hello friends welcome back to my channel
um
i actually did my makeup today are we
are we
shocked but i also couldn't be bothered
to get dressed so i'm in a hoodie so
like
it's called balance today
i have another haul for you i know i
said i was on a book buying ban
and like the thing is i've done so i was
so much better about not
buying um not buying ebooks
um because that was where i was going
wrong previously and then somehow i just
accumulated a whole bunch of physical
books this month so like
i think that's even worse i don't know
what to do i don't know what to do but i
i really do need to start stop buying i
need to start
actually stop buying books that didn't
make sense grammatically
whatever the point is i have a whole
bunch of books for you so without
further ado
let's jump right into the ebooks i
bought this month we're just going to
start there because there's less
than the physical books which again is
appalling appalling whatever it's fine
it's fine it's fine
um the first book i bought was the wolf
of oren yaro by ks villoso
i know very little about this this is
the first book in the i think it's
called the chronicles of the bitch queen
something like that um i'm really bad
with like series names versus
book names but i'm so excited to read
this i actually just got an arc for the
second book as well so i'm really really
excited to dive
into both of these um they are meant to
be kind of like grim dark
fantasy but i think it draws from the
filipino mythology
um which i'm really excited about i've
had very very little exposure previously
to it
and i've also heard that um the
main character in the wolf of oren yaro is
a little bit older she's a mother she's
an older character which i we don't see
a lot of in fantasy
um i've talked a lot about the sword of
kaigen here on this channel by ML Wang
and how much i love that the main
character and that is also a mother
she's a little bit older of a character
um so i'm really excited to dive into
another story
featuring an older woman um the next
book i bought was the
deep by rivers solomon um if you watch my
five star predictions this is actually
one of my five star predictions
um and i've had it on hold from
the library for a really long time
but it went on sale a couple of weeks
ago so
i just bought it i bought it whatever
it's fine the premise of the story is
kind of based off of
like the practice of um how slave
traders used to throw pregnant women
overboard
um and so the idea is that those women
become
over generations become these sort of
like
mermaid type creatures i've heard
there's like themes of intergenerational
trauma
um and it i don't think it's gonna be an
enjoyable read but i think it's going to
be a really impactful read so i am very
very excited
to dive into that soon the next book i
picked up was
spin the dawn by elizabeth lim um this
is a YA
retelling of mulan i've heard um or
i've heard it's like mulan meets project
runway
um i know very little else about it
except for that
um that's kind of what drew me in i
obviously love mulan
i feel like i feel like pretty much
every chinese-american kid did because
it was like the only
it's like the only english cartoon that
had someone who looked like us
um but i love mulan well
i have like a love-hate relationship
with mulan because i love i love
all the like tv adaptations of it
um like there's a couple of like chinese
versions that i've watched
um i love obviously the disney film but
like the original poem
gives me gives me hives thinking about
it gives me hives because i used to go to
chinese
school okay okay if anyone's like
chinese american i feel like you would
know and you went to chinese school you
know
you learned the poem like the ballad of
mulan and you have to recite it all the
fucking time
no thank you no thank you um the next
book i got
it was actually a free ebook so like i'm
not i'm not that
pissed about it but i downloaded the
foxhole court by
nora sakavic um i feel like
i know nothing about this book but rue
from rue's reading corner she has been
talking about this and
apparently it's very problematic but she
still loves it so anyway whatever it was
free so i downloaded it that's why
will i get around to it anytime soon
probably not but
it's in my library um the next book i
picked up
was the secret history by donna tartt i
picked it up a) because it was on sale
and i've been meaning to read
more dark academia um and b) because
i'm gonna try to read it next month i
don't know i don't i don't think i'll be
able to get to it next month but
my friends have a book club called the
winers i will link their channels down
below and their twitter
um but they are reading this i believe
in september
um so i was ambitious and i was like i'm
going to try to read this but like
my tbr has gotten out of control so like
who knows
um so i did pick that up i don't really
know anything about the secret history
except for that
it is dark academia and it's meant to be
kind of like the
one of the best dark academia books i
don't know anyway
