So it's been almost an entire month since I posted a Mail Call post. I had managed to get myself off of vampire time and onto normal human being time which really cut into my undisturbed blogging time. I have decided to take some time off and ignore my family for a bit today though, so I can get caught up. Since it's been so long since my last post, I have several books to share today.
Synopsis
No evil can remain buried forever, as disgraced journalist Thomas Brooks discovers when a wave of death grips the rural Kentucky town of Gray Hollow in terror.
Following a very public humiliation, Thomas is looking for a story to get him back on the map-and free of the small town newspaper where he serves out his exile. The apparent murder of a stranger seems to be just what the opportunistic reporter needs, until he discovers the death is merely the start of something bigger.
Also investigating the murder is Sheriff Jezebel Woods, who doesn't approve of Thomas' sensationalist intentions. Mounting deaths force the pair to set aside their differences to confront a force that threatens to destroy the entire town.
At the center of the mystery is the disappearance of a boy named Salem Alistair, who designed a series of grotesque scarecrows for his parents' farm-scarecrows that are turning up at each subsequent crime scene. Thomas begins to doubt his uneasy alliance with the sheriff when he realizes Jezebel has her own secret history with Salem Alistair.
Thomas and Jezebel are completely unprepared to face the supernatural force at odds with Gray Hollow. As the killings continue, and the town slowly begins to yield its dark secrets, the truth will pit Thomas and Jezebel on a collision course with true evil.
Mistake Wisconsin by Kersti Niebruegge
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Twenty-four musky-shaped mailboxes are missing in the small town of Mistake, Wisconsin. One crooked politician blames the local teenagers, but sophomore Megan Svenson smells something fishy—and it's not just her job at Brabender's Bait, where she runs into three out-of-towners visiting for musky fishing Opening Day. The sheriff is hot on the trail of the mailbox thieves, but Megan suspects she’s the only one who can exonerate her classmates. With a little creative thinking, Megan is determined to save Mistake’s beloved fishing holiday in this humorous tale of the eccentric Northwoods.
The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge by Charlie Lovett
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Synopsis
A delightful sequel to Dickens’s beloved A Christmas Carol by the bestselling author of First Impressions and The Bookman’s Tale
On a hot summer day some twenty years after he was famously converted to kindness, Ebenezer Scrooge still roams the streets of London, spreading Christmas cheer, much to the annoyance of his creditors, nephew, and his employee Bob Cratchit. However, when Scrooge decides to help his old friend and former partner Jacob Marley, as well as other inhabitants of the city, he will need the assistance of the very people he’s annoyed. He’ll also have to call on the three ghosts that visited him two decades earlier. By the time they’re done, they’ve convinced everyone to celebrate Christmas all year long by opening their wallets, arms, and hearts to those around them.
Written in uncannily Dickensian prose, Charlie Lovett’s The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge is both a loving and winking tribute to the Victorian classic, perfect for readers of A Christmas Carol and other timeless holiday tales.
A Man of Character by Margaret Locke
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Synopsis
What would you do if you discovered the men you were dating were fictional characters you'd created long ago?
Thirty-five-year-old Catherine Schreiber has shelved love for good. Keeping her ailing bookstore afloat takes all her time, and she’s perfectly fine with that. So when several men ask her out in short order, she’s not sure what to do…especially since something about them seems eerily familiar.
Caught between fantasy and reality, Cat must decide which—or whom—she wants more.
Blending humor with unusual twists, including a magical manuscript, a computer scientist in shining armor, and even a Regency ball, A Man of Character tells a story not only of love, but also of the lengths we'll go for friendship, self-discovery, and second chances.
The Right Kind of Crazy by Adam Steltzner and William Patrick
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Synopsis
From Adam Steltzner, who led the Entry, Descent, and Landing team in landing the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars, comes a profound book about breakthrough innovation in the face of the impossible
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is home to some of history’s most jaw-dropping feats of engineering. When NASA needed to land Curiosity—a 2,000-pound, $2.5 billion rover—on the surface of Mars, 140 million miles away, they turned to JPL. Steltzner’s team couldn’t test their kooky solution, the Sky Crane. They were on an unmissable deadline, and the world would be watching when they succeeded—or failed.
At the helm of this effort was an unlikely rocket scientist and accidental leader, Adam Steltzner. After barely graduating from high school, he followed his curiosity to the local community college to find out why the stars moved. Soon he discovered an astonishing gift for math and physics. After getting his Ph.D. he ensconced himself within JPL, NASA’s decidedly unbureaucratic cousin, where success in a mission is the only metric that matters.
The Right Kind of Crazy is a first-person account of innovation that is relevant to anyone working in science, art, or technology. For instance, Steltzner describes:
·How his team learned to switch from fear-based to curiosity-based decision making
·How to escape “The Dark Room”—the creative block caused by fear, uncertainty, and the lack of a clear path forward
·How to tell when we’re too in love with our own ideas to be objective about them—and, conversely, when to fight for them
·How to foster mutual respect within teams while still bashing bad ideas
The Right Kind of Crazy is a book for anyone who wants to channel their craziness into creativity, balance discord and harmony, and find a signal in a flood of noise.
What's the Buzz?: Keeping Bees in Flight by Merrie-Ellen Wilcox
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Whether they live alone or together, in a hive or in a hole in the ground, bees do some of the most important work on the planet: pollinating plants. "What's the Buzz?" celebrates the magic of bees--from swarming to dancing to making honey--and encourages readers to do their part to keep the hives alive.
All over the world, bee colonies are dwindling, but everyone can do something to help save the bees, from buying local honey to growing a bee-friendly garden.
The Measure of Love by Saundra MacKay
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Synopsis
Welcome to a love story exploring the splendor and mystique of a full-figure woman in her search for love.
Come discover The Measure of Love.
Vanessa is a career woman searching for her own identity and inner beauty in a body of size seldom valued in society. She finds herself juggling the love interest of two very different men--Carter, the new man in her life who is determined to stay aloof to shield his heart, and Jon, an old love who is only now discovering the woman he thought he knew so many years before.
As she helps to plan her best friend's wedding, she experiences a whirlwind of mixed emotions. But Vanessa didn't count on discovering her own happiness by learning to accept her natural beauty as a large-size woman of substance.
Walking with Jesus Through the Old Testament by Paul Stroble
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
On a seven mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, the resurrected Jesus captivated two travelers with stories from the Old Testament pointing to his life and death. "Walking with Jesus through the Old Testament" invites readers to embark on this journey with Christ throughout the Lenten season. Stroble imagines what Jesus would have said to his companions and guides readers along the way with forty-six devotions referencing the Old Testament. A prayer and a set of "digging deeper" activities are also included to help readers engage with each reflection on a personal level. Readers will ultimately come to the Easter celebration with a fuller understanding of God's promise fulfilled by Jesus' death and resurrection.
The Ramblers by Aidan Donnelley Rowley
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Synopsis
For fans of J. Courtney Sullivan, Meg Wolitzer, Claire Messud, and Emma Straub, a gorgeous and absorbing novel of a trio of confused souls struggling to find themselves and the way forward in their lives, set against the spectacular backdrop of contemporary New York City.
Set in the most magical parts of Manhattan—the Upper West Side, Central Park, Greenwich Village—The Ramblers explores the lives of three lost souls, bound together by friendship and family. During the course of one fateful Thanksgiving week, a time when emotions run high and being with family can be a mixed blessing, Rowley’s sharply defined characters explore the moments when decisions are deliberately made, choices accepted, and pasts reconciled.
Clio Marsh, whose bird-watching walks through Central Park are mentioned in New York Magazine, is taking her first tentative steps towards a relationship while also looking back to the secrets of her broken childhood. Her best friend, Smith Anderson, the seemingly-perfect daughter of one of New York’s wealthiest families, organizes the lives of others as her own has fallen apart. And Tate Pennington has returned to the city, heartbroken but determined to move ahead with his artistic dreams.
