Tell the people what's going on. My name is Nigel LaVondrius Moon and i'm
bringing you the latest in book community drama. Huh Nigel you're going
to tell him what's going on? Tell them what's poppin'. You're fired, Nigel. Can you sit down please? You were already in the video and you
didn't do a good job, you didn't tell the people the tea. So now i'm gonna do it. I mean I gave you a chance, dude. What do you want? I'm not giving you treats you didn't even do your job. Yeah, you didn't try hard enough. Hey, hi, hello. Welcome or welcome back to my channel. My name is Jess
and today i'm here to bring you another installment of Book CommuniTEA:
where I try to keep you abreast of the goings-on in the book community
but first of course I want to say please vote, we are down to the wire, a few weeks
left, so please get out and vote. If you can
vote early or drop off your ballot. Whatever, if you're an American citizen,
just do it. Today is one of those days where i'm
very frustrated with filming on my phone. Some days it's fine and some
days I really wish I had a camera, so if you film um so if you're a fellow YouTuber, Booktuber and you have any affordable
recommendations for a filming camera, if you could leave it down below i'd really
appreciate it. Anyway let's get into the video, there's
a couple topics to go over this week. Nothing like huge huge, I don't think so
but um some a few things going on uh in the
Twittersphere predominantly. So the first thing pretty
small and it's nothing confirmed but I did see there were rumors of
a of Cinder being adapted and what I saw was a tweet that said
"Cinder better be Asian and Winter better be a dark-skinned Black girl in they
adapt in the adaptation of the Lunar
Chronicles." So there is no confirmation um someone in the
comments said "she's discussing it with a studio but my advice would not be to get any significant hopes up. This is the fourth
studio she's talked about it with across a few years, so it's not confirmed." But I had seen this a few weeks ago, someone I guess on
TikTok made a video about it too. So I mean I would watch it. I enjoyed the
Lunar Chronicles when I read them but i can't remember if I would think
of Cinder as a Black girl Someone else said they pictured Cinder
as being Middle Eastern. I don't remember but I just thought it
was interesting and that would be fun. A lot of books being adapted into movies
and tv shows recently so it is totally possible that
that could be coming in the near future. So I just thought that was interesting.
So next, I saw some tweets about fan fiction being real literature and I guess someone was saying it wasn't. So I found
the original tweet I think and someone said "The fic writing process is absolutely nowhere near writing your own stories
and that 70k slowburn fic is not literature and you
are a grown adult." And then they said "Everyone in the replies
and quote retweets trying to tell me otherwise, I literally don't care
and I'm a fucking english major too so don't even start my god."
So then that started people's replies about fan fiction. Someone said "The is fan fiction literature debate is annoying and
pointless but it's so funny to me that people frame it as fanfic as mostly garbage unlike real literature, as if the vast majority of real published books aren't also complete
garbage." I wouldn't say vast majority but but
yeah I get it. I myself have not read that much
fanfiction, i'm kind of ashamed, i've only read one and I
haven't even finished it. But if you have any fan fiction
recommendations you think I would like, definitely leave them in the comments
and actually oh my god- I was gonna say don't because i'm gonna
get distracted but just leave them in the comments, who knows maybe i'll give
them a whirl. Some are short some are long but I think
it's obviously real writing like they're writing it and some of them are
so good um that I've heard. The one I was reading
was amazing. I mean it was like multiple books worth of writing they did,
fo' free but someone else said "People who hate fan fiction have clearly never
read a good 150k slowburn fanfic with seemingly
unrequited pining and unintentional bed sharing and unlocked the secret to true happiness and it shows."
Yeah, I don't-- that's so funny that English major like i'm an English major
so I'm right. So this person said "English majors belittling fanfic does nothing
but prove they're going to be horrible writers and are learning nothing but
elitism in their degree programs." And you know, I wouldn't say I know
they're going to be horrible writers but yeah that's a crappy way to look at it. Fan fiction, look look where it got what's her name, from last week : Anna Todd.
She got published from writing fan fiction, not like I consider that fan
fiction great fiction but nevertheless. Fan fiction is literature.
um it is legitimate writing, it's amazing. So if you write fanfiction, keep it up
and don't let these salty ass English majors get you down.
