It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past few weeks are:

Vacationland by Sarah Stonich
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Lies in White Dresses by Sofia Grant

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George
Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhannon
Breaking the Ocean by Annahid Dashtgard
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The Ventriloquists by E.R. Ramzipoor
The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell
A Stranger at My Table by Ivo de Figueiredo
Something Like Breathing by Angela Readman
The Last Ocean by Nicci Gerrard

Reviews posted this week:

nothing yet

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Exposed by Jean-Philippe Blondel
Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas
Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Granny’s Got a Gun by Harper Lin
White Elephant by Julie Langsdorf
At Briarwood School for Girls by Michael Knight
The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
All Ships Follow Me by Mieke Eerkens
Like This Afternoon Forever by Jaime Manrique
Gravity Well by Melanie Joosten
Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Dear Baba by Maryam Rafiee
Saint Everywhere by Mary Lea Carroll
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Tonic and Balm by Stephanie Allen
Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons
In the Shadow of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas
The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin
CinderGirl by Christina Meredith
The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones
The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis
Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renee Lavoie
The Fragments by Toni Jordan
The Question Authority by Rachel Cline
The Plaza by Julie Satow
The Lonely Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
Haben by Haben Girma
The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester
Educated by Tara Westover
State of the Union by Nick Hornby
Turbulence by David Szalay
What a Body Remembers by Karen Stefano
The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar
Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust by Hedi Fried
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain
Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers by the New York Public Library
The Honey Bus by Meredith May
The Liar in the Library by Simon Brett
The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib
Church of the Graveyard Saints by C. Joseph Greaves
Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery by John Gregory Brown
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Advanced Physical Chemistry by Susannah Nix
Death of a Rainmaker by Laurie Lowenstein
No Good Asking by Fran Kimmel
Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich
The Abolitionist's Daughter by Diane C. McPhail
A London Country Diary by Tim Bradford
Crazy Cupid Love by Amanda Heger
A Moveable Feast edited by Don George
Tiny Hot Dogs by Mary Giuliani
Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew
Love You Hard by Abby Maslin
Unfurled by Michelle Bailat-Jones
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton
Retablos by Octavio Solis
The Unbreakables by Lisa Barr
The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobbs
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
All the Wild Hungers by Karen Babine
The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson
Vacationland by Sarah Stonich
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Lies in White Dresses by Sofia Grant

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrival:

Miss Austen by Gill Hornby came from Flatiron Books.

A novel about Cassandra Austen looking for some of deceased sister Jane's lost letters so she can protect Jane's reputation and legacy as well as her own reputation, this sounds completely delicious!

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

After Kilimanjaro by Gail Woodson.

The book is being released by She Writes Press on October 8, 2019.

The book's jacket copy says: Dr. Sarah Whitaker has always been an obedient overachiever, but she is burned out. Training to be a surgeon is stressful. So when her fiancé, David, offers a solution--take a break year at a hospital in Africa and climb Mount Kilimanjaro together--she jumps on board. When he backs out, she embarks on the adventure alone. Sarah quickly falls in love with Tanzania, a land of gentle people, exotic wildlife, and stunning natural beauty, from the sands of Zanzibar to the peaks of Kilimanjaro. She also develops great respect for new Tanzanian friends: strong African women who strive to serve an overwhelming need for health care. Shocked by the high rate of maternal mortality and the scourge of female genital mutilation in the country, Sarah begins to speak out against FGM and develops an experimental program to train tribal birth attendants in a remote mountain village. Conditions are primitive there, and life is fragile. The separation takes its toll on her relationship with David, and she fights against feelings for another man. As the months pass, one thing becomes clear: if Sarah survives this year, her life will never be the same again.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past few weeks are:

The Man Who Couldn't Miss by David Handler
The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobbs
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
All the Wild Hungers by Karen Babine
The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George
Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhannon
Breaking the Ocean by Annahid Dashtgard
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The Ventriloquists by E.R. Ramzipoor
The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell
A Stranger at My Table by Ivo de Figueiredo
Something Like Breathing by Angela Readman
The Last Ocean by Nicci Gerrard
Vacationland by Sarah Stonich

Reviews posted this week:

Three Story House by Courtney Miller Santo
The Man Who Couldn't Miss by David Handler

