Mailbox Monday -- March 15th!

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

1) A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. Amazon Product Description. When Molly Wizenberg's father died of cancer, everyone told her to go easy on herself, to hold off on making any major decisions for a while. But when she tried going back to her apartment in Seattle and returning to graduate school, she knew it wasn't possible to resume life as though nothing had happened. So she went to Paris, a city that held vivid memories of a childhood trip with her father, of early morning walks on the cobbled streets of the Latin Quarter and the taste of her first pain au chocolat. She was supposed to be doing research for her dissertation, but more often, she found herself peering through the windows of chocolate shops, trekking across town to try a new pâtisserie, or tasting cheeses at outdoor markets, until one evening when she sat in the Luxembourg Gardens reading cookbooks until it was too dark to see, she realized that her heart was not in her studies but in the kitchen.

At first, it wasn't clear where this epiphany might lead. Like her long letters home describing the details of every meal and market, Molly's blog Orangette started out merely as a pleasant pastime. But it wasn't long before her writing and recipes developed an international following. Every week, devoted readers logged on to find out what Molly was cooking, eating, reading, and thinking, and it seemed she had finally found her passion. But the story wasn't over: one reader in particular, a curly-haired, food-loving composer from New York, found himself enchanted by the redhead in Seattle, and their email correspondence blossomed into a long-distance romance.

In A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, Molly Wizenberg recounts a life with the kitchen at its center. From her mother's pound cake, a staple of summer picnics during her childhood in Oklahoma, to the eggs she cooked for her father during the weeks before his death, food and memories are intimately entwined. You won't be able to decide whether to curl up and sink into the story or to head straight to the market to fill your basket with ingredients for Cider-Glazed Salmon and Pistachio Cake with Honeyed Apricots.

2) A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White. Amazon Product Description. For more than ten years, Naomi and Phil Harrison enjoyed a marriage of heady romance, tempered only by the needs of their children. But on a vacation alone, the couple perishes in a flight over the Grand Canyon. After the funeral, their daughters, Ruthie and Julia, are shocked by the provisions in their will.

Spanning nearly two decades, the sisters’ journeys take them from their familiar home in Atlanta to sophisticated bohemian San Francisco, a mountain town in Virginia, the campus of Berkeley, and lofts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As they heal from loss, search for love, and begin careers, their sisterhood, once an oasis, becomes complicated by resentment, anger, and jealousy. It seems as though the echoes of their parents’ deaths will never stop reverberating—until another shocking accident changes everything once again.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster.

3) Wow by Zen Ohasi and Zono Kurazono. Amazon Product Description. Zen Ohashi is a master management coach whose methods have been introduced to more than seventy major corporations, companies such as Exxon-Mobile, Fuji-Xerox, British Airways, Canon, Honda and Mitsubishi. In this volume he has created a method for living. A way you too can be successful and powerful in your everyday life. Thirty-one phrases are coupled with simple methods and short explanations designed to implement empowerment and change in lives of readers. Designed to be carried with you and pulled out when you need it, WOW is the ultimate handbook for life.

Thanks to the Cadence Group.

4) Brother-Brother Adoption Day by C.J. & Linda Sakevich. Amazon Product Description. This book honors the day your child became part of your family. Because of this event, you too, can celebrate "Adoption Day" as a holiday each year in your family. This story is about circling the globe to make a family complete. It tells of a child's desire for a sibling through his or her own eyes. We offer these books in a variety of sibling possibilities to fit your family.

Thanks to the authors.