Books I've Read This Year

hey YouTube it's Zoe and today I'm going to talk about the 32 books that I read in March April May and June yeah I thought it was a wise idea to wait until I had as many books as I read in the entirety of last year to talk about but I made that decision here we are let's get started the first book I read in March was China rich girlfriend by Kevin Kwan the sequel to crazy rich Asians which I read last year I also saw the movie and I will never stop talking about the movie adaptation because I loved it so much this book though it took three tries to actually get through I picked it up a few times wasn't feeling it wasn't really in the mood but finally I made my way through it I gave it 3 out of 5 stars I'm not going to give any spoilers but this has a very different vibe and plot to the first book which is more of a family drama Gossip Girl romance book this though is a mystery in a way there are so many more point of views and storylines added which is my first complaint that Rachel and Nick didn't really seem like they were the main characters of their own story I came here for Nick and Rachel and Astrid and Nick's mom and that was only part of the story I don't care about anybody else the pacing of the story was also kind of odd at the first three quarters of the book were kind of like crazy rich Asians where there were a bunch of shopping sprees I mean that got really old very quickly I know it's supposed to be a satire and all of the extravagant displays of wealth are supposed to be overbearing but I was honestly bored with how many times they went shopping I started skimming through that because I I don't know what fancy things are but then the last 100 pages was a whirlwind so much happened it was so rushed but it was much more entertaining than the first three quarters I will be picking up the third book in the future I actually already purchased it while I was reading this book but I'm not rushing to get to it next I read my brother's husband baigan Goro - Khmer which I borrowed from the library I gave four out of five stars this takes place in Japan and follows a man named Aichi who works from home in order to take care of his daughter named kana he had a twin brother named Ryoji who came out as gay right before he moved to Canada and yeah Chia was not supportive then when Ryoji was in Canada he fell in love with a man named Mike Flanagan they got married oh I love Mike so much but after Ryoji unfortunately passes away Mike wants to get to know his family and his culture more so he travels to Japan gets to know yo Chi and kana this show is how Japanese culture has a way to go in the acceptance of gay people and I assume the rest of the lgbtq+ community this was such a heartwarming manga I immediately connected with all of the characters especially Mike and kana they were a dynamic duo I loved them so much I also loved how the easing tension between yo Chi and Mike was very organic when the IG was trying to get past his homophobic beliefs seeing how kana how such a young person could be so without prejudice when getting to know her uncle really helps him grow there is a second volume I got it from the library but I didn't read it in time so I had to return it but I will be getting it again in the future because I really want to read it I then read another library book How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell I gave this 4 out of 5 stars you know part of the reason I gave it such a high rating it was a really enjoyable book but I probably would have rated it a little bit lower if it worked for the fact that David Tennant the doctor himself the man of my dreams but he may rated the audio book with his Scottish accent he was so enthusiastic narrating it and it made me excited to read it he also has a really nice voice that's I'm gonna say I saw the movie adaptation a couple of years ago when it wasn't theaters and I didn't know until recently that it was based on a book it's different from the movie it's still set in the world of Vikings and Dragons and we have an underdog main character named hiccup changes the Vikings relationships with the Dragons but that's kind of where the similarities end this is much more self-aware than I was expecting bordering on parody of the underdog to hero story especially because the Viking society is so hyper masculine the Dragons are also much brighter than I was expecting especially toothless my boy toothless was rude so I had to take a moment to adjust the story but once I stopped comparing it to the movie I really enjoyed myself there are pages dedicated to each dragon species with details about how dangerous they are and other special skills they have it had a similar vibe to the first Harry Potter book and how imaginative and playful and detailed it was so I definitely recommend if you have kids or if you are just interested in reading the book or if you just really like David Tennant check this book out it was fun I don't think I'm going to continue on with the series because I got everything that I wanted out of the story then I read evidence of the affair by Taylor Jenkins read I gave it 5 out of 5 stars it is a novella set in the 1970s about this woman named Carrie who realizes that her husband is cheating on her and reaches out to the husband of the woman who her husband is cheating with did that sentence make sense I hope it did so this is written all and letters from Carrie to David and I am a sucker for books written in alternative formats like letters emails journal entries all of that I think it worked perfectly for the story especially because it's shorter I had a full character arc I had character development I cried my eyes out at the end it had twists and turns for a novella only Taylor Jenkins read could do that well probably some other people but she did it very well I am so excited to talk about this next book with you all because it was one of my favorites of the entire year so far obviously gave it 5 out of 5 stars it is Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Jones oh my gosh I'm surprised I grew up watching the Studio Ghibli film it's my second favorite after Kiki's Delivery Service because that one has so much sentimental value but like How to Train Your Dragon I didn't know that this was based on a book until semi recently and I had to read it it was such a different experience reading it because there was so much more in detail obviously because it is a book it can be however long it needs to be unlike a movie which needs to be under two hours this had Hamels backstory where he came from how he got his powers all of that also sophie has a whole family we didn't really know about and they have their own stuff going on I love Howland Sophie with my entire heart even more now that I know their backstories Howell is a vain drama queen Sophie is a hard-working lady who isn't even a phase when she's turned into a grandmother we get new characters and plot points which kept me guessing even though I've seen the movie so many times this is an a-plus book and the movie is an a-plus movie I know there are more books in this series but they don't focus on Howland Sophie they focus on other characters in other lands I think that Howland Sophie make cameos and those but I just want another full-length novel of them bickering they don't even have to do anything they can just be making toast for 200 pages and I would gladly read it oh boy the next book I have to share is another one of my favorites of the entire year it is Daisy Jones and the six by none other than Taylor Jenkins read my queen you're probably so tired of hearing about this book on booktube this was our first bookmarked book of the month and I couldn't imagine having a better book to kick us off I loved reading this with Hannah and Haley we had a really nice discussion in our live show the first half is spoiler free but then the second half we get very much into spoilers and discussions it was a lot of fun I will include that live show up above but gave you 5 out of 5 stars so this book is told in a series of interviews with members of the pop their seventies rock band desi Jones and the six and their close friends and family members it follows the rise of the band how they got their start and started making music together and then how and why they suddenly split up at the height of their fame which no one has talked about before people have speculated but here is the true personally the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo is still my favorite Taylor Jenkins read book I just connect with it more because it is a traditional format book I was able to better connect with the story the interview style is really interesting because you get to see how everybody is obviously biased when it comes to what they see and what they believe and so like it says on the first page the truth often lies unclaimed in the middle but it took away some of the emotional impact because we were just getting a recounting of events decades before so they were all so detached from what happened there were pros & cons when it came to this interview format I think if you listen to the audiobook if you are able to it might make you connect with the story more I read the book first and then I listened to the audiobook but maybe if you do the opposite you'll get even more attached to the characters I did really really enjoy it though Daisy Jones she had so many quotable lines okay like a quarter of this book is highlighted and most of what's highlighted is what Daisy Jones said her quote spoke to me on a spiritual level these characters seemed fully fleshed out flaws and all they were all very flawed individuals the relationships between every character especially Daisy Camilla and Billy were so nuanced and complex I've never read a relationship like that relationship before Reese Witherspoon is going to be adapting this I believe into a miniseries and I think that I will enjoy the miniseries even more than the book possibly I don't know I don't know why I made that statement it's gonna bite me in the butt I know it is I'm just very optimistic about it I think probably because we'll actually be able to hear the songs the we get a lot of the lyrics of the song and here but I need to hear them performed I need to feel the angst despite my criticism I loved it it was life-changing and that's why I gave it five out of five stars it's not perfect but it's perfect then the first non-fiction book I read this year was the library book by Susan Orlean I gave it five out of five stars I actually also got it as a library book because I felt like it was so appropriate this book caught me so off guard I was not expecting to be changed by a nonfiction book and be so invested in what was happening highly recommend please check it out so this is an investigation into the mysterious and disastrous 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library which burned more than seven hours I think it got over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and it destroyed or damaged more than a million books but this investigation is just part of the book it weaves in between the history of libraries focusing on the Los Angeles Public Library System but you get to see what librarians have done what their duties have been throughout the years how the function of libraries have changed over the years nowadays they are kind of communal spaces where a lot of homeless population can get services it talks about how libraries affect our lives and why we should support them and I'm making it sound really boring but I was how interesting I absolutely love libraries always have always will but this actually made me consider one day becoming a librarian well I don't know if you're a book lover which I'm guessing you are because you're watching this right now or you like true crime or history I highly highly highly recommend this I did not think that a nonfiction book would speak to me this much or that I would still be thinking about it months after I read it Wow and