Monday Memes

Mailbox Monday is hosted this month by Amused by Books and is where book bloggers gather to share what showed up in their mailboxes this week, whether those mailboxes received email or snail mail.

Snail Mail:  Not a one.

Via NetGalley:
Unique among the current leadership of the Catholic Church, Archbishop Dolan shares his insightful perspective in this series of conversations on the present and future of Catholicism. In these pages Dolan shares a perspective which is typically not part of the information an average person would know through today’s media. This omission often leaves outsiders with a terribly flawed grasp of what’s actually happening in the Church. Legitimate stories on, for example, abuse and Church authority can’t be dissolved by reactive conspiracy theories about how the media is out to get the Catholic Church. That said, if these scandals are all there is to the Catholic Church, why would anyone bother being Catholic?
In A People of Hope Dolan is seen at his best, capturing an upbeat, hopeful, affirming Catholicism that’s the untold story about the Church today. As readers spend time with Dolan here, they may find that his love for people and zest for friendship is what’s truly fundamental about the man, not a PR device calculated to conceal some other agenda. Dolan can and does draw lines in the sand when he believes that core matters of Catholic identity are at stake. He’s well aware that we live in a deeply secular world in the West, in which powerful pressures, both subtle and overt, seek to blur the counter-cultural message of Catholicism on many fronts. One key to Dolan’s character, however, is that changing hearts, not knocking heads, is always his first instinct.


Amazon Freebies:

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It's Monday, What Are You Reading is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  She asks what we read or reviewed this week and what we plan to read next week.
Read this Week: This has been a DNF week
 I thought the story had promise--American adopted girl from Ethiopia but found the book to be poorly written and self-absorbed.  I quit after about three chapters.
 The guy who broke her heart in high school is back in town, as is the girl cousin who was her greatest rival.  She's over thirty but after 16% of the book I still thought I was reading about a high school kid and I just didn't care to keep reading.
 This one I liked, and will review it in October

 I liked this.  See my review.
 My seven year old assistant reviewer liked this one.  To be reviewed.

 The story of four women who saw their men go off to WWII, and what happened afterwards.  I'm in the middle of it and I'm enjoying it so far.

 Books Read Earlier; Reviewed last week:

You'll note that the first couple of books below are Christmas books.  This week I started a link-up to which I'd like to invite all readers and book bloggers, Christmas in September.  Bloggers are invited to add links to your reviews of Christmas books, either from this year or years past (could be a good way to get more mileage out of old posts).  Readers are invited to read the linked reviews.  Prizes are available for both readers and bloggers.  Hopefully by the end of the month Christmas in September will have a long list of Christmas-themed books for all of us to try.

 My assistant and I made one of the recipes.

 Three short romances in one.  My review.

 Is Santa Real?  This book has the answer.  My review.

 Medical romantic thriller.  My review.