My Valentine's Day with Sam

This year, my boyfriend and I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day a day early because he usually works on February 14th. We started our special day with sushi and book shopping. As we were browsing through the shelves, Sam surprised me with two beautiful books - Amy Tan's memoir "Where the Past Begins" and a signed copy of her previous work, "The Opposite of Fate". I was overjoyed to receive such thoughtful gifts from my partner.

Amy Tan's memoirs are a treasure trove of stories, and I was thrilled to get a signed copy of "Where the Past Begins". The book is not only a collection of essays but also a reflection on her childhood experiences growing up in Taiwan. I've heard great things about Amy Tan's writing style, and I'm excited to dive into this new work.

The second book that Sam got me was "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black, which comes with a beautiful black jacket and white hardback cover featuring gold lettering. I absolutely love this edition of the book, and the extra short story in the back is a wonderful bonus. The Barnes & Noble edition is a rare find, and I feel so lucky to have it as a gift from my partner.

After our book shopping adventure, we stopped by Dollar Tree, a thrift store that always holds surprises. I had a hunch that there would be some great finds in the remainder copy section, and boy was I right! Amidst the rows of discounted books, I spotted Lauren Groff's "Delicate Edible Bird" for just $1. This hardback edition is a treasure, especially since it's one of her earlier works. I've heard wonderful things about Lauren Groff's writing style, and this book has been on my wishlist for quite some time.

As I held the book in my hands, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and gratitude towards Sam. The fact that he went out of his way to find me these beautiful books made my day truly special. We didn't spend too much time discussing the books we found, but I knew that he had carefully chosen them for me.

The final book on my list is "Single Carefree Mellow" by Katherine Heaney, a short story collection that follows her debut novel "Standard Deviation". Although I haven't read "Standard Deviation", I've heard mixed reviews about it. However, I'm told that her short stories are worth reading, and the fact that this one was just $1 made it an irresistible find.

The last book on my list is a middle grade title called "Star: A River of the Sky" by Gracelynn Beck. I've heard great things about Gracelynn's books, which often feature fantastical worlds and beautiful illustrations. Although I haven't read any of her previous works, I'm excited to pick up more of her books in the future.

In conclusion, my Valentine's Day with Sam was a day filled with love, joy, and wonderful book finds. From Amy Tan's memoirs to Lauren Groff's "Delicate Edible Bird", each book has its own unique charm that I'm eager to explore. If you've read any of these books or have thoughts on them, please feel free to share your experiences in the comments below. Until next time, happy reading!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso had your fan club hi I'm Kendra Winchester here with Dylan and today we're gonna do a book haul for you these are all the books that have come into the house over the last month and a half so there are a lot of books so we're just gonna jump right in and start with the books that were said to me from publishers are you ready yeah I think first up is Eden by Andrea Kline hiss out from houghton mifflin harcourt this book comes out on July 10th this book is about two women who are abducted as girls and how they deal with that as adults next up is a book by Lisa cross Smith this is her the abuse call dwicky ribbons this is out from Hub City which is a local press here in South Carolina this is set in Louisville Kentucky and a professional ballerina is nine months pregnant when her husband a police officer is shot in the line of duty so it deals with that kind of situation Roxane gay called this author a consummate storyteller so I'm very much interested in reading this debut next up is a book from William Morrow which comes out on August 18th and that is if you leave me by Krystal Hanna Kim and this is a historical novel that starts during the Korean War and moves forward in time it's supposed to have a relationship where I guess the kind of relationship where they're torn apart maybe get back together I don't know I just know this will probably be a harrowing read but it is one of my most anticipated of the summer so I'm very much looking forward to this one so I'm always looking for more writers of color in fantasy and scifi and I was so excited when a publicist asked me if I wanted to read mem by Bethany Seymour oh yeah Bethany see Morrow is an african-american woman and this is out from unnamed press this is about a world almost like an alternate universe where people can take their memories and make them into a physical form there are like zombies I think is how it was described and then one day one of these dumb zombie starts making memories for herself and it takes a look at that this is a very short book good almost a novella but I am really thrilled to get into my ex ian was stopped everything just to read this book speaking of books I wanted to stop everything to read I have here