So Sabaa Tahir, who is the author of the Ember quartet, so the first book An Ember In The Ashes, which I haven't read yet, I
have the third book: A Reaper at the Gates, don't ask why I
only have the third one but it is a series I want to read
probably next year. It is a Y.A. fantasy series and her the final book is coming out this month? November? Soon, it's coming out soon and so Fairyloot came out with a
special edition set of the books, I was going to say box but it's not a box it's
just a set of the four books and they're super pretty of course um that you can buy in honor of the series being completed. And so
so Sabaa posted "An absolute honor to be working with Fairyloot to do special
editions of the An Ember In The Ashes quartet. For
years Fairyloot has been such a huge supporter of this series and we have
been working towards this for a while. I cannot emphasize enough how much work and care the Fairyloot team put into these editions. Many of you have asked me if Sky will have any special edition boxes, this is
the only one. Quantities are very limited, I could only
sign so many books but please see Fairyloot's feed for all
the deets, you can scroll through here and see a detailed version of each book."
And they look beautiful but what
came up was that this is the only one. The tweets I saw were "This is the only box? There are so much there's so much I want to say about this
(specific series having so many boxes and so much merch) but for my own sake this
morning i'm not going to." And then someone else said "The only one? Like wow, the disrespect. Sabaa Tahir deserves better but no y'all wanted to give us five Bardugo special editions. Eight Holly Black ones and countless Red Rising books."
I mean there's no lie, there's no lie being told. I don't know how many, I mean there are at least a couple for King of Scars,
i know um. Were there boxes for Ninth House? I don't remember, there's always
boxes I swear. So many boxes and editions for The Cruel Prince, yeah it's just is disheartening because she obviously is a woman of color and she just has that one. I've heard about an Ember in the Ashes for years,
it is a pretty popular series and it's coming to an end and it's just like
why is this the only box? And I think it's just the books, I
don't think there's like a box with like bookish items. Also , I think maybe in my total bookish online life i've gotten two or three
boxes, I think? Owlcrate was the worst, like it was just
so basic but most of the time when I see people
unbox their Owlcrates and all these various boxes, I don't ever remember seeing items in those boxes that relate to An Ember In The Ashes and I could be wrong obviously, I can't remember every
box but it's predominantly Sarah J Maas items even if the story has
nothing to do with her books or loosely. There's you know Throne of
Glass or ACOTAR inspired items. Six of Crows inspired items, obviously a ton of people were doing Harry Potter inspired items
until recently. But like there was the same of fandoms
recycled over and over in these boxes and it's just a shame
that um what from what i've heard a great series is coming to an end and
it's not being shown more love. But those editions are
beautiful, i'm sure they will sell out and from people who have similar reading
tastes to me, they think I would enjoy the books so anyway, that's just sad.
But it's the way of our world sadly. That the typically the white authors will obviously be promoted and hyped more than authors of color.
It's just the truth, don't love that for us, no no. Some publishing news that
Jimmy Patterson presents or James Patterson presents which one is it
whatever is no more um. It was, so James Patterson i'm sure you all have seen his books in some
grocery store aisle or whatever that's what before I read adult books, like a
long time ago in high school, I was like I don't want
to read adult books like because I thought they were just uh Nora Robert and James Patterson books that I saw the grocery store, like
no shade to if you read those books. I have one James Patterson book on my
shelf but I think it was probably written by
the person whose name's name is smaller than James Patterson's
but anyway him- who has all these books and all this money had created an imprint: Jimmy Patterson Presents or it's James Patterson Presents?
Maybe I should learn the right word before I start talking. It says Jimmy Patterson books um is gone and it presented
a lot of young adult books and some diverse authors and now
it's dissolving or closed or whatever you want to call it and they didn't even
make a formal announcement. One of the authors or editors who worked
at the imprint basically you know was the "whistleblower"
so the tweet was, and there were three tweets and I only
screenshotted one like an idiot and now their account is private
but anyway the tweet said "Well it looks like there won't be an official
announcement so here we go. The Jimmy imprint is heading in a different
direction and the Presents list has come to an end.