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Exposed by Jean-Philippe Blondel
Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas
Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Granny’s Got a Gun by Harper Lin
White Elephant by Julie Langsdorf
At Briarwood School for Girls by Michael Knight
The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
All Ships Follow Me by Mieke Eerkens
Like This Afternoon Forever by Jaime Manrique
Gravity Well by Melanie Joosten
Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Dear Baba by Maryam Rafiee
Saint Everywhere by Mary Lea Carroll
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Tonic and Balm by Stephanie Allen
Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons
In the Shadow of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas
The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin
CinderGirl by Christina Meredith
The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones
The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis
Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renee Lavoie
The Fragments by Toni Jordan
The Question Authority by Rachel Cline
The Plaza by Julie Satow
The Lonely Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
Haben by Haben Girma
The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester
Educated by Tara Westover
State of the Union by Nick Hornby
Turbulence by David Szalay
What a Body Remembers by Karen Stefano
The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar
Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust by Hedi Fried
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain
Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers by the New York Public Library
The Honey Bus by Meredith May
The Liar in the Library by Simon Brett
The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib
Church of the Graveyard Saints by C. Joseph Greaves
Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery by John Gregory Brown
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Advanced Physical Chemistry by Susannah Nix
Death of a Rainmaker by Laurie Lowenstein
No Good Asking by Fran Kimmel
Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich
The Abolitionist's Daughter by Diane C. McPhail
A London Country Diary by Tim Bradford
Crazy Cupid Love by Amanda Heger
A Moveable Feast edited by Don George
Tiny Hot Dogs by Mary Giuliani
Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew
Love You Hard by Abby Maslin
Unfurled by Michelle Bailat-Jones
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton
Retablos by Octavio Solis
The Unbreakables by Lisa Barr
The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobbs
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
All the Wild Hungers by Karen Babine
The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Meg and Jo by Virginia Kantra came from Broadway.

A modern day Little Women? Don't mind if I do!

The Best Boomerville Hotel by Caroline James came from me for me.

Set in a hotel for guests "of a certain age," this looks like it will be hilarious.

A Country Life by Veronica Henry came from me for me.

Moving into a quiet Cotswolds village might sound like a good idea, but in this warm and charming looking novel, there might be more to it than that.

Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling by Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen came from me for me.

I do love British romantic comedies so I am looking forward to this one about a young woman setting out to forge a new life.

House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon came from Atria.

Yup, that would be water on the cover. It's my kryptonite but I am looking forward to this novel about a Dutch Jewish author who returns to Amsterdam to meet with his publisher and stumbles onto a secret about his mother and her wartime experience.

The Women of Primrose Square by Claudia Carroll came from me for me.

This novel about a man who decides he needs to finally be true to himself just before his fiftieth birthday and arrives back at his family home as a trans woman to face a surprise party is a completely fascinating premise.

Mother Country by Irina Reyn came from St. Martin's Press.

An ethnically Russian woman from the Ukraine takes things into her own hands when her daughter's attempt to be reunited with her is delayed and her daughter subsequently loses access to medicine necessary for her survival in this novel that promises a tough look at immigration and its cost to the very human people caught up in it.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Review: The Man Who Couldn't Miss by David Handler

Two years ago I read The Girl with the Kaleidoscope Eyes, the continuation, two decades after he stopped writing the series, of David Handler's Stewart Hoag Mysteries. And despite not being much of a mystery reader, I thoroughly enjoyed the witty and fun amateur detective mystery. So it's no surprise that I happily added the second novel in this series reboot (actually tenth if you count the books from 20 years ago) to my stacks. Having finally gotten around to reading it, I found that it was a welcome re-immersion in the life of Hoagy and his faithful basset hound Lulu.

It's 1993 and Hoagy is living in his ex-wife, famous actress Merilee Nash's guest cottage out in Connecticut. He's working feverishly on his second novel and feeling really confident about what he's producing. Meanwhile Merilee is working hard on a production of Noel Coward's "Private Lives," which she is directing as a special, one night fundraising event to save Sherbourne Playhouse, a summer playhouse where many famous actors, including Merilee, made their stage debuts. Acting in the play with her are three of her very famous, Oscar winning Yale School of Drama classmates and one young, unknown but talented actress. When another former classmate, R J Romero, the one who everyone thought was the most talented, the most likely to make it and make it big, reappears, it is clear that the grudges and animosity from that time in all their lives has never completely disappeared. In fact, R J, now a criminal and drug addict, is blackmailing Merilee for something scandalous that could derail her career forever. Hoagy is determined to protect Merilee, because although she is his ex-wife, he still loves her, and so he gets a little more involved in the upcoming production than he normally would. That means he's right on site when after the successful first act of the play, performed in front of an audience of who's who in Hollywood and Broadway, one of the leads is found murdered in his dressing room. Hoagy, Lulu, and the police have to uncover the murderer in what is almost a locked door mystery, backstage and below stairs in the dilapidated, storm flooded playhouse.

