In My Mailbox #6

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren, and is a way to share with other bloggers the books you’ve received over the past week.

This week I ended up with a very interesting group of books in all kinds of genres. Here they are:

Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith. Purchased. Grahame-Smith wrote Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, which I never got to read last year. Now the movie is coming out, and of course I want to read it first.  Unholy Night is his latest, and once again he skewers a historical event and turns it into, well, something else entirely. Here’s what Goodreads says:

They’re an iconic part of history’s most celebrated birth. But what do we really know about the Three Kings of the Nativity, besides the fact that they followed a star to Bethlehem bearing strange gifts? The Bible has little to say about this enigmatic trio. But leave it to Seth Grahame-Smith, the brilliant and twisted mind behind Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to take a little mystery, bend a little history, and weave an epic tale.

In Grahame-Smith’s telling, the so-called “Three Wise Men” are infamous thieves, led by the dark, murderous Balthazar. After a daring escape from Herod’s prison, they stumble upon the famous manger and its newborn king. The last thing Balthazar needs is to be slowed down by young Joseph, Mary and their infant. But when Herod’s men begin to slaughter the first-born in Judea, he has no choice but to help them escape to Egypt.

It’s the beginning of an adventure that will see them fight the last magical creatures of the Old Testament; cross paths with biblical figures like Pontius Pilate and John the Baptist; and finally deliver them to Egypt. It may just be the greatest story never told.

The Breath of God by Jeffrey Small, published by West Hills Press.  Received a review copy from the publisher. OK, I’m not on a religious kick, I just happened to receive two books this week with religious overtones. The Breath of God has been compared to The Da Vinci Code.  Wow! It looks really good, and here’s the description from Goodreads:

A murder at the Taj Mahal. A kidnapping in a sacred city. A desperate chase through a cliffside monastery. All in the pursuit of a legend that could link the world’s great religious faiths.

In 1887, a Russian journalist made an explosive discovery in a remote Himalayan monastery only to be condemned and silenced for the heresy he proposed. His discovery vanished shortly thereafter.

Now, graduate student Grant Matthews journeys to the Himalayas in search of this ancient mystery. But Matthews couldn’t have anticipated the conspiracy of zealots who would go to any lengths to prevent him from bringing this secret public. Soon he is in a race to expose a truth that will change the world’s understanding of religion. A truth that his university colleagues believe is mere myth. A truth that will change his life forever, if he survives.

CurbChek Reload by Zach Fortier.  Received a review copy from the author.  Yep, he’s back! Once again, Zach has been kind enough to send me a copy of his latest book, despite the fact that I wasn’t blown away by Curbchek and Street Creds. His style is gritty and unpolished, but the life of a street cop is gritty and unpolished, so it works for me in some strange way. Here’s what Goodreads says about CurbChek Reload:

CurbChek Reload is a compilation of calls handled by Zach Fortier. This is a more accurate account of the street…at least the streets as i worked them. You will accompany Zach down some dark alleys, into crack houses, chase teenage prostitutes and try to breathe life into the dying. The humor is dark. It’s real cop humor, not the canned jokes made up by people who write about cops, but the stuff they actually laugh about as they try to cope with the dark realities of the job.
Hang on for a rollercoaster ride full of unexpected twists and turns.

Summer Morning, Summer Night by Ray Bradbury. Won in the Worldbuilders raffle. I was surprised when this showed up on my doorstep, because Worldbuilders was over in January, and I really thought I hadn’t won anything. But I’m so happy to have a new batch of short stories by Ray Bradbury. This book was actually published in 2008, and it’s filled with the magical charm that only Ray Bradbury can bring to his stories. Here’s the description from Goodreads:

Green Town, Illinois stands at the very heart of Ray Bradbury Country. A lovingly re-imagined version of the author’s native Waukegan, it has served as the setting for such modern classics as Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Farewell Summer. In Summer Morning, Summer Night, Bradbury returns to this signature locale with a generous new collection of twenty-seven stories and vignettes, seventeen of which have never been published before. Together, they illuminate some of Green Town’s previously hidden corners, and reaffirm Bradbury’s position as the undisputed master of a unique fictional universe.

What did you receive in your mailbox this week?