Bits of Books: Lost Reviews from 2017, Part One

It's a little shocking, really: here I was, just scrolling through my old Drafts folder for the blog from 2018, trying to see if I had any half-finished reviews lurking around anywhere, when I saw them. Like a digital graveyard of discarded words, I found seven different Draft posts from 2017, just sitting there, waiting for publication. I had written down a paragraph or two of scattered words - some of them a little more than that, and some of them even more little than that - and left them there, in good faith that I would return. 

So here I am, returning, to these poor forgotten books that I had thought about so long ago! And, for fun's sake, I thought I'd include a few words on each on what I think of them now, in retrospect, as well. I mean, it's been over a year... my thoughts can't have changed much, can they? 



Boy Snow Bird, Helen Oyeyemi

This purchase came as a direct result of how absolutely gorgeous this cover is. Oyeyemi's writing style is similarly enchanting, and I quickly fell in love with her voice, which perfectly fleshed out a period novel of racial tension and unique magic into a story that could really capture your attention for an afternoon's quick read. Unfortunately, the story kind of lost its way in the second half, and I felt the ending was a little confused, but for the most part, I enjoyed this novel a lot, and take it as a welcome introduction to this author's work. Now Me: My only recollections of this novel are positive: I read it while on a camping vacation, so my immediate recalls involve plenty of sunshine and a whole lot of greenery. Funny enough, though, I can't remember what I didn't like about the ending! I think 2019 would be a great year to revisit Oyeyemi's voice...

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work at the White House, Alyssa Mastromonaco

This engaging and lighthearted account of a White House insider's extraordinary job, and extraordinary experiences, was an easy read and a fast finish. While I wish the book's chapters had been ordered chronologically, instead of by career principles - as the author explained she did on purpose - I thought her deliberate attempts at sounding young and conversational were unique perspectives to take, as they aren't typical to books of this nature. The book also also could have benefited from an index of names, to keep track of her many work friendships and the ways they interacted. I thought the best parts of the book involved Mastromonaco's interactions with D.C. notables, and the frenetic pacing of her job schedule.

Now Me: To put it very bluntly, the idea of reading a political memoir in today's social climate makes me want to hurl chunks immediately and repeatedly... but I do remember this one being fairly fun and funny, and her career trajectory was interesting to follow. And I remembered the author's full name without having to Google it, so I must have liked it that much. The only plans I have for reading politics this year come in the form of Michelle Obama's Becoming, though. 



Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things that Happened, Allie Brosh

I was so excited to finally get the chance to read this memoir, told primarily through Brosh's characteristic and Internet-famous rudimentary-figured comics, that I finished the whole thing in two sittings. The book was both a quick read, and so compellingly written, that it was easy to fly through, enjoying the whole experience. In particular, Brosh's openness about her history with depression, and ability to communicate her struggles in an empathetic and accessible way, were some of the most enthralling elements of the book; however, her exceptional use of simplistic artistic designs to evoke big laughs was another significant strength of this long-popular read.

Now Me: Fans of Brosh might remember that in 2017 - when this post was written - she had widely retreated from the public eye... she has always been incredibly open and well-documented about her struggles with anxiety and depression, as they are a main focus of her works, and she had not published on her blog in a very long time. While the same remains true now, at the top of 2019, I would love nothing more than a resurgence of this honest and gifted writer. 

Do you have any older reads that you've been thinking about lately? What kinds of files are buried in your computer? Let me know, in the comments below!

Review: The Financial Diet

Was one of your Resolutions for 2019 to get your financials in order? Then do we have a book recommendation for you... because not only is this read one that might help you on your path to money mastery, but it could even help you with some of your other plans for the new year, too! 

The Financial Diet is a financial blog oriented towards young women, which boasts not only a high reader count and rotating roster of writers on their own domain, but also a popular accompanying YouTube account, which creates videos on similar topics. Based around topics like money mistakes, career advice, and a budget-friendly lifestyle, the blog has been a favorite of mine for a while now.

I picked up Chelsea Fagan and Lauren Ver Hage's book with the expectation that it would be more of the same that I get from their website, and was happy to see that was true... most of the time.

