Letterbox Love #72

Letterbox Love is a way to show you all of the lovely, lovely books I’ve gotten in the post, bought and everything else over the last week. Summaries are taken from the cover, or Amazon/NetGalley/Goodreads in the case of e-books, unless otherwise stated. Hosted by Narratively Speaking.

For review:

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli (e-proof)

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at a risk of being thrust into the spotlight. And worse still, so will the privacy of ‘Blue’, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing. With messy dynamics emerging in Simon’s once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s life suddenly becomes just a little complicated. Now Simon has t find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out – without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or a fumbling shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s ever met.

Thanks PRH and NetGalley! Margot from the Epic Reads team said that this is her most anticipated from 2015 and that it was utterly, utterly wonderful, so I’m excited.

Bought:

A Thousand Pieces of You, Claudia Gray (e-book)

Cloud Atlas meets Orphan Black in this epic dimension-bending trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray about a girl who must chase her father’s killer through multiple dimensions.

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their groundbreaking achievements. Their most astonishing invention, called the Firebird, allows users to jump into multiple universes – and promises to revolutionise science forever. But then Marguerite’s father is murdered, and the killer – her parent’s handsome, enigmatic assistant Paul – escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite refuses to let the man who destroyed her family go free. So she races after Paul through different universes, always leaping into another version of herself. But she also meets alternate versions of people she knows – including Paul, whose life entangles with hers in increasingly familiar ways. Before long she begins to question Paul’s guilt – as well as her own heart. And soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is far more sinister than she expected.

A Thousand Pieces of You, the first book in the Firebird trilogy, explores an amazingly intricate multiverse where fate is unavoidable, the truth elusive, and love the greatest mystery of them all.

This book just intrigues me! Also, unbelievably gorgeous cover.

The Art of Being Normal, Lisa Williamson (hardback)

Two boys. Two secrets.

David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he’s gay. The school bully thinks he’s a freak. Only his two best friends now the real truth – David wants to be a girl.

On the first day at his new school Leo Denton has one goal – to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in Year 11 is definitely not part of that plan. When David stands up for Leo in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. Because at Eden Park School secrets have a funny way of not staying secret for long...

Man, I am so excited for this. I snapped it up as soon as I spotted it in Waterstone’s yesterday – it’s out a few days early!

I treated myself to a few book in the Amazon 12 Days of Kindle sale:

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (e-book)

Rosemary’s young, just at college, and she’s decided not to tell anyone a thing about her family. So we’re not going to tell you much either: you’ll have to find out for yourselves what it is that makes unhappy family like no other.

Rosemary is now an only child, but she used to have a sister the same age as her, and an older brother. Both are now gone – vanished from her life. There’s something unique about Rosemary’s sister, Fern. So now she’s telling her story; a looping narrative that begins towards the end, and then goes back to the beginning. Twice.

It’s funny, clever, intimate, honest, analytical and swirling with ideas that will come back to bite you. We hope you enjoy it, and if, when you’re telling a friend about it, you do decide to spill the beans about Fern, don’t feel bad. It’s pretty hard to resist.

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

“Armageddon only happens once, you know. They don’t let you go around again until you get it right.”

According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch – the world’s only totally reliable guide to the future, written in 1655, before she exploded – the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after sea...

People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. This time though, the armies of Good and Evil really do appear to be massing. The four Bikers of the Apocalypse are hitting the road. But both the angels and demons – well, one fast-living demon and a somewhat fussy angel – would quite like the rapture not to happen.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist...

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Five, Douglas Adams

On 12 October 1979 the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor (and Earth) was made available to humanity. This was of course, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. But this was just the beginning. We followed the adventures of hapless protagonist Arthur Dent and his alien side-kick, Ford Prefect, across a trilogy of five books: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. And this merry spacewagon, featuring a flying sofa, a paranoid android, a gift-wrapped fishbowl, bath towels and much else besides, became an instant classic.

Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets, Jessica Fox

Jessica Fox is 26 years old, lives in Hollywood, and has a high-flying career at NASA. Working late one night, dreaming of another life, she’s seized by a moment of madness. She taps “second hand bookshop Scotland” into Google, and clicks on the first link she sees.

A month later, she arrives 2,000 miles across the Atlantic in Wigtown, on the west coast of Scotland. When she knocks on the door of the bookshop she will be working in for the next month, she is greeted not by the 80-year-old recluse she was expecting, but by a handsome young bachelor called Euan...

The rollercoaster journey that ensues – which takes in Scottish Hanukah, bringing yoga to the West Coast, and a waxing that she will never forget – will ultimately break and mend her heart. Three Things You Should Know About Rockets is a book for everyone who has ever though “What if” – a true story about grabbing life by the horns, and taking the plunge.

Sophie