Mailbox Monday #20

 With the traveling and then the excitement of seeing my dad again and being in the mountains again, I completely missed doing most of my blogging! But I'm back-ish, in that I started up my laptop for the first time in 5 days. Below I've posted a photo from my Instagram to show you my view. Can you blame me for being distracted?

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!

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Because I have been focused on making my trains and disinfecting my hands and reaching my hotels, I haven't really been buying books! I did, however, enjoy Audible's 2-for-1 Sale and got the two audiobooks below!

Girl A by Abigail Dean, narrated by Holliday Grainger (Harper Collins; 1/21/2021)

‘Girl A,’ she said. ‘The girl who escaped. If anyone was going to make it, it was going to be you.’ 

Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped. When her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her six siblings - and with the childhood they shared.

Beautifully written and incredibly powerful, Girl A is a story of redemption, of horror and of love.

I finished this one yesterday after listening to it for most of my train journeys. My review will be up soon but I do have to say it was a gripping and heart-breaking novel. Holliday Grainger did an amazing job at the narration!

Romeo and Juliet: A Novel by David Hewson, narrated by Richard Armitage (Audible Originals; 12/6/2016)

It's a story you think you know: the age-old tale of "star-cross'd lovers"; two families at war; a romance, so pure and absolute, fated for a tragic end. It's a story so thoroughly embedded in our culture, and so frequently retold. Yet, nothing captures the spark, the possibility, and the surprise of Shakespeare's work quite like this....

In Romeo and Juliet: A Novel, author David Hewson reworks and expands on the classic story so that it becomes something richer, something new and entirely its own. Much more than a simple love story, it is a brilliant examination of young versus old, hope against despair, and, for Juliet, the search for individual identity at a time when women were regarded as little more than chattel.

An original production commissioned by Audible, Romeo and Juliet: A Novel marks the second pairing of David Hewson and actor Richard Armitage, whose previous partnership resulted in Audible's 2014 Audiobook of the Year, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel. Hewson's talent for writing for audio is undeniable, and he finds his perfect vocal foil in Armitage, an actor of immense range and absorbing intensity. Together, they bring you a familiar story told in a surprising way - with an ending you might not expect.

I absolutely love Richard Armitage's voice. It makes me melt. So of course I had an eye on this one, but I was also really intrigued by the prominence it gives to Juliet. I also wanted to give it a listen since I won't find it as a book, being written exclusively for Audible.

So that's me! What's new in your mailbox?