Mailbox Monday October 11th

 Mailbox Monday- Welcome. This is a weekly event that was created from Marcia from The Printed Page.  It is being hosted in the month of October by She Reads and Reads. What came in your mailbox, book bag or into your library this week?   Here is what I accumulated over a the last three weeks.

My most long awaited book was the reprint of  Aran Knitting by Alice Starmore. (A treat from myself). It is the history of Aran Knitting AND a bunch of patterns that I have been dying to make for a few years now.  It will reside in my most cherished libraries of knitting books.  I haven't read it all but I have made a good dent in it and it exceeds my wildest expectations.

 I received Chosen by Chandra Hoffman from Jocelyn @ Kelly and Hall (thank you)

A bit about the book:
A young caseworker increasingly entangled in the lives of adoptive and birth parents faces life-altering choices when an extortion attempt goes horribly wrong in Chosen. Written in the spirit of Jodi Picoult and Anna Quindlen, Chosen is an extraordinary debut novel from Chandra Hoffman that deals with the controversial subject of adoption while providing a riveting read that will equally ensnare lovers of suspense, domestic drama, and literary fiction.

I also received Missing Lucile by Suzanne Berne, from Algonquin (Thank You).

A Bit about the book:
Even as a child, Suzanne Berne understood the source of her father’s terrible melancholy: he’d lost his mother when he was a little boy. Decades later, with her father now elderly and ailing, she decides to try to uncover the woman who continues to haunt him.

Every family has a missing person, someone who died young or disappeared, leaving a legacy of loss. Aided by vintage photographs and a box of old keepsakes, Berne sets out to fill in her grandmother’s silhouette and along the way uncovers her own foothold in American history.

Lucile Berne, née Kroger, was a daughter of Bernard Henry Kroger, the archetypal American self-made man, who at twenty-three established what is today’s $76 billion grocery enterprise. From her turn-of-the-century Cincinnati childhood to her college years at Wellesley, her tenure as treasurer of her father’s huge company, her stint as a relief worker in devastated France, her marriage to a professional singer, and the elusive, unhappy wealthy young matron she became, Lucile both illustrates and contradicts her times.

In the process of creating this portrait, Berne discovers the function of family history: “to explain what is essentially inexplicable—how we came to be ourselves.”

Hellos from Me!!

I am busy as heck.  I get around to pop in on blogs but I don't always leave a comment.  I got an IPAD and I think this is going to help keep up with all the lovely blog reading.    I am still trying to get through a few books.  I love my books just as much as ever,, but I am sure I got a bit burned out somehow.  I started reading more blogs than books. (well you know what I mean).  

This year has been about blog  balance and I don't feel blog stress anymore!  Yahoo!!!  I still do have some reading and blogging goals that I'd like to maintain.  Middle ground sort of evades me at the moment...and it needs to be about middle ground for me.    It has been over two years now since I started this book blog.    I love it here, I love the books and all the bloggy folks. 

I don't know that I can keep up with all the reviews that I want to do, but I do want to feature new books and stay connected.  I want to reward those who read with giveaways and I do want to participate in some of the blogging events and activities that everyone enjoys.

Thanks for everyone who stops by and if you leave me a comment know that it is always as special for me now as it was from the start. 

Have a great week!