Mailbox Monday - February 23, 2009

Welcome to my Mailbox Monday post (hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page). Here are some of the books that arrived in my mailbox this past week.

If you've read any of these books and have any thoughts you can share, I would love to hear them!

The Reincarnationist and The Memorist by M.J. Rose. I was lucky enough to win these two books from a giveaway at Michele's wonderful blog A Reader's Respite. She got me interested in these books after I read her reviews so I entered her giveaway and won! Here are a little summary of the books taken from the book jackets:

The Reincarnationist: A bomb in Rome, a flash of bluish-white and photojournalist Josh Ryder's world exploded. Nothing would ever be the same. As Josh recovers, his mind is invaded with thoughts that have the emotion, the intensity, the intimacy of memories. But these are not his memories. They are ancient...and violent. There's an urgency to them he can't ignore -- pulling him to save a woman named Sabina and the treasure she protects. But who is Sabina? Desperate for answers, Josh turns to the world-renowned Phoenix foundation--a research facility that scientifically documents cases of past life experiences. He is led to an archaeological dig and to Professor Gabriella Chase, who has discovered an ancient, powerful secret that threatens to merge the past with the present. Here, the dead call out to the living, and murders of the past become murders of the present.

The Memorist: As a child, Meer Logan was haunted by memories of another time and place, always accompanied by the faint strains of elusive music. Now the past has reached out again in the form of a strange letter that sets her on the journey to Vienna to unlock the mystery of who she once was. With each step, she comes closer to remembering connections between a clandestine reincarnationist society, a lost flute linked to Ludwig Van Beethoven, and David Yalom, a journalist who understands all too well how the past affects the future. David knows loss firsthand--terrorism is a reality that cost him his family. He's seen every solution promised by security experts from around the world--and he's seen every solution fail. Now, in a concert hall in Vienna, in a single violent act, he plans to force the world to understand the cost of those failures. Because those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

The Worst Thing I've Done by Ursula Hegi. I got this book via Paperback Swap, and it sounds really good. Here is the book description that got me hooked: "Tonight, Annie is driving alone from North Sea to Montauk and back again, as she has every night since her husband, Mason, challenged what she believed about herself and about their marriage. Eating junk food and listening to talk radio, Annie tries to shut out her rage, her pain, but Mason's voice persists within her, as urgent as the voices of the anonymous callers who confess their misery to the radio psychologists. Once again, Ursula Hegi writes along that border where bliss and sorrow meet. Sensuous, funny, and mysterious, her new novel takes us into an exuberant and troubled friendship. Since early childhood, Annie, Jake, and Mason have had a special bond. When Annie's parents die on the same night that she and Mason are married, the three friends decide to raise Annie's newborn sister, Opal, together. Annie struggles to be both a sister and a mother to Opal, a wife to Mason, and a friend to Jake. Not surprisingly, their relationships, already entangled, grow dangerous, too close, on the line. One fateful night the three friends miss the moment when they could still turn back, and they goad each other to step across the line, with shocking, unforeseen consequences. Set on the East End of Long Island, The Worst Thing I've Done is an incandescent story of love, friendship, and marriage; of joy and betrayal;of an artist's struggle to reconnect with her work; and of how we can choose our mothers, our families. Beautifully written and brilliantly vivid, it explores the resilience in the protagonists' lives, and their courage to move forward despite an uncertain future."

And here is a quick peek of what I have planned for this week:

• Wednesday: Review of That Went Well: Adventures in Caring for My Sister by Terrell Harris Dougan -- plus a giveaway of the book!

• Friday: Links to interesting book and reading posts I've found in the past week