Books To See You Through

hi guys I'd like you to consider this video a virtual hug I would hug the camera but it's difficult and yeah this video is a virtual hug and I've received dozens of emails and Twitter messages from people asking me to make this video this week it was obviously the presidential election in the States and while some of you I imagine not many of you on this channel this is if you've been here a while you will understand why I'm assuming that not many of you are very happy with the results of the election but for those of you who are I would ask that you please be respectful here this is video just reaching out to those who are not feeling great right now and this is not an area really where I want to get into the discussion of politics of this election this is literally it is this video I would like to be a bit of a warm blanket and a hug for those who need it so if you're feeling angry and you're feeling upset come in if you're feeling like you would like to gloat in the comments and be a bit mean maybe don't I ask that you please don't if you got the result you wanted I hope that that's enough for you so this video and I said I was emailed by lots of people asking if I would if I would make this video and here in the UK we had brexit earlier this year so I can't so that that that was interesting and and now we have this and this election was about so many different things and as I said this is not the place to go into all of them but I know that a lot of people right now are feeling sad and angry and perhaps a little bit scared and one of the frustrating things that I saw on Twitter yesterday apart from the obvious and the social media can be very toxic in these situations but I saw a lot of well-meaning people and mostly a lot of straight white men not all men I know but a lot of straight white men who were tweeting at people in marginalized groups and this was the time to pull together and to love each other and and to embrace those who spell hatred and that was so frustrating I know that that comes from a well-meaning place but it was like oh you're late to the party dude we've been doing this for a very long time like the assumption that those from marginalized groups don't already understand the value of compassion that they don't already understand the importance of pulling together when they've been excluded like this is a given it's a lift concept it's not an abstract concept it's something that most people do anyway especially if they are from marginalized groups from my own point of view someone with a deformity which is obviously not the same as someone who experiences racism I encounter people who treat me like crap based on the way that I look because of my a trajectory and I think all the time if I'd be nicer to these people then maybe they will judge me less than they will judge other people like me in a better way or not judge them at all and you adjust the way you behave and have compassionate towards people because you want that back so this is the concept that's understand understand I'm just sorry by people in marginalized groups so that is something that that most people will continue to do and will continue to fight because a lot of people have been fighting for a very long time and that's something that will continue but for now right now as much as those things that are great going out and fighting I just want to say if I think I mean in a in a non physical way obviously just want to put that one out there and I just want to say that it's okay to feel angry and upset right now not that you need my permission but that is completely okay so in this video I wanted to recommend some books that if you are feeling sad no cream right now that you might want to pick up and this doesn't have to equate to the election you could just be one thing to pick these books up in general but but right now I feel like they're quite apt I want to say also that Emma Jean over at bookish thoughts of regime after brexit she may video where she recommended some books that you might want to pick up to get politically active so I'll leave a link to that in the description box down below and lovely max over at well done books on Twitter got lots of people to send over songs that made them feel empowered and he's made made a playlist of those so I'm gonna link that down below as well so hopefully this has been one take Wow so far okay I realize they broke the one take damn okay moving forward so fix that you might want to pick up if you would like to return to a world that you know and love that is like a warm blanket then go there so that might be Harry Potter for a lot of people I think that probably is Harry Porter for me it would be Alice Walker Harry Potter as well but also Alice in Wonderland or through the looking-glass and also he's not Materials by Philip Pullman I'm sure most of you are familiar with this all of the books that I maintain they're going to be linked down below and there are so many here I'm not going to say loads about each one so if you want to know more click on those links this it's a fantasy book about a girl called Lyra and her demon who is part of her soul who materializes an animal on the outside of her body and she goes on this wonderful adventure which ultimately I suppose it is a fight between religion and science and but it slows so much more than that and the universe is a rich and just wonderful another book you might want to pick up is this one on the back of Alice in Wonderland this is the girl who circumnavigated fairyland initiative for in making back happen and Valente it's about a girl called September who gets swept away to fairyland which is in disarray because it's ruled by this tyrant queen and which is quite like Alice in Wonderland and it's just it's so wonderful this will just give you all of the warm feelings I promised to picture books that I would recommend the first is Carson Alice's home which is absolutely stunning and shows different kinds of homes around the world real and imagined we've also got pool by jihun Lee this is a silent picture book and it's about two people who swim to the bottom of a really really busy swimming pool to try and find solace there and they go on this adventure ship they just keep on going down and down and under all the panic and the noise at the top they find this beautiful world underneath and so I think it's like following on with silent picture books we also have the arrival by Shawn town which is also a side silent graphic novel because it's longer and the silent just means that there are no words in it and this is about a man who travels to a foreign place and experiences all of their strange and wonderful things that he finds they're looking for acceptance going along with the field good stuff we've got the unmasking by Amanda Palmer which is about arts and creativity and compassion and bringing communities together if you would like to read some books on the importance of books then I would recommend these here by it's art Nafisi now these are