The Girls Are All Nice Here: A Book Haul Review

I recently received my latest book haul from Book of the Month, and I'm excited to share my thoughts on each of the books that caught my attention. The first book that stood out to me was a mystery thriller that completely captured my attention. I couldn't put it down, and I found myself completely absorbed in the story until the very end. As soon as the author revealed a twist, I was like "wow, that's nuts!" And then another one would come a couple of pages later, and I'd be thinking to myself, "dude, what is going on?!" It was just so satisfying, and I loved it. I have to say, my standards are getting pretty high after reading so many thrillers over the past couple of years, but this book did not disappoint. I think more people should read it because it was also really cool to sit back and reflect on how different life is in this book compared to our own reality. It's been over a year now since life was like... well, you know.

My next up from Book of the Month is "The Perishing" by Natasha Dion. This sounds like a fascinating fantasy book about a woman who arrives in 1930s Los Angeles with absolutely no memory of how she got there. She goes on to become the first black journalist at the LA Times and one day discovers that she has been drawing a man's face for years, but has no recollection of ever meeting him. I'm not sure what to make of this book outside of that short description, but it sounds really cool, and I'm very interested in it. I get some Addy Larue vibes from it, with the whole "lack of memory" and "meeting people you don't remember" thing going on. But overall, it seems like a really great story that I'd love to learn more about.

Next up is "Beautiful Country" by Can Julie Wang. This is a memoir about a woman who came to the United States from China when she was a small child and details her life growing up as a Chinese immigrant in America. It's clear that there have been some difficulties and joys of moving to a country where you don't speak the language and don't know anyone, but what really takes a turn for the author is when her mother collapses and reveals that she has been living with a very serious illness that the author never knew about. I love memoirs, and I feel like I don't read them as frequently because I'm at heart a fiction reader, but "Beautiful Country" just sounds like a really strong story that I think I can learn a lot from and will be very eye-opening.

I'm also excited to dive into another Book of the Month thriller. This one is called "Not a Happy Family" by Shari Lane Pen. It follows a wealthy family where the parents are murdered one night, and it seems like an investigation into whether any of the three children could be responsible because they all have something to gain from their parents' death. The children have had a very complicated growing-up experience, so it sounds like this book will be really interesting. I'm always into crime-mafia type stories, so I think this one will be right up my alley.

I'm also looking forward to reading "Harlem Shuffle" by Colson Whitehead. This is set in 1950s Harlem where a man is trying to do the most that he can to support his family living in Harlem, but he's always had this sort of side business that helps make that possible. But he gets roped into some kind of crime-heist situation with really dangerous people, and it just sounds like it's going to be really interesting. I'm always up for a good crime story, so I think this one will be right up my street.

Finally, we have "The Inheritance of Orchardia Divinia" by Zoraida Córdova. This follows the Montoya family who seem to have always had good fortune but travel to their matriarch's home to collect their inheritance and discover that she has turned into a giant tree. It seems like about seven years after the whole "tree thing," someone is killing off the family members one by one, trying to eradicate Orkidia Divinia's line. The author's descendants travel to Ecuador to uncover their family secrets, protect their family, and get explanations they've always been looking for. That's all I know outside of that short description, but it sounds like a really cool story.

That concludes my latest book haul review. Thank you so much to Disney Book Group for sponsoring this video, and I'll see you soon in the next video!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's up hello my name is emma and today i'm going to be doing a classic cozy book haul as always i am very grateful for your patience in my current upload schedule i have been working full time for the first time ever and it has been very difficult to balance booktube with that but what better way to come back with showing you all of the books that i have recently acquired in like the past maybe six months i want to kick off this book haul by giving a big thank you to disney book group who is sponsoring this video and sent me two amazing new releases that are going to be perfect for those of you who are rick riordan fans like myself first up we have a collection of short stories featuring heroes from various different cultures called the cursed carnival and other calamities the way the short story collection works is each story follows a different hero from a variety of different cultures such as indian korean cuban mexican african navajo mesopotamian celtic and many more and all of these stories except for rick riordan's brand new hero feature characters from previous rick riordan presents stories such as aru shaw riley o tristan strong's friends and paolo santiago it seems like there's a story for everyone in here be it set in space at a haunted carnival a pow-wow following monsters and demons it just sounds like a really cool mythical fantasy story and then the next book that disney book group sent me is daughter of the deep rick riordan's newest release daughter of the deep follows a girl named anna who is a freshman at the harding pencroft boarding school that trains the best marine scientists navigators and undersea explorers in addition to having to survive the school's very secretive trial for freshmen there is also this like long ongoing war between harding pencraft academy and one of their rivals and it just seems like a really cool story full of undersea adventures making friends and of course featuring rick riordan's classic humor the cursed carnival and other calamities as well as daughter of the deep are both in stores now so check them out and definitely know what you think of these stories in the comments and you can find out more about both of these stories or get your own copy through the links i've posted in the description so the first books i wanted to talk about in this book haul that i've bought myself are from a little barnes noble trip that i took a couple of months ago it was one of my first times being back to barnes noble since the pandemic started and i made a little tick tock just like exploring my day and i'll link that below if you want to check it out first up is the anthropocene reviewed by john green and this is one i've actually already listened to through the audiobook and i really really loved it this is john green's first non-fiction work and honestly like as much as i loved his ya fiction when i was a teen myself i am very interested in anything nonfiction that he decides to publish in the future because i feel like this is really like where his talent lies the anthropocene reviewed is a collection of essays written by john green that all tie back to the idea of things involved in our world our history and related to humanity and it's written through this interesting lens of him like reviewing all of those things on the five star rating scale the topics of which he writes about are super varied like a couple off the top my head that i remember are like air conditioning different diseases ancient cave paintings and sports i learned a lot from this book about things i had previously no idea even existed but it's also a very personal story where john green is sharing his own experiences and thoughts on these different topics and it was just like a really enjoyable read if you're someone who does not read a lot of nonfiction and you're just interested in learning more about the world and how we interact with each other it was just such a pleasant read and i highly recommend it another book i picked up at the barnes noble hall is a queer new york by jen jack giesling and as a new york city queer like i just immediately was drawn to this book but it actually sounds really interesting it basically talks about how gentrification of the white and wealthy and urban development has led to the disappearance of many lesbian gay and queer spaces