Mailbox Monday - June 8

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.

Here we are again. The start of a new week. I am happy to see last week go. It passed in a blur, but with a lot of emotions. I shared why here if you're interested. Thankfully, the week ended on a good note with one accepted offer and, hopefully, one I will hear about tomorrow.

Now, on to more enjoyable things. I thought I would share some cute shots of the youngest furry members of our family.

Travis versus the grocery bag. You should have seen him try to walk with this thing around his neck.

Travis takes his job as grocery guard very seriously.

Travis also likes to sneak into the pantry and cabinets when we aren't looking.

Autumn, now more commonly referred to as Dwight,  is a frequent bed mate.

My mailbox had one book this week, but it's a good one.

What did you find in your mailbox this week? Anything I should add to my wish list?

Mailbox Monday - Feb 18

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.

I will truly be glad when it is warm enough around here for me to change my photo to a spring mailbox. It's snowing again. Shouldn't be as bad as last week's storm, but I would love to wear something other than boots when I walk the dog. Theo hasn't been happy either. The snow has been crunchy and hard to walk on, so he doesn't stay out long.

Last week was hectic with work and home life. I can't say I'm seeing a lull in my workload like sometimes happens in the first quarter of the year. This will probably be one of my best first quarters since I started in real estate.

As far as my mailbox, it has been full lately.

This one arrived over the weekend. I'll be reviewing it in March.

I picked up these two Kindle freebies this past week.

Then I grabbed this group from the local library for research.

One of my friends gave me these that she accidentally bought when she already owned them. That cab be a problem with book lovers. 

That should keep me out of trouble for a while. 

What did your mailbox look like? Anything exciting you would like to share?

Mailbox Monday - Sep 17

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.

Happy Monday! I hope you had a lovely weekend. My father-in-law turned 88 on Sunday, so we visited him at the Soldiers' Home and had a little party. On Saturday, the whole family had gotten together for dinner, so it was a weekend of celebrations.

I'm hoping to step out to the garden in a few and plant the garlic. Not sure it will happen since things are getting busy with work this morning, but I would love to get it done.

Lots of books this past week. One for review, three books for research, one because I love the time period, and a Kindle freebie (in that order).

So excited about all the new seasonal and holiday titles making their way onto the market right now. 

What was in your mailbox?

Mailbox Monday - November 20

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.

Happy Thanksgiving week! Not sure what your plans are but mine involve cleaning, baking, and spending time with my family. I'm working today and have a class tomorrow morning, but I'm hoping to be off after after that until next week. Annual Christmas bazaar at church is slated for this coming Saturday from 9 to 3.

As far as reading materials go, I received a couple of great books for review and also picked up a resource I found at the Write Angles Conference I attended on Saturday.

Can a religious separatist and an opportunistic spy make it in the New World?
A brand new series for fans of all things related to history, romance, adventure, faith, and family trees.

Mary Elizabeth Chapman boards the Speedwell in 1620 as a Separatist seeking a better life in the New World. William Lytton embarks on the Mayflower as a carpenter looking for opportunities to succeed—and he may have found one when a man from the Virginia Company offers William a hefty sum to keep a stealth eye on company interests in the new colony. The season is far too late for good sailing and storms rage, but reaching land is no better as food is scarce and the people are weak. Will Mary Elizabeth survive to face the spring planting and unknown natives? Will William be branded a traitor and expelled?

Join the adventure as the Daughters of the Mayflower series begins with The Mayflower Bride by Kimberley Woodhouse.

The inimitable Faith Fairchild returns in a chilling New England whodunit, inspired by the best Agatha Christie mysteries and with hints of the timeless board game Clue.

For most of her adult life, resourceful caterer Faith Fairchild has called the sleepy Massachusetts village of Aleford home. While the native New Yorker has come to know the region well, she isn’t familiar with Havencrest, a privileged enclave, until the owner of Rowan House, a secluded sprawling Arts and Crafts mansion, calls her about catering a weekend house party.

