Welcome to My Bookshelf: A Journey Through Kendra Winchester's Library

Hello and welcome back to my channel! I'm your host, Kendra Winchester, and I'm thrilled to have you join me on this journey through my bookshelf. As you may know, I'm a bit of an avid reader and book collector, and today, I want to share with you some of the books that have recently arrived at my doorstep, courtesy of publishers who have sent them my way.

One of the first books I'd like to feature is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions." This book has been on my wish list for a while now, and when I stumbled upon it at Book Outlet, I just had to have it. The best part? It was sent to me free with the purchase of another book, which is always a bonus! As an avid reader, I'm excited to dive into this thought-provoking manifesto that explores feminism in a way that's both accessible and empowering.

Another book that caught my eye at Book Outlet is Octavia E. Butler's series. As a long-time fan of her work, I was thrilled to see these titles available for purchase once again. While not all of the books were from Book Outlet – some were purchased elsewhere – I'm excited to finally have them all in one place and can't wait to dive into their world. Octavia Butler's writing is truly a gift to humanity, and I feel so lucky to be able to call myself a part of her fan base.

Before I left for BEA (Book Exposition America), I stopped by an indie bookstore and picked up "The Fire On High" by Elizabeth Acevedo. This book has been on my radar for quite some time now, and when I finally got my hands on it, I couldn't wait to dive in. The fact that Elizabeth Acevedo recently won the Carnegie Medal for "The Poet X" only added to my excitement – she's a talented author who doesn't need any further introduction! And let me tell you, this book did not disappoint.

I also picked up Ocean Vuong's debut novel, which has been getting so much buzz lately. As an occasional male reader (yes, it happens!), I'm always on the lookout for books written by men that truly resonate with me. And when I saw that "Celestial Bodies" had won the Man Booker International Prize in 2019, I knew I had to give it a try. Eric's review was the final nudge I needed – this book has been flying under my radar long enough! With its beautiful prose and thought-provoking themes, I'm confident that "Celestial Bodies" will be a standout on my shelf.

Last but certainly not least, I'd like to introduce you to Jasmine Warga's latest release, "In Other Words." I stumbled upon this book while watching one of Books and LaLa's videos – her editing skills are truly top-notch! When she reviewed "In Other Words," I knew it was a must-read for me. And let me tell you, the more I learn about this author and her writing style, the more I'm convinced that I need to add this book to my collection.

Audiobooks have always been a favorite of mine, and when I found out that Audre Lorde's "Sister Outsider" was going to be discussed at a local bookstore book club, I just had to get it! Even though I'd never read her work before, the fact that this audiobook was available made it impossible for me to resist. The combination of the author's powerful words and my own notes and underlinings makes for a truly unforgettable reading experience.