When Handler wrote the first books in the series, it was the 90s so they were set in present day. Now they are set twenty years in the past but Handler has done a fantastic job of still grounding the book in that time period through references, name dropping (especially the actors expected at the fundraiser), and the technology used. Hoagy is a likable character and he narrates the novel. In order to keep the reader in suspense until the very end, he will intentionally leave out information, answers to questions he's asked or even the question itself, in order to signal to the reader that he is on the right track, even if we readers aren't yet. Lulu is an adorable sidekick who is only anthropomorphized to the extent that other dog owners understand but her sniffing investigations do help Hoagy in his conclusions. The wit and humor threads through the story and the visuals of Hoagy's attire are a complete delight. The ending is a surprise but an entirely believable one. As a bonus, in this novel, the whydunit relies on a situation that is quintessentially 90s. I liked the previous installment a little bit better than this one but I am still looking forward to the next novel because I enjoy my time with Hoagy, Merilee, and Lulu. If you're looking for a fun and quick whodunit read, you should definitely take a look at this one.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

And the Bride Closed the Door by Ronit Matalon.

The book is being released by New Vessel Press on October 1, 2019.

The book's jacket copy says: A young bride shuts herself up in a bedroom on her wedding day, refusing to get married. In this moving and humorous look at contemporary Israel and the chaotic ups and downs of love everywhere, her family gathers outside the locked door, not knowing what to do. The bride's mother has lost a younger daughter in unclear circumstances. Her grandmother is hard of hearing, yet seems to understand her better than anyone. A male cousin who likes to wear women's clothes and jewelry clings to his grandmother like a little boy. The family tries an array of unusual tactics to ensure the wedding goes ahead, including calling in a psychologist specializing in brides who change their mind and a ladder truck from the Palestinian Authority electrical company. The only communication they receive from behind the door are scribbled notes, one of them a cryptic poem about a prodigal daughter returning home. The harder they try to reach the defiant woman, the more the despairing groom is convinced her refusal should be respected. But what, exactly, ought to be respected? Is this merely a case of cold feet? A feminist statement? Or a mourning ritual for a lost sister? This provocative and highly entertaining novel lingers long after its final page.

Review: Three Story House by Courtney Miller Santo

If you haven't heard of spite houses before, go look them up because they are fascinating. If you have heard of them, you're probably intrigued by them like I am. The stories behind these houses are wild and so very, very human. They tell of neighbors who hate each other or families who cannot get along. They are a giant middle finger, revenge for something unforgivable. One such house is the thing that functions exactly opposite the way that it might have, bringing cousins together, helping them work through the crises in their lives that are weighing them down, and helping them find happy, productive futures.

The Memphis house that Lizzie lived in until she was eight, before her mother married her stepfather, is a spite house. Several years after her grandmother's death, she and her mother could lose the house to condemnation if they don't restore the derelict building and bring it up to code but her mother's out of the country on a mission trip so it's up to Lizzie. Lizzie doesn't want to upend her life to save it, especially given her contentious relationship with her mother, but since she's recovering from a horrible knee injury, one that could cost her her dream of Olympic gold and a her professional soccer career, she agrees to check things out. Once back in Memphis, faced with the overwhelming task, she makes the decision to rescue the house, determined to save it from demolition by the city. She is joined by her two step-cousins, Elyse and Isobel, who are each facing growing pains of their own. Elyse was blindsided when her sister and her childhood best friend, who she's been in love with forever, announced their engagement and Isobel, a former child star, cannot capture the fame and celebrity she craves as an adult. So all three women are on the precipice (almost literally, given the house's location) of change, whether they want it or not.

Spite House is both three stories tall and literally a house of three stories, those of Lizzie, Elyse, and Isobel. Each woman's story is told in turn in the three sections of the novel. The house holds secrets and answers but it is only the backdrop to the renovation, reinvention, and restoration the characters must do in their own lives; it's a project to keep them moving forward and to help them embrace their futures, significantly changed from what they once envisioned. Lizzie is the strongest of the characters and the mystery of her father's identity is another big plot line here. Given the structure of the novel, Lizzie's story, followed by Elyse's story, and finally by Isobel's story, Santo has done a good job keeping all of the stories going, one in the foreground with two in the background at any given moment. The resolutions to everything might be a little bit easy but over all, this was a satisfying, readable family drama.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past few weeks are:

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton
Retablos by Octavio Solis
The Unbreakables by Lisa Barr
The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America by Matt Kracht

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George
The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson
Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhannon
Breaking the Ocean by Annahid Dashtgard
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The Ventriloquists by E.R. Ramzipoor
The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell
A Stranger at My Table by Ivo de Figueiredo
The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobbs
Something Like Breathing by Angela Readman
The Last Ocean by Nicci Gerrard
Vacationland by Sarah Stonich
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner

Reviews posted this week:

The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America by Matt Kracht

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Oh, Tama! by Mieko Kanai
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Exposed by Jean-Philippe Blondel
Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas
Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Granny’s Got a Gun by Harper Lin
White Elephant by Julie Langsdorf
At Briarwood School for Girls by Michael Knight
The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
All Ships Follow Me by Mieke Eerkens
Like This Afternoon Forever by Jaime Manrique
Gravity Well by Melanie Joosten
Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Dear Baba by Maryam Rafiee
Saint Everywhere by Mary Lea Carroll
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Tonic and Balm by Stephanie Allen
Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons
In the Shadow of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas
The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin
CinderGirl by Christina Meredith
The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones
The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis
Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renee Lavoie
The Fragments by Toni Jordan
The Question Authority by Rachel Cline
The Plaza by Julie Satow
The Lonely Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
Haben by Haben Girma
The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester
Educated by Tara Westover
State of the Union by Nick Hornby
Turbulence by David Szalay
What a Body Remembers by Karen Stefano
The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar
Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust by Hedi Fried
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain
Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers by the New York Public Library
The Honey Bus by Meredith May
The Liar in the Library by Simon Brett
The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib
Church of the Graveyard Saints by C. Joseph Greaves
Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery by John Gregory Brown
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Advanced Physical Chemistry by Susannah Nix
Death of a Rainmaker by Laurie Lowenstein
No Good Asking by Fran Kimmel
Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich
The Abolitionist's Daughter by Diane C. McPhail
A London Country Diary by Tim Bradford
Crazy Cupid Love by Amanda Heger
A Moveable Feast edited by Don George
Tiny Hot Dogs by Mary Giuliani
Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew
Love You Hard by Abby Maslin
Unfurled by Michelle Bailat-Jones
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton
Retablos by Octavio Solis
The Unbreakables by Lisa Barr

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The Man in the White Linen Suit by David Handler came from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first in this series about a ghostwriter and novelist and his faithful basset hound and have the second on my to be read shelves so I am anticipating being pleased as punch by the third in the series as well.

Recipes from a Down East Inn by Mark Hodesh, Margaret Parker, and Katherine Gould came from me for me

I heard about this on a podcast and I just couldn't resist even though I am currently trying to cook through and pass along my obscene cookbook collection.






Deep Sea and Foreign Going by Rose George came from me for me.

Although a book about container shipping sounds pretty dull, this was talked about on the BBC's podcast A Good Read and it piqued my interest when all three readers talked about how fascinating they had found it despite their initial trepidation.

Unfinished Business by Vivian Gornick came from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

I love reading about the books that have shaped other people so I am looking forward to this collection of essays for sure.

Westering Women by Sandra Dallas came from St. Martin's Press.

I have enjoyed Dallas' western set novels in the past and this one about a woman who answers an ad to go to California in search of a husband on the Overland Trail looks like a really good one.

A Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier came from Henry Holt.

My daughter adored the Ruby Read series so I might have gotten this for her (but need to pre-read it, of course). Plus she's away in college so she can't possibly know what she's missing if I read it first. LOL!

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins came from Flatiron Books.

When a Mexican bookstore owner's husband crosses the head of a drug cartel, she and their small son must flee to the north, joining so many others in trying to reach the US. This sounds timely and important and my friend who has already read it said I need to pick it up next.

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore came from Flatiron Books.

About a woman who time travels in her own life, but in no particular order leaving her permanently discombobulated, this sounds amazing to me.

Light Changes Everything by Nancy E. Turner came from Thomas Dunne Books.

I loved These Is My Words when I read it many years ago so I look forward to returning to this world, now as seen by first book main character Sarah Prine's niece.

Good Boy by Jennifer Finney Boylan came from Celadon Books.

I do love books about dogs and with winsome dogs on the cover (although I worry they'll die in the telling of the story) so this memoir about seven dogs who have shared Finney Boylan's life and heart should be really good. (I suspect many of the dogs do die so I'll probably need tissue to read it.)

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler came from St. Martin's Press.

I'm going to be on a book club panel with Ms. Fowler in November (if you want to come, let me know!) but I'd want to read her novel about two families in an affluent neighborhood who live next door to each other, their teenagers who fall in love, and the complications of sharing a property line with someone you don't agree with even if I wasn't.

Otherhood by William Sutcliffe came from Bloomsbury.

I'm hoping that this novel about three mothers who drop in on their thirty-something sons to try and figure out why these sons don't seem to have figured out adulting will be hilarous. Plus there's going to be a movie and I always have to read the book first.

Roxy by Esther Gerritsen came from me for me.

A road trip novel set in motion by Roxy's husband being killed in a car accident with his lover, I am interested to see how this young widow puts her life back together again.

The Second Chance Supper Club by Nicole Meier came from me for me.

Estranged sisters, a clandestine supper club, and a chance at forgiveness. What else could a reader want?

All the Wild Hungers by Karen Babine came from me for me.

I am drawn to this cover and to the idea of essays written by a woman who cooked for her mother while her mother was undergoing treatment for cancer, especially since I cooked for my parents while my mother did the same.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Review: The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America by Matt Kracht

I am not a birder by any stretch of the imagination. I cannot identify many birds off the top of my head. I do not have bird feeders in my yard to attract our feathered friends. But I do enjoy listening to them chirping and peeping in the trees, even if I can't ever follow their trills to their location. I enjoy watching their little head tilts and apparent curiosity when they catch sight of me as they hop along the deck railing or from branch to branch of the backyard trees. Their preening makes me laugh as I admire the intricacy of their feathers. So I consider them welcome visitors to my yard but my investment and expertise in them is nil. As I was browsing at the bookstore one day, I saw this intriguing little book by the cash wrap and picked it up. Of course it had to come home with me. Now I'm hoping to spot some of the annoying little twit(terer)s Matt Kracht has drawn and described here in his entertaining, profanity-filled field guide.

Modeled after actual field guides, this snarky little spoof of a book has sections on the birds, bird watching tips, seasons, extinct species, bird feeders, and more. The section on the birds themselves are the most entertaining, of course, and that is subdivided into author created bird classifications. Kracht has grouped the birds in the categories of Typical Birds; Backyard Assholes; Hummingbirds, Weirdos, and Flycatchers; Egotists and Show-offs; Fuckers; Floaters, Sandbirds, and Dork-legs; and Murder birds. He illustrates each entry with quick, appealing sketches roughly colored in. The birds are given sarcastically derisive names (the real name is listed below the invented one) and the entry on each bird is short, pithy, and often hilariously annoyed. For example, the seagull's entry reads in part " The commonly used term 'seagull' is actually a catch-all for the many different types of gull and it doesn't describe a specific bird. Practically speaking, this doesn't matter because they're all the same trash bird at heart." His entry on the Canada Goose starts off sarcastically, "Thanks a lot, Canada." Kracht's primary complaints about birds are their annoying and constant loudness and their tendency to poop everywhere. Despite his irreverent, negative and fairly accurate descriptions, it is clear that Kracht actually enjoys birds quite a lot (and not just roasted or baked). The biggest problem with this book is the positively microscopic print but that's a design flaw, not a content flaw. The humor does wear a little thin over the course of a reading unless you read it in small snatches but as long as profanity doesn't offend you, you'll probably giggle along often enough to make this worth reading. I know I did.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

Inheritance by Evelyn Toynton.

The book is being released by Other Press on September 17, 2019.

The book's jacket copy says: In this luminous novel about romance and illusion--and what's left of love when they're stripped away--an American Anglophile is drawn into the lives of a disintegrating aristocratic family.

After the sudden death of her husband, Annie Devereaux flees to England, site of the nostalgic fantasies her father spun for her before he deserted the family. A chance encounter in London leads Annie to cancel her return to New York and move in with Julian, the disaffected, moody son of Helena Denby, a famous British geneticist. As their relationship progresses, Annie meets Julian's sisters Isabel and Sasha, each of them fragile in her own way, and becomes infatuated with visions of their idyllic childhood in England's West Country. But the more she uncovers about Julian's past, the more he explodes into rage and violence. Finally tearing herself away, Annie winds up adrift in London, rescued from her loneliness only when she and Isabel form an unexpected bond.

Slowly, with Isabel as her reluctant guide, Annie learns of the emotional devastation that Helena's warped arrogance, her monstrous will to dominate, inflicted on her children. The family who once embodied Annie's idealized conception of England is actually caught in a nightmare of betrayal and guilt that spirals inexorably into tragedy.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past few weeks are:

Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew
Love You Hard by Abby Maslin
Unfurled by Michelle Bailat-Jones
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George
The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson
Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhannon
Breaking the Ocean by Annahid Dashtgard
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The Ventriloquists by E.R. Ramzipoor
The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell
A Stranger at My Table by Ivo de Figueiredo
The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobb
Something Like Breathing by Angela Readman
The Last Ocean by Nicci Gerrard
Vacationland by Sarah Stonich
Retablos by Octavio Solis
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

Reviews posted this week:

Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
Congratulations, Who Are You Again? by Harrison Scott Key
Living the Dream by Lauren Berry

