Monday: Books in the Mail

Last week's mailbox was just busy enough. Not enough to feel overloaded, but enough to feel mailbox love!

From Harper Collins Canada:

For thirteen years, Ben Tomlin was an only child. But all that changes when his mother brings home Zan -- an eight-day-old chimpanzee. Ben's father, a renowned behavioral scientist, has uprooted the family to pursue his latest research project: a high-profile experiment to determine whether chimpanzees can acquire advanced language skills. Ben's parents tell him to treat Zan like a little brother. Ben reluctantly agrees. At least now he's not the only one his father's going to scrutinize.

It isn't long before Ben is Zan's favorite, and Ben starts to see Zan as more

than just an experiment. His father disagrees. To him, Zan is only a specimen, no more, no less. And this is going to have consequences. Soon Ben is forced to make a critical choice between what he is told to believe and what he knows to be true -- between obeying his father or protecting his brother from an unimaginable fate.

Half Brother isn't just a story about a boy and a chimp. It's about the way families are made, the way humanity is judged, the way easy choices become hard ones, and how you can't always do right by the people and animals you love. In the hands of master storyteller Kenneth Oppel, it's a novel you won't soon forget.



Eliza Benedict cherishes her peaceful, ordinary suburban life with her successful husband and children, thirteen-year-old Iso and eight-year-old Albie. But her tranquility is shattered when she receives a letter from the last person she ever expects—or wants—to hear from: Walter Bowman. There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I'd know you anywhere.

In the summer of 1985, when she was fifteen, Eliza was kidnapped by Walter and held hostage for almost six weeks. He had killed at least one girl and Eliza always suspected he had other victims as well. Now on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, Walter seems to be making a heartfelt act of contrition as his execution nears. Though Eliza wants nothing to do with him, she's never forgotten that Walter was most unpredictable when ignored. Desperate to shelter her children from this undisclosed trauma in her past, she cautiously makes contact with Walter. She's always wondered why Walter let her live, and perhaps now he'll tell her—and share the truth about his other victims.

Yet as Walter presses her for more and deeper contact, it becomes clear that he is after something greater than forgiveness. He wants Eliza to remember what really happened that long-ago summer. He wants her to save his life. And Eliza, who has worked hard for her comfortable, cocooned life, will do anything to protect it—even if it means finally facing the events of that horrifying summer and the terrible truth she's kept buried inside.

From Simon & Schuster Canada:

John Lowery was declared dead in 1968—the victim of a Huey crash in Vietnam, his body buried long ago in North Carolina. Four decades later, Temperance Brennan is called to the scene of a drowning in Hemmingford, Quebec. The victim appears to have died while in the midst of a bizarre sexual practice. The corpse is later identified as John Lowery. But how could Lowery have died twice, and how did an American soldier end up in Canada?

Tempe sets off for the answer, exhuming Lowery’s grave in North Carolina and taking the remains to Hawaii for reanalysis—to the headquarters of JPAC, the U.S. military’s Joint POW/ MIA Accounting Command, which strives to recover Americans who have died in past conflicts. In Hawaii, Tempe is joined by her colleague and ex-lover Detective Andrew Ryan (how “ex” is he?) and by her daughter, who is recovering from her own tragic loss. Soon another set of remains is located, with Lowery’s dog tags tangled among them. Three bodies—all identified as Lowery.

And then Tempe is contacted by Hadley Perry, Honolulu’s flamboyant medical examiner, who needs help identifying the remains of an adolescent boy found offshore. Was he the victim of a shark attack? Or something much more sinister?

From First Second Books:

The magic cartooning elf is back—along with the Knight, Edward the hungry horse, and a whole new cast of charming characters! And this time, readers can join in the fun—right IN the book!







From Vertigo:

When supernatural artifacts from the Homelands begin surfacing in the modern world, it falls to Cinderella, Fabletown's best kept (and best dressed) secret agent to stop the illegal trafficking. But can Cindy foil the dark plot before Fabletown and its hidden, exiled inhabitants are exposed once and for all? And how does her long lost Fairy Godmother factor into the equation?

Whether she's soaring through clouds, deep-sea diving, or cracking jaws, Cindy travels from Manhattan to Dubai and hooks up with a handsome, familiar accomplice who may be harboring secret motives of his own. Meanwhile, trouble brews back home in Fabletown when Cindy's overworked, underappreciated assistant decides to seize control of The Glass Slipper, Cindy's exclusive shoe boutique.



REVOLVER is a tale of two worlds, and how the both test a man to his limits...

Almost thirty and living in Seattle, Sam shuffles to his bed after a night out at the bars. The next morning he wakes up and catches the bus into the city, starting another day of his dead end life. But today on the radio he hears that the stock market has crashed, news of a bird-flu epidemic erupting in Asia pushes past a report of "radioactive-material-gone-missing-in-Russia." Did Sam really wake up this morning? The world has gone crazy--turned on its head. Sam thinks about riding the bus full loop, going home and pretending that the day hadn't started.

This terrible day is capped with the destruction of Seattle...

But when Sam wakes up in his small studio apartment the next morning he's confused. On the bus ride to work he listens to the radio. The world is fine...

Realities begin to bleed into one another as Sam jumps between his dull-drum, everyday life and a dark apocalyptic society...but which is the real one and which one will he have to live with forever? And the most important question: does he have a choice?

Comments

  1. The Laura Lipmann book looks like a great read!

    Enjoy all your books!

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  2. I love your selection of books specially the Lippman book. It sounds such a good story.

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  3. I'm looking at the Vietnam book for the War Through the Generations challenge. This is my first visit to your blog. Enjoy your reads.

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  4. I didn't know Kathy Reichs has a new book out! I want that one! I hope you have a great week in books!

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  5. Love the covers! You did so well!

    Have a great reading week ahead!
    Here are my Monday: Mailbox/Whereabouts and Musing Mondays posts!

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  6. Yeah, the Lippman does look good. It will be skipping to the front along with some other mysteries. I'm really liking her standalones.

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  7. wisteria, welcome and thanks for dropping by! Kathy Reichs is a great author, if you haven't read her before.

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  8. bermuda, every summer, like clockwork! You can look up her release date and set your beach weekend with her every year!!

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  9. Lipman does look good, as does the Reichs book. Happy reading! My mailbox is at The Crowded Leaf.

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  10. i really want to read I'd Know You Anywhere. I didn't know about Half-Brother and Revolver. Those look really good. Thanks for sharing.

    -lauren

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  11. The Lippman book sounds very good. I may have to read that one myself. I'm dying to know what she remembers. Enjoy all your new books!

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