Christmas Book Haul!

We finally opened presents this morning, which means I finally have a Christmas book haul to show y'all! I got some really good ones this year. They all came straight from my wish list, but I asked for them a while back, so I had totally forgotten which ones I was getting, which made it a nice surprise.

Here's a list of what I got:

Volumes 35-37 of Batman (The New 52!). It's the Endgame Arc. I'm not caught up on Batman at the moment, mostly because my ability to keep up with comics is severely hindered by my inconsistent paychecks, so I've been sticking to the graphic novels. Still, if the covers are any indication, I will be enjoying these immensely.

Flytrap by Frances Hardinge. This one was a bit of a mistake. It looks good, but turns out to be the sequel to a book I haven't read. I asked for both in the same request and I guess my parents didn't see the note that it was the second book. They realized the error, though, and are sending the first one to my apartment, which is super sweet of them.

The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell. I heard about this book on the same YouTube video where I heard of the Frances Hardinge books. (British YA Classics with Livs.) It sounds amazing and I am very eager to tear into it.

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. I've recently read The Feminine Mystique and am therefore eager to read another of the most prominent texts in feminism. And that cover is gorgeous.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. When is Neil Gaiman not a good idea? And it's a signed copy that was on sale as a Black Friday deal. I've heard great things about this book and I'm sure it'll be totally up to the hype.

What Christmas books did you get? Any special favorites? Let me know in the comments below.

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

But I wasn't simply going nuts, tumbling down a shaft into Wonderland. It was my misfortune- or salvation- to be at all times perfectly conscious of my misperceptions of reality.

I found this book after watching the movie of the same name that stars Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. I had been eyeing the movie at my work for a few weeks and finally had time to watch it. I rented it out and grabbed a beer before settling in to watch it.

Turns out, it's a ridiculously interesting movie with quite a bit of great acting in it (particularly from the aforementioned leading ladies). When I realized it was based off a novel, I immediately headed over to bookdepository.com. I had already purchased it by the time the credits began to roll.

Girl, Interrupted is the memoir of Susanna Kaysen in which she details the events of her stay in a mental hospital in the late sixties. She had been sent to this hospital after being diagnosed with depression and borderline personality disorder.

In the book, Kaysen recounts her two year stint in McLean Hospital and her coming to terms with the conditions that brought her there. She details the friends she made and the encounters she had with her own mental instability as well as the instability of others.

As someone who takes a particular interest in memoirs, particularly those written by those who have had to tackle their own mental illness, I was not at all surprised that I enjoyed this book. It was deeply interesting and I really enjoyed getting to see through Susanna's eyes as she dealt with the daily rigors of living in a mental infirmary.

Girl, Interrupted is an insightful look at what it was like to be diagnosed with a mental illness in the late sixties, while providing the reader with an incredible view of the practices and malpractices of McLean Hospital at that time. It's definitely one of those memoirs I'm glad I didn't pass up the opportunity to read.

Rating: ★★★★☆

This clarity made me able to behave normally, which posed some interesting questions. Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act? If some people didn't see these things, what was the matter with them? Were they blind or something? These questions had me unsettled.

The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon

I know that darkness is the absence of light, but where does the light go when it's not here? And how do you know if it'll ever come back?

Picked up this volume in the Non-Fiction shelf in the YA section at my library. It seemed interesting and I really enjoy interesting memoirs, so I figured I'd give this one a shot.

Let me just go ahead and inform you: as soon as I finished, I found The Burn Journals on the Book Depository and bought it immediately. That's how much I enjoyed this book.

When he was fourteen years-old, Brent Runyon got in trouble at school for accidentally setting something on fire. When he got home from school, he went to his bathroom, doused his bathroom in gasoline, and set himself on fire. Brent survived his suicide attempt, but not without burning 85% of his body and spending over nine months in the hospital.

In The Burn Journals, Brent Runyon gives us a first-hand account of his healing process. The reader receives the chance to take a look inside his head as he comes to terms with what he's done and begins to realize his own warped way of seeing things. Runyon brings the reader in, giving us fascinating insight into the mind of a depressed fourteen year-old boy who only wanted to be happy.

If I could describe this memoir in one word, that word would be "fascinating." I cannot tell you how deeply enthralled I was with this book. I really did enjoy getting to see inside the mind of Brent Runyon at such a vulnerable time and, though I'm sure it was hard for him, I couldn't be more thankful to him for writing it.

The Burn Journals is an important book for many reasons. I'm honestly quite sad that I hadn't heard of it before now. I think it addresses a deeply important issue and a prominent mental illness that too often goes right under the radar. Nearly everyone I know, including myself, has undergone some type of battle with depression and it seems like everyone is scared to address that. However, Runyon handles it with a finesse that I cannot praise enough.

One of my favorite things about the way he handles it is the fact that the reader gets to see exactly what was going on behind the closed doors of his mind through various stages of his struggle. It is absolutely insane how well the reader can see the various little bits that show just how warped his thinking was, and yet it is warped in a way that it's clear he thinks is normal and you can absolutely understand how he would think that.

All in all, it was a fabulous book and one I'll be suggesting frequently to as many people as I can manage from now on!

Rating: ~★★★★★~

I'm standing in the closet with my head in the shirts. I can't stop crying. I can't stop.
"You're asking me all the wrong questions." Why don't they love me? Why don't they take care of me? Why don't they act like I'm their son? The tears are all over my face and I can taste them in my mouth, like salt water, but I can't stop crying. I can't stop crying. I can't believe how little they know me.