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This year I was lucky enough to attend ALA Midwinter! I went to the conference with my Mom and Rachel the day before I moved back into college in Boston. The timing of the event couldn't have been better because I got to spend the day with both of them before going back to school. I'll do another post detailing more of my experience at the conference later on, but for now here's a book haul from day 1!
Day 1
The picture above is my haul from day 1. Below I'll post the cover of the book and talk about why I'm excited to have picked it up!
When I stopped by the Disney- Hyperion booth I was immediately drawn in by the description of this book. I've been craving more psychological thriller type novels lately and this debut about a serial killer that may or may not exist was irresistible.
The idea of a sleepy town with dark secrets has always been an interesting story to me as someone who grew up in a small town. The creepy and mysterious sound of the description and the beautiful cover art sold me on needing to pick up a copy of this book!
Towards the end of the day Rachel and I saw on Twitter that they were dropping ARCs of Kiersten White's newest book we immediately ran over to the Random House booth. I've been excited about this book for awhile and can't wait to see what Kiersten White does with a high fantasy story.
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love New York City and the 1980's. As soon as I saw that this book was about the art scene in 1980's SoHo I was totally sold.
Rachel first told me about this book and when I looked up the description I was drawn in by how interesting it sounded. With a main character who gets in trouble for activism and investigating a local mine, this book sounds like a great story of a teenager trying to make change. I was also lucky enough to meet the author at an in-booth signing and she was so nice!
Towards the end of the first day, Penguin had a cute event with hot chocolate and cookies where they gave out copies of this. I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of John Corey Whaley's newest book. The cover is beautiful and the story seems like a unique and interesting read.
I met Elizabeth Briggs when she did an in-booth signing with Amy Allgeyer and Dana Elmendorf. I was inspired by all three of these authors talking about how they are friends who are debuting books from the same publisher. This story sounds different from things that I usually read but also interesting and fun. I can't wait to pick it up!
Recently I've been trying to diversify my reading. I've been trying to pick up more nonfiction, adult, graphic novels, and short story collections. What caught my attention was initially the beauty of the cover. Once I read the description I was intrigued by the variety in these stories and I can't wait to check them out.
Dana Elmendorf was the third author that I met at a triple in-booth signing. She was really nice and South of Sunshine interested me because it is a rare romance between two girls in Young Adult. While YA is definitely a progressive genre, it is much more common to see romances involving two boys than two girls so it'll be cool to see how this one is handled.
This was another book that I picked up because of my desire to find good psychological thrillers. It centers around famous teenagers who are a part of the music industry. One disappears and the other one is the suspect. Alternating between three points of view, this book will hopefully have all the twists and turns that I want in a thriller!
Any time there is a book about writing I'm always interested immediately. This debut is written as if the reader is the agent that Reshma, the main character, is sending her story to. After flipping through the first few pages of this and reading the description, I'm curious to see how this style will work for me when reading the whole thing.
I can't even lie and say that I picked this book up for any reason other than the title made me laugh really hard. I then read the description and it just sounds like a fun, light read that will be just ridiculous enough to keep me laughing the whole time.
This book has been described as being like We Were Liars and The Girl on the Train. I absolutely loved We Were Liars and have made it a new mission of mine to make everyone I know read it and Rachel has told me great things about The Girl on the Train. As soon as I saw that, I knew I had to get a copy of this book!
I'm really into political thriller shows like House of Cards so as soon as I saw this book I was excited to give it a try. I don't often see politics incorporated into Young Adult books so I can't wait to give this one a try!
I picked this book up because when I was in the Random House booth one of their publishing people (who's name I didn't catch) did a really awesome job of pitching it. She talked about this book being hysterically funny and the pitch reminded me of Anatomy of a Boyfriend and Anatomy of a Single Girl both of which were reviewed on this blog (here). Originally published in the UK, I'm glad this book is coming to the US so that I can read it!
I don't read that much historical fiction, but I can always get into stories written around and during World War II. This story takes place in Krakow, Poland in 1939. It involves a young girl named Anna who stumbles upon the Swallowman after her father is taken away by the Nazis. The mystery surrounding the Swallowman sounds interesting and this looks like the type of book that will melt away in my hands.
Another way I'm trying to mix up what I read is by throwing in some graphic novels. I haven't read many of them in my lifetime but have always found them to be unique ways of telling stories. This ARC may be in black and white, but I couldn't think of a more perfect story to make one of my first graphic novels.
This book was being given out by the publisher if you went to their booth and gave them a coupon for it out of a booklet. It's a mix of poetry, prose, and comic book panels. When I saw that I was so interested in the unique format that I had to go pick it up! The story sounds interesting as well with Kaycee recreating the crazy stunts that her daredevil brother used to pull before his death. All of this, combined with a pretty cover are what put this book on my radar.
Getting not only an ARC of this book, but also a hardcover finished copy of it was definitely one of the highlights of the conference for me. I read Meg Cabot's Mediator Series when I was in 8th grade and have loved them ever since. When I heard that not only was there a Kindle Edition novella coming out January 19th, but a brand new adult book I almost cried with joy. Suze is still one of my favorite characters and the fact that I can keep reading stories about her as an adult makes me very thankful for awesome authors like Meg Cabot!
Like most stereotypical English majors, I love Shakespeare. One of my roommates also loves The Merchant of Venice so I picked this up for the two of us to enjoy together. I love the idea of having established, well-known authors do modern day interpretations of Shakespeare works! I'll definitely be checking out the adaptations of some of my favorite plays.
This is one of the adult books that I picked up at the conference. When we were in the HarperCollins booth, a librarian told us that she had already read this book and that it was incredible. I picked it up to read the description and upon seeing what sounded like a winding, twist filled thriller I was sold. Since it focuses on a mother looking for her missing son, I'm looking forward to reading this book and experiencing the emotional roller coaster it is probably going to send me on.
And that was my day one haul! In order to keep this post from being overwhelming, I'm going to break my books from day 2 into a second post. My haul that day was significantly smaller so that post won't be as long and rambling as this one. There is a super special signed ARC in there though, so keep an eye out for that one!
Are you excited for any of these books? Which ones should I read first? Let me know in the comments below!
I must recommend reading The Girl on the Train: A Novel.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading it today, and my conclusion is that its a really interesting book.
I ordered mine off Amazon and I got it in only two days.
Here is the link for the book on Amazon:
The Girl on the Train: A Novel