After spending my college years in Manhattan, I find myself itching for a trip back to New York City at least annually. I’m lucky to have dear friends that still live there, so it’s easy (and an absolute joy!) to make it back to visit them. I try to make a conscious effort on every trip to mix my favorite haunts like Bosie’s Tea Parlor and Mamoun’s Falafel and new discoveries. (Go to Jacob’s Pickles on the Upper West Side. Trust me, just go. Don’t let the obscenely long wait deter you.)

But, my friends in New York know I absolutely have to visit my favorite bookstores every time I’m in the City without fail: McNally Jackson, Housingworks Bookstore, and The Strand (which I recently posed about here). It’s simply non-negotiable and one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon below 14th Street. I set a budget (or else I’d have a real crisis on my hands) and come home with a stack of treasures to delight myself with over the coming months. Here’s the haul from my trip to New York a few weekends ago.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

This book combines two of my favorite genres: fantasy and historical fiction. The story takes place across parallel universes: Red London -- magical and mysterious -- and Grey London -- ruled by King George III. I absolutely love when the location in which a story takes place becomes a character, and the little I know about A Darker Shade of Magic makes me hopeful London will take on a life of its own in the text.

Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy Tale Endings by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

My only non-fiction purchase on this trip, Princesses Behaving Badly spoke to the conflict between my feminist heart and the secret (not-so-secret) desire to be a princess that gripped me from the first time I watched Cinderella at the age of two. The book catalogues short descriptions of real princesses throughout history who became pirates, kept male concubines in drag, wore masks made of meat, or engaged in some other fascinating behavior that would probably render them unfit to star in a Disney movie.