the next book i bought was the kingdom
of copper
by sa chakraborty um if you watched
one of my first hauls i actually bought
um city of brass a while ago and i
haven't read it yet but the second book
went on sale and i thought
why not also sequels don't count even if
i haven't read the first book sequels
don't count
whatever um and then the last e-book i
purchased was i'll be the one by lyla
lee i've actually already read this i
gave this a four stars i really really
enjoyed this this is kind of a
YA contemporary um about a
plus size girl who joins a competition
to become a kpop star
um and it tackles themes of like fat
phobia
and body image especially body image in
relation to
um korean media which is very very
similar to
my experience in terms of asian beauty
standards and whatnot
and i i really liked this book i thought
it was just gonna be like cute fluffy
romance whatever but like
i really should talk about this in my
wrap-up but like basically
one of the one of the main things that i
think was really highlighted in the book
is her relationship with her mother and
like
their relationship with her weight which
i
related to so much um
anyway i'm gonna talk about this more in
my wrap up whatever whatever
but um yeah this was a really good book
i'm really glad i picked it up um while
it was on sale as well
it was something that i um was waiting
for from the library as well this is
kind of what happens with ebooks like
there are usually books i already have
on hold from the library and then i see
them
on sale and i'm like oh why not um
anyway those are my ebooks let me dive
into the physical books i bought
whoo okay so i'm gonna try to do these
in like the order that i got them in
so a few weeks ago i think i vlogged
about this but a few weeks ago i was
feeling like
sad so after after work i went to the
bookstore and obviously i picked up two
books
um but i picked up wicked fox by kat cho
i've been told it's very like k-drama
vibes and i love k-dramas so
um i'm excited um to pick this up but
it's about a girl who is a gumiho which
is a nine-tailed fox
um and yeah i don't really know much
else about it
um it features a lot of korean mythology
and again it
is supposed to have those like
k-drama vibes um so
going into this i think i'm expecting
like super tropey super
like fast-paced, addictive um kind of
cheesy because like if you watch kdramas
like
they're not good like you can't say
they're good but they're also super
addictive and like
you just fall in love with them so
anyway i'm really excited to
read this i meant to read this this
month but i never got around to it but
i'm really excited to get to this
eventually
um and then in that same shop i also
picked up jade war by fonda lee which i
pretty much
read immediately um this is a 5 out of 5
star book if you don't know this about
me already jade city and jade war the
green bone saga are some of my favorite
books of all time and then i actually
was pretty good about not buying books
for a couple of weeks actually no that's
a lie
the week after i went on my way back
home from my parents house i decided to
stop at the bookstore and i picked up
these two books the first book is
foundryside by robert jackson bennett
um i have heard really really good
things about this book
um i don't really know the premise of
the book i just know that the world um
the magic system is supposed to be like
coding
i've been told uh that it's like the the
problems they solve
is very similar to solving edge cases in
programming so
i'm really interested in reading this
from the perspective of someone who is a
programmer
um and just kind of seeing how that
magic system goes i have heard the
friendships
and the relationships and the character
work is really good as well which i
always look for in a book so
i'm excited and then the other book i
picked up was gideon the ninth um i'm
actually currently reading this i'm prob
i'm hoping to finish it
this weekend this is about i mean the
tagline is basically like lesbian
necromancers
in a haunted palace in space or
something like that um which i
was like immediately i was like yes i
need it um but basically
you have these like houses nine nine
houses where
you have a necromancer and then you have
a cavalier which is what gideon is and
they're like their sword
so they don't have magical powers but
they can just fight
um and then they that all the nine
houses are like
going through some sort of like a trial
to try and achieve
like necromancer status of some sort
i think that's what's happening it's a
very confusing book but i i'm really
really liking this so far this is like a
four and a half stars for me
i'm about two thirds of the way through
um
yeah the writing style is one of my
favorite writing styles that i've read
in a very very very very long time
possibly all time favorite it is just so
funny and it is probably the book that i
can genuinely say i enjoyed because
if you know me at all the books that i
tend to like
are really dark really gritty um
and i really love them but it's hard for
