Book CommuniTEA Part 2: Foolery Just Don't Stop. ReadWithJenna, Epic Reads &Consumerism again?[CC]

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How much caffeine is too much  caffeine? Does the limit exist? See, y'all always think i'm playing at the  end of that video but look, I walk the walk okay.  I'm trying to keep y'all hydrated and moisturized okay? Put on your chapstick and your lotion. Oh my god hold on. Stay Ah look at you, sit down. Look at that, I done forgot my  sunscreen. I was almost a hippocrip.  But i'm going to put it on right now if this heathen will backup off me. This  is my favorite, that works best   for me, it doesn't make me look  like Casper the friendly ghost. And I try to put about, well I just made  a mess but usually two fingers worth   but that kind of just became a glob. Oh, we're gonna put on our sunscreen right here. If   if you can move sir. The chaos that this  dog brings to my life is unmatched honestly. You're a mess. Okay, I think it was slightly less than I normally put on but whatever we're gonna   make it work. I'm gonna make it work. Oh yeah, I've tried the 70 [SPF] in the same one and it's too thick,   it definitely leaves a cast. Okay, all right. So lotion on the hands, we got chapstick on, we got our sunscreen, okay. Let's get it poppin'. Nigel, can I have some room? Can I sit?  Can you, can you move to the side at least? Can I get in? yYou don't need the whole  chair.. like can I get in? Okay, thank you. Hey, hi, hello. Welcome or welcome back to  my channel. My name is Jess and hey, welcome to   part two of Book CommuniTEA: where I keep you abreast or I try my best to keep you updated   on the goings on, the shenanigans in the  book community. Hey, hey. So the first thing.. Okay. I feel like this half is less juicy than  the first half and maybe I should have spread   up the juiciness but I thought I was. But  I put like real heavy juice over there   and over here just getting mild, I'm sorry. Okay, this happened last week and it is with Jenna   Bush Hager, who is the daughter of former president George W. Bush, so she has a book club um and it's   Read With Jenna and as all book clubs it seems or big popular ones like Reese's book club,   Oprah's book club, they come with stickers. They put stickers on books which the majority of us   book nerds do not like stickers on books. I know there's a small amount of people who don't care   but anyway they usually have a new book that's coming out in their book club that they're going   to read together and they get editions of that  book- I don't know if it's all the editions of the   book or they just get a certain amount that are printed with their sticker on it for the most part,   it's like a permanent one, not even one you can remove- my least favorite. So the December pick for   Read With Jenna is The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, rest in power, and obviously that is not a newly   published book. The Bluest Eye was published in 1970 and this just happens to be the book that she or   her readers, I don't know how they choose books, chose for December. And it was reprinted, I believe   with the sticker on it. "No ma'am". So she's holding up a picture on her instagram which i'll insert here,   showing the book that's picked for December and it's The Bluest Eye, it has a little sticker on it   and I didn't see anyone on Twitter talking  about this, for the most part this was mainly   on Instagram. And so someone shared it and said "this is not sitting right with my soul. I have   so many questions. Where are the Black people on these teams? Who's leading this book discussion?   How is the discussion going to be framed? Why didn't you just do a recommended reading list   of your favorite books? This is just wrong." And someone else said that sticker needs to go. I get   it for a new book but what we're not gonna do is act like this Bush lady is helping Toni Morrison.   This the Christopher Columbus of book clubs." So yeah it was just   upsetting people because obviously like I said: it's not a new release. So it's not like it needs   promoting, you know like. I think it's great  that that's her choice for the book club   but I think it is a fair point of who is going to  be leading the discussion because as much as you can go into that book with good intent, I don't know if she could be the best person to lead the   discussion about that book um. And then really printing it and having that sticker on it as   if like "oh i'm putting my name on this, i'm giving this book recognition" because I think that's a big   thing in those book clubs with the big names like Oprah, Reese and Jenna, to get even more recognition   and attention brought to books. And it's like Toni Morrison didn't need that and so I just scrolled   through on instagram, her post and all the  comments under it and the majority of them are   bookstagrammars who are just like not happy, very upset and then of course there's like a random one   from like a publisher like oh this is we're so  excited but everyone else's comments are like   no, this is, "it is very colonial and disrespectful to place your branding sticker on an influential   writer such as Toni Morrison. She doesn't need your advertising. Take it off um."While i'm happy to see Toni Morrison's work be exposed to wider audiences and The Bluest Eye is more than deserving of   special notice, it's very disappointing to see  your book club