Monday

A Belated Book Haul

I'm surprised that I've managed to make it to my desk to write this post, and am not buried under the stack of books that I've seemed to accumulate over the past few weeks. In fact, those that I have received have spent the majority of their time stacked wherever I can fit them, some still inside the gift bags that they were handed to me within in an attempt to save some space. No matter the hours I spent sorting through the new additions to my shelves, and photographing them for this haul - when there was, for once, some natural light streaming in through my window - novels still decorate the entirety of my bedroom. I'm not complaining, though!
 
It's been more than a few months since I decided to piece together a haul, but I've just decided to share some of the bookish purchases I have made within the past few weeks!
 
Wreck This Journal | The Year of the Rat | The Direputable History...|
Gone Girl | We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves | More Than This
This Christmas, I was all too aware of the selection still sitting on my shelf from 2013, those that I hadn't yet opened. I could recall the panic-buying that had taken place the previous year, noticing a few titles I must have heard mentioned before, immediately grabbing them heading to the checkout as the store was threatening to close in a few minutes. I wasn't really anticipating any of the books I had purchased - hence the reason, apart from one or two, the rest have been left to gather dust. I was, though, determined for this not to happen again. I'll admit that, over the Christmas period, I must have spent hours in bookstores and sections, carefully choosing the titles I wanted. But, I can't wait to delve into each one that I decided to buy.

We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves | More Than This


There may be a slight colour-scheme between the books I did decide to pick up; the shelves in my room now comprise of mostly black and yellow monochrome. What was gift-wrapped on Christmas morning included:
 
-We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves by Karen Jay Fowler
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
-More Than This by Patrick Ness
-The Year of the Rat by Claire Furniss
-The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart
 
 
The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook |
The Hummingbird Bakery: Home
 When I'm not blogging, I absolutely adore spending nights baking, and usually choose to make batches of cupcakes or different types of confectionary. Over the Christmas holidays, the cookbooks inspired by a bakery I recently visited whilst in London, called The Hummingbird Bakery, started appearing in bookshops as gift recommendations, and I couldn't help but fall in love with them. Each one I came across was crammed with gorgeous photography, detailed page designs, and split into different sections including recipes for cupcakes, biscuits and traybakes.
 
Simply, I couldn't leave them behind!
 
 In what I'm convinced is an attempt to make me a little bit less of a perfectionist, my parents also finally caught onto my constant hints in the middle of Waterstones and I received a Wreck It Journal by Keri Smith from them!
 
An Island of Our Own | The Sin Eater's Daughter | 7 Days
Recently, I took a trip to the Scholastic offices for their Book Bloggers' Brunch, which was a chance for them to share their 2015 highlights with us and meet up with some other bloggers! I wrote a wrap-up of the event in-detail here, where I talked a little about the glossy goody-bags that were handed out towards the end of the Brunch, which contained some books to read on the journey home. The review copy of Melinda Salisbury's upcoming The Sin Eater's Daughter stood out instantly, intricately tied with brown ribbon and wrapped in baking-paper. Not only was I able to put this baking paper to good use when taking some pictures for upcoming blog posts, but the review copy itself had such a beautiful cover it could challenge the actual edition!
 
I've accumulated a postcard obsession.
Also from Scholastic:
 
-The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury
-7 Days by Eve Ainsworth
-An Island of Our Own by Sally Nicholls
-To All The Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han(received a few days later in the post!)
-Collection of postcards for upcoming releases, including The Game of Love and Death.


All The Bright Places | To All The Boys I've Loved Before
Whilst in London, I also managed to tick a trip to Waterstones Piccadilly off my bucket-list, and spend a while exploring the endless bookcases.

The majority of the time I spent there was spent within the YA Section, which probably had the largest collection of new releases and popular books that I had come across before, where I found All The Bright Places by Jenny Niven! After the praise I had read for this debut online, Niven's writing said to match the likes of John Green, I had been desperate to pick this up.

Thank you to everyone who sent or gifted me any of the books above! I hope you also had as much of a book-filled Christmas as I did!
What did you receive? Any of the above?
Tell me in the comments!
 
All pictures taken in this post are my own and should not be re-used without permission.


8 comments:

  1. Lucky you, with The Sin Eater's Daughter! I can't wait for that one. When I say I can't wait, I mean I am physically dying during the wait for it.

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  2. Hi, I'm a new follower!

    You got loads of books that look pretty great. The only one I've read is More Than This and it was amazing. Many people didn't like the ending because it was pretty ambiguous, but I actually thought it fit really well. In any case I'll be really interested to see what you think of it. I've had a look at some of your other reviews and you seem to have enjoyed a couple of his other books and More Than This is definitely on par with them, in my opinion.

    Killian
    http://leaf-on-the-breeze.blogspot.ie/

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  3. Ohmygoodness Sophie these books all looks absolutely awesome. Look at those covers! I have We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and I *cannot* wait to sink my teeth into it!

    Amy;
    Little Moon Elephant

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  4. I really hope you enjoy The Year of the Rat! It wasn't what i expected but is such a moving novel.
    Lovely haul - Happy Reading!

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  5. OOh so many books! I have book envy right now haha. :)

    You will ADORE We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – it's simply incredible. I also quite liked More Than This. Gone Girl is thrilling – but so disturbing haha! Definitely a page-turner though.

    And argh I LOVE The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook – the chocolate cookies are to die for. :) Wreck This Journal is a whole lotta fun also.

    The Sin Eater's Daughter sounds great – I hope you enjoy it! Woah, so many books haha. :D

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  6. So many fabulous titles! I really enjoyed More Than This! :)

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  7. I also received The Sin Eater's Daughter and An Island On Our Own - and have read them both! Ah, Patrick Ness. Been meaning to read one of his books for the longest time! Hope you enjoy all your books!

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  8. Wreck this journal looks so much fun, but I'm not sure I could ever do that to a book, haha.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read - and comment on - this blog post! I read and reply to every comment, so feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer!

See you soon!

Sophie Louise