Tommy all the Emmys debut novel children of blood and bone saw from Henry Holt if you had probably seen this everywhere it is that most anticipated y8 titles of the year and I was so thrilled to receive an arc I just could not believe it also really really big novel it sounds fascinating the authors of Nigerian descent and so she has a lot of her own folklore in this and I also heard on the PW kids cast she was talking about her road to publication which was absolutely fascinating and everything about this book is fascinating really one of my most anticipated books of the spring comes out from little brown and that is Cersei by Madeline Miller she wrote the song of Achilles and this is just about see her in her life this is a fictionalized account I mean it's a myth right but she kind of adds to it and it's a novelization of that myth and her own interpretation of the character or Cersei who is most famously in the Odyssey by Homer I'm actually reading that right now it's the Emily Wilson translation and I really love it and I want to make sure I finish it before I start this one also if you watched my five star predictions video you know I also want to read the song of Achilles so I have a couple things to finish before I jump into this one so I'm stalling but I already read a few pages and I really like the writing so far so we'll see how this goes a book from bay back books is the paperback edition of waking lions by a leg under Goshen so this book is about a man who's married to a police officer and he's on the road and he accidentally kills an African migrant and like a car accident and he doesn't know if he should be the one that and he drives off and he doesn't know if he should tell his wife and kind of the tension between that so I saw this last year and I picked it up out of the library and I checked it out brought it home about to read it and something happened and I just never got to it so I'm so thrilled to receive a copy and finally get to read this book next is a book called hormonal the hidden intelligence of hormones how they drive desire shaped relationships influenced your choices and make us wiser by murti Hazleton this is a book that wants to throw out the whole sexist idea of oh she's just hormonal hormones are more than just these derogatory things we refer to women and what we believe they're hysterical nature's are they actually are vital to a lot of different systems and that's what she wants to look at and it's kind of throughout this whole idea that this hormonal woman stereotype that we have in our head and so I'm all here for that I am all here for getting rid of sexist stereotypes so I am looking forward to reading this one because I love kind of like pop science ebooks about different things and feminist pop science ebooks are the best another book I could not be more thrilled to receive from Minchin or books is post mosaic Khan's fourth book in the Rachel Getty and Issa Hawk series they're like a mystery series is a dangerous crossing this is the fourth book in the series and she has done such a great job with this book I can he would duck these are character driven mysteries but they also look at social justice issues so these book is just so well done I haven't read the third one so I don't know what this is about because it was kind of a cliffhanger and stuff so I want to wait to get exactly what this book is about but I have heard great things and I've heard that this one has gotten a lot of great reviews the third one was kind of iffy I've heard mixed things about it but this one just seems to be still across the board so I just need to get reading I need more any more time guys I need like to never sleep so I can read all the things so the next set of books I've already read and have already reviewed or will be reviewing in the near future so I'm just gonna quickly run through them even more so than these other ones so we have the widows of Malabar Hill out from Soho Press and this is by Sujata Massey this is about a female solicitor with the first female Indian solicitor in Bombay during the 1920s and she goes around solving crime I already reviewed this one so if you want to check that out I will link it up above my head and down below next up is a book out from Pamela Dorman books and this is everything here is beautiful by a mere Tilly this focuses on two sisters Miranda and Lucia Lucia struggles with mental her mental health and has been hospitalized several times and so it looks at the complications of caring for Lucia and also Lucy as partners they care for her and it's just a very moving book and I'll be talking about this later in a wrap-up at some point near the end of the beginning of next month we also have the finished copies of Hart berries by Theresa Marie Emilio from counterpoint and I am I am am by maggie O'Farrell from Knopf I already reviewed these in a video by themselves so I'll link that again above my head down in the description box you can go check that out these are definitely two of my favorite memoirs of the year which I'm not sure how many have read so far but I strongly suspect you'll see these books in some videos about my favorites of the year this one is brass by Janet al you and the self from Random House this is a very strong debut novel about a mom living in Connecticut in an old like brass factory town and also an alternate like