Hey guys, it's Olivia here from Olivia's Catastrophe. Today I'm so excited because I'm
here to give you my Australian book haul.
So while I was in Australia I was still
on my year-long buying ban. So I didn't
actually buy any of these books myself
but lots of publishers and lots of you
guys were really nice to me so thank you.
And I can't wait to talk about these
books because I'm so excited! I've read a
few of them as well. So first of all we have Children of
Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi. And this was gifted to me by Madisyn
from Madisyn Green. She is a great booktuber and a good friend of mine so thank
you so much Madisyn for getting this for
me for my birthday. Because that's one I
really wanted but I was on my buying ban.And I read
it and I loved it! In the first book we
find out that we're in this world where
magic no longer exists. It was killed out
by this king who was reigning over the
land and is abusing a minority who used
to have magic. But there is a chance that
magic has come back and it falls to this
one girl to maybe change the paths of
everything. It's such a good series. I
definitely recommend it and I just loved
this sequel so much. Then I was kindly
sent two books by Sydney from Sydney
stories so thank you so much Sydney. As
well, again, another good friend of mine. And she got me A Sorcery of Thorns by
Margaret Rogerson which is very shiny,
and I'm currently reading this now if
you can't see that bookmark there. So I
can't really tell you much of what it's
about because I kind of wanted to go in
know nothing seeing as I loved this
authors debut novel so much. And all I
know is that we live in this world where
books come to life and they have their
own consciousness. And they are very very
dangerous. There's magicians who live in this world
as well sorcerers, I believe. And
everybody thinks they're very evil and
dangerous and should not be messed with. We have our main character, Elizabeth, who
is a 16 year old girl who wants to
become a warden. Who basically looks
after the books and protects them. But
when something happens she has to pair
up with a sorcerer so that they can do
something... I think it's a quest. I don't
really know, I didn't want to know too
much which is why I don't really know.
She also got me Rebel by Marie Lu and
this one is a continuation spin-off
series to the Legend series by Marie Lu
which I absolutely raced through and
really enjoyed. So in this one we
follow Day's younger brother,
and he is in Antarctica. And that's all I
know.
I really don't look at synopses when it's a
spinoff of a series that I like, or by an
author who I like the other book by. Just
because I want to go in knowing as
little as possible and be surprised. And
then I entered Jenniely's giveaway and I
won Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. I'm
glad I finally won this one because it
means I can finally get to my copies of
Crooked Kingdom and King of Scars
because I totally bought this series out
of order. All I know about this book is
that it has a wonderful array of
characters who are underdogs and not
actually the ones you should be rooting
for. And they are trying to pull off a
heist together. It's still set in the
Grishaverse. Not sure about where in the
timeline, but again, it sounds like it's
gonna be a lot of fun. And I'm hoping to
read it in April. Then while I was in
Australia I made a connection with
Bloomsbury publishing, and they very
kindly sent me quite a few review copies.
So let's talk about those books and the
first of which that they sent me was A
Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer. This is -- just -- it meant so much to
me because I read and absolutely loved A Curse so Dark And Lonely which I buddy read
with Jade from Jaded Reader. Bloomsbury Australia
came through for me and I read this book
in December. It made my favourites of 2019
lists and I have not stopped shouting
about this series. I absolutely adore it. It's a beauty in the beasts retelling
series and it starts in the first book
where we follow Rhen and Harper. Rhen is a
prince who is cursed to turn into a
beast every season, and he can only
break the curse by falling in love with
this girl -- a girl. However, it's not really
working out for him and he sends his
guard over to the real world, because he
lives a fantasy world, to kidnap a girl
to come back and see if it will go well.
He ends up trying to kidnap someone else,
ending up with Harper. And that's the way
this story begins. It just goes from there
and it's absolutely fantastic. Then they
also sent me the entire miniature
edition of the Throne of Glass series
and I have been reading them and feeling
some type of way about them. But mostly,
mostly good. I have my review thoughts for
Throne of Glass up in a video where we
play Ember of Ashes and also discussed five reasons to
read the book. I've read Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire. And you'll see my
thoughts of Heir of Fire in my March wrap-up.
I still need to get to Queen of Shadows,
The Assassin's Blade, Empire of Storms, Tower of Dawn and Kingdom of Ash. Quite a
big series but I actually really love
these cute little miniature editions.
Next up we have the illustrated edition
of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
If you're new to this channel we know how
I feel about Harry Potter around here...
It's not too positive. But I will look
through the pictures and then probably
find a home for this with someone who's
going to love it more than me. But thank
you Bloomsbury very much for sending it my way. Then Bloomsbury asked me if I do read
middle grade and I in fact do, but I try
to stick to only diverse middle grade.
