Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a great March and is feeling more excited for spring and summer now that the days are getting longer. I can't tell you how much having the sun set at 7:00 instead of 6:00 has helped my spirits.
I'm still reading a lot and staying on top of new releases, but being in grad school this semester has made things a little more hectic. Nevertheless, I have five new books I wanted to share with you today. Let's dive in:
1. Keanu Reeves is Not in Love With You: The Murky World of Online Romance Fraud - Becky Holmes (Apr. 2)
Synopsis: One woman's hilarious and fascinating quest to expose the truth behind fraudulent Twitter romance scammers beware, you have met your match! Online romance fraud is a problem across the globe. It causes financial and emotional devastation, yet many people refuse to take it seriously. This is the story of one middle-aged woman in a cardigan determined to understand this growing phenomenon. No other woman has had so many online romances – from Keanu Reeves to Brad Pitt to Prince William – and Becky Holmes is a favourite among peacekeeping soldiers and oil rig workers who desperately need iTunes vouchers.
By winding up scammers and investigating the truth behind their profiles, Becky shines a revealing, revolting and hilarious light on a very shady corner of the internet. Featuring first-hand accounts of victims, examples of scripts used by fraudsters, a look into the psychology of fraud and of course plenty of Becky’s hysterical interactions with scammers, this is a must-read for anyone who needs a reminder that Keanu Reeves is NOT in love with them.
Why I'm Excited: This is such a strange and funny sounding nonfiction that I just absolutely need to listen to it. Hoping my library purchases the audiobook because I'm tired of reading heavy nonfiction and need something as hilarious-sounding as this.
2. A Short Walk Through a Wide World - Douglas Westerbeke (Apr. 2)
Synopsis: Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death.
When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So begins her lifelong journey on the run from her condition, which won’t allow her to stay anywhere for longer than a few days nor return to a place where she’s already been.
From the scorched dunes of the Calashino Sand Sea to the snow-packed peaks of the Himalayas; from a bottomless well in a Parisian courtyard, to the shelves of an infinite underground library, we follow Aubry as she learns what it takes to survive and ultimately, to truly live. But the longer Aubry wanders and the more desperate she is to share her life with others, the clearer it becomes that the world she travels through may not be quite the same as everyone else’s...
Why I'm Excited: Simon &Schuster was kind enough to send me a physical ARC of this book and I'm reading it right now! Check back at the end of the month for my review.
3. Sociopath: A Memoir - Patric Gagne (Apr. 2)
Synopsis: Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing” felt.
She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something.
In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.
But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.
Why I'm Excited: Abnormal psychology has always been a big interest of mine, and sociopathy is such a stigmatized disorder it's rare to see people talk about their experiences with it openly. Also, Patric narrates the audiobook, which I am SO intrigued by, so I can't wait to get this from my library or Spotify.
4. Your Blood, My Bones - Kelly Andrew (Apr. 2)
Synopsis: Wyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she's just inherited -- to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement -- Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead.
Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family's property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can't really live, either. Not while he's bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There's only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line.
He needs to kill Wyatt.
With Wyatt's parents gone, the spells protecting the property have begun to unravel, and dark, ancient forces gather in the nearby forest. The only way for Wyatt to repair the wards is to work with Peter -- the one person who knows how to harness her volatile magic. But how can she trust a boy who's sworn an oath to destroy her? When the past turns up to haunt them in the most unexpected way, they are forced to rely on one another to survive, or else tear each other apart.
Why I'm Excited: The premise of this is so so intriguing, and people on Goodreads are saying the ending made them sob. Will I cry at a YA horror this year? I guess we'll find out.
5. The Familiar - Leigh Bardugo (Apr. 9)
Synopsis: In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position.
What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.
Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.
Why I'm Excited: Ithink the fantasy/historical fiction subgenre is so underappreciated in fantasy as a whole. I really enjoyed Ninth House , so I'm hoping Bardugo imbues this book with as much atmosphere as she did in that one.
---------------------------------------------------
That's all for this month! Let me know if there are any books you're looking forward to in the comments!