Breathe, it's (Mailbox) Monday!

Yes, a new week has begun.  But no reason to start with anything but a deep breath and an exciting meme: Mailbox Monday, hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.  Marcia also hosts a great program called Read it Forward.  She donates (for this second year of the program) her used books to the library system, and all her ARCs to fellow bloggers.  If that doesn't make her blog worth following, I don't know what does!  So check her out for this and some great reading ideas.

On to Mailbox Monday...Two fantastic books came into my home this past week.

First--Blood Atonement by Dan Waddell, via The Book Depository.  Waddell is a blogging contributor at Murder is Everywhere, and he is the British correspondent, so to speak.  I started reading this book on Friday and will finish it today.  It is a very intriguing story with a geneology base--something I had never thought to place at the center of a murder!  I will definitely be buying his first one when I finish this one.

Second--also from the Murder is Everywhere group, Tim Hallinan's A Nail Through the Heart.  Hallinan writes from Thailand and I am especially interested to read his work.  I will let you know what I think! 

As I told you last Monday, I also have this blog's Cara Black's Murder in the Bastille and Michael Stanley's A Carrion Death.  I am waiting for Leighton Gage's book to arrive in my mailbox (maybe by next Mailbox Monday!) and I have had Yrsa Sigurdardottir's Last Rituals for awhile.  (You'll see at the right it is my chosen May Thriller & Suspense Challenge book.) 

So why all the Murder is Everywhere books?  One, I am taking part in the Global Reading Challenge.  Two, the blog fascinates me.  It strikes at my desire to learn about the world and delve into mysteries near and far.  Each contributor has such a unique perspective on the writing world, and they are brought together not by geography or common publisher, but by love of mystery.  They are worlds away from each other!  And that fascinates me. 

I hope to wrangle them in for a group interview somehow, and I'll let you know if they're willing and able.  But I want to make it through one of each of their books first.  I am learning a lot about different styles and different parts of the world from this small case study.  And I'll be glad to share with anyone interested all that I glean.

How is your mailbox this Monday?  Do you like reading books written and set in countries foreign to you?