And they sent me Some Places More Than
Others by Renee Watson and also The
Space We're In by Katya Balen. Both of
which were new favourites for me. Five
stars. So Bloomsbury definitely did very
well with giving these ones to me. So
Some Places More Than Others follows
this young girl and she has a project to
learn more about her family. She has a
sister on the way and she also wants to
go to New York with her dad and just
explore the city. However, she finds out
that her dad and her granddad don't talk
anymore and they stopped talking on the
day she was born. So she feels like she
could have something to do with it. And
when her dad agrees to take her to New
York with him she wants to try and get
them to reconcile their friendship, their
camaraderie. I really liked how this was
such a celebration of black history and
black culture and black themes. And if I
grew up with this book I would have been
so so happy. And then we have to talk
about The Space We're In by Katya Balen
which was an emotional turmoil of a read
for me. In this one we follow Frank who
is this 10 year old boy and he has a
younger brother called Max, who is a
severely autistic. Max can't deal with
certain colours, foods textures, sounds. So
the whole family is kind of catered
towards caring for Max. But Frank as an
older brother still has needs and also
needs attention. The mum is a
stay-at-home mum and you see her very
frazzled by needing to care for her son
all the time. And then the dad is off of
work. However, tragedy strikes the family and
it's about them trying to
deal and cope with that. It was a
phenomenal book. It's beautifully written. It's got some lovely illustrations and
after the halfway point I was an
emotional mess throughout the whole
thing. Something happy happened, I was an
emotional mess. Something sad happened, I
was an emotional mess. I was just all
over the place. Definitely, definitely
recommend this one. In January and
February I went through my nonfiction
phase and that's when they sent me A Woman Like Her by Sanam Maher. And then
also Rage Inside the Machine which is
by Robert Elliot Smith. So A Woman Like
Her follows this beauty youtuber who was
talking -- who was Muslim and talking a lot
about beauty standards and feminism. And
she was killed by her family members
because they said that she was bringing shame on the
family. And then this one is all about AI technology and where we're going in
the future. Whether that's a good thing
or a bad thing. We don't know. So this one
sounds like it's gonna be very emotional
when I get to it. I'm looking forward
to it but I'm also trying to be in a
good place before I read it 'cause I know
I'm gonna feel angry. I know I'm
gonna feel emotional. And then this one...
I'm also reading it because of my
writing project which involves AI and
technology. So I've been reading quite
a few of that. And I'm looking forward to
getting to this, to help me with my
writing. So there's two books. And then
the last one sent to me by Bloomsbury is
A Guinea Pig's Nutcracker which is just a
cute little picture book about guinea
pigs retelling the story of the
Nutcracker. It was so adorable. Right
before I left I started to form a
connection with Panmacmillan Australia
and I would like to talk about the four
books that they sent me. So the first one
they sent me was The Other Bennet Sister
by Janice Hadlow. And this was a book
I was very excited to read as anything
Jane Austen inspired I am so so so
intrigued by. This one follows Mary
Bennet who is the last sibling to be in
the Bennet house but unmarried. And she
is trying to find her own romantic story
and her own happy ending. I did talk
about this one in my March wrap-up so if
you want more of my thoughts on the book
please do you head over there. They also
gifted me at The Mercies by Kiran
Millwood Hargrave which is a witchy,
witchy trials book. Which is set in the
past in Norway and
Finland. And it's about these two women
who are caught up as these men try to
find all the witches in that small
little village. I, again, talked about this
one more in my March wrap-up so if you
want to hear about the past two books
that's where you really need to be. After
this video of course. On the day that I
left Australia The Sin Eater by Meghan
Campisi came through. And it's an
absolutely beautiful book and it follows
this character who lives in this world
where she commits a crime and she has
been deemed as the villages Sin Eater. They are exiled from the town and they
eat the sins of the town. That's... that's
what I have heard about this book. And
she gets to hear everybody's sins, I
believe. And when she's doing that she
figures out there's a bigger conspiracy
underlying this community than she
expected. That's what I've gone from it so far. I
am very much intrigued. I'm looking
forward to giving it a go. And lastly
unsolicited they sent me Ember Queen by
Laura Sebastian. I do wanna mention it's
unsolicited because I have not read Ash Princess or Lady Smoke and I do not own
them. I'm now in a non-English speaking
country so I don't know when I will be
able to get to them but I will at some
point and try this series. 'Cause it did-- it
was on my radar but I just haven't
had the chance to go on that
journey yet. Next up I like to talk about
some books that were gifted to me by
friends of mine. And the first is Beloved
by Toni Morrison which was gifted to me
by Fey. Fey is a good friend of mine and
we kind of bonded while I was in
Australia but they also go to my
University. They feature in my five
reasons to read Throne of Glass ft
playing Ember of Ashes video so definitely
check that out if you want to put a face
to the name. But yes, they got me Beloved
for my birthday. Again, I didn't read up
too much on this one but I know it's set
in the mid-1800s and it follows this
couple who are about to have their whole
world torn apart as a tragedy
occurs to them. And that's all I know.
