Books I Got For Christmas

As is usual for me at Christmas, I got a bunch of books. Surprisingly though, I didn't get any from my friend Laura! Usually we buy each other books but this time she bought me other (lovely!) stuff instead. I bought her The Silence of Herondale by Joan Aiken though, which I've heard is good; I also bought it for my partner so I can steal it if it's any good! 

I always like joining in with Secret Santas but this year I just joined two, to try to keep costs and stress down a bit in the run up to Christmas. One of them I joined in with was Book Flood by Shuttersandletters, where you send books that your partner can open on Christmas Eve (as is traditional in Iceland). I saved mine for Christmas Day, though. Here's what I got:

Felix Ever After sounds right up my street. Brother of the More Famous Jack isn't something I've ever heard of, but I picked it up early in the new year and will be writing my review soon. Spoiler: I loved it! I'll explain why when I review it. I also got a Joanne Harris book of short stories, which I don't think I've ever read, or if I have, it's a VERY long time ago (I've liked Joanne's books for over twenty years!) I'm thrilled about these books!

I also joined in with The Broke The Bookish's Secret Santa, I've joined in with this for a few years now and also enjoy it. I signed up for 2+ books plus goodies, and I wasn't disappointed by my goodies (although I didn't take a picture, sorry!). Here's what I got:

I haven't heard of the first two authors, but I'm intrigued by the books so am looking forward to getting to them. Tony Parsons wrote one of my favourite books ever - called Stories We Could Tell, it's sort of about his time as an NME jounralist. It's set on the night that Elvis died in 1977, and it's great... So I have high hopes for this one!

I also got a ton of books from other people:

The cross stitch book was from my friend Sarah, and it is so fun and funny. I Know You Did It has been on my wishlist for ages, my friend Sam bought me it and also the one next to it, which is about the Manic Street Preachers album The Holy Bible. Lee bought me Dark and Shallow Lies, I saw it in Waterstones in Lancaster when we were on holiday there in October, along with Ace of Spades, so I asked for him to buy them for me. The next one is a book about Schitt's Creek called Love That Journey For Me; Lee bought me that on request too. The Book of Queer Prophets was from my friends Leanne and Adi - Leanne always chooses books that are right up my street but which I don't already own. My mum bought me The World of All Creatures Great and Small. I'm not sure if you've seen the remake of it on Ch5, but I LOVE it. We were in Grassington when they were filming there in November 2019 which was really cool, so I've liked the series and am looking forward to reading this companion book.

Vegan North was an unexpected gift from my friend Chloe, along with some lebkuchen. It features several vegan restaurants in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle, and some recipes from each of those which is very cool. I thumbed through this and was happy to find recipes from some favourite places around me like Bundobust in Leeds. The House on Needless Street was a gift from Lee's mam and stepdad, they also gave it to one of my sisters in law who likes a lot of the same books I do. It's a bit gothic I think, and it sounds great. Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World is a sequel to Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe which I read a few years ago. I had heard there was a sequel coming out so when I spied it in a shop while on a weekend away in November I asked my mum to buy it for me. She also bought me Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu which I am so looking forward to!

I try to get through my Christmas and birthday books fairly quickly, so let's see how I get on in 2022!

Trip to The Bookish Type in Leeds

At the end of June I went to Leeds to meet my friend Leanne and to visit The Bookish Type, which is an independent queer bookshop in Leeds. I can't remember where I first heard of it, but I've been wanting to go, so I said that on Twitter and Leanne replied saying she'd love to go. I haven't seen Leanne or her partner and child since Christmas 2019, so it was well overdue and I was really looking forward to it. I went into Leeds a bit early and ate some lunch by myself in Costa, having parked in the Merrion Centre, before I went upstairs to meet Leanne. The shop isn't huge, but it does have soooo many books. They're all nicely categorised, too. First on the left was children's and middle grade, so I spent some time looking at that. I was pleased to see the Murder Most Unladylike series on the shelves! 

I was thrilled to see so many books that I've already read, and books by friends of mine. It was so lovely! I picked up three books and some badges. 

The YA section was big - two shelves - and I asked the person behind the counter if I could take some photos of it. I always do this in bookshops as I don't want to annoy anyone, and I also don't want them to think that I'm taking photos of books I want so that I can buy them online later as I think that's rude IF you have the money to buy in store. The person said yes and I said I was a YA blogger and was really impressed by their selection. There were books about teens of all races, with other intersections like disability, and not just contemporary YA but fantasy and so on too. The person thanked me for the compliments and said they didn't always know what to buy, but tried to focus on British YA and not have solely American YA. 

Leanne bought a book for her little girl and then three books for herself. We went for coffee afterwards and spent quite a while catching up. I set off home around 4.10 and didn't get home until 4.50 - I've forgotten what being in queuing traffic is like! I used to work in Leeds and I honestly don't know how I did it! 

Here's the YA shelves what I got:

Look how vibrant and colourful they are - absolutely gorgeous. The person behind the counter and I had a discussion about how queer YA has come on so far since we were teens. This is one of the reasons I love it so much! It just didn't exist 20 years ago when I was a teenager!

The book on the left is a sequel and I read the first one ages ago and have been meaning to buy this one. The other two just looked good

La! If you've seen It's A Sin, you'll know why this has become popular. I have a t-shirt too. The others are inclusive badges and I am an inclusive queer. Thanks!

Christmas Present Books 2019

Here's a post about the books I got for Christmas 2019! I got fewer books than normal, although I think that is partly because I did fewer Secret Santas than I've done in previous years.

I'm notoriously bad at reading books that I'm given for either Christmas or my birthday, even though I love them and often was to read them. So I've decided that this year, I will try to read all of these books before the end of January 2020. We'll see how I get on with this goal!

First of all, Lee's mum bought me this vegan cook book. I went vegetarian in January 2019 and she saw this and thought I'd like it. I certainly do like eating vegan, so I'm excited to get to some of these recipes!

My cousin and his wife bought me Call Down the Hawk and I'm excited to get to it after I loved The Raven King so much. I've heard so many good things about this

My friend Laura and I often buy each other books and this year she bought me three: the Catherine Dunne, the Rupert Thomson, and East by Meera Sodha, which is a vegetarian cookbook with recipes from all over Asia in it. I have made some of her recipes before and the book looks fantastic so I'm excited about it. I haven't read anything by the other authors so they're new to me which is always exciting. 

My friend Sam asked me if there was anything I wanted for Christmas so I said Elizabeth Acevedo's newest book as I really liked The Poet X. I have really high hopes for this!

And finally Lee bought me the only Detective Society book that I didn't already have, Mistletoe and Murder, back when we met Robin Stevens in Sheffield in December. I feel so happy to have a full collection now, I will be finding shelf space for them all to sit together in published date order!