MONDAY MEMES: MAILBOX AND WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Good morning!  It’s Monday and time to celebrate those great beginning-of-the-week memes.

Mailbox Monday is hosted through August by Chick Loves Lit.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading? is hosted by Book Journey.

Both are celebrations of reading, and opportunities for bloggers to click around the blogosphere, networking and adding new books to their lists.

Monday Mailbox: This week’s mailbox brought two great books:

Irish Twins, by Michelle Cozzens (received from the author)

Here’s the Amazon blurb:

Anne Shields died at the age of 80. It happened while she was water-skiing. Her husband of fifty-four years, Michael, tried to revive her; however, it was no use. There was no return from a massive stroke to the brain stem. She passed in peace, and entered a new existence in a place called Ohr where her sister, Molly, greeted her with a cup of hot tea. Molly was her Irish Twin. “Irish Twin” is a slang term for two children born to the same mother within a twelve-month period. Its origin is uncertain, but it’s a decidedly derogatory term, which mocks the Irish Catholic culture’s rejection of birth control methods. This is the story of not one, but two sets of Irish Twins-Anne and Molly- as well as Anne’s daughters, the Irish Twins Jennifer and Catherine. Also known as Jenny and Caylie, they are approaching middle age when their mother dies, and are left to face the world with many unanswered questions about a mother who left them far too quickly. Anne and Molly reunite in Ohr and Molly, the elder Irish Twin, guides Anne through her judgment. She witnesses her life and the lives of her surviving husband and five children through endless cups of tea, served to her by her sister. Anne is the heart and soul of this tale. Although she has passed away, she is very much present in the lives of her daughters. She keeps watch over Jenny and Caylie as well as her three additional children, and through her we learn a lot about being a sister, a wife, a parent, a friend. We learn not only about life . . . . . . but also about death.

Next, I received The Quick and the Thread, by Amanda Lee, a contest win from Pudgy Penguin Perusals.

Here’s a tidbit from Amazon:

When Marcy Singer opens an embroidery specialty shop in quaint Tallulah Falls, Oregon, she throws a soiree and a Stitch-In. Soon, Marcy’s sign- up sheet for embroidery classes fills up and everyone in town seems willing to raise a glass-or a needle-to support the newly-opened Seven Year Stitch.

Then Marcy finds the shop’s previous tenant dead in the store-room, a message scratched with a tapestry needle on the wall beside him. Now Marcy’s shop has become a crime scene, and she’s the prime suspect. She’ll have to find the killer before someone puts a final stitch in her.

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What Are You Reading?

Last week, I finished these books:   (Click the titles for the reviews)

1)  Fly Away Home, by Jennifer Weiner

2)  As Husbands Go, by Susan Isaacs

3)  Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives, by Josie Brown

What’s Up This Week?

1)  Irish Twins, by Michelle Cozzens

A story, described above, about the mysterious guidance of some unique twins.

2)  Let’s Take the Long Way Home, by Gail Caldwell (a memoir)

A tale of friendship between two writers—a memorializing of the deceased friend.

Ongoing:

Give Me Your Heart, by Joyce Carol Oates (Tales of mystery and suspense)

So these are my reading adventures for the week.  What have you all been up to?  I hope you’ll stop by and share.