Producer/director of a string of hit musicals, Max Dane—a Broadway legend—is throwing a lavish party to celebrate his seventieth birthday. At the house as they discuss the event, Faith’s client makes a startling confession. "I didn’t hire you for your cooking skills, fine as they may be, but for your sleuthing ability. You see, one of the guests wants to kill me."

Faith’s only clue is an ominous birthday gift the man received the week before—an empty casket sent anonymously containing a twenty-year-old Playbill from Max’s last, and only failed, production—Heaven or Hell. Consequently, Max has drawn his guest list for the party from the cast and crew. As the guests begin to arrive one by one, and an ice storm brews overhead, Faith must keep one eye on the menu and the other on her host to prevent his birthday bash from becoming his final curtain call.

Full of delectable recipes, brooding atmosphere, and Faith’s signature biting wit, The Body in the Casket is a delightful thriller that echoes the beloved mysteries of Agatha Christie and classic films such as Murder by Death and Deathtrap.

Americans have long regarded the freedom of travel a central tenet of citizenship. Yet, in the United States, freedom of movement has historically been a right reserved for whites. In this book, Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor shows that African Americans fought obstructions to their mobility over 100 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. These were "colored travelers," activists who relied on steamships, stagecoaches, and railroads to expand their networks and to fight slavery and racism. They refused to ride in "Jim Crow" railroad cars, fought for the right to hold a U.S. passport (and citizenship), and during their transatlantic voyages, demonstrated their radical abolitionism. By focusing on the myriad strategies of black protest, including the assertions of gendered freedom and citizenship, this book tells the story of how the basic act of traveling emerged as a front line in the battle for African American equal rights before the Civil War.

Drawing on exhaustive research from U.S. and British newspapers, journals, narratives, and letters, as well as firsthand accounts of such figures as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and William Wells Brown, Pryor illustrates how, in the quest for citizenship, colored travelers constructed ideas about respectability and challenged racist ideologies that made black mobility a crime.

I hope you'll share your mailbox with us. Wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving.

Mailbox Monday - October 16

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.

Is it possible I haven't participate in Mailbox Monday since August 28? Wow! My life must truly be crazy. Here is the abridged version: tons of closings and some new listings (made top listing agent in my office in September), continued health issues plague my father-in-law and I'm very involved in his care, it's soccer season, and I'm still trying to pretend I can make time for my writing.

In the book world, I'm doing a bit better with reading but still not a lot of time for that. I'm usually too exhausted. That hasn't stopped me from buying anything. :)

Stopped by Traveler Restaurant in Union, CT in September. You can choose three free books when you dine there and books are also available to purchase. Picked up these two:

This must have been before they decided to separate it into separate volumes to make it more manageable. 

This also has different editions now and there are four books in the series.

Being a true Laura Ingalls Wilder fan I picked up these two new books from Amazon:

And who can resist a book sale from Christianbook.com...not me. 

This arrived from an author I had read before:

This was received for a virtual book tour:

That's it from me. I pray you all have a great week filled with blessings. Hope you'll share some of your new books here.

Mailbox Monday - August 4

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.

It's great to be back. I had a blast with my friends, but it's nice to be home with my family. Two books arrived while I was gone.

One October morning, high school junior Bryan Dennison wakes up a different person—helpful, generous, and chivalrous—a person whose new admirable qualities he doesn’t recognize. Stranger still is the urge to tie a red sheet around his neck like a cape.

Bryan soon realizes this compulsion to wear a red cape is accompanied by more unusual behavior. He can’t hold back from retrieving kittens from tall trees, helping little old ladies cross busy streets, and defending innocence anywhere he finds it.

Shockingly, at school, he realizes he used to be a bully. He’s attracted to the former victim of his bullying, Scott Beckett, though he has no memory of Scott from before “the change.” Where he’d been lazy in academics, overly aggressive in sports, and socially insecure, he’s a new person. And although he can recall behaving egotistically, he cannot remember his motivations.

Everyone, from his mother to his teachers to his “superjock” former pals, is shocked by his dramatic transformation. However, Scott Beckett is not impressed by Bryan’s newfound virtue. And convincing Scott he’s genuinely changed and improved, hopefully gaining Scott’s trust and maybe even his love, becomes Bryan’s obsession.

