Stacking the Shelves: Birth Month Book Haul!

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews where we share all of the books we've acquired this week. I don't do this so frequently, so this is more of a last couple of weeks ;) 

Who doesn't love their birth month?! My birthday, April 15th, has always been sacred to me in a way. I always treat it like I treat the first day of school: make it the best ever, and it'll start the next year off on the right foot. On my first days of the semester, I woke up early, ate a good breakfast, made myself look pretty, and made sure I was as organized as possible. On my birthday, I like to pamper myself, treat myself right, and try to start enforcing some positive habits that I can carry onto the new year. This birthday was especially awesome because the lunar eclipse fell on my birthday! The older I get, the more I appreciate April as my birth month, and the more apt I am to treat myself in the weeks leading up to my birthday. And what better way to treat myself than with books?! Without further ado, here are the books I've bought myself or acquired through publishers/authors in recent weeks:

The Imperfections of James & Kate by Christopher Gutierrez & Keltie Colleen: I've been following Chris' blog for a crazy amount of time, and always appreciate his philosophy on life. I've read a couple of his collections, and love each one. So when I saw that he wrote a book that is "as close to 'based on a true story' that you can get," with Keltie Colleen, I wanted it. As luck would have it, he reached out to me to give this a read. I'm really looking forward to see how Chris infused himself into this fictional story of a troubled young man and a slightly more hopeful dancer from New York.

1800 Miles to Nowhere by Brian Keith Diaz: Because Chris is great, he also brought me this book, too, so I could get a taste for other works that are printed through his independent publishing company, DeadxStop Publishing. Brian Keith Diaz has been touring for nearly twenty years, and writes about his experiences on the road with well-known musicians (such as Fall Out Boy), giving his readers a backstage pass to the underbelly of different music tours.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth: In my Divergent movie review, I mentioned how the movie made me excited about the series again. When I finished reading Divergent, I didn't feel that pull to go and buy the second book in the series. But a couple of days after watching the movie, I ran my ass to Barnes & Noble and picked up a copy. My movie-buzz has worn off just a little bit, but I am excited to see where this story goes...when I get to it.

Misery by Stephen King: I used to make a lot of fun of Stephen King for seemingly laying books like eggs. But after reading The Shining during the Polar Vortex thing in January, and my current reading experience of his Joyland, I'm starting to see that he is pretty wonderful at building characters and places. Also, I have seen the film adaptation of this book countless times. Kathy Bates gives me the creeps EVERY time, and I'll just say two words: ankle...hammer. Gah! Can't wait to read where one of her most evil characters was born from.

Dolores by Jacqueline Susann: I've written before about my love of Jacqueline Susann and the drama that lives in the pages of her books. I've had three of them for a while now, and I've decided I want the full Susann collection. I snagged this on Amazon for like, less than a dollar, and it's in great condition! Dolores is the story of a young widow after the death of her husband...who was the President of the United States of America. I've heard this is inspired by Jackie O. This is also the last book Jacqueline Susann wrote before she died. Now I just have two books to add to my collection & I am good to go!

This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl: This is a collection of stories, journal entries, letters, and drawings by Esther Earl, a Nerdfighter who inspired John Greens The Fault in Our Stars, and ultimately lost her battle with thyroid cancer. I think I've also mentioned before on this blog that I am a thyroid cancer survivor, which deepened my love for TFiOS, and I'm sure Esther's story will make me cry as much as Hazel's did. I will need to spend some time mentally preparing me for this one, I'm sure.

Popular by Maya Van Wagenen: I saw the author for this book on the Today show the other morning and this sung to my vintage loving heart. Maya found a guidebook from the 1950's on how to be popular. Inspired by this vintage wisdom, she embarked on a social experiment that lead her to follow this vintage guidebook in modern times. This book is full of stories and reactions from her experiment, and I can't wait to read it!

The more books I acquire, the more I wonder how on Earth I am going to read all of them in this lifetime. I suppose this means I should probably get back to reading!

Have you read any of these? Which ones should be on my Priority List?