then honestly I forgot that I read this book until I put together this wrap-up but I ran in an absent dream by Seanan McGuire the fourth book in the way where children's series actually it is a pretty cool though it follows the character named Lundy I gave this three out of five stars it was mostly just forgettable I honestly think that now is the time to give up on the series for me every time I pick up one of these books I'm expecting something different and I'm always disappointed I said it before and I'll say it again I really enjoy the concept of these books I love how it follows children who go to fantasy worlds such as Narnia or Wonderland and what happens when they return back to earth how they have changed how they can cope but the problem of this book and all of the other books in the series are that they're so short they all should be like 400 pages long but they're all about 200 and she tries to cram in 400 pages of plot into half the size this results in her skimming over important plot points especially in in an absent dream a big life-changing event that happens in Lindy's life we're just told after the fact that this has happened and I don't get it because so much of the book is focused on the rules of this world so we get a lot of talking a lot of theorizing and learning about rules but then once there's actual action happening we're just told about it after the fact and that's not what I want especially in a fantasy book we're told about so much rather than shown when it comes to plot when it comes to characterization when it comes to relationship building we're told that things are this way but I want to see them happen in real time or otherwise I am bored and I don't care I gave this series by all I really did I'm gonna I'm gonna peace out then at the end of March I hosted my 24 hour read-a-thon dedicated to rereading old childhood favorites and I read nine books which sounds really impressive but again they were childhood favorites so a lot of whom were under 100 pages haha least I could mark them as read on Goodreads so it made me feel good about myself I'm not going to go too into depth about each book because I talked about all of them during my 2004 hour readathon vlog so if you want to watch that I will link that up above I don't know which side it is but the first one that I read the longest book that I read was Twilight by Stephenie Meyer I gave it 3 out of 5 stars I would have given it to out of 5 stars if it weren't for the massive amounts of nostalgia I felt while reading this I had a lot of fun it wasn't good but it was fun and that's oh I'd really wanted from this I didn't want serious literature I don't even want good literature I wanted I recommend if you love Twilight reread it with fresh eyes you won't be disappointed well maybe you will I reread the Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky I gave it 4 out of 5 stars I cried while reading this which I was not expecting I wasn't expecting for it to impact me as much as it did it wasn't as impactful as when I read it in high school but it still held up it was heartwarming and heart-wrenching I loved how the writing improved as Charlie learned more about writing in English class I loved how all of the characters were pretty fleshed out for it being from Charlie's perspective he's writing letters to the reader I'm really happy that I reread this because it was one of the first books that I ever read with mental health representation next was Artemis Fowl by Owen Colfer I give it four out of five stars again with a lot of the books that I read for this read-a-thon I was pleasantly surprised I thought that this was actually going to be a disaster I thought that I would completely hate all of my old childhood favorites but young so we could be trusted everybody this is about a twelve-year-old criminal mastermind named Artemis Fowl who learns about the secret underground world of fairies and then casually kidnaps and holds a fairy for ransom in exchange for gold to restore his family as a fortune you know as you do in this series faeries are dangerous tech savvy that is how they keep their world a hidden from the humans it's also much more political than I was expecting there's a lot of talk about environmentalism and how humans are destroying the planet this book does not talk down to the reader and I think that's why it was so much fun to read it as an adult because I felt like there were jokes and little tidbits for all ages artemis is also an antihero you understand his intentions but you know he's kidnapping and holding people for ransom so you don't really support him it's a refreshing book it's so much fun and I have all of the rest of the books because the publisher kindly sent them to me so I'm gonna continue rereading this series then I reread the beloved dearly by Doug Cooney which is another book about intelligent kids I remember this book so vividly from early elementary school for some reason I give this 4 out of 5 stars it was such an enjoyable story it definitely is quite dated this is about a group of entrepreneurial kids who start a pet funeral business they act way beyond their years they say things like I would get an ulcer from this and oh it's my habit eating candy I don't remember the specifics I reread Junie B Jones is almost a flower girl by Barbara Park I gave it three out of five stars it was okay it was short cute and Jamie Jones is still a hilarious five-year-old Brad that's all I have to say let's move on I read a vacation unjust volcano by Mary Pope Osborn this is the banditry house book that again has stuck so vividly in my head all of these years what this is less than 60 pages long in my head it was like 300 pages long and so detailed but they really just go to Pompeii before Mount Vesuvius erupts grab something check out what ancient Rome was like and then peace out it was fun though and even grown adult me learned some things about ancient Rome I am really happy that we had these books as a kid and that they're still going strong