Hi guys! It's Olivia here from Olivia's Catastrophe and today I'm here to give you the
second part of my 'I'm on a book buying ban' book haul. First of all there's gifts
because my birthday happened. This happened in January so let's start
with these. This is a bit hard for you to see but this is the Mistborn trilogy by
Brandon Sanderson. I've heard -- I'm just going to put it down. I've heard a lot
about this trilogy and how Brandon Sanderson's writing is amazing so I
really wanted to pick it up. It's a fantasy world trilogy and it's a
high fantasy. And it set in this world where they have been like, enslaved
and oppressed for ages. But there's this prophesized man who can change how
everything is, but for this he has to wield the power of the Mistborn. And can
he really defeat the Dark Lord? It just sounds so so interesting and I can't
wait to fall in love with a series that everybody seems to love already. And this
was gifted to me by Lekeisha from Lekeisha the book nerd. I'll leave a link to her instagram
down below. We met each other through blogging and we always exchange
gifts on our birthday. So she got me these. Thank you very very much. Next ones
are from HTTP bookish Marlene and I'll leave a link to her Instagram down below. We
exchanged like, New Year's, Christmassy, birthday gifts all in one for the year.
And this is the rest of the Red Rising trilogy. Back in November I read Red
Rising and absolutely loved it. So she's given me these other two so I can
continue reading the series and finish them off. The first one is a
sci-fi and it's set in this world where reds are slaves who are mining Mars to
make sure that the world is habitable for the rest of their people. However,
when one guy is sent to the surface to infiltrate the ranks of the upper colours,
like golden colours who are more powerful, he finds out that Mars has already been
inhabited. And they're already living there but they are using the Reds as
slaves down below to be able to run the upper world. It was such a good book
and I cannot wait to read the rest of them. So next up we have some books that
were given to me by my online writing friends for my birthday. The first one is
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. I can't tell you what this one is about
because I haven't read the synopsis, because I haven't read Six of Crows. And
I don't think they know that I don't own Six of
Crows but I very much appreciate getting this gift because when I do get Six of
Crows, I will be flying through and reading both of these. And they also got
me Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. And this is by Susanna Clarke. I've heard a
lot about how good this one is. It's a huge tome at about over a thousand pages,
but it is set in the past where England is, you know, very dreary and magic, you
know, has died out. However, these two magicians are found discovered. Jonathan
Strange & Mr Norrell and they kind of have a rivalry going on from what I can
read from the synopsis. so you know magic and historical fiction combined... What's not
to love? Then I got a gift from my parents for my birthday and that is One
Last Cigarette by Mary Stone Dockery. Mary Stone Dockery is one of my favourite
poets. However, she was always a small press published poet and I believe most
of her works are out of print. They're very hard to get so I really
would like, wanted another copy of one of her poetry collections before it went
out of print. And I've got it so I can't wait to read this one. I've got two
others of hers and this is the last one that is available to buy so I'm glad I
can snag it while I can. Then from my sisters I got We Tell
Ourselves Stories In Order to Live by Joan Didion. This is a huge book because
it's a bind up of seven? Six? Of her non-fiction works.
I read The Year of Magical Thinking last year sometime. I absolutely loved it so I
wanted to try and read more of her nonfiction. And because I got a bind up
it means that when I go my year abroad this is one of the few that I could take
with me. And yeah, I'm very much looking forward to reading more of her
nonfiction work. And the book that she got me is The Traveling Cat Chronicles
by Hiro Arikawa. Now, I can't really understand much about this book from the
synopsis. But I've seen it around Instagram quite a bit and from what I
get is it's about this woman, I believe, who's travelling with a cat.
And they are just traveling around and it's just a story of their travels. Which
sounds really nice. And honestly, I'm not a huge cat person. But
I do like cats so I will be reading this one. And then -- well I said the Joan Didion
book was from my sisters but that was from my two older sisters -- but my younger sister
got me Monstress vol 2 which is written by Marjorie Liu and drawn by Sana
Takeda. She also got me vol 1 for Christmas and I read that and I devoured
it and absolutely loved it. Looking forward to getting to volume 2.
I'll just tell you what the first one is about. It's about this main
character you can see on the cover there. And she has half an arm and
she's living in this very dark grim fantasy steampunky fantasy kind of world.
And she's just trying to find out what happened to her mother. And there's this
mask involved which seems to be really dark and weird. And she's kind of got
this monster living within her as well, so she's kind of trying to deal with
that. It's really good, guys. That it, all the gifts out of the way. Next we're
going to go to some review copies and bloggers things that I was sent. So the
first one is Distortion by Victor Dixon. This is the second book in a series
which was sent to me unsolicited by Bonnier Zaffre so thank you very much. And the
first book in the series... I haven't read it yet but it follows these seven or ten
main characters who are put into this heist like, speed-dating thing which is
set in space. And the stakes are really high from what I can understand. I mean, I
love romance, I love drama, I love sci-fi. I think I'm going to enjoy this series.
I was also invited to a lovely blogger event hosted by Bonnier Zaffre and Hotkey
Books and in that event we got to meet two authors and also get their books
signed, which was really nice. And they gave us the books. So the first one I got
was The Tattooist of Auschwitz which is by Heather Morris. But she's telling the story of
someone else. Based on the true story of Lale Sokolov. And this one is about him
in Auschwitz. He was someone who was chosen to write the tattoos that
became people's numbers when they were in Auschwitz. And he fell in love with
one of the people that he was tattooing. This is their story.