stickers stamped onto such an   iconic work of Black fiction. New readers just now encountering this book may not understand   that Toni made enormous effort throughout  her writing career to avoid the white   gaze and white approval. Since a lot of us  here are wondering, can you disclose how this   decision to permanently stamp this sticker onto a reprinting was come to and who was consulted?" So   I didn't see any replies from her account um  of course and then in the following posts, I   didn't see anything. So I doubt that she  or whoever handles the instagram for   her book club will say anything. But that was  just disappointing. It's just like it really   does not need that. I mean on any work that's being reprinted but not especially not a book   club led by a white woman on um such an important fictional work written by a Black woman. So i'm just gonna sigh. So I did look up why Jenna chose this book and she said it was because it   had meaning to her. In this article she talks  about talking to her sister about when she   first read The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, that it was assigned to her sophomore english class and   at first it was just another homework assignment and then she said it quickly turned into "reading a   book I felt I had chosen for myself. I remember marking it up like I had never marked up any   books before." So she was saying that while she couldn't necessarily relate to the main character,   there was no way you didn't empathize with Pecola. Thematically she had never read anything like that   because the book talked about adult subjects um with the underlying themes of racism, otherness, and   feeling not good enough. And she knew those were things that her classmates of color   were dealing with. So she said it's the  first book that really opened her eyes   to how "literature can create understanding  and take you into worlds you don't know."   At the time, The Bluest Eye was banned across some Texas schools and so it made that book   more special to her because she knows some people couldn't read it and now "as this debut novel turns   50 years old, it still holds incredible power to  spark current conversations. While this fact is   heartbreaking, it also shows how complicated and complex some of these themes are." So um I am happy   that she has read it before and um has you know she already has a perspective of what the book is   about. So it'll be good for her to reread it. I just hope that there are people of color in the book   club who can also add to that conversation because I think the book club members would get the most   out of a diverse conversation, discussion about the book. So this is a comment from a video last week,   obviously there's been a lot of discourse  about the Sasha Alsberg situation,   where someone sent me more photos of evidence that she was traveling between Boston and London   um which seemed frivolous, like it didn't need to be and that she obviously was not quarantining   when she was getting to London and so that's area upsetting but i'm not going to keep going on about   it, we know we've addressed that situation. I just wanted to add in that I then saw   um the first tweet I saw was from Courtney Milan, the romance author, who said selling ARCs isn't   illegal. And um so I didn't know that to be honest. I thought like it was but I guess it's not illegal.   It's looked down upon from what I have um  learned from twitter but it's not illegal. So   it's just weird this whole discourse because  there's been so much negative um tweets and   conversations before about bloggers hoarding ARCs, selling ARCs, stuff like that from authors   and now there's nothing. And this is, I mean I did see a smaller author talk about the situation   but from anyone larger, that's the only thing that I've seen. Like it's not illegal and it's like   okay, girl. So hopefully they keep up this  mentality if this comes up again um because   you can't have it both ways. You can't be upset this person is selling ARCs and then when this   person is doing it, you're like "well it's not illegal so". It's just like keep that same energy, we've got   the screenshots, so if this conversation comes up again um, we will pull out the receipts, okay?   So kind of similarly to that with ARCs, I  saw an article that was shared by Publishers   Weekly about BookCon/BookExpo and it  said "BookExpo and BookCon are no more."   So BookCon and BookExpo is like the biggest US book convention and it's usually end of May   and it's usually held in New York City um. So the article says"US book publishing's biggest ttrade   show is being 'retired', show organizer ReedPop announced today. BookExpo along with BookCon   and Unbound will not be held in 2021 after  being cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic." So they said "given the continued uncertainty surrounding in-person events at this time, the   company has decided that the best way forward is to retire the current iteration of events as they   explore new ways to meet the community's needs through a fusion of in-person and virtual events."   And so they did do earlier this year, they had six days of free virtual programming from May 26th   through the 31st, that were the  original days of BookExpo and BookCon.   So they also said "the pandemic arrived at a  time in the life cycle of BookExpo and BookCon   where we were already examining the restructure of our events to best meet our community's needs.   