Book Haul | October 2022

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Hello Hello! How are you today?

As you will be able to tell from my very long list… I went a bit crazy in October with the book shopping. I got 10 books in a big bundle which was on offer, which makes it a bit less scary haha!

In October, I added 30 books to my TBR, so a bit less than September, but still a lot in only two months… Oops.

Let’s take a look at the books I treated myself with in October!

BLACKWELL’S

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang

I actually ordered this book at the end of September and it took a while to get to me but I’m finally reading it now with Candyce from The Book Dutchesses. I’ve seen this one raved about all over bookish social media and really fancied it. I’m enjoying it so far but I am also finding it a bit dense and slow, so I’m just going to keep plodding along with it and see where it takes me.

WOB

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

I’ve wanted to read this book for a while and when I saw it as a really good price on WOB and in hardback I knew I needed to buy it. I’ve really gotten into the darker, spookier books lately and since this is a classic I wanted to try it out. It’s also relatively short so I think I might settle down with this one soon, when it’s particularly cold and rainy outside and when I’ve got the fire roaring and a cup of tea in hand!

The Final Gambit (#3) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

A couple of months ago I got The Hawthorne Legacy, the second book in The Inheritance Games. I read the first book when it was released and haven’t continued the series yet. But now that I have the final two instalments, I can do a reread of the first book and finish the series straight away. I remember really liking the first book so I have high hopes for these other two.

The Manningtree Witches by A. K. Blakemore

If you know me, you know I love anything featuring or about witches and I had seen this book about a few times, so when I saw it on offer on WOB I jumped at the chance to get it. I can’t fully remember what the blurb says, but I know it is a historical fiction about witches and that intrigued me a lot and I’m sure I’m going to enjoy this one a lot. I think I’ll put this high on my 2023 TBR.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Another historical fiction I’ve had on my list to buy for ages is Burial Rites! I also really loved the cover which drew me in and when I read the blurb to remind myself what it was about, I knew I had to get it. I also thought it sounded quite similar to The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins which I started this summer and was really enjoying until I got distracted by other books. I will have to read both of these soon!

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

Can you tell I’ve been in a historical fiction mood for a while now? I’m been wanting to get back into this genre so I thought getting some new books would motivate me and I’ll have to integrate more of them into my 2023 TBR! I was really intrigued by this book when it was released and I also really like that it has a big mystery element to it. It sounds like a bit of the typical Agatha Christie locked room mystery so I’m looking forward to reading it!

An Ember in the Ashes (#1) by Sabaa Tahir

As a fantasy fan, I can’t actually believe that I still haven’t read this book and series by Sabaa Tahir. I’ve seen it all over bookish social media for years so I couldn’t resist getting myself a copy when I saw the great price it was! I’m going to try to add more series to start (and hopefully finish) in 2023, and I think this one will be right at the top of the list. I’ve waited long enough to read it, so I think it is finally time to discover this world and these characters.

The Pillars of the Earth (#1) by Ken Follett

Another series I have been dying to read for years is the Kingsbridge series by Ken Follett who is also an author I’ve wanted to read for such a long time. I didn’t realise how big this first book in the series was until I received it, it is a right chunker at just over 1000 pages, so I think it will be one for the long haul and might take me a few months to finish it, but I am really, really looking forward to it.

Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

I first saw this book when it was part of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival selection for Book of the Year (I think that is what it is called). Anyway, this cover and the book’s blurb called to me straight away and I’ve had it on my wishlist ever since. I’m glad I went down the WOB rabbit hole in October because I’m sure this is going to be a really enjoyable read and I like having female mystery writers on my TBR as so many of the popular ones are men. It is also historical fiction, so it seems I am hitting 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak.

