In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by

The Story Siren.

So many books, so little time! Last week, I received:

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef 

by Gabrielle Hamilton

Despite the lack of an Oxford comma in the title, this still caught by eye when advertised. Random House was nice enough to send me a copy. 

Description: Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a prickly marriage that nonetheless yields lasting dividends. By turns epic and intimate, Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion.

Restoration
by Olaf Olafsson

Okay, in the first place, great name. Then you add love stories, war, Tuscany, and I'm hooked. Ecco books, an imprint of HarperCollins, sent me a copy at my request.

Description: Having grown up in an exclusive circle of wealthy British ex-pats in Florence in the 1920s, Alice shocks everyone when she marries Claudio, the son of a minor land-owner, and moves to San Martino, a crumbling villa in Tuscany. Settling into their new paradise, husband and wife begin to build their future, restoring San Martino and giving birth to a son. But as time passes, Alice grows lonely, a restlessness that leads her into the heady social swirl of wartime Rome and a reckless affair that will have devastating consequences. While she spends time with her lover in Rome, Alice's young son falls ill and dies, widening the emotional chasm between her and her husband-and leaving her vulnerable to the machinations of a nefarious art dealer who ensnares her in a dangerous and deadly scheme. Returning to San Martino, Alice yearns for forgiveness. But before she can begin to make amends, Claudio disappears, and the encroaching fighting threatens to destroy everything they built. Caught between loyalists and resisters, cruel German forces and Allied troops, Alice valiantly struggles to survive, hoping the life and love she lost can one day be restored.

Embrace
by Jessica Shirvington

There's a very cool story to this book - I belong to the Young to Publishing Group, Boston chapter, and Sourcebooks reached out to us as a group in the industry and sent us ARCs. I got a package in the mail at work - how cool is that?

Description: On her 17th birthday, everything will change for Violet Eden. The boy she loves will betray her. Her enemy will save her. And she will have to make a choice that could cost not only her life, but her eternity.

(And a big thank you to Book Stacks On Deck for the mailbox pinup!)