Mailbox Monday February 6, 2012

In February Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Metro Reader.

Last week I received two very different books. The first is The Book Club Cookbook:




The description of The Book Club Cookbook reads:

Whether it’s Roman Punch for The Age of Innocence, Sabzi ChallowGlogg
(spinach and rice) with Lamb for The Kite Runner, or Swedish Meatballs and Glögg for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, nothing spices up a book club meeting like great eats. Featuring recipes and discussion ideas from best-selling authors and book clubs across the country, this fully revised and updated edition of the classic book guides readers in selecting and preparing culinary masterpieces that blend perfectly with the literary masterpieces their club is reading. This edition includes new contributions from a host of today’s bestselling authors including:

• Kathryn Stockett, The Help (Demetrie’s Chocolate Pie and Caramel Cake)
• Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants (Oyster Brie Soup)
• Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper (Brian Fitzgerald’s Firehouse Marinara Sauce)
• Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone (Almaz’s Ethiopian Doro Wot and
• Sister Mary Joseph Praise’s Cari De Dal)
• Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• (Annie Barrows’s Potato Peel Pie and Non-Occupied Potato Peel Pie)
• Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See’s Deep Fried Sugared Taro)

The Book Club Cookbook will add real flavor to your meetings!

The second book I received is The Darlings by Cristina Alger.




The description of The Darlings (from the author's website) says:

A sophisticated page-turner about a wealthy New York family embroiled in a financial scandal with cataclysmic consequences.

Now that he’s married to Merrill Darling, daughter of billionaire financier Carter Darling, attorney Paul Ross has grown accustomed to New York society and all of its luxuries: a Park Avenue apartment, weekends in the Hamptons, bespoke suits. When Paul loses his job, Carter offers him the chance to head the legal team at his hedge fund. Thrilled with his good fortune in the midst of the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression, Paul accepts the position.

But Paul’s luck is about to shift: a tragic event catapults the Darling family into the media spotlight, a regulatory investigation, and a red-hot scandal with enormous implications for everyone involved. Suddenly, Paul must decide where his loyalties lie—will he save himself while betraying his wife and in-laws or protect the family business at all costs?

Cristina Alger’s glittering debut novel interweaves the narratives of the Darling family, two eager SEC attorneys, and a team of journalists all racing to uncover—or cover up—the truth. With echoes of a fictional Too Big to Fail and the novels of Dominick Dunne, The Darlings offers an irresistible glimpse into the highest echelons of New York society—a world seldom seen by outsiders—and a fast-paced thriller of epic proportions.