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.

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

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There’s nothing better than wandering out to the mailbox to find that your favorite mail person has left a package for you. . Usually we’re kind of expecting those packages because more than likely we’ve requested or ordered the goodies they hold. But wait there is one thing better ~ the totally unexpected out-of-the blue book package. I had one arrive this week. To my friend Jennifer at The Literate Housewilfe Review ~ thank you! Jenn sent me The Blue Notebook and The Uncommon Reader.

Fiction ~ The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine (new-to-me author) (Claimed by Kathleen)

It is the story of Batuk, an Indian girl who is taken to Mumbai from the countryside and sold into prostitution by her father; the blue notebook is her diary, in which she recalls her early childhood, records her life on the Common Street, and makes up beautiful and fantastic tales about a silver-eyed leopard and a poor boy who fells a giant with a single gold coin.

Fiction ~ The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (new-to-me author)

Briskly original and subversively funny, this novella from popular British writer Bennett (Untold Stories; Tony-winning play The History Boys) sends Queen Elizabeth II into a mobile library van in pursuit of her runaway corgis and into the reflective, observant life of an avid reader. Guided by Norman, a former kitchen boy and enthusiast of gay authors, the queen gradually loses interest in her endless succession of official duties and learns the pleasure of such a common activity. With the dawn of her sensibility… mistaken for the onset of senility, plots are hatched by the prime minister and the queen’s staff to dispatch Norman and discourage the queen’s preoccupation with books. Ultimately, it is her own growing self-awareness that leads her away from reading and toward writing, with astonishing results.

Suspense/thriller ~ King of Lies by John Hart (new-to-me author/eBook not available for Read It Forward)

Jackson Workman Pickens, whom most people call “Work,” is a struggling North Carolina criminal defense attorney. Work has wrestled with inner demons for most of his life, especially after the death of his mother and the disappearance of his wealthy father, Ezra Pickens, a highly successful lawyer who took him into his practice. Trapped in a loveless marriage and haunted by poor emotional choices and his sister’s psychological trauma, Work finds himself under suspicion when his father’s corpse surfaces more than a year after Ezra was last seen alive. Work’s quest for the truth behind his father’s demise opens old wounds and forces him to face the consequences of his own decisions.

Suspense/thriller ~ A World I Never Made by James LePore (new-to-me author/courtesy of TLC Book Tours) (Claimed by Mari)

Pat Nolan, an American man, is summoned to Paris to claim the body of his estranged daughter Megan, who has committed suicide. The body, however, is not Megan’s and it becomes instantly clear to Pat that Megan staged this, that she is in serious trouble, and that she is calling to him for help.

This sends Pat on an odyssey that stretches across France and into the Czech Republic and that makes him the target of both the French police and a band of international terrorists. Joining Pat on his search is Catherine Laurence, a beautiful but tormented Paris detective who sees in Pat something she never thought she’d find–genuine passion and desperate need. As they look for Megan, they come closer to each other’s souls and discover love when both had long given up on it.

Juxtaposed against this story is Megan’s story. A freelance journalist, Megan is in Morocco to do research when she meets Abdel Lahani, a Saudi businessman. They begin a torrid affair, a game Megan has played often and well in her adult life. But what she discovers about Lahani puts her in the center of a different kind of game, one with rules she can barely comprehend. Because of her relationship with Lahani, Megan has made some considerable enemies. And she has put the lives of many–maybe even millions–at risk.

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And to the Kim at Page After Page and Jenny at Jenny Loves To Read thank you for the beautiful bookmarks.
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Read It Forward details

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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.

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