Hi, it's Olivia, and I am back today for another book haul for the month of March.
And let me tell you, there are so [LAUGH] many books to cover to the point where
when I was carrying the stack of books, my arms were feeling it a little bit.
So we're just gonna get right into it.
So we're going to start with From Dust A Flame, which is a genre-bending
contemporary Jewish fantasy novel by the Lambda Award winning author,
Rebecca Podos.
So this follows our main character, Hannah,
who has always been on the move with both her brother and her mother.
But everything changes on her 17th birthday when she wakes up physically
transformed, and her mother disappears at the worst time ever.
And so now, she's on this journey with her brother,
Gabe, as they end up discovering a family and a history that they never really knew.
So this is a multi-generational story, featuring queer love, and
also Jewish folklore and mythology.
So it just sounds very exciting.
Next up, we have Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys,
co-written by Andrew Weiner and illustrated by Brittney Williams.
Before I get into this, I just wanna say I love, and
you'll notice this with this haul too.
I love the number of graphic novels that Epic Reads has been supporting and
putting out, and that's just really cool to see.
I love a good graphic novel.
If you didn't know, this is THE Grammy Award winning singer, Alicia Keys.
This is based on Girl on Fire, and it's also a story very close to her heart.
I'll show you some of the pages as I continue talking about it too.
This story follows Lolo, whose brother is actually accosted by the police for
crime he didn't commit.
He doesn't really realize how strong she actually is until she stops the assault
with powers from her mind.
While there's clearly superpowers and whatnot in this book, it also deals with
themes of racial profiling, gang violence, and confronts these issues while also
invoking the beauty and sense of community within her neighborhood.
This will be perfect for fans of Paper Girls, The Hate U Give, and
even superhero comics like Miss Marvel and Miles Morales.
Next up, I have a book by an author you might know, you might have heard of them.
I have Gallant by V E Schwab.
And I have read a number of their books.
I've read the first two books in the Shades of Magic series,
The Archive, The Unbound, The Savage Song, and Vicious.
I think Vicious was my favorite of all.
So Gallant is V E Schwab's newest book, and it follows Olivia,
[LAUGH] couldn't help it.
Follows Olivia, who finds her mother's journals.
And I wanted to specifically mention that because this book has eight black and
white illustrations within it, and pages that look like journal pages.
You can see the end page also has an illustration, but I'll show you one of
the interior ones kinda like this, you'll see throughout the book.
I love that kind of stuff.
Next up we have A Thousand Steps into Night by Tracy Chee.
And this is a young adult fantasy standalone.
And something that's very cool to look forward to with this one is
if if you look.
I love reading the little author bios [LAUGH] and the little tidbits about
the author, but it mentions that she's an all around word geek.
And that shows because in this book, she has created her own language that is
used in the story, which I just think is very impressive [LAUGH].
So we follow our main character, Miuko, who is desperately trying to reverse this
curse that is turning her into a death demon.
But she also begins to realize that these newfound superpowers are giving her
all this new agency and freedom in this patriarchal society that she lives in.
Ooh, can we talk about a plot right there?
My goodness [LAUGH].
And look at this little art on the back.
This is just a whole video showing off the beauty of these books, and the art and
the illustrations, isn't it?
That's probably gonna be the theme for this whole video.
Next we have All That's Left In The World by Erik Brown.
And this is like if What If It's Us were set after the apocalypse.
Let me tell you, I love a good apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic book.
Or even the movies, the post-apocalyptic movies and
survival stories, I just eat that up.
So this is a post-apocalyptic story in which a pathogen
has wiped away most of the world's population.
And our main character, Andrew, has stumbled upon Jamie's house.
So this is a slow burn, strangers to friends to lovers romance.
And I love that we get both of the perspectives of both of the main
characters.
I love that in a romance.
And so, yeah, there's just a lot to look forward to with this one too.
Next up is Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye.
And this is a debut, by the way.
This is a debut novel inspired by Yoruba Nigerian mythology.
This looks through the lens of Africa's child soldier crisis,
and so it hits deeply on some very powerful and heavy themes.
But it also features a relationship, it features a slow burn relationship with our
main character Sloane and fellow soldier Amari.
It's got magic, it has action, it has social commentary.
And I like, what was that, the sentence,
yeah I love the little blurb on the inside flap says.
I am a descendant of Shango, the God of Heat and Fire, I am a living inferno,
I am a dead girl walking.
And like I said, we like graphic novels over here.
So I've got another one, Squire, which is by both Sara Alfageeh,
who is known for her work for Marvel Comics and Star Wars.
And also Nadia Shammas, who is known for creating Corpus, a comic anthology
of bodily ailments, and also for writing Miss Marvel Stretched Thin.
So we've got a duo who knows what they're doing, you know what I mean?
So there's large crossover appeal here for
fans of Avatar the Last Airbender, Mulan, Full Metal Alchemist.
All of those of which I'm a fan of [LAUGH].