The book is chock full of solid advice, explained in a way that is accessible and understandable for those just starting to pay attention to their finances, with an emphasis placed on learning the basics to build up to greater financial comprehension. Divided into neat sections like "Budget," "Food," "Home," and "Love," the book takes a multi-faceted approach to learning how your personal perspectives on money interact with the other parts of your life, and how to make sure you are living well without spending big. The segments that get a little more technical - like the chapter on how to "Invest" intelligently - spends a lot of time laying groundwork, and makes good use of the glossary of terms at the back of the book.

The topics are diverse, the writing is straightforward and focused on creating understanding, and the diction is deliberately conversational. The only thing that leaves something to be desired, is the style.

The Financial Diet, like I said, has a fan base that is primarily built up of young women, which has been achieved not just due to their various authorial perspectives, and light-hearted writing, but due to the Millenial-friendly aesthetic their blog has used as a part of its design and layout. They tried to carry this over to their book, and unfortunately, the results are a little jarring.

Of course, the content is all still there, but instead of using real photographs of people, places, etc, they employ the use of cutesy illustrations. The information is wrapped up in a cohesive series of color palettes you could probably recognize from the blog, but utilize multiple different fonts throughout the construction of the book, and you could see where the editor or graphic designer mixed a few up on the page. While the actual writing of the book was great, it was the way it was packaged that was a little grating to me.

However, one place where the graphic styling was an enormous bonus to the book, was in the inclusion of mini-interviews and queries to notable industry names, in order to gain more understanding of finance than just the authors'. In each chapter, a breakout section cataloged perspectives of people like Ashley Ford, Hank Green, and even the author's own mother, in order to present alternative ways of thinking, complete with such portrait illustrations. These sections were interesting, informative, and created division points in the chapters that made reading through each feel like a breeze.

Final verdict: all in all, the book is relatively short, able to process through quickly, and laid out in a way that makes it very appealing to their core demographic. I enjoyed it, and I'm sure the several people who already have holds on the library listing are going to enjoy it, as well!

Are you trying to get a handle on your finances this year? What were some of your resolutions? Let me know, in the comments below! 

2018 Year in Books Review

Another year older, and another year wiser (well, hopefully). But was it another year spent reading successfully? Absolutely! Which prompted me to once again check out my annual reading stats - thanks, Goodreads! - to see how I fared in 2018. 

by the numbers

Overall, none of the quantity-based data about my reading in the past year really surprised me... I was kind of expecting it all. Despite the fact that I read about 1,000 less pages total than I did last year, my average number of pages per book stayed the exact same - seriously, 306 for both years! - and I read around the same number of books.

However, there are more quality-based trends that affected my goals instead... including the fact that, on average, I rated books at about a 3.9, which meant that either I spent my year reading a lot of books that I really liked, or I just felt like being a little nicer when I reviewed them!

lowering my goodreads goal
I wrote a longer post about this two years ago, but for me, lowering my Goodreads Book Challenge goal felt like a necessary step in upping the caliber of the kinds of books I'd been reading. I figured that if I put less pressure on just numbers, then I'd reach for heavier or denser books, ones that might require more time. For the most part, that didn't end up happening.

taking part in nanowrimo again
If you've followed me through the Fall, you know that reading during NaNo is always a major struggle for me, being that I get a little afraid that the voice I read is going to end up coming out on my pages, as well. However, with the writing process being so difficult this year, I really should have taken a break to escape to a different book or two.

failing my Harry Potter resolution with my brother
One of my only major Resolutions for 2018, was that I was going to completely reread and rewatch all of the Harry Potter series with my younger brother, and we totally tanked. The problem is, we were completely on schedule for the first half of the year, and were keeping a good pace going into late summer... but then, we got around to Order of the Phoenix, and all progress immediately halted. There is such a sizable and boggling tonal shift that comes around in the fourth book, that gets so dark by the second, it was hard to keep reading. However, I'm keeping it as a personal goal this year, to finish out what we started!

reading romance for the first time
On a bit of a whim, leading into the summer, I began to contemplate any genres that I hadn't explored before, and the one glaring example I kept coming up with, was Romance. This launched what I dubbed my "Summer of Reading Romance," and over the course of the second half of the year, I read a total of about 8 of these kinds of books. And - surprise! - I absolutely fell in love with the genre all about love! I'm looking forward to posting more about these explorations in the new year, especially all of the nonfiction work I've been doing while exploring the genre.

some minor bookish resolutions in 2019

It wouldn't be a new year without this goal-setting junkie getting a few Resolutions written down, don't you think?

