Hoi! And welcome to my January book haul.
I've been trying to film this for forever
but this month has not been great for British weather.
Currently, it's so overcast outside, but I think I've made it work
Because I filmed my December book haul quite early
and my January one quite late, I have a few books.
Quite a lot of books.
Before, I've done hauls where I split them in two.
Most of the times I've had comments of people saying
that they rather just have a longer haul.
So here it is.
I've sort of lined them all up behind me
so let's see which one I'm gonna do first.
Number one. This is one of the ones that I'm most excited about
and it is "The Hate U Give", by Angie Thomas.
This is a proof copy and, as you can see, this actually spells out "thug",
which is on the spine.
This is out in April, so I've got a little while to read it.
It is a young adult book. It was sent to me for review by Walker Books.
This is about a 16 year old girl named Starr who sort of lives in the middle of two worlds:
the poor neighbourhood where she was born and then, the fancy school that she's gone to.
And the event that kicks things off in this book is that she is the only witness
to a fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend by a police officer.
Apparently the movie rights for this one have already been sold.
I feel like it's already out or almost out in the US, so I've heard lots of chatter about this.
And the author Angie Thomas was the winner of the inaugural Walter Dean Meyers Grant in 2015,
awarded by We Need Diverse Books.
Next up, I've another proof copy.
So, this one was sent to me by Hachette and it's The Blood Miracles by Lisa McInerney.
So, you might remember that one of my favourite books of last year was The Glorious Heresies, by Lisa McInerney.
I don't know anything about this.
I opened it up and it has the name of one of the main characters in the previous book,
so, I'm assuming this is a follow up.
But I'll discover it soon enough.
It looks like it starts off in Rotterdam,
which, I guess, I would say in the Netherlands has a reputation of having
some more crime than some other cities.
That fits in with the previous book,
which, as you might remember was set in like the underground world of Cork in Ireland.
I actually really love this cover. I like it more than the other one for the previous book, so...
Although I listened to the audio book for the previous one,
so reading it would be probably a different experience.
Next, there is a book from Hot Key Books, which, as you guess now, I used to work there.
It is by Juno Dawson, who I've worked with lots in the past.
And I've reviewed some of her books in my channel as well.
So it looks like this one actually is already out.
It's called Margot & Me.
It's about a girl called Fliss, who goes to live with her stern and bullying grandmother Margot.
And when that happens, Fliss finds Margot's diary,
which was set, I think, during the Second World War.
In that diary, she learns of a secret that could tear the family apart.
I've really enjoyed Juno's past books, so looking forward to reading this.
So, the next books are from the company that I used to work at, but it's under a different name.
So, this is sort of the adult division.
This is a book that came out while I worked there.
I've actually never had the chance to fully finish this,
and the sequel is now out, so let me tell you a little bit about it.
This one is called Sophia Khan Is Not Obliged, by Ayisha Malik.
And this is the follow up, which is The Other Half of Happiness.
I think you can probably read this on its own, but I'm gonna read both and I'll let you know.
This is out in April.
I've got lots of proofs of books that are out in April.
It looks like it's gonna be a busy month.
The best way to sort of describe this, I guess, is a muslim Bridget Jones.
I've got to shoot some videos with the author for my previous job.
She talked a lot about, you know, seeing yourself represented in books.
And that books with muslim characters don't always have to be about that topic.
So yeah, I'm gonna read probably both of these back to back.
Okay, so two more and then I've got some bonus ones.
So, the next one is Hidden Figures.
This film has been out in the US for forever, but it's still not out in the UK.
So, the author is Margot Lee Shetterly, and I actually got to interview her
over the phone, a couple of weeks ago, which was really really amazing.
Let me know if you guys would be interested in doing a sort of full video about the book and the film.
So, this is a non-fiction novel and, it says on here, that inspired the film.
And then I have a proof copy of Midnight Blue, journey to Amsterdam, 1654.
So, this is by an author called Simone van der Vlugt, who's a Dutch author.
This has been translated into English.
And I remember reading some of her, I guess it would've been kid/YA books, like historical novels,
when I was young and absolutely loving them.
So, when I saw that this was here I was like "obviously, I will have to read this. It's set in Amsterdam, by a Dutch author".
Apparently, this book has already sold over half a million copies in the Netherlands.
I don't know how long it's been out.
But obviously they are saying it's great if you like The Girl with a Pearl Earring, or The Miniaturist, obviously.
I kind of want to read a couple of books set in the Dutch Golden Age
and then review them all in one go.
There're so many books coming out set in this period,
which is really interesting because it is also quite a dark period in Dutch history.
Obviously because of the slave trade.
So yeah, I don't know if that's something that would come up in a book like this as well, but... curious to read it.
And this one is out in early May.
And finally, I wanted to give a quick mention to some lovely birthday gifts I got.
I got Sputnik Sweetheart, by Haruki Murakami.
Seems like it's kind of a love story or a story of admiration and then one of the parties disappears.
Also for my birthday, I got a lovely collection of graphic novels.
I got Paper Girls 2, which I'll be reading asap.
And then two further bind ups of the Unwritten comics, which I love as well.
Alright, that was my January book haul.
I'm assuming my February one will be a lot smaller.
As usual, all details for all books will be in the description.
I hope you guys enjoyed it. Let me know if you're planning on reading any the books I chatted about
or if you've already read them.
And I will see you guys later. Doei!