throughout new york city it focuses on the resistance and resilience of these queer communities and how they have survived under capitalism and gentrification and it just sounds really interesting to me as i spend most of my time in new york city going to queer spaces i'm really interested in learning about the city's actual queer history and just finding out more that i never knew about so this is definitely one i would really like to dive into soon next book i picked up at barnes noble is your dark corner by desmond hall and the reason that i picked this book up is number one i had never heard of it before but number two it was tucked in the very corner at the bottom of a bookshelf that was very dark and i was like this is synchronicity in motion like i feel like i have to get this book it's been calling to me i don't know much about this book because the synopsis doesn't tell much but it follows a young teen named frankie who is living in jamaica and it seems like a coming-of-age story of him like finding love in his country as well as finding himself it seems really cool though i've never read a book set in jamaica the author himself is also from jamaica and i just feel like this is a book that i could learn a lot from and really enjoy so the next book i got at barnes noble i was really excited to share with you because i read it and really enjoyed it but for some reason i cannot find it anywhere like no one borrowed it it should be on my shelf but i cannot find it anywhere and it is called all the girls are so nice here i picked it up just because it was a thriller and like thrillers have the ability to interest me way easier than other genres it was also i got it on a discount this novel is written in a dual timeline the present part of the story takes place at a college reunion where a girl is going back to the place that she attended college and like interacting with all the people that she knew at the time and the other half of the story takes place in the past when she was actually a student there and something really wild happened that like changed the course of the lives of people here forever i picked this book up on a whim and it really intrigued me like it takes a lot for me to like find a book and not be able to put it down but i was just voraciously reading this one i need a thriller that is really going to surprise me where i cannot guess all of the twists and turns or what the final mystery is and so like that book was perfect for that for me there were like some problematic aspects of the book like there's a lot of fat phobia in it as well as like cheating and general girl hate because this book does take place in like the early 2000s i think but it's clear to me that like the intention of the book was not to promote that message it was to provide commentary on what it means to grow up as a young woman in that time period there was also like a really graphic depiction of suicide that i just did not feel was necessary but like the story overall was very intriguing and i really did not like any of the characters but i feel like any book that can have like consistent unlikable characters and have a good enough plot to hold it up is one that i enjoy so it was really worth it if you're looking for like a new thriller to read i definitely think you should check this one out and the last book i got at barnes noble haul is the ones we are meant to find by joan he oh interesting i like haven't checked out the synopsis of this book since i bought it and like i did not know this was a science fiction this story follows two sisters the first one is named c and it has been three years since she washed up ashore in abandoned island and has been creating androids to keep her company but is very determined to find her sister sea's sister is named casey and she is a stem prodigy who has been working in the science field for many years and she now wants an escape from science as she has learned so much about humanity in her work and she doesn't know if she wants to be a part of it anymore i feel like when this book came out i was seeing it everywhere and like i feel like it takes a lot for science fiction to be published in y a right now because it is not as in demand so i feel like there are some good signs that this would be a really interesting one for me to check out next up i have what is one of my remaining most anticipated books of 2021 and that is under the whispering door by t.j cloon i read the house in the cerulean sea last year and it was one of my absolute favorite books it was one that i'm going to love for a very long time and so when i heard his new book was coming out and it felt like it had a similar vibe i knew i had to check it out this story follows a man named wallace price who is a very successful lawyer and one day he dies so he is taken to this very peculiar tea shop where a man named hugo is like the fairy men to take souls on i never know how to end that sentence after wallace dies he realizes that he has not lived a life that he is satisfied with and so him and hugo attempt to set out to live a lifetime in seven days before the mysterious manager forces him to go on i'm listening to the audiobook of this and i am really really enjoying it i will say that i feel like i expected a bit more adventure from the story like i can't remember how far into it i am now but like i just expected that we would be doing like a lot of traveling and adventures and like we're still just in the tea shop talking to each other i feel like i expected this story to just be a little bit more thrilling but nonetheless i've really been enjoying it i'm excited to see the character development that wallace goes through i'm excited to see this relationship between wallace and hugo develop and i feel like by the end i will feel pretty satisfied next up i have one of my favorite books that i have read this year and that is one last stop by casey mcquisten i feel like this was the book of summer 2021 and everyone read it i am no different and i absolutely loved it this story follows a 23 year old named august who moves to new york city and it has not been like the glamorous romantic life she has expected but one day while commuting to work or school she ends up seeing this really cool punk rock chick on the subway and discovers that jane is actually displaced from 1970s and stuck on the subway so while august's feelings for jane begin to rise she is also simultaneously trying to get jane back to her own time and get her out of this like wibbly wobbly tiny whimey thing that's going on this is one of the only books that i've given five out of five stars this year like even some of my like favorite favorite books of the years did not get five stars just because i feel like one last stop was like so complete in every way the characters are so well-rounded they are very realistic authentic and grounded there is a lot of great casey mcquisten humor in here and like the writing style is just like perfect for me like casey mcquisten really knows how to write like my perfect contemporary book i was also a little skeptical because usually when there is like a contemporary story that has this like fantasy sci-fi twist a lot of times it's just like not explained and that's frustrating to me but i was really surprised and like satisfied with how that whole aspect of the book turned out and was explained this is a damn good book like i feel like there were a lot of people who read red white and royal blue after the hype and didn't see it but i just feel like one last stop is truly enjoyable in every sense of the word it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside it also breaks your heart at points and i really loved it so i hope more people if you haven't picked it up yet you do now next up is a book i have been really looking forward to reading and that is a little life by yanagihara and this is a book that i truly don't know much about i feel like i say that a lot like i don't know what this book is about but i'm really excited to read it but i feel like that statement can still be true the only thing i really know about this book is that it follows four college students in new york city who become friends and it follows their friendships throughout life as well as their own personal growth the only other thing i know about this book is that it is like very emotional like everyone i know who has read this book has like bald at the end of it so it seems like really dark intense i know that there is a lot of like triggering matters discussed in this book like substance abuse and trauma and like probably a lot more if you need trigger readings for books you should definitely look up the ones before reading this