The imprint will- will no longer be acquiring and will
only publish children's books by James Patterson." So he himself
is now only going to publish his own children's books because that's what the world needs. And so you know there were two tweets
about that um because someone said "Jimmy Patterson books is closing and will only publish his own fiction going forward. but the
imprint made its name on the works of marginalized stories like Girls of Paper and Fire and Once and Future. There was no formal announcement so
editors had to announce it themselves." So I just um someone tweeted "Just
because i've seen this question a lot today... the contract of Jimmy books will
still be published." And then I know so the author of Girls of Paper and Fire, I believe Natasha Ngan, is um
she tweeted "As far as I was told the imprint is closing. Twitter seems to
suggest otherwise but whatever's going on me an the Girls books will be going to another imprint within Little Brown which means
that Girls of Fate and Fury will be published." Um so she doesn't know when but her books will still be published under
a different imprint. So I wonder if that will happen with all kind of books because I think Kerrie Maniscalco, her like
Hunting Prince Dracula or whatever those books were published under that imprint
and I then she just had a new one come out so it'll be interesting to see
where those authors go and hopefully they all find at home because that's
really distressing. And I hope they at least
were notified before and it just wasn't like you tried to
call your editor and they're like we don't
exist anymore, we're not publishing your book, hopefully it wasn't like that but that just seems really sad and
why especially in a pandemic?! My favorite response of the year but it
just seems like why because someone said on twitter that they
weren't doing as well or maybe it was probably financial things because you
know money runs the world and maybe but i
don't know, I felt like those books at least the ones i've mentioned
were pretty popular and i've seen everywhere and also it's James Patterson
and he has a fuckton of money, he has millions. So I know his money is separate from the imprint's money but i'm just saying, if you cared
about keeping these authors and keeping this
imprint going you could probably funnel in some money to keep it afloat. I'm not an economics major, what do I know? But that's uh sad and then also on the theme of publishing, I
don't , I didn't see much about this but it said Simon Pulse was being absorbed into Simon & Schuster under a different uh
imprint and I never heard of Simon Pulse but I guess they published like teen fiction . I saw this recently but then the article that was
linked was from May [2020] so I guess there's just
been a lot of shifting around in publishing this year
and it's just really unfortunate about the Jimmy Patterson thing and
um I for one know I don't want to read any of his children's books that he
writes. no thank you. Okay so the next was a bit
of author drama on Twitter. So someone tweeted @ S.E. Hinton, who is the author of The Outsiders, um which is considered a modern classic
I think and they said "Please consider writing a
graphic novel version of The Outsiders. My students love your novel and I know I
could engage more readers who are reluctant and striving with the graphic
novel version. Thank you." I think i cut it off, I'm sorry. And so S.E. Hinton quote tweeted the tweet and said "No. The Outsiders is the first book many people read in their life and it shows
them they CAN read a book. Not that they can turn the pages on a
graphic novel." And Twitter went boom. So I guess that is the big one of the week even though I didn't put it last,
my bad but uh. So I have read The Outsiders, I read it in middle school and
i've always loved it, i've reread it. I haven't recently. I also loved the movie and so that was just really
disappointing to see and so of course, or many people had their opinions, uh
one tweet was "As a librarian, i'm pissed by this comment. Graphic novels
are just as valid as any other work of literature and they
actually help kids transition from picture books to chapter books.
They are also great reads for reluctant reader. SMH, the ignorance."
And then Angie Thomas said "Graphic novels are novels. I don't give a crap
what kind of format a kid reads in as long as a kid reads." And then someone "S.E. Hinton bashing graphic novels is
such a great example of the shift Y.A. authors have made toward
caring more about reading accessibility. I can't imagine an educator reaching out
to me wanting to get more kids into reading and responding to them like that."
And yeah it's just a terrible take, that graphic novels are reading. I mean
she has to be pretty old by now right? So it's like you know, white woman, old white women gonna old woman, like what she-- oh
Curtis, i'm so sorry, i'm so sorry, Curtis. It's like you see, it's like are you
surprised? You wish you were. You know, like I wish I was surprised but
it's just really sad and it was just funny that she says
um Outsiders is the first book people many people read in their life?? And I didn't
like I said, I didn't read until middle school. So I think that's a little weird.