As always, I want to thank each and every one of you who takes the time to join me on this journey through my bookshelf. Whether we're old friends or new readers alike, I'm thrilled to share these stories with you and can't wait to see what other books we'll discover together!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHello my name is Kendra Winchester!Welcome back to my channel, and I buy waytoo many books. So today, we're gonna talkabout some of those books, and we'regonna talk about some of the books thatwere sent to me by publishers, and thenI'm gonna be able to put them awaybecause right now my library—if youhadn't guessed yet—is chaos. And myparents are coming, and they're gonna bestaying in the library. So I shouldprobably clean it up so they have aplace to actually sleep that would benice, I think. All right, so let's get tothe books. So of course Book Outlet alwayssomething that I am buying randomly, butactually no not randomly systematically.I have a very long wish list of thingsthat I want and so sometimes I'm buyingthings. And I'm like, oh look I get freeshipping if I add one more. And then moreBook Outlet purchases happen. In fact,they just had a sale, their summer sale,and I bought more books that aren't evenhere yet. So I could have waited, I guess,a little more, but I really do need toclean this room. It doesn't help thatDylan's shred an entire cardboard boxbehind you. You can't see that, but Ipromise you, it's everywhere. So first wehave a book that I surprisingly I readthe original like Facebook post, but Ihaven't read the book version. Imean this is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie'sDear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. I'm readingthat backwards. It's more difficult than itsounds. So this is just like, a littlemanifesto that she wrote and then sheedited for this, and I found this on BookOutlet. I don't know if it'sstill there, but I will include myaffiliate link down below. If youpurchase through that link you get $10off your purchase, and I get some likethe reward points essentially. That's how thatworks. So if you're interested in any ofthe books I talked about today from BookOutlet, definitely go check those out. Sothere's that one.And actually that's the only one that Igot from Book Outlet. I was about to talkabout these books, which I didn't find aBook Outlet, but the rest of the seriesis still there. So I have this series ofOctavia E. Butler books. I showed you someof the ones, that I hauled last time, thatwere from Book Outlet. They're stillthere. Kindred was still there the lasttime I lookedyesterday, but these I bought somewhereelse. And they came in to finish my GrandCentral Octavia Butler collection, sothey all look like this. So I now havethem all, and it brings me joy. I actuallystill don't own Kindred which I shallprobably fix, but that's from a differentpublisher and it doesn't match. And weknow how I feel about matching, but stillvery excited about Octavia Butler. Staytuned more of her work is coming. Since Ican't finish my Toni Morrison projectbefore I turn 30, maybe I can start andfinish the Octavia Butler project.Probably not. I mean, I have like ninemonths. So anyway so before I left for BEA,I went to an indie bookstore, and I boughtThe Fire On High by ElizabethAcevedo, who recently wanted the Carnegiemedal for The Poet X. Congratulations toher, and I really love this book. And Imean, if that doesn't convince you to buyit, I don't know what will. Also it'sabout food, and you know I'm kind ofobsessed with books about food. So herewe go. Like Elizabeth Acevedo and food—yeah, of course. And then I also picked upAmal Unbound, which I've already read.But I'm gonna reviewing a differentvideo. This is by Aisha Saeed, and there'sactually been a lot of South Asian,Middle Eastern, Muslim narratives formiddle readers to come out recently.There's Amina's Voice, which I want to getmy hands on, which is also on Book Outlet,and there is a few others that I've readthat I'm going to be doing a video on.All of these middle reader books thatI've been reading, and I think that wouldbe pretty cool. But Sumaiyya and I havebeen reading a lot of books from SouthAsia and Middle East for a lot of herthemes this year on Reading Women. SoI'll be talking to her about some ofthose, and we actually have one coming upnext week. So I'm so excited,like you guys have no idea. It's gonna bea really great episode.So at another book store event there wasthis book club at a local bookstore, andthe pick was Audre Lorde's SisterOutsider, which I had never read before.So I actually end up picking this 30minutes before book club started, but Ilistened to the audiobook, and I made allof these notes. And then I actually wentthrough the book and underlined all ofthe thingsthat I had written notes on and here'smore poetry. But anyway I really enjoyedthis, so I'm really glad that it was oneof the picks and that was able to pickup a copy. I'll review it in a latervideo, but yeah, I feel like I'dread so little of her in like my surveycourses in grad school that it wasjust time . . . just a time to read the book.No, Dylan. No, you cannot destroy boxesduring little videos. That's not how itworks. You have to provide . . . you have toprovide subtle and quiet backgroundnoises. You can't just like shred things.That face is a face of no regrets. Sosome other books I picked up obviouslyOcean Vuong. Everyone's talking about it,and I don't buy very many books by dudes,but when I do . . . they're reallygood. I also picked up this book becausein continuing the theme of MiddleEastern and South Asian author that Iwanted to pick up. This one won the ManBooker International Prize in 2019, andthis is Celestial Bodies, so I've seenlike Eric or Lonesome reader review this.I believe I see him talking about themost. I think and so I'm very muchlooking forward to reading it. I alsofound out that it's coming out in theUS via counterpoint. I want to say Iwill correct myself down in thedescription box if that's not correct.But it is coming to the United States, soI ordered this one on Book Depository,so I was very excited. The last book Ihave is another middle reader for thatmiddle reader video I was talking about:IN OTHER WORDS by Jasmine Warga.I picked this up because Books andLaLa reviewed it, and she and I likerarely overlap, but I lovewatching her videos because she's justso good at what she does. And I love likeher editing—oh my word, her editing isamazing. So I saw this, and it was like,\"Yes, that's a Kendra book, and it'sactually a poetry novel.