one but y'all know me like my favorite contemporary books are the ones with like really deep horrible topics being discussed and i just feel like it is one that i'm really going to love after the fact i do want to read this one very soon i think that it's going to be the next book that i read physically but i am a little disappointed at how big it is because now i'm gonna have to carry this into the city every day but i feel like it will be worth it so if you see me crying on the new york city subway this book will probably be why next up is a book that i bought from my local library because they always have a ton of books for sale for only like 50 cents for a book so it's like a really great deal and that is still lives by maria hummel this book follows an editor named maggie who is attending this gala unveiling of a very prestigious artist's work where she has created self-portraits depicting herself as murdered women but the artist never shows up to her own event it seems like maggie's ex-boyfriend is the one who is being accused of having something to do with the artist's disappearance and so it just seems like a really compelling thriller that takes place like in the art world and has some commentary on feminism so i'm here for it and i also love a short thriller so i feel like this is one that i could read quickly and really enjoy next up i have some special editions and foreign editions of books i really love the first is the uk version of malibu rising by taylor jenkins read i really really loved malibu rising and i also love the original cover i just can't choose between the two like i just think they're both so pretty if you watch my channel frequently you've probably heard of malibu rising because you would know taylor jenkins reed is one of my favorite authors and it follows four siblings living in malibu in the 1980s and every year they host a big end of summer party that is like the party of the year it takes place over the course of one day as the party happens and by morning malibu is up in flames malibu rising is i think my least favorite compared to daisy jones and evelyn hugo but this book has just been like on my mind since i finished it i think about it constantly it's just i don't know if anyone else can ever agree about like having a book that is not perfect in your mind but one that has really stuck with you oh i just realized that the inside of this book the end pages are so beautiful this is why i love getting special editions of books it's a really fascinating story that goes through a lot of very complex family dynamics and i just loved it so much if you are looking for a new fiction novel to read i definitely do recommend reading malibu rising then i have two editions of the invisible life of addie larue this is the uk version and i believe this is like the like one year special edition anniversary edition maybe i'm not really sure why this exists but i felt like i needed to have it because this was also one of my favorite books that i read when did this book come out 2020 maybe addy larue originally lived in 1700s france and she made a deal with an old god to escape an arranged marriage but in wishing for a life of freedom she made it so that nobody would ever remember her face or that she even existed as soon as she is out of their eyesight so it follows her through over 300 years of life where nobody has ever remembered her but one day in present-day new york city she goes into a bookstore and a man remembers her face for the very first time i loved addie larue so much this is one of the most beautifully written books i've ever read like i'm just obsessed with the writing style and all of the quotes from this book but the characters are also like amazing and it's a story that is very impactful i always say for a book about a forgotten girl it's one of the most unforgettable stories i've ever read definitely one to read if you have not yet it is a book that i'm definitely going to carry with me for the rest of my life and of course what would a book haul on this channel be without a cassandra clear book so i got the new anniversary edition of lady midnight i want to say that this is like the fifth anniversary edition and i'm pretty sure i ordered this through water stones i just think the cover is absolutely gorgeous and as we know i collect like every cassandra clare book that i can possibly get my hands on so i was really excited for it this one also does have a boner short story and a letter from cassie claire so i'm really excited to add it to my collection oh it seems like the short story is called stars to burn and it follows mark and kieran so i'm really excited to read it at some point next up i have two books that were sent to me by subscribers normally i like to thank people who send me books by name but i put all of the notes that i get in like a specific box and i just could not find it at first so the first one is shadowhunters and downworlds a mortal instruments reader by cassandra clare interestingly enough this is a book that i have seen since i first got into the mortal instrument series in 2014 but i have never gotten my own copy so like shout out to the person who sent me this because it is like one of the only books lacking from my collection on the back it says it features a cinematic tutorial on why the best friend always loses to the bad boy and unexpected benefits of the incest taboo what we can read between the lines of alec and magnus's european vacation this is obviously before the eldest curses series came out where we did get to actually see some of that the importance of friendship art humor and rebellion and more from the virtues of downworlders to the naughty side of shadowhunting and it seems like it's actually edited by cassandra clare but all of these stories in here are written by friends of cassie clare like holly black kendara blake sara rhys brennan cammy garcia michelle link no michelle hodkin kelly link and robin wasserman and a couple more so yeah i'm very intrigued to read this one especially because this was written before so many of the newer shadowhunter books came out so i think it's always interesting to delve back into like what was going on in the world before all of these newer stories so thank you so much to the subscriber who sent it to me this was a really amazing gift to receive and then another subscriber recently sent me outlawed by anna north and this is a really cool like old western frontier story that follows a woman who is feeling the pressure of being married for a year and not having children so she ends up joining this like ragtag team of women who are outlaws it seems like a thrilling story of bandits and thieves who are women and like really challenging the roles of women at the time in america so it sounds like a cool one i'm very interested in so thank you again to the person who also sent me this book and so the rest of the books in this book haul were all sent to me by publishers the first being all these villains by amanda foody and christine lynn herman this is actually my current read that i have been enjoying very much i was sent the advanced reader copy of this book and it does come out very soon in november it might actually be out by the point of this video going up but i've been very intrigued by this because it seems to have a real hunger games vibe so instead of a dystopian this book takes place in a country i think or an island maybe called ilvernath right is that right so every generation in ilvernath these seven families choose a champion to basically have their young children battle to the death in order to control the high magic in this world i've really been liking all of us villains so far it does follow at least like five different perspectives so that's like not my normal go-to but all the characters have been really interesting so far and i have oh the one thing i will say about this book is that there is so much info dumping like i get that there is like a long rich history of the different kinds of magic and like what has been going on in the families and with this tournament for a very long time but i just wish that there was a way for us to learn that instead of through like long paragraphs of explanations to the reader also i'm like almost 100 pages in yet and we have not started the actual tournament so there has been a lot of setup but i'm really looking forward to continuing with it i like it a lot so far and i feel like this is going to be a book that is going to take over the online fantasy book world once it does come out the next book on my haul was sent to me by scholastic and it is rise into the sun by leah johnson and the reason i'm interested in this book is because it takes