So, December is going to be an intense month for book hauling. My Black Friday online book purchases came in and I joined the Book of the Month Club, so I thought I’d post this haul before the holidays and before my stack gets too out of control. I also un-hauled (aka donated) two large bags of books to my local library this month, so at least there’s that! Anyways, I’m crazy excited to read all of these, and my 2017 TBR is exploding.

All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld – this mysterious book about a woman living alone on an island with her dog and flock of sheep has been on my mind for awhile; apparently things start to get creepy when her sheep start disappearing and her past comes back to haunt her.

Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue – this is one of the books that I absolutely can’t wait to pick up. It’s a collection of fairy tale retellings that was recommended to me on Bookstagram and it looks AMAZING.

The Unfinished World by Amber Sparks – I actually don’t know much about this fabulist short story collection, but it was highly recommended on BookTube and I’ve been very into short story collections lately.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler – one of my favorite reads of 2015, this was on sale on Book Oulet on Black Friday and I decided I really needed it on my shelf.

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay – as this was one of my absolute favorite reads of 2016 (spoiler alert for my upcoming top ten books of 2016 post), I decided I really needed my own copy.

The Vorrh by B. Catling – this was really my sole impulse buy on Black Friday. How could I resist a book with a Goodreads description like this: “Next to the colonial town of Essenwald sits the Vorrh, a vast—perhaps endless—forest. It is a place of demons and angels, of warriors and priests. Sentient and magical, the Vorrh bends time and wipes  memory. Legend has it that the Garden of Eden still exists at its heart. Now, a renegade English soldier aims to be the first human to traverse its expanse. Armed with only a strange bow, he begins his journey, but some fear the consequences of his mission, and a native marksman has been chosen to stop him. Around them swirl a remarkable cast of characters, including a Cyclops raised by robots and a young girl with tragic curiosity, as well as historical figures, such as writer Raymond Roussel and photographer Edward Muybridge.  While fact and fiction blend, the hunter will become the hunted, and everyone’s fate hangs in the balance under the will of the Vorrh.”

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente – Yes, I already have 2 unread Catherynne M. Valente books on my shelves. No, I could not resist buying another one, because I still have this feeling that she’s going to become one of my favorite authors. This one is set in a fantastical city and was nominated for a ton of awards in 2010.

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee – I picked up this book as an extra from Book of the Month; it’s the dramatic story of an opera legend whose hidden past comes back in the form of a mysterious opera that appears to be written about her life.

Not on Fire, But Burning by Greg Hrbek – this book is about a mysterious explosion at the Golden Gate Bridge that leads to America’s Muslims being forced onto reservations and the country to be broken down into territories. The main character believes that his sister was killed in the explosion, but his parents are denying that she ever existed. Goodreads says “Not on Fire, but Burning is unlike anything you’re read before—not exactly a thriller, not exactly sci-fi, not exactly speculative fiction, but rather a brilliant and absorbing adventure into the dark heart of an America that seems ripped from the headlines. But just as powerfully, it presents a captivating hero: A young boy driven by love to seek the truth, even if it means his deepest beliefs are wrong.”

Pull Me Under by Kelly Luce – my first ever Book of the Month pick! I’ve been eyeing all of the bookish social media posts about Book of the Month Club for awhile now and was gifted a subscription as an early Chrismakkuh present after the Black Friday deals were too good to resist. It’s about a woman who moves across the world to escape the scandal surrounding a childhood trauma, and who must later return to face what she has done.

A Cure for Suicide by Jesse Ball – I’m going to let Goodreads explain this one: “A man and a woman have moved into a small house in a small village. The woman is an “examiner,” the man, her “claimant.” The examiner is both doctor and guide, charged with teaching the claimant a series of simple functions: this is a chair, this is a fork, this is how you meet people. She makes notes in her journal about his progress: he is showing improvement, yet his dreams are troubling. One day, the examiner brings him to a party, and here he meets Hilda, a charismatic but volatile woman whose surprising assertions throw everything the claimant has learned into question. What is this village? Why is he here? And who is Hilda? A fascinating novel of love, illness, despair, and betrayal, A Cure for Suicide is the most captivating novel yet from one of our most exciting young writers.”

And…I may have picked up a few books at a library book sale as well: