The Willoughby Book Club | Unboxing

You guys know I would never share anything with you that I didn't believe in one hundred and twenty percent, so when I say that the Willoughby Book Club is the first subscription box I've felt genuinely excited about, I really mean it! It's the best of both worlds: beautiful new books picked just for you and beautiful books sent to children in need. What more can you ask for?

More about the WBC's subscription boxes | Use my affiliate link for 10% off!


Disclaimer: I received this book as part of the Willoughby Book Club affiliate program. I will receive a small commission from any purchase made through my affiliate link, but was not otherwise paid to review or feature this subscription service. This review is 100% my own opinion.

New Books (A Summer Haul)

I think it's safe to say that I've been exercising a lot of restraint over my book buying inclinations lately. As someone who consumes a lot of bookish content and is constantly getting recommendations, I'd say this is a pretty admirable feat! Plus, it means that all of books I have picked up are books I am genuinely interested in.

Books Mentioned:
Pigeon-Blood Red / Ed Duncan
Human Interest / Valerie Bandura
Where the Past Beings: A Writer's Memoir / Amy Tan
A Few Good Women / Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee
Goodbye to All That / Robert Graves

The Keshiki Collection | Strangers Press

 

Are these not the most beautiful book covers you've ever seen? Behold the wonder that is the complete Keshiki set from Strangers Press, a chapbook collection translating and highlighting "eight of the most exciting writers working in Japan today."

I discovered Strangers Press a few months ago through their Twitter account. They're based in the UNESCO City of Literature Norwich and are all about publishing "the finest literature in translation." I practically jumped with joy when I saw that their current offering was all translations of new voices in Japanese fiction.

As I just received these chapbooks and haven't gotten a chance to crack them open (past admiring their French flaps, of course) yet, I can't really recommend them. However, if you love beautiful books or Japanese literature and you want the full set, I would recommend grabbing one before they are all gone!

I'm actually thinking of doing a video on the entire collection once I've actually read them all, but for now let's just admire the beauty and genius of these cover designs.


Check out the Strangers Press website | Get the full Keshiki set

Winter Book Haul

Okay, I did not realize just how many books I'd acquired until I was listing out all the titles. At least I didn't buy them all at once!

Books Mentioned:
The Housekeeper and the Professor / Yoko Ogawa
The Lie Tree / Frances Harding
At the Mouth of the River of Bees / Kij Johnson
The Art of Miyazaki's Spirited Away
How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy / Orson Scott Card
The Buried Giant / Kazuo Ishiguro
The God of Small Things / Arundhati Roy
The Samurai's Garden / Gail Tsukiyama
Empress Orchid / Anchee Min
Stubborn Twig / Lauren Kessler
Lipstick Jihad / Zadeh Moaveni
The Year of Magical Thinking / Joan Didion
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time / Mark Haddon
Atonement / Ian McEwan
The Secret History / Donna Tart
Crazy Rich Asians / Kevin Kwan
The Audacity of Hope / Barack Obama
Perceived Distance from Impact / Kamden Hilliard
Retribution Binary / Ruth Baumann
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story / Alexander Freed
Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel / James Luceno
The Reluctant Fundamentalist / Mohsin Hamid
Drifting House / Krys Lee
Born a Crime / Trevor Noah

Have you read any of these? Which one should I pick up first?

Library Sale & Indie Publisher Book Haul

"I won't buy any more books until the end of the year." Yeah, right! Between some generous indie publishers and one fantastic library used book sale, I ended up picking up quite a bit of new reading material this month.

Books Mentioned:
One Hundred Shadows / Hwang Jungeun
The Scarlet Letter / Nathaniel Hawthorne
Surfacing / Margaret Atwood
Deja Dead / Kathy Reichs
Snow Falling on Cedars / David Guterson
The Hours / Michael Cunningham
The Crimson Petal and the White / Michel Faber
Middlesex / Jeffrey Eugenides
Under the Tuscan Sun / Frances Mayes
Families Among Us: Stories / Blake Kimzey
The Following Sea / Marcel Jolley

Summer Book Haul

BOOKS MENTIONED
The Buddha in the Attic / Julie Otsuka
All Over Creation / Ruth Ozeki
The Portrait of a Lady / Henry James
A Room With A View / E.M. Forster
The Woman Warrior / Maxine Hong Kingston
Number9Dream / David Mitchell
The Garden Party and Other Stories / Katherine Mansfield
Do Not Say We Have Nothing / Madeleine Thien
Avenue of Spies / Alex Kershaw

New(ish) Books!

BOOKS MENTIONED

Our Mutual Friend / Charles Dickens

Fudoki / Kij Johnson

The Fox Woman / Kij Johnson

Spinster / Kate Bolick

The Woman Warrior / Maxine Hong Kingston

The Raven Steals the Light / Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst

Christmas Book Haul

BOOKS MENTIONED

My Beloved World / Sonia Sotomayor

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up / Marie Kondo

Ranger's Apprentice Book 11: The Lost Stories / John Flanagan

Ranger's Apprentice Book 12: The Royal Ranger / John Flanagan

Out / Natsuo Kirino

The Art of Princess Mononoke: A Film by Hayao Miyazaki

Sputnik Sweetheart / Haruki Murakami

North and South / Elizabeth Gaskell

Summer + September Book Haul