August Books

Here we are again: another month, the summer rolls on, a heat wave is breaking over New York City, I am sweating all day, and my only solace is to gaze upon the beauty of books. And with that, here are the books I bought in the month of August.

All of the books.

Books by women of color.

Books by women.

Books by white dudes.

July Books

Here are the books I bought in July. I want to share these so I can hopefully get recommendations from others, since, as a I said in this post, I am always on the hunt for new books. Please let me know if you have any recommendations, or if you've read any of these books, and have any thoughts about them!

I recently read my first Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride, and loved it, and went in search for my next Atwood, and picked this up.

I first bought this book because it is from the publisher Persephone Books, an AMAZING independent publisher that mostly publishes forgotten and out-of-print books by women. These are just hard to get a hold of in the States, as Persephone only sells in their books in the UK. You can ship them around the world, but it is expensive, you can buy them Amazon, but I am vehemently opposed to buying books on Amazon, or you can scour used book stores and hope someone has kindly donated their copies, which is how I found this book. It also helps that Monica Dickens is the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. I've already read this book, and loved it. I will be writing up on it.

I've read Carson McCullers' novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which I thought was all right. I wanted to give her another try with this collection.

In college, I took a class solely on Vladimir Nabokov's work. So far I have read a ton of short stories and seven of his novels, which were all pretty great, so I want to continue chipping away at his bibliography.

This book is a gift from one of my best friends. She read it, and thought I would love it. I love receiving books as gifts, especially books that I didn't express that I wanted, but books that others think I would enjoy.

Lately, I feel like I've been hearing so much about Jeanette Winterson, and this book in particular seems to have been making the rounds on Booktube, so when I saw a used copy in perfect condition, I had to get it.

Virginia Woolf is one of my absolute favorite authors of all time, so I'm trying to make my way to reading everything she has written. Melymbrosia is interesting because it is an earlier draft of her published novel The Voyage Out. Melymbrosia was heavily edited based Woolf's friends telling her she would receive a lot of backlash because of the book's criticism of the British empire. Why would I not want to read this?





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So I'm still tinkering with ways to format these Monthly Book entries. I might just change them every time I do one, depending on the books, and whether I have something specific to say about why I bought them. I wanted to write about these books a little more because I'm really excited about them, and most are particularly meaningful to me in one way or another. But something I thought I might include is a little tally of the stores I bought them at. I want to do this to promote the amazing independent bookstores I frequent, and to kind of get a sense of where I shop. As much as this blog is for dialogue, I also want to use it to map my interests and ways of reading. Here are my bookstore tallies:

The Strand: |||
bookbook: |||

Some Favorites...

So it has been QUITE some time. In terms of wanting to build this blog and a readership, I'm not doing so well since I haven't posted since the end of May. But let's leave that all behind, readers (shout out to Katie who might be the only one at this point). Yes, yes, let's leave this past month and a half behind and get to back why we're all here: BOOKS. I figured an easy way to ease into this would be to make a quick post about some of the books I've acquired in the past couple of months - this post would be way too long if I listed all the books I've bought. These that I've picked are ones I am particularly excited to read, and one that I think are just fucking beautiful.

Let me know if you've read any of these, your thoughts, and any suggestions for any books I should look into next.

April Books

So this is a bit late, but I wanted everything to be perfect for this cozy little post about the books I bought in the month of April. I want to share the books I purchase each month 1) for myself, so that I can visualize and think about what it is I get every month, and 2) give you (my potential readers) ideas about books to read, and of course hear from you what books you're investing in. Also, I'd love to hear from you if you've read any of these books!

For these posts, I wanted to add some information that I thought would be useful, and just fun (for me, at least). Firstly, I've decided that I will provide the store in which I bought the book, in order to see my own trends of where I buy books, and for you, my readers, if you'd like to know where to potentially get the same book. Secondly, I've decided to add the citation of the book. I quite like writing citations - it's the former English major in me - so I thought I'd add them. Let me know if you'd like any more information about the books I buy. 

And now, without further adieu, the books I bought in the month of April:

Photo: Katie Chin

Photo: Katie Chin

We Should All Be Feminists || Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Place of Purchase: McNally Jackson Books

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. We Should All Be Feminists. New York: Anchor Books, 2015.

Photo: Katie Chin

Pride and Prejudice || Jane Austen
Place of Purchase: Kinokuniya Bookstore
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: Vintage Classics, 2014.

Photo: Katie Chin

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent || Marie Brennan

Place of Purchase: McNally Jackson Books

Brennan, Marie. A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent. New York: Tor, 2014.

Photo: Katie Chin

Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles and Speeches, 1998-2003 || Roberto Bolaño

Place of Purchase: WORD

Bolaño, Roberto. Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles and Speeches, 1998-2003. New York: New Directions, 2014.

Photo: Katie Chin

The Secret of Evil || Roberto Bolaño

Place of Purchase: Three Lives & Company

Bolaño, Roberto. The Secret of Evil. New York: New Directions, 2014.

Photo: Katie Chin

Helen in Egypt || H.D.

Place of Purchase: McNally Jackson Books

D., H. Helen in Egypt. New York: New Directions, 1974.

Photo: Katie Chin

The Story of a New Name || Elena Ferrante

Place of Purchase: McNally Jackson Books

Ferrante, Elena. The Story of a New Name. New York: Europa, 2013.

Photo: Katie Chin

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay || Elena Ferrante

Place of Purchase: McNally Jackson Books

Ferrante, Elena. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. New York: Europa, 2014.

Photo: Katie Chin

Bad Feminist: Essays || Roxane Gay

Place of Purchase: McNally Jackson Books

Gay, Roxane. Bad Feminist: Essays. New York: Harper Perennial, 2014.

Photo: Katie Chin

Autobiography of My Mother || Jamaica Kincaid
Place of Purchase: bookbook
Kincaid, Jamaica. Autobiography of My Mother. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1996.

Photo: Katie Chin

Rose || Li-Young Lee

Place of Purchase: Three Lives & Company

Lee, Li-Young. Rose. Rochester: BOA, 1986.