It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Jan 18

Welcome to It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday.

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

My, my how time flies. Here we are at Monday again. Hope you had a great weekend. I worked most of it and started to take down the Christmas decorations. I have to do it in phases since I have so much. Besides, I was late in getting the last two trees up, so I haven't wanted to take them down. Maybe I will put together a Valentine's Day or a Spring tree. 

I had a nice announcement to make this weekend, too. I was named Best Book Editor in this annual poll. The second edition of A Christmas Kindness came in second place in the Best Children's Book category as well. Little chuckle because they spelled my name wrong on the Best Book Editor award. 

When it comes to reading, I am happy with how January is starting out. My review of this coloring book/gratitude journal will appear at my children's book blog on Wednesday. 

I am also reading these two. 

Next are these other books for virtual book tours. 

Did you see I snuck this new one onto the list? So much for not requesting more books to review for virtual book tours. LOL! 

Next up will be this one, but not sure what I will read after that. Of course, it's probably going to be one of the two new books that arrived. 

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 am trying to be really good about not ordering or requesting new books, but it is so, so hard. My physical mailbox had two new treats last week.

Israel: A drone-based terrorist attack kills dozens on a sun-splashed beach in Caesarea.

Washington: America awakens to the shattering news that Vice President Stephanie Davenport has died of an apparent heart attack.

That same morning, a chance encounter on the Washington Metro results in international private investigator Robert Brixton thwarting an attempted terrorist bombing. Brixton has no reason to suspect that the three incidents have anything in common, until he's contacted by Kendra Rendine, the Secret Service agent who headed up the vice president's security detail. Rendine is convinced the vice president was murdered and needs Brixton's investigative expertise to find out why.

In Israel, meanwhile, legendary anti-terrorist fighter Lia Ganz launches her own crusade against the perpetrators of that attack which nearly claimed the lives of her and granddaughter. Ganz's trail will ultimately take her to Washington where she joins forces with Brixton to uncover an impossible link between the deadly attack on Caesarea and the attempted Metro bombing, as well as the death of the vice president.

The connection lies in the highest corridors of power in Washington where a deadly plot with unimaginable consequences has been hatched. With the clock ticking toward doomsday, Brixton and Ganz race against time to save millions of American lives who will otherwise become collateral damage to a conspiracy destined to change the United States forever.

The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a long cold spell, warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota territory to venture out again, and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats--leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At just the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard struck without warning. Schoolteachers as young as sixteen were suddenly faced with life and death decisions: keep the children inside, to risk freezing to death when fuel ran out, or send them home, praying they wouldn't get lost in the storm?

Based on actual oral histories of survivors, the novel follows the stories of Raina and Gerda Olsen, two sisters, both schoolteachers--one who becomes a hero of the storm, and one who finds herself ostracized in the aftermath. It's also the story of Anette Pedersen, a servant girl whose miraculous survival serves as a turning point in her life and touches the heart of Gavin Woodson, a newspaperman seeking redemption. It is Woodson and others like him who wrote the embellished news stories that lured immigrants across the sea to settle a pitiless land. Boosters needed immigrants to settle territories into states, and they didn't care what lies they told them to get them there--or whose land it originally was.

At its heart, this is a story of courage, of children forced to grow up too soon, tied to the land because of their parents' choices. It is a story of love taking root in the hard prairie ground, and of families being torn asunder by a ferocious storm that is little remembered today--because so many of its victims were immigrants to this country.

I cannot wait to dive into these novels. Margaret Truman was one of my favorite authors when I was in my early twenties. I'm familiar with the story of the Children's Blizzard and I enjoy Melanie Benjamin's work, so I have high hopes for this novel.

I'm really glad that I decided to focus on only two blogs this year. While I miss my mom blog, I am glad not to have to worry about content for that site on top of this blog and my children's book blog. I might go back to all my other blogs one day when my schedule is less hectic, but it's not practical right now.

How many blogs do you have? Have you read any of the books I featured this week? What book are you looking forward to reading next?