My First Mailbox Monday

I've been getting daily deliveries of books for the past few weeks, so I think I'm now possibly enough of a book blogger to play Mailbox Monday, hosted by Marcia @ The Printed Page. What I am finding very challenging is that so many of these recent arrivals aren't coming out until February or March and I want to read them NOW! But I also want to be fresh and accurate when I write my reviews, so I think I'll do a little library reading and then hit the ARCs that sound so juicy.
The Wives of Henry Oadesby Johanna Moran
Publisher: Ballantine Books Release Date: 2/23/10
From the Publisher:When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected—and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children. For months, Henry scours the surrounding wilderness, until all hope is lost and his wife and children are presumed dead. Grief-stricken, he books passage to California. There he marries Nancy Foreland, a young widow with a new baby, and it seems they’ve both found happiness in the midst of their mourning—until Henry’s first wife and children show up, alive and having finally escaped captivity. Narrated primarily by the two wives, and based on a real-life legal case, The Wives of Henry Oades is the story of what happens when Henry, Margaret, and Nancy face persecution for bigamy. Exploring the intricacies of marriage, the construction of family, the changing world of the late 1800s, and the strength of two remarkable women, Johanna Moran turns this unusual family’s story into an unforgettable page-turning drama.

How to Save Your Own Lifeby Michael Gates Gill
Publisher: Gotham Books Release Date: 12/29/09
From the Publisher: Michael Gill's lemons-to-lemonade memoir chronicled his transformative years working at Starbucks after losing his high-powered job, his marriage, and his health (he developed a brain tumor). In response to overwhelming requests from readers who wanted to know how they, too, could weather downturns, he has distilled his lessons into fifteen meaningful lessons.  Offering living proof that extraordinary happiness is found in ordinary moments, How to Save Your Own Life provides empowering words and hope for anyone facing a reversal of fortune. True fortune, Gill discovered, lies not in fate but in discovering the innate capacity we all possess to rescue ourselves.

The Scarlet Lionby Elizabeth Chadwick
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Release Date: 3/1/10
From the Publisher: A page-turning novel of honor, intrigue, treachery, and love, continuing where The Greatest Night left off, the story of England's greatest knight of the Middle Ages, William Marshal is told by Bestselling author Elizabeth Chadwick, "an author who makes historical fiction come gloriously alive" (The Times of London), is known as a writer of uncommon historical integrity and accuracy. By 1197 William Marshal's prowess with a sword and loyalty with his heart have been rewarded by the hand in marriage of Isabelle de Clare—heiress to great estates— and their brood is growing. But their contentment and security is shattered when King Richard dies. Forced down a precarious path by the royal injustices of the vindictive King John, the Marshals teeter on a razor-thin line of honor that threatens to tear apart the very heart of their family.

Young Bessby Margaret Irwin
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Release Date: 3/1/10
From the Publisher: This eloquent novel explores Queen Elizabeth's life as a child and teenager, opening just before Henry VIII dies and ending when she is nearly 20. Growing up in the shadow of her mother, Anne Boleyn, young Princess Elizabeth has become adept at dodging the constant political games and royal whims that ensure her situation is never secure. When her distant father, tyrannical King Henry VIII, dies, the future brightens for Elizabeth. She is taken in by Henry's last wife, Katherine Parr, whose new husband is Tom Seymour, the uncle of Elizabeth's brother, the new king. Seymour, however, is playing a risky game. Marrying a widowed queen is one thing, flirting with the king's daughter and second in line to the throne is another. As the adolescent Elizabeth finds herself dangerously attracted to him, tragedy looms ahead for her and her kingdom, and she is forced to face her future alone.

The Stolen Crownby Susan Higgenbotham
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Release Date 3/1/10
From the Publisher: On May Day, 1464, six-year-old Katherine Woodville, daughter of a duchess who has married a knight of modest means, awakes to find her gorgeous older sister, Elizabeth, in the midst of a secret marriage to King Edward IV. It changes everything—for Kate and for England. Then King Edward dies unexpectedly. Richard III, Duke of Gloucester, is named protector of Edward and Elizabeth's two young princes, but Richard's own ambitions for the crown interfere with his duties...Lancastrians against Yorkists: greed, power, murder, and war. As the story unfolds through the unique perspective of Kate Woodville, it soon becomes apparent that not everyone is wholly evil—or wholly good.
Whew! That's a lot of historical fiction I'll be sharing with you in the months to come! Any sound good to you? Let me know which you'd like to see in an upcoming giveaway.