#nonewbooks... kind of 
While I seriously toyed with the idea of doing yet another installment of the Book Buying Ban resolution that has served me so well in recent years, I just couldn't give up the idea of one more Book Outlet order, or another trip to Powell's. However, there are still a jam-packed number of books on my TBR shelves -147, to be exact! - and that's not even counting what's on my Kindle. So, I'm instituting a sort of halfway rule: I can't add any more books to my TBR, be they purchased, or from the library, unless I've finished at least one from my own collection. Hopefully, I can beef up the ratio as the year goes on!

60 books on Goodreads
I'm taking on a small step up from the number that I successfully outread this year, but am staking it with the same stipulations that I had hoped for previously: I'm trying to read more books that challenge me, that teach me something, that bring me out of my comfort zone. I'm going for more critically reviewed and rigorous literary fiction, with the objective of reading at least one book from my "100 Essential Novels: Millenials Edition" poster per month. Wait, you haven't heard about this poster? Aren't you following me on Instagram?

over 1,000 followers on my @playinginthepages Instagram
Because speaking of, I have an Instagram handle specifically associated with my blog, that has been live and functioning since late June. I've amassed a little under 500 followers in that time frame, and have kind of plateaued in my engagement... but with any luck at all, and a whole lot of work, I'm hoping to build that to at least 1,000 followers by the end of next year.

How was your year in reading for 2018? What are you most excited to tackle in 2019? Let me know, in the comments below!

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books I Read in 2018

Happy New Year!

It's 2019, which means there are brand new places to be, people to see, things to try, and, of course, books to read. So while I want to get going as quickly as possible on all of these new opportunities, it's only fair we close out 2018 the way it deserves, and honor all the great reads we explored in that time, as well!

Here are my Top Ten reads of 2018:


Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J. K. Rowling
We may not have made it all the way through our Harry Potter reread challenge - more on that in later posts! - but one thing I'm really thankful for, is re-exploring this childhood least-favorite among the series.

Dumplin', Julie Murphy
The idea of an above-average-size girl competing for a tiara isn't exactly a new concept in my life, which might explain how much I absolutely loved and identified with Willowdean Dixon. And the Netflix movie is perfect, too!

In Other Lands, Sarah Rees Brennan
Another reread for me, but one made way more fun since it was my first time rereading it since my younger brother picked it up, too... and it quickly became one of his favorite books of all time. Sometimes a great book can just be made greater when shared with others!

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi
This dynamic and diverse new YA Fantasy gained a huge amount of press this year, for all the right reasons. I adored the main characters, and the lush, beautiful magical world they inhabited, and I cannot wait to see where things go in the sequel!

Twice a Hero, Susan Krinard
The mass market paperback, scrounged up from the $2 section of a dingy thrift store, that started it all: my summer reading challenge of tackling romance novels started off with this book.

The Magician's Land, Lev Grosman
Not an ending, but a beginning: I finally finished out the Magicians trilogy this year, and loved it so much that I almost immediately began watching the SyFy television adaptation.

Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire
What can I say, I'm an absolute sucker for a great children-falling-through-to-mysterious-worlds story. What is probably my favorite trope, was subverted into a masterful exploration of Fantasy, in this novella, which I was overwhelmingly happy to find is an ongoing series.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***, Mark Manson
In a world where self-help books overflow with mantras about how there is only one you, and that you are infinitely special, I prefer it when they lean a little heavier to the other side: yeah, there's only one you... but not only are you not special at all, you're also going to die one day, so get to doing something about it, man. This book fits that bill.

Kitchen Literacy, Ann Vileisis
A recently-raved-about exploration of the anthropology of food producer-consumer relationships, this book has not only changed the way I think about meals, but gives me a lot of hope for reading good non-fiction in the coming year!

Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo
You know how I mentioned earlier how special it was, to be able to read In Other Lands with my brother? I can only imagine it was the same for him, as I closed out the year by reading his favorite book of all time, Six of Crows. 

honorable mentions 

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
The Simple Wild, K. A. Tucker
Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire (EHaD #2) 
The Hazel Wood, Melissa Albert

What's in your Top Ten? Let me know, in the comments below! 

Joy to the Shelf: A Quick Holiday Bookish Haul, and Bookish Gifts I Gave my Family!