perspective of her daughter in the future Lily Etta at the same age and how she's dealing with her like you know growing up experience and I thought this was very well done I love the narrative voice so I'll talk about this later again in another wrap-up and eternal life by Dara horn stop from WW Norton it's about a Jewish woman who before the destruction of Jerusalem she made a deal with God to save her son she could never die and so she's lived thousands of years and this takes a look at the psychology of this woman and like the burdens that she's been carrying for thousands of years emotionally and how she deals with that and I thought this was a very interesting novel at that look at that kind of experience and I thought it was well done so I'll talk about this more later again just keep saying that I know it's probably irritating and I had just have one more that have to do that too for and that is the girl in the tower which is a sequel to the bear in the nightingale this is by Katherine Arden the south from Del Rey and I get the UK copies because I really love their covers I think they're beautiful assault I'll talk about this one more later as well so that was all the books that I've read so now we're into books that were either given to me or I purchased for myself so the first one is a book from Book Depository and that is night waking by Sarah Moss I don't know what this is about this is the first though in the trilogy I got the second two for Christmas and so I wanted the first one obviously so I could read it as well this is off from Granta so I did a book swap with Sean over the book maniac if you haven't checked out his channel need a fellini - he didn't after this book Johannesburg by Fiona Melrose but I was very interested in it because the retelling of mrs. Dalloway or at least it inspired by so of course I had to read it anything about Virginia Woolf I'm gonna read and also look at this naked hardback is absolutely beautiful so thank you very much Sean even if I hate it I probably will keep it and frame it or something because it is just it's just so beautiful another book I have is a middle reader book I think because it's out from a green willow and I believe that's a middle reader children's imprint but I'm not exactly sure this is by Amy Zang and this is called falling into place it isn't saying much about the book it says in the beginning Liz Emerson doesn't understand any of it but I do I understand how we fall where we fall why we follow I understand her sadness and loneliness and silence her shattered heart it doesn't have to be this way does it it wasn't always this way was it stay alive Liz them or some stay alive so it might be away book I'm not sure if you have read this book and have feelings please do definitely let me know to have the government's so Sam and I had Valentine's Day a day early because he usually works on Valentine's Day but we had sushi and went book shopping near the end and I'll tell you a little bit about that but Valentine's Day he gave me two books and the first one was Amy Tan's memoir where the past begins and this is actually a signed copy I was so excited for this book and as write and then he got me a signed copy so I was over the moon thrilled with this one the other book he got me is the Barnes & Noble edition of the cruel prince by Holly black unlike the regular edition this one has a black jacket and then the white naked hard back with the gold sign there I absolutely love this edition I think it's beautiful it also has an extra short story in the back so that was really exciting um Amy Tan's memoirs out from echo by the way and this one's out from little brown now near the end of our Valentine's Day date I was like we need to go to Dollar Tree and he's like what I was like we need to go to Dollar Tree just trust me we need to go and so we went in and I knew there was a remainder copy section there and do you know what I found in the remainder copy section this for a dollar oh my goodness this is delicate I love edible birds by Lauren Groth is that from her shet and this came out years ago but there was his hard back edition of it and I'm trying to click I love Lauren graph and hardback because I love her and she's had several different publishers so nothing matches it's just abysmal but I am so thrilled because this is our first short story collection her second one is coming out called Florida's coming out from Riverhead and it looks really cool but I I just had to find this one so this will probably be in my next five five star prediction video not the round I just came out the one next anyway Lauren Groff ex are some books that I have seen I'm not really sure I don't know too much about them but this one is called all the birds singing by Evie Wilde and this is out from Pantheon this is a book I'm not sure I will like but I really love books about rural Britishness are really just rural life in general but this is about a girl who lives on a farm and has this dog named dog and just you know life there but I've heard that this mixed reviews about it and so I'm not sure if I will like it so if you have read this and have feelings again please let me know next up is a book called single carefree mellow by Katherine Heaney and this is her short story collection she had a novel called standard deviation came out last year it was her debut and I heard