This has led us to make the difficult decision to retire the events in their current formats   as we take the necessary time to evaluate the best way to move forward and rebuild our events   that will better serve the industry and reach  more people than we were able to before. We remain   committed to serving the book community and look forward to sharing more information in the future."   So it did say that they would continue to host the BookCon facebook group and keep um doing virtual   content at least. So like I said Bookcon is like the biggest US um book convention and I feel like   one of the biggest. I don't, I feel like people come from outside the US to go to it. I've never been.  I've always wanted to go and like meet up with bookish friends that I haven't met before and   it seems like that is not going to happen, at  least anytime soon. There are other conventions   that um are in different parts of the US,  i'm obviously not even in America right now,   can't even travel but hopefully at one of those events, I'll be able to meet some of my bookish   friends. But I just wonder what this will do to, what effect it will have on the publishing in the   book industry because I know that's where a lot of advanced reader copies or ARCs are given out,   um lots of promotion for publishers and authors um and all their panels. Obviously they can do like   panels and things online. So it's just interesting. I mean i've wanted to go and then also kind of not   because i've seen the chaos that ensues at BookCon and Book Expo but I don't know. They saying "retired"   so I don't know if they're going to bring it  back revamped, maybe 2022 or something after/   if we ever get through COVID but for now it looks like that's not happening, so sad face. So next was   an author being a little messy on twitter. So you know on twitter you can link like your twitTer and   Goodreads. So if you're doing updates on Goodreads, it'll link to twitter, I think. I don't have mine   linked, so I don't know. But you know you always see people like "currently reading or 55% into The Way   of Kings or whatever on twitter. So a reader did that, her status says "75% done with The Daughters   of Erietown by Connie Schultz." And it says "I don't care about this book..." because it like   cuts off the rest of whatever your status was. So the author, Connie Schultz, replied "well thanks   for sticking with it as long as you did, Laura. I do care about it." So the reader did not tag the author   in this um and Goodreads doesn't automatically tag the author in this. So she either was searching for   her name or the title of her book and then replied to the reader and that is so cringy and so weird.   So the person who tweeted this said "authors: stop searching   your names/ titles on social media. Stop  jumping into reader spaces. Just fucking stop."   Um and it's like, I always feel like anything you say about a book when especially when you're not   tagging the author on twitter, Goodreads, instagram, all these platforms even youtube, are for other   readers. For them to know how you feel about a book, see if they like it, see if they won't like it. That,   they're not for authors and now I imagine it's  probably hard to refrain from searching your name   um from giving yourself giving yourself a quick google or putting your name into youtube but   it also is not good for your head space or to go searching out reviews. Now granted you're probably   going to find some great ones but then you're obviously going to find some ones that are less   than great. So it's it's just awkward um she did apologize though. I don't know if she saw other   people's tweets about not doing that but uh Connie said "Laura, I want to apologize to you. I was really   glad you lasted as long as you did but I should have kept that to myself. I wish you only the best."   So I'm glad that she realized that and hopefully going forward she doesn't make that mistake again   but if you're an author, thinking of being an  author, don't do that because it's weird. Don't,   try not to search for yourself but if you're going to please don't like directly come at a reviewer.   Now obviously, if it was positive and you're like "oh my god thank you so much" that's different   and I do not agree with anyone tagging authors in negative reviews um but yeah that right there,   when you weren't tagged and you obviously went searching for it and then replied, super cringe.   But she did apologize, so good for Connie  and hopefully she stays in her lane.  So Epic Reads, I'm pretty sure most people in the bookish community know what that is but   I think they are under HarperCollins, not  exactly as a subsidiary or a publishing   house, they're like an online community  that hype up um promote the young adult   books published under HarperCollins. If I  have that wrong, please correct me. But um   every year they have their Book Shimmy Awards. So they have different awards like best   debut, best thriller, whatever kind of  like maybe their own Goodreads awards   but um specifically just for the books published under HarperCollins. And they also in that award,   have a Book Nerd of the year category, where I don't know, five or six people in the bookish   community are nominated and then obviously you could vote for them and then all the other   categories. So per the theme of 2020, there were no um book nerds that were of color nominated um or   at least not when you look immediately at them. I can't speak to anyone's you know um ethnicity,   they could just be white passing but there were none. So then of course they had to be called   out on it because they couldn't use their eyes and look and see there was no diversity there. So the   thread on twitter is "hi everyone. It was pointed out to us that there's a lack of representation   in the Book Nerd of the Year category in our  Book Shimmy Awards and we agree, we can do better.   