Welcome back to Book Break! Somehow, amazingly, it has been another month and
so it's time for our next virtual book haul. So once again I have a laptop here
with a surprise folder full of book covers, showing off some of the most
exciting books that we have published in this last month. And I enjoyed doing this
so much last time so I'm really excited. Let's open up this folder and see what
we've got. OK. So the first one is Salvation Lost by
Peter F Hamilton. So this is a sci-fi book. Peter F Hamilton is one of the most
popular sci-fi writers, and Salvation Lost is the sequel to his book Salvation.
So I don't know very much about this series at all other than that people
love it, so I imagine a lot of you are very
excited right now. But for people like me who don't know much about this series
let's have a quick look at the description. So it looks like the
Salvation sequence, which is the name of this trilogy, is set partly in the year
2204 when humans have just started expanding into the galaxy, and then
partly way further than that into the future.
So for fans of proper sci-fi with space and aliens this seems like the perfect
series for you. OK next we have Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard. OK another one
in a series that's been really popular. Bloodwitch is the third book in the
witchlands series. So there was Truthwitch and Windwitch. This is the
paperback that's just come out, after the hardback release last year, so if you've
been excitedly waiting for the paperback it is finally here.
And I haven't read this series but the thing that I've heard most about it is
how incredible the world-building is, so if that's what you kind of look for in
your fantasy this is the series for you. Finding series for everyone today! Next
we have As Long As We Both Shall Live by JoAnn Chaney. OK I've read this one. So
this is another paperback release. Totally different cover to the hardback
which I read, which looked like this. So this is a Gone Girl-esque thriller but
with so many more twists and turns even than Gone Girl has. This is about a man who
is hiking with his wife when there is an accident and she is killed. And he seems
to be this absolutely brokenhearted husband until it turns out that his last
wife also died in a mysterious accident. So suddenly we're trying to work out is
he actually this cold-blooded killer who's
putting on the performance of grief? And let me tell you, you will not figure out
what's coming. This book just constantly kept surprising me.
OK next. Oh something totally different. So this is The Russian Job by Douglas
Smith. This is a book I haven't read but it's the forgotten story of how America
saved the Soviet Union from famine. So this is a true story, it looks
fascinating. I'm just having a look here and there are so many brilliant reviews
of this book. And I feel like a lot of people are on a bit of a nonfiction kick
at the moment, especially with stories like this that are about some of the
other biggest hardships that nations have gone through. So I have a feeling a
lot of people will be wanting to pick this one up. Oh and then there's Joe Wicks, Wean in
15. Look at that adorable picture on the cover. So this is Joe Wicks's weaning
recipe book. Joe Wicks has got two kids and he's a very hands-on parent, it is
very cute watching him on social media with them, and this book is packed with
recipes for kids at different age stages, helping you go through that process of
weaning them onto solid foods. OK next we have An Almost Perfect Holiday. This
is a book by Lucy Diamond who is just lovely, and this is, as you can tell from
the title, the story of a holiday gone wrong, which I feel like might be perfect
to read right now. There's a lot of us aren't able to go on the holidays we had
planned, so it might be quite fun to read this book and see how maybe they
wouldn't have been that good anyway! So this one is set in Cornwall by the beach
and as with all of Lucy Diamond's books, it's really about family and friendship.
She always writes these really heartwarming books. And the new Jack
Monroe! Good Food for Bad Days, so this is Jack Monroe's latest recipe book, but
this time it's all about that kind of feel-good food for when you're not
having a good day. So you can see the subtitle on the front here is 'what to
make when you're feeling blue'. And Jack Monroe is really open about mental
health, she talks a lot about it online which is really useful for a lot of
people, and this book actually has a foreword by Matt Haig who is somebody
else who talks a lot about mental health publicly. And the idea behind this book
is basically the fact that when you're feeling like you're not having a good
mental health day it can be really really hard to look after yourself
properly, including feeding yourself properly, so this recipe book is full of
recipes that you will find easy to make even when you're not in a
good space. And that will cheer you up and give you that energy and comfort
that you need. So it's definitely a book that I need right now.
Then there's Alligator and Other Stories. So this is a short story collection by
Dima Alzayat. I've been really excited for this one ever since Dima filmed a
little introduction video for us talking about her inspiration for her in writing
these stories. So I will link to that below so you can also watch it and get
excited. It's a collection of nine stories and they're all pulled together
by the theme of otherness. So in some stories that's about otherness as a woman, or
in others it's otherness as an immigrant, or otherness as a Syrian. So
it sounds really really interesting, these stories. Then we have Writers and
Lovers. OK I actually have that one right here. I loved this book, I really loved
it. So this is about a young woman called Casey, who I found so relatable,
she is just early 30s, I think she's 31, so in that stage of your life where you're kind
of transitioning from being a young adult to a fully grown adult, but it
often still doesn't feel like you've got your life together. And she's going
through a lot. So she's still grieving from the death of her mother, she wants
to be a writer, it doesn't feel like she's getting anywhere with that, she's
stuck in this dead-end job at a restaurant, she doesn't enjoy her
job there, and she has a few romantic interests that each represent very
different paths that her life could go down. And I think that's why I loved this
book so much, is that at that age and that stage of life where Casey is right now,
there are choices you make that seem to lead you down such drastically different
paths. And that's what this book is kind of about, her figuring out. OK then we
have A House Through Time by David Olusoga and Melanie Backe-Hansen. You
probably know the TV show A House Through Time where David Olusoga traces
the history of a house back to when it was first built, all the way up to the
generation currently living in it now, and uncovering the secrets hidden within
those four walls. And this book does the same thing, and kind of offers you the
tools for how you can trace back the history in your own home. Because there
are so many stories to be told in these ordinary houses, not great big castles
where we know the history that's all bound up with them then, but ordinary
people's houses, hiding maybe not so ordinary secrets. Then, oh that's such a
beautiful cover, this is A Registry of my Passage upon the Earth by Daniel Mason.
I haven't read this but I have read his book The Winter Soldier, which was
absolutely beautiful. He is a gorgeous writer. This is his
short story collection and I believe all the stories are slightly interlacing, and
they span different countries all around the world. The reviews I'm seeing on
here are saying quite how funny and also deeply moving it is. I particularly love
this quote from Elizabeth Macneal who's the author of The Doll Factory. She said
"I've given up picking perfect sentences to read aloud and I'm now just reciting
the entire book", which is so true from what I know about reading The Winter
Soldier. Daniel Mason just has such an amazing way with words. OK and it looks
like this next one's gonna be the last one, so that is The System: who rigged it,
how we fix it, by Robert B Reich. This seems like such an of-the-moment book.
I'm really excited to read it. It is specifically about the States but I
imagine it will apply to the way a lot of people are feeling. The book is
basically dealing with the fact that millions of Americans have totally lost
faith in their political and economic system, and it's starting to really feel
like the system is rigged, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. And this
book confronts that and addresses the ways in which it is true in a lot of
ways, how wealth and power have combined to undermine democracy. But instead of
just feeling hopeless about it, reading this book, the idea is it can demystify
the system and open up opportunities for people to demand change. And that's it, so
wow I'm gonna have to go and order all of those books for myself, and I'd love
to know which ones you guys are most excited about. Do leave a comment below and
let me know anything else that's come out that you guys have heard of that you're
really excited about, cuz then I can go and look them up. And we have a whole
playlist I will link to here of all of our book hauls which we do every month,
so you can go back and get even more inspiration for books to add to your
wish list. Or go ahead and order from your local book shops. See you next time!