mixed things about it and I had friend who really didn't like it out all she exceed the nf2 but I've heard that even if you don't like the novel you'll probably like her short stories so I definitely had to pick this up especially since it was just a dollar the last one is a middle grade book and this is star a river of the sky big grace Lynn I have heard wonderful things about gracelynn and her book she has other books and a similar like I think the fantastical world and have similar color covers and heard things one of them is where the mountain meets the moon which is a Newbery Honor book I think and then there was a book that came out last year that I haven't read American at any of her SRIA lis but when I saw this I knew that I needed to get it well I could because I really want to pick start picking up more middle reader books I've been really lacks in that over the last couple of years so but I mean this amazing copy for a dollar that's beautiful just beautiful what luck it was Valentine's Day look this is why we stopped randomly at Dollar Tree anyway those are all the books that I have to show to you today again if you want more information on any of these books they are all linked down there in box below I can't use words today at all I'm just so excited for all these books the joy is real if you have read any of these books especially the ones I wasn't sure about please please them you know because I'm always looking for pinyons and reviews to see which books I want to read next but until next time all for me and I guess I'll talk to you later guys byeso had your fan club hi I'm Kendra Winchester here with Dylan and today we're gonna do a book haul for you these are all the books that have come into the house over the last month and a half so there are a lot of books so we're just gonna jump right in and start with the books that were said to me from publishers are you ready yeah I think first up is Eden by Andrea Kline hiss out from houghton mifflin harcourt this book comes out on July 10th this book is about two women who are abducted as girls and how they deal with that as adults next up is a book by Lisa cross Smith this is her the abuse call dwicky ribbons this is out from Hub City which is a local press here in South Carolina this is set in Louisville Kentucky and a professional ballerina is nine months pregnant when her husband a police officer is shot in the line of duty so it deals with that kind of situation Roxane gay called this author a consummate storyteller so I'm very much interested in reading this debut next up is a book from William Morrow which comes out on August 18th and that is if you leave me by Krystal Hanna Kim and this is a historical novel that starts during the Korean War and moves forward in time it's supposed to have a relationship where I guess the kind of relationship where they're torn apart maybe get back together I don't know I just know this will probably be a harrowing read but it is one of my most anticipated of the summer so I'm very much looking forward to this one so I'm always looking for more writers of color in fantasy and scifi and I was so excited when a publicist asked me if I wanted to read mem by Bethany Seymour oh yeah Bethany see Morrow is an african-american woman and this is out from unnamed press this is about a world almost like an alternate universe where people can take their memories and make them into a physical form there are like zombies I think is how it was described and then one day one of these dumb zombie starts making memories for herself and it takes a look at that this is a very short book good almost a novella but I am really thrilled to get into my ex ian was stopped everything just to read this book speaking of books I wanted to stop everything to read I have here Tommy all the Emmys debut novel children of blood and bone saw from Henry Holt if you had probably seen this everywhere it is that most anticipated y8 titles of the year and I was so thrilled to receive an arc I just could not believe it also really really big novel it sounds fascinating the authors of Nigerian descent and so she has a lot of her own folklore in this and I also heard on the PW kids cast she was talking about her road to publication which was absolutely fascinating and everything about this book is fascinating really one of my most anticipated books of the spring comes out from little brown and that is Cersei by Madeline Miller she wrote the song of Achilles and this is just about see her in her life this is a fictionalized account I mean it's a myth right but she kind of adds to it and it's a novelization of that myth and her own interpretation of the character or Cersei who is most famously in the Odyssey by Homer I'm actually reading that right now it's the Emily Wilson translation and I really love it and I want to make sure I finish it before I start this one also if you watched my five star predictions video you know I also want to read the song of Achilles so I have a couple things to finish before I jump into this one so I'm stalling but I already read a few pages and I really like the writing so far so we'll see how this goes a book from bay back books is the paperback edition of waking lions by a leg under Goshen so this book is about a man who's married to a police officer and he's on the road and he accidentally kills an African migrant