Rambling through the emotional chaos of their lives, this trio learns to let go of the past, to make room for the future and the uncertainty and promise that it holds. The Ramblers is a love letter to New York City—an accomplished, sumptuous novel about fate, loss, hope, birds, friendship, love, the wonders of the natural world and the mysteries of the human spirit.
Confessions from the Comments Section by Jonathan Kieran
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Synopsis
Internet comments sections are the Roman coliseums of the Information Age, filled with noisy spectators desperate to be heard and slobbering to be satisfied.They may try to blend-in with the crowd by employing fake usernames, but we all know what kind of people they REALLY are, once they start to trumpet their relentless opinions!
Without regard for others, folks like the All-Caps Idiocy Maximizer, The Yelp Whelp, The Drunken Ranter, and The Puppy Suckler feed like a ravenous zombie-horde upon the putrefying scraps of our bloated pop culture. Clamoring for attention, characters like Rhonda the Reasonable, The Garden-Variety Idiot, The Big Word Hurler, and The Special Snowflake fuel the great, ongoing war between The Smarts and The Stupids. True identities may remain hidden, but in the jungle of internet comments sections, people reveal far more than they think about their secret lives ... and why civilization is heading for a spectacular crack-up.
In 'Confessions from the Comments Section: The Secret Lives of Internet Commenters and Other Pop Culture Zombies,' humorist Jonathan Kieran shines an uproarious and irreverent light upon 33 different "types" of internet commenter, exploring issues like religious hypocrisy, narcissism, and celebrity obsession while probing the hilarious depths to which human behavior will plunge when people think they are anonymous online. Read it and laugh or read it and weep ... especially if you happen to recognize yourself.
The Case of the Fickle Mermaid by P.J. Brackston
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Gretel—yes, that Gretel—is now all grown up and working as a private investigator in 18th century Bavaria. Her professional interest is piqued when she begins to hear whispers of of mysterious goings-on off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein: sailors are disappearing, and there are rumors of mermaids and sea creatures and all manner of slippery, sea-based happenings. Ordinarily, Gretel’s interest in sea-life does not extend beyond that which is edible, doused in butter and garlic, and already on the plate before her. However, funds are low, and the captain of the ship Arabella makes a tempting offer of good pay and a free cruise in return for her detective services. With a splendid new wig packed, Hans as her bodyguard on the journey north, and the promise of two weeks of fine dining and erudite company whilst sailing around the picturesque Friesian islands, what could possibly go wrong?
The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy
 |
| Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Synopsis
A thrillingly original story of the adventures of a small band of feral cats in Delhi who communicate by whisker mind-link, and face an unprecedented threat to their tribe's survival; for readers of Life of Pi and Philip Pullman.
In the labyrinthine alleys and ruins of Nizamuddin, an old neighbourhood in Delhi, India, lives a small band of cats. Miao, the clan elder, a wise, grave Siamese; Katar, loved by his followers and feared by his enemies; Hulo, the great warrior tom; Beraal, the beautiful queen, swift and deadly when challenged; Southpaw, the kitten whose curiosity can always be counted on to get him into trouble... Unfettered and wild, these and the other members of the tribe fear no one, go where they will, and do as they please. Until one day, a terrified orange-coloured kitten with monsoon green eyes and remarkable powers lands in their midst--the first in a series of extraordinary events that threatens to annihilate them and everything they hold dear.
The Wildings is a gorgeous evocation of Delhi, a love paean to cats and a rich, often savage tale of survival and conquering one's fears.
So that is all of the books that I have gotten in the mail in the past month. I'm honestly pretty excited about most of them, which is horrible because it will make deciding which book to read first significantly more difficult (although The Keeper of the Crows came with a bag of candy bars, so it's probably going to win that contest). Which of these books are you most interested in reading my review of? - Katie