We ALWAYS want to ensure that we're reflecting the vast range of readers who make up the YA community. The Book Nerd of the Year nominees have all made positive and amazing contributions, which   which is of course why they're nominated to  begin with. Moving forward, we are taking even   more steps to advocate for creators from diverse and underrepresented groups because that's who   YOU are and who WE are and we wouldn't be EPIC without y'all. We love hearing your feedback and   we always welcome it, whether it be via social media, email, or in person (remember what that was   like?) We appreciate y'all always and forever." So I, here just some things that bothered me it said   that it was pointed out that there was a lack of representation and we agree we can do better. So   just, why did it have to be pointed out  though? And then though we always want   to ensure we're reflecting the vast range  of readers who make up the YA community.   If you were, then this wouldn't even be an issue um and then the Book Nerd of the Year nominees have   all made positive and amazing contributions  which is of course why they're nominated...   are you saying you couldn't find  any creators of color who've made   positive contributions? Maybe i'm reading into it and then moving forward we are taking even more   steps to advocate for creators from diverse and underrepresented groups. Now, what steps are those?   I, just it's fine you say that but then usually  they never added what steps those are. So that's   what I would like to know. Someone replied "so maybe y'all should scratch that category this year and   bring it back next year when you all have a more diverse selection of nominees. Also why not leave   the nominations up to us the readers and not y'all staff if you're really committed to doing   better?" Which is excellent idea um. I didn't  know about these awards till this year but   yeah i'm assuming that their staff does the  nominations? So that also would be helpful if you   actually ask the community because maybe you would get a better representation because I personally know and follow/ watch many creators of color who love YA and promote it on their channel,  promote it on twitter, so on instagram, so it's it's weird. So yeah, I don't know if is that something   you could vote on? Obviously, I would have missed the deadline by now but I don't know if that was   something they put out-- like a link to vote or if you could even like nominate and then they chose   the people who had the top ones? So that would be interesting to know but it's still, it's just   you know and i'm not gonna i'm not going to say it... I'm going to say it: how in 2020 are we still   doing this? It's just, it's just a mess and then  there were some great threads on twitter about it.  There was a great there by Ashley at Bookish Realm and she said: And, I mean I don't need to see say anything else on the subject because that is exactly it. There's always that "we   plan to do better, we're making steps to improve" but it's like what? If we are your target audience,   you need to tell us. It's not some internal, just some internal meeting. Like you do need to have   those and have those discussions internally to plan how you're going to do better and make those   steps and rework you know, your whole system, your mission statement, all that stuff but then you need   to tell your audience what your plans are to do better, not just we're going to go we're going to   do better, trust us. It's like okay, we are going to do better then you go and you have these meetings   and you come back you're like we've talked  about it and we're doing this, our employees   are doing this, we are hiring this, we are making sure we have more Black and POC people in these   meetings, in these board rooms, um working in these groups and uh reaching out to readers and having   more readers of color involved in things that we do that involve the community. And I want to see   it like, I just don't want to see your tweet. I  want it on, I want you to tweet your action plan   and have a link to your website where we can read it and then when you fuck up again, we can be   like "oh well you said you were going to do this" and that's being held accountable. You need to   apologize, make a plan, tell us the plan and then we can see if you actually hold to that. And then   keep you accountable that way. And obviously Epic Reads, like I said, I don't think they're a direct   I don't think like a publishing house but  that's just for any company and you have to   start deciding, like you have to make a choice when a company says you're going to do better they let   you know how they're supposed to do better and then they continue to not. Then you have to be   like okay, I can't support this company any longer. Look what happened with Book Outlet and well for   a while was Book of the Month, but that's gone and then