place at a music festival which is something i've never read before when i was much younger i always wanted to write a book set at a music festival so like i'm excited that somebody probably did it better than i ever could have it follows two girls heading to this music festival one has recently been dumped and is looking for a fresh start and the other one has lost her father who is a musician and is about to start college and it i can't tell much more about this book but it just seems like a story about friendship grief and love that i'm really looking forward to the next book was sent to me by harper and that is blackout which is a collection of short stories set during new york city blackouts and the authors featured in this collection are danielle clayton tiffany d jackson nick stone angie thomas ashley woodfolk and nicola yoon i've read from almost all but one of these characters characters authors so i've been really excited for this book i think it was also one on my most anticipated list i did actually start reading blackout i read one of these stories from tiffany d jackson who is probably like one of my favorite authors out of the few i mentioned and unfortunately i did not like the story as much as i was hoping to a weird thing that blackout does that i have not seen from any other short story or anthology collections that i've read is that tiffany g jackson's story is like told in parts throughout each of her story so like i had to skip all the other stories to get this one complete one because i only wanted to read it one at a time and yeah i just did not find it interesting or compelling it was very underwhelming so it is put me off from finishing blackout for a while but i would like to read all of the other stories about black teen love in new york city i'm hoping to enjoy some of the other stories more so if you have read blackout i definitely want to know like what your thoughts were and what your favorite story was so i know which one to start with harper also sent me all these bodies by kandara blake which i have been excited to read because i really enjoyed what i've read of the three dark crown series but this is kandara's first like murder mystery thriller this book takes place in 1958 in the midwest where there have been a string of murders where people are found in their beds drained of all of their blood but the blood has not been found and so the first lead in the case comes from when our main character marie is found at the scene of the recent murder covered in blood that is not hers i'm just gonna throw it out there that i'm gonna assume that marie didn't actually do it and is being framed or like intercepted in the murder somehow but it sounds really interesting and i really have enjoyed kendara blake's writing in the past so i'm excited to read this one and then the final book that harper colin sent me is gods and monsters by shelby maherin which is the third and final book in the serpent and dove series many of you know that i have been loving the serpent and dove series since it began getting published a couple of years ago it is one of the first like high fantasy series that has really caught my attention in a long time and i just think it is beautiful and wonderful serpent and dove has gotten like a lot of critique there are so many people that absolutely hate it i just do not agree like i love the characters the world the magic system is just all really fascinating to me and so i love it a lot and i'm excited to finish the series book one of serpentine dove follows a witch and a witch hunter who are kind of roped into an arranged marriage to save public face but the witch hunter does not know that our main character lou is a witch it's a really great romance and it does feel like it is intended for a little bit of older ya readers which is like the types of books that i am really looking for when i'm reading y a the magic system of the worlds is also really unique to me in this world magic always has a price so anytime you want to cast a spell it requires you to sacrifice something be it blood a memory a broken finger and as someone who studied french for a really long time in high school i love the like 1600s france setting it's just very beautiful and romantic and i just love the development that the characters have gone through in the first two books also the second book ended on like a massive cliffhanger that i only just remembered as going over it so i'm really really intrigued to see how this story is going to end and like how they're going to handle that big cliffhanger i just i have good hopes for this one shelby maheren has not let me down yet and so i'm excited for gods and monsters and anything else shelby maherin puts out in the future because i am just like a big shelby maherinstan and so lastly i want to quickly go through a couple of book of the month books that i have gotten from working with the company in the past again book of the month is not sponsoring this video and i'm showing all of these because i'm really interested in them and i get a lot of good recommendations from the service i will link my discount code in the description if you are interested in checking them out first up i have a book that i picked up on a whim from book of the month and really surprisingly loved and that is 56 days by catherine ryan howard and the reason i was so intrigued by this book is because it is a thriller set in the 2020 global pandemic oh boy am i intrigued for like the wealth of quarantine fiction that is going to plague the publishing industry in the next handful of years so this book follows a couple that met and started dating right before lockdown in dublin began and so because they have started dating and they really like each other they decide to move in together and become lockdown buddies because of course nobody thought it would be going on for as long as it has and so this is another dual timeline book where part of it follows them like from when they meet to when they start living together and then the second half of the book follows the detectives and investigators who have discovered that there is a deceased body in the apartment that they were living in 56 days later this book was really really well written in my opinion it's kind of similar to the girls are all nice here like i was just totally captured by this book i could not put it down i really had no idea what was going on in this book up until the very moment as soon as they revealed a twist i was like oh my god that's nuts and then another one would come a couple of pages later and i'm like dude what is going on it was just a really satisfying mystery thriller i feel like my standards are getting pretty high as i've been reading so many thrillers over the last couple of years but it was just great i loved it and i have not heard anyone else talk about this book so i think that more people should read it because it was also really cool to like sit back and reflect and be like wow like it has been well over a year almost two years now since like life was like it is in this book so it was just really intriguing and eye-opening and i think that people should read it next up from book of the month i have the perishing by natasha dion and this sounds like a really fascinating like fantasy book about a woman who arrives in 1930s los angeles with absolutely no memory of how she got there but she goes on to become the first black journalist at the la times and one day she comes across a man who she discovers that she has been drawing his face for years but has no recollection of ever meeting him i do not know what to make of this book outside of that short little description i feel like i get some addy larue vibes from it with the whole like lack of memory meeting people you don't remember kind of thing but it sounds really cool and i'm very interested in it then we have beautiful country by can julie wang and this is a memoir about a woman who came to the united states from china when she was a small child and really details what her life has been like growing up as a chinese immigrant in america and although there are difficulties and joys of moving to a country where you do not speak the language and do not know anyone it seems like the author's life really takes a turn when her mother collapses and reveals that she has been living with a very serious illness that the author never knew about i really love a memoir like i feel like i don't read them as frequently because i am at my heart a fiction reader but beautiful country just sounds like a really strong story one that i feel i can learn a lot from and is going to be very eye-opening so i'm excited for this one as well i have another book of the month