Top Ten Tuesday: My Christmas Book Haul

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week, we’re talking about the books I got for Christmas. I can hear you saying, “Aj, Christmas was a month ago. Why are you still blathering about it?” Because I’m freaking excited to read these books! I got a ton of books for Christmas. This isn’t even all of them. I’ll have to put the others in future hauls. These were all gifts from Lauren @ Shooting Stars Magazine or gifts from myself to myself. Since this is a book haul, I’m also linking up with Stacking the Shelves and Mailbox Monday.

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My Christmas Book Haul

I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier

A boy’s search for his father becomes a desperate journey to unlock a secret past. But the past must not be remembered if the boy is to survive. As he searches for the truth that hovers at the edge of his mind, the boy—and readers—arrive at a shattering conclusion.

Buy it on Amazon

Black Bird Of The Gallows by Meg Kassel (Black Bird Of The Gallows #1)

Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece—and he’s not human.

What’s more, she knows something most don’t. That the secrets her town holds could kill them all. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death.

Buy it on Amazon

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, And Why by Laurence Gonzales

Examining stories of miraculous endurance and tragic death—how people get into trouble and how they get out again (or not). Deep Survival takes us from the tops of snowy mountains and the depths of oceans to the workings of the brain that control our behavior. Through close analysis of case studies, Laurence Gonzales describes the "stages of survival" and reveals the essence of a survivor—truths that apply not only to surviving in the wild but also to surviving life.

Buy it on Amazon

Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #1)

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children

No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced . . . they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

Buy it on Amazon

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

IMAGINE

Leaving your house in the middle of the night.

Knowing your mother is doing her best, but she's just as scared as you.

IMAGINE
Starting a new school, making friends.
Seeing how happy it makes your mother.
Hearing a voice, calling out to you.

IMAGINE
Following the signs, into the woods.
Going missing for six days.
Remembering nothing about what happened.

IMAGINE
Something that will change everything.
And having to save everyone you love.

Buy it on Amazon

The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn's luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the '80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn's story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Buy it on Amazon

Surviving The Extremes: What Happens To The Body And Mind At The Limits Of Human Endurance by Kenneth Kamler, M.D.

A true-life scientific thriller no reader will forget, Surviving the Extremes takes us to the farthest reaches of the earth as well as into the uncharted territory within the human body, spirit, and brain. A vice president of the legendary Explorers Club, as well as surgeon, explorer, and masterful storyteller, Dr. Kenneth Kamler has spent years discovering what happens to the human body in extreme environmental conditions. Divided into six sections—jungle, high seas, desert, underwater, high altitude, and outer space—this book uses firsthand testimony and documented accounts to investigate the science of what a body goes through and explains why people survive—and why they sometimes don’t. 

Buy it on Amazon

Number The Stars by Lois Lowry

Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen's life.

Buy it on Amazon

Vox by Christina Dalcher

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed to speak more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial—this can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

This is just the beginning.

Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard.

But this is not the end.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

Buy it on Amazon

Did you get any books for the holidays?