Mailbox Monday -- August 9th

The reason why I love Mondays -- Mailbox Monday hosted this month by Chick Loves Lit. Below are the following advance review copies that I received this week:

1) I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee. Publisher's Summary. ritics have called her "sweet, adorable, and vicious." But there is so much more to be said about Samantha Bee. For one, she's Canadian. Whatever that means. And now, she opens up for the very first time about her checkered Canadian past. With charming candor, she admits to her Lennie from Of Mice and Men–style love of baby animals, her teenage crime spree as one-half of a car-thieving couple (Bonnie and Clyde in Bermuda shorts and braces), and the fact that strangers seem compelled to show her their genitals. She also details her intriguing career history, which includes stints working in a frame store, at a penis clinic, and as a Japanese anime character in a touring children's show.

Samantha delves into all these topics and many more in this thoroughly hilarious, unabashedly frank collection of personal essays. Whether detailing the creepiness that ensues when strangers assume that your mom is your lesbian lover, or recalling her girlhood crush on Jesus (who looked like Kris Kristofferson and sang like Kenny Loggins), Samantha turns the spotlight on her own imperfect yet highly entertaining life as relentlessly as she skewers hapless interview subjects on The Daily Show. She shares her unique point of view on a variety of subjects as wide ranging as her deep affinity for old people, to her hatred of hot ham. It's all here, in irresistible prose that will leave you in stitches and eager for more.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster!

2) One Day by David Nicholls. Publisher's Summary. It’s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day—July 15th—of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.

Thanks to Random House!

3) Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham. Publisher's Summary. Dear Holly, isn’t it shocking…?

Things are finally going Holly Denham’s way: she’s in love, she’s getting the recognition she deserves at work, and her friends and family have graciously opted to avoid disaster for the moment.

Just when Holly is starting to settle into her new life, scandal erupts and Holly finds herself—and her in box—at the center of a gossip whirlwind that threatens everything she’s worked so hard for.

Written entirely in emails, this follow-up to the UK smash hit Holly’s Inbox will keep you glued to its pages as the scandal running rampant in the city threatens to ruin Holly’s hard-earned and long-awaited happiness.

Thanks to Sourcebooks!

4) Someday by Alice Yi-Li Yeh. Author's Summary. Marie Vanders led a dull existence, involving an apartment in the slums, a cat for a therapist, and a mountain of educational debt. After a long work week, all that she wanted was a quick sugar fix. What she found instead was a self-assured stranger who manages to smooth talk the sharp-tongued singleton into a night away from her "selectively xenophobic" life.

An unexpected accident turns a one night stand into a temporary roommate, and what follows is a series of events that forces Marie to reassess her misanthropic tendencies and her complicated past with the family that abandoned her six years ago. Along the way, she will discover the power of honesty, forgiveness, and the willingness to create her own chance at happiness.

Thanks to the author!