Mailbox Monday - Aug 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.

Well, the end of August is creeping up on us. I spent time with my mother-in-law this weekend. I will be heading home today. We miss her when she isn't with us, but need to keep her safe from COVID and two of us still work outside the house.

On Saturday, I watched Beauty and the Beast with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens. Wow! I would watch it again if I had time. The only good thing about my tinnitus affecting my sleep is that I watch some good TV and movies on the Kindle Fire HD 10. I'm still going through the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated series, but I don't like it as much as the original show. I don't like how they put Frank and Daphne and Shaggy and Velma into relationships with each other. I don't like how Velma is jealous of Shaggy and Scooby's friendship, either.

My physical mailbox did not hold any treasures, but I picked up a new Kindle Unlimited selection and a Kindle freebie.

I recently heard Richard Rothstein speak, which prompted me to add his book to my Kindle Unlimited collection.

I've read a few books by Pamela Samuels Young, so I picked up this Kindle freebie last week.

That's it for me this week. It will be a busy one as I have two closings, a meeting, and am taking the girls back to school shopping for some new clothes. My wallet is already crying.

Mailbox Monday - February 12

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.

Here we are back to Monday again. Hope you had a great week. We are gearing up for school vacation week next week. I'll be taking some time off to spend with the girls, so I probably won't be blogging.

As for last week, got some reading done. Check out my reviews of Abuse of Discretion by Pamela Samuels Young and Patrick Turns His Play into Pay by Shani and Patrick Muhammad. Next up will be Revision is a Process – How to Take the Frustration Out of Self-Editing by Catherine E. McLean and The Pirate Bride by Kathleen Y'Barbo.

As for my tiny little mailbox, I received two books last week:

For Leah Otto, marrying Jude Shetler is a long-held dream come true. As a young girl, she was captivated by his good looks and talent as an auctioneer. When Jude, now a widower with three children, begins to court her, Leah doesn’t hesitate. Other men may not appreciate her tomboy ways, but Jude values Leah’s practical nature and her skill with the animals she tends, and both enter the marriage with joy and optimism.

Three months later, Leah feels as if her world is coming down around her. Her twin teenage step-daughters, Alice and Adeline, are pushing boundaries and taking far too many risks, while five-year-old Stevie deeply misses his mother. Leah, more at ease in a barn tending her goats and chickens than in a kitchen, struggles with her housekeeping duties.

Then a baby is abandoned on their doorstep, and Leah must search her soul. Caring for little Betsy fills her with renewed purpose and the strength to begin pulling her family together. With Jude’s steadfast support, Leah finds that what she once thought of as a happy ending may be something even better—the beginning of a life rich in love, faith, and unexpected blessings.

Patrick Turns His Play Into Pay is a picture book, based on a true story. It details the journey of an entrepreneur, Patrick Muhammad through the eyes of a child. The book uses illustrations that are vivid and lively words, to explain the road little Patrick took to the world of entrepreneurship. This book shows the reader how Patrick turned his passion of baking into a full-fledged business for himself. This book plants an entrepreneurial seed in today’s youth and demonstrates how their passion can someday become their profession.

How about you? What was in your mailbox? Hope you have a blessed week.

Teaser Tuesday for August 7, 2012

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

A burst of red eased up Melinda Mitchell's flabby neck. Her eyes darted sideways in a wordless appeal for her slouch of an attorney to object.

~ page 113, Attorney-Client Privilege by Pamela Samuels Young 

Free for All Friday: Executive Actions & Executive Treason by Gary Grossman

It's time for another giveaway. I'm thrilled to be able to offer two eBooks from Gary Grossman to one lucky winner.

An assassin takes aim at a Presidential candidate during a primary stump speech. The instant he pulls the trigger, the outcome of the election is irrevocably changed. But Democrat Teddy Lodge, an upcoming media sweetheart, isn't killed. His wife is. As a result, Lodge emerges as the man to beat and the greatest threat to the incumbent President, Morgan Taylor. Under a specific directive from the President, Special Service Agent Scott Roarke delves into the case and begins to unravel a deadly plot that incubated for more than 30 years; designed to alter America's allegiances in the Middle East. From the very first page, Presidential Objective culls events from today's headlines intersecting with a scenario that's shockingly real: An insidious plot hatched in the old days of the Soviet Union continues to grow to fruition in the hands of a power hungry Middle East heir to the throne. At its core, a sleeper is awakened to take a prominent role in American Life. Presidential Option is a tense political thriller; an election year page-turner, where both the Presidency and the Constitution are at stake.

The secret terrorist organization that came within a heartbeat of installing its agent as President of the United States in Executive Actions is back with a new—and deadlier—plot to destabilize the U.S. government. It all begins with what appears to be a simple mugging and murder of a female White House staffer. Secret Service agent Scott Roarke discovers the truth: that the murder was committed by his secret nemesis, the mysterious assassin who had managed to always stay one step ahead of him during the presidential campaign. This time Roarke has found clues about the assassin's past that give him the tools he needs to hunt the hunter, but the clues can only go so far. Roarke needs all his skill, and a huge amount of luck as well, if he's going to catch his quarry.

Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Blogger: Joshua Graham, Author of Beyond Justice

THE DESCENT INTO HELL IS NOT ALWAYS VERTICAL…

Sam Hudson, a reputable San Diego attorney, learns this when the authorities wrongfully convict him of the brutal rape and murder of his wife and daughter, and sends him to death row. There he awaits execution by lethal injection.

If he survives that long.

In prison, Sam fights for his life while his attorney works frantically on his appeal. It is then that he embraces the faith of his departed wife and begins to manifest supernatural abilities. Abilities which help him save lives– his own, those of his unlikely allies–and uncover the true killer’s identity, unlocking the door to his exoneration.

Now a free man, Sam’s newfound faith confronts him with the most insurmountable challenge yet. A challenge beyond vengeance, beyond rage, beyond anything Sam believes himself capable of: to forgive the very man who murdered his family, according to his faith. But this endeavor reveals darker secrets than either Sam or the killer could ever have imagined. Secrets that hurtle them into a fateful collision course.

BEYOND JUSTICE, a tale of loss, redemption, and the power of faith.

Faith and Fiction

By Joshua Graham

As a writer, finding the balance between a great read and inspirational themes is not always easy. The challenge is that you can’t always please everyone. So what’s a writer to do? The answer is simple: Write the best book you can with sincerity. Some will love it, some will hate it, but that’s the case for ALL books. To illustrate this fact, just look at the 5-star reviews and 1-star reviews for books written by your favorite bestselling authors.

Why write about faith? Well, for some authors (like me) it’s just a part of who we are. And to do so with sincerity, we need to know about that which we write. For example: John Grisham was and still is an attorney. So naturally he writes Legal Thrillers. Dick Francis was the son of a jockey and stable manager and left school at 15 without any qualifications, with the intention of becoming a jockey and became a trainer in 1938. Francis became a celebrity in the world of British National Hunt racing and won over 350 races, becoming champion jockey in the 1953–54 season. Guess what he wrote about?

If anyone meets me and talks with me for more than 5 minutes, they’ll also learn about my wife and family. Again, they’re such a part of my life that if I open myself personally to anyone, they’ll inevitably come up in the conversation. It would take effort to purposely not talk about them.

As the adage goes, write what you know.

Of course, what you know needs not dominate the entirety, or even majority of a novel. And though my faith is the most important part of my life, I try not to make it the major thrust of the plot or characters in my book.

Now depending on the market for which you write, it may be appropriate to make the faith aspect more central (Christian Fiction) or more peripheral (Mainstream Market). I’ve seen the latter done nicely in the works of C.S. Lewis, John Grisham, and Dean Koontz, to name but a few.

When I write, I invite people of all convictions to get into the world and characters of my story. Even if there is a faith element, I try to present all sides and let the reader decide for themselves what they wish to think/believe. I don’t have any agenda other than presenting a compelling book that stimulates discussion and leaves memorable impressions.

Joshua Graham is the award winning author of the #1 Amazon and Barnes & Noble legal thriller BEYOND JUSTICE. His latest book DARKROOM won a First Prize award in the Forward National Literature award and was an award-winner in the USA Book News “Bests Books 2011” awards.

Connect with Josh at the following:

http://www.joshua-graham.com/
www.facebook.com/j0shuaGraham  
Twitter:@J0shuaGraham 

Book Review: Defending Jacob by William Landay

A suspenseful page-turner awaits you in Defending Jacob by William Landay.

Andrew Barber is an assistant district attorney in suburban Massachusetts when a shocking crime shatters his town. Andy is further blindsided when his fourteen-year-old son, Jacob, is charged with the murder of a classmate.

Andy continues to believe in his son's innocence despite the damning facts and shocking revelations. His marriage threatens to crumble as the trial intensifies, and a past Andy has worked hard to bury slowly resurfaces, jeopardizing his family's future.

If you are a character-driven reader, you'll be totally captivated by this novel. Defending Jacob by William Landay is intense. While you'll fly through it, turning page after page, unable to put it down, you will be emotionally drained once you're done. One family is torn apart by a murder charge no one could have imagined. As the reader dives deeper into the Barbers' lives she's not sure what to believe. Is Jacob guilty? Is he innocent? Labeled a family drama, a legal thriller and a psychological thriller, Defending Jacob grabs on and never lets go.

This story is told by former Assistant District Attorney Andrew Barber, who has been subpoenaed in April 2008 by his former colleague, Neal Logiudice. And as much as this story is about the Barbers, it is also about Logiudice: his blind ambition, his determination to succeed, and his desire to prove he's one better than his predecessor.

Defending Jacob is certain to add more awards to William Landay's resume. I highly recommend it.


Title: Defending Jacob
Author: William Landay
Publisher: Delacorte Press (January 31, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0385344228
ISBN-13: 978-0385344227
SRP: $26.00 (hardcover)
Also available in a Kindle edition!

Visit the author online at http://www.williamlanday.com/.

I received a free electronic copy from the publisher through NetGalley. The publisher paid me to promote this book through a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book. That fee does not include a review. This review contains my honest opinions, for which I received no monetary compensation of any kind.