Book Haul: January 2023

Buying multiple books a month is not something I would do if it wasn’t for the Kindle monthly and daily deals. Each book in this post was only 99p each and honestly, god bless those deals. I’m really stingy when it comes to ebooks and I don’t like paying more than £4 for them, is that bad? I think it’s because they aren’t tangible. Anyway here are the books I brought in January.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

This was actually recommended by a work colleague and I’ve been seeing it everywhere. It’s not something I would usually pick up and read, but I’m all about trying new things this year and it’s supposed to be incredible.

Synopsis: On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

Babel by R.F Kuang

I haven’t read any of R.F Kuang’s books yet and I did want to start with The Poppy War, but I didn’t realise it was on Kindle Unlimited until far too late so I missed my chance. I’ve heard this one is quite heavy though so I’ll definitely have to wait until I’m in the right kind of mood for it.

Synopsis: Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world’s center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan

This has been popping up on my recommendations for a while and when I saw it was on offer I couldn’t say no. I’ve never read anything from Jennifer Dugan, but I am very into contemporary romances at the moment so I think I’ll enjoy this. Plus the cover is absolutely gorgeous.

Synopsis: Morgan, an elite track athlete, is forced to transfer high schools late in her senior year after it turns out being queer is against her private Catholic school’s code of conduct. There, she meets Ruby, who has two hobbies: tinkering with her baby blue 1970 Ford Torino and competing in local beauty pageants, the latter to live out the dreams of her overbearing mother. The two are drawn to each other and can’t deny their growing feelings. But while Morgan—out and proud, and determined to have a fresh start—doesn’t want to have to keep their budding relationship a secret, Ruby isn’t ready to come out yet. With each girl on a different path toward living her truth, can they go the distance together?