It'd be different if she was talking about Clifford the Big Red Dog but the
Outsiders being a first book? Like girl, i'm looking at so many books on my
shelves that I read way before the the Outsiders: The Babysitter's Club um
Ramona and Beezus, Nancy Drew. It's not the first book many people read
like maybe, she maybe she forgot what she
wrote? I don't know but of course that was a big thing
across Twitter and it was just, just a garbage take and then of course
someone added on to that about audio books and it's like here comes this
conversation again the audiobooks aren't reading. And they are, okay? That's it,
if you're reading, whether that is a graphic novel, a comic book, a manga,
a book, a chapter book, a picture book, an audiobook, it's reading.
I mean, I don't know why the conversation keeps coming up. Those people just must
be really bored but that's it, that's all, period. Nothing else to say. Like period, period. And moving on, so I was going
through my screenshots and I saw this. And it's not really tea, I just wanted
to bring it up because I saw the tweet from the account that is hosting IndigAThon, they said "Hey friends! We are
overjoyed to see that you're all forming your TBRs and lists. However, we were made aware of a situation where another creator has been asked to
provide a ridiculous amount of emotional labor for IndigAThon with no
compensation or common courtesy. Google is free." And so I found the tweet
and it said "If we are not friends, please do not DM and ask me to curate a TBR for
you for IndigAThon based on your specific
literary preferences. Especially if you have no plans to
compensate me for my time and knowledge. Some of y'all are BOLD." And then they
said "The person has apologized and everything's cool. I never mind giving
recommendations to friends and mutuals but for our very first interaction is
you asking for my time and effort i'm gonna say no." Yes like that's a that's a hot mess, what are you gonna be like okay here's what
I like to read um and can you tell me what books by
Indigenous authors would be perfect for this readathon? Like
even if i had talked to you before, I feel like that's bold to ask unless you
were like my friend friend. So just a FYI: don't do
that. Don't do that to Black creators. I know a lot of people experienced that
um recently with you know after everything
started happening with Black Lives Matter and reaching out to Black creators and asking like what books by Black authors
should I read. Like one, yes Google is free. Go, you can search on
Youtube, you can search on Goodreads, like I am not your encyclopedia, your
directory. Don't do that to any kind of you know
marginalized group of people. Don't go in their DMs and and ask them
to curate something for you. I mean unless you coming with the coin,
then i'm gonna think about it. I'm like how much you offering? Okay, hold
on, i'll be right back i'll type you up a nice list and everything. I might even
include the photos. Just so you know, so if you're trying to
come to ask me about books by Black authors, you better be coming some money. I accept Venmo and Paypal. Yes thank you, oh and Navy Federal if you
got Navy Federal, I can do that too. Thank you. And so this is just a brief
little thing, that this happened a little earlier in
the year and they just popped back up and I saw it on Twitter. So they have a Bookstagram account: The Unread Shelf and she started the unread shelf project years ago, basically like taking stock of your shelves and looking at all the books
um that you have that are unread and trying to read them. So she would do
challenges, like a monthly challenge, um like this
month look at the book you've had the longest and read it if you don't read it
by the end of the month you get rid of it, such and such. And of course i've participated in this in the past and
always been unsuccessful. But her account has grown over the years
and I guess she started you know working with publishers or receiving
ARCs and stuff from publishers, so she came up with this thing- like a course
on working with publishers and I think originally it was like 90 something
dollars and bookstagram was pissed, they were like are you kidding me?? Like so many people and so many people i've
followed who have connections with publishers, who
receive ARCs, who request them have written blogs or done
threads on Twitter or put up a highlight on their Instagram about how they do it
like giving you tips on how to write it, what you should do, what you shouldn't do
etc, for free. And so people are like are you kidding,
that you are going to basically do the same thing but charge people
as this formal course? And yeah it it blew up and she ended up like
deactivating her profile I think um I don't follow her, I stopped following her a while ago but you know, I had to go check when there's
tea popping. And [she] was off of Bookstagram for a while and then I saw someone on Twitter posted it's like oh she's back. So I
guess she came back to Bookstagram and she, this is on her website it's not
on Instagram and brought the program back
but now it's $47. And it says "Partners with Publishers
Self-paced" ooh self-paced. "Learn how to build meaningful
partnerships with publishers on Bookstagram through confidently
requesting books from publishers, writing authentic book reviews and
creating engaging content on Instagram. This is a self-paced course." And so you
can buy it for $47 or get a free preview. So yeah, how do you how do you feel about that? Because like I said there are tons of people who give this information away for free.