The Fifth Season (#1) by N. K. Jemisin

Another fantasy book and series I have always wanted to read is The Broken Earth Trilogy by this author. This sounds like quite a complicated world and system, but on quiet nights I’m going to be really happy to have this to dive into and really concentrate on, especially when I’m in that kind of fantasy mood. I am trying to make my way through a massive “popular fantasy I want to read” list, so this is one step closer to completing my goals, and that is also a great post idea, lol!

The Lies of Locke Lamora (#1) by Scott Lynch

So I know this one is kind of a controversial one because of the author who wrote that. However, I’ve had it on my TBR for years and I really want to see what all the hype is about because I’ve been hearing about this series for such a long time. I can’t remember much about this series to be honest, but I know the main character is an orphan going on adventures and getting in trouble, which makes me think of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens which I really like. So I’m going to give it a fair chance and see how I get on with this book.

Wolf Hall (#1) by Hilary Mantel

I’ve also had this book on my wishlist for a couple of years and I was very saddened to hear of this author’s death before I was able to read any of her books. The news boosted me to go purchase the first book in the Thomas Cromwell series, which I am sure I will adore and I’ve got all her other books on my TBR too, so I’m hoping to pick these up soon enough. As I really love history of any kind, I think I will quickly fall in love with this author’s books, so again I’m answering my historical fiction yearning!

AMAZON

Just as a disclaimer, I don’t like buying my books from Amazon, but unfortunately, since Brexit, prices have risen for me here in France and I just can’t afford to pay 15€ tax/customs on each book I buy, so sometimes I have to go with the devil, lol.

The Chronicles of St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor

I recently started The Chronicles of St Mary’s series by Jodi Taylor after Fiona from Fi’s Bibliofiles recommended it to me. I’ve been stopping myself from continuing it because of the number of books in the series and how expensive books have become since Brexit. But I came across this 10-book bundle on Amazon and knew I needed to get it so I could continue the series when I wanted. I think I’ll resell the first two instalments I have as doubles, but I saved so so much money thanks to this offer, so I’m calling it a win.
Here is the list of books included in this bundle and their order in the series: Just One Damned Thing After Another (#1); A Symphony of Echoes (#2); A Second Chance (#3); A Trail Through Time (#4); No Time Like The Past (#5); What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (#6); Lies, Damned Lies, and History (#7); And the Rest is History (#8); An Argumentation of Historians (#9); Hope for the Best (#10).

FRENCH BOOKSTORES

I also got some more eclectic books in my October haul and they all came from French bookstores. I’m not going to describe each one because I doubt they would be interesting to everyone and they are things I’m interested in researching such as natural remedies or “green witchcraft”, the history of witchcraft, natural medicine for the family and pets, climate change and what we can do to reverse the damage and information on trees. It probably all sounds a bit weird, but that’s just me, lol! Here are all the books I got from French bookstores and their titles are mentioned under the photos of the covers!

Débuter en magie verte : Le guide pratique by Paige Vanderbeck (It’s actually an English book but I didn’t know that before I got it, which is why I have the French version instead of the one pictured above, but it’s the same book)!

Sauvons le climat ! les 10 actions pour entrer en résistance climatique ! by Gildas Véret

Sorcières, une histoire secrète by Michael Streeter (This is also an English book, but I don’t always check if it’s a translation in the shop and it was calling to me anyway, so for these two books I’m going to let it pass, even though I hate reading French translations of English books, lol!)

Arbres (Les carnets du scarabée) by Boris Presseq

Le guide de l’astrologie : poussez les portes de l’astrologie pour guider votre quotidian by Gwenola Bonfré

Le guide familial de la naturopathie by Cécile Saint-Béat, Alain Tardif, Rachel Frély

Ma bible de soins naturels pour le chien by Nelly Coadic

Ma bible de soins naturels pour le chat by Nelly Coadic

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That was a very long list but getting some books second-hand from WOB makes the total a bit less step luckily, and a few of these books aren’t really “reading books” but more research I want to look into. I still thought it would be interesting to include them in the blog post though!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading this post.

See you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx