In My Mailbox (November 14)

In My Mailbox was created by Kristi of The Story Siren, who was inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. All of the synopses you see below were found on Goodreads. Here are the books I got this week...

I didn't get anything new this week, but I found a few old favorites tucked away on my bookshelf. I also realized I never posted the books that I picked up during a library sale in October!

Book Sale -

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Matilda is a little girl who is far too good to be true. At age five-and-a-half she's knocking off double-digit multiplication problems and blitz-reading Dickens. Even more remarkably, her classmates love her even though she's a super-nerd and the teacher's pet. But everything is not perfect in Matilda's world. For starters she has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived. Then there's the large, busty nightmare of a school principal, Mrs. ("The") Trunchbull, a former hammer-throwing champion who flings children at will and is approximately as sympathetic as a bulldozer. Fortunately for Matilda, she has the inner resources to deal with such annoyances: astonishing intelligence, saintly patience, and an innate predilection for revenge.

The Dashwood Sisters' Secrets of Love by Rosie Rushton

The Walker sisters have always lived a privileged life in their beloved Holly House in Sussex. Even though their father, Max Walker, has left the family to live with his new macrobiotic-food-obsessed trophy wife, Pandora, he has always doted on his girls. But then one day, reality crashes down around them when Max has a heart attack and passes away, uncovering the truth that he was knee deep in debt. The Walkers discover that their home is actually in Pandora's name and she decides she wants it back. So the family has to uproot their lives and move to the seaside town of Norfolk in an old cottage. What happens then?

A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson

For nineteen-year-old Harriet Morton, life in 1912 Cambridge is as dry and dull as a biscuit. Her stuffy father and her opressive aunt Louisa allow her only one outlet: ballet. When a Russian ballet master comes to class searching for dancers to fill the corps of his ballet company before their South American tour, Harriet’s world changes. Defying her father’s wishes and narrowly escaping the clutches of the man who wishes to marry her, Harriet sneaks off to join the ballet on their journey to the Amazon. There, in the wild, lush jungle, they perform Swan Lake in grand opera houses for the wealthy and culture-deprived rubber barons, and Harriet meets Rom Verney, the handsome and mysterious British exile who owns the most ornate opera house. Utterly enchanted by both the exotic surroundings and by Rom’s affections, Harriet is swept away by her new life, completely unaware that her father and would-be finacé have begun to track her down. . .

Books I rediscovered:

Dear America Series -
In September of 1996, Scholastic launched a new historical fiction series entitled DEAR AMERICA. Since that time the series has become highly popular prompting Scholastic to launch three companion series (MY NAME IS AMERICA, MY AMERICA, and THE ROYAL DIARIES) and the rest, as they say, is history.

In more than two dozen novels for DEAR AMERICA, the contributing authors have chosen important events or periods of American history and written about those times through the eyes of a young girl. Fact and fiction join together in the DEAR AMERICA diaries to give a unique perspective to the glorious, and sometimes not so glorious, moments in America's past. The young girls in this series are from all different backgrounds and each has a different story to tell. The novels also contain an "Historical Notes" section at the end that provides facts, photos, and other material highlighting the actual events that inspired their fictional stories.

I'm also debating rereading Deathly Hallows before I see the movie this week...