In a Drought, It's the Darkest Cloud

That Brings Hope

It's 1954 and Perla Long's arrival in the sleepy town of Wise, West Virginia, was supposed to go unnoticed. She just wants a quiet, safe place for her and her daughter, Sadie, where the mistakes of her past can stay hidden. But then drought comes to Wise, and Perla is pulled into the turmoil of a town desperately in need of a miracle.

Casewell Phillips has resigned himself to life as a bachelor . . . until he meets Perla. She's everything he's sought in a woman, but he can't get past the sense that she's hiding something. As the drought worsens, Perla's unique gift divides the town in two, bringing both gratitude and condemnation, and placing the pair in the middle of a storm of anger and forgiveness, fear and faith.

This book was a digital download gifted to me by the author. I had read a previous version of this book and she asked me to review the new one.

"I hate Angela and I wish she would move away tomorrow!" "I get so worried when I hear my parents fighting at night." "My mother thinks my crush is silly. I know I am in love!" "I have so many questions about growing up. Who will answer them?" "I feel so awful when Jake makes fun of me." "When I grow up I going to remember how to have fun with my kids and never look away."
Growing up is tough. Adults don't always understand you (even though they were once kids), and children today face increasing pressure to be, look, or act a certain way. Written in the voice of a girl on the cusp of becoming a teenager, The Truth provides young girls with an opportunity to see how a girl, who is in many ways like themselves, handles her toughest problems and most personal thoughts. Each new page brings forth a discussion to help girls handle everyday problems: How do you survive a bully? How do you handle a crush on a boy? What can you do about relentless teasing by your peers? What really matters as you grow older?

In a positive and supportive diary-entry format, Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein encourages tween girls to carry the most precious parts of themselves into adulthood. A great book for mothers and daughters to read together, The Truth is aimed to improve communication, understanding, and self-esteem for young girls as they enter the rocky road of teenager-dom.

This was the one book I allowed myself to buy on vacation. It will be a great addition to my Laura Ingalls Wilder collection. 

From May 1890 to October 1891 Laura and Almanzo, along with their daughter Rose, lived in Spring Valley, Minnesota. They stayed with Almanzo’s parents, recuperating from illness, before moving to Florida. This booklet focuses on the 1890′s, while Laura and Almanzo lived there, but also tells the story of the Wilder family in Spring Valley.

What did you receive in your mailbox?

Mailbox Monday - March 24

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.

Thankfully, it was a slow mailbox week. My reading time wasn't much last week, so hopefully I can catch up this week.

The hubby and I went to see The Monuments Men two Fridays ago. Directed and written by George Clooney, this movie is based upon the book, The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel. I ordered the book from Amazon and it came in Tuesday.

At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised.

In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.

Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.

What was in your mailbox this week?

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge (2013)

I wasn't going to participate this year. Not only is it a huge commitment, my stats at this blog began going down during and after I participated in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge last year. I don't blame the challenge. Maybe the content just wasn't what my readers were looking for.

This year, the challenge allows for categories. I chose History. I will do my best to make it interesting, but be forewarned, I prefer talking about Colonial America and the Civil War era more than anything else.

Hope you'll join us and follow along!

Guest Blogger: Mark Connelly, Author of The IRA on Film and Television (Giveaway)

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has for decades pursued the goal of unifying its homeland into a single sovereign nation, ending British rule in Northern Ireland. On film, the IRA has appeared in mainstream motion pictures such as The Quiet Man, action films like Blown Away, political dramas, dark comedies, and even a spaghetti Western, A Fistful of Dynamite. The IRA has been explored by major directors from three countries, including John Ford (The Informer), John Frankenheimer (Ronin), Carol Reed (Odd Man Out), David Lean (Ryan’s Daughter), Neil Jordan (Michael Collins), and Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father).  IRA characters have been portrayed by international stars, such as Victor McLaglen, James Cagney, Anthony Hopkins, James Mason, Richard Gere, and Brad Pitt.  Films about the Irish Republican Army range from realistic docudramas like Paul Greengrass’ Bloody Sunday, shot with handheld cameras and natural lighting to create the sensation of watching 1972 newsreel footage, to Joseph Merhi’s action farce Riot in which a British superhero battles IRA bikers in the streets of Los Angeles during a race riot.

