August Book Haul

Holy moly, it has been busy around here! I’m just finishing week four of grad school, and I feel like I’m running a mile a minute trying to juggle homework, both jobs, and a social life. But I am alive, and what better way to celebrate being alive than with a book haul!

So I didn’t think I accumulated too many books in August, that is until I stacked them all up to take photos for this post. I may have a problem, guys. However, there are some good reads in here that I am excited to devour (someday…). There are three types of books I have acquired: new books, thrifted books, and ARCs.

Thanks to my employee discount and many Barnes & Noble gift cards (click here to see how you can get B&N gift cards every month!), I paid less than $20 for this stack of books. I of course had to get the sequel to The Darkest Minds, Never Fade, although I haven’t had the time to finish it yet. I purchased Girl, Wash Your Face because we sold over 100 copies in a month (for our small Barnes & Noble, that is a lot), so I figured I had to see what all the hype was about. I finished it in a day (review to come!) and it was a good’n. I bought Columbine as a required reading for my Developmental Psychology class, but I’ve had my eye on it for awhile now. I’ve just finished reading it this week, and it is pure gold. I will do a more in-depth review of this one, but I highly, highly suggest this nonfiction account of the Columbine shooting.

My local thrift stores were having book sales when I happened to pop in (I’m talkin’ 10 for $1, y’all!), and I couldn’t not! I found Life of Pi, which has been on my “Book Want List” for quite awhile now. I also found a few non-fiction books: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (I now own all of his books. You should, too), SuperFreakonomics (a sequel to the must-read, Freakonomics), Fast Food Nation, and Made to Stick. I also stumbled upon Matched, the first in the trilogy. Now I just need the second, and I’ll have the complete set! I found a fellow school employee selling her pristine copy of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas for only $5 - um, yes please. Btw, we’ve recently released special edition gold copies of this book at Barnes & Noble that are absolutely gorgeous. I also picked up a couple other YA fiction novels, We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach and An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

Last of all are the ARCs I snagged at work. I haven’t had the time to pick any of them up yet (let’s all blame grad school for that), but I hope to eventually get around to it! See All the Stars by Kit Frick came out in August and is a YA fiction novel that focuses on Ellory and the shocking incident that tore her apart from her friends. The synopsis reminds me of The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas, another YA mystery (click here to read my review of this book). A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti is set for release next week and has extremely good reviews thus far! When the Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica is an emotionally charged YA thriller that was released late August. Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, details the stories of four presidents in an effort to understand how leaders are made, and comes out next week (I plan on reading this one first!).

What books have you purchased recently that you are eager to read?