In My Mailbox

Another week? Really? Well, we hosted Laurie Halse Anderson and Amy Sedaris - both lovely - and I'm almost finished Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly and have started Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie. I'm reading far more slowly than usual - I'm blaming the time of year - but it is SO GOOD. Oh, and of course I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. Did you? I had simply forgotten how much I love those books and characters. And now to the books, with thanks to the Story Siren for hosting this meme, as ever.

Yes, I only got one book this week but oh my, I will admit to clutching it tightly and jumping up and down with delight. A reason to be oh so thankful this week.

GRAVEMINDER by Melissa Marr

Yes, Melissa's first adult novel as a bound manuscript.

I am more excited than I can say. And yes I started it immediately. And yes, it is as good as I thought it would be (so far)

Three sips to mind the dead . . .

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the tender attention her grandmother, Maylene, bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn’t a funeral that Maylene didn’t attend, and at each Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: three sips from a small silver flask followed by the words “Sleep well, and stay where I put you.”

Now Maylene is dead and Bek must go back to the place—and the man—she left a decade ago. But what she soon discovers is that Maylene was murdered and that there was good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in placid Claysville, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected. Beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D—a place from which the dead will return if their graves are not properly minded. Only the Graveminder, a Barrow woman, and the current Undertaker, Byron, can set things to right once the dead begin to walk.

Suddenly Rebekkah is struggling with more than just her grief—she’s forced to deal with a centuries-old bargain, dark secrets, a complicated romance that still haunts her, and a frightening new responsibility—to stop a monster and put the dead to rest where they belong.