me to actually say that i enjoy them
because it's not like a joyful
experience but it's just like i don't
know i love gut wrenching like soul
crushing things
um but this is actually like
very enjoyable and it's very funny like
it's
genuinely like i've laughed out loud so
many times and i just think it's so
funny
that being said i think if you don't
like the humor in this like it's
probably not for you but
anyway that was a bit of a ramble but i
really really like gideon the ninth so
far and i'm glad i picked it up
the hilarious thing is about this is
that i saw the book ebook on sale and i
was like no i'll just wait for the
library book i'll be good and then i
picked up the physical book so
and then the rest of these are i bought
on sale slash
second hand so i feel i don't feel bad
too bad about buying these i went to the
thrift store a couple of
weeks ago maybe last week i don't know
and i picked up two books
the first book is his majesty's dragon
by naomi novik this is the first book in
the temeraire series
um i don't really know much about it
except that there's dragons and then
there's ships so i'm expecting like a
nautical
kind of situation maybe i don't know
maybe that expectation was
not realistic but i've been meaning to read
something by naomi novik for a really
long time anyway
um and this is the series of hers that
appeals to me the most
um and i actually almost bought this
full price when i bought when i went to
the bookstore and bought gideon
and foundryside but i'm glad i didn't
because i ended up picking this up
at the thrift store for like four
dollars so i'm happy with that
um and then i also picked up fifteen dogs by
andre alexis
um if you haven't heard of this i'm not
surprised it
was pretty big in canada for like
a few years ago maybe like maybe in like
2016 i want to say it won a prize
this is i believe a either an indie
publisher or a small house
or a small publisher the premise of this
is that the
gods are like bored so they decide to um
grant human consciousness to a group of
15 dogs
um and kind of just see how it plays out
it's a little different from what i
usually read but i was actually like
i've been really interested in this book
for a while i first heard about it
back in like 2016 probably um at word on
the street festival which if you are in
toronto if you've ever been to word on
the street it's basically like a book
festival but they have a lot of
different
um publishing houses there um so coach
house books was there and they kind of
like sold me on this book but i didn't
want to buy it because it was like 20
bucks and i was like
i'm a poor student or i was back then
like how am i supposed to afford a 20
book that's like 100 pages that being
said these pages
these are like the the prettiest like
best quality paper i've ever seen in my
life like truly
um this is 150 pages but look how like
this is pretty thick for 150 pages i
feel anyway whatever
the point is i got this second hand and
i'm really really happy i'm
excited to read this eventually i guess
technically this is a novella because
it's like pretty short but
um yeah anyway this was super hyped to
me by the publisher
which i guess that's their job but like
either way i'm glad i finally have it
four years later
the next book i got um which again was
featured in one of my vlogs um
which i ordered online and i just needed
um
to make up my shipping costs so i picked
up wundersmith
the calling of morrigan crow by jessica
townsend which is the second book
in the nevermoor series um i
adored the first book so i'm really
excited to read the second book
we follow um morrigan who
was cursed and then she got whisked away
to
this world called nevermoor and then she
had to do these like trials to
try and stay in the wundrous society i
don't know where the second book is
going to be quite honest
um but i'm still really excited to read
it um
and i think the third book comes out in
october
so i definitely want to read it before
then um will i read
the new book as soon as it comes out
probably not because i'm gonna wait for
the paperback so
um next i picked up two paperbacks
two mass markets um if you are in canada
you will know that like indigo always
does um
two for $15 paperbacks and they it's why
i have so many like mass markets
because they're just so cheap like you
can't
you can't beat two books for fifteen
dollars like brand new books anyway
whatever so i picked up
the ruin of kings by jenn lyons um this
is one of katy's like new favorite
books apparently
and i really know very little about it
except for that
katy really likes it and apparently the
main character is like a huge himbo
so um i'm excited to read this
um i think there's dragons so dragons
are always a yay for me
um and then i also picked up zero sum
game by s.l huang
this is a sci-fi thriller it's a very
mathy thriller
um i'm really excited to read this
because sl huang is actually a
mathematician i believe
um and ah um sl huang came on my radar
because
they are coming out with a new book i
