The book publishing world does not (alas) go on hold while I roam. My favourite authors publish books that aren’t yet licensed where I’m travelling, or I find exciting new-to-me stories on foreign bookshelves. At those times my sister, who works at a bookstore and therefore gets an employee’s discount, receives a text message: “Lovely sister, can you please purchase this book for me?” After a few months of this, I return home to a stack of lovely shiny new books on my nightstand! I also have suspended library holds and this time, I’ve brought home a few books that were gifts as well.
- 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin (suspended hold) – I discovered this book over the holidays. I put it on hold in December but since it didn’t arrive before I left, I suspended it until I got back. It became available the day after I returned. Convenient!
- The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith Donoghue (suspended hold) – See above.
- What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi (purchased) – Eee, of course a new book by my favourite author would be released while I’m away!
- George by Alex Gino (purchased) – When I heard about this book in one of my peeks into Twitter, I knew I had to read it.
- Update July 2021: As per Gino’s wishes, this book should be called Melissa’s Story
- The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente (purchased) – I can’t believe we’re already at the last Fairyland book! I’m really excited to read about September’s parents.
- Unbound by Neal Shusterman (purchased) – This book was released before I went travelling, but my sister bought it for me as a gift while I was away. I’m looking forward to the stories set after the Unwind dystology.
- Best Ever Three and Four Ingredient Cookbook by Jenny White and Joanna Farrow (gift) – This was in a giveaway pile at one of my host’s home. I flipped through it, thinking it was going to be a lot of condensed soup and bags of frozen mixed veggies, but it’s actually more about focusing on good ingredients and whole foods. When my hosts saw I found it interesting, they wrote a birthday message in it and gave it to be for a birthday gift~
- Japanese Pilgrimage by Olive Statler (gift) – I was happily rambling on about the Shikoku pilgrimage and some books about it that I want to read, when one of my hosts went to her bookshelf and asked, “Is this one of the books?” She gave it to me because she didn’t have any plans to reread it, though she remembered in being an interesting read when she first read it years ago.
Are there any spring releases I’ve missed out on? Have you picked up any new reads lately?
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