Bibliophiles of the internet, my name's Adriana and today I'm here to bring you my Fourth Quarter Book Haul,
AKA my last book haul of 2017.
Y'know, that doesn't really mean anything, but I just like that it sounds so *dramatic*.
As I said, this is my Fourth Quarter Book Haul, which means I acquired these books from the beginning of October
to the very end of December. There may be one or two in there from the very end of September.
I'm not quite sure at this point.
To start us off, the first book I got—I believe at the very end of September—is this new edition
of "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller. This is the Bloomsbury Modern Classics edition.
As you should know, this is one of my favorite stories of all time. I believe this is the fifth edition
of the book that I own. I have the first edition hardback/paperback, I have the UK cover, I own the e-book,
and now I have this stunning new edition. And I can honestly say it's not enough.
Then for my birthday in October, one of my best friends, Stephen, got me volumes 8 and 9
of "Boku no Hero Academia" or "My Hero Academia" by Horikoshi Kohei.
As you can see, I've read both of these volumes already, and I LOVED them so much.
I've talked quite a bit about this manga series on my channel lately, and I will definitely continue to do so
as I continue reading, because holy crap, this series has my SOUL. It is fan-flippin-tastic!
Then we have my October Book of the Month pick, and that was "The Power" by Naomi Alderman.
I'm sure you've heard of this one. It sounds like a really fascinating sci-fi story. I believe it's set in the not-so-distant
future, and women have somehow developed the ability to expel electricity from the palms of their hands.
Of course, with the discovery of this dangerous, newfound power comes a drastic shift in the sphere of
social politics and gender dynamics.
I've heard *fantastic* reviews for this one across the board. I think it's going to be especially interesting for me
as a nonbinary reader, because I'm very interested to see how this narrative sort of defines the concept of "women,"
and what determines who displays these powers and who doesn't.
Then, at long last, I finally got my pre-order of the first volume of "Cucumber Quest" by Gigi D.G.
This story actually originated as a web comic, and I actually talked about it quite a few times in the early stages
of my BookTube life. So it's kind of like a full circle moment, because now it's been officially picked up
by First Second, and I'm just excited for so many more people to experience this!
This comic is a satirical, fairy tale-like story about this evil queen who has unleashed an ancient force
of destruction known as The Nightmare Knight, and together they are terrorizing the seven kingdoms of Dreamside.
Of course, we have our unlikely heroes: a nerdy magician named Cucumber, and his super tough sister, Almond,
who kind of have to put their lives on hold in order to save the world.
I'm so excited to be able to go back now and read this story again, not only because the colors and the illustrations
are just brilliant, but because I love the way the story is able to take these very familiar tropes and beats
you would find in any fairy tale or hero's journey-type story and finds a way to make them
new, and exciting, and refreshing, and most importantly, hilarious.
Then, for my birthday, my parents gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card. Bless their souls.
And I used it to buy two volumes of manga that came very highly recommended from one of my besties,
Matthew from Matthew Sciarappa.
The first series he introduced me to was "The High School Life of a Fudanshi" by Michinoku Atami.
This seems like a slice of life/comedy series about a main character who is a fudanshi. A fudanshi is
a male fan obsessed with Boys' Love manga, which is a racy subgenre of manga all about boys falling in love
and doing all the things that entails.
Predictably, the people who most often follow and enjoy Boys' Love manga are women.
So I believe this story is about Sakaguchi trying to figure out his place in the community as a man,
and I think he's also trying to connect with his fellow fudanshis. So I think it's gonna be really great!
And the second series Matthew recommended to me was "Dreamin' Sun" by Takano Ichigo.
If the name sounds familiar, it's because this is the same mangaka who created "Orange,"
one of the best mangas out there, in my not-so-humble opinion.
This is another slice of life story about a young girl who feels very out of place at home, especially since
her mother passed away, and now her father and her step-mother seem to only care about her younger brother.
So one day, she skips school, she goes to a nearby park, and she runs into a kind stranger
who offers her a place of her own, on three conditions.
Firstly, she has to explain to him why she ran away; secondly, she has to locate his missing house key;
and the third condition is that she has to have a dream and fall in love.
It kind of seems like a bizarre premise, but I've heard it's really sweet and uplifting, and that it has all those
really cutesy, feel-good moments that "Orange" had in spades, without all the heaviness of depression
and suicide, which kind of seems nice.
Moving on to November, my Book of the Month pick for that month
was "The Future Home of the Living God" by Louise Erdrich.