And this is a YA fantasy graphic novel that takes place in
a Middle Eastern inspired world.
And we follow our main character, who is 14 year old Aiza.
She is training to become a knight in this war torn empire while also
disguising the fact that her background is as part of the rebel class, so.
Next up we have the Book of Living Secrets by Madeline Roux.
And I love this style cover with the kind of like intricate border,
I don't know the proper name for it.
But in this story, we follow Adelle and Connie,
who have been magically transported into the world of their favorite book.
Except it is turned into a nightmare scenario in which there's
sinister creatures, and untrustworthy characters.
And they've also been left far apart from each other, so they have to find
their way back to each other and fight to escape out of this world.
I love the concept of that.
Like I said, Epic Reads just keeps it coming with the graphic novels.
And this is actually a graphic memoir called Messy Roots.
And it is a debut graphic memoir by author and illustrator, Laura Gao.
This is in equal parts funny, heartfelt and
insightful coming of age story following a queer Chinese-American
immigrant from Wuhan, China to a small town in Texas.
So this touches on immigration, racism, sexuality, assimilation,
in an accessible way as a graphic novel.
And I love the blurb on the back by R F Kuang, who says that this book deserves to
join the Chinese-American canon right next to the book called American Born Chinese.
And I just read that less than two weeks ago I think, and
I thought it was a really, really good graphic novel.
Again, we got another graphic novel, so definitely looking forward to this.
Next up we have Being Marry Bennet by J C Peterson.
And if you couldn't tell from the vibes of the cover, this is a Pride and
Prejudice-inspired YA rom-com where we follow our main character, Marnie,
who has resolved to become the main character of her own story [LAUGH].
This is perfect for fans of Jenny Han, Becky Albertalli, and of course,
Jane Austen.
And it follows Marnie on her journey to love herself and
to find her place in her large, loud, and lovable family.
There's also a sweet romance in which there's a meet cute that happens at
an animal shelter.
There is also classic literary references galore, but
it's told in a very light hearted and relatable, accessible way.
So next we have The Last Laugh by Mindy McGinnis.
And this is a dark sequel to book one which is the Initial Insult.
And this is a duology, so this is the conclusion of this story.
And because it's book two, I'm not gonna tell you too much, but
what I can say is that it comes after a very shocking ending with book one.
And we follow our main character, Tress,
who still is dealing with unanswered questions.
And is also trying to avoid suspicion as her whole town is searching for
her ex best friend who's gone missing.
And this also features alternating POVs with Tress and her cousin Ribbit,
who is plotting out the revenge for everyone who's wronged him,
including his cousin Tress.
And on top of that, this book has a very shocking and explosive ending.
So if you're just into thrilling and intense stories,
you'll want to check out this duology.
Next up we have a book, it's a beautiful back, but you wanna see the front.
Wrath & Mercy by Jessica Rubinkowski.
And this is also the sequel in a duology.
The book number one is the The Bright and the Pale.
This follows these long dormant brother gods, there's the Pale God and
the Bright God, and they have returned to continue this war in which they
are choosing champions to fight on their behalf.
Our main character, Valeria, is the Pale God's champion.
And she has to defeat the Czar, who is possessed by the Bright God, and
she has to do so in order to protect her people.
Next we have The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin by Kip Wilson.
And this is a really beautiful novel written in verse.
And so it is perfect to pick up for Poetry Month, which is the month of April.
But, of course, you can read a book and verse, or a book of poetry,
all year round.
This book has gorgeous writing and
it's an emotionally resonant story that takes place in 1932 Berlin.
So this would actually also be really perfect for
fans of Last Night at the Telegraph Club and fans of the author Ruta Sepetys.
And last, but certainly not least, is Message Not Found by Dante Medema.
This is supposed to be perfect for fans of They Both Die at the End and
other Adam Silvera novels.
And in the story, Bailey and Vanessa were very close friends.
And one night, Vanessa has headed home and
ended up swerving off of a cliff nowhere near her house.
And in the aftermath, Bailey is grieving her loss and decides to create
this chatbot of Vanessa that is based off of their text messages and emails.
And she in doing so and communicating with this,
there's some things that become revealed.
And it's just really neat that chatbot is based off of real technology in
the works for the ability to digitally render a person's mind.
And even the author herself, Dante,
has created her own form of a chatbot that's based off of the character Vanessa,
and you can chat with them on Instagram @alaskabookgirl.
So I've never really heard of anything like that, and
that's very unique, and that's very cool.
So those are all the books.
Let me prepare my arms to hold all of them up at once.
I don't know about this actually.
[LAUGH] I told you it was a lot of books, right?
I think I said that at the beginning.
I'm struggling [LAUGH].
I don't know why I decided to try to hold it like this.
Anyway, my goodness.
There we go, there's all of them.
Thank you for watching.
And if you're interested in any of these, the links and
information will be in the description below.
Also feel free to reach out to your library if you wanna get your
hands on them.
And I will see you in another video, bye.