That's all I want to know because I
haven't read a Toni Morrison book before
but I know I know that I need to! Then we
have No Friend But The Mountain by
Behrouz Boochani. And this was gifted
to me by the au pair family I worked for
as it was my 21st birthday when I was
with them.
This is a nonfiction that follows
Behrouz himself, it's autobiography. And
it's about him as he attempts to enter
Australia as an immigrant and is denied entry. Not
denied entry but is just straight away
placed in a detainment prison. And it's
about his life there and his experiences,
and the abuse that all the prisoners
receive in those conditions. It was a
hard-hitting book and it melded prose
and poetry very well to tell this story. There were so many aspects of it that I
really did enjoy and I'll link the
correct wrap-up... I believe it's my February
wrap-up... where I talk about this one more. Might be my January wrap-up. Who knows?!
And then last but not least we have
Stories From Arendelle: A Frozen story.
These were gifted to me by the
three-year-old child that I was looking
after as an au pair. He got home from
school that day and he gave me this book.
He'd gone to the free little library
because he knew that I loved reading, and
chosen out a book to give me on my
departure day. And that was the sweetest
thing ever. So thank you Clancy. Then we
have two indie authors who sent me their
books for review. The first one is
Odell's Fall by Norman Bacal. And
I've already read this and talked about
this in another wrap-up. But I rated this
one 5 stars. It's an Othello retelling
set in the modern day, and set in a law
firm. I feel like it did a very good job
of retelling the story of Othello and
keeping the familiar storylines, tropes
and elements to the book. While also
taking it in a new direction and making
it entirely its own. So it was
unpredictable. It was such a good
thriller. I was excited all the way
through. And I just needed to know where
this book was gonna go. So so so good. I
will again link my review also on my
blog for that too. And then I also had
That Asian Kid by Savita Kalhan. And I
have another review for this on my blog. It
is in -- it is set in a secondary school
and it follows our Indian protagonist
who is used to getting good grades but
there is this one English teacher who
gives him bad grades. And he believes
that she is racist and nobody else quite
believes him. But when he's walking in
the woods one day he finds that teacher
doing something compromising and he
films it on his camera. He then has the
important decision that he has to make
for himself: whether he should expose his
teacher and
we get her fired or if he should
continue to bear the brunt of this
racism that nobody else believes is
happening except himself. It was a very
good exploration of racism and how it
might manifest in the modern day, in
other ways and what it's like with the
teacher / child dynamic. I feel like it did
that very well and we've got some very
good discussions of representation going
on here too. And then last but not least
we have three books that I had to buy
for classes this year. Buying ban...
required reading for uni doesn't count. The first is The Art of Fiction by David
Lodge and I had to buy this for my short
story writing class. I've read snippets
of it because we just have to read
different chapters every week out of
order. But I have heard that this is one
lots of writers say is so beneficial to
them so I'm actually glad I have it. And
for every chapter that I read I learn
something new about writing that I think
it's actually quite key to know. So I do
recommend it and I do think it's gonna
help me with my writing a lot. Then we
have Australian poetry and this is just
a big anthology that has been composed
by John Kinsella. And I do like
Australian poetry, so far what I read of
it and I need to read most of this big
chunk for class. So we'll see how that
goes. And last but not least we have Joe Cinque's Consolation by Helen Garner.
Which I have already talked about
extensively in my March wrap-up so I'll
leave it there. It wasn't quite one for
me. It's a true crime based on this
horrific crime that happened in
Australia. And it was quite a shock to
read about and learn about. But yeah,
don't quite recommend it but I do
recommend finding out more about the
case. Whoa! There we have it. Those are the
30 books that I got while I was in
Australia. Please let me know in the
comment section down below what is the
latest book you've bought, received or
acquired recently. Please give this video
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time I have a new video. And you know
what they say: onwards and upwards. Excelsior! In this one we follow... Whoa, let me
just organise this... I still need to get
to Queen of Shadows, The Assassin's Blade...
Excuse me, I'm trying to film here. So rude!
I didn't even count, guys. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7...