kids are still reading them I hope so I know they're still making get your education kids four out of five stars yay um I also read Fox and socks by dr. Seuss it took me about 30 seconds and yes I did include it on my Goodreads Reading Challenge I gave it 5 out of 5 stars a classic can never be topped let's move on I thought I read Judy Moody was in a mood by Meghan MacDonald I loved these books as a kid I mean that was kind of the whole point of the read-a-thon but this series honestly was my life in early elementary school Judy Moody with her collection of random things like those little pizza tables erasers band-aids other small things and her moodiness she was my role model I started collecting things 4 out of 5 stars and finally I read a poetry book that I was really into as a kid it is a treasury of flower fairies by Cicely Mary Barker they're beautiful illustrations of flower fairies I had a bunch hanging up in my room I can't recall ever hearing one of these poems in my life so did I like the book or did I just like the pictures I mean this time around I really enjoyed the poems I actually learned some botanical information from this book such as on page 38 the song of the mountain ash fairy the mountain Ash's other name is Rowan and it used to be called witchin tree and a witch would too from there I googled it and I learned that Rowan trees were often planted outside of people's houses to ward off evil because the berries have five-pointed stars on them pentagrams are symbols of protection the Mauryan now so after that read-a-thon I participated in a month-long read-a-thon for the month of April I absolutely loved it it was the owl's read-a-thon hosted by book roast inspired by the owls exams from Harry Potter I've logged the first three weeks unfortunately some personal things came up so I couldn't continue on with my vlogs but I did continue on with my reading and I read ten of the twelve books but I only had to read five books for my chosen Wizarding career there's a lot of rules this read-a-thon site will include my first vlog up above or down below in the description box if you want to know what the whole read-a-thon entails but I love that it's so in depth and you really feel like you're participating in exams that will affect your entire future I will be participating in part two the newts exams next month in August if you want to join me in that quest I'll include her announcement video for that down below as well so for the magical readathons each prompt is inspired by a different class at Hogwarts I have my bullet journal right here where I tracked how I did on the read-a-thon so I only didn't complete Arisa was to read a book written by more than one author and care of magical creatures which was to read a book with a land animal on the cover but I completed all of my required classes for going on to becoming an unspeakable at the Ministry of Magic Department of mysteries so you're looking at a winner anyway the first books that I read for the read-a-thon was the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern the book that I also destroyed and it's not the prettiest but um it's still functional I read this forward charms class because it was an adult book and I put it on my TBR for years I gave it four out of five stars I really enjoyed the beginning of this novel I thought it was going to be one of my favorites of all time I loved the atmosphere of this book a lot of this takes place at the Night Circus which is called the circus of Dreams in French but I don't speak French and I don't want anyone to make fun of my French that I don't speak it follows two magicians Celia and Marco who have been trained their entire lives for their eventual duel against each other but their Guardians planned knowing that they might die there was so much lush description especially at the Night Circus I really felt like I could eat the candy apples but eventually it did get a little bit repetitive since so much of this novel takes place at the same circus though there are some things that change over the years it got pretty dang repetitive and stale but that didn't bother me too much the biggest issue that I had with this is that I didn't connect with the characters at all I felt like we were told about their personalities much more than actually shown and because there is a relation that I'm not going to talk about that was pretty dang insta love you and I didn't really believe it seeing as this relationship is a big motivator for certain plot things I would like to care about it so that I believe that it's worth things happening I don't want to spoil you the ending was not satisfying in my opinion it was quite confusing there was such a slow build-up to the end to the duel but by the end I didn't care too much it's not a bad book by any means I can see why it's so many people's favorite book but it wasn't the book for me for astronomy class I read the Sun is also a star by Nicola youn because it has the word star in the title I loved this I who was not expecting to love it I gave it 5 out of 5 stars especially because this novel basically revolves around insta-love I thought that it would be so cliched and so cheesy it actually was such a thoughtful book and it addressed things that I thought made up for the instant of especially at the end also this didn't feel like it took place all in one day it felt like the main characters had known each other for much longer because they actually got to know one another Wow who knew that was an important aspect of romance not me I instill loved it so this follows two teens Natasha and Daniel who fall in love the day before Natasha's family is going to be deported to Jamaica we get both of their perspectives Natasha going around desperately to immigration lawyers and Daniel really thinking about his family's expectations and his Ivy League bound future but my favorite part was that we actually get brief flashes of the perspectives of almost everybody that these two main characters meet during their one day together around New York City so we get like security guards that they meet and lawyer that they meet their family members we get everyone's backstory and it really shows how you aren't the only person on the planet everyone has their own thing going on and it'll explain why they act the way that they do but also your actions do have consequences on other people Wow Natasha and Daniel were so dang compatible they were opposites attracting we have Natasha who is very logical she loves science she's quite cynical when it comes to love but then we have Daniel who is a poet he is romantic and he's very optimistic he loves love they come together they change each other's minds on things they were just two teenagers who really hit it off and valued their time together and I cried so much at the end of this but then who followed with not a great book it was siege and storm by Leigh bardugo the second book in the Grisha trilogy gave it 2 out of 5 stars so bored I read this for potions class because it is a sequel so maybe that explains it Professor Snape just doesn't want me to experience joy I nothing happened in the first 90% of the book and then everything happened all at once so rushed also mal is terrible I don't like any of the characters even the darkling I know a lot of people love the darkling I don't get the love of the darkling the only character that I liked was Nikolai and he had so much more chemistry with every other character especially Alina so why is mal even there I don't know anyway I didn't enjoy myself so I'm not going to continue talking about this book yeah bye luckily my herbology class book made up for the suffering it was truly devious by maureen johnson i gave it 5 out of 5 stars it was amazing a why a mystery book with an airtight plot usually when i read books I come up with such wild ideas of how everything can go down that I'm honestly usually disappointed with how things end up but this kept me on my toes I loved how everything came together and it's the first book of a trilogy so the mystery will continue you don't get all the answers in this book so maybe my wild ideas will eventually come true but even if they don't I trust Maureen Johnson to come up with a very interesting solution this takes place at an exclusive and secluded boarding school in Vermont during both the 1930s when the boarding school first opened and when the infamous kidnappings and murders took place as well as the present day when our main character named Stevie attends the boarding school determined to finally solve the kidnappings and the murders but then things start happening again dun dun dun personally I prefer the 1930s perspective because I think it's more interesting I don't read a lot of books set in the 1930s so getting that time period and you know the kidnappings and murders are going to happen so there's that anticipation of knowing what's to come but not knowing how it's going to get there that was really fascinating for me but Stevie Bell is such a compelling main character she does suffer from anxiety if she takes medication and she has panic attacks I think the representation was done very well the Academy was so much fun to be at it's one of those like stereotypical murder-mystery mansions with secret passageways and the extravagance and also this map of the Academy kind of reminds me of clue to begin with a lot of fun that the people who go to the boarding school are also quite gifted in different areas so we have Stevie who's really into true crime we have some filmmakers some engineers please check this out also please check out the sequel the vanishing stair hi Maureen Johnson I read this one for Transfiguration I gave this a 4 out of 5 stars I did like it as much as the first book but also it is a sequel so we are finishing off some of the plot points from the first book while also developing new mysteries to be solved in the third but I have heard from most people that they prefer the vanishing stare over truly devious all in all successful sequel I'm not sure how to talk about this because it is a mystery but I did foresee the big reveal but there are still things that I have not guessed yet my outlandish theories are coming true so Maureen Johnson and I share a brain Wow a great review ten and ten let's continue but then I read a disappointing book yet again and surprise surprise it is the last book in the Grisha trilogy ruin and rising by Leigh bardugo I gave this two point five out of five stars I read this for defence against the dark arts it was the only book of my TBR that started with an R otherwise I'm not sure if I would have finished this series really the only reason why I wanted to pick up this series in the first place is because I felt like I had to read these books in order to get to six of crows although so many people have told me not to waste my time with these series and just start six of crows I didn't listen to them and look who's the fool now I definitely would have enjoyed this series much more if I read them when they came out because I know that this was kind of a trailblazer series and why a fantasy I think when it came out it was doing a lot of original things but I think so many books have copied the formula that Leigh bardugo set out because it was so successful so I feel like I've read this story before also the characters besides Nikolaj aren't that compelling and the ending was not satisfying in my opinion I didn't really care anyway I can read six of crows now yay maybe you should listen to people more maybe that's the moral of the story then for muffle studies I had to read a contemporary book so I picked up on the come-up by Angie Thomas I gave it four out of five stars I read this book so quickly her writing is so addictive and so immersive I immediately felt connected with Bri and her friends and family this follows our main character named Bri who is an aspiring rapper I don't follow rap music much but I have a newfound appreciation of it now that I've read this book you could see her thought