Book Haul: May 2016

May16haul

I went a little crazy again this month with the book buying but I do have a couple of excuses. First, I went to Florida and there were so many beautiful hardcovers that I couldn’t help myself. Second, there were some highly anticipated releases that I had preordered and they all arrived this month. And third, I went to Teen Con and the Sydney Writer’s Festival with other bookish people, including my coblogger, Jeann @ Happy Indulgence, and Aentee @ Read at Midnight, which led to some book shopping. So in total, I ended up with 34 new books this month. Yeah, whoops.

BOOK DEPOSITORY

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These three books were all preorders. The Raven King is one of my most highly anticipated series finales of the year and I’m happy to finally have it in my possession. The cover is so beautiful and I can’t stop staring at it. The Unexpected Everything was also highly anticipated. Anything by Morgan Matson is an autobuy book for me. And I preordered The Hidden Oracle because Apollo is probably my favourite of all the Greek Gods and I had to buy this. Unfortunately, I haven’t read the Heroes of Olympus series yet and I’ve been advised to read that first. So I’ll probably be marathoning those books really soon (though, I’ve been saying that for months).

KINOKUNIYA

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I found myself in Kinokuniya this month on Free Comic Book Day. They had 20% off comics, manga and graphic novels, so I decided to pick up Nimona, since I’d been thinking about getting it for a while and had been deterred by how pricey it was. But because the comic book section was so crowded, I found myself wandering around the YA section instead, and ended up picking up First & Then, which was a book that I had been wanting to buy for a while but couldn’t find a copy anywhere. I also bought Yellow to read before an event that I attended with the author. I found myself in Kinokuniya a second time during Sydney Writer’s Festival, when I went with Jeann and Aentee. I couldn’t resist getting a copy of The Crown. I’m not a fan of The Selection series at all but I’d read the first four books and needed to know how it ended.

DYMOCKS

May16_Dymocks

So this month, I ended up with a nice little stack of Aussie YA books from Dymocks and they were all signed by the authors as well. I went to Dymocks with Jeann and Aentee and pretty much bought most of these on a whim. I’ve been interested in the Every series for a while because it’s a reimagining of Sherlock Holmes and I love anything that’s Sherlock. I was only intended to get the first book to try out but I saw that Every Breath and Every Move were signed so I snapped them up thinking that they were the first two books. Turns out, Every Move is the last book in the trilogy. My bad. Jeann also kind of convinced me that I needed The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl and I agreed because the blurb mentions baked goods and superheroes. Finally, I bought Summer Skin because Jeann loved it and it’s also one of the books that she’ll be discussing on the #ABCRhi #OzYay radio segment. Basically, I bought all of these books because of Jeann.

TEENCON GOODIES

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I went to TeenCon at the Sydney Writer’s Festival this month and got a whole bag of goodies. But… I’ve read most of these already so I’ll probably be giving some away. Thank you to Jaz for giving me her copy of Since You’ve Been Gone. I already have a hardcover edition of the book but I wanted the paperback too (cos I’m greedy) and Jaz was nice enough to give me the copy she got in her bag.

RECEIVED

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I received a couple of books from publishers and from friends this month. When I met with my Happy Indulgence co-blogger, Aila @ One Way or An Author, she gave me this beautiful hardcover edition of The Star-Touched Queen, as well as a highly coveted copy of Kindred Spirits. From my other co-blogger, Jeann, I got Star Struck to review on Happy Indulgence (thanks to Bloomsbury for that). Jeann also gave me her spare copy of The Things I Didn’t Say because she knew how much I wanted to read it. From publishers, I received The Unexpected Everything from Simon & Schuster Australia, Ruined and The Smell of Other People’s Houses from Allen & Unwin, and A Court of Mist and Fury from Bloomsbury Australia. And yes, I now have hardcover and paperback editions of The Unexpected Everything.

FLORIDA HAUL

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I went to Florida earlier this month for a research conference and got to meet Aila @ One Way or An Author. She took me to some really cool places, including The Dali Museum and an indie bookstore called Haslam’s. At those places, I ended up picking up the Disney and Dali: Architects of the Imagination book, which is pretty much the exhibit that we saw in book form. I also ended up picking up Salt to the Sea and Spark Joy at Haslam’s. I’d previously read Marie Kondo’s first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and thought it would be interesting to follow it up with Spark Joy. On a separate day, I ended up at a Barnes and Noble and couldn’t resist getting some books there too. They had a small selection but I still managed to pick up a combination of new releases that I’d had my eye on, some older releases that I haven’t been able to find in Australia and a finished copy of When We Collided.

So yeah… I had a pretty eventful month and ended up with a lot of books. It’ll take me a while to make my way through them all but I’ve read 15 of the 34… which is a good start? I have some preorders coming in next month and I’m sure it’ll be another big haul in June.

30 thoughts on “Book Haul: May 2016”

      • ichabod2014ic says:
        Reply

        My mom is a native of St. Pete. She graduated St. Petersburg High School in 1944. Go Green Devils! Her dad and uncle were big in a lot of that cities boom years. They owned ‘Farmer Concrete Works’. They were fundamental in many building projects, but one of their more lasting contributions are the octagonal sidewalk paving stones. Most of them have been torn up, but in many of the cities downtown area, those distinctive sidewalks survive. About one in twenty is stamped with the logo of ‘Farmer Concrete Works’.
        I will ask my mom, who is 89, how old Haslams is.
        Happy reading on that haul!
        ~Icky. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

          • ichabod2014ic says:

            I just talked to my mom about Haslams. She says she remembers going to the current location, Central avenue and 22nd Street, as a teenager in the forties. She also went to school with some of the girls. She can remember an earlier location of Haslams on 9th Street and Central in the thirties. She says this was just a little tiny place. Something I did not know was that my dad is friends with the book store owner. Though he does not have the name Haslam, it is still a family business.

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  7. Denise says:
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    This is such a lovely haul – you got so many wonderful books! I really hope you enjoy Summer Skin! I’ve heard a few people raving about it and saying how much they want to read it, so you’ll have to let me know your thoughts once you’re done, and if it’s really worth reading or not. It really shocked me to hear Kindred Spirits was rare, because I’ve seen loads of people who got 50 copies when they ordered 1! We got them for free here in England too 🙂

    Denise | The Bibliolater

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    • Jenna @ Reading with Jenna says:
      Reply

      I finished Summer Skin last week and it was so good! A really great feminist NA read. Can definitely recommend it. I’ve seen lots of people with 50 copies of Kindred Spirits but it seems to be quite hard to get hold of it otherwise if you’re out of the UK. No idea why they sent 50 copies to people who ordered when they could have sold the rest to people who wanted them worldwide.

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  8. danielas19 says:
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    I’m feeling so jealous right now… I only ordered one book this month and it’s actually damaged, which means I have to wait for the good copy :\
    Anyway, I’m so happy for you! You got amazing books, no doubt! 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    • Jenna @ Reading with Jenna says:
      Reply

      Oh I’ll definitely have to pick up The Bone Season soon then. I’ve heard some good things but wasn’t sure if I wanted to commit to such a long series. But now that I own a copy of the first book, it would be silly of me not to read it at some point. Salt to the Sea sounds amazing! Can’t wait to dive in!

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