JULY BOOK HAUL || SMALL-ISH HAUL

     Online shopping doesn't feel like real shopping and it's a problem.  I was going to do a quarantine book haul but that would mean including books I've bought in March, April, May and June and um there's a lot. So you're just getting my July books which is still a lot but yknow, it's not too much. I really miss going to Half-Price bookstore and Abebooks and Thriftbooks are my go-to places online for seconhand books and discounted newer released titles. I've been buying from Abebooks for years, especially for Literature classes I've taken but for some reason, I had a lot of problems this time around. My card would get declined, my order would be confirmed and then the next day I'd get a refund for that same order. I'm taking it all as a sign that I need to stop buying books. Will that actually happen? TBD. This pandemic has made my self control even more questionable. 

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

    This is part of the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, which publishes middle grade stories based on mythology and folklore from underrepresented cultures, and I love the whole concept of it. Rick Riordan could have easily written these book himself but he was like nope, I'll let people who are actually from that culture tell those stories. It's like when a rick person would be a patron to an artist back in the day. 'Dragon Pearl' is based on Korean mythology and is a standalone. I want to eventually read all the books, which is a pretty big feat because there's a lot of books already, but I still want to try.

A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond

    I have never heard of this book before but I found it while searching for books with magical realism. And that's all I know about it LOL.

Anna K. by Jenny Lee

    This one I've seen everywhere. This is pitched as a modern day Anna Karenina meets Gossip Girl. I don't know much about 'Anna Karenina' other than the fact that it's a chunky book and I gave up on reading it once but I do know Gossip Girl so I have an idea on how this book is going to go. This is an example of the downside online shopping for secondhand books; not knowing what the books actually look like. I thought it'd be okay because its a hardcover and damages on hardcovers are usually covered by the dusk jacket but man, this one is pretty bad. The bottom part of my copy looks like something sticky had spilled on it, probably Coke or another dark soda. The actual pages are fine but whatever spilled is on the dust cover as well.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

    I had no idea this was a novella and imagine my surprise when this first arrived. I thought I had ordered the wrong thing, it's so tiny! If I had known this was a novella, I would just bought the bind up of all three novellas in the series. 

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore

    I read two Anna-Marie McLemore books in July and loved both so this was purchased purely because it's written by her. 

Eight Will Fall by Sarah Harain

    A booktuber talked about this book but I can't remember who. This is about a group of criminals and they have to kill something that is plaguing their kingdom. This is under the Horror genre, which is something that I haven't read from before so let's see how I like that.

Rogue Princess by B.R. Myers

    I remember when Swoon Reads posted a poll on their Instagram story to vote for the cover on this and this was the cover I liked best! The other two were good covers as well but they had, who I'm assuming is, the love interest, and I preferred the cover with main character by herself. This is pitched as a gender-bent Cinderella and I don't think I've read a gender-bent retelling before so I'm excited to read this!

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

    I really don't know what this is about. I even read the Goodreads summary so I can have something to say here but I'm still not sure what to think after reading it. A lot of people love the authors other book, 'Love from A to Z', and that's why I picked this up.

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

    This has been on my wish list for a while but this is another one I'm not really clear on what it's about. What pushed me to finally get it is because Lily Anderson mentioned this author in her acknowledgements along with Anna-Marie McLemore so I was like yes friendship we love it, I'll read everything they write. 

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labrynth by Rick Riordan

    I was going to buy the last three but I couldn't find a paperback of the fifth book so I went ahead and  just bought the third and fourth for now. I bought the first two in paperback from Abebooks as well and they're very well loved. Both of them were library book so they've seen better days. Like I said, buying books secondhand online is a gamble because you don't actually know the condition of the books but I'm okay with getting older books without knowing their condition.

A small-ish haul of books I bought in the month of July. I know I joked about not buying books but I really am on a no buy/lowbuy now. I want to actually get through my 2020 TBR books and just get books for the book clubs I've decided to join which are Subtle Asian Book Club and The Crusty Club.

iscelle robee