Mailbox Monday (February 7)

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books they received during the previous week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists! Mailbox Monday, which was started by Marcia at The Printed Page, is on blog tour—this month, it’s hosted by Laura at Library of Clean Reads.

It’s only been two and a half weeks since my last post, but it feels like forever. In that time, my computer died (thank goodness we have two), I celebrated a birthday, I was sick, and work continued to be as crazy as it’s been all year. I also received three books in the mail this past week (which is doubly exciting, since I’m on a book-acquiring ban until June—though all these books fit under my exceptions)! The first is a book club book (and birthday present from Mr. B): Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. The other two are giveaway wins from Julie at Knitting and Sundries: Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler (which I requested because of Ana’s review at things mean a lot) and Lilith’s Brood by the same author (which Julie very generously sent as an extra and just happens to be a book my online book club is reading this year!).

From the back cover of Secret Daughter:

On the eve of the monsoons, in a remote Indian village, Kavita gives birth to a baby girl. But in a culture that favors sons, the only way for Kavita to save her newborn daughter’s life is to give her away. It is a decision that will haunt her and her husband for the rest of their lives, even after the arrival of their cherished son.

Halfway around the globe, Somer, an American doctor, decides to adopt a child after making the wrenching discovery that she will never have one of her own. When she and her husband, Krishnan, see a photo of the baby with the gold-flecked eyes from a Mumbai orphanage, they are overwhelmed with emotion. Somer know life will change with the adoption but is convinced that the love they already feel will overcome all obstacles.

Interweaving the stories of Kavita, Somer, and the child that binds both of their destinies Secret Daughter poignantly explores the emotional terrain of motherhood, loss, identity, and love, as witnessed through the lives of two families—one Indian, one American—and the child that indelibly connects them.

From the back cover of Fledgling:

Shori is a mystery. Found alone in the woods, she appears to be a little black girl with traumatic amnesia and near-fatal wounds. But Shori is a fifty-three-year-old vampire with a ravenous hunger for blood, the lost child of an ancient species of near-immortals who live in dark symbiosis with humanity. Genetically modified to be able to walk in daylight, Shori now becomes the target of a vast plot to destroy her and her kind. And in the final apocalyptic battle, her survival will depend on whether all humans are bigots—or all bigots are human...

From the back cover of Lilith’s Brood:

Presenting three complete novels in one volume by multiple Hugo and Nebula award-winner Octavia E. Butler, Lilith’s Brood is a profoundly evocative, sensual—and disturbing—epic of human transformation.

Lilith Iyapo is in the Andes, mourning the death of her family, when war destroys Earth. Centuries later, she is resurrected—by miraculously powerful unearthly beings, the Oankali. Driven by an irresistible need to heal others, the Oankali are rescuing our dying planet by merging genetically with mankind. But Lilith and all humanity must now share the world with uncanny, unimaginably alien creatures: their own children. This is their story...

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Library of Clean Reads.