Monday Mailbox

It's still officially my unbirthday month so I am still finding lovely surprises in the mailbox from my bookish friends but I think this may be the end of the goodies for me. I've gotten so spoiled; how am I going to go back to being regular girl? Especially regular girl who is trying to stay strong and not request or accept more books until I'm though the never-ending backlog? Check back next week to see how I manage! This past week's mailbox arrivals include:

Wrestling With Gravy: A Life, with Food by Jonathan Reynolds came from Melissa for my unbirthday month.
I adore food related memoirs. Reading about other people eating or cooking keeps the boredom snacks out of my mouth. Food on the page is good. Even better if the food is too exotic for my plebian tastes as promises to be the case here. I won't gain weight reading the book or making any possible recipes. Win, win.

Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days by James and Kay Salter came from Melissa for my unbirthday month.
With a sort of Farmer's Almanac kind of feel to it, I could spend all year reading this one day at a time. Then again, I'm not nearly that patient but I love the idea of having it so I can refer to appropriate times of the year.

Japan Took the J.A.P. Out of Me by Lisa Fineberg Cook came from Sarah at Pocket Books for a tour.
I am a total sucker for memoirs billed as hilarious. A Jewish girl from the West Coast moving to Japan? How can this not be giggle territory?

The Other Mr. Darcy by Monica Fairviewwas a contest win from Laurel Ann at Austenprose and Jane Austen Today.
If you read this blog with any sort of comprehension involved, you will already know that I adore all things Jane Austen and so it was a guarantee that I'd manage to get my paws on this one somehow so getting the "congratulations" e-mail was music to my ears.

Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick is from Jenny for my unbirthday month.
A novel about van Gogh? Totally cool, right? How intriguing to read about the young prostitute who had a deep and abiding relationship with the troubled van Gogh.

Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken Kogan is from Algonquin Books.
I didn't ask for this one because it strikes me as potentially scaring me a bit but I do really generally enjoy the Algonquin books I get so I am willing to give this a try.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Marcia at The Printed Page and enjoy seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.