my first book haul of the year 🙏🏻!!!

hey everyone how's it going my name is elias and today's video i will be showcasing all of the books i've accumulated within the year so i have quite the number of books i want to show you guys there are some really good selections in here some really interesting picks that i'm truly excited to dive into but before we get further into the video i would like to thank today's video sponsor book of the month you already know it i love working with them so say it with me book of the month is essentially a super fast and popular online growing book service for readers their main mission is to promote new and emerging authors to help readers discover the books they love one of the best things about book of the month is their skip policy if you're not vibing with that particular month's selection of books you can skip that month anytime risk free without being charged lastly they have the best prices for newly released hardcover fiction if you guys are interested i do have a link in the code and down below you can use the code may reads to get your first book for only 9.99 so with that being said let's go ahead and take a look at their may selections firstly we have a fantasy ariadne a reimagined story of the princess of crete a riveting tale of love and betrayal next is a contemporary fiction imposter syndrome big brother turns out to be big sister in this piercing take on the silicon valley and the misogyny that keeps it ticking next is a thriller the last thing he told me a story of a new wife and a stepmother who must unravel the mystery left behind when her husband disappears next is the contemporary fiction how lucky being the sole witness to a crime proves complicated in this funny heartwarming story of a hero hiding in plain sight last and not least we have my personal pick for the month things we lost to the water a moving multi-generational saga about one family's attempts to weather the storms confronting them in an adopted home alright so those are all the selection picks for the month of may check out the link in the code down below and thank you again to book of the month for sponsoring today's video with that being said and done there are so many books i want to show you guys so let's just go ahead and dive straight in the first one is kafka on the shore by haruki murakami so i mentioned this book in a previous video my maid tbr and i've asked you guys if this was the correct book to start off with for a person who has yet to read any of murakami's books so many of you guys came through and there were a lot of opinions apparently regarding this book in general there were a lot of you who have said that kafka on the shore is like a really great place to start other people have said that norwegian would or his shorter collection of stories were another place to start off with my whole takeaway in general from everything is that this book relies heavily on surrealism magical realism and apparently it might put off or be confusing to others but you guys you should know me by now i love magical realism i love that surrealism in books it's my jam it's why i always tend to lean more towards speculative fiction in general this with a big dose of surrealism say no more i'll start off with this one first it was either between this or norwegian wood you guys have said that norwegian wood is basically contemporary fiction while this one is more speculative and surrealist fiction so i might be doing a reading vlog for this we'll see not too sure yet because there are a lot of books on here in this haul that i want to do reading vlogs for but i don't know tentative so the next book i managed to pick up and you might have seen this book already in a bookstore vlog that i did with noelle but this is the sympathizer by viet nguyen so i saw a girl carrying this book around walking around in the bookstore and the cover really intrigued me especially with the two gold stickers here and for like two minutes i was just steadily trying to sneak a peek at the title or even the author of the book because i was intrigued right finally i was able to see the title and i went ahead and picked it up this one essentially follows a half french half vietnamese man who moves to america after the fall of saigon where he attempts to build a life with other vietnamese refugees in america while also simultaneously reporting back to his communist superiors back in vietnam so this has themes of exploration of identity and culture in america with a hefty dose of espionage and thriller in here as well so i'm pretty intrigued the next book also featured in that bookstore vlog is the vegetarian by han king i already talked about this book already in my previous video and in that bookstore vlog so not gonna go too much into it and you guys can go ahead and check out those videos if you're interested i am essentially reading this book for this particular month in may and i for one am glad that this book is extremely short all right so this next book very interesting story here so this book i found while scrolling on twitter there's this discourse there was this tweet about it this book was essentially involved around this taboo and people were just really clamoring about it and putting it down and saying what in the what in the world how are people condoning this however to my surprise there were some people in the tweets defending the book saying that not all is that seems and so i looked this book up on goodreads and lo and behold this book has an actual decent rating on goodreads with actually really good reviews so i was intrigued and i went on d-pop and i found it used and i was like you know what we'll check it out we'll see what the buzz is all about and this book is forbidden by tabitha suzuma you guys even reading the blurb here i am just astounded and sort of irked out because essentially it's about these two people lachlan and maya who are siblings but feel like they're more friends than siblings so close that they may have fallen in love i don't even know what to take it i don't even i don't even know how to even i don't even know how to take that in i don't even know how to process that information but yes essentially this book is about incest wow so i am just perplexed because what the honestly so got this book for cheap wanna see what the buzz is all about probably gonna do a reading vlog about it may or may not we'll see i