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Jun 8, 2009

Mailbox Monday, Read It Forward

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share what books that we found in our mailboxes last week. And I am adding what I purchased. Here's what I received during the last week:

Via Paperbackswap:
Mr. Darcy's Diary, by Amanda Grange.. "Joining a growing field of Austeniana—and, particularly, Darcyiana—Grange retells Austen's Pride & Prejudice from Fitzwilliam Darcy's point of view. Her device for doing so is an imagined diary of a clever sort: Grange reproduces, word for word and comma for comma, conversations from the original novel, but shifts the perspective to reported speech in Darcy's first-person, with his commentary on the encounters. Between the reconstituted passages, the reader is treated to Darcy's ongoing reflections on Hertfordshire society, his family obligations, his sister and, most crucially, Elizabeth Bennet and her family. There are also wholly invented conversations, most engagingly between Bingley and Darcy as they try to resist the pull of Netherfield Hall."

Then I received Judith James' BROKEN WING:
"The Napoleonic era comes brilliantly alive in James's debut adventure romance. Sarah, Lady Munroe, has traveled to postrevolution Paris with her half-brother, Ross, to find their long-lost younger brother. Young Jamie suffered few ill effects while residing at a Parisian brothel thanks to the protection of Gabriel St. Croix, a glittering catamite who returns to England with them at Jamie's insistence. While Gabriel's attraction to Sarah begins as an innocent shared admiration for astronomy, their sensual love scenes intensify as Gabriel reconciles his tender feelings with his sordid past. The pace never falters when the lovebirds are separated and pursue adventures on their own. The extensive historical detail goes a long way, but Sarah and Gabriel's heart-wrenching struggle to keep their love alive is what will really keep readers entranced throughout this epic read."
BROKEN WING has won the Gold Medal for Romance in the 2009 Independant Publisher Awards which recognize the best Indie published books of the year. Looks like it will be a great weekend/summer read.

To my fellow Book Reviewers:
I also unexpectedly received "Perseverance" by Carolyn Rubenstein which is coming out in August 2009. This is is a paperback advance edition, and I did not request it. I have too many books to read and review that I have committed to that will keep me busy till October (or more at the current snail's pace I've been going). Who wants to read and review this one? If you would like to, please comment here with your email address, and I will mail it to you. I hope that you can review it by this September.

Here is the synopsis:
"Can you imagine being in high school or college and suddenly learning you have cancer? You thought you had a lifetime ahead of you and the whole world at your feet, but suddenly you're told...maybe not. How would you cope?

That's the question each of the people in this book had to answer. Each individual tells his or her amazing story, in an honest, first-person perspective that provides a depth you would never see otherwise. Inside, you'll meet Zac York, who tells of climbing Mount Whitney--on crutches--after battling brain cancer. You'll meet Jessica Myers, who had to cope with her boyfriend's callous reaction as she struggled with thyroid cancer. And you'll meet Rob Dooley, who fought brain cancer and was left with major cognitive deficits--including short-term memory loss--but never let that get in his way of obtaining a college diploma and entering graduate school.

You'll also get to know and come to love seventeen others, who tell their captivating stories in their own words. It's all here--struggles, triumphs, friendships, love, breakups, relapses. Twenty unique and fascinating stories, with one common theme--childhood cancer. They'll make you smile, make you cry, and fill you with hope."