just different things like this There,   you have limited power obviously, we can spread awareness but if it's something where you can   directly stop purchasing from that, stop promoting, stop using something and it doesn't happen in   every case-- some things are more complicated than that but sometimes you can make that choice and we   need to. So this isn't just directed at Epic Reads, this is all these companies that said you know,   that posted a black square that said they were going to do all these things, they were listening   and learning. So what did you learn and what are you going to do going forward because I want to   know. I don't want to see those bullshit things and that goes into apologies from creators also   or authors, Jess Cluess. What are you going to do, how are you going to be better? how can I believe   when you just went on this racist rant, when you do this racist shit, that you say "sorry" and then   I'm just supposed to believe that you're going to be better. How?? I need to see you put in work   and then you need to let us know what that works supposed to be and then i'm going to watch you and   see if you hold up your end. I, you know, I'm not a well-versed person this is why, this is why I read   tweets by other people who can explain it better like Ashley and also Marines from My Name is Marines.   Always incredible, she explains everything so much better than I can. But it's just frustrating   time and time again. How have you, it's December and you haven't learned anything. So that's just...   I'm tired Jesus. But anyway, that was with Epic Reads. So, I don't think they're scratching it and they're   probably go ahead with their nomination and whoever will win. Who knows what they'll do   next year honestly, I don't have high hopes but we'll see. Okay and lastly, I'm not even inserting   screenshots this time because I'm tired. This is the same conversation this keeps happening,   especially lately. So, I just want to talk about it in case you were confused on what was happening   on twitter on Wednesday night, Wednesday day, whatever time it was for you. So, I'm gonna explain it and then i'm just gonna i'm gonna stop. So  again there was a tweet by a fellow booktuber,   Jesse, that was referencing book hauls again. So, I don't know what has been happening with them, if   somebody has messaged them or commented on their video about book hauls. I did see a tweet from   them that also said that they had friends that had been, I don't know attacked or people made comments   about their book hauls but again it's coming  up because this came up like two weeks ago and   then I feel like there was a discussion last week and now it's here again. So they made this comment   and then people were getting upset just reading that comment and so then there was the team of   why are people still getting mad about how  people spend their money, let people live   and why are you mad we're buying books. Like when we buy books, that doesn't affect you, like don't   be mad you can't buy all these books. I'm going to buy all these books if I want, yada yada but then   there was the other side where the conversation, I guess actually started that was the context   before, behind the whole thing. So, I mentioned a couple weeks ago in a video that the Philippines   were hit by um some really severe tsunamis and so they have been struggling. Obviously they are   also in the middle of a pandemic, like we all  are and then they've been hit by these massive   um tsunamis, so there's been massive flooding and some places are just like underwater and   people don't have food and resources and all of these things. And um so I do have links in   my description, I just want to point that out.  There's like a link to a card with different   ways to donate um to the Philippines  and i've tried to retweet on twitter   some Filipino booktubers who have ways to donate, that that you can donate directly to them and then   they're showing you proof that they're donating it to different resources or organizations   um. And so the the conversation really was that you can continue to go on and post about these hauls,   continue to spend your money on all these books but not um at least even retweet a donation link.  So people were us upset because when a lot of the Black Lives Matter protests were happening   this summer, that they were supporting us and um supporting donation links and and talking about it   on twitter and they're feeling um forgotten about and you know left out and basically pointing out a   lot of us readers, people in general are very  self-centered and only focused on the West   and I guess you can include the UK in  that really too um. And that so we're not   supporting them enough and and basically they were referring that to hauls. Like you can sit   on here and keep arguing and defending your hauls or buying on your books that's fine, but at least   a retweet, that's free. Like at  least talk about it, bring it up,  bring awareness to it. So I totally  understand that frustration   and I at the beginning um was retweeting um and sharing and I will admit that I fell off.   I'm not going to say I didn't because I obviously did know. I saw a lot of people tweeting about it   and I could have been more vocal. I don't always remember to tell people about the links in my   description. I try to switch them up to keep them updated with the latest thing that was going on   like SARS in Nigeria um that information which I don't think i talked about either. So I definitely   can do bette. And in being more aware in using um this platform that I have to share that awareness.   