Like everything she does, this is #ownvoices Native fiction. Again it has this sort of near-future, dystopian
type vibe, because it's about when evolution suddenly stops, and suddenly everyone who's pregnant
is giving birth to children who closely resemble Neanderthals and other early forms of Human life.
Suddenly, issues of pregnancy and child bearing become serious matters of state security,
and basically anyone who is capable of becoming pregnant is rounded up, and there's a bounty put on their heads.
I believe this story picks up when all of that is just beginning, and the story is told from the perspective
of a 26 year-old Native woman named Cedar who is four months pregnant.
Then I got two belated birthday gifts from my bestie for the restie, Ivan, and the first thing they got me
is the "Black Book of Poems" by Vincent K. Hunanyan.
This poet is Armenian-born, and I believe he got his degree in writing from UCLA fairly recently.
And this is his first publication, which is really exciting! It's small, modest collections like these
that really give me a sense of purpose and hope, so I'm really excited to read this one soon.
It will be my final collection that I read for 2017!
And the second thing Ivan got me was "Certain Dark Things" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
I was ecstatic when I opened this one up, because Ivan knows I love, love, LOVED "Signal to Noise."
I raved about that one earlier this year. And this is one that Ivan actually read and loved recently,
so it was just the perfect choice.
I only need three words to sell you on this book: Mexican. Vampire. Noir.
That's it.
Coincidentally, the next book I received was this signed first edition of "The Beautiful Ones"
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
This was actually sent to me by the author herself. I have a whole separate video talking about how that came about,
and also describing the synopsis of the story. So if you would like to hear more about this one,
I will link that down below.
Then I picked up what would turn out to be one of my new all-time favorite books,
and that is "Elmet" by Fiona Mozley.
Of course this was also a recommendation from Matthew. It is a quiet tour-de-force of a novel.
I just finished listening to it a couple of days before Christmas, and I am still so utterly *amazed* by it
that I can't even articulate...the things that I feel.
It's a very quiet, close, intimate story about this small Irish family. There's a father with violent tendencies
raising his two children in this house that they built with their own hands, and it's very much removed
and separate from everyone and everything. Purposefully, because this father wants to raise his children
kind of organically, outside of any societal constraints.
They maintain this very simple, humble, modest lifestyle, and it's about how over the years,
all these different people, for various reasons, are threatening that lifestyle,
and they may even try to snuff it out.
Honestly, I don't have words enough. I can't even find the right words right now
to convey what need to be conveyed.
So all I can say is: please read this book, listen to this book. Just let some *quality* into your life.
Then, somewhat spontaneously, after that I picked up two Shakespeare plays,
and those were "Romeo and Juliet" and "King Lear," of course written by William Shakespeare.
And these are both in the Pelican editions.
In my own defense, I initially picked up "Romeo and Juliet" because I work primarily with freshman in high school,
and towards Winter Break, they were working more and more with "Romeo and Juliet" and it was coming up
more in our discussions. So I figured I would pick it up and do a quick refresher, which I did.
"King Lear"...not too sure why I got this one, besides the fact that it looked really nice,
and I'm not sure I've ever read it.
Then from the Middle Grade world, I heard tell of "Nevermoor" by Jessica Townsend.
This sounds like a middle grade fantasy-adventure story about a young girl named Morrigan Crow,
who was born on Eventide, which is basically the *unluckiest* day. So anytime anything remotely bad
or awful happens in town, the citizens have sort of collectively agreed that it's her fault.
To make things worse, being born on Eventide basically means that she's cursed to die
at midnight on her eleventh birthday.
One day before her eleventh birthday, she's whisked away to this magical city called Nevermoor,
and if she wants to stay there for good and avoid her fate, she's going to have to join this elite organization,
and the only way to do that is to undergo four extremely difficult and dangerous trials
while completing against hundreds of [other] hopefuls.
In December, I was trying to be a good noodle. I told myself, "Don't pick any Book of the Month."
"Just save your credit for 2018." But then they trolled me when they put "City of Brass" by S.A. Chakraborty on that list,
because I added it to my box SO fast.
I believe this is #ownvoices historical fantasy about a woman named Nahri who is a conwoman
living in 18th Century Cairo. She doesn't really believe in magic, or soothsaying, or palm reading
or anything like that. But she will use any trick in the book to swindle nobles.
Until one day when she accidently summons a dark djinn warrior named Dara to her side,
and I believe that's where the story takes off.
Then right before the holidays, I was catching up with some college friends, and once we parted ways,
I realized we were *so* close to a bookstore, and something inside me just said, y'know, "Drive yourself there"
"and treat yoself."
So I listened to that little voice, and the first thing I got was the tenth volume
of "Boku no Hero Academia" by Horikoshi Kohei.