I respect the hustle, trying to make that coin, I get it, but it's just weird when why would I pay for this when I could go look, I could go Google this stuff and bring up stuff on all these different websites
for free? You know? So I don't know, what do you,
what do you think about it? You know, just a quick, just a quick, just wanted to
throw that in there. I want to talk about the Times best
fantasy list. So this week Time Magazine released a list
that says The 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time. I know I should have, I could have made a
separate video doing this ranking but everybody is so i'm just including it in
this video. So okay so it said "How we created this list.
So to okay to develop our list we began in
2019 by recruiting a panel of leading fantasy authors: Tomi Adeyemi, Cassandra Clare, Diana Gabaldon, Neil Gaiman, Marlon James, N.K. Jemisin, George R. R. Martin and Sabba Tahir to join
Time staff in nominating the top books of
the genre. Panelists did not nominate their own
works."--Side note why is George always doing something else besides
writing Winds of Winter? This is ridiculous! He's always blurbing
somebody's book, at some damn panel or something instead of writing his books and makes me mad. Back to this, this says "The group then rated 250 nominees on a scale and using their
responses. Time created a ranking. Finally Time editors considered each
finalist based on key factors including: originality and ambition, artistry,
critical and popular reception and influence on
the fantasy genre and literature more broadly." So I just want you to keep in mind that they considered "critical and popular reception", I just want to leave that there but
that's how they created this list. So some of them and
have not read most of them okay, there's a hundred and
I don't know why they chose a hundred but they did and there's some older ones
like Arabian Nights, Alice Adventures In Wonderland, obviously. Um there's Mary Poppins, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, one of my favorites, by C.S. Lewis, um one of my most reread books, I love
that book. Um there's some another The Voyage of
the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. Of course The Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers and The Return of the King by J.R. R. Tolkien and there's James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, I love that book. Also A Wrinkle in Time, I love that book by Madeleine L'engle,
if i'm saying that right um and yeah I just keep going and I think these are in
order of publishing. So a A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K
Le Guin, um Watership Down by Richard Adams, I
haven't read that one. The Princess Bride by William Goldman, A
Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeline L'Engle. The BFG by Roald Dahl and so i'm seeing some of these, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana
Wynne Jones and i'm like okay, that makes sense, like i've heard of these.
