Mid-March Book Haul & Review Roundup

With a new month comes more visits to my local Barnes and Noble and new book purchases!

This month I bought considerably less books than usual. I’m earnestly trying to keep up with my TBR pile; therefore I restricted myself to only 1 physical book purchase per visit. Since I only go the book store once a week, that means I only bought two books. That’s a vast improvement over last month’s mid-February book haul, when I bought 6 books. 

From now on, I’m going to document all the money I spend on books, both new and used, physical or electronic, to see how much money I’m really spending. I’m doing it out of curiosity because I genuinely don’t know how I manage to buy new books so often. In case anyone was wondering, I am not rich or wealthy. Not. Even. Close. I would not even consider myself middle class! I guess I must very good at juggling money and prioritizing books over other material goods.

Starting this record of expenses on March 1st 2016, so far I have spent:

• $42.76 on two physical and two eBooks

This number includes savings (coupons and B&N membership discounts) and taxes. Not bad at all, considering they were both brand new and one of them was a hardcover. 

Without further ado, please see my purchased books below.

Physical Books

Can you see my big, happy grin!? Probably not, but it’s there because I am eager to read the books I bought the last two weeks!

I previously expressed my anticipation for Helen Oyeyemi’s latest short story collection, What is Not Yours is Not Yours and admitted regret for my formerly misguided opinion regarding short stories. I hope that Oyeyemi’s work finally convinces me that short story collections should be seen as deserving the same literary merit as novels. 

 The other book was recommended to me by the wonderful Naomi from Consumed By Ink. 

Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes (also published as Someone Knows My Name) is acclaimed by both critics and fans, which is difficult task to achieve. With almost 45 thousand ratings on Goodreads so far, the book has received over 90% 4 and 5 star reviews. That’s incredible! 

eBooks

• The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps – this one caught my interest because it’s a rare Fantasy novel that features a same-sex relationship. Sold! It’s only $2.99 on Kindle.
• The One-Eyed King is only $1.99 on Kindle so I had to buy it. I’m always looking to read more Sci-Fi/Fantasy starring people of color.

Review Roundup

Below you can find all the reviews for the first half of March. It’s been a pretty decent month of reading so far.

• Guapa by Saleem Haddad – 3 Stars
• The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henríquez – 4.5 Stars
• Binti by Nnedi Okorafor by Nnedi Okorafor – 4 Stars
• In the Mind of Revenge  by Liv Hadden – 4 Stars
• American Ace by Marilyn Nelson – 2.5 Stars

That does it! What books have you bought so far this month?