thriller because i get so many great thriller recommendations from them this one is not a happy family by shari lepena and this follows a very wealthy family where the parents are murdered one night and it seems like it's an investigation to if any of the three children could be responsible because they all have something to gain from their parents death and they've had a very complicated growing up experience so sounds cool i'm into it we have harlem shuffle by colson whitehead and this is set in 1950s harlem where a man is trying to do the most that he can to support his family living in harlem but he's always had this sort of like side business that helps to make that possible but he gets roped into some sort of like crime heist situation with really dangerous people and it just sounds really interesting i'm always into like crime mafia type stories so i think it'll be a really interesting book not like when i've read before so my camera is dying so we're going to end off on this one which is the inheritance of orkidya divinia which is by zoraida cordova and this follows the montoya family who it seems like have always had like good fortune but they travel to their matriarch's home who is dying to collect their inheritance and arcadia divinia turns into a giant tree it seems like about seven years after the whole like tree thing uh someone is like killing off the family members one by one trying to eradicate or kitia's line and so her descendants travel to ecuador to uncover their family secrets protect their family and get the explanations they have always been looking for all righty so that concludes my most recent book haul thank you all so much for watching up until this point and let me know in the comments below if you've read any of these books what you thought of them if you're excited for any of these books or what books you have bought recently that you are excited to read or have enjoyed thanks again to disney book group for sponsoring this video and remember you can check out the cursed carnival and other calamities as well as daughter of the deep both in stores now but that is it thank you all so much for watching and i'll see you soon for a new video byehey what's up hello my name is emma and today i'm going to be doing a classic cozy book haul as always i am very grateful for your patience in my current upload schedule i have been working full time for the first time ever and it has been very difficult to balance booktube with that but what better way to come back with showing you all of the books that i have recently acquired in like the past maybe six months i want to kick off this book haul by giving a big thank you to disney book group who is sponsoring this video and sent me two amazing new releases that are going to be perfect for those of you who are rick riordan fans like myself first up we have a collection of short stories featuring heroes from various different cultures called the cursed carnival and other calamities the way the short story collection works is each story follows a different hero from a variety of different cultures such as indian korean cuban mexican african navajo mesopotamian celtic and many more and all of these stories except for rick riordan's brand new hero feature characters from previous rick riordan presents stories such as aru shaw riley o tristan strong's friends and paolo santiago it seems like there's a story for everyone in here be it set in space at a haunted carnival a pow-wow following monsters and demons it just sounds like a really cool mythical fantasy story and then the next book that disney book group sent me is daughter of the deep rick riordan's newest release daughter of the deep follows a girl named anna who is a freshman at the harding pencroft boarding school that trains the best marine scientists navigators and undersea explorers in addition to having to survive the school's very secretive trial for freshmen there is also this like long ongoing war between harding pencraft academy and one of their rivals and it just seems like a really cool story full of undersea adventures making friends and of course featuring rick riordan's classic humor the cursed carnival and other calamities as well as daughter of the deep are both in stores now so check them out and definitely know what you think of these stories in the comments and you can find out more about both of these stories or get your own copy through the links i've posted in the description so the first books i wanted to talk about in this book haul that i've bought myself are from a little barnes noble trip that i took a couple of months ago it was one of my first times being back to barnes noble since the pandemic started and i made a little tick tock just like exploring my day and i'll link that below if you want to check it out first up is the anthropocene reviewed by john green and this is one i've actually already listened to through the audiobook and i really really loved it this is john green's first non-fiction work and honestly like as much as i loved his ya fiction when i was a teen myself i am very interested in anything nonfiction that he decides to publish in the future because i feel like this is really like where his talent lies the anthropocene reviewed is a collection of essays written by john green that all tie back to the idea of things involved in our world our history and related to humanity and it's written through this interesting lens of him like reviewing all of those things on the five star rating scale the topics of which he writes about are super varied like a couple off the top my head that i remember are like air conditioning different diseases ancient cave paintings and sports i learned a lot from this book about things i had previously no idea even existed but it's also a very personal story where john green is sharing his own experiences and thoughts on these different topics and it was just like a really enjoyable read if you're someone who does not read a lot of nonfiction and you're just interested in learning more about the world and how we interact with each other it was just such a pleasant read and i highly recommend it another book i picked up at the barnes noble hall is a queer new york by jen jack giesling and as a new york city queer like i just immediately was drawn to this book but it actually sounds really interesting it basically talks about how gentrification of the white and wealthy and urban development has led to the disappearance of many lesbian gay and queer spaces throughout new york city it focuses on the resistance and resilience of these queer communities and how they have survived under capitalism and gentrification and it just sounds really interesting to me as i spend most of my time in new york city going to queer spaces i'm really interested in learning about the city's actual queer history and just finding out more that i never knew about so this is definitely one i would really like to dive into soon next book i picked up at barnes noble is your dark corner by desmond hall and the reason that i picked this book up is number one i had never heard of it before but number two it was tucked in the very corner at the bottom of a bookshelf that was very dark and i was like this is synchronicity in motion like i feel like i have to get this book it's been calling to me i don't know much about this book because the synopsis doesn't tell much but it follows a young teen named frankie who is living in jamaica and it seems like a coming-of-age story of him like finding love in his country as well as finding himself it seems really cool though i've never read a book set in jamaica the author himself is also from jamaica and i just feel like this is a book that i could learn a lot from and really enjoy so the next book i got at barnes noble i was really excited to share with you because i read it and really enjoyed it but for some reason i cannot find it anywhere like no one borrowed it it should be on my shelf but i cannot find it anywhere and it is called all the girls are so nice here i picked it up just because it was a thriller and like thrillers have the ability to interest me way easier than other genres it was also i got it on a discount this novel is written in a dual timeline the present part of the story takes place at a college reunion where a girl is going back to the place that she attended college and like interacting with all the people that she knew at the time and the other half of the story takes place in the past when she was actually a student there and something really wild happened that like changed the course of the lives of people here forever i picked this book up on a whim and it really intrigued me like it