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, Good Omens Terry Pratchett and Neil
Gaiman, like some a lot of these make sense. Now we get to
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and i'm confusion. I read Outlander and I enjoyed it but for 100 best fantasy books of all time? I don't feel like Outlander fits. Like to me it's primarily a historical
romance with a fantastical element and so just for it to be on best fantasy
books of all time seems strange but then there's the Golden Compass and the Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman which are the first two books in His Dark Materials and I did
enjoy that series. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Harry Potter is here of course um well that's Prisoner of Azkaban and Half
Blood Prince. Then there's George R.R. Martin, A Storm
of Swords, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Mistborn, hey, Name of the Wind by Patrick
Rothfuss- can't comment, City of Glass by Cassandra Clare. I only read the first three books in
that series but 100 best fantasy books of all time? The Hundred Thousand
Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, I haven't read that yet but I want to. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern,
Angel Fall by Susan Ee. Some of these i'm questioning , I have
questions. And An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir,
obviously I cannot comment but that's exciting. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin,
okay. Okay Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, I
ain't mad. The Wrath and the Dawn by Reneé Ahdieh, I didn't like that one um A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir
and then there's Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi, which I have heard conflicting reviews about that book, so
when it says critical and popular acclaim or
reception whatever it said... i'm okay. The Changeling by Victor Lavelle,
haven't read that. Jade City by Fonda Lee, i've heard so much about this one
recently, i'm definitely reading it next year. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin, which I need to read. Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi. Blanca & Roja by Anna Marie Mclemore, that's interesting. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi
Adeyemi, I mean I can understand why that one's
on there but The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, Circe
by Madeline Miller. I don't know, I haven't , I haven't read
any of these Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, i've heard great things about that. Now see now I have here, so I got
questions. Back Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. I
have seen so many people who have read this book,
who love adult fantasy, who are like this ain't it. So i'm just wondering and then Children
of Virtue and Vengeance? Even people who love Children of Blood and Bone, a lot of
people do not like Children of Virtue and Vengeance, for this to become the top
100 best fantasies of all time?? They got the Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang, which I haven't read but no doubt. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Sylvia Moreno Garcia, I have heard that it's great a book uh got Pet by Awaeke Emezi, The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter-
also I have this audiobook, I haven't listened to it yet and i've seen more
people talking about it recently but again, I have gotten mixed reviews. We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal. Woven In Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez.
So it's just... it's weird to make a list and have so
many new releases on it. So many new releases on it, I don't I
don't know if you can get to that kind of acclaim that quickly. I don't know, how do you guys feel about
the list? I obviously just went through it and talked about ones that
I had heard of or read and some of them make sense but I don't know why there was 100 and I just don't feel like this list is complete and I can tell you one reason why because: The City
of Brass isn't on that list! How how do you have Children of Virtue and
Vengeance, how do you have like books that came out like last year
or this year on this list- last year 2019 on this list and you don't have THE CITY OF BRASS? What?! Suspect! I'm sorry. I'm also surprised that they put
Mistborn on there and not The Way of Kings because so many people
say that The Way of Kings is like up here compared to Mistborn so that's also
interesting. But where is The City of Brass, where is
it?! I have questions, i'm very upset about it.
Let me look at my shelves, anything else. I'm just, I'm shooketh. I'm honestly upset, i'm mad about it. The panel sounds qualified but I, I don't know, it just doesn't make sense
to me the 100 best fantasy books of all time?! That's
a steep title and that I haven't heard of some of these I'm like, not like i
have heard of everything but the more recent ones I'm like??
Come on. Anyway that's it for me this week. I don't know if I missed anything, I probably did. There's probably something
happening right now but I had to get this filmed, I'm hungry okay,. And i'm annoyed at this list. How do you leave out The City of Brass??? Shannon was hoodwinked and bamboozled, it's upsetting. It's upsetting me and my homegirls
or me and my home plants. Zelda's over there you can't see her and Curtis, he is
not happy, he loves The City of Brass, I read it out
loud to him (I didn't). Anyway, so per usual, if I missed anything let me know. If I misinterpreted anything,
got something wrong uh definitely let me know in the
comments below. Always check out my description box, there's links
to things, my social media, to voting, to issues that are going on
in America and around the world. I have started A Deadly Education,
i'm about 30% through so hopefully I can finish that in the next
couple days and have that have a video
up for it on Saturday talking about it since it is um a book of a hot topic right now. And that's kind of it. So I hope you're
taking care of yourself, still wearing your mask and trying to keep distant and
not going to weddings and parties and stuff and washing your mask, washing your hands, staying moisturized, hydrated and wearing sunscreen and just taking care of yourself. I hope
you're reading good books and I appreciate you for watching this video.
Please give it a thumbs up if you liked it, please subscribe and i'll see you in my next one. BYE! What have people been saying? Have they
been reading? They've been spilling the tea? They've
been spilling the tea? What have they been saying? What happened this week? What happened? You don't want to tell
nobody? Oh that's stingy Nigel, it's very stingy of you,
that's not nice. You're supposed to tell the people
what's poppin'. You're not a very good news host, i'ma
have to fire you. You ain't doing your job.
All right, it's your last chance, what you gonna say? Say hello, tell them to have a good day.
Alright, you're fired.
