In My Mailbox (3)...

The wonderful In My Mailbox meme run by the Story Siren which really appeals to me...

This weeks books thankfully retrieved from the Blue Bin... and a browsing trip around Bargain Books...

I know I have eclectic tastes and my book choices run through all sorts of genres and age groups but I hate to be pigeonholed and love to read everything from romance to fantasy, fiction and non-fiction...  I am not so good with really scary horror though...

The Iron King

by Julie Kagawa

A modern novel this time and another that I have read glowing reviews about...

"Meghan Chase has a secret destiny - one she could never have imagined...

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six.  She has never quite fitted in at school... or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar and her little brother is taken, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

She could never have guessed the truth.  Meghan is the daughter or a faery king and a pawn in a deadly war.  Now Meghan will have to choose between a normal life and her magical destiny - and between her best friend and a darkly dangerous prince.  

It's time for Meghan to enter the faery world..."

Death in the Cotswolds

by Rebecca Tope

Oh I do love a good murder mystery...

"Thea Osborne is thanking her lucky stars.  After two disastrous housesitting incidents in which she unwittingly became embroiled in murder and mayhem, she is only too happy to have a bit of time to concentrate on her blossoming relationship with DI Phil Hollis.  The couple has retreated to Phil's late aunt's cottage in Cold Aston, and other than the odd interruption from his childhood acquaintance, the eccentric Ariadne, they look forward to some peace and quiet.

But the bad luck that plagues the hapless Thea and her beloved spaniel Hepzibah is never far away.  With Autumn drawing in, preparations for Samhain, the pagan origin of Halloween, are well underway when Ariadne discovers a very tangible reminder of the season of death:  a body laid out like a sacrificial victim on Notgrove Barrow.

It soon becomes apparent that the cosy village has more than its share of secrets.  But just how far will some go to keep them hidden?"

The Kalevala

Translated by Keith Bosley

I started reading an extract from this very long epic poem on the web and just couldn't stop so I went looking for this book online...  It is a rather longer epic poem than I had realised...

"The Kalevala is the great Finnish epic which, like the Iliad and Odyssey, grew out of a rich oral tradition with prehistoric roots.  During the first millennium of our era, speakers of the Uralic languages (outside the Indo European group) who had settled in the Baltic region developed an oral poetry that was to last into the nineteenth century.  This poetry provided the basis of the Kalevala, assembled by the Finnish scholar Elias Lonnrot and published in its final form in 1849.  It played a central role in the process toward Finnish independence and inspired some of the greatest music of Sibelius.

This translation of the Kalevala... by the poet Keith Bosley... is the first to combine liveliness with accuracy in a way that reflects the richness of the original."