Mailbox Monday for February 13 and Giveaways!

Posted by Laura at Library of Clean Reads on February 13, 2011 in Giveaways Mailbox Monday | Comments : 31

Welcome to Mailbox Monday!

I am excited to be hosting this month, and I have two giveaways lined up this week. Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. (Library books don’t count, but eBooks & audiobooks do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists! Last month Rose City Reader hosted and you can view the touring blog list at Mailbox Monday blog for the upcoming months.

*Please note: I will be posting MM on Sunday mornings.

The winner of last week's Mailbox Monday Giveaway (The Jane Austen Fiction Package) is: Amber Stults. Congratulations! (Winner chosen with Random.org)

My Mailbox

I think I am going to have lots of fun and laughter reading these two books!

The Egg And I by Betty MacDonald (Book Club read)

When Betty MacDonald married and moved to a small farm on the Olympic Peninsula in the State of Washington, she was largely unprepared for the rigors of life in the wild. No running water, no electricity, a house in need of constant repair, and days that ran from four in the morning to nine at night, with barely a moment to put one's feet up. And this was before the children arrived. But the MacDonalds managed to keep their sense of humor, and this account of their adventures with the house and with neighbors is an endearing frontier classic.

Miss Hildreth Wore Brown: Anecdotes of a Southern Belle by Olivia deBelle Byrd (For review by author)

With storytelling written in the finest Southern tradition from the soap operas of Chandler Street in the quaint town of Gainesville, Georgia, to a country store on the Alabama state line, Oliviade Belle Byrd delves with wit and amusement into the world of the Deep South with all its unique idiosyncrasies and colloquialisms. The characters who dance across the pages range from Great-Aunt LottieMae, who is as “old-fashioned and opinionated as the day is long,” to Mrs. Brewton, who calls everyone “dahling” whether they are darling or not, to Isabella with her penchant for mint juleps and drama. Humorous anecdotes from a Christmas coffee, where one can converse with a lady who has Christmas trees with blinking lights dangling from her ears, to Sunday church,where a mink coat is mistaken for possum, will delight Southerners and baffle many a non-Southerner. There is the proverbial Southern beauty pageant, where even a six-month-old can win a tiara, to a funeral faux pas of the iron clad Southern rule—one never wears white after Labor Day and, dear gussy, most certainly not to a funeral. Miss Hildreth Wore Brown—Anecdotes of a Southern Belle is guaranteed to provide an afternoon of laugh-out-loud reading and hilarious enjoyment.

And now for the giveaways!

First Giveaway: YA Package (2 books)

Old Photographs by Sherie Posesorski

Fourteen-year-old Phoebe Hecht is slowly making her way through the long boring days of summer vacation. It doesn’t help that her mom’s marriage to a wealthy heart surgeon means that they’ve left their old, comfortable lives behind – so much so that her mom now seems ashamed at the merest mention of their humble beginnings. Now they live in a fancy Toronto neighborhood where she doesn’t belong, and the only friend she made at her new school, Yuri Kimura, has gone to Tokyo for the summer. The only thing getting Pheobe through the summer is her obsession with Agatha Christie mysteries and her covert spying on Colin, her crush who works at the local grocery store.

A chance meeting with a kind elderly neighbor named Mrs. Tomblin changes everything and brings all Phoebe’s interests together. When Mrs. Tomblin is robbed and assaulted she can’t remember anything about what happened, due to the fact that she is in the early stages of dementia. It is up to Phoebe and Colin to try and solve the mystery of the robbery. Could Mrs. Tomblin’s collection of old photographs be at the centre of the puzzle?

The Way It Is by Donalda Reid

To Ellen Manery, a brilliant, introverted, socially isolated fifteen-year-old, there is nothing good about the summer of 1967, especially when her parents decide to move to a small town in the interior of British Columbia. None of the big ideas of the decade – the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, women’s rights – have had much of an effect on this small community.

Ellen has always been more interested in studying than a social life, but that begins to change when she meets Tony Paul, an eighteen-year-old who is a Shuswap Indian and lives on the nearby reserve. It is Tony’s friendship that gives Ellen the strength to endure the loneliness, discrimination, and sexism she faces during her last year in high school. But as their friendship turns into something deeper, they must decide if they can break free of the small minds around them and forge their own future.

Second Giveaway: A Novel of Ireland

The Matchmaker of Kenmare by Frank Delaney

Read Sandra's review of this newest release by one of Ireland's greatest authors.

“And there’s a legend—she had only vague details—that all couples who are meant to marry are connected by an invisible silver cord which is wrapped around their ankles at birth, and in time the matchmaking gods pull those cords tighter and tighter and draw the couple slowly toward one another until they meet.” So says Miss Kate Begley, Matchmaker of Kenmare, the enigmatic woman Ben MacCarthy meets in the summer of 1943.

As World War II rages on, Ben remains haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his wife, the actress Venetia Kelly. Searching for purpose by collecting stories for the Irish Folklore Commission, he travels to a remote seaside cottage to profile the aforementioned Matchmaker of Kenmare.

Ben is immediately captivated by the forthright Miss Begley, who is remarkably self-assured in her instincts but provincial in her experience. Miss Begley is determined to see that Ben moves through his grief—and a powerful friendship is forged along the way.

But when Charles Miller, a striking American military intelligence officer, arrives on the scene, Miss Begley develops an intense infatuation and looks to make a match for herself. Miller needs a favor, but it will be dangerous. Under the cover of their neutrality as Irish citizens, Miss Begley and Ben travel to London and effectively operate as spies. As they are drawn more deeply and painfully into the conflict, both discover the perils of neutrality—in both love and war.

How to Enter:

Thanks to Andrea from Second Story Press and Leah Paulos for offering these books. There will be two winners, one for each giveaway. Entering is easy.

Just leave the link to your Mailbox post by using Mr. Linky below.
For an extra entry, leave a comment at the end of this post. If you do not wish to be entered, you can still leave the link to your MM but also leave me a comment telling me not to enter you.
If you prefer to be entered for only one of the giveaways, please let me know if it's for the first or second. If you want an extra entry for the second giveaway, leave a comment under the review post of The Matchmaker of Kenmare.
Open to Us and Canada. No PO Boxes.
Giveaway ends Saturday, February 19 at 9:00 pm Eastern Time.
Winners will be announced the next day in the MM post.

So what did you get in your mailbox last week. Link up and share!

Mailbox Monday Participants