about her life and her experiences with literature she grew up in Iran and she set up a book club with her other female friends where they read banned literature banned Western literature and she talks about her experiences with that forgive her self-promotion but the bookshop book looks at book shops all around the world including booksellers in war-torn countries who are trying to bring he's a Bam's literature or literature that is not widely available to people who can't afford it or can't get a hold of it themselves because they understand the importance of books and the power that they have the gigantic beard that was evil was one of my favorite books of last year this is a beautiful graphic novel which is about a man he lives on an island called here and all of the houses face inward because they don't want to look out to the sea which is there everyone who lives in here has to conform and look a certain way but then this man decides he's going to grow a beard and it gets out of control and so this is about not fitting in about breaking the rules about being yourself and it's all kinds of fantastic citizen by Claudia Rankine and collateral by Simone John are both about racism and police brutality in the States they're both poetry collections and another poetry collection that I would recommend is Barney Capaldi OHS collection measures of expatriation which is a fascinating book exploring how language can be your home she grew up in Trinidad and has traveled around Europe and lived in the UK and this is a book in response to people constantly asking her who she is and to identify herself and they'll talk about this more in a video in the future if you would like to read a novel with a political age then I would recommend picking up the titles owned by Sarah Moss this is about a girl called Miriam who whose heart stops beating at school and she's taken to hospital and a family know why she collapsed so it is about the family drama and them coping with that but Miriam is also a very politically active person and she has some great speeches in here it's also a commentary on the now and also a commentary on the now is autumn by Ali Smith which Ali wrote on the run-up to brexit this is quite stream-of-consciousness as is most of her books it's a commentary on art and politics and how everything that's happened before creates the nail that we live in including this book because this book talks back to the books that came before it so if you would like a book that is more plot heavy and has more of a narrative then you want this one but if you would like to get immersed in some beautiful ideas and explorations of a lot of stuff then you want this one they're both brilliant so you can't really go wrong for those of you who would like to focus your reading on gender I have quite a few here that I'm going to hold up so we've got the trouble with women by Jackie Fleming this is an amusing darkly amusing book about the stuff that has been said against women throughout history it's ridiculous and we have Laura Bates everyday sexism for obvious reasons that we have got em dad Adams women in the vote which is on my TBR and what I hope to get to soon it's a world history so it looks across the globe at how women got the vote in various places and the injustice that still occur in many different parts of the world and looking at gender we've got delusions of gender by Cordelia fine and this looks at how gender is so ingrained in our society and the stuff that we're taught to believe from a very very young age and whether that's conscious or not and we've also got a girl trouble by Carol de house it's panic and progress in the history of young women and I think that subtitle says it all again all of these will be linked below if you want to know more information and I'd also like to recommend Ken Russell's I'm sorry to think I've raised a timid son Kent grew up in a in a military family and this is his book talking about the expectations of masculinity I have some recommendations here from mr. M so we've got 23 things they don't tell you about capitalism by Chang and we've also got some rather heavy looking books here so we have libera and the limits of justice and by Michael chase sandal and then at the other end of the scale because mr. hem is a philosopher and we have to have it balanced we have Robert and Nick's property justice and a minimal state so if you're into your academic reading these are for you it also wanted to recommend this one here which is a beast and one I think I might pick up myself and it's called Empire of things how we became a world of consumers from the fifteenth century to the 21st by Frank Trenton these two books I've spoken a lot about on my channel recently so I'm not gonna say anything about them here I'll link the video where I talk about them up here and those are another day in the death of America by Gary Young which is about gun violence in the States and in the morning they came for our suspect is from Syria by Jeannine to Giovanni and this looks at Syria as you might have guessed casting and it's much much wider and these are a couple of books on my TBR that I'm hoping to get to soon we've got without you there is no us my time with the sons of North Korea's elite a memoir by Suki Kim which which does what it says here this is about Sookie's time teaching the sons of the North Korean elite and about the regime there I'd also recommend nothing to envy by Barbara Dimmick and and young Lee Parks book which lots of people have been reading recently and there's also this book here which is the world without us which is one of my TBR by Alan Weisman which I think might be quite interesting if slightly morbid its what would happen to the world if all of the humans just disappeared what would happen to the forests what where would overgrown what would break down and what would just keep on going and I think it sounds rather fascinating so there is that one and I also have this one on my TBR which is breach and it's by Pro impress and it's a collection of short stories by many different writers through exploring the refugee crisis so there is that one and finally one that I've been working my way through for a while as this one here if you need a bit of a giggle and this is Princesses behaving badly real stories from history without the fairytale endings so it's about princesses as you might guess through a bit kick-ass a bit rebellious and who get and done so I think that's enough books to be getting on wit for now as I said I'll link all of them down below I love you all I hope you're OK please be kind to each other in the comments if you also have books that you would like to recommend please leave them there and I don't have anything else to say I love you all very much and I hope you're okay let's pick yourself

Channel: Jen Campbell

Views: 14,422

Rating: 4.9386191 out of 5

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Id: y7-8mHcpnZI

Length: 13min 20sec (800 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 10 2016