In My Mailbox is a weekly meme is hosted by Kristi at
The Story Siren! Check out her blog to see what
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The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, And the History of the World From the Periodic Table of Elements by Sam Kean
Received from
Hachette Book Group
Synopsis:
Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I,53)? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium (Cd, 48)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why did tellurium (Te, 52) lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history?
The periodic table is one of our crowning scientific achievements, but it's also a treasure trove of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The fascinating tales in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, gold, and every single element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, conflict, the arts, medicine, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.
Why did a little lithium (Li, 3) help cure poet Robert Lowell of his madness? And how did gallium (Ga, 31) become the go-to element for laboratory pranksters?* The Disappearing Spoon has the answers, fusing science with the classic love of invention, investigation, discovery, and alchemy, from the big bang through the end of time.
*Though solid at room temperature, gallium is a moldable metal with a unique property: it melts at 84 degrees Fahrenheit. So a classic prank for scientists is to fashion gallium spoons, serve them with tea, and watch as guests recoil when the Earl Grey makes their utensil disappear.
*
Shadows in Summer: A Novel in Six Voices by Crescent Varrone
Received Through
Bostwick Communications
Synopsis (from back cover):
The house was older than the other homes in the area, and more exposed. While they were hidden, protected by ivy, hedges, walls, #18 was on display. No gates, and not even a fence, just a few tall trees on the left-hand side and a handful of shrubs. Even its innards were laid bare in a huge picture window; though from where I was standing on the opposite sidewalk, all I could see were reflections of the gray clouds behind me.
The house disclosed nothing......
When injured ballet dancer Katrina Nielsen and her American husband, Richard, purchase Sound House, they hope that the charming home will ease their transition from New York to Copenhagen. Katrina was just nineteen when she fled gloomy Denmark, leaving behind her mother, Ingrid, and her grief over her father's death. Seven years later, she returns home to face the ghosts of the past. Yet when weird events begin to occur at Sound House--inexplicable smoke and footsteps, a ghostly face at the window--she starts to think she is being haunted by the ghost of Karl Damsgaard, the original owner. After she's "attacked" by an unseen force, Katrina becomes convinced that something is trying to drive her out of the house...or out of her mind.
Shadows in Summer: A Novel in Six Voices is told by multiple narrators who keep readers reassessing whether the haunting is real, psychological or the result of purposeful manipulation. Inspired by actual events, this deliciously scalp-prickling tale will haunt readers long after the final page.
*
The Eighth Scroll by Dr. Laurence B. Brown
Received through
Bostwick Communications
Synopsis:
An ancient scroll has been unearthed....
Nineteen hundred years after the Essene Jews hid their most precious scrolls in the caves at Qumran, a Catholic priest working on the Dead Sea Scrolls Project discovers a text that describes the final edict of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but hides it in fear of the heresy it contains. When a prominent archaeologist Frank Tones unearths a reference to the hidden scroll, he wonders if this scroll could be the long-lost Gospel of James, or even of Jesus himself. But before he can act, those who know of the scroll's existence become mysteriously silent or dead, leaving only a father and son team to find the scroll and tell its secrets to the world. In an epic, multigenerational story that spans the globe, they must outwit the Mossad, the CIA, and the Vatican's secret weapon--the Italian Mafia--to bring the truth to light. No matter the cost.
The author of two books of comparative religion, MisGod'ed and God'ed, physician and religious scholar, Laurence B. Brown provides a thrilling read, while at the same time reviving critical religious controversies. Powerful and revealing, this book makes you think, feel, react and wonder--what if we knew the truth about Jesus.
*
The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge by Patricia Duncker
Received through
Librarything's Early Reviewers
Synopsis (Barnes and Noble):
The thrilling tale of a secret European sect and the musical mastermind at its center, from a critically acclaimed novelist at the top of her form.
The bodies are discovered on New Year’s Day, sixteen dead in the freshly fallen snow. The adults lie stiff in a semicircle; the children, in pajamas and overcoats, are curled at their feet.
When he hears the news,
Commissaire André Schweigen knows who to call: Dominique
Carpentier, the Judge, also known as the “sect hunter.”
Carpentier sweeps into the investigation in thick glasses and red gloves, and together the
Commissaire and the Judge begin searching for clues in a nearby chalet. Among the decorations and unwrapped presents of a seemingly ordinary holiday, they find a leather-bound book, filled with mysterious code, containing maps of the stars. The book of the Faith leads them to the Composer, Friedrich Grosz, who is connected in some way to every one of the dead. Following his trail,
Carpentier,
Schweigen, and the Judge’s assistant,
Gaëlle, are drawn into a world of complex family ties, seductive music, and ancient cosmic beliefs.
Hurtling breathlessly through the vineyards of Southern France to the gabled houses of
Lübeck, Germany, through cathedrals, opera houses, museums, and the cobbled streets of an Alpine village, this ferocious new novel is a metaphysical mystery of astonishing verve and power.
The Passage by Justin Cronin
Bought this at Barnes and Noble
Synopsis (The Passage Website):
“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”
First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.
As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.
With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.
And now......
Last time I posted It's Monday I was reading
The Caliphate by Andre Le Gallo and
Happy Hours by Michele Scott both of which I have finished. I have received so many good books that it is hard to decide where to start next.
I have
Based on Availability by Alix Strauss sitting next to me and I may start
The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell (Zombies!) just to change things up. I am also going to pick up
Parting River Jordan by ML Barnes so I can add a little fun to the mix.
It should be a fun week, drama, zombies, and fun! I promise to not let the projects get in the way. I am planning a beach day tomorrow weather permitting. That means some good reading! I am also going to post those reviews!
