A trip to the post office yesterday resulted in the reward of two books to add to the hundreds of others.

Back when I joined Bookins, a quick browse through their recent arrivals didn't yield many titles I wanted so I created a wish list. And then I promptly forgot all about it. To my surprise last week, Bookins sent an email saying that Crossing California by Adam Langer was on its way. I wasn't expecting it and, thankfully, I hadn't already acquired it from someplace else. Now that I'm reminded of the wish list, I should probably spend a little more time managing it to make sure duplicates don't unexpectedly show up in the mail. By the way, the book itself is in very good used condition with no water damage (a pet peeve) at all. Little things like this make me most happy.

A month or so ago, I received an email from Jeremy C. Shipp asking if I would consider his new book, Vacation, as a monthly discussion selection. If you can believe it, his email was the first of its kind. Sure, I receive lots of canned publicity requests sent out to distribution lists. But, in nearly five years of running BookBlog, no one else has ever asked about our monthly discussions. In any case, many thanks to Raw Dog Screaming Press for the review copy, which literally also had me screaming due to the massive paper cut I got upon ripping open the envelope. Vacation has jumped to the top of the TBR pile and will be my next book after finishing Remainder.

Speaking of review copies, I have a huge pile on the floor of my office. I do eventually want to get to most of them since I appreciate the efforts of those in publicity. When I was in publishing, I always wondered why the publicity department worked so hard for so little money and so much grief. My job sucked, too, but at least I got paid well since I had an impact on sales.

One review copy I want to get to is The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The uncorrected proof from Random House came packaged with a Hawaiian lei and pitched as summer reading. And I am so ready for summer. This title, a coming of age story, will be released in May 2007.

I'm also interested in Male of the Species by Alex Mindt, another uncorrected proof of a May release. Published by Delphinium Books and distributed by HarperCollins, it's a debut collection of short stories about the "befuddlement and yearning of fathers and their offspring as they attempt to connect across cultural and generational divides." Carl Lennertz of HarperCollins and Publishing Insider also included a handwritten note directing me to his post on the book. He loved it. Gender issues have been on my mind recently, so this is one I'll need to put within easy reach.