Friday Finds (February 27)

What great books have you added to your wish list this week? Share your Friday Finds at Should Be Reading.

I generally try to highlight books reviewed by other bloggers in my Friday Finds posts. However, this week I came across a whole bunch of books on a variety of sites, and none of them were reviewed!

Follow Me by Joanna Scott was mentioned by Wendy at caribousmom in her Mailbox Monday post this week.

I found The Past and Other Lies by Maggie Joel in a banner ad on an Australian site called Bookseller+Publisher. More info about the book is available at the publisher’s site, Murdoch Books. (I have no idea if this novel is even going to be available in North America.)

Resistance by Owen Sheers was mentioned on the Reading Group Guides site.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is being featured (yesterday and today) at Reviewer X and Presenting Lenore.

Welcome to the Departure Lounge: Adventures in Mothering Mother by Meg Federico was mentioned in a Random House Canada newsletter. You can read the first chapter on the Random House site. (It sounds very funny, even though this is a pretty serious topic.)

Finally, Jenners mentioned The Worst Thing I’ve Done by Ursula Hegi on her blog, Find Your Next Book Here. (I love the cover of this book in particular, although Follow Me and Speak also have awesome covers!)

Another award!

Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here kindly bestowed the Friends Award on me for commenting on her first author interview (with Efrem Sigel, author of The Disappearance—if you haven’t read her interview yet, go check it out. Thank you, Jenners, I really appreciate the award (and it was a pleasure to comment on your excellent review!).

I want to pass this award on to all of you, my readers, with apologies for my recent failure to respond to your comments in a timely manner. (I do intend to eventually get caught up!) Please don’t think that my silence means that I don’t appreciate your comments!

Seeing Double!

When I first saw the cover of The Scandal of the Season by Sophie Gee, I was initially reminded of the cover for The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray, to which it actually only bears a passing resemblance. But then last week, as I was browsing my local Indigo bookstore, I happened across Mistress by Leda Swann. Although hands and lacy trimmings have been added on, I think it’s the same photo. What do you think? The shoulder blades look very much the same...

Wondrous Words Wednesday (February 25)

Kathy at Bermudaonion’s Weblog hosts this weekly meme in which she asks us to share new words we’ve come across in our reading. I’m actually still rereading Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott, so I have a few more words from that book this week:

Suffragan – “His car not being completely reliable, Paul took the bus to the Diocesan office in Regina to see the suffragan bishop” (p. 96).

In the Anglican Church, suffragan is a term “designating a bishop appointed to help a diocesan bishop in the administration of a diocese; an auxiliary bishop.”*

Scotch – “He should have had the courage to scotch her stupid jealousy, for her own sake as well as his comfort” (p. 97).

In this context, scotch means to “put an end to,” a definition I gathered from the context, although I wasn’t familiar with this usage of the word.

Wow – “It [the kitchen table] had a wow in the middle and she was sick of it” (p. 151).

According to my dictionary, in addition to its well-known meaning, wow also refers to “a slow pitch-fluctuation in sound reproduction, perceptible in long notes”; however, this doesn’t sound like something a kitchen table could have! The Wikipedia definition refers to a similar phenomenon in video recording that can cause the top of the picture to wobble, which made me wonder if the table was wobbly. Can anyone else shed light on this term?

Edited to add: Melanie from The Indextrious Reader confirmed that wow, in this context, is “a common term to describe a warp or a curve in a piece of wood.” Thanks, Melanie!

Grommet– “Banging reverberated in the basement, and Dolly and Trevor kept slipping down to check on things and being sent back upstairs with urgent messages like Tell Clary we need a three-pronged grommet, by Thursday, go tell her right now” (p. 168).

Being a big fan of Wallace and Gromit, I’m sure I must have looked up the word grommet before, but I didn’t remember what it means. A grommet is “a metal, plastic, or rubber eyelet, especially placed in a hole to protect or insulate a rope or cable, etc. passed through it.” (Obviously, there’s no such thing as a three-pronged grommet!)