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Magnetic Girl by Jessica Handle
Oh, Tama! by Mieko Kanai
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Exposed by Jean-Philippe Blondel
Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas
Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Granny’s Got a Gun by Harper Lin
White Elephant by Julie Langsdorf
At Briarwood School for Girls by Michael Knight
The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
All Ships Follow Me by Mieke Eerkens
Like This Afternoon Forever by Jaime Manrique
Gravity Well by Melanie Joosten
Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Dear Baba by Maryam Rafiee
Saint Everywhere by Mary Lea Carroll
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Tonic and Balm by Stephanie Allen
Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons
In the Shadow of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas
The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin
CinderGirl by Christina Meredith
The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones
The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis
Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renee Lavoie
The Fragments by Toni Jordan
The Question Authority by Rachel Cline
The Plaza by Julie Satow
The Lonely Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
Haben by Haben Girma
The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester
Educated by Tara Westover
State of the Union by Nick Hornby
Turbulence by David Szalay
What a Body Remembers by Karen Stefano
The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar
Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust by Hedi Fried
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain
Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers by the New York Public Library
The Honey Bus by Meredith May
The Liar in the Library by Simon Brett
The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib
Church of the Graveyard Saints by C. Joseph Greaves
Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery by John Gregory Brown
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Advanced Physical Chemistry by Susannah Nix
Death of a Rainmaker by Laurie Lowenstein
No Good Asking by Fran Kimmel
Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich
The Abolitionist's Daughter by Diane C. McPhail
A London Country Diary by Tim Bradford
Crazy Cupid Love by Amanda Heger
A Moveable Feast edited by Don George
Tiny Hot Dogs by Mary Giuliani
Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew
Love You Hard by Abby Maslin
Unfurled by Michelle Bailat-Jones
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb came from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.


A novel about a young woman named Sophie in Monaco who becomes a close friend of Grace Kelly's, their long friendship, and the man who cannot stop thinking of Sophie, this sounds perfectly magical.

Obsessed by Elisabeth Bronfen came from me for me


I am salivating over this culinary memoir and cookbook written by a well known cultural critic.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Review: Living the Dream by Lauren Berry

Being a grownup is hard. When our older two children went off to college, we told them that we didn't expect them to know what they wanted to do with their lives at 18. As the oldest moves into the real world, we still don't expect him to know where his path is. Obviously his first job (yay for a fully employed kid!) is the first step on his path but there's no reason to expect that he knows with any certainty where that path will ultimately lead. Even people who have long had a very good idea of what they want to do (child #2 here) don't know how the path will get them where they want to go. And it's the stops along the way to a goal that shape a person, that make them who they are, and if they're lucky, turn them into adults. Lauren Berry's novel, Living the Dream, entertainingly details the life detour main character Emma has to make as she works toward her ultimate goal of being a writer.

Emma works at an advertising agency where she is quite good at her job as a "creative" but is often unrecognized and certainly underpaid and unfulfilled. What she really wants is to be a writer. From her best friend Clementine's perspective, Emma's life looks pretty good as after a year abroad doing an intensive and well-respected but very expensive graduate program, Clem has had to move back into her mother's house and work as a bartender while she waits impatiently to be discovered as the talented screenwriter she is. Neither Em nor Clem envisioned her adult life looking the way it is and both feel stuck waiting for their dreams to come true.

This is a funny and delightful look at the lives of young women in London figuring themselves and their lives out. Emma is struggling personally and professionally, her one glimmer of professional happiness being in the blog she writes on the side, her outlet for truth. Otherwise she is swamped in the tediousness of office life and in feeling like a sellout helping advertise companies in whom she doesn't believe. Clem doesn't want to sell out to the corporate world but she isn't moving forward any faster than Emma and she's always broke to boot. Both Em and Clem want to find happiness and fulfillment, which they try to do through a lot of boozy nights out, dating disasters, and kvetching to each other and their assorted friends but it takes actual movement and risk for anything to actually change in their lives.

Berry has written a terrifically entertaining novel about launching into adulthood, chasing dreams, and finding yourself. Emma is a complete delight and the cast of secondary characters around her are compelling and real feeling.  Clem is billed as a second main character but she really plays second fiddle to Emma in the novel.  There is certainly a lot of true to life angst here but the humor balances it out nicely so the reader never feels as if she's wallowing with the characters. As a mother of young adults, this novel does make me sad to think so many newly minted grownups are so unhappy and stuck in their lives, but it also gives me hope that finding the right path will happen, things will look brighter, and not everything along the way will be terrible. This quirky coming of age novel should appeal to others who remember their twenties with a shudder and a sigh of relief that they are through that fraught time and by those living through it who want to see themselves in these fun-loving but scared to make a move reflections of themselves.

Thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers and the publisher for sending me a copy of the book to review.

