Grandmaster Lawrence Block brings his greatest character, Matthew Scudder, back into action in his most personal case to date.

Matthew Scudder is finally on the straight and narrow when he runs into “High-Low” Jack Ellery, a childhood friend from the Bronx. In Scudder, Jack sees the moral man he might have become. In Jack, Scudder sees the hard-won sobriety he hopes to achieve. Then Ellery, following to the letter the dictates of Alcoholics Anonymous’ infamous twelve steps, is shot down while attempting to atone for past sins, and Scudder is drawn into a murder investigation that threatens to upset his path toward recovery—and get him killed in the process.

Exploring themes of loss, nostalgia, and redemption, for Lawrence Block A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF circles back to how it all began, reestablishing why the Matthew Scudder series is widely regarded as one of the pinnacles of American detective fiction.

Lawrence Block is a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, has won multiple Edgar and Shamus awards and countless international prizes. The author of more than 50 books, he lives in New York City. Learn more at www.lawrenceblock.com

May 2011 Hardcover * 9780316127332 * $25.99/ $28.99
Also available from Hachette Audio, as an eBook and in a Large Print edition.

A Drop of the Hard Stuff is one of the first books being released by Little, Brown’s newest imprint, Mulholland Books, and it was sent to me by the ever lovely Miriam Parker.  Thanks Miriam!

Mailbox Monday for October is being hosted by Avis @ She Reads and Reads.

I originally determined that Mockingjay was going to have to wait until I finished my book club read for next Tuesday, Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. That didn’t last long, because I quickly discovered that August is absolutely not the right time for me to try reading a classic written in 1722.  I just don’t have the concentration required to parse the language. So, I have failed in my book club duties and have started Mockingjay.

But I’m savoring it!  I’m limiting my reading to bedtime only, so I’m only on chapter 6 despite starting it on Friday.  I have been skillfully avoiding all spoilers, and that’s harder than you think!  Thank you to all you other book bloggers who have so kindly labeled your reviews according to whether there are spoilers or not.  Though, to be safe, I’m mostly avoiding all reviews of the book for the time being.

Was Mockingjay in your mailbox too?  Did it have company?

Mailbox Monday is hosted during the month of August by Chick Loves Lit.

A gripping novel set on the boundary between fact and fiction.

A woman wakes one night to find that a strange man has walked into her bedroom. She lies there in terrified silence unable to move. The woman is an author and the man one of her prospective characters. So desperate is he to have his story told that he has resorted to breaking into her house to make her tell it.

She creates Alvar Eide, forty-two years old, single, who works in an art gallery. He lives a quiet, dutiful life, carefully designed to avoid surprises. One winter’s day, all this begins to change when an emaciated young heroin addict walks into the gallery. A kind man, Alvar gives her a cup of coffee to warm her up. She returns some weeks later to his place of work, and then one day appears on his doorstep demanding to be let in.

Interspersed with the chapters of Alvar’s story are his encounters with its author — the frantic attempts of a fictional man trying to control his own destiny. Broken is a gripping novel about the boundary between fact and fiction and the perils of good intentions.

I’ve barely started it, but so far I like it.  Along with Broken, I’m reading The Banker by Dick Francis and I’m listening to Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer, which I wrote about yesterday in my Sunday Salon post.

I’m not sure what I’ll read when I’m finished these.  I think next in my book book queue is Sweetwater Creek by Anne Rivers Siddons.  Maybe Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman on audio.

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books.  Mailbox Monday is hosted during the month of August by Chick Loves Lit.

But, that’s not the best part.  This was the cherry on the sundae…

I have to admit, I have the best in-laws.  I’ve been working on getting the ebooks I already owned onto it, and purchased Shogun to finish reading on it, cuz I thought it would be a good test.  Plus, the copy I own is very thick and has very small print — it’s much easier reading it on the Kindle. So far, I’m really happy with it! I just need to get a case…

I hope Santa was as good to you as he was to me!

Mailbox Mondays are hosted by The Printed Page.

Anyway, I hope all you Thanksgiving celebrators out there had a good Thanksgiving! We traveled to Ohio and visited with my dad’s family.  We basically did nothing but eat, play games, and sleep from 8pm on Wednesday until we fell into bed at 1am Saturday morning.  Our food of choice was pie, and our games of choice were Euchre, poker, and a game called Time’s Up. There were 32 of us for Thanksgiving dinner and from 10-20 of us (depending on the time of day) at my aunt’s all day on Friday. My family is very loud and boisterous, so it was a raucous good time.

I brought some books with me, but the only reading I got done was either during the drive or while acting as a pillow for my cousin’s sleeping 1 month old.  It’s always nice to get a good baby sniff fix. I finished Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and we listened to Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore, which was better than some of the other Moore books we’ve listened to lately. I’m also halfway through The Book Thief, which I need to get finished for book club Thursday night. I like it so far, though it takes a little bit of time to adjust to the author’s style. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that most of my book club is going to hate it, because they probably will see the style as frippery.

Also, it is the time of year for challenge sign-ups! I have a whole mess of challenge posts starred in my Google Reader, so I’ll be posting about them in the month to come.

Now, for the mailbox! I had a few things come in this week — two books from Amazon Vine, and then some others from PaperbackSwap:

Veracity and The First Rule are the Vine books. I’ll be reading The First Rule fairly quickly, because my mother-in-law will flip over it.  I’d like to pass it on to her at Christmas.  The Outlaw Demon Wails will be read pretty soon as well, because I’ve been waiting for this to come up on my PBS wishlist for quite a while.

Mailbox Mondays are hosted by The Printed Page.

I won Capote in Kansas in a giveaway on The Literate Housewife Review, and Jen was kind enough to deliver it in person at lunch last week! One of the perks of working only a few miles apart. The other three books I requested through PaperbackSwap.  The Book Thief is the book I need to read for my book club meeting on the 3rd, so it’s next on the TBR pile.  The Susan Isaacs books I requested after a recommendation from my writing instructor.  I think of it as method research!

Mailbox Mondays are hosted by The Printed Page.

Killjoy and Ellen Foster are from PaperbackSwap.  The instructor of my writing class raves about Ellen Foster, so I have to give it a try.  True Blue was sent to me via Miriam of Hachette fame, and I have to confess that I’ve already read it and passed it on to my mother-in-law.  Thanks so much!

Mailbox Mondays are hosted by The Printed Page.

All of these came from PaperbackSwap except for the last two.  Between Here and April was sent to me by Algonquin Books, and The Swan Thieves was sent to me by Little, Brown. Thanks so much to those publishers!

Mailbox Mondays are hosted by The Printed Page.

Wasn’t that nice of her? Spooner looks to be quirky, and Roses is a family saga, which I just can’t resist. I can’t wait to read them!

By the way, here’s a pic of the three of us at lunch:

I’m looking forward to the next time we can get together, and hopefully next time Jen can join us!

Mailbox Mondays are hosted by The Printed Page.

The first two are ARCs I received through LibraryThing, and the last four were from a PaperbackSwap exchange.

I hope you had great stuff in your mailbox!

Mailbox Mondays are hosted by The Printed Page.