Monday Mailbox #4

Monday Mailbox is a weekly segment wherein I cover my most recent acquisitions, whether via purchase, library, early reviewers, Librarything.com Member Givaway Program or gift.

I'm terribly silly. I got a bunch of books in the last two weeks, but between going to the doctor, and having an odder than usual work schedule, and house guests...it just got put off. So that brings us to now, while Monday still has another few minutes.

But before I get to the books I did receive, I should mention that there's one more book that should be on this list, though between my new neighbor, my landlord, and UPS it seems to have vanished. From now on, I should just have UPS send to my work address. Only one company has sent books to me via UPS in the past, and that was Little, Brown & Co. who so graciously sent me a copy of Pete Hamill's Tabloid City, the review of which will be posted in the week prior to its publication on May 5th of this year. They had also intended to send me a copy of Tina Fey's new book Bossypants which just came out this past week. I believe that's the package that has now gone missing. So I shall wait and see if it turns up...maybe leave angry messages on my landlord's machine or something. In any case, if it does turn up, there'll be a review. If it doesn't turn up, I shall be sad. Also, still no sign of Quirk's Dreadfully Ever After. Lost in the mail? Perhaps. Coworker ate it? Maybe. Never sent? Definite possibility.

And now for the happier tidings:

First up, care of NYRB, is a new edition Penelope Mortimer's The Pumpkin Eater,  a compelling black comedy about a woman - wife to unfaithful men, mother to countless children - who finds herself sharing the details of her life with a psychiatrist, and with the reader. Publication date: April 26, 2011.

Next up, care of Europa Editions, is Anna Gavalda's French Leave (translated from the original French by Alison Anderson), a humorous book about growing up and finding one's future by revisiting the past. Publication date: May 20, 2011.

While we're on that subject, is that really what Back to the Future is about? Is it all about showing Marty the way to his future? I think it is.

Sorry. Distraction. Anyway...

Next we have Judith Kelman's Summer of Storms which I received as a gift from the gods of my building. You see, I live in a 4-story apartment building in the Bronx, just a few miles shy of Westchester, and right by the train. It's not a fancy building and it's not luxury condos, but the people here take care of themselves, and sometimes those of us who aren't rolling in it so much get hand-me-downs...sometimes it's furniture, sometimes books, bags, toys, games... at Christmas there was a whole box of various heels (I'm pretty sure that came from my upstairs drag queen neighbor... none of them were my size... sadface) and assorted new games and toys. Once there was a partial set of illustrated encyclopedias about WWI. They now live on the bottom shelf of my new bookshelves. But this time it was one book (oh and some robot game I opted out on)... it doesn't look like anything too wonderful, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it at some point this summer when I'm at the beach. The jacket reads:

Anna Jamieson was only three when her five-year-old sister, Julie, was murdered while her family slept through a tempestuous hurricane, one of many in a season dubbed the Summer of Storms. For thirty years, Anna has been haunted by mental pictures of that night--crude composites that remain grainy and idistinct. But now she has returned to New York City, the scene of that horrendous, unsolved crime, and events are about to unfold that will make her fuzzy memories all to frighteningly clear. As Anna's work as a photojournalist exposes the dark underside of a glittering city, she unwittingly crosses paths with a fiendishly clever killer. While her search for the truth races toward a chilling conclusion, she must distinguish between allies and enemies, and realize that, ultimately, there is no one to trust but herself. 

My money's on the father.

Finally we have (and I swear this one is not a joke) The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films, by Amy Clarke. I got this one via Librarything.com Early Reviewers, though it actually came out in October. Should be amusing, if nothing else. Here, for your amusement (just to prove there IS something amusing here) are the essay titles:

"Luminous and Liminal: Why Edward Shines"

"Narrative Layering and 'High-Culture' Romance" (not as funny)

"Carlisle's Cross: Locating the Post-Secular Gothic"

"Eco-Gothics for the Twenty-First Century"

"Noble Werewolves or Native Shape-Shifters?"

"Abstinence, American Style" (are you dying yet?)

"Is Twilight Mormon?"

"Bella and the Choice Made in Eden"

"Bella and Boundaries, Crossed and Redeployed"

"Sleeping Beauty and the Idolized Undead: Avoiding Adolescence"

"Why We Like Our Vampires Sexy"

"Forks, Washington: From Farms and Forests to Fans"

"The Pleasures of Adapting: Reading, Viewing, Logging On"

I'd like to point out that ALL of these essays are written by women, with the minor exception of the Eco-Gothics one, which is written by a woman with a man (same last name, so I'm assuming husband... or maybe a gay brother?)