Another month has come and gone which, of course, means that it is time for another book haul! Once a month I am going to recap some of the books I got the previous month! I will be sharing with you some of the highlights of the books that I found in my ongoing Little Free Library hunts, my Goodwill/thrift store trips, any Barnes & Noble visits, and any books that I receive from authors and publishers!
Amazon Wishlist Splurges
I was on my best behavior this month and refrained from buying any books on Amazon!
Little Free Library Finds My mom and I went Little Free Library hunting this month and I walked away with some really good finds!
Happy and You Know It by Laura Hankin
Contemporary Fiction
A dark, witty page-turner set around a group of wealthy mothers and the voung musician who takes a iob singing to their babies and finds herself pulled into their glamorous lives and dangerous secrets..
After her former band shot to superstardom without her, Claire reluctantly agrees to a gig as a playgroup musician for overprivileged infants on New York's Park Avenue. Claire is surprised to discover that she is smitten with her new employers, a welcoming clique of wellness addicts with impossiblv shiny hair, who whirl from juice cleanse to overpriced miracle vitamins to spin class with limitless energy. There is perfect hostess Whitney who is on the brink of social-media stardom and iust needs to find a way to keep her perfect life from falling apart. Caustically funny, recent stay-at-home mom Amara who is struggling to embrace her new identity. And old money, veteran mom Gwen who never misses an opportunity to dole out parenting advice. But as Claire grows closer to the cool women who pay her bills, she uncovers secrets and betrayals that no amount of activated charcoal can fix. Filled with humor and shocking twists, Happy and You Know It is a brilliant take on motherhood -exposing it as yet another way for society to pass judgment on women-while also exploring the baffling magnetism of curated social-media lives that are designed to make us feel unworthy. But, ultimately, this dazzling novel celebrates the unlikely bonds that form, and the power that can be unlocked, when a group of very different women is thrown together when each is at her most vulnerable.
I haven't read anything written by this author yet but I know she is beloved online. I hope that I will love this book as much as some of my online friends have!
People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd
Thriller
A razor-sharp, wickedly smart suspense debut about an ambitious influencer mom whose soaring success threatens her marriage, her morals, and her family's safety. Followed by Millions, Watched by One To her adoring fans, Emmy Jackson, aka @the_mamabare, is the honest "Instamum" who always tells it like it is. To her skeptical husband, a washed-up novelist who knows just how creative Emmy can be with the truth, she is a breadwinning powerhouse chillingly brilliant at monetizing the intimate details of their family life. To one of Emmy's dangerously obsessive followers, she's the woman that has everything-but deserves none of it. As Emmy's marriage begins to crack under the strain of her growing success and her moral compass veers wildly off course, the more vulnerable she becomes to a very real danger circling ever closer to her family. In this deeply addictive tale of psychological suspense, Ellery Lloyd raises important questions about technology, social media celebrity, and the way we live today. Probing the dark side of influencer culture and the perils of parenting online, People Like Her explores our desperate need to be seen and the lengths we'll go to be liked by strangers. It asks what-and who-we sacrifice when make our private lives public, and ultimately lose control of who we let in. ..
I often look for Book of the Month book covers when I am searching LFLs. It doesn't guarantee that I will love the book, but it does reassure me that a reader actually stocks the box! It is common to see the boxes full of the 'usual suspects'...and by that I mean the same group of books that you find in the book section of literally every thrift store. I'm talking books that you should never pay full price for because they circulate so often for highly discounted prices. Nothing is wrong with those kinds of books but I love seeing relatively new (or new to me) reads!
Gifted books from Publishers
While I have had quite a few authors reach out to send me their books for review, I have recently started receiving recent (or advanced) releases directly from authors/publishers.
The Night House by Jo Nesbø
Thriller
In the wake of his parents tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate.
He traces the number that Tom prank called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Black Mirror Wood. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . .. You know who I am. She's going to burn. The one you love is going to burn. There's not a thing you can do about it. When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence--and preserve his sanity--as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction. Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story .. .
Fall is the best time of the year for thrillers and horror books. I was really glad to get this in the mail with a matching phone pin--thank you to the author and Knopf Publishing for the gifted copy! This one is out NOW!
In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America's Child by Kim Cross
Non-Fiction/True Crime
Paced like a thriller and full of insider information on the history and science of Crime Scene Investigation, In Light of All Darkness embeds readers in one of the most famous true-crime stories of our generation-the kidnapping of Polly Klaas
-a case as pivotal in the history of the FBI as the Unabomber or Oklahoma City bombing. On October 1, 1993, a 12-year-old girl was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in Petaluma, California, during a sleepover with two friends, while her mother slept soundly in the room next door. This rarest of all kidnappings-a stranger abduction from the home-triggered one of the largest manhunts in FBl history.
Many Americans remember Polly's face, which appeared on the national news every night, on the cover of People magazine, and on more than 8 million flyers distributed as far as China. The emotional gravity of Polly's story touched every agent, police officer, and forensic technician who worked on her case. Many of these investigators have never shared their stories-until now. New York Times bestselling author Kim Cross has written the first comprehensive account of what happened on that fateful night in October, as well as how the case forever transformed the Bureau's approach to solving crimes. With unprecedented access to case files, crime scene photos, a videotaped murder confession, and inside sources, In Light of All Darkness follows the investigators who pieced together the evidence that led to the arrest and conviction of the kidnapper-and made the victim a household name and a girl who will never be forgotten.
I wrote about this in my upcoming releases post earlier this month. I was absolutely thrilled to find this in my mailbox, I always enjoy crime nonfiction books and I have heard that this one is worth a read, Thank you to the author and to Grand Central Publishing for sending me an early copy of this book--they always spoil me! This book is OUT NOW!
It has been a good month for book hauls, I hope you have enjoyed recapping some of my recent finds with me!
As always, thank you for reading! XO, Madison
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