The holidays have come and passed, and with them, have arrived plenty of new books to fill my shelves! Thankfully, I was in the position to do the same for others, and boy, did I make the most of that opportunity. Care to hear what Santa placed underneath my tree, and what I gift-wrapped for others? Then read on!

what I got 

Becoming, Michelle Obama
I picked this title up with my mom within the first week of November, which is what has made it absolute torture to see spotted across the various desks and Instagram pages of my friends. Now that I've finally gotten my hands on it, it's going to be one of my first reads of 2019!

Around the World in 72 Days and Other Works, Nellie Bly
As someone who believed they'd be going into newspaper for the majority of their high school career, I grew up as a huge fan of the talented and intrepid Nellie Bly, who not only helped carve a place for women in journalism, but changed public perception about everything from world travel, to mental health facilities. (There's actually a Drunk History segment about that second part!). I'm excited to finally get to read a collection of her writings for myself!

Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
When the passing of the late, great Bourdain earlier this year hit everyone so hard, one of the most frequent things I saw online was people sharing passages from the works he's created, be it his show, or this seminal culinary memoir. My mom had read the book before, but unfortunately gave away her copy, which is why I'm glad to have one of my own to read.

Over the Garden Wall: Distillatoria, Jonathan Case and Jim Campbell
Actually the only surprise on this list - I had picked out all of the others for myself! - this comic book was purchased by my Dad, who grew to love the series, when we watched it with him this past Halloween season. My sister and I got matching books, while my brother got a different one, and we're all excited to read them, and swap, to see how the characters we enjoy so much have continued onwards.

2019 Day Designer Daily Planner in "Climbing Floral" and planning supplies 
Naturally, I could never start a new year, without yet another iteration of my beautiful, beloved daily planner! Expect another "Just Planning Things" post on this topic sooner after 2019 hits.

Paddywax Library candle in "Jane Austen" 
Smells like gardenia, tuberose, jasmine... as well as social miscommunication, judgmental elderly female relatives, and empire waists!

Powell's Books Mug 
Something else you should be expecting to see on my Instagram very soon... and again... and again...

100 Essential Reads "Millenials" Scratch-Off Book poster
I had bemoaned to my sister how much I enjoy the concept of bookish scratch-off posters, but couldn't fully get behind them, because they leaned a little too heavy towards the "straight, white, male" author side of things, and weren't wholly reflective of what kinds of books existed in the world. This "Millenial" version - charting notable books between the years 2000 and 2016 fixes that issue!

what I gave

my sister, delaney
My celebrity and culture-obsessed younger sister was an obvious recipient for one of my favorite reads of 2017, All the Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers, by Alana Massey. She also loves memoirs and humor books, too, which is why I decided to take up a friend's recommendation of Kanye West Owes Me $300 & Other Stories from a White Rapper Who Almost Made it Big, by Jensen Karp. 







my sister, madeline
A theater student, I knew one of the titles I'd be buying her as soon as I read the title Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, a Struggling Town, and the Magic of Theater, by Michael Sokolove. She also has aspirations of moving to Disneyland and becoming a character performer in the park shows - because she's a collegiate, and who doesn't dream of those sorts of things when you're in college? - so to fill her thirst for contemporary Disney drama, I picked up Keys to the Kingdom: How Micheal Eisner Lost His Grip, by Kim Masters, which I was glad to see she's already started reading!




my mama 
Nothing makes my mama excited quite like the promise of a good food memoir, especially if it's centered around her dream retirement place, which made In a French Kitchen: Tales and Traditions of Everyday Home Cooking in France, by Susan Herrmann Loomis, an easy choice. And over the past year or so, my mom has made a point of bringing up one of her favorite observational humorists of all time, Erma Bombeck, so I trekked my way down to Powell's bookstore in Portland to pick up a compendium of her works, too, in the form of Forever, Erma, by Erma Bombeck. 

What books did you pick up this holiday season? Did you give books as presents this year? Let me know, in the comments below!

Review: Kitchen Literacy

With Christmas bearing down upon us like only the jolliest, well-lit kind of freight trains, I've been putting my fair share of hours into the kitchen at my house. Between family brunches and holiday tea parties, we've made upwards of twelve kinds of cookies, two sets of cupcakes, and plenty of sandwiches, and that's not even counting our annual Christmas Eve dinner. 