takes a lot for me to like find a book and not be able to put it down but i was just voraciously reading this one i need a thriller that is really going to surprise me where i cannot guess all of the twists and turns or what the final mystery is and so like that book was perfect for that for me there were like some problematic aspects of the book like there's a lot of fat phobia in it as well as like cheating and general girl hate because this book does take place in like the early 2000s i think but it's clear to me that like the intention of the book was not to promote that message it was to provide commentary on what it means to grow up as a young woman in that time period there was also like a really graphic depiction of suicide that i just did not feel was necessary but like the story overall was very intriguing and i really did not like any of the characters but i feel like any book that can have like consistent unlikable characters and have a good enough plot to hold it up is one that i enjoy so it was really worth it if you're looking for like a new thriller to read i definitely think you should check this one out and the last book i got at barnes noble haul is the ones we are meant to find by joan he oh interesting i like haven't checked out the synopsis of this book since i bought it and like i did not know this was a science fiction this story follows two sisters the first one is named c and it has been three years since she washed up ashore in abandoned island and has been creating androids to keep her company but is very determined to find her sister sea's sister is named casey and she is a stem prodigy who has been working in the science field for many years and she now wants an escape from science as she has learned so much about humanity in her work and she doesn't know if she wants to be a part of it anymore i feel like when this book came out i was seeing it everywhere and like i feel like it takes a lot for science fiction to be published in y a right now because it is not as in demand so i feel like there are some good signs that this would be a really interesting one for me to check out next up i have what is one of my remaining most anticipated books of 2021 and that is under the whispering door by t.j cloon i read the house in the cerulean sea last year and it was one of my absolute favorite books it was one that i'm going to love for a very long time and so when i heard his new book was coming out and it felt like it had a similar vibe i knew i had to check it out this story follows a man named wallace price who is a very successful lawyer and one day he dies so he is taken to this very peculiar tea shop where a man named hugo is like the fairy men to take souls on i never know how to end that sentence after wallace dies he realizes that he has not lived a life that he is satisfied with and so him and hugo attempt to set out to live a lifetime in seven days before the mysterious manager forces him to go on i'm listening to the audiobook of this and i am really really enjoying it i will say that i feel like i expected a bit more adventure from the story like i can't remember how far into it i am now but like i just expected that we would be doing like a lot of traveling and adventures and like we're still just in the tea shop talking to each other i feel like i expected this story to just be a little bit more thrilling but nonetheless i've really been enjoying it i'm excited to see the character development that wallace goes through i'm excited to see this relationship between wallace and hugo develop and i feel like by the end i will feel pretty satisfied next up i have one of my favorite books that i have read this year and that is one last stop by casey mcquisten i feel like this was the book of summer 2021 and everyone read it i am no different and i absolutely loved it this story follows a 23 year old named august who moves to new york city and it has not been like the glamorous romantic life she has expected but one day while commuting to work or school she ends up seeing this really cool punk rock chick on the subway and discovers that jane is actually displaced from 1970s and stuck on the subway so while august's feelings for jane begin to rise she is also simultaneously trying to get jane back to her own time and get her out of this like wibbly wobbly tiny whimey thing that's going on this is one of the only books that i've given five out of five stars this year like even some of my like favorite favorite books of the years did not get five stars just because i feel like one last stop was like so complete in every way the characters are so well-rounded they are very realistic authentic and grounded there is a lot of great casey mcquisten humor in here and like the writing style is just like perfect for me like casey mcquisten really knows how to write like my perfect contemporary book i was also a little skeptical because usually when there is like a contemporary story that has this like fantasy sci-fi twist a lot of times it's just like not explained and that's frustrating to me but i was really surprised and like satisfied with how that whole aspect of the book turned out and was explained this is a damn good book like i feel like there were a lot of people who read red white and royal blue after the hype and didn't see it but i just feel like one last stop is truly enjoyable in every sense of the word it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside it also breaks your heart at points and i really loved it so i hope more people if you haven't picked it up yet you do now next up is a book i have been really looking forward to reading and that is a little life by yanagihara and this is a book that i truly don't know much about i feel like i say that a lot like i don't know what this book is about but i'm really excited to read it but i feel like that statement can still be true the only thing i really know about this book is that it follows four college students in new york city who become friends and it follows their friendships throughout life as well as their own personal growth the only other thing i know about this book is that it is like very emotional like everyone i know who has read this book has like bald at the end of it so it seems like really dark intense i know that there is a lot of like triggering matters discussed in this book like substance abuse and trauma and like probably a lot more if you need trigger readings for books you should definitely look up the ones before reading this one but y'all know me like my favorite contemporary books are the ones with like really deep horrible topics being discussed and i just feel like it is one that i'm really going to love after the fact i do want to read this one very soon i think that it's going to be the next book that i read physically but i am a little disappointed at how big it is because now i'm gonna have to carry this into the city every day but i feel like it will be worth it so if you see me crying on the new york city subway this book will probably be why next up is a book that i bought from my local library because they always have a ton of books for sale for only like 50 cents for a book so it's like a really great deal and that is still lives by maria hummel this book follows an editor named maggie who is attending this gala unveiling of a very prestigious artist's work where she has created self-portraits depicting herself as murdered women but the artist never shows up to her own event it seems like maggie's ex-boyfriend is the one who is being accused of having something to do with the artist's disappearance and so it just seems like a really compelling thriller that takes place like in the art world and has some commentary on feminism so i'm here for it and i also love a short thriller so i feel like this is one that i could read quickly and really enjoy next up i have some special editions and foreign editions of books i really love the first is the uk version of malibu rising by taylor jenkins read i really really loved malibu rising and i also love the original cover i just can't choose between the two like i just think they're both so pretty if you watch my channel frequently you've probably heard of malibu rising because you would know taylor jenkins reed is one of my favorite authors and it follows four siblings living in malibu in the 1980s and every year they host a big end of summer party that is like the party of the year it takes place over the course of one day as the party happens and by morning malibu is up in flames malibu rising is i think my least favorite compared to daisy jones and evelyn hugo but this book has just been like on my mind since i finished it i think about it constantly it's just i don't know if anyone else can ever agree about like having a book that is not perfect in your mind but one that has really stuck with you oh i just realized that the inside of this book the end pages are so beautiful this is why i love getting special editions of books it's a really fascinating story that goes through a lot of very complex family dynamics and i just loved it so much if you are looking for a new fiction novel to read i definitely do recommend reading malibu rising then i have two editions of the invisible life of addie larue this is the uk version and i believe this is like the like one year special edition anniversary edition maybe i'm not really sure why this exists but i felt like i needed to have it because this was also one of my favorite books that i read when did this book come out 2020 maybe addy larue originally lived in 1700s france and she made a deal with an old god to escape an arranged marriage but in wishing for a life of freedom she made it so that nobody would ever remember her face or that she even existed as soon as she is out of their eyesight so it follows her through over 300 years of life where nobody has ever remembered her but one day in present-day new york city she goes into a bookstore and a man remembers her face for the very first time i loved addie larue so much this is one of the most beautifully written books i've ever read like i'm just obsessed with the writing style and all of the quotes from this book but the characters are also like amazing and it's a story that is very impactful i always say for a book about a forgotten girl it's one of the most unforgettable stories i've ever read definitely one to read if you have not yet it is a book that i'm definitely going to carry with me for the rest of my life and of course what would a book haul on this channel be without a cassandra clear book so i got the new anniversary edition of lady midnight i want to say that this is like the fifth anniversary edition and i'm pretty sure i ordered this through water stones i just think the cover is absolutely gorgeous and as we know i collect like every cassandra clare book that i can possibly get my hands on so i was really excited for it this one also does have a boner short story and a letter from cassie claire so i'm really excited to add it to my collection oh it seems like the short story is called stars to burn and it follows mark and kieran so i'm really excited to read it at some point next up i have two books that were sent to me by subscribers normally i like to thank people who send me books by name but i put all of the notes that i get in like a specific box and i just could not find it at first so the first one is shadowhunters and downworlds a mortal instruments reader by cassandra clare interestingly enough this is a book that i have seen since i first got into the mortal instrument series in 2014 but i have never gotten my own copy so like shout out to the person who sent me this because it is like one of the only books lacking from my collection on the back it says it features a cinematic tutorial on why the best friend always loses to the bad boy and unexpected benefits of the incest taboo what we can read between the lines of alec and magnus's european vacation this is obviously before the eldest curses series came out where we did get to actually see some of that the importance of friendship art humor and rebellion and more from the virtues of downworlders to the naughty side of shadowhunting and it seems like it's actually edited by cassandra clare but all of these stories in here are written by friends of cassie clare like holly black kendara blake sara rhys brennan cammy garcia michelle link no michelle hodkin kelly link and robin wasserman and a couple more so yeah i'm very intrigued to read this one especially because this was written before so many of the newer shadowhunter books came out so i think it's always interesting to delve back into like what was going on in the world before all of these newer stories so thank you so much to the subscriber who sent it to me this was a really amazing gift to receive and then another subscriber recently sent me outlawed by anna north and this is a really cool like old western frontier story that follows a woman who is feeling the pressure of being married for a year and not having children so she ends up joining this like ragtag team of women who are outlaws it seems like a thrilling story of bandits and thieves who are women and like really challenging the roles of women at the time in america so it sounds like a cool one i'm very interested in so thank you again to the person who also sent me this book and so the rest of the books in this book haul were all sent to me by publishers the first being all these villains by amanda foody and christine lynn herman this is actually my current read that i have been enjoying very much i was sent the advanced reader copy of this book and it does come out very soon in november it might actually be out by the point of this video going up but i've been very intrigued by this because it seems to have a real hunger games vibe so instead of a dystopian this book takes place in a country i think or an island maybe called ilvernath right is that right so every generation in ilvernath these seven families choose a champion to basically have their young children battle to the death in order to control the high magic in this world i've really been liking all of us villains so far it does follow at least like five different perspectives so that's like not my normal go-to but all the characters have been really interesting so far and i have oh the one thing i will say about this book is that there is so much info dumping like i get that there is like a long rich history of the different kinds of magic and like what has been going on in the families and with this tournament for a very long time but i just wish that there was a way for us to learn that instead of through like long paragraphs of explanations to the reader also i'm like almost 100 pages in yet and we have not started the actual tournament so there has been a lot of setup but i'm really looking forward to continuing with it i like it a lot so far and i feel like this is going to be a book that is going to take over the online fantasy book world once it does come out the next book on my haul was sent to me by scholastic and it is rise into the sun by leah johnson and the reason i'm interested in this book is because it takes place at a music festival which is something i've never read before when i was much younger i always wanted to write a book set at a music festival so like i'm excited that somebody probably did it better than i ever could have it follows two girls heading to this music festival one has recently been dumped and is looking for a fresh start and the other one has lost her father who is a musician and is about to start college and it i can't tell much more about this book but it just seems like a story about friendship grief and love that i'm really looking forward to the next book was sent to me by harper and that is blackout which is a collection of short stories set during new york city blackouts and the authors featured in this collection are danielle clayton tiffany d jackson nick stone angie thomas ashley woodfolk and nicola yoon i've read from almost all but one of these characters characters authors so i've been really excited for this book i think it was also one on my most anticipated list i did actually start reading blackout i read one of these stories from tiffany d jackson who is probably like one of my favorite authors out of the few i mentioned and unfortunately i did not like the story as much as i was hoping to a weird thing that blackout does that i have not seen from any other short story or anthology collections that i've read is that tiffany g jackson's story is like told in parts throughout each of her story so like i had to skip all the other stories to get this one complete one because i only wanted to read it one at a time and yeah i just did not find it interesting or compelling it was very underwhelming so it is put me off from finishing blackout for a while but i would like to read all of the other stories about black teen love in new york city i'm hoping to enjoy some of the other stories more so if you have read blackout i definitely want to know like what your thoughts were and what your favorite story was so i know which one to start with harper also sent me all these bodies by kandara blake which i have been excited to read because i really enjoyed what i've read of the three dark crown series but this is kandara's first like murder mystery thriller