So at least that you know and you can go look at those resources, you can share them, you can   donate if you have the means. So that was really the conversation last night on twitter and so   there were people who didn't understand the actual context of the conversation and they were like why   are we talking about this shit again, like mind your business, I do what I want. I buy my books and   then people are like we're literally just saying  that you're not supporting us how we supported you.   And so then of course the consumerism thing came in there and it's just like i'm so tired.   I just want to say "stop it. Get some  help." It's just it's just frustrating and   I don't, I'm not gonna have a conversation in  this video because then the video is gonna   go up and then it's gonna just be comments. So it's definitely something I would be interested   to talk about in like a live so there could be  actually like a conversation but anyway if you can   please um go, if you're on book twitter then  you've you've probably seen it, so at least just   retweet a link. If you can afford to donate,  great ,if you can't at least retweet links   so someone else may be able to donate. They can see that information and and then that's at least   you doing something because in this community of readers, it is very easy to think we're just all   in our home country. Especially me it's um a lot of us booktubers are American so it's very easy to   just focus on what's going on in America because America is a disaster but so many other countries   also are. Also going through so many things  and I know that it's very hard to keep up with   everything, especially this year has already  been really hard mentally for all of us. So   I'm not saying you have to be up to date on  every single thing going on. I know there's   a lot of things I don't know that are going on  but if you do see it, if it does come across your   twitter bio and people are asking you to reach -your twitter bio, your twitter timeline- and just   retweet information, to at least get it out there. Maybe when you do see something you're like oh   this is the third time I've seen it, maybe click  on it read it, just get a a brief idea of what's   going on. But I know it's overwhelming because it's just like the world's constantly on fire. So just   do your best within your you know your ability your but don't like burn out mentally and share   things when you can, if you have the means donate but if you can't at least awareness is always free.   And spreading that awareness. So that was mainly the conversation. Like I said i'm not putting in   screenshots, i'm not i'm not just not bothering with it because it's going to happen again   and that's just it's just not  the point. It's deeper than   "don't watch book hauls" which I did say in  a video a couple weeks ago just because I  didn't want to have the discussion on it again. And deeper than "it's my money mind your business"   but we're just not going to go into  that conversation right now because   I'm tired. I'm sure there's more, I'm sure I missed something. I'm sure there's something happening   right now so that there'll be another  video for Tuesday. But, yeah I'm tired.   I'm tired physically, mentally. I'm just  exhausted. Anyway, per usual: if I missed anything, misinterpreted anything, you want to add anything to this conversation, please do so in the comments   below because I love the discussions that we have down there. And please check out my description for   links to information about things that are going on in the world um. There's alternatives to Amazon:  links to Bookshop.org, which I am an affiliate so if you did buy a book through my link, I would get   a small commission. Libro FM instead of Audible and then there's my social media and just always   look at the description, pretty please. So take care of yourself. Like I said earlier, to stay   hydrated, stay moisturized, put on your sunscreen, wear your mask, wash your mask wash your hands, stay home   if you can don't need to leave the house, please, don't go out places. I'm so freaking sick of COVID.   And um give this video a thumbs up and subscribe and I thank you so much for your support and for   watching this video. So take care, i'll see you in my next one, bye! you know left your bed and you left the toys, now you squeezing in this chair  with me. okay so i'm gonna need you to sit down   jesus be a fence. Is this is crooked?  i'm not changing at this point okay hey no hey sit down sit down please   nigel
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Channel: Jess Owens
Views: 21,359
Rating: 4.8999243 out of 5
Keywords: jess owens, lifestyle, bookish drama, booktube drama, book twitter drama, bookish gossip, book communitea, epic reads, read with jenna, the bluest eye, toni morrison, connie schultz, consumerism, the phillipines, tsunamis in the phillipines, end SARS, black booktuber, black book reviewer, christmas, French bulldog, what is happening with bookcon, bookexpo, bookish convention, ARCs, Sasha alsberg
Id: SiHcb_E5aWo
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 35min 40sec (2140 seconds)
Published: Fri Dec 11 2020
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