And I feel like it's going to be a very emotional read. It's a bestseller. People
are really really loving it. I can't wait to read it and it was also great to hear her
talk about meeting a Lale and what it was like to hear his story.
And the person who was interviewing her at the event also had her own book and
that was The Red Ribbon by Lucy Adlington. This one is about Ella who is a
dressmaker. And she goes to a prison camp where she's got a new job, where she's
working at making these clothes. But she's also got her own
private agenda that she wants to keep too. Lucy Adlington was a clothing historian --
is a clothing historian, and it was just so great to
see her light up as she was talking about clothing history. And I'm looking
forward to reading her about too. And then my sister writes for a newspaper in
Romford. And she -- they -- were sent this book which is The Colour of Shadows by Phyllida
Shrimpton. But it doesn't cover their patch so they can't actually write about it.
However, she gifted it to me instead because I'm not, you know, tied down to
any certain location. I can still review it and publicise it without it, you know,
with it being allowed. And I read her other book Sunflowers in February last
year. I've got a review for that so link up there and down below. And I really
really loved it so I'm looking forward to reading another one of her books. So
Saffron is looking for through the attic when she finds a secret about her family that
she didn't know before. And she's really really angry and she packs her bag and
runs away from home. That's all I know so far but because I loved her other book. I
think I will really enjoy this one too. So next I won some giveaways and we're
going to talk about those wins. So from inside Robin's world which is a booktube
channel, I'll leave a link to her channel down below, she's lovely. I won The Seven
Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Because all of booktube and
book blogs and booksstagram and everybody basically seems to love this
one. It's about this famous Hollywood star Evelyn Hugo who finally is going to
spill the beans on her life. And she has chosen an unnamed journalist to tell her
life - and that's what this one is about. I am so so so excited to read it and
because Robin is the most lovely person this book was actually cheaper than the
gift card. And she just said to choose one book so I just chose one. But she
found another book that filled up the cost of that gift card and it was from
my wishlist. And she sent me We Are Okay by Nina LaCoer. This is one that i've
heard a lot of good things about and it's a FF romance read as far as i can
tell. Or there was an f/f romance in there. But it follows this main character who
has escaped the tragedy of her past by going to university. However, a friend
from her old past who she hasn't told about the tragedy and all the secrets,
Mabel, is coming to visit her at uni. And when she sees Mabel again she really has
to face all of the memories and horrible feelings that she's been
suppressing. It doesn't tell you much but I think that's the way to go about it.
Then from Bookish Bronte from Bookish Bronte's Instagram, I love her Instagram, link
down below. I won Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. Now again, the synopsis
doesn't tell you very much. It sounds kind of fairy tale ish and like, in
style and in storyline. It's about this little girl who was found dead but after
a while she starts breathing again. And everybody is enraptured by this miracle
and how it happened. These families stepped forward to claim the
child but who does she really belong to? And it just all sounds very mystical and
amazing but I really don't understand what it's about from that. But I've been
hearing some good reviews so I'm looking forward to reading this one. Next up I
went to some author events. Author events are the only exception to my book buying
ban because it's really sad if you go to an author event and you can't get the
book signed because you don't own one of their books. But like, why would you do
that? So the only exception to my buying ban is books for author events. I don't
go to that many so I can't buy myself a lot. On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
because next week I'm going to see Angie Thomas speak. And she'll be doing signing
and now that I've got The Hate U Give I would want to get this one signed at the
same time. So I'm very very excited and I just cannot wait because I loved the
The Hate U Give so much. On The Come Up, however, is about Bree. But she's
labeled as trouble. Her mum loses her job and it's about how she's going to make
things happen despite all of the odds she's currently facing. The last three books
are books that I got before I started my buying ban but arrived once my buying
ban started, so I never got to show them to you. But I'm going to show
them to you now. The first one is Dracul by Dacre Stoker and JD Barker. Bram
Stoker's great-grandnephew has written this one with another author, and what he
did was he looked at the diaries and the notes and the journals of Bram Stoker
when he was writing Dracul. And kind of pieced together more about Dracula
and this character and the original and all their like, things around him that
the author didn't include in the book. I cannot wait to read this because I loved
the story of Dracula so that was definitely one that I wanted to read.
The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter. This one is about the
girl who is sent away from home and she's going to live with her uncle who
has this toy shop which is full of really realistic puppets. And maybe
something magical is going to happen. I've heard brilliant things about Angela
Carter's writing. I've actually read one of her short story collections and I'm
looking forward to reading more. And lastly before my ban started I
preordered King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo. I can't tell you what this one
is about because I haven't read the synopsis, because I didn't want to as I
haven't read Six of Crows or Crooked Kingdom yet. I love The Grisha Trilogy
and I just need Six of Crows and then I can fly through these three books. And
that is my huge book haul for you guys. A lot of books. Please let me know in the
comment section down below if you have read any of these books, if you're
planning on, or what was the latest book you bought, acquired or received? Thank
you very much for watching this video. Please give it a thumbs up if you
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see you in the next one. Goodbye!