Zephyr – “When Clary had walked the children to school she decided, blown by some needling zephyr, to take Pearce over to the hospital” (p. 193).

A zephyr is “a mild gentle wind or breeze.”

What new words have you discovered lately? Share your Wondrous Words.

*Unless otherwise noted, all definitions are from the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2004).

What’s on Your Nightstand (February edition)

What’s on Your Nightstand is a monthly blog post hosted by 5 Minutes for Books.

Last month, I literally provided a list of the books that were on my nightstand, whether they were there because I intended to read them soon or just because I hadn’t found a better place for them to live in my apartment. Of the 10 books I mentioned, I finished reading three (Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka, The Undertaking by Thomas Lynch and The Pages in Between by Erin Einhorn—reviews are coming for all three), reviewed one (The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker—read my review) and relocated all the rest (which included sending When One Man Dies by Dave White to fellow blogger Never Without a Book).

This month, for some reason, I don’t have a pile of books on my nightstand; instead they are in my office, either awaiting review or next up to be read. They are:

• Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks and A Writer’s Life by Kathleen Norris (awaiting review)
• Skin Deep by E. M. Crane (awaiting review)
• Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka (awaiting review)
• Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos (just started reading)
• My Little Red Book edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff (awaiting review)
• Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (currently rereading; read my review)
• The Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Memory and Murder by Sharon Butala (up next?)
• The Local News by Miriam Gershow (up next?)
• The Perseids and Other Stories by Robert Charles Wilson (up next?)
  

I am feeling a bit restless in my reading at the moment—I’m having trouble committing to a new book (hence the rereading, in part), which is usually an indication that I should be reading something light. I’m hoping that the Robert Charles Wilson book will match my mood. (Short stories might be the answer to my commitment issues!)

What’s on your nightstand at the moment? Have you read any of the books on mine? (No picture this month either, sorry!)

Teaser Tuesdays (February 24)

Should Be Reading hosts the Teaser Tuesdays weekly event.

My modified rules are as follows:

Grab your current read. Pick two or three “teaser” sentences more or less at random from the book, anywhere on the page. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your teaser from… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given! (Please avoid spoilers!) (Read the official Teaser Tuesday rules.)

My teaser:

“Blood Month. First blood, it tips the world sideways like a first death or a first kiss, sends you with very little control toward something new and inevitable, like Mr. Bede’s sharp blades” (p. 184).

This is from “Blood Month, 1979” by Sandra Guy in My Little Red Book edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff.

The Only True Genius in the Family by Jennie Nash (a review)

The Only True Genius in the Family by Jennie Nash is the story of Claire, the daughter of a legendary landscape photographer and the mother of a talented young painter, who feels sandwiched between two “geniuses” despite a successful career as a commercial photographer. Dismissed as untalented at a young age by her father, Claire finds herself re-examining her life and what she thought she knew about his creative process after his death.

Claire’s whole life has been shaped by her father’s assessment (and abandonment) of her, and his death forces her to confront her ambivalence about the path she has chosen. Nash does an excellent job of portraying Claire’s loss of vision as an artist as well as her tempestuous relationship with her talented daughter. Although some of their interactions made me cringe, it was only because they seemed so painfully real. Nash asks big questions in this novel, to which there are no easy answers: Where does talent/creativity come from? What does it take to achieve success as an artist? What is the price of genius?

Unfortunately, the ending of the book was a bit of a let-down. I felt that Nash shortchanged Claire by rushing the ending, relying on somewhat clichéd images to provide a tidy end without fully exploring what I thought were some of the most interesting elements of the story: what Claire was going to do about what she had discovered about her father and how she was going to establish a healthier relationship with her daughter. Despite this, The Only True Genius in the Family is a worthwhile and thought-provoking read.

For other reviews, visit these blogs:
A Reader’s Respite • At Home with Books • Booking Mama • Maw Books • Peeking Between the Pages • S. Krishna’s Books • The Compulsive Reader

For author interviews, pop over to these sites:
At Home with Books • Maw Books • Mother Daughter Book Club • The Compulsive Reader • The Urban Muse

Thank you to Jennie and Berkley Books for sending me this book to review.


