Book Haul: March 2021

 

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Welcome to Stacking the Shelves and Mailbox Monday, where I get to show off the books I’ve gotten recently. March was my birthday month. I may have gone slightly overboard with ordering myself bookish presents. Oops. In my defense, cheap books are hard to resist! Here’s what I’m hoping to read in the next few months.

 

 

March 2021 Book Haul

 

 

 

 

The Price Guide To The Occult by Leslye Walton

Young Adult Fantasy

When Rona Blackburn landed on Anathema Island more than a century ago, her otherworldly skills might have benefited friendlier neighbors. Instead, guilt and fear led the island’s original eight settlers to burn “the witch” out of her home. So Rona invoked the privileges of a witch; she cursed them. But such a spell always comes with a terrible price, and in punishing the island's residents, Rona also bound her family ever tighter to them.

Fast-forward to the present day and all Nor Blackburn wants is to live an unremarkable teenage life. And she has reason to hope that she may have escaped the thorny side-effects of the family matriarch’s curse. But then a mysterious book comes out, promising to cast any spell for the right price. The author—Nor’s own mother—seems capable of performing magic that should be far beyond her capabilities. And such magic always requires a sacrifice.

A storm is coming. It's coming for Nor.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: I had to read Leslye Walton’s debut novel The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender when I was in grad school. I loved it! It’s one of the best books I’ve ever been forced to read. It’s an odd, magical, memorable family saga. I’m excited to see what else the author can do. Goodreads calls The Price Guide To The Occult a “haunting maelstrom of magic and murder in the lush, moody Pacific Northwest.”

 

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This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith

Adult Mystery / Crime / Thriller

David Kelsey, a young scientist, has an unyielding conviction that life will turn out all right for him; he just has to fix the Situation: he is in love with a married woman. Obsessed with Annabelle and the life he has imagined for them—including the fully furnished cabin he maintains for her—David prepares to win her over, whatever it takes.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: If you’ve been around this blog for a few years, then you might know about my obsession with Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Ripley is an ultra-compelling character. He’s an awful human, but everything he does is fascinating. I thoroughly enjoy reading about him. I’ve only read Highsmith’s Ripley books. I need to branch out and see what else she’s written.

 

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Home by Toni Morrison

Adult Literary Fiction

Frank Money is an angry, self-loathing veteran of the Korean War who, after traumatic experiences on the front lines, finds himself back in racist America with more than just physical scars. His home may seem alien to him, but he is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from and that he's hated all his life. As Frank revisits his memories from childhood and the war that have left him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he had thought he could never possess again.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: “Excited” is the wrong word. “Curiously apprehensive” might be better. I’ve always wanted to read a Toni Morrison book because she has an army of passionate fans. I want to know what the hype is about. I’ve heard her writing style can be challenging. That’s why I’m apprehensive. Sometimes I’m just too tired for a challenge.

 

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October Sky by Homer Hickam

(AKA Rocket Boys)

Adult Memoir

It was 1957, the year Sputnik raced across the Appalachian sky, and the small town of Coalwood, West Virginia, was slowly dying.

Faced with an uncertain future, Homer Hickam nurtured a dream: to send rockets into outer space. The introspective son of the mine’s superintendent and a mother determined to get him out of Coalwood forever, Homer fell in with a group of misfits who learned not only how to turn scraps of metal into sophisticated rockets but how to sustain their hope in a town that swallowed its men alive.

As the boys began to light up the tarry skies with their flaming projectiles and dreams of glory, Coalwood, and the Hickams, would never be the same.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: I blame my friends for this one. We were talking on Zoom (Zooming?), and somehow got onto the subject of Netflix space shows. Netflix makes a ton of space shows, but they always cancel them after a season or two. WHY? I WANT THE SPACE SHOWS, NETFLIX! Someone mentioned a space movie called October Sky. Then someone said, “Wait, isn’t October Sky a book? Wasn't it called Rocket Boys?” Then a bunch of Googling ensued. Turns out, October Sky / Rocket Boys is a book and a movie. I bought this book because Netflix keeps canceling my space stuff!

