Books & More Books

I have a book buying addiction. I think admitting you have an addiction to something is stage 1 of coming to a solution or something, but so far nothing has happened. These books weren't purchased all at one time or anything (and this list doesn't include books purchased as gifts),  but rather, they were purchase over the past three months.
I should also mention that I love my school, and I love how my school enables me to better my book collection with the help of the More Than A Book Sale. This is an annual event held each year to raise money for The Circle, which hosts a variety of talks called the Sophia Series throughout the year. Through the Sophia Series I've had the chance to see Evanna Lynch and Emma Donoghue, as well as a gold medal Canadian hockey player. The talks are always inspirational, usually funny, and you always walk away feeling like you've learned something. So of course combining raising money to have more great speakers at my school as well as adding books to my ever growing book collection is one of the best things a girl like me could ask for.
I would like to note that not all these books were purchased at the book sale. In fact, only 3 of them were. I purchased 3 at the Goodwill store that I discovered last week with my former roommate. And the other two are from Chapters.

My New Books :)

Starting from top and proceeding down to the bottom. Clicking on the title of the book will take you to the Amazon page for it.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink 

I bought this one at the book sale at school. The Reader is about a boy who is on his way home from school and becomes ill and a woman takes him home. Eventually the two become lovers. I haven't read this book yet, and I've never watched the movie, so this description is based solely on the back of the book. I have never seen the movie, and I'm not sure if I have any interest in the movie, but I thought the book sounded interesting and I'd heard good things about it from other people. I will have a review of this book eventually.

Atonement by Ian McEwan
I bought this book at Goodwill. Again, I have never watched the movie version or anything, so I don't really know what the book is about, but I've been told it is really good. I think it was my former roommate who told me I should read it. Atonement is about a  young girl who attempts to put on a production of her new drama to welcome home her older brother. Eventually she discovers that her cousins aren't up to the task of putting on the production. I'm quite excited to read this one, and then if I like it (and maybe even if I don't) I will watch the movie. I will also write a review of it.

Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
This book is another one from my school's book sale. I'm not sure what compelled me to buy it, other than it sounded interesting and I'd heard good things about Douglas Coupland's work. Eleanor Rigby is about Liz Dunn who is one of the world's lonely people. One night she sees a comet, and this creates a radical change in her life, and wants to seek peace rather than control. I think part of the reason I picked up this book was because I liked the title.

Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martel
This cover had always intrigued me, and I'd picked up this book at bookstores many times over the years and read the little insert and decided to maybe save it for another time. I ended up seeing his copy at Goodwill, and I figured for $3, I might as well stop looking at it and just buy it to read. Also the movie adaptation of Life of Pi has recently come out, and I'd heard good things about it (I've never read the book), and I decided maybe I should read some of his other things as well. I'm still not entirely sure what this book is about, but I will find out when I read it.

The Book Of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
I was told to read this book after finishing The Book Thief this summer. The person who told me to read this book has never given me a bad book suggestion before, so when I saw this book at Goodwill, I decided to add it to my collection. The Book of Negroes is about an 11 year old child who is abducted and forced to walk for months to sea in a string of salves. She is then sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. It doesn't sound like the most uplifting read, so it might take some time to convince myself to read it, but I've heard such good things that it might be the kind of book where once you start reading you can't stop.

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
This was one of the books I purchased at a real bookstore. Somebody had mentioned it in a video on youtube and it looked pretty and sounded interesting. I'm about a third of the way through and it is both pretty and interesting. The narration is a little strange sometimes, but the story is about Lacey Yeager who is young, ambitious, and working at Sotheby's. The book contains many reproductions of art pieces and they are tied beautifully into the story. And the book is written by Steve Martin, who I know best from The Pink Panther and Cheaper By The Dozen. I'm going to post a review of this book once I'm done reading it.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
I was so excited for this book to be released, and then school happened, and then I left it at home for a few weeks, so I haven't had the chance to give it the time and attention it deserves. It has been sitting on the shelf above my bed mocking me. The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first post-Potter book, and it is very very different. I've read the first few chapters and it is no happy-go-lucky children's book. The language is different and the story is different. I heard a lot of people comparing this to Harry Potter when it was released, and they all had a little bit of Potter bias in them, so I'm going to try and read this book without comparing it to her other works.

and finally...

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
I got this book at the book sale at school. Honestly, I picked it up because I liked the cover, and I have a secret love for the company that publishes it (This is the same company that published The Casual Vacancy. My love of it is that my initials are imprinted on the actual cover of the book and I like to pretend that the books were made just for me). This book is nonfiction, and is an investigation on what it means to eat meat in today's world. I'm not a vegetarian, and although I've sometimes thought about maybe becoming one, I don't think it will ever happen. I have read (almost all) of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by this author and have loved it so far, so I decided to get this book as well. And for $3, how could I go wrong!

That's it! That's my book haul from September to now.
Have you read any of these books? Do you have a suggestion for which book I should read first?

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Brief Hiatus

This blog has been on a brief hiatus lately. I've been busy with schoolwork so I haven't had much of a chance to read for fun. I have recently purchase a whole bunch of new books (maybe I'll do a 'book haul' blog post this tomorrow/this weekend).
The best way to be informed of new book reviews is to subscribe/follow this blog! There's a button on the right hand side.

As well, if you would like to write a book review for me, just email me right here. I'm always up for people to write book reviews, especially if it is for a genre I'm not familiar with!