process of writing her raps testing out rhymes getting inspired by her surroundings also Bri wants to succeed in rapping not just for herself because it's her dream but also because her family is living in poverty and are falling on really hard times they might face homelessness there's not enough food in their fridge so she wants to be able to support her family but most of this focuses on Bri figuring out who she is what she wants to do in life figuring out the power of her own voice and not letting anyone else control her voice or control her words this is pretty slow paced because it follows breathe coming into her own as a rapper and her relationship with her friends and family members so there's not a lot happening but I was still very much invested and I do recommend this if you liked the hate you give I highly enjoyed myself I will read anything else Andy Thomas ever writes then for divination as well as the April Book of the Month for bookmarked I picked up side the by Neil Shuster man a dystopian book which I gave four out of five stars I didn't know I would be into dystopian again but this is such an original dystopian story I expected like a divergent era dystopian where it's all I call the government is evil taken out but this is not that it is set in a world where humans have conquered death there is no more hunger no more War no more disease people cannot be murdered people cannot commit suicide if they do they will just be resurrected you can actually reset your age so we have grandmother's who are resetting their age to like 20 years old going finding a new husband and popping out even more kids that are younger than their grandkids you can seemingly live forever until the appointed and trained killers of the world the sides decide it is your time to die because of population control Citra and rowan are two teenagers who are chosen to apprentice aside and learn the art of killing but only one of them can become a scythe at the end of the year neither of them wants to kill people and neither of them wants to be a scythe but it's either become a scythe or die the premise of this series is so dang thought-provoking i sat there while reading this thinking oh my gosh what would it be like if you could live forever but everyone can possibly live forever it's not special time is not of the essence anymore humanity has peaked nothing new really needs to be invented there's not really any ambition because again you have all the time in the world everybody is simply existing rather than living it was so original it's quite political and also quite fast paced the first half of the novel I flew through quite quickly but the second half the pacing wasn't great the ending wrapped up so quickly and there were some stagnant periods where I just I was bored to be honest and there was a romance in here that was not necessary at all I see why it was added but also this could have been done just as effectively without a romance and I would have preferred that next for ancient runes I had to read a retelling so I picked up geek Arella by Ashley Poston I was actually planning on hauling this book a few months ago but a lot of my friends told me that they thought that I would like it because they also really enjoyed it so I kept it on my shelves finally read it didn't like it gave it 2 out of 5 stars this is a Cinderella retelling about a very Star Trek like television series that is being rebooted into a blockbuster movie it is told in two perspectives the first being the perspective of our Cinderella named el whose father was really into the starfield show so much so that he started a convention all around it and but of course he died because he's Cinderella's dad she has some quite stereotypical evil stepsisters and an evil stepmom all of which are blond and preppy and vain and the two stepsisters they run a beauty channel it was all very stereotypical and I felt like not a lot of risks were taken but the one risk that they did take is that our Prince Charming has his perspective of the book prince charming or darien was actually cast as the lead actor in the starfield reboot while reading this it came to my attention that I am NOT a fan of books with a relationship between a famous person and a normal person I cannot suspend my disbelief far enough I like my contemporary books to be realistic I want to imagine that they could actually happen and we have security nowadays that would never happen you would never even get close enough to a famous person to woo them maybe if you were working in the entertainment field I could see how that would happen but none of these do that all of them are like oh I'm just a normal person who isn't into all of this famous person things I'm so relatable and then the celebrity is like oh I hate being famous so much I just want a normal girl and then they'd like start making out I don't like that also I'm about 50/50 when it comes to books about fandom I like ones that really examine fandom culture but also the main characters lives are not completely devoted to what they are a fan of I want them to have lives outside of the fandom I also want it to be emotional I want to cry and I want to think that's the Zoe way so as you can tell this was not the book for me it was a very predictable Cinderella retelling I like how it was packaged sometimes how part of it was taking place at a convention if you're looking for a cute simple retail that will take your mind off of something for a couple of hours pick this up I know the majority of people really enjoyed this book of Cinderella story is the only Cinderella retelling for me Hilary Duff takes me away and finally the last book that I read in April for the Owls magical read-a-thon was for a history of magic I read a book that was more than 10 years old and that was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling I was in such a Harry Potter mood obviously because of the read-a-thon so I wanted to read this again I end up reading it pretty much once a year I can give it 5 