In My Mailbox (97) – The Great Grocery Bag Exchange!

In My Mailbox

(hosted by The Story Siren)

(Don’t you just love this Autumn themed mailbox? I love Autumn and wish we actually had one here in Central Texas. I found this awesome mailbox on Flickr and it is courtesy of Graham here.)

So a few of us have become obsessed with reusable grocery bag swaps when we ship international packages to each other. They are simply awesome. They always have something on it that identifies where it’s from, sometimes has a cool foreign language, and always makes you look cool when you go shopping! They are also a good way to help keep plastic bags out of landfills and they’re something you can use all the time and don’t gather dust on your mantle (I hate dusting!).

The last few weeks I have gotten two VERY cool packages from two wonderful bloggers! The first package was from Judith from The Netherlands (@leeswammes on Twitter). She writes Leeswammes’ Blog. I sent her The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley after I finished reading it because she also has a great love of Scandinavian culture and countries (You can read Judith’s review of The Tricking of Freya, too). In return, she sent me a Doris Lessing book called Alfred and Emily which I’m very excited about reading. It also included a beautiful bookmark of Mariska Meijers called Red Blossom and Double Luck. She also sent me a VERY cool grocery bag from her local market that says Hamster Weken on it (it means Hamster Week). It’s such a cute and funny bag. I love it! She also included a nice handwritten note. I love European handwriting! It’s so pretty!

The second package came from Rachel from Australia. She was wanting a copy of Let the Right One in by John Ajvide Lundquist and my husband had just finished the book so I offered to mail it to her. In return, she sent me a very cool potato sack grocery bag with a picture of the world with Australia on it! So cool! Usually when I see the globe as decoration on something it’s always North and South America on it so it was a neat change to see a globe with another continent on it. She also sent me a book by an Australian author called Hell Island by Matthew Reilly. I’m really excited to read it because I haven’t read too many Australian authors yet! She also sent me two very cool bookmarks: Gamnut Babies by May Gibbs and Turtles Underwater Playground by Terry Johnstone. You can find Rachel on Twitter under @andplotthickens or on her blog, And the Plot Thickens.



Another thing I got was something completely unexpected. Sometime last month I requested a copy of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi from Nightshade Books. It’s a pretty popular book, won the Nebula Award, and just won the Hugo Award so I didn’t have much hope of getting a copy to review, but while I was on vacation in New Mexico visiting family, I got a copy in the mail. It was a total “jump up and do a little jig” moment! I have been wanting to read this book for months! I’ll be reviewing it in October!



The last thing I got I actually have had for a few weeks as well. Penguin Books was nice enough to send me the rest of the Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series because I liked Magic Bites so much. They even sent me a copy of On the Edge which is her new series! I am so excited about reading it because the Kate Daniels’ series is heaps fun! I have already reviewed Magic Burns as a mini read-a-long with Bella from A Girl Reads a Book. Her review can be found HERE.



So that’s it! That’s my mailbox full of awesome sauce for the last few weeks! I love my blogging friends and I love swapping bags and bookmarks from other countries. It’s silly, but it’s like a little burst of goodwill between countries and it’s amazing and makes me want to squeal with joy!

*I am a Book Depository and IndieBound afilliate so If you purchase any of the books I have featured through the links I posted or from the banner in my left hand sidebar, I get a small commission from them. I am in no way compensated for the reviews I post of my books.