July Book Haul – 2018

Hello Everyone!

July has come to and end, so it is time for another book haul! I have bought quite a few books this month (17 to be exact!), so we might be here for a while. I do have quite a variety of books this month ranging from Non-Fiction, MiddleGrade and YA, so even though this might be a bit long I also think it will be quite interesting. I hope you enjoy!

A Place Called Perfect by Helena Duggan

My old primary school holds a summer fair every year and I always go along (mostly for the cheap pizza), but also to look at the book stall because they have brand new books for only a few pounds. Whilst I was there I picked up 3 books and this was one of them. It is a middlegrade book and it is quite a bit simpler than I usually read, but I do enjoy middlegrade from time to time as I find it to be a nice break from the more intense YA books I read most often. I want to try and read more middlegrade though and this book sounded interesting (and cheap), so I thought it would be a good place to start.

Raven Queen by Pauline Francis

This was the second fiction book I got at my school summer fair and it is another middlegrade story. This is a very short story and is aimed at quite young readers, so I almost didn’t buy it, but it was only £1, so I didn’t really have anything to loose. What intruiged me about it was that it was a children’s re-telling of the story of Lady Jane Grey. I am really interested in learning more about history and reading some historical fiction, but I find that most of it is a bit too heavy for me to get along with, so I thought that maybe a children’s retelling would work better. It is very short, so I am sure I will read it before the summer is over, so I will let you know how I got on with it.

Looking After your Mental Health by Alive James and Louie Stowell

This was the final book I bought at the fair, but this one is a non-fiction book. I have actually already read this one, so you will hear more about this in my July wrap-up, but it is basically a book with all the facts about mental health in it, but for people aged about 9-12. It was a little young for me, but it was still useful at a basic facts level and it was also very funny. Agian, it wasn’t very expensive, so I figured I couldn’t really go wrong.

SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

Earlier this month, I went to Cambridge with my Dad for the day and we went to several different locations, so that I could see the city and take some photos for a project I am doing. One of the places we went was the Fitzwilliam Museum and it – of course – had a gift shop, so I obviously had to have a look around. I bought two books there and one of them was SPQR by Mary Beard. I have had my eye on this book for months now, but I have never bought it before because it just hasn’t been the top of my priority list, but recently I have been really into non-fiction and I have always loved Ancient Rome, so I thought this was a good time to finally pick it up.

Women and Power a Manifesto by Mary Beard

This was the other book I picked up in the gift shop at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. I picked this one sort of on a whim, but it is by Mary Beard like the other one and I have heard a lot of good things about her, so I thought I would pick up both of her two books while I was there. It is also all about Women and Power (as the title suggests) and I am all about that sort of thing, so I thought why not?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K.Rowling (20th anniversary edition, hardback and paperback in all four houses)

Now you might have read that title and thought ‘really? she bought 8 copies of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?’ and the answer to that question would be yes, yes I did. I am sure most of you are aware of the new editions of the Harry Potter books being released in celebration of the 20th anniversary and I have taken it upon myself to own every single edition. I told myself when they first came out that I wouldn’t be one of those people and I was just going to buy my house colour, but it turns out that I am that person and I’m in a little too deep now to turn back.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (in Spanish)

Some of you may know that I went to Barcelona this month, partly as a holiday and partly for photography purposes, but while I was there I picked up a Spanish edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone because I have decided that I want to have every edition of Harry Potter I can possibly find. It took quite a while to find it though, so I am glad I got one.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

This book was the talk of the book community for a solid month at the beginning of this year, so I am a little late to the band wagon, but that is because I wanted my copy to be in paperback as that is what I prefer to read (I generally only buy hardbacks if I am collecting specific editions of books I really love). I picked this up after I got back from Spain because I had been saving, so that I could buy things in Spain, but since I was back I didn’t have to worry about that anymore, so I went a little book made (I bought all those Harry Potter books on the same day!). I did get it on the buy one half price table though, so that makes me feel slightly better about it.

Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian

This was the other book I bought with The Cruel Prince to get the buy one get one half price deal and it is one that I have been anticipating for a while. I heard about this book on Booktube first earlier in the year and it sounded right up my alley, so I marked the release date down and bought it as soon after as I was able to. The fact that I spent slightly less money on it makes it even better!

School for Good and Evil: Quest for Glory by Soman Chainani

This is another MiddleGrade book that I bought this month and another one that I bought in my after holiday splurge, but it is one that I know I will love. I read the original School for Good and Evil trilogy back in primary school, so when I turned up to Waterstones the other week and saw the author had released another book after about 5 years I literally squealed out loud! I love this trilogy and I cannot wait to dive back into this world. I am planning a re-read for the entire trilogy before I read this one later in the year, so that I can properly get back into the story and re-visit the world I loved so much as a child.

And that is it! Those are all of the many, many books I bought in July. I did buy a lot and I am planning to buy slightly less next month to save my bank account, but we’ll see how that turns out. I don’t really feel bad about it though because I did get a lot of them for a discounted price and I have been going through quite a lot lately, so I think I deserved a little splurge. What books have you bought this month? Let me know in the comments below!

Goodbye for now!

Over and Out