don't know yet but i'm pretty surprised because there are some people who i know in real life who've actually read this book and have actually given it more than like three stars so i'm intrigued a book about incest that's well received who in 2021 knew so we'll see the next book i want to pick up also mentioned in my may tbr is pieces by helen oyeyemi so again the blurb doesn't offer too much regarding what the book is actually about i myself got a distinct vibe from it and i'll tell you right now what the vibe is i essentially got the vibes of polar express but make it gay make it queer i've heard nothing but glamorous and fantastic things about helen's writing style overall so i'm really excited to dive in and see what the hype is all about and relatively short as well all i know is about it's these two lovers these two men who embark on a train only to find it empty they're not totally alone when they discover this woman in this cryptic message don't know too much about it but it does sound heartwarming okay so the next book every value break by peter swanson so peter swanson released a new thriller i guess at this point i can say that i have a love to hate relationship with peter swanson's books so i have already completed and finished this book one of the main reasons why i completed it and finished it as i did was because i am participating in kayla's book club for her literally dead book club and this was the pick we will have a live show for this book yet to be announced i'm not going to tell you my rating for this book you may think that i'm hating here right now who knows i might surprise you and say that this is one of the best goddamn thrillers i've ever read in my entire life spoiler alert it's not but we'll see this book is about a woman who hooks up with a random stranger on her bachelor party however she decides not to tell her fiance and marries him instead on her honeymoon with her new husband this stranger that she hooks up with shows up and things go downhill from there so all of our thoughts and discussions for the last show tba alright so the next book i picked up also recommended to me quite a lot is this is how you lose the time war so i heard that this is a sapphic fantasy revolving around two agents two rival agents in a war that stretches beyond time and space and this whole book is exclusively told from the point of two letters that these two rival agents are exchanging back and forth so i've heard a lot of praise and a lot of hype regarding the story the romance the settings the characters and everything regarding this book so ultimately and suffice to say i am very intrigued in picking this book up okay so for this next book i'm pretty sure a majority of you guys already know and have read and this one is call me by your name so out of everyone i feel like the majority of people i'm the only one who hasn't either seen the movie or read the book feel like i've missed out on the hype and discussions and conversations regarding this book in general all i know is that it's a romance set in italy between an older gentleman and minor i don't know we'll see i've heard really great things about it as well and also the different conversations regarding the romance in this book so i might do a reading vlog for this 250 page book i don't know how i missed all the conversations and discussions regarding this book because the cover itself i've seen almost everywhere yet i literally almost knew nothing about it i feel like the movie itself jump-started and revitalized timothy chalamet's career into stardom so i do know that this book is on a lot of people's favorites so i'm pretty curious to see where i'll follow along the lines of either really hating it or really loving it so the next book is you reach sand by dustin tau i've talked about this book multiple times on my channel already this is an arc and it's not coming out until november essentially this is about a young girl whose boyfriend unexpectedly dies and while grieving desperate to hear his voice again she calls his voicemail only for the boyfriend for him to pick up the phone i have already started this this is one of the books i'm reading for the asian readathon and so far it is just moody hitting me in all the right fields and i'm ready to have a good cry so we'll see if this book accomplishes that so the next book i'm really excited to pick up is rewrite upon sticks by quan berry this one is essentially a take on the retro nostalgia in the 80s and it's about an enchanted hockey team that is pretty much all i know about this book i picked this one up due to kayla's recommendation she really loved it i've heard that it's really weird and uncanny i'm weird and uncanny myself so i feel like this book and i will get right along and have a great time so the next book i picked up also on an excursion to the bookstore is freshwater by kwake mezzie so the only other book i read from a kwakian messi is the death of eve ogie and i loved it it was one of my best books of 2020. so i saw this book at the bookstore with noel and we were both like yes let's do it so we each got a copy and well if you're watching this hit me up for a buddy read so even reading the blurb i don't know too much about this book in general all i know is that it's about a nigerian girl named ada who travels to america for college where something traumatic happens so i do get sad heartbreaking devastating vibes from this book already and i'm here for it so the next book also picked out from that bookstore is deathless by catherine m valente i literally know nothing about this book and i know that how that can be a pet peeve but this book was recommended to me quite a number of times under my recommending favorite books of all time video i listed that vida nostra is one of my favorite books of all time and people were like well if you like nina nostra you might like deathless i saw at the bookstore i read the blurb quiet i'm filming birds so i'm pretty excited to pick this one up because it's all about koshi the deathless one of my favorite things to read a book are fairytale-like elements incorporated and expand it in a way where it's a full-length novel and definitely here for it so so the next book is an arc and this was sent to me by little brown and this is burn it all down by nicholas dinomizio hopefully i'm pronouncing that correctly this is described as gilmore girls meets thelma and luis in this