As you can see, I've already read this volume as well, and I loved it, I *loved* it, I LOVED IT.
I'm currently working on continuing further into the series, and I am currently in "Boku no Hero Acadamia" HELL,
and it is the BEST place to be.
And the second thing I got myself is something I've wanted for so so long,
and that is "The Wizards of Once" by Cressida Cowell.
Cressida Cowell is a name that's been cropping up a lot on my channel lately, because I've been slowly listening
to all the books in her "How to Train Your Dragon" series.
And, yes, I do have the audiobook for this book and, YES, it is also read by David Tennant.
This is a middle grade fantasy story about a dark forest that used to be teeming with magic, until the warriors came.
There are two heroes: a young boy named Xar who comes from a wizard tribe, but has absolutely no magic to speak of,
and he'll do anything to get it. And a young girl named Wish who comes from a warrior tribe,
who has a forbidden magical object, and she will do anything to conceal it.
I'm not really sure how their paths cross, but once they do, I'm sure *magic* will happen,
and it's gonna be GOOD STUFF.
And the last few things I have to show you are Christmas gifts.
The first two things I have to show you are both gifts from my Secret Santa. I'm part of this Voxer chat
which is just *full* of BooktubeSFF people, and every year they do a Secret Santa. And this was my first year.
And my Secret Santa turned out to be the wonderful Sam from Sam's Nonsense!
She actually very kindly sent me two incredible middle grade books,
the first of which is "Greenglass House" by Kate Milford.
This seems like a really fun mystery-adventure type story. It's about this smugglers' inn called Greenglass House,
and it's usually pretty empty around the Winter season.
But then the innkeepers' adopted son, Milo, realizes that tons and tons of guests are trickling in,
and they all seem to have very strange stories about how they're connected to the inn itself.
Suddenly, things start going missing, strange things are happening, tempers are flaring,
and Milo is just trying to get to the bottom of what is going down in Greenglass House.
And the second book she got me is "Whichwood" by Tahereh Mafi.
This one honestly means so much to me, because I *loved* "Furthermore," one of the best things I read in 2017.
And it was also a nominee for the BooktubeSFF Awards, and Sam and I were both judges for that event.
And I know that SHE knows I loved that book; I wanted it to win, and I *really* wanted the sequel,
so this was just the most thoughtful choice.
This is obviously the companion to "Furthermore." It's about a young girl named Laylee, whose mother has passed away,
and her father has fallen out of touch with everyone and everything since,
which means she is the only one in her village to carry on the practice of scrubbing the skins and souls
of the dead in preparation for the afterlife.
Not only is she becoming more and more lonely, but her hair is slowly turning silver.
Until two very familiar faces show up and remind Laylee about the power of magic, love, color, and friendship.
And then I also did a gift exchange with one of my lovely Booktube friends, Kayla from BookaDOODLES.
She also very generously got me two things. The first of which is the first part of "Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Search,"
which is the next volume I need to read in order to continue on with this continuation of the series!
So for that alone, Kayla, you are the *true* MVP.
And she also got me the first volume of "Giant Days," illustrated by Lissa Treiman and written by John Allison.
I actually read this one already and I LOVED so much. It's basically about these three young women
who became fast friends when they started University three weeks ago, and it's about their ups and downs
of college life. It's a wonderful slice of life type story. It is utterly fantastic and so so so hilarious.
And finally, from my sister, I got "In Other Lands" by Sarah Rees Brennan.
I don't really know too much about this one. I first heard about it from the queer light of my life, C.S. Pacat,
who was praising it and who billed this story as, like, a really fun, satirical, queer fantasy romp.
From what I can gather, it's about this teenage boy named Elliot, who is somehow transported
to this magical place called The Borderlands, and it doesn't really work for him because he's very unmotivated,
and he doesn't really jibe well with, like, war, or work, or people.
And for whatever reason, he ends up staying for much longer than he would like.
But there's all these magical creatures there. There's Elves, and there's Mermaids,
and there's also a really attractive, charming human boy who Elliot just might fall in love with,
and I am ready for *all* the things.
So at long last, those are all the books I collected from the beginning of October to the very end of December.
I'm not gonna say there were too many, but it kinda felt like *maybe* there were too many.
If you have any thoughts rollin' around in your head about any of the books I shared today,
please feel free to share those thoughts in the comments below.
But that is everything I had for this book haul today. Thank you so much for watching this video.
I really hope that you enjoyed it, and I will catch YOU on the flip-side of the page.
Bye!
[♫ snazzy end screen music ♫]
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