So it shouldn't surprise you at all that one of the books I'd reach for this past holiday season, was about that same delicious topic: food! 

Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back, by Ann Vileisis, charts the anthropology of production development in the United States and beyond, following the untold story of the relationship between people, and the food they eat. Whether it's precooked or canned, processed or pruned right from the tree, organic or imported, what we eat to live - and do more than live - has significant effects on our surroundings, our ecosystem, and yes, on us.

What follows is a surprisingly enthralling account of "the covenant of ignorance" between modern-day food producers and consumers. Packed with facts and laden with interesting anecdotes - the kind that compelled me to pull out my phone and take pictures of the pages I found particularly notable - this nonfiction chronology of industrial development and consumer demands truly opened my eyes to a lot of the action that goes on behind the scenes of marketing veneer and culinary tradition.

While judging between something as pedestrian as brands in a supermarket might feel as easy to compare as apples and oranges, the ways those foods get there matters... whether those apple were imported from the valleys of my own Washington, or the sunnier orchards of Florida. But it's not just the routes traveled, trucks used, water spent, to bring those fruits to your produce stands: it's the pesticides used to help them grow, the ways the soil used to yield them has been given nutrients, the ways the size and turnover of the farm itself affects the economy of the local landscape at large. It's the way the government has regulated these things, and the ways consumers have demanded some fruits and vegetables over others.

And while you might feel better about yourself and your health, picking up an orange from the supermarket, but how do you feel about the ways that particular industry developed, to bring that fruit all the way to you, even in the dead of winter?

That's the kind of information this book touches on. Things like the anthropology of the canning process - from industrialization to the effects of the war effort in the 1940s - to the legal intricacies of the generation of the "organic" label, or how the government responds to consumer concerns (most disconcertingly, the general answer seems to be that they don't). Covering bases from the transfers of agricultural power from family life to industrial agriculture, to the shadowy marketing processes behind getting consumers to trust things like fake butter or artificially-colored cherries, this book pulls the curtains aside to expose just what kind of machinations keep the shelves you shop at fully stocked.

As you could probably guess, the book is definitely written in a singular perspective: the author, Ann Vileisis, now lives in a house along the Oregon Coast, grows many vegetables in the garden behind her house, and tries shopping as locally as possible when she has to. This might give people pause to consider reading it, especially those who wish to keep that "covenant of ignorance" - the open trade-off of "you don't question, we don't answer" of how food is produced - firmly in place. However, that doesn't mean that Vileisis solely preaches for the sake of believing, but instead, writes in a way that readily considers opposing viewpoints (for instance, the impact of class distinctions) that impact how we buy food.

As a result of reading, I find myself considering the origins of my food - especially the over-processed, murky-ingredients-list kinds of stuff - almost every meal after having read this book.

And in particular, reading while running our family Christmas cookie gauntlet has also been an interesting process, due to the documented history of the evolution of some of the ingredients we use regularly, some of which are touched upon in the book itself:

• how early industrial manufacturers of flour used to "fortify" and bulk up the finely-milled powder with inexpensive chalk,
• how food experts of the 1800s called to avoid sugar produced by slave-owned plantations... not necessarily because of the production habits, but because the pain of slavery influenced the taste of food made with it (which makes me think about the ways slavery continues to impact the chocolate industry today), 
• how sugar and butter rations during the war affected the baking industry, and how it in turn reacted to customer concerns about their homemade goods... aka, why you have to add an egg and oil to your cake mixes, instead of just water. 

Final Verdict: Altogether unique and an effective introductory point into the study of culinary anthropology, specifically from an American viewpoint, Kitchen Literacy is a great read for anyone looking to understand what food is best to buy... and how our perspectives on that have been changed by industry, government, and consumer standards across centuries.

What kinds of culinary non-fiction have you read before? What have you been cooking this holiday season? Let me know, in the comments below!

A Gift for You, a Gift for Me: My Winter 2018 Book Outlet Haul!

I know, I know... we're just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the holidays, and here I am, buying a whole ton of books or myself. But that's not really the case... you see, not only did I place this book order on November 9th, but I did so with the intention of buying books for other people! Sure, I may have picked up *cough* seven *cough* books for myself, but I also bought five for various family members.