This is the third book I review for the New Authors Challenge.

Mailbox Monday (February 23)

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Marcia’s blog, The Printed Page.

I ordered two books from Amazon (I was finally getting around to spending the $25 my dad gave me for the holidays plus a bit more):

A Troubled Guest: Life and Death Stories by Nancy Mairs
Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall

I also received two books I won in giveaways:

Good Dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen (from Stacy at Book Psmith)
The Sinner’s Guide to Confession by Phyllis Schieber (from Julie at Booking Mama and the author)

Finally, I received a book for review:

The Local News by Miriam Gershow (from Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House)

I also got together with my local blogger group yesterday (Cindy of Cindy’s Love of Books, Donna of BookBound and Tina of Bookshipper) to chat and exchange books. I scored seven more books (of which four are part of series!):

The Good Body by Eve Ensler
The Debs by Susan McBride
The Birth House by Ami McKay
The Crazy School by Cornelia Read
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind by Daniel Tammet
Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear

Apologies for the not-so-great book pile picture. For a photo of two of the four members of our modestly named Book Bloggers Association of Montreal (BBAM), check out Cindy’s post.

Friday Finds (February 20) + giveaways

What great books have you added to your wish list this week? Share your Friday Finds at Should Be Reading.


Neither of these books are strictly new finds this week, but both are books I’m dying to read!

The Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear has been on my radar for a while now, but it’s been mentioned on a couple of blogs this week because the sixth book in the series, Among the Mad, has just been released. I need to start reading these soon! Read an interview with the author and enter a giveaway for the latest book at Danielle’s blog, A Work in Progress.



The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel has also been on my radar for a while. Several bloggers have reviewed this book recently, the latest I’ve read being Shana’s review on her blog, Literarily. Shana is also giving away a copy of this book.

Booking Through Thursday: Authors Talking

Last week’s question was: “Do you read any author’s blogs? If so, are you looking for information on their next project? On the author personally? Something else?”

What can I say, I’m behind again... I wanted to answer this question and didn’t get around to it last week, so here I am doing it now.

I read three author blogs on a regular basis and in all cases what I’m looking for is either info on the author personally (their thoughts on various topics) or “something else.” Not so much info on their next project because they could hardly blog about that on a regular basis. (Not that I’m not interested in that too, but I’m more likely to go to an author’s website for that sort of information.)

The author blogs I read and love are:

1st Books: Stories of How Writers Get Started, which is Meg Waite Clayton’s blog (of The Wednesday Sisters fame): As I’ve mentioned before, this is a blog where authors guest post about their experience of first getting published. And despite the fact that all the stories illustrate how much hard work is involved in making that happen, every single post is inspiring. I highly recommend this blog, especially if you are interested in getting published some day.

This Is My Secret, which is Kristin Cashore’s blog (of Graceling fame): I haven’t actually read Graceling (though I plan to) and I can’t remember how I came across Kristin’s blog, but I’m hooked. I’m not sure I can put into words why I love this blog so much. Read her Valentine’s Day post, “Interplanetary Be Who You Are Day” to see what I mean. I want to forward this post to everyone I know!

Writerly So, which is DeAnna Cameron’s blog (her novel, The Belly Dancer, is set to be released in July 2009): This blog is mostly interviews with authors, another behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to become published. Fascinating stuff!

I’m sure there are heaps of other great author blogs out there that I don’t know about or haven’t thought to look for. What are some of your favourites?

Read other answers to last week’s Booking Through Thursday question.

Same cover image!

I finally found two books that use the exact same image on their covers! The first is a French translation of Evening by Susan Minot—I was actually searching for this book on LibraryThing because I thought I’d found another book with a similar cover to the English one (turns out I was wrong) when I noticed this cover, which looked awfully familiar. It took me a while to recall the name of the book (all I could think was Canadian woman writer, someone I haven’t read yet...), but I finally figured it out: Small Change by Elizabeth Hay.