out of 5 stars because I've said it before and I'll say it again no matter how much how hard JK Rowling tries she will not get me to dislike this series now on to the one and only book I read in May the Yanks and it was a graphic memoir so it wasn't even a proper full book that was Persepolis - the story of a return by marjan Satrapi I gave it 4 out of 5 stars heart one of her graphic memoir was about her growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and then having to flee to Vienna at the end to continue on her education part two picks up right where part one left off she's in Vienna struggling through her teenage years away from home and her family her culture everything that she knows she is struggling to figure out who she is she then returns to Iran for University having to get reacquainted with her home country after it's been changed by war and after she's changed as well as marShon is much older and wiser in this novel it has a much bleaker tone than the first one she's able to more clearly see the realities of what's happening in her country I very much recommend both of these graphic memoirs if you're interested in history or just graphic novels in general if you want to learn more about the Islamic Revolution and know more about this woman's life now you're on finally to the books that I read in June the final four books huzzah the first being a book that I started in May it was the May book-of-the-month pick for bookmarked that is Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare but I finished it in June because I was in New York City for BA and booked on so I didn't actually read anything when I was at a book convention surrounded by my bookish friends I obviously gave this 5 out of 5 stars because this was a reread and the Infernal Devices series is the best Cassandra Clare's series hands-down end of discussion I was nervous that I wouldn't enjoy this as much as I did when I first binge read the series back in high school but it still lived up to my expectations it's victorian-era steampunk historical fiction some romance the best love triangle in the history of love triangles hands-down end of discussion there you show me a better love triangle please actually I would love and then we have some paranormal butt-kicking for good measure what more can you want we have Tessa who is my favorite Shadowhunter main character of all of the books we have will who is a snarky but face but I still love him we also have Jem the soft boy we all deserve if you have not read the pleasure and the pain that is clockwork princess you are doing yourself a disservice and I really think you should read this series because it's still good in my opinion then I read when dimple met Rashid by Sunday omen on another book that was on my TBR for years and then I finally got around to reading I'm doing a pretty good job with finally getting around to books I gave it 3 out of 5 stars it was a cute contemporary but I think the massive amount of hype surrounding it gave me inflated expectations despite my best efforts I think that's why I waited so long to read it that's why I wait so long to read hyped books in general is because I want to go in with no expectations I want to think the hype has passed so I can more accurately review it but I still came in with expectations this follows two teenagers dimple Shah and Rishi Patel whose parents have them up in a suggested arrangement and sent both of them to a coding summer camp in order for them to get to know each other phishing is all on board for an arranged marriage he really believes in tradition and in fulfilling his parents expectations whereas dimple is much more cynical when it comes to romance she wants to focus more on her career and really achieving her dreams before settling down the plot left something to be desired though I really enjoyed their different perspectives on love and their Indian heritage but the actual plot of what occurred in the novel it took place on a coding summer camp and our main character dimple wanting to be a successful web developer app developer but there was there was no coding at the coding summer camp there was a talent show they spent much more time in preparing for the talent show on the page then actually making their app which was the whole point of the summer camp there was not even some slight technical coding jargon that you could have just googled and put into the novel they spent much more time on Rishi's art I was excited to kind of learn about the whole coding world and see more girls in stem we're just told after the fact that they whipped up an app alrighty then there were also some big conflicts thrown in to spice up a pretty predictable plot but then the repercussions of the big conflicts were just glossed over when it was convenient I will say it was a cute fun quick read I read it and only a couple of hours I could not put it down it was addictive I just wanted more then I read if I'm being honest by Emily Webb early and Austen Siegman broco which I gave 3.5 out of 5 stars I got it from the library it is a why a contemporary inspired by Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and it's not a direct retelling it's one of those things where they study it in English class and then they apply it to their lives it can flop sometimes in this case I think it worked pretty well our main character is a high school senior named Cameron who is her school's resident mean girl she has a crush on this boy named Andrew but once he sees her being the butt face that she is decides that he doesn't like her so she decides to go on an apology tour and make amends with all the people that she's bullied in an attempt to win him over and she makes friends and changes on the way the funny thing is this book is not about coding but this book had 20 times more coding in it then when dimple met reishi because she does take a coding class and someone else is making a video game I finally got the coding that I wanted just in a different book like a few of the other