Review: Congratulations, Who Are You Again? by Harrison Scott Key

If you ever write anything that you share with others, people will likely tell you that you should write a book or you should get whatever snippet they've read published. But people generally have no concept of what writing a book (never mind the quality), getting it to a publishable state, and then, miracle of miracles, getting it traditionally published actually takes. It's not easy. And it can take years. If it ever happens at all. Harrison Scott Key's humorous memoir Congratulations, Who Are You Again? details the long and complicated journey he took to being a published author and while his experience is his alone, it is also universal enough to serve as a cautionary tale for those who think that writing a book is their ticket to fame and riches. Writing is a calling, publishing is simply a happy (read not guaranteed) outcome for that calling.

Key's first memoir, The World's Largest Man, focuses on his relationship with his father. It won The Thurber Prize for American Humor. So readers might be forgiven for thinking that Key had it all figured out as an author. This, his second memoir, shows just how hard he worked on that book to make it funny, to make it appear effortless, and even to get it down on the page in the first place. He knows that his first book has not only been published but has been successful by many measures as he's writing this one but he doesn't hesitate to pull back the curtain and really detail the grueling process, including harboring a long held dream that often felt out of reach or unrealistic, eleven years of writing around the other important things in his life (family, job, etc.), and the inside view of getting a book published including the marketing and touring, readings and interviews after the book comes out. Key is open and honest about his journey but also delightfully self-deprecating as he presents the highs and lows. He shares things about his personal process and about his private life, the highs and lows. He is a talented writer, truly able to make a reader laugh in places, often just as his numerous setbacks threaten to overwhelm and he balances both struggle and hope carefully. This is a testament to chasing a dream, nurturing it and cursing it but ultimately staying true to it. Key may not be a famous author, not immediately recognizable or a household name, but he's been successful at this difficult thing called writing for sure. Recommended for budding authors and those who are interested in an inside view of the publishing world from the author's perspective.

Thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Review: Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

Depression is a beast. It robs people of so much. But there's a stigma associated with it that keeps people from seeking treatment and getting the help they need to even have a chance to come through to the other side of it. Having people who have suffered publicly admit to their struggles without shame and offer hope is huge. Matt Haig's memoir Reasons to Stay Alive is without a doubt a raw, personal account of his battle with severe depression that helps to add to the conversation about this debilitating disease.

When Haig was in his early twenties, he descended into the fugue of severe depression. He describes the crippling effects on his life as he endured both depression and anxiety for years. He lets the reader see into the deepest, darkest hole he found himself living in, telling of his own experiences, giving facts about the black dog of depression, and offering glimpses of how he found reasons to stay alive even in the bleakest of his moments. Medication didn't work for Haig so there's not much information about how helpful they can be to those suffering and in fact Haig is rather skeptical of the efficacy of drugs given his own experience but he does appreciate the ongoing and unwavering support of his girlfriend (now wife) and his family during this horrible time in his life.

The memoir itself is short but powerful. It is a bit of a pastiche, having chapters of straight narrative, chapters where Haig addresses his suffering past self, lists, and more. It is honest, emotional, and ultimately hopeful. The memoir doesn't give any easy answers to his fellow sufferers but perhaps those with severe depression will see something of themselves in it and in seeing themselves, will find a way, like Haig did, to fight against this terrible, living nightmare.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

The Sisters of Summit Avenue by Lynn Cullen.

The book is being released by Gallery Books on September 10, 2019.

The book's jacket copy says: From Lynn Cullen, the bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and Twain’s End, comes a powerful novel set in the Midwest during the Great Depression, about two sisters bound together by love, duty, and pain.

Ruth has been single-handedly raising four young daughters and running her family’s Indiana farm for eight long years, ever since her husband, John, fell into a comatose state, infected by the infamous “sleeping sickness” devastating families across the country. If only she could trade places with her older sister, June, who is the envy of everyone she meets: blonde and beautiful, married to a wealthy doctor, living in a mansion in St. Paul. And June has a coveted job, too, as one of “the Bettys,” the perky recipe developers who populate General Mills’ famous Betty Crocker test kitchens. But these gilded trappings hide sorrows: she has borne no children. And the man she used to love more than anything belongs to Ruth.

When the two sisters reluctantly reunite after a long estrangement, June’s bitterness about her sister’s betrayal sets into motion a confrontation that’s been years in the making. And their mother, Dorothy, who’s brought the two of them together, has her own dark secrets, which might blow up the fragile peace she hopes to restore between her daughters.