Wondrous Words Wednesday (February 18)

Kathy at Bermudaonion’s Weblog has just starting hosting this weekly meme in which she asks us to share new words we’ve come across in our reading. Here are some new words I noticed as I was writing my review of Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott:

Petechiae – “The little bruises, those are petechiae” (p. 21).

This was the only word I couldn’t find in my dictionary. Wikipedia defines petechia (plural petechiae) as “a small red or purple spot on the body, caused by a minor hemorrhage (broken capillary blood vessels).”

Porphyry – “Porphyry, periphery, preface... He drew back from the precipice” (p. 25).

My Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2004)* defines porphyry as “a hard rock quarried in ancient Egypt, composed of crystals of white or red feldspar in a red matrix” or “an igneous rock with large crystals scattered in a matrix of much smaller crystals.” It comes from porphura, which means purple.

Locum – “The hospital chaplain was away all summer in English, locum at a parish in the Lake District” (p. 25).

Locum means “a temporary substitute, especially for a doctor, lawyer, minister, etc.”

Continuo – “As a running continuo underneath conversation, louder when he was alone, Paul heard his wife’s voice saying things to him, short sentences which were hard to bear” (p. 54).

Continuo is a musical term that means “an accompaniment consisting of a bass line and harmonies which are indicated by figures, usually played on a keyboard instrument.”

Redound – “Christian action doesn’t redound well when it’s done in public” (p. 128).

Redound means “make a great contribution to (one’s credit or advantage, etc.)” or “come as the final result to; come back or recoil upon.”

I was surprised to find so many words I didn’t know in this book, since the first time I read it I didn’t notice them!

What new words have you discovered lately? Share your Wondrous Words.

*Unless otherwise noted, all definitions are from this dictionary.

And the winners are...

Congratulations to Myckyee, Gwendolyn B. and Tasses, who won copies of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker! Please send me your addresses and I will pass them on to Hachette.

Thank you to Hachette for providing the book for this giveaway and thank you to all of you who entered!

1. Myckyee
2. Gwendolyn B.
3. Tasses

Timestamp: 2009-02-17 21:02:50 UTC

Teaser Tuesdays (February 17)

Should Be Reading hosts the Teaser Tuesdays weekly event.

My modified rules are as follows:

Grab your current read. Pick two or three “teaser” sentences more or less at random from the book, anywhere on the page. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your teaser from… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given! (Please avoid spoilers!) (Read the official Teaser Tuesday rules.)

My teaser:


“The walks in the woods save me. There I’m not invisible by the choice of others. I’m not plain, or boring, or nervous. I’m not judged by the trees, the creek, or the earth” (p. 10).

This is from Skin Deep by E. M. Crane.

Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (a review)

“Absorbed in her own failings, Clara Purdy crashes her life into a sharp left turn, taking the family in the other car along with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara tries to do the right thing, moving the family into her own house and upending her life in the process.” (from the dust jacket)

Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott is the story of a woman who feels stuck in an unfulfilling life after the deaths of her parents. Forty-three years old and alone, Clara yearns to do some good in the world, to help others, but also, more fundamentally, to connect with them. Ironically, it is a car crash that jolts her out of her rut: in an effort to do the right thing (she was technically at fault), she finds herself inviting the family to stay in her home while the mother receives treatment for cancer. This novel examines what it means to be good in today’s world, what we owe each other as human beings and the cost of charity.

I loved the way this book is written, both its language and its structure. Although it is most often told from Clara’s point of view, the novel also shifts to the points of view of several other characters including Darlene, the oldest of the three children; her mother, Lorraine; and Paul, Clara’s priest. Endicott gets into the heads of each of these characters, revealing their thoughts and motivations. Darlene (aka Dolly) was one of my favourite characters—she is first introduced (through Clara’s eyes) with this description: “The little girl sitting on the pavement looked almost happy, as if her pinched face had relaxed now that some dangerous thing had actually happened” (p. 8). Dolly’s life changes dramatically as a result of staying with Clara. For one thing she discovers the power of books and clings to them as a lifeline:

Dolly put her head down and read. She stuck her book inside her language arts book, and she whipped through her math so she could read, the book under the desk and the textbook on top. She read Mistress Masham’s Repose as hard as she could. She did not mind reading about Maria whose mother was dead . . . because it was in a book, and it was away from here. And it was pretend. (p. 201)

In spite of herself, in spite of all this tragedy and waiting, Dolly could not help sopping up knowledge in huge violent spasms of brain-expansion in school; she read all the time, at lunch and at home. Vanity Fair was like everything, like her life only clearer. She loved it from the very first moment when Becky gets a dictionary after all, and then she throws it back. She was as good a liar as Dolly.

After Vanity Fair she had more books, like insurance: the whole stack left to go. It was as if all books had suddenly unlocked, and now she understood everything. (p. 225)

I also loved the fact that each chapter is almost a story unto itself (and each has a title). Although in one sense not much happens in this book, there is a quiet intensity about it that completely drew me in. When I first got the book and read Elizabeth Hay’s blurb on the cover (“A wise and searching novel about the fine line between being useful and being used”), I was afraid this meant the novel was going to be about a well-meaning but misguided woman who is taken advantage of by a downtrodden and desperate family. In actual fact, this book is a much more generous, complex and surprising story than that.

Good to a Fault was shortlisted for the 2008 Giller Prize.

This was one of my favourite books in 2008. Read my thoughts on rereading this book.

To read other reviews of this book, visit these blogs:
Compulsive Overreader • Farm Lane Books Blog • Lori’s news and events • S. Krishna’s Books

or these sites:
Quill & Quire • The Gazette • The Star • Vue Weekly • Women’s Post

Read an interview with the author at The Writer’s Pet.

Thank you to Mini Book Expo and Freehand Books for sending me this book to review.

Mailbox Monday (February 16)

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Marcia’s blog, The Printed Page.

I recently signed up for two blog tours (my first) and both books arrived this week:

My Little Red Book edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff (courtesy of Hachette)
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel (courtesy of Unbridled Books)

Look for my reviews in March and June!

Friday Finds (February 13)

What great books have you added to your wish list this week? Share your Friday Finds at Should Be Reading.


I was poking around on Michelle Richmond’s website this week when I came across a list of publications her writing has appeared in, including When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School edited by John McNally. If that title wasn’t enough of a draw, here’s the title of Michelle’s essay: “Putting Out: How You (and All Your Friends) Came to Know Jesus.”


Here’s another book with an intriguing title: May and Amy: A True Story of Family, Forbidden Love, and the Secret Lives of May Gaskell, Her Daughter Amy, and Sir Edward Burne-Jones by Josceline Dimbleby. Dimbleby is May’s great-granddaughter. Read Danielle’s overview of the book on her blog, A Work in Progress.

Teaser Tuesdays (February 10)

Should Be Reading hosts the Teaser Tuesdays weekly event.

My modified rules are as follows:

Grab your current read. Pick two or three “teaser” sentences more or less at random from the book, anywhere on the page. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your teaser from… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given! (Please avoid spoilers!) (Read the official Teaser Tuesday rules.)

My teaser:

“For most of their lives, they have been waiting for their mother to come down. To do otherwise, they believe, would be a betrayal. Other things came down: the ruined Steinway immortalized in a National Geographic photograph; the nibbled #2 pencil thrust improbably into the trunk of an Eastern Red Cedar; the red American Flyer, driven down so hard that half of it went into the earth while the handle and one set of wheels waved helplessly in the afterwinds” (p. 3).

This is from Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos.

No One You Know by Michelle Richmond (a review)

Sometimes I feel like I devour books just for the sake of having read them, rushing headlong through the pages just so I can move on to the next one. Right from the first chapter, No One You Know by Michelle Richmond made me want to pause and enjoy every word. But then at some point I got caught up in the plot—the wanting-to-know-what-had-happened—and it became harder and harder to pace myself, until the last two chapters, which I savoured slowly like fine chocolates, letting each word melt on my tongue...

