September 26, 2011 / Leslie

Mailbox Monday ~ September 26th

Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.

Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The September host is Amused By Books.

Another eclectic week for me. Some non-fiction, a couple of thrillers and historical fiction from the WWII era.

A contest win from the publisher hosted by A Sea of Books:

The Sun’s Heartbeat
by Bob Berman

The beating heart of the sun is the very pulse of life on earth. And from the ancients who plotted its path at Stonehenge to the modern scientists who unraveled the nuclear fusion reaction that turns mass into energy, humankind has sought to solve its mysteries. In this lively biography of the sun, Bob Berman ranges from its stellar birth to its spectacular future death with a focus on the wondrous and enthralling, and on the heartbreaking sacrifice, laughable errors, egotistical battles, and brilliant inspirations of the people who have tried to understand its power. more

A contest win from Atria Books:

Northwest Angle
by William Kent Krueger

During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm. Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover an old trapper’s cabin where they find the body of a teenage girl. She wasn’t killed by the storm, however; she’d been bound and tortured before she died. Whimpering sounds coming from outside the cabin lead them to a tangle of branches toppled by … more

An advance copy from Atria Books:

Half-Past Dawn
by Richard Doetsch

For Harper Keller, it is the morning from hell. He wakes up, gazes in the bathroom mirror, and sees a nasty, half-healed gash over his right eye. Even worse, his shoulder has a hastily stitched wound that looks suspiciously like the result of a bullet. With his wife and two daughters out of the house, he is alone when he picks up the morning paper to see a photo of a smashed guardrail beneath a headline that reads, “District Attorney, Harper Keller, Dead.” more

A win from Random House.

I Gave My Heart to Know This
by Ellen Baker

In January 1944, Grace Anderson, Lena Maki, and Lena’s mother, Violet, have joined the growing ranks of women working for the war effort. Though they find satisfaction in their jobs at a Wisconsin shipyard, it isn’t enough to distract them from the anxieties of wartime, or their fears for the men they love: Lena’s twin brother, Derrick, and Grace’s high school sweetheart, Alex. When shattering news arrives from the front, the lives of the three women are pitched into turmoil. more