\"Forgive me, Robert—a long narrative poem.That is a story. So this is a middlereader novel, and I really loved it. It'sgreat. I'll talk about it laterin another video, but also the audiobook is great as well. Okay, so those arethe books that I purchased. And so thenext booksto me by publishers, so I will link allof the information down the descriptionbox of what publisher and differentthings. Thanks to all of them for sendingthese books for an honest review.There's a lot, so we're just gonnaquickly go through them. So first up isCygnet by Season Butler. This is abouta young woman—I think she's a teenager—whose parents died. And she has to takecare of herself.This is from Harper, and I think thefirst week of July, sometime early inJuly, when it comes out. So there's that one.From Liveright publishing is anothermost anticipated, but this is forJune. It's already out. This is by NicoleDennis-Benn's Patsy. This is about ayoung woman who finally gets a way to goto the United States. And she leavesbehind her daughter and immigrated tothe United States. I believe she'sundocumented. I could be wrong, but that'sbasically what I know about this. I doknow this is Nicole Dennis-Benn's secondnovel. And that Lupita, over at @Lupita.Reads,really enjoyed it. So I'm hopingthat I will enjoy it as well becauseI've seen a lot of people really lovethis book. Also it's gorgeous. I mean Liverightknows how to make a book. My word—that's gorgeous.From Tin House is their bestsellerMostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett.I've heard so many great things aboutthis from pretty much everyone. It's onso many best of the year list so farthat I've seen wandering around theinternet ,which makes me very happy. Andso this is about, well, I know it involvestaxidermy, and that's about it. I've beentrying to avoid spoilers so much. I'vealready talked about this in mymost anticipated, so I don't think I needto say much else. This one is out fromRandom House, and this is one of thoselike cult novels things. It's supposed tobe like, I guess maybe a commune novel bea better term so set in upstate New York.And it's We Went to the Woods by KateDolan-Leach, and this is about people whogo to a former commune and try to likealso start some sort of commune orcommunity or something. I really wantthis to work for me, besides the factthat it's absolutely gorgeous.So we'll see we'll see. I think Autumn,also has this on her TBR. Okay, so thisnext book is one of the most delightfulunsolicited books that I have ever received.This is Mountains Piled Upon Mountains:Appalachian Nature Writing in theAnthropocene by edited by Jessica Corey.So West Virginia University Presspublished Appalachian Reckoning, and theLGBTQ collection of fiction fromAppalachia as well. So when this arrivedin the mail,Sam brings it to me as like, this is fromWest Virginia. Who's sending you mailfrom West Virginia? And I was like, I onlyknow one press, and if they're sending me abook unsolicited, I know I'm going tolove it because they do such an amazingjob. So I know a lot of people onbooktube aren't really into nature, andthat's fine. But I am the opposite. Iadore nature writing, and I think isdefinitely a lost art here in America. Ifeel like in the UK it's kind ofregaining its foothold, but here inAmerica, it's really just reallystruggling. It's either just notgood or it's just not as well known orit's considered niche writing. So the factthat you know this writing comes from myhome region and is about nature is soimportant to me ,and—oh my word—I'mjust so thrilled. If I could read morepages a day, I would already be readingthis. So book that Autumn picked up at BEA,and then arrived at my house, whichwas very exciting. This is a book from HarperPerennial.This is I'm Telling the Truth, But I'mLying, essays by Bassey Ikpi. And this isabout her experience with bipolardisorder.She also immigrated to United Statesfrom Nigeria, so it talks about herimmigrant experience. Also I believethere's some blurb said something aboutliving in the South, and then alsostruggling with her mental health. And soI think that this could be very, veryfabulous, and it's written by a woman ofcolor about mental health. And I thinkthat's just something we need to seemore of. So I'm just very thrilled thatthis is here in my house, and I'm veryexcited to read it. Personal essays andmemoirs by women of color this fall arejust on fire. There's gonna be so many,and I could not be more thrilled for allof the books that are be coming out. Sostay tuned. We'll talk about the morelater.Speaking of memoirs from women of colorand in August, this book comes out thisis a naked hardback gorgeous design thisis out from Spiegel & Grau (may they restin peace).And this is by Long Litt Woon, andthis is the way through the woodsmushrooms and mourning. And it's herexperience coping with grief, but alsocombining that with nature writing andprickly about mushrooms. I'm guessing itcould be just her wandering in the woods.When I received this, I was like I'm notsure if I've ever seen a more Kendrabook . . . then the book about Appalachiannature rioting arrived. But still this isvery high up on there, and I'm just sothrilled with the design and howbeautiful it is. Yes, just all of theyeses for this book. I have so muchnature writing to read. Perfect. Ifeel like I really want to read naturewriting in the summer as well, which iswhy I like I think I read Barkskins, andit was one the most formative summerreading experience, realizing oh this ismy kind of summer read, reading abouttrees. So definitely that's it.Those are the books that I have to showyou this month for this month's haul.Thank you so much for watching.Definitely tell me what book I shouldpick up next and that you've reallyenjoyed. Tell me what books you're mostlooking forward to all of the thingsdown in the comments, and make sure youhit the subscribe button and the littlebell there that will tell you when newvideos go up for me. And yeah, I guess Iwill see the next one. Bye, guys!you\n"