and like a car accident and he doesn't know if he should be the one that and he drives off and he doesn't know if he should tell his wife and kind of the tension between that so I saw this last year and I picked it up out of the library and I checked it out brought it home about to read it and something happened and I just never got to it so I'm so thrilled to receive a copy and finally get to read this book next is a book called hormonal the hidden intelligence of hormones how they drive desire shaped relationships influenced your choices and make us wiser by murti Hazleton this is a book that wants to throw out the whole sexist idea of oh she's just hormonal hormones are more than just these derogatory things we refer to women and what we believe they're hysterical nature's are they actually are vital to a lot of different systems and that's what she wants to look at and it's kind of throughout this whole idea that this hormonal woman stereotype that we have in our head and so I'm all here for that I am all here for getting rid of sexist stereotypes so I am looking forward to reading this one because I love kind of like pop science ebooks about different things and feminist pop science ebooks are the best another book I could not be more thrilled to receive from Minchin or books is post mosaic Khan's fourth book in the Rachel Getty and Issa Hawk series they're like a mystery series is a dangerous crossing this is the fourth book in the series and she has done such a great job with this book I can he would duck these are character driven mysteries but they also look at social justice issues so these book is just so well done I haven't read the third one so I don't know what this is about because it was kind of a cliffhanger and stuff so I want to wait to get exactly what this book is about but I have heard great things and I've heard that this one has gotten a lot of great reviews the third one was kind of iffy I've heard mixed things about it but this one just seems to be still across the board so I just need to get reading I need more any more time guys I need like to never sleep so I can read all the things so the next set of books I've already read and have already reviewed or will be reviewing in the near future so I'm just gonna quickly run through them even more so than these other ones so we have the widows of Malabar Hill out from Soho Press and this is by Sujata Massey this is about a female solicitor with the first female Indian solicitor in Bombay during the 1920s and she goes around solving crime I already reviewed this one so if you want to check that out I will link it up above my head and down below next up is a book out from Pamela Dorman books and this is everything here is beautiful by a mere Tilly this focuses on two sisters Miranda and Lucia Lucia struggles with mental her mental health and has been hospitalized several times and so it looks at the complications of caring for Lucia and also Lucy as partners they care for her and it's just a very moving book and I'll be talking about this later in a wrap-up at some point near the end of the beginning of next month we also have the finished copies of Hart berries by Theresa Marie Emilio from counterpoint and I am I am am by maggie O'Farrell from Knopf I already reviewed these in a video by themselves so I'll link that again above my head down in the description box you can go check that out these are definitely two of my favorite memoirs of the year which I'm not sure how many have read so far but I strongly suspect you'll see these books in some videos about my favorites of the year this one is brass by Janet al you and the self from Random House this is a very strong debut novel about a mom living in Connecticut in an old like brass factory town and also an alternate like perspective of her daughter in the future Lily Etta at the same age and how she's dealing with her like you know growing up experience and I thought this was very well done I love the narrative voice so I'll talk about this later again in another wrap-up and eternal life by Dara horn stop from WW Norton it's about a Jewish woman who before the destruction of Jerusalem she made a deal with God to save her son she could never die and so she's lived thousands of years and this takes a look at the psychology of this woman and like the burdens that she's been carrying for thousands of years emotionally and how she deals with that and I thought this was a very interesting novel at that look at that kind of experience and I thought it was well done so I'll talk about this more later again just keep saying that I know it's probably irritating and I had just have one more that have to do that too for and that is the girl in the tower which is a sequel to the bear in the nightingale this is by Katherine Arden the south from Del Rey and I get the UK copies because I really love their covers I think they're beautiful assault I'll talk about this one more later as well so that was all the books that I've read so now we're into books that were either given to me or I purchased for myself so the first one is a book from Book Depository and that is night waking by Sarah Moss I don't know what this is about this is the first though in the trilogy I got the second two for Christmas and so I wanted the first one obviously so I could read it as well this is off from Granta so I did a book