Also, one of the ones I bought is to share with my brother. Also, two of them are ones I've read and loved already; I just didn't have a physical copy on my shelves. Also, I fully intend to start clearing out a few off of my shelves in the new year, because I'm super close to 500 followers on Instagram, and really want to do a giveaway soon!

Alright, alright, excuses over. The long and short of it is, at the time of my ordering, Book Outlet had a massive sale going on... the total of 12 books I got, only ended up totaling about $68! So, if you've got anyone left on your holiday shopping list, I'd definitely recommend getting a look at some of what this incredible site has on offer. (And no, this isn't a sponsored post. Though, I mean...)

Not sure what kind of books to check out? Allow me to show you some of my picks...

The Rules Do Not Apply, April Levy
This popular nonfiction pick and Goodreads nominee for Best Memoir in 2017 has been on my radar for a while, but I never picked it up. I really only added it to my cart because it was under $5, and I figured I'd get around to it eventually... but after I started leafing through the pages while I was adding it to my TBR shelf, I decided that "eventually" was going to turn out a lot more like "real, real soon."

The Fate of the Tearling (Tearling #3), Erika Johansen
Have I read the first book in the series, The Queen of the Tearling? Yes, in my senior year of college, and I loved it. Have I read the sequel, The Invasion of the Tearling? Errr... no. But I own it, and totally plan on getting around to it at sometime. And now, on a whim, and because it was under $5, I own a complete trilogy after having only read one of its installments. It's basically the Shades of Magic trilogy all over again... and come to think of it, I should probably thumb through those again soon, too!

Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books, Cara Nicoletti
This is one of those oddball library favorites, that I picked up on a whim in the cookbook section, memoir subsection, and was happily surprised when it totally checked all of my boxes. The author - a butcher, living in New York - is also a total bookworm, who sought out recipes from some of her lifelong favorite reads, and tested them out for herself. The results are present in this lovingly rendered book, including fun food illustrations. Naturally, after checking it out from the library for a third time, I figured I should probably just pick up my own copy.

Dumplin', Julie Murphy
Another library favorite, one I read over the summer in anticipation of the new Netflix movie's release. And it's a good thing I got this copy for myself: not only has the book stuck with me, leading me to think of it in odd moments, but we watched the movie adaptation the day after it came out, and I cried at least three to four times throughout the whole thing. I still have to get around to the sequel, Puddin', but I'm glad that I now have the paperback to reread when I need it (and a new Dolly Parton soundtrack to make my life so, so much better).

Sightwitch: A Witchlands Novella, Susan Dennard
My baby brother - he's seventeen - and I are called the bookends of the siblings, for two good reasons: we're the beginning and end of the kid lineup, and we're both absolute fiends for fiction. One of my favorite things is how we have various YA series in common... and after bullying him into picking up Truthwitch this past summer, Susan Dennard has become of his favorite guilty read authors. I picked up this copy as a special "welcome to Winter Break" present for later this month, but I also grabbed a copy of Windwitch at Powell's this past Fall, as well. Needless to say, the kid's going to have more homework over Break than just what his teachers assigned.

A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression, Andrew Coe and Jane Ziegelman 
I've had this book on my radar for a really long time, as it combines my favorite period of American history, with one of my favorite nonfiction topics. Because I was able to get it on Book Outlet's crazy discounts, I finally grabbed a copy of my own, and despite the fact that its price was so reduced, it is in virtually perfect condition! Unfortunately, I have a few more books to finish up before the new year, but after reading Ann Vileisis' Kitchen Literacy, another excellent work of contemporary culinary anthropology, I know I want to make sure it's soon.

If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio
Another longtime want, this book began making the rounds of #bookstagram this past Fall, as everyone fell in love with its gorgeous, lush cover, and enthralling "scholar-gothic" Shakespearean subject matter. Supposedly for fans of Donna Tart's A Secret History - another book I own and haven't read yet, dammit - I've been dying for a copy, but couldn't find it in any of the bookstores I frequent! Naturally, I was delighted to find a copy, and at such a discount, too.

But like I said, this book haul wasn't just an exercise in wanton book-gluttony: I also bought two books for each of my sisters, and one for my mom, all of which you will be hearing about after they are delivered to their intended recipients at Christmas.

Okay, maybe a little bit of book-gluttony was involved.

What was your most recent book order? Which of these would you read first? Let me know, in the comments below!