Thank you Santa!

Santa must have spent lots of hours at the book store this year, and for that I'm very appreciative!

Under the tree he had for me:

This is a huge volume -- and doesn't quite qualify for my recently mandated 300 pages and under book limit, but hopefully I will have the mind power to tackle it in the near future.

This book has been hammered in on-line reader reviews, but I love Colleen McCollough, and The Thorn Birds is still one of my favorite books, so in spite of the bad press, I'm still willing to give this a go. And if Stephanie's Written Word has an Everything Austen II challenge, I will already be ahead of the game!

From my favorite used book store, Santa found this:

I'm not sure where I heard about this book, but it does sound riviting:

From Publishers Weekly
In Gunning's latest colonial page-turner, seven-year-old Alice Cole travels with her family from 1756 London to the New World, dreaming of a big house in Philadelphia and a new life. Her mother and brothers die on board and are buried at sea; the ship docks in Boston rather than Philadelphia; there, her father indentures her for 11 years without a backward glance. Alice does housework for the family of Simeon Morton of Dedham, in whose house she is treated almost like a second daughter, becoming constant companion to 10-year-old Abigail, or Nabby. When Nabby marries Emery Verley of Medfield, Alice's indenture is signed over to him, but the Verley household turns out to be an abusive one. Alice flees and winds up on Satucket, Cape Cod, where Lyddie Berry, heroine of Gunning's The Widow's War, and her companion, the lawyer Eben Freeman, give her shelter and a job. Alice works hard for them, and they grow fond of her, but when Alice discovers she's pregnant, she embarks on a journey of deceit and lies, one that comes to a bitter end. Gunning weaves a horrifying, spellbinding story of colonial indenture's cruelties and a meditation on the meaning of freedom. (Apr.)

And finally, Santa knows what this girl loves:

With this and my FIL's birthday gift card, my book buying habit should be happily satisfied for all of 2010.

What books did Santa bring you for Christmas?