books that I've talked about today this book had a really strong start but eventually it got repetitive when Cameron was being mean and then she was being nice again so that people would like her but then she was being mean again that she was being nice and it was just on and on it was hard to tell if she'd actually changed because deep down from the beginning you would tell that she was genuinely a nice person and she just had things going on at home that caused her to lash out then when she's going on the apology tour some people say that she's changed too much other people says that she's changed too little she seemed like the same person just not actively bullying people it talked in circles for so long especially at the end so I think that this could have been 50 pages shorter Cameron is a unique main character she's a bully but she's self-aware a good person underneath she's just ambitious and focused and so concerned with what other people think about her especially her dad she's more of a complicated character than I was expecting her to be besides Brendon and Paige two of the people that Cameron has bullied in the past and is making amends with all the other supporting characters seemed pretty one-dimensional I did like that the main character his parents were actually present in the novel they had things going on they affected Cameron's life instead of just fading in the background like a lot of way contemporary the plot points in the novel besides her going on the apology tour her you know making new friends and finding new things about herself and having issues with her home life it really was refreshing why a contemporary book Hey remember earlier when I said I wasn't a fan of books about a famous person than a non famous person coming together well I read another book about a famous person and a non famous person coming together and I didn't like it either I gave it 2 out of 5 stars it was I was born for this but Alex Osmond this was the June Book of the Month for bookmarked and none of us liked it so this follows two perspectives the first being the perspective of angel who is a mega fangirl of this band called the ark she is very active with a fandom online she has thousands of followers this week of the novel she decides to finally meet her internet friend in person to go to the art concert the other perspective is that of a famous person his name is Jimmy he is a trans teenager and one of the three members of the ark he also has a really bad anxiety disorder and has trouble coping with the increased popularity they are getting I initially gave this 3 out of 5 stars but after our very ran T bookmarked live show I will link that up above if you want to watch that gem I realized I really don't like this book she wrote radio silence one of my favorite books especially about fan of culture I was expecting the Alice Hausman would deliver again and she didn't it had seeds of what could have blossomed into a wonderful story there were conversations about fandom culture and celebrity culture that were started but not actually finished a few characters actually expressed their opinion that all fangirls are pathetic that they don't have lives outside of the fandom that they don't care about themselves they only care about the things that they are fans of that's a really broad generalization to make it felt like that was the stereotype that Alice Osmond was going to disprove throughout the novel she started to make the counterpoint but then backtracked quite a few times I'm not sure what the point of this novel was supposed to be I can assume but you'll want to know what the nail and the coffin was how Jane coincidence heavy this book was especially at the end at the end I literally was reading it with my mouth a gape the main character actually says at the end while thinking about the events of the book that it seems like bad fanfiction and yep aha you got it in one it goes beyond the coincidences that would naturally occur when you have a book about a famous person and a non famous person's worlds colliding he went into nonsense Phil and I think Alice those men is the only person who lives there I didn't like any of the characters I liked how diverse the representation was and how diverse the cast of characters was I liked the anxiety representation but I didn't like the characters I didn't like the plot I didn't like the conversations that weren't had I did not have an enjoyable reading experience it was a quick read I recommend that you read radio silence by her that's amazing that's a 5 out of 5 star book so those are the 32 books that I read from March to June I am assuming that no one is here right now everybody has clicked off this video because it was way too long and I agree this was a bad decision on my part to wait this long to do another wrap-up so from now on I will be going back to monthly reading wrap ups I'll like it more because I won't have 15 hours of footage you only get more because it won't take decades off of your life to watch all in all I think it's a great a great decision on my part it's almost like I should have been doing it the whole time thank you for watching this feature film length video I'll talk to you all later thank you for watching do good things read good books and I'll talk to you all in my next video bye [Music]

Channel: readbyzoe

Views: 95,398

Rating: 4.9622397 out of 5

Keywords: readbyzoe, BookTube, BookTuber, Book Review, Book Discussion, Rant Review, Rant, Clockwork Angel, Shadowhunters, Cassandra Clare, Daisy Jones, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Neal Shusterman, Angie Thomas, Harry Potter, Twilight, The Night Circus, Grisha, Leigh Bardugo, The Sun is Also a Star, Crazy Rich Asians, Howl's Moving Castle, Artemis Fowl, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Truly Devious, Maureen Johnson, Nicola Yoon, Alice Oseman, How to Train Your Dragon, Book Club, Bookmarked

Id: kSZn5mNVSvc

Length: 52min 25sec (3145 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 10 2019