Mailbox Monday - February 9

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists.

Exciting times this week. I learned about a new book from award-winning author Bich Minh Nguyen that has a connection to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Within a week of hearing about the book, the publisher contacted me to see if I would be interested in reviewing it--and she didn't even know about my Laura Ingalls Wilder collection when she sent that email. The best part--this sounds like a fascinating and unique story.

Jobless with a PhD, Lee Lien returns home to her Chicago suburb from grad school, only to find herself contending with issues she’s evaded since college. But when her brother disappears, he leaves behind an object from their mother’s Vietnam past that stirs up a forgotten childhood dream: a gold-leaf brooch, abandoned by an American reporter in Saigon back in 1965, that might be an heirloom belonging to Laura Ingalls Wilder. As Lee explores the tenuous facts of this connection, she unearths more than expected—a trail of clues and enticements that lead her from the dusty stacks of library archives to hilarious prairie life reenactments and ultimately to San Francisco, where her findings will transform strangers’ lives as well as her own.

A dazzling literary mystery about the true origins of a time-tested classic, Pioneer Girl is also the deeply moving tale of a second-generation Vietnamese daughter, the parents she struggles to honor, the missing brother she is expected to bring home—even as her discoveries yield dramatic insights that will free her to live her own life to its full potential.

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This book I requested also arrived. I've only skimmed it so far, but the illustrations are adorable.

Anna Banana can't settle down tonight, even though her stuffed animal friends are tired and just want to sleep. They suffer through delay after delay and excuse after excuse, until Anna Banana is finally sleepy. And then . . . it's time for their revenge!Anna Banana is about to get a taste of her own medicine.

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This one I picked up as a Kindle freebie when I was emailed about it.

Nia is a high school beauty who discovers she is being stalked by a secret society. Everyone is suspect. Even the basketball star she's been paired with for a senior project. The girl who thinks she knows everything finds out she knows nothing at all. The pressure is mounting and problems are stacking up. Who is behind this secret society? Why would they be after her?

What was in your mailbox this week?