 

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Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

Adult Horror / Science Fiction

Four childhood friends, united by secrets, are caught in the quarantine zone when something crashes into the remote forests of Maine; and the question becomes who will avoid being eaten alive by alien fungi, torn from the inside by alien ferrets, possessed by alien minds or menaced by a psychotic military commander to whom ruthlessness has become a macho ego trip?

The Earth is in peril as well, needless to say, but most of our attention is taken up with a few men caught on the edge, and where the most important thing in the world turns out to be the fact that four small boys saved a fifth from a beating.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: This is the most-recent addition to my Stephen King collection. Someday, I’ll read everything he’s written. I think this book has child characters. Stephen King is amazing at writing children and teens because he really understands their fears and imaginations.

 

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My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Adult Mystery / Crime / Thriller

When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola's dispatched in, quote, self-defense and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating a doctor at the hospital where Korede works as a nurse. Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other . . .

 

Why I’m excited to read it: The cover. That woman looks fierce. She even has knives in her eyes. Also, the hype! This book gets love from a wide variety of readers. It appeals to thriller lovers and to stuffy, pretentious people (like me) who read literary fiction. Goodreads says it’s “A blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker—and more difficult to get out of the carpet—than water.” I’m sold!

 

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North And South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Adult Classic

When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: I missed this book in college. I know it was assigned reading in a few classes, but I somehow dodged it. Compared to most classics, it gets amazing reviews on Goodreads. Almost all my friends rated it 4 or 5 stars, and none of them complained about it being boring or hard to understand. That’s a good sign.

 

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Release by Patrick Ness

Young Adult Contemporary Fiction

Adam Thorn doesn’t know it yet, but today will change his life.

Between his religious family, a deeply unpleasant ultimatum from his boss, and his own unrequited love for his sort-of ex, Enzo, it seems as though Adam’s life is falling apart. At least he has two people to keep him sane: his new boyfriend (he does love Linus, doesn’t he?) and his best friend, Angela.

But all day long, old memories and new heartaches come crashing together, throwing Adam’s life into chaos. The bindings of his world are coming untied one by one; yet in spite of everything he has to let go, he may also find freedom in the release.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: The synopsis is vague, which makes me worry that this is a teen angst book where a spoiled character spends 300 pages whining about nothing in particular. I would have adored angst books as a teenager, but now I’m old and don’t have the mental energy for angst. I’m interested in this book because it supposedly has a magical element. There’s a ghost or something? I’m intrigued, and I really like Patrick Ness’s work, especially A Monster Calls. I trust him to tell a good story.

 

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My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And The Last Stand Of The Angry White Man by Kevin Powell

Adult Essays

Ten short years ago, Barack Obama became president of the United States, and changed the course of history. Ten short years ago, our America was hailed globally as a breathtaking example of democracy, as a rainbow coalition of everyday people marching to the same drum beat. We had finally overcome.

But did we?

Both the presidencies of Obama and Donald Trump have produced some of the ugliest divides in history: horrific racial murders, non-stop mass shootings, the explosion of attacks on immigrants and on the LGBTQ community, the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, a massive gap between the haves and the have-nots, and legions of women stepping forth to challenge sexual violence—and men—in all forms.

In this gripping new collection of thirteen essays, My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man., Kevin Powell interweaves brutally honest personal stories with the saga of America, then and now. Be it politics, sports, pop culture, hip-hop music, mental health, racism, #MeToo, or his very complicated relationship with his mother, these impassioned essays are not merely a mirror of who we are, but also who and what Powell thinks we ought to be.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: The title reminds me of my dysfunctional family, which is both intriguing and horrifying. I was searching for essay collections and was drawn to this one because of the variety of topics. Even though the title is political, the author writes about health, celebrities, and his own family. It sounds like an interesting variety of stuff.

 

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Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Middlegrade Fantasy

There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question—How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?

 

Why I’m excited to read it: I may have done a happy dance when I came across a cheap used copy of this novel. I feel like I’ve seen it on the longlist of every award ever. It’s a children’s book, but it deals with dark topics, like what happens when serious problems are ignored. I’m excited to see what the hype is about.

 

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Have you read any of these? What did you think?