Mailbox Mondy #16

It's Monday and it's almost vaccination time! I'm getting it tomorrow at noon and I'm so excited. But tomorrow is also the day of the dreaded Germany vs. England game... It was hard enough losing the Netherlands from the Championship yesterday, even if I don't support them as much as my fellow-Dutchmen expect me to! But I can't bear the idea of Germany losing, so I will need to fortify myself with pizza, preferably. But let's get to the books!

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads!

On another note, the brilliant vvb32 reads has stepped in to help with Mailbox Monday! Thank you!

The Greeks: A Global History by Roderick Beaton (Basic Books, 10/26/2021)

A sweeping history of the Greeks, from the Bronze Age to today  

More than two thousand years ago, the Greek city-states, led by Athens and Sparta, laid the foundation for much of modern science, the arts, politics, and law. But the influence of the Greeks did not end with the rise and fall of this classical civilization. As historian Roderick Beaton illustrates, over three millennia Greek speakers produced a series of civilizations that were rooted in southeastern Europe but again and again ranged widely across the globe.  
 
In The Greeks, Beaton traces this history from the Bronze Age Mycenaeans who built powerful fortresses at home and strong trade routes abroad, to the dramatic Eurasian conquests of Alexander the Great, to the pious Byzantines who sought to export Christianity worldwide, to today’s Greek diaspora, which flourishes on five continents. The product of decades of research, this is the story of the Greeks and their global impact told as never before.  

I'm a sucker for the Greeks, they were my first true love. So of course I'd be intrigued by a new history that didn't look at just one period particularly but looked at the movement and changes over millenia. 

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (OneWorld Publications; Rock the Boat, 10/7/2021)

Science fiction and East Asian myth combine in this dazzling retelling of the rise of Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history

The boys of Huaxia dream of the celebrity status that comes with piloting Chrysalises – giant transforming robots that battle the aliens beyond the Great Wall. No one cares that their female co-pilots must serve as concubines and sacrifice their lives.

When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, her plan is to assassinate the man responsible for her sister’s death. But on miraculously emerging from the cockpit unscathed after her first battle, she has a new plan. The time has come to overturn the entire patriarchal military system.

I requested this one the moment I saw it! I'm still in the process of reading She Who Became the Sun and I feel like this will be a great way to follow it up! Give me alllllll the fantasy and badass women set in East Asia!

The Undying Tower by Melissa Welliver (Agora Books, 10/7/2021)

What if living forever was a death sentence?

Decades after the discovery that a small percentage of the population has stopped ageing, the Avalonia Zone is in crisis. From overpopulation to food shortages, the ‘Undying’ have been blamed for the state’s problems, banished to the fringes of society, and punished for every minor infraction.

When sixteen-year-old Sadie takes the fall for an attack by a rebel group, The Alchemists, she suddenly finds herself wrenched away from her quiet life and from her ailing father.

Armed with little help and even less knowledge, Sadie is thrust into a cold and cryptic ‘correctional facility’ – The Tower. Here she’ll have to rethink everything she’s been told about the Undying population in an attempt to save the life she knows, protect a group of unlikely friends, and give voice to the voiceless in a society on the brink of catastrophic upheaval.

The first in a daring dystopian trilogy, The Undying Tower descends into the dark side of immortality and champions fighting for what’s right, especially when the world is against you.

Ever since I sped-read through both The Hunger Games and Divergent trilogies I've been looking for a dystopian series to take me there again. This sounds very intriguing, love the talk of Alchemists! And since I personally have no desire to live forever or even, really, till I'm 100, I can see myself digging this book!

How to Talk to a Goddess and Other Lessons in Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker (Semrland Books, 6/20/2021)

Nora knows she needs to move on, and forget about magic.

She’s back in graduate school, and her life is going surprisingly well. She doesn’t need to think about other worlds, about enchantments and demons, or about magicians—even though she once aspired to become one herself. Most of all, she really should forget the magician Aruendiel, who shared the secrets of magic with her but fiercely guarded the deepest secrets of his heart.

Then a chance encounter gives Nora the opportunity to slip between worlds again—and the next phase of her magical education begins.

Clever, lush, and riveting, with the same wry humor and vivid characters that delighted fans of its prequel, The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic, Emily Croy Barker's new novel opens a portal into a brilliantly realized world of enchantment, love, and danger. Readers of Philip Pullman, Deborah Harkness, Catherynne Valente, and Susanna Clarke will relish this novel’s magic.

I'm sooo excited for this one! I loved her first book The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic and had no idea another one was coming, so when I saw this on NetGalley I mildly (read: not so mildly!) freaked out! I'm going to reread the first one this week and then get started on this newest one.

So those are my top picks from what came in last week! I really need to learn to control myself when requesting but there are so.many.good.books.out.there!