Book Haul - with books I actually bought!!

Usually I get my books from the library, but every once in a while something will possess me and I will spend tons of money on books. This was one of those times and the result is a lovely mix of fiction and non-fiction of books I can’t wait to read. 


Fist up we have “Cinder” by Marissa Meyer. I’ve already read this and I really liked it.  I gave it 3 stars which might seem a bit middling, and I definitely did have some issues with it, but overall I liked it and continued the series, which I ended up really loving. You can see my review of “Cinder” here: 

Then I got “Private Peaceful” by Michael Morpurgo. This book is a story about the First World War, and since one of my all-time favorite books takes place during that time (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) I figured I should broaden my reading horizon on that subject. Apparently this book is about a boy who is too young to fight, but he follows his brother to the battlefields and reminisces about his childhood. 

I bought “Homo Deus” by Yuval Noah Harari pretty much on a whim, because I saw Daniel J. Layton recommend it in one of his videos (this one) and I appreciate his recommendations, so I got it. It is essentially about the future we are heading towards as a species, which I find very interesting, and these days slightly frightening. 

Then I got “The Establishment and how they get away with it” by Owen Jones. This one comes heavily recommended by Jean over at Jean BookishThoughts who has talked about it several times. It does what it says on the tin; talks about the establishment and how they get away with doing what they are doing. 

Next up is Daphne du Maurier’s “My Cousin Rachel”. I saw Amy at Shoutame  doing this thing where she reads the full works of an author over the year, and I decided to give that a go too. I picked du Maurier because I’ve read “Rebecca” and I really loved it, but then I just never picked up anything else by her. So I figured this would be a way to remedy that and I had just seen “My Cousin Rachel” on somebody else’s channel, so that was the one I ended up getting. 

Then I got “The Pearl Thief” by Elizabeth Wein. I’ve read her two books “Code Name Verity” and “Rose Under Fire” and absolutely loved them. I heard about this on Youtube and decided immediately to get it. It is apparently a prequel to “Code Name Verity”, and I believe it’s Queenie from these books we follow. The story seems to be completely unrelated to the other books, detailing a mystery involving thieves and travellers, but I am sure Wein can tell a gripping story no matter the subject matter. 

Then I got a “Youtube book” - Carrie Hope Fletcher’s “On the other side”. I follow Carrie on Youtube and I really like her style and persona, so I have been wanting to read something of hers for a while. This book is about an older woman who dies, but when she gets to heaven she is denied entry because her soul is too heavily burdened by secrets. So now she must undertake a journey to rid herself of this extra weight. I’ve only heard good things about this so I am excited to read it. 

I don’t think this next one needs an introduction: “Six of Crows” by Leigh Bardugo. Everyone who has read it, has loved it. It’s a heist book about a group of misfits who must commit the perfect crime, and aside from that I honestly don’t know anymore. Everyone loves all the characters and the action, so I am hoping to do so too.

The next 3 books are a little random, because I stumbled upon a sale at a local book store, that was so good I just had to pick something up. So I brought home 3 books I’ve heard good things about, without necessarily having set out to read them in the near future. These books are: 

“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. This seems to be a dystopian novel about a father and son trekking across the wasted landscape of America. I’ve only heard good things about it and I seem to remember liking “All the Pretty Horses” when I read it years ago, so I am looking forward to this one.

“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” by Deborah Moggach I mainly picked up because a long time ago I saw the trailer for the film and thought it looked really great. It’s basically a tale of a number of pensioners who move to India to live in splendor, but upon arrival they find that the splendor is somewhat lacking. 


The last book I picked up was “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith. To be honest I know basically nothing about this book. I only know that everyone seems to mostly love Zadie Smith’s writing so I figured it was time to see for myself. A quick glance at Goodreads tells me this books follows two families in London through all their adventures and troubles. I usually like these kinds of family sagas so this should be fun. 

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