Hi,
I'm Sanne Vliegenthart.
You might also know me on the internet as Booksandquills.
I've been reviewing books on Youtube for about 12 years
now and I'm also the author of the Book Club Journal.
The Book Club Journal is a beautiful guided journal.
Also including a bookmark,
I should say,
where you can keep track of all your book club notes.
It has chapters with tips on how to run a digital book club,
the best way to have a productive discussion.
It also has a reading tracker,
a book loan tracker,
which is my personal favourite for when you lend out books to friends a lot and of course has
lots of guided journaling pages where you can write down your favourite quotes, questions you want
to ask your book club, names of characters and everything else you might want to write down.
I also wrote 20 themed reading lists for if you don't know what to read next with
your book club,
which was by far the most challenging part of creating this Book Club Journal,
but I think also the most fun.
Now,
I love a beautiful book cover,
as I'm sure many of you do.
And the team at Waterstones asked me if I could share some books that I think you should
go see in person in a bookshop to truly appreciate their
beautiful covers.
So I went through my shelves and found five books that I think are absolutely stunning to start
with.
This was an absolute cover buy for me,
I saw this book in the bookshop and just had to pick it up and it is
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake.
Look at those colours,
pop.
So this is a book about the wonderful world of fungi.
So let's give you a 360 to fully appreciate it.
Very importantly,
the finish of this cover is matt laminate,
which means it has that kind of soft,
rubbery feel.
But there's more beauty to behold because when you open up these pages,
there are more illustrations.
There are also photos in the middle of this book,
but some of those features some quite gross fungi and bugs.
So I'm gonna leave that for you to explore yourself.
And the cover illustrations are done by Job Wouter.
The next book is one of my favuorite books in recent years.
It is also featured as a reading recommendation in my Book Club Journal and it is The
Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.
This is a UA retelling of the story of the brides of Dracula and it's perfect if you like
historical fiction or dark gothic tales,
it's a beautiful story with a matching beautiful cover.
So let's once again do a 360.
The two stars of this cover are definitely the gorgeous foil and of course the beautiful
illustration and especially this snake is beautiful.
The illustrator is Olga Baumert and once again,
the end pages,
our absolute stunners. Look at that and there's more,
The hardback itself has a gorgeous foil cover.
The spine is illustrated too.
I mean,
what more could you ask for?
Also,
the beautiful illustrations continue on the inside.
Our next beautiful book is greek myths by
Jean Menzies and illustrated by Katie Ponder.
This is a gorgeous illustrated book for children,
all about Greek myths,
as you might have guessed.
Now,
the cover of this is beautiful again, featuring some beautiful illustrations and
some foil matching on the back.
But I think for this one,
the wow factor is truly on the inside.
Starting with the end pages,
I'll make sure to give you a close up so you can see all the details and then just continuing throughout the
whole book.
Look at this,
okay,
this might be my favourite page.
This is all the monsters in Greek mythology.
Next up we have another YA one,
but it's a beautiful paperback this time,
it is Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart.
There's been so much chatter around the spoke and I absolutely can't wait to read it.
And of course this cover is absolutely beautiful.
We've got a lot of embossing and debossing,
so like things being pushed out and pushed in,
there's lots of little details that have spot UV on them,
which means that it's shiny.
So again,
this one really warns a look up close and this is about to witches who are sworn
enemies but have to form a deadly alliance.
The cover illustrations for this are by Ashley Straker.
and Nick Oelschlägel,
I'm gonna say. Last but definitely not least.
This series has a permanent spot on my desk because they're so beautiful.
It is the Vintage watercolour Jane Austen set.
I actually do have the full set.
Some of them are behind me.
They all have different colours.
They're called the Vintage Classic Austin series.
They were designed by writer and illustrator Leanne Shapton.
And so they have one pattern and colour on the outside and one on the
inside,
which then matches with one of the other books,
definitely scope these out in person.
But if you love them and you want to get the full set you can get the full set online.
I hope you enjoyed those delectable books and seeing them close up.
But obviously nothing beats seeing them in person.
And of course,
while you're at the bookshop,
don't forget to take a peek at the Book Club Journal as well.
If you want to see more for me,
you can find me on YouTube and Instagram at Booksandquills.
Thanks for watching.
Bye.