Welcome to the latest edition of Mailbox Monday hosted every week at The Printed Page.
Here is where I share the books which have arrived at my house over the last week.
Do you want to join Mailbox Monday? Simply visit Marcia’s blog today to get links to other readers’ mailboxes, and leave a link to yours!
Venom by Joan Brady arrived unsolicited from Simon & Schuster UK. This novel is a suspense-thriller which is the sequel to Bleedout. The book blurb reads: ‘Physicist Helen Freyl has just accepted a job offer from a giant pharmaceutical company who are close to finding a cure for radiation poisoning. But when the mysteriously sudden death of a colleague is followed by another, Helen begins to doubt her employers’ motives and realizes that her own life is in danger too.‘ Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?
Joan Brady won the 1993 Whitbread Best Novel award for her novel Theory of War and was long listed in 1997 for the Orange Prize for her book Death Comes for Peter Pan. Although she has been highly recognized for her literary fiction, Brady prefers writing thrillers. Venom is due for release in the United States in August 2010 (it was released in the UK in February). To learn more about Joan Brady and her work, visit the author’s website.
Guest House by Barbara K. Richardson arrived via Anne at The Book Report Network (Authors on the Web). Guest House was published this month by Bay Tree Publishing. The press release reads: ‘Barbara K. Richardson introduces readers to successful real estate agent Melba Burns. After witnessing a horrific accident, Melba stops driving, quits her job and retreats to the safety of her newly purchased farmhouse. Her solitary life is overturned when shy, ingenious 10-year-old Matt enters the scene, drawing Melba into an unlikely road trip that changes everything.‘ Read an excerpt here.
Barbara K. Richardson’s previous work has appeared in Northwest Review, Cimarron Review, Quarterly West and Dialogue. Barbara earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University, where she studied with Ursula Hegi, Nance Van Winckel and John Keeble. To learn more about Richardson and her work, visit the author’s website.
Did anything exciting arrive at YOUR house this week?!?!?
= Excellent
= Good/Very Good
= Okay read
= Not recommended
= Ugh! Don't waste your time.
Guest House sounds like it would be a book I would enjoy. Have a great reading week!
The both look good! I love the cover of Guest House!
Theory of War was very good, but I haven’t read any of her thrillers. I look forward to seeing what you make of that one.
Looking forward to what you think of Guest House!! It’s on my TBR.
Guest House sounds good. Enjoy!
I have Venom as well. Happy reading.
I have Guest House, too, which I’m really looking forward to reading. I read the first page or so, but I told the publisher I wouldn’t be able to read/review it until May as I’m hosting The Brothers Karamazov read along in April. But, doesn’t Guest House look awesome?!
I’m not a big reader of thrillers, but Venom does sound good! I’m looking forward to hearing what you think of it.
I never heard of the books, but they look interesting
Have fun reading them!
Love, Kathrin
The cover of Venom is a little creepy!
I have never heard of the “Venom” author, but I’m going to put it on hold at my library posthaste! Love thrillers. “Guest House” looks like it’s worth a look, too, but I think the “Never Told Anyone” may be too depressing by halves for me.
I was excited to get the new Joy Fielding (Wild Zone) at the library, but haven’t really gotten into it. I like it, OK, but there are others of hers that I’ve enjoyed much more. I did decide to go to her web site, where I thoroughly enjoyed the biography of herself that she’d written. Talks about how she got into writing, how she gets ideas, which of her characters she likes most, etc. I think most people will find it kind of fascinating. (I think her site is just joyfielding.com, but I wouldn’t swear to it — it certainly wasn’t hard to find.)
I am enjoying another book that came in, I Promised You Daisies, a memoir, I guess, of the author’s (Robert Benjamin) young adulthood in Boston in the 1960s. He describes himself as among the “walking wounded” of the furor and upheaval of those times — a fresh-faced, eager high school graduate about to embark on the college journey, choosing a profession, marrying his steady girl. Lots going on here, including trying to build a responsible life out of shattered youthful dreams without ever having understood why they were shattered and had failed. It’s part two of a beautiful trilogy.
Beth: I am looking forward to Guest House.
Kathy: *nods* And I cannot resist a great cover!
Jackie: Joan Brady was really off my radar until this book arrived. Good to know her literary fiction is worth reading.
Aths: I will look forward to YOUR thoughts on the book too!
Anna: Thank you!
Serena: I will look forward to your review of Venom!
Belleza: It really does look very good. And looks like a fairly quick read as well.
Avis: I like a good thriller from time to time…this one is not a book I would have picked up, but now that I have it, I’m curious about it.
Kathrin: Thanks!!
Callista: *laughing* Yes, it is. Looks like a book I should read when my husband is not out of town!
Liz: Thanks for sharing your thoughts on your recent acquisitions! I’ll have to check those out.