buddy comedy revenge novel starring a mother and sunderwu who have a shared weakness for toxic men red flags and bad decisions i believe this book also just came out in may so thank you to little brown for sending this my way alright so the next book also an arc that was sent to me is the maidens so this is essentially a dark academic thriller take of mystery and murder and i have actually read the first book that the author came out i personally didn't really vibe with it i thought that personally for myself the twist was what saved the entire book for me i didn't see it coming although a lot of other people did and i gave that book i can't remember two or three stars so here's to hoping that this one will be better all i know about this is that it's centered around a therapist who is convinced that the university's professor is an actual murderer when bodies starts piling up from his class so this next one i'm extremely excited for and this is daughter from the dark by marina and sergey diaco this is the duo who've written one of my favorite books of all time vita nostra this one sounds so weird and eerie it's essentially about a young man who goes home to his apartment one day and finds a young girl there he doesn't know whether she's a con artist or maybe his illegitimate daughter all he knows is that she is not letting him leave and her protector a plush teddy bear can transform into a fearsome monster and the young girl tells him that she must play this really complicated violin piece in order to find her brother so all in all this sounds really mysterious really eerie and ethereal and i am 100 here for it so the next book i picked out from my local used bookstore in san jose is alaso by darcy little badger this one essentially is about a young girl who can raise the ghosts of dead animals passed down through generations over family ultimately she has used his ability to solve the murder of her beloved cousin that is pretty much the gist of this book i've heard fantastic great things about it so i wanted to pick it up for myself and see what it's all about all right so the next book this was also sent to me by henry holtz is we begin at the end by chris whitaker oh essentially from what i gather from the blurb it's about family dynamics family drama in this small coastal california town with a touch of mystery i've seen this book flying around on bookstagram i think that gabby over at gabby reads has finished this book but thank you to henry holt for sending this my way the next book i picked up is don't look for me by wendy walker so this one sounds very puzzling it's about a mother who disappears one rainy night after she hitches a ride with a trucker and a little girl and it follows the young daughter trying to solve the mysterious disappearance of her mother going to this town and finding a bunch of secrets that ultimately puts her life in danger so that's a pretty basic formula 101 you know we'll see how it goes from there but from goodreads i've heard a lot of good things about this one next book i picked up is the once in future witches by alex e haro i have actually read the author's first book and i believe it was called the 10 000 doors of january my biggest takeaway from that one is that i loved her writing style the story and the plot not so much i gave that book three to five stars i thought it was a rather mediocre take almost very similar to the starless c which is ultimately one of my favorite books of all time i wanted to give the author a second chance and boy this one is a big one the story takes place in the late 1800s and it follows these three sisters who are witches during the salem trials that is essentially the smidge of want to know what this book is about alright guys we have come to the final two books in this entire book haul and this is the shadow of what was lost by james islington this is the first book and the sequel is an echo of things to come and by god these are so thick you can essentially murder anyone with the weight of these sick boys so so i wanted to pick up some good high fantasy again because it's been a while since i've read a really engrossing adult fantasy book oh by the way a project that i'm entailing myself for possibly either at the end of the summer or late fall is to read the wheel of time series by robert jordan i believe there are 13 15 total books in that series and each book is like more than i don't know 600 pages long i feel like i probably won't be reading all 13 books like this year in general but i do want to get into binging a good fantasy series again it's been a while i feel like the last series i did that was probably throne of glass long time i either want to start off with either brandon sanderson or robert jordan and since there's a tv show regarding the wheel of time on amazon i feel like that might be a good place to start but for pretty good things about this one on goodreads this is essentially about a young man who wields forbidden power and about another guy who wakes up far away with no memory of his past but covered in blood so the blurb doesn't offer too much contrast to the size of this book but we'll see the bookstore also had different editions paperback or hardcover ultimately you can see which editions i chose so nothing too much to say other than the fact that please let me know down in the comments below which of these books have you read which you really recommend did you hate any of these books did you love them and which of these books are you most excited to see a reading vlog from so yeah that's pretty much it thank you so much for watching guys and i will see you all soon with a new video the mystery left behind with her like the blurb yeah the blurb doesn't offer too much so but the blurb doesn't offer too much the irony yes so the blurb doesn't so the blurb doesn't offer too much

Channel: ellias

Views: 23,832

Rating: 4.9822044 out of 5

Keywords: book haul, summer book haul, spring book haul, books, reads, reading, booktube, elias, elias reads, ellias books, ellias reads, ellias, big book haul, literature, call me by your name, reading vlog, first book haul of the year, botm may, botm, book of the month, literary fiction, thriller books, ya romance, hype books, popular books, book recommendations, haruki marukami, kafka on the shore, hauling books, bookstore haul

Id: R__NaclTgqg

Length: 15min 44sec (944 seconds)

Published: Thu May 13 2021