don't know if it's already out it's
a novella
um called burning roses i tried to get an
arc for it but i didn't get approved so
anyway whatever it's mine um but burning
roses is a novella
that's kind of like a red riding hood
slash hou yi the archer
retelling but i think it's like a queer
retelling so it's like sapphic retelling
i don't know it just sounds so good um
and so i wanted to pick up
um this because i also have been like
craving a thriller recently
i'm really excited to dive into this
because i do like a good
kind of sci-fi thriller um
anyway that's my other book that in the
deal
and then and then i went to the
bookstore
to sell my books i sold my books
and then i promptly spent the money and
a little bit more
that i that i earned um so i picked up
three books the first book
was um the picture of dorian gray
by oscar wilde
i've read this like a whole bunch of
times but i do i did want to purchase
a physical copy that i could annotate
because my only
um physical copy of this is i have this
like
antique bind up of um oscar wilde's
completed works
um and then i also have like the free
ebook version but i did i really wanted
a physical copy to annotate so i just
picked this up
second hand um from the bookstore um and
then i also picked up
frostheart by jamie littler um
i have heard really good things about
this the illustrations
are so cute that's kind of what like
sold me on this because i was like i've
heard good things but i wasn't like 100
sold on this
um and then i was at the store and i was
like i don't really need this i could
just like wait for it from the library
or like
you know get it on audiobook or
something because it is like a middle
grade um
but the drawings are so cute i don't
know like
i'm a sucker um i have no idea what this
is about
um i've heard it's like if you like
frozen
you would like this i don't really know
but it just sounds really cute i love
frozen so like
i'm really excited for this and then the
last book i picked up is something that
i've been
looking for at the secondhand bookstore
for quite some time now and they finally
had it
and i was literally like oh look at this
my
my wish came true um but i oh i picked
up a little life by hanya yanagihara
um i feel like everyone's heard of this
book it's meant to be super
depressing i know very little about it
except for that you follow
a group of friends around and and you
follow their life in new york and it's
just meant to be like the saddest book
ever and i'm just ready for the pain i
want to sob i want to cry
i'm actually like really happy this is
the uk
paperback edition i believe um
i'm really happy that that's the one
they had at the discount bookstore
um because i actually don't like the
american cover with like
the crying man on the cover like i just
don't i don't want to see that man on my
cover
and in general i just really like covers
that are just like typography like this
um and the spine is like gorgeous like
can we just
appreciate a clean white cover spine
i don't know text i don't i just really
love the cover
um i don't like that it's a uk paperback
because it doesn't open properly and
i'll probably have to crease the spine
which
really upsets me i'm gonna hold off on
this until i have like
an extended period of time to cry but
i'm definitely like
there will be there will come a time
where i want to be in the feels and i
will pick this up so friends
those are all the books that i bought in
the last couple of months
i know i was on a book buying ban but
like alas
you know what like my justification for
this is that like i used to go out like
once or twice a week just to like have
dinner with friends and stuff but i
don't do that anymore
so i'm spending like drinking and eating
money
on books so like it's fine
um but no truly i'm gonna really really
try to crack
down on my spending and buying books
because i really
don't read them fast enough to be
justifying all these purchases
i feel like i'm gonna get like a whole
bunch of comments from like friends
being like
hmm book buying ban you're not gonna be
able to do it but you know what i'm
gonna try
and it's like a for effort you know a
for effort um but no truly i'm gonna try
until like november
um because that's when a whole bunch of
releases come out so i actually do want
to buy books
in november um so i'm gonna try to hold
off in september and october
as much as i can anyway i've rambled on
long enough
um that is it for this video if you like
this video
please don't forget to give it a thumbs
up um comment down below let me know if
you've read any of these books and if
you like them or not
um i feel like i've got a pretty solid
selection of
books here so i'm really really excited
to dive into these but yeah let me know
if you've read them
and what you thought of them but yeah if
you like this video and you want to see
more from me please don't forget to
subscribe
i upload every thursday and sunday at
10a.m est
and that's it for today thank you so
much for watching and i will see you
guys next time
