In My Mailbox is a weekly meme by The Story Siren -- click that link if you want to know more! I don't know how often I'm going to be doing this (probably not every week), but since I definitely had an influx of new books this past weekend, I thought I'd join in!
All three of these are from PaperbackSwap, which I've mentioned before. I requested these a little while ago. One arrived on Friday, and two today! It was a nice surprise after a long day of work on rainy day when I'm developing a cold.
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant. (From Goodreads): Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter’s abilities. But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when Alessandra’s parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native city are caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, and the hellfire preaching and increasing violence of Savonarola’s reactionary followers. Played out against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra’s married life is a misery, except for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful attraction to the young painter and his art.
I'm currently reading this book (chapter three) and so far, so good. I love historical fiction, particularly historical fiction of the Renaissance, and this is (so far) reminding me a little of Girl With a Pearl Earring. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint.
Atonement by Ian McEwan. (From Goodreads): On a summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century.
This is, unfortunately, my first PaperbackSwap disappointment. I requested this book on April 29th, and the sender marked it "mailed" on April 30th. When I received the package today, it said it had been postmarked on May 12th. Very irritating. I had already received one email from PBS asking if I'd received the book yet. When I marked the book received this afternoon, I made a note that the seller and the postmark were not the same. Not too happy about it, but eh. What can you do?
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. (From Goodreads): On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this story that unfolds over a quarter of a century - in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that long-ago winter night. The Memory Keeper's Daughter articulates a silent fear close to the heart of every mother: What would happen if you lost your child, and she grew up without you?
This one I picked up on a whim. I have heard both good and bad things about it, so I thought I would take a gamble and see for myself.
I also have two Kindle books on deck right now: The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger, and Shoeless Joe by W.P Kinsella. So it appears that I won't be in need of new literature for quite some time. We'll see if that keeps me away from Borders though!
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