swap with Sean over the book maniac if you haven't checked out his channel need a fellini - he didn't after this book Johannesburg by Fiona Melrose but I was very interested in it because the retelling of mrs. Dalloway or at least it inspired by so of course I had to read it anything about Virginia Woolf I'm gonna read and also look at this naked hardback is absolutely beautiful so thank you very much Sean even if I hate it I probably will keep it and frame it or something because it is just it's just so beautiful another book I have is a middle reader book I think because it's out from a green willow and I believe that's a middle reader children's imprint but I'm not exactly sure this is by Amy Zang and this is called falling into place it isn't saying much about the book it says in the beginning Liz Emerson doesn't understand any of it but I do I understand how we fall where we fall why we follow I understand her sadness and loneliness and silence her shattered heart it doesn't have to be this way does it it wasn't always this way was it stay alive Liz them or some stay alive so it might be away book I'm not sure if you have read this book and have feelings please do definitely let me know to have the government's so Sam and I had Valentine's Day a day early because he usually works on Valentine's Day but we had sushi and went book shopping near the end and I'll tell you a little bit about that but Valentine's Day he gave me two books and the first one was Amy Tan's memoir where the past begins and this is actually a signed copy I was so excited for this book and as write and then he got me a signed copy so I was over the moon thrilled with this one the other book he got me is the Barnes & Noble edition of the cruel prince by Holly black unlike the regular edition this one has a black jacket and then the white naked hard back with the gold sign there I absolutely love this edition I think it's beautiful it also has an extra short story in the back so that was really exciting um Amy Tan's memoirs out from echo by the way and this one's out from little brown now near the end of our Valentine's Day date I was like we need to go to Dollar Tree and he's like what I was like we need to go to Dollar Tree just trust me we need to go and so we went in and I knew there was a remainder copy section there and do you know what I found in the remainder copy section this for a dollar oh my goodness this is delicate I love edible birds by Lauren Groth is that from her shet and this came out years ago but there was his hard back edition of it and I'm trying to click I love Lauren graph and hardback because I love her and she's had several different publishers so nothing matches it's just abysmal but I am so thrilled because this is our first short story collection her second one is coming out called Florida's coming out from Riverhead and it looks really cool but I I just had to find this one so this will probably be in my next five five star prediction video not the round I just came out the one next anyway Lauren Groff ex are some books that I have seen I'm not really sure I don't know too much about them but this one is called all the birds singing by Evie Wilde and this is out from Pantheon this is a book I'm not sure I will like but I really love books about rural Britishness are really just rural life in general but this is about a girl who lives on a farm and has this dog named dog and just you know life there but I've heard that this mixed reviews about it and so I'm not sure if I will like it so if you have read this and have feelings again please let me know next up is a book called single carefree mellow by Katherine Heaney and this is her short story collection she had a novel called standard deviation came out last year it was her debut and I heard mixed things about it and I had friend who really didn't like it out all she exceed the nf2 but I've heard that even if you don't like the novel you'll probably like her short stories so I definitely had to pick this up especially since it was just a dollar the last one is a middle grade book and this is star a river of the sky big grace Lynn I have heard wonderful things about gracelynn and her book she has other books and a similar like I think the fantastical world and have similar color covers and heard things one of them is where the mountain meets the moon which is a Newbery Honor book I think and then there was a book that came out last year that I haven't read American at any of her SRIA lis but when I saw this I knew that I needed to get it well I could because I really want to pick start picking up more middle reader books I've been really lacks in that over the last couple of years so but I mean this amazing copy for a dollar that's beautiful just beautiful what luck it was Valentine's Day look this is why we stopped randomly at Dollar Tree anyway those are all the books that I have to show to you today again if you want more information on any of these books they are all linked down there in box below I can't use words today at all I'm just so excited for all these books the joy is real if you have read any of these books especially the ones I wasn't sure about please please them you know because I'm always looking for pinyons and reviews to see which books I want to read next but until next time all for me and I guess I'll talk to you later guys bye\n"