No One You Know is the story of Ellie, whose older sister Lila, a math prodigy, was murdered nearly 20 years before in a crime that went unpunished (the killer was never caught). A chance encounter in Nicaragua causes Ellie to re-examine the story of Lila’s death and ultimately her own life. Richmond’s writing reminded me of Janette Turner Hospital’s (one of my favourite writers), who also writes about the lost, the missing and the murdered—although Hospital’s writing is darker. As Hospital has done, Richmond manages to use the language of obscure fields—in this case, advanced mathematics and professional coffee buying—to literary advantage. This beautifully written novel is a meditation on grief and the power of story to shape people’s lives.

This was one of my favourite books in 2008.

To read other bloggers’ opinions, head over to these blogs:
A Striped Armchair • Book Addiction • Breaking the Spine • Carmen Alexis’ Book Talk • Michele – Only One L • Musings of Bookish Kitty • Presenting Lenore • Stone SouP • The Book Frog • The 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting and Randomness

Read guest posts by Michelle Richmond on these blogs:
1st Books: Stories of How Writers Get Started • Musings of a Bookish Kitty • The 3 R’s: Reading, ’Riting, and Randomness

You can also read an excerpt of the book (the first chapter and a half).

Thank you to Melissa at Shhh I’m Reading for sending me this book.

Mailbox Monday (February 9)

I received two books in the mail today (nothing else all last week):

Coventry by Helen Humphreys from Harper Collins Canada
Who by Fire by Diana Spechler from Wendy (Literary Feline) at Musings of a Bookish Kitty (thanks, Wendy!)

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Marcia’s blog, The Printed Page.

Book/blog stats for January 2009

Well, January ended nearly a week ago, but I’m sticking to my better-late-than-never argument and posting this anyway (with thanks to Ramya for her encouragement!).

I only read four books in January and of those, only managed to review one last month (another I’ve already reviewed in February), partly because I’m still catching up on last year’s reviews. The four books I read were:
Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
The Only True Genius in the Family by Jennie Nash
Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka

I did review five books this month, posting a review every Monday (click on links for reviews):
A Wood Engraver’s Alphabet by Gerard Brender à Brandis
The Grift by Debra Ginsberg
Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas
Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger and A Likeness in Stone by Julia Wallis Martin

Of the books I read in January, my favourite was definitely The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker, which I highly recommend, but I would recommend all the others as well.

Of the books I reviewed in January, I was most disappointed in Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger and The Grift by Debra Ginsberg.

A few blog stats:

My visitors this month hail from 18 different countries (the U.S., Canada and the U.K. being the top three). I’ve had visitors from 42 states (top states: California and Washington) and 33 Canadian cities (top cities including suburbs: Montreal and Toronto).

Top viewed post: Mailbox Monday (January 5)

Number of books acquired: 10

Guess my resolution for February should be to write more reviews and acquire fewer books!

What good books did you read last month?

Friday Find (February 6)

What great books have you added to your wish list this week? Share your Friday Finds at Should Be Reading.


Ami McKay, author of The Birth House (which I still haven’t read!) says this about Absent by Sherri Vanderveen: “Honest to the core, Absent is a moving, heart-changing journey through memories and family secrets. This is a tale you won’t soon forget.”

I came across this book on the Penguin Canada Book Club site.

Again, similar covers...

Here are three more books with similar covers... As soon as I saw the cover to The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart, it reminded me of The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue. And then, just as I was about to blog about those two lookalikes, I saw the cover of The Rosetti Letter by Christi Phillips on Danielle’s blog, A Work in Progress. Has anyone else come across other books with a sealed letter on the cover?

Edited on March 3 to add:

The Sealed Letter actually has another cover that uses the exact same letter as on the cover to The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks. Alicia at The LibrariYAn posted about these two covers. (And by the way, it would appear she’s right: The Disreputable History was published before The Sealed Letter, at least according to Amazon.)

Edited on May 25 to add:

I found a fourth book with a sealed letter on the cover: A Memoir of Friendship: The Letters Between Carol Shields and Blanche Howard edited by Blanche Howard and Allison Howard.