Mailbox Monday -- August 22nd

The reason why I love Mondays -- Mailbox Monday hosted this month by Life in the Thumb. Below are the books I received this week:

1) Pitch Uncertain by Maisie Houghton. Publisher's Summary. Touching and incisive, Pitch Uncertain is a beautifully drawn account of Maisie Houghton's struggle to find her own voice as the middle child of two parents whose marriage and lives she slowly decoded as she came of age in the 1950s. Growing up in the gentle ambience of Cambridge, Massachusetts, spending full summers in Dark Harbor, Maine, and regularly visiting her relatives in the socially polished reaches of greater New York, Maisie and her two sisters had the makings of an ideal childhood. But their parents were an enigma.

One of five sisters, Maisie's mother Sybil Jay was the "gentle doe" of an accomplished New York family that had morphed over the twentieth century into a resilient matriarchy. Charming and independent, Maisie's father, Frankie Kinnicutt, was the handsome, fun loving son of stolid New Yorkers whose emotional reserve and perfectly decorated residences were a stiff contrast to the liveliness of the Jay household. As parents, Sybil was diligent, caring and attentive—an anchor for the family, while Frankie was independent, playful, curious and remote—more sail than anchor.

With a novelist's sense of moment, Maisie explores her individually appealing parents and their estranged but oddly loyal relationship. Pitch Uncertain portrays an era and a genteel culture as much as it deciphers a marriage.

Thanks to FSB Associates!

2) Still Life with Brass Pole by Craig Machen. Author's Summary. I started writing Still Life With Brass Pole as my oldest son was preparing to go to college. Ironically, and totally out of the blue, he wound up going to school in Oklahoma, the very place I started formulating my grand plan to have a family in the first place.

At its heart, the book is about the things that made me want to be a dad, but the logline is, “Young love and coming of age in the strip clubs.” It’s sort of like Almost Famous in the titillation business, or maybe Running With Scissors meets On The Road at a topless bar (with A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and The Last Picture Show waiting in the car).

Thanks to the Author!

3) SUVs Suck in Combat by Kerry Kachejian. Publisher's Summary. In 2004, a special military unit, the Gulf Region Division (GRD), was created to execute a seemingly impossible mission: the rebuilding of Iraq despite a pervasive insurgency. Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Kerry C. Kachejian, a West Point engineer officer, was called back to Iraq to head operations. Comprised mostly of civilian volunteers, the inadequately equipped team was rapidly deployed into combat, bravely fighting its way each day to hundreds of project sites in high speed, unarmored SUVs to complete its strategic national mission. Some did not survive. A chilling and illuminating narrative complete with scores of action photos, SUVs Suck in Combat recounts the hard lessons learned and is a cautionary tale for future generations. This book recently received the annual Literacy Hero Award.

Thanks to Smith Publicity.