An emotional journey of redemption, inner strength, and the ties that bind families together, for better or worse, The Sisters of Summit Avenue is a heartfelt love letter to mothers, daughters, and sisters everywhere.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past few weeks are:

Congratulations, Who Are You Again? by Harrison Scott Key
A Moveable Feast edited by Don George
Tiny Hot Dogs by Mary Giuliani

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George
The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson
Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhannon
Breaking the Ocean by Annahid Dashtgard
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The Ventriloquists by E.R. Ramzipoor
The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell
A Stranger at My Table by Ivo de Figueiredo
The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobb
Something Like Breathing by Angela Readman
The Last Ocean by Nicci Gerrard
Love You Hard by Abby Maslin
Vacationland by Sarah Stonich
Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew

Reviews posted this week:

The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Magnetic Girl by Jessica Handle
Oh, Tama! by Mieko Kanai
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Exposed by Jean-Philippe Blondel
Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas
Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Granny’s Got a Gun by Harper Lin
White Elephant by Julie Langsdorf
At Briarwood School for Girls by Michael Knight
The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
All Ships Follow Me by Mieke Eerkens
Like This Afternoon Forever by Jaime Manrique
Gravity Well by Melanie Joosten
Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Dear Baba by Maryam Rafiee
Saint Everywhere by Mary Lea Carroll
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Tonic and Balm by Stephanie Allen
Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons
In the Shadow of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas
The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin
CinderGirl by Christina Meredith
The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones
The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis
Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renee Lavoie
The Fragments by Toni Jordan
The Question Authority by Rachel Cline
The Plaza by Julie Satow
The Lonely Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
Haben by Haben Girma
The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester
Educated by Tara Westover
State of the Union by Nick Hornby
Turbulence by David Szalay
What a Body Remembers by Karen Stefano
The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar
Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust by Hedi Fried
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain
Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers by the New York Public Library
The Honey Bus by Meredith May
The Liar in the Library by Simon Brett
The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib
Church of the Graveyard Saints by C. Joseph Greaves
Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery by John Gregory Brown
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Advanced Physical Chemistry by Susannah Nix
Death of a Rainmaker by Laurie Lowenstein
No Good Asking by Fran Kimmel
Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich
The Abolitionist's Daughter by Diane C. McPhail
A London Country Diary by Tim Bradford
Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
Crazy Cupid Love by Amanda Heger
Congratulations, Who Are You Again? by Harrison Scott Key
A Moveable Feast edited by Don George
Tiny Hot Dogs by Mary Giuliani

Monday Mailbox

I've been delinquent in posting the trio of books that were waiting for me when I got home from vacation. So here they are finally. Plus a bunch I got for myself this past week because I have no shelf control. This past week's mailbox arrivals (plus the several weeks' old trio):

Poor Caroline by Winifred Holtby came from me for me.

This sounds like a delightfully kooky novel about an eccentric woman and a large cast of characters swirling around her. British satire from between the wars? Yes, please!

Interior by Thomas Clerc came from Picador.

I love the idea of touring someone else's rooms via the objects in them so this intimate investigation into Clerc's life and person is completely intriguing.

Do You Mind If I Cancel? by Gary Janetti came from Flatiron Books.

With a title like this, how could I not want to read it?! This collection of essays is from a noted comedy writer so I'm looking forward to laughing happily as I read this one.

Beneath the Visiting Moon by Romilly Cavan came from me for me.

Said to be in the vein of I Capture the Castle, I am looking forward to this novel about a family living in genteel poverty as the mother starts to show an interest in a neighbor and the children grow up even as WWII is on the horizon.

Nothing to Report by Carola Oman came from me for me.

A cheerful English village and eccentric characters? I can never get enough of this sort of novel.

Being Mrs. Bennet by Alexa Adams came from me for me.

A Pride and Prejudice adjacent novel? Why yes, I think I will.

Open Mic Night in Moscow by Audrey Murray came from me for me.

This was supposed to to come to me through LibraryThing Early Reviewers but it has never arrived so I thought if I wanted to read it, I'd have to get it for myself. I am interested in this memoir and travelogue about a young comedian who travels to Russia.

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan came from me for me.

I thoroughly enjoy Colgan's sweet novels and can never resist one set in a bookshop.

Squashed Possums by Jonathan Tindale came from me for me.

Off the Beaten Path in New Zealand? This sounds like my kind of travelogue for sure.

Love at First Like by Hannah Orenstein came from me for me.

This is a contemporary romance where a jeweler misleads her Instagram followers into thinking she's engaged, earning the business a lot of money but complicating her actual love life. Sounds fun, right?

The Lady Travelers Guide to Happily Ever After by Victoria Alexander came from me for me.

I do enjoy the trope where a couple marries to avoid scandal but goes their separate ways only to eventually fall in love years later which this historical romance has in spades.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.