Christmas Book Haul!

This is a tad delayed, but here’s a Christmas book haul!

Every Christmas I do the usual bookworm thing of asking almost exclusively for books. This year the vibe I got was that they’d rather get me other things too so I was a little more conservative with my Christmas list (I put four non-book items on it).

So I still did pretty well for books…

It helps that my brother also almost exclusively asks for books, which is how I ended up with The Buddha Of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi after my mum accidentally ordered two copies for him.

I’ve wanted Inua Ellams’ poetry collection, Six of The Fairy Negro Tales after I saw him speak at Bare Lit festival earlier in 2017. I have another anthology of his, #Afterhours, but never got round to buying this one off my wish list!

I also got One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, which has been on my list of planned reads for my Read the World project for Colombia for a while now!

These hardbacks of What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah, Mirror In The Sky by Aditi Khorana and The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso are gorgeous and I can’t wait to read them! I’ve had my eye on What It Means… for ages and couldn’t find it in any of my local bookshops so I’m so glad I finally own a copy!

Finally, I saw a friend talk about Not A Drop To Drink by Mindy McGinnis on Instagram and you know how I can’t resist a good dystopian!

Did you get any books this Christmas?

Ninja Book Swap!

I got my Ninja Book Swap parcel today (it had been delivered to my neighbour, I don’t just have a really keen postman) and it was so perfect I almost can’t believe it.

I got this adorable mug to drink tea from when I’m reading (which bears more than a passing resemblance to my own elderly bunny, Bambi). 

I also got this cute Cat Lovers colouring book and some pencils and clearly I love cats. And colouring. 

And finally a copy of The Art of Being Normal which has been on my wishlist for ages. I’m very excited to read it!

Ninja Book Swap

  
My Ninja Book Swap parcel arrived today! I absolutely love it, it was so thoughtful and creative.

My gifter (swapper?), Platon, sent me some delicious sounding lemongrass tea, a funny cliffhanger bookmark, some Dutch stroop waffles (which I am wolfing down) and a crime story based dice game. As well as, of course, a book from my wishlist.

  
I’ve been wanting to read this one for ages after seeing people rave about it online. So I’m very excited!

Christmas book haul!

  
So, it’s Boxing Day and I’m laying on my mum’s rug… Full of food and trying to ignore the footie going on in the background. This Christmas was good for books, mainly because my wish list consists of books and books alone. I ended up with seven of the ones I wanted the most. I have finished one of them already…

The Unusual Possession of Alastair Stubbs by David John Griffin who, coincidentally, is from the same county as me. 

Described as a ‘gothic horror’ (my favourite genre at school) this one appealed to me because it doesn’t sound like anything I’ve read in a while. I love a good horror and this one looks like it’s surreal, creepy and full of twisted characters.

Forget Me Not by Luana Lewis

A tragic suicide? Or the perfect murder?

Female written thrillers were like my genre of 2015 and this one, about a mother trying to solve her daughters death, looks like all of my favourites rolled into one.

Second Life by SJ Watson

I absolutely loved Before I Go to Sleep and so I was very excited when my brother got his newest book. I can’t even remember asking for it, my brother clearly just knew.

My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologies by Fredrik Backman

I’ve been looking for this book for ages. No bookshop I’ve been in has had it. I have a massive soft spot for books about old people getting up to mischief written by Swedish authors (it’s a thing, I promise) and I am do excited to read this one!

The Girls by Lisa Jewell

I need to review this one at some point today… Having finished reading it by the time I went to bed on Christmas. Lisa Jewell is one of my favourite authors and this book, about the complicated and slightly toxic relationships between young girls, was no disappointment.

Pretty Is by Maggie Mitchell

I think I originally requested this one on Netgalley, right before it was released. The paperback version is beautiful though and I’m glad to have the physical copy. Kidnap-lit was another big theme of 2015 but Pretty Is, set after the return of two twelve year old girls, looks like an interesting take.

The Marble Collector by Cecelia Ahern

I always get my mum a Cecelia Ahern book for her birthday and Christmas, ever since she read PS I Love You and we watched the film together. This year I also got one! I’m reading her on my mums recommendation because I’ve never got round to reading them myself!

Book haul!

  

A kind of book haul. Recently a very good friend of mine posted on Facebook that she needed to free up some book space and, being like me, can’t bear to throw books away. I asked her if she would be willing to send me a few surprise books if I paid for shipping and this lovely haul is the result!

All of these are the kind of books I love to read, which I guess is what happens when someone who knows you inside out, and also has shared tastes, picks for you. There’s dystopian futures, young adult romance, family dramas, a thriller that borders on horror and, of course, somewhere in a blurb was the mention of an old woman getting up to mischief. Bliss.

I’m picking  my second Book And A Brew box today, will the excitement never stop!