The Printed Page

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

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.

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Memoir ~ Lift by Rebecca K. O’Connor (new-to-me author/author contact) (Kindle eBook; not available for Read It Forward)

The culmination of a ten-year career in falconry, Lift is a memoir that illustrates the journey and life lessons of a woman navigating a man’s ancient sport. Captivated by a chance meeting with a falconer’s peregrine as a child, the indelible memory eventually brings the author’s life full circle to flying a peregrine of her own. Exploring themes of predator and prey, finding tribe, forgiveness and femininity, the memoir asks universal questions through a unique backdrop. Lift illustrates the beauty and meaning the sport of falconry can add to a falconer’s life, echoing the challenges and triumphs of being human.

Legal thriller ~ Nibble & Kuhn by David Schmahmann (new-to-me author/publicist contact) (Kindle eBook; not available for Read It Forward)

An unraveling law firm. An unwinnable case. An unworkable love.

Derek Dover has it all.

Derek’s up for partner at Nibble & Kuhn just as that most proper of Boston law firms comically tries to `rebrand’ itself for the Google era. Pompous and arbitrary, the ruling junta of partners saddles him with a high visibility lawsuit just weeks before trial. The diligent young attorney arranges things so that Maria Parma, a new associate in the firm for whom he’s fallen hard, also gets named to the case. Maria, in turn, can’t keep her hands off Derek, but it’s complicated because she’s engaged to someone else.

As Derek prepares his case on behalf of seven young victims of an industrial polluter, his anxieties about his career and his torments over Maria’s mixed messages only increase. Have his eccentric WASP superiors handed him a `toxic’ case to ruin his chances of becoming a partner? How can he get his opponents to settle – an outcome the presiding judge all but demands – unless his unorthodox `expert witnesses’ perform with enough gravitas to match that of the other side with its Harvard Medical School scientist? Will Nibble & Kuhn survive the partners’ spectacularly bad business judgments? Does it even matter to Derek, given that his looming fiasco of a trial and his indiscretions with Maria seem set to sink any chance he ever had at partnership?

Ultimately, Derek sets into motion a line of inquiry that spins events entirely out of the control of the judge, jury, and any and all attorneys.

Non-fiction ~ The Apple by Penelope Holt (new-to-me author/publicist contact) (Kindle eBook; not available for Read It Forward)

Oprah called the tale of love in a concentration camp that lies at the heart of holocaust survivor, Herman Rosenblat’s controversial memoir, “The greatest love story every told.” But when his story is attacked and his memoir cancelled, Rosenblat must defend his narrative. The Apple first tells the story of his struggle to survive the camps and the girl he says helped him by tossing apples over the fence. It then uncovers the story behind the story: Why did an old man weave real love with a dream of love into an account that touched and inspired many, but also ignited a firestorm of criticism?

Non-fiction ~ Dracula Is Dead by Sheilah Kast and Jim Rosapepe (new-to-me author/publicist contact) (Kindle eBook; not available for Read It Forward)

The book, a remarkable exploration of the country of Romania, is called Dracula Is Dead: How Romanians Survived Communism, Ended It, and Emerged since 1989 as the New Italy.

It follows former ambassador to Romania Jim Rosapepe and his wife, journalist Sheilah Kast, on a journey through the Romania of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Part travelogue and part memoir, Dracula Is Dead goes beyond the perceptions of Romania—Dracula, orphans, Communism—to present an amazing land, from Orthodox Christianity to information technology, from the Roman Empire through World War II through the fall of Communism, to Transylvania and the entire nation.

Jim and Sheilah have an unparalleled perspective on the country of Romania, and are sharing it just in time for the twentieth anniversary of the fall of Communism.

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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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Read It Forward details