge, his childhood’s moral issues are rooted in his daily life, his tattooed number a reminder not so much of the past as of his obligation, as witness and survivor, to fight bigotry today.

Historical/contemporary fiction ~ The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe (new-to-me author/Every Woman’s Voice) (Claimed by Jessica)

Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie’s grandmother’s abandoned home near Salem, she can’t refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest–to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.

As the pieces of Deliverance’s harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem’s dark past then she could have ever imagined.

Suspense/thriller ~ The Dead Man by Joel Goldman (new-to-me author/Authors on the Web)

Careful What You Dream. Milo Harper wants former FBI agent Jack Davis’ help. People in Harper’s study of the human brain are starting to die – and dying exactly in the very ways they have dreamed…Harper wants Jack to get to the truth and counter lawsuits aimed at the foundation. But when Jack investigates, the truth explodes: a serial killer is lurking inside one of the most advanced research facilities in the world. For Jack, the case will shatter illusions, raise ghosts, and take him onto both sides of the law – and into the path of a murderer’s terrifying rage.

Historical fiction ~ Royal Blood by Rona Sharon (new-to-me author/FSB Associates) (Claimed by Mari)

In the Tudor Court of 1518, your friends and enemies can be one and the same…During the annual celebration of the Order of the Garter, Sir Michael Devereaux arrives in King Henry VIII’s court on a mission for his benefactor. The celebration’s endless feats and sumptuous women delight the charismatic newcomer, who becomes captivated by the enigmatic Princess Renee of France. But evil, it seems, has followed Michael to the court. Shortly after his arrival, an unknown killer claims several victims, including the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, and the powerful Cardinal Wolsey asks Michael to help with the investigation. As he searches for the killer, Michael is haunted by disturbing images of the victims – flashes of violence that lead him to doubt his own sanity. Michael soon realizes that the key to solving the crime is connected to both the Pope’s Imperial vault in Rome and a mystery from Michael’s own past – revealing a secret that is so damning, it could forever alter the future of mankind.

Memoir ~ Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Torneo (new-to-me author/Authors on the Web) (Claimed by Kristi)

Jennifer Thompson was raped at knifepoint by a man who broke into her apartment while she slept. She was able to escape, and eventually positively identified Ronald Cotton as her attacker. Ronald insisted that she was mistaken– but Jennifer’s positive identification was the compelling evidence that put him behind bars. After eleven years, Ronald was allowed to take a DNA test that proved his innocence. He was released, after serving more than a decade in prison for a crime he never committed. Two years later, Jennifer and Ronald met face to face– and forged an unlikely friendship that changed both of their lives.
In their own words, Jennifer and Ronald unfold the harrowing details of their tragedy, and challenge our ideas of memory and judgment while demonstrating the profound nature of human grace and the healing power of forgiveness.

***

What books came into your house last week? Don’t forget to leave a link to your Mailbox post or a list of books if you don’t have a blog.