Mailbox Monday -- November 16th

Thanks to Marcia at The Printed Page I'm participating in the Mailbox Monday round up. This week I received the following advance review copies:

1)Double Take A Memoir by Kevin Michael Connolly. Amazon Product Description. Double take: A rapid or surprised second look, either literal or figurative, at a person or situation whose significance has not been completely grasped at first.

Kevin Michael Connolly is a twenty-three-year-old man who has seen the world in a way most of us never will. Whether swarmed by Japanese tourists at Epcot Center as a child or holding court at the X Games on his mono-ski, Kevin Connolly has been an object of curiosity since the day he was born without legs. Growing up in rural Montana, he was raised like any other kid (except, that is, for his father’s MacGyver-like contraptions such as the “butt boot”). As a college student, Kevin traveled to seventeen countries on his skateboard, including Bosnia, China, Ukraine, and Japan. In an attempt to capture the stares of others, he took more than 33,000 photographs of people staring at him. In this dazzling memoir, Connolly casts the lens inward to explore how we view ourselves and what it is to truly see another person. We also get to know his quirky and unflappable parents and his girlfriend. From the home of his family in Helena, Montana, to the streets of Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur, Kevin’s remarkable journey will change the way you look at others, and the way you see yourself.

Thanks Harper Collins via Shelf Awareness.

2) Surviving Paradise by Peter Rudiak-Gould. Amazon Product Description. Just one month after his 21st birthday, Peter Rudiak-Gould moved to Ujae, a remote atoll in the Marshall Islands located 70 miles from the nearest telephone, car, store, or tourist, and 2,000 miles from the closest continent. He spent the next year there, living among its 450 inhabitants and teaching English to its schoolchildren. At first blush, Surviving Paradise is a thoughtful and laugh-out-loud hilarious documentation of Rudiak-Gould’s efforts to cope with daily life on Ujae as his idealistic expectations of a tropical paradise confront harsh reality. But Rudiak-Gould goes beyond the personal, interweaving his own story with fascinating political, linguistic, and ecological digressions about the Marshall Islands. Most poignant are his observations of the noticeable effect of global warming on these tiny, low-lying islands and the threat rising water levels pose to their already precarious existence. An Eat, Pray, Love as written by Paul Theroux, Surviving Paradise is a disarmingly lighthearted narrative with a substantive emotional undercurrent.

Thanks to Sterling Publishers.

3) The Privileges by Jonathan Dee. Amazon Product Description. Smart, socially gifted, and chronically impatient, Adam and Cynthia Morey are so perfect for each other that united they become a kind of fortress against the world. In their hurry to start a new life, they marry young and have two children before Cynthia reaches the age of twenty-five. Adam is a rising star in the world of private equity and becomes his boss's protégé. With a beautiful home in the upper-class precincts of Manhattan, gorgeous children, and plenty of money, they are, by any reasonable standard, successful.

But the Moreys' standards are not the same as other people's. The future in which they have always believed for themselves and their children—a life of almost boundless privilege, in which any desire can be acted upon and any ambition made real—is still out there, but it is not arriving fast enough to suit them. As Cynthia, at home with the kids day after identical day, begins to drift, Adam is confronted with a choice that will test how much he is willing to risk to ensure his family's happiness and to recapture the sense that the only acceptable life is one of infinite possibility.

The Privileges is an odyssey of a couple touched by fortune, changed by time, and guided above all else by their epic love for each other. Lyrical, provocative, and brilliantly imagined, this is a timely meditation on wealth, family, and what it means to leave the world richer than you found it.

Thanks to Random House via LibraryThing.

4) What Your Mother Never Told You by Richard M. Dudum. Book Description. What Your Mother Never Told You was written to help teenage girls anticipate issues and to provide strategies to address those issues.

Our daughters are vulnerable when they are introduced to the real world without being adequately prepared. They are curious, playful, intelligent, and beautiful. They look and often act much older than their age. They are getting the wrong kind of attention much earlier than they should. They will find themselves in difficult situations that will test them over and over again. My efforts are focused on helping the girls to grow, to be strong, and to successfully deal with the realities that confront them today.

Over the years, I've taken the time to listen to teenagers and young adults, and I understand what they say. I've taught them communication skills and common sense strategies that are in this book. I offer them to you in What Your Mother Never Told You.

Thanks to the author via Bostwick.

5) New York, Washington DC & the Mid Atlantic Trips from Lonely Planet. Amazon Product Description.
50 of the Region's Best Trips!

Whether you're a local looking for a long weekend escape, a visitor looking to explore or you simply need some ideas when family and friends come to visit, Lonely Planet's Trips series offers the best itineraries - and makes it easy to plan the perfect trip time and again.

Theme icons make finding the perfect trip simple - no matter what your interest

Easy-to-use maps for every trip, plus driving times and directions

Explore the region with trips ranging from two to 10 days, and day trips from New York City, Washington DC and Philadelphia

Local experts share their favorite trip ideas, including a sports journalist's baseball tour, a photographer's art tour and a music-inspired tour from a New York musician

Iconic Trips chapter covers must-do trips across the region, from Beach-Hopping the Mid-Atlantic to Upscale Appalachian Trail

Tune In

on the road with our regional music playlists

Family-friendly and pet-friendly listings throughout

Green Index lists the region's most environmentally friendly options.

Thanks to the Publisher via Shelf Awareness.