Whether portrayed as a heroic patriot, ruthless terrorist, or troubled anti-hero, the Irish rebel has emerged as a universally recognized cinematic archetype.   Over eighty motion pictures include IRA references, and IRA characters have appeared in iconic American television series such as Hawaii Five-O, Columbo, and Law and Order.

This illustrated history analyzes film depictions of the IRA from the 1916 Easter Rising to the peace process of the 1990s. Topics include America’s role in creating both the IRA and its cinematic image, the organization’s brief association with the Nazis, the changing depiction of women in IRA films, and critical reception of IRA films in Ireland, Britain, and the United States.

The Gangster Film:  Criminalizing the IRA by Mark Connelly

           

The Irish Republican Army has long been implicated in criminal activity – typically robberies, smuggling, protection rackets, and money laundering – to obtain funds to purchase arms, support prisoners’ families, and pay pensions.  As an underground organization, it has engaged in “expropriations,” generally aimed at the rich and state enterprises. However necessary to finance operations, these actions provide political opponents with a powerful avenue of attack, allowing them to discredit the IRA for its crimes rather than its ideology.

            Filmmakers have made the IRA-crime link for dramatic and political reasons. 

Carol Reed’s classic Odd Man Out devotes more running time to a mill robbery and its aftermath than the obscure political motivations behind it.  On its American release, ads did not even mention Northern Ireland, instead announcing a new movie about “a killer on the loose . . . hiding in the shadows . . . while an angry city screams for his blood.” Significantly, the alternative title for Reed’s film was Gang War.

            British films in particular build on the criminal theme.  The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960), directed by Basil Deardon, stars Aldo Ray as a turn-of-the century Irish-American who arrives in London to help an Irish revolutionary organization tunnel into the Bank of England to steal a million pounds in gold.  The Long Good Friday (1980) stars Bob Hoskins as the mob lord of London whose empire is torn asunder on a single day as the IRA who “run half of Londonderry” supplant English gangs and become the new mafia bosses of Britain’s largest city.  David Caffrey’s black comedy Divorcing Jack (1998) includes the IRA bank robber Patrick “Cow Pat” Keegan.  Dressed like a Hollywood Mafioso with styled hair, designer suit, and jewelry, he appears as simply a murderous hooligan braced by sneering gunmen.  He has robbed over thirty banks for the IRA, but the film never offers a political rationale for the crimes.

            American movies have been less likely to dismiss the IRA as a criminal organization.  In John Frankenheimer’s Ronin (1998) the mastermind of a criminal conspiracy to steal a mysterious suitcase turns out to be an Irish terrorist “denounced by the IRA.”  By ascribing terrorism and crime to lone wolves and dissidents, American films cast the “real IRA” in a favorable light, presenting it as revolutionary organization that operates under self-imposed rules of engagement.

To get your paperback copy of THE IRA ON FILM AND TELEVISION by Mark Connelly, visit Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/The-IRA-Film-Television-History/dp/0786447362/

To get your ebook copy of THE IRA ON FILM AND TELEVISION by Mark Connelly, visit Amazon Kindle Store at

http://www.amazon.com/The-IRA-Film-Television-ebook/dp/B0084FA030/

Pick up your copy of THE IRA ON FILM AND TELEVISION by Mark Connelly at Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-ira-on-film-and-television-mark-connelly/1110783855?ean=9780786447367

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvj_ii7ae_Y  

Born in Philadelphia, Mark Connelly completed a masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he received a Ph.D in English.  His books include The Diminished Self: Orwell and the Loss of Freedom, Orwell and Gissing, Deadly Closets:  The Fiction of Charles Jackson, and several college textbooks.  He currently teaches literature and film in Milwaukee, where he is the Vice-President of the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center of Wisconsin.

His latest book is The IRA on Film and Television.

You can visit his website at www.theiraonfilmandtelevision.com.

Pump Up Your Book and Mark Connelly are teaming up to give you a chance to win a Kindle Fire HD! 

Use the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to enter and win!

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