this book takes place in 1958 in the midwest where there have been a string of murders where people are found in their beds drained of all of their blood but the blood has not been found and so the first lead in the case comes from when our main character marie is found at the scene of the recent murder covered in blood that is not hers i'm just gonna throw it out there that i'm gonna assume that marie didn't actually do it and is being framed or like intercepted in the murder somehow but it sounds really interesting and i really have enjoyed kendara blake's writing in the past so i'm excited to read this one and then the final book that harper colin sent me is gods and monsters by shelby maherin which is the third and final book in the serpent and dove series many of you know that i have been loving the serpent and dove series since it began getting published a couple of years ago it is one of the first like high fantasy series that has really caught my attention in a long time and i just think it is beautiful and wonderful serpent and dove has gotten like a lot of critique there are so many people that absolutely hate it i just do not agree like i love the characters the world the magic system is just all really fascinating to me and so i love it a lot and i'm excited to finish the series book one of serpentine dove follows a witch and a witch hunter who are kind of roped into an arranged marriage to save public face but the witch hunter does not know that our main character lou is a witch it's a really great romance and it does feel like it is intended for a little bit of older ya readers which is like the types of books that i am really looking for when i'm reading y a the magic system of the worlds is also really unique to me in this world magic always has a price so anytime you want to cast a spell it requires you to sacrifice something be it blood a memory a broken finger and as someone who studied french for a really long time in high school i love the like 1600s france setting it's just very beautiful and romantic and i just love the development that the characters have gone through in the first two books also the second book ended on like a massive cliffhanger that i only just remembered as going over it so i'm really really intrigued to see how this story is going to end and like how they're going to handle that big cliffhanger i just i have good hopes for this one shelby maheren has not let me down yet and so i'm excited for gods and monsters and anything else shelby maherin puts out in the future because i am just like a big shelby maherinstan and so lastly i want to quickly go through a couple of book of the month books that i have gotten from working with the company in the past again book of the month is not sponsoring this video and i'm showing all of these because i'm really interested in them and i get a lot of good recommendations from the service i will link my discount code in the description if you are interested in checking them out first up i have a book that i picked up on a whim from book of the month and really surprisingly loved and that is 56 days by catherine ryan howard and the reason i was so intrigued by this book is because it is a thriller set in the 2020 global pandemic oh boy am i intrigued for like the wealth of quarantine fiction that is going to plague the publishing industry in the next handful of years so this book follows a couple that met and started dating right before lockdown in dublin began and so because they have started dating and they really like each other they decide to move in together and become lockdown buddies because of course nobody thought it would be going on for as long as it has and so this is another dual timeline book where part of it follows them like from when they meet to when they start living together and then the second half of the book follows the detectives and investigators who have discovered that there is a deceased body in the apartment that they were living in 56 days later this book was really really well written in my opinion it's kind of similar to the girls are all nice here like i was just totally captured by this book i could not put it down i really had no idea what was going on in this book up until the very moment as soon as they revealed a twist i was like oh my god that's nuts and then another one would come a couple of pages later and i'm like dude what is going on it was just a really satisfying mystery thriller i feel like my standards are getting pretty high as i've been reading so many thrillers over the last couple of years but it was just great i loved it and i have not heard anyone else talk about this book so i think that more people should read it because it was also really cool to like sit back and reflect and be like wow like it has been well over a year almost two years now since like life was like it is in this book so it was just really intriguing and eye-opening and i think that people should read it next up from book of the month i have the perishing by natasha dion and this sounds like a really fascinating like fantasy book about a woman who arrives in 1930s los angeles with absolutely no memory of how she got there but she goes on to become the first black journalist at the la times and one day she comes across a man who she discovers that she has been drawing his face for years but has no recollection of ever meeting him i do not know what to make of this book outside of that short little description i feel like i get some addy larue vibes from it with the whole like lack of memory meeting people you don't remember kind of thing but it sounds really cool and i'm very interested in it then we have beautiful country by can julie wang and this is a memoir about a woman who came to the united states from china when she was a small child and really details what her life has been like growing up as a chinese immigrant in america and although there are difficulties and joys of moving to a country where you do not speak the language and do not know anyone it seems like the author's life really takes a turn when her mother collapses and reveals that she has been living with a very serious illness that the author never knew about i really love a memoir like i feel like i don't read them as frequently because i am at my heart a fiction reader but beautiful country just sounds like a really strong story one that i feel i can learn a lot from and is going to be very eye-opening so i'm excited for this one as well i have another book of the month thriller because i get so many great thriller recommendations from them this one is not a happy family by shari lepena and this follows a very wealthy family where the parents are murdered one night and it seems like it's an investigation to if any of the three children could be responsible because they all have something to gain from their parents death and they've had a very complicated growing up experience so sounds cool i'm into it we have harlem shuffle by colson whitehead and this is set in 1950s harlem where a man is trying to do the most that he can to support his family living in harlem but he's always had this sort of like side business that helps to make that possible but he gets roped into some sort of like crime heist situation with really dangerous people and it just sounds really interesting i'm always into like crime mafia type stories so i think it'll be a really interesting book not like when i've read before so my camera is dying so we're going to end off on this one which is the inheritance of orkidya divinia which is by zoraida cordova and this follows the montoya family who it seems like have always had like good fortune but they travel to their matriarch's home who is dying to collect their inheritance and arcadia divinia turns into a giant tree it seems like about seven years after the whole like tree thing uh someone is like killing off the family members one by one trying to eradicate or kitia's line and so her descendants travel to ecuador to uncover their family secrets protect their family and get the explanations they have always been looking for all righty so that concludes my most recent book haul thank you all so much for watching up until this point and let me know in the comments below if you've read any of these books what you thought of them if you're excited for any of these books or what books you have bought recently that you are excited to read or have enjoyed thanks again to disney book group for sponsoring this video and remember you can check out the cursed carnival and other calamities as well as daughter of the deep both in stores now but that is it thank you all so much for watching and i'll see you soon for a new video bye\n"