Skip to content

Book Haul: Birthday fun at Foyles

by BooksinteraliaBook haul

As part of my 25th birthday celebrations, I was gifted a weekend in London. I went with my Mum, we had a great time exploring and being tourists. One of the main reasons for going this time was so I could book shop to my heart’s content. I was left to my own devices in Foyles on Charing Cross Road and it was amazing and very productive😉

Here’s what I came home with.

Heartstopper: Volume 2

I purposefully held off buying books for about two to three months, knowing that I was going to Foyles. This was the hardest to resist. Heartstopper: Volume 1 was so, so cute and enjoyable; it ignited a bigger interest in graphic novels, and I couldn’t wait to read more about Charlie and Nick.

Heartstopper vol 2
Nick and Charlie are best friends. Nick knows Charlie’s gay, and Charlie is sure that Nick isn’t.  But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is discovering all kinds of things about his friends, his family … and himself.  Heartstopper is about friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie’s lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.  This is the second volume of Heartstopper, with more to come.

Sheets

Following on from Heartstopper, I wanted to try another graphic novel. I don’t know much about this one, but the art style is gorgeous. This looks like it’s going to be another cute, fun read.

Sheets
Marjorie Glatt feels like a ghost. A practical thirteen-year-old in charge of the family laundry business, her daily routine features unforgiving customers, unbearable P.E. classes, and the fastidious Mr Saubertuck, who is committed to destroying everything she’s worked for.
Wendell is a ghost. A boy who lost his life much too young, his daily routine features ineffective death therapy, a sheet-dependent identity, and a dangerous need to seek purpose in the forbidden human world.
When their worlds collide, Marjorie is confronted by unexplainable disasters as Wendell transforms Glatt’s Laundry into his midnight playground, appearing as a mere sheet during the day. While Wendell attempts to create a new afterlife for himself, he unknowingly sabotages the life that Marjorie is struggling to maintain.

The Paper and Hearts Society

Of course I had to buy this one. A happy YA, diverse, debut novel about readers and books, it had ‘this book is for you’ written all over it.

 

The Paper and Hearts Society
Tabby Brown is tired of trying to fit in. She doesn’t want to go to parties – in fact, she would much rather snuggle up on the sofa with her favourite book.
It’s like she hasn’t found her people …
Then Tabby joins a club that promises to celebrate books. What could go wrong? EVERYTHING – especially when making new friends brings out an AWKWARD BUZZING feeling all over her body.
But Olivia, Cassie, Henry and Ed have something that makes Tabby come back. Maybe it’s the Austen-themed fancy-dress parties, or Ed’s fluffy cat Mrs Simpkins, or could it be Henry himself …

 

The Mark of Athena and The House of Hades

After, finally, delving into Rick Riordan’s The Heroes of Olympus I had to continue. Into the basket they went! Since coming back from London, I’ve already read, and really enjoyed The Mark of Athena and have moved straight on to The House of Hades.

Boy Erased

This is a book I know very little about, and I am excited to go into that way. I’ve seen the trailer for the film adaption which looks good but which I will probably avoid; I don’t cope well with emotional films. Emotional books, however, I love. Plus, I always want to support own-voices writing where I can.

 

Boy Erased
The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small-town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. When Garrard was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. Through an institutionalised Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, he was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness. 
By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, Boy Erased is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.

 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Finally! It seems that everyone knows this book, and everyone loves this book; I’ve been trying to get a copy for ages. Until now, every time I asked a bookshop, they were out of stock. I am so excited to dive in!

 

Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Ageing and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ’80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a genuine connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

 

Close Enough To Touch

Having the time to browse all the floors but particularly fiction from A-Z was a complete and utter pleasure. I had to be somewhat restrained in my purchasing so put back quite a lot of books but this one I couldn’t leave. It looks sweet – which I’m realising is an occurring theme for a lot of my purchases – romantic, and really intriguing. I’m getting Everything, Everything for adults vibes.

 

Close enough to touch
Jubilee Jenkins is no ordinary librarian. With a rare allergy to human touch, any skin-to-skin contact could literally kill her. But after retreating into solitude for nearly ten years, Jubilee’s decided to brave the world again, despite the risks. Armed with a pair of gloves, long sleeves, and her trusty bicycle, she finally ventures out the front door—and into her future.
Eric Keegan has troubles of his own. With his daughter from a failed marriage no longer speaking to him, and his brilliant, if psychologically troubled, adopted son attempting telekinesis, Eric’s struggling to figure out how his life got so off course, and how to be the dad—and man—he wants so desperately to be. So when an encounter over the check-out desk at the local library entangles his life with that of a beautiful—albeit eccentric—woman, he finds himself wanting nothing more than to be near her.

 

The Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution

The first time I ever visited Foyles, Charing Cross Road I bought a book about Alexander Hamilton. The second time I visited, I bought another biography of Alexander Hamilton. While I wouldn’t consider myself especially interested in history, I have been most interested in American history.  Hamilton the musical renewed that interested and shifted me away from a predominantly modern focus. I am so excited about this book.

 

The Penguin Guide to the united states consitution
Professor Richard Beeman is one of the nation’s foremost experts on the United States Constitution. In this book, he has produced what every American should have: a compact, fully annotated copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and amendments, all in their entirety. A marvel of accessibility and erudition, the guide also features a history of the making of the Constitution with excerpts from The Federalist Papers and a look at crucial Supreme Court cases that reminds us that the meaning of many of the specific provisions of the Constitution has changed over time.

 

 

 

So, there we have it. A newly stocked TBR, looking very exciting and, for once, not at all intimidating. Have you read any of these? Let me know what you thought in the comments down below. 😊

signiture

 

 

,

Booksinteralia

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: