READING THE HIGHEST RATED BOOKS ON MY TBR

pardon me I have heartburn hi friends its Lola I'm doing a video I'm not excited about this is super weird because you think that the opposite is true that when I did the earlier video like six months ago reading the lowest-rated books on my TBR you to think that that would be the daunting task when in fact I was excited about that video I was excited about reading those books I wanted to see if I had an unpopular opinion about some really unpopular books and this is the video that's taken me like six months to finally do for two main reasons historical fiction and series I in general do not read nor like a lot of historical fiction nor do I like to continue in series does that stop me from buying those two things no I have a pretty good feeling that the highest rated books by everybody else on my Goodreads TBR are going to be historical fiction because that is always critically acclaimed and wins all the awards and series just mathematically subsequent books get higher ratings because the first book in the series is read by people who don't like it and rate it really low and love it and read it really high and then the only people who read the sequel are the people who liked it so naturally it's gonna get high ratings because it's not like as broad of an audience you get what I'm saying I could be totally wrong I haven't looked at this ahead of time we're going to check my Goodreads TBR which has over 400 books on it and we're going to find the five highest rated average rating highest the highest average rating and I'm gonna read those five books I have a bad feeling about this they have feeling I'm gonna end up to you nothing some of these books I know it sounds weird why did you buy these books if you didn't you're gonna like them because they're talked about so much that's why and then I see that with a thrift store for $2.99 and I buy them because everybody talks about them and I don't even know the plot and when I find out the plot I find out a historical fiction and then it just sits on my TBR for three years I have some guesses there's gonna be some historical fiction I don't even know if these are all historical fiction I don't know what books are about my number one guess is the nightingale if this isn't on there I will be shocked and I don't really want to read it oh except you don't really know what it's about I have a feeling between shades of grey is gonna be on here so my first actual prediction is that these books are all gonna be adults if anything on the list isn't adult I'm guessing it's going to be why a series continuations none of which like I'm really excited maybe children or Blood Moon maybe seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo this is probably the only book in my guest stack that I hope is on there some of these books were also sent to me and I didn't actually pick them up by my own will check how long I've been talking just to like prolong be inevitable oh and a rule that I had for myself last time that I never ended up needing to share with you because it didn't occur but I have a rule that the book has to have been out for let's say four months because a book that comes out this month or came out like six weeks ago might have a really high rating that isn't accurate it's just people reading it early and having not actually read it so I want to get the most accurate rating possible can I say something controversial I actually hope some of these books I don't already own so I can go buy more so I might want to read shelf and average rating I was feeling a bunch are gonna pop up that haven't come out yet okay I was right looks haven't come out yet okay where's the first book over nightingale number one on the list not just on the list but number one on the list I knew it honestly like this just doesn't appeal to me and I feel like to people that this really appeals to you they don't understand but just books that look like this like this looks like boring historical fiction oh there's a map I know what's the survival fiction cuz it takes place in 1939 does that mean it involves a war in the quiet village of something somebody can't pronounce any of these words says goodbye to her husband as he heads for the front oh god she doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France but invade they do in droves of marching soldiers in caravans of trucks and tanks in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent when a German captain wreckless requisitions Vienna's home she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything oh my god tell me they don't like fall in love without food or money or hope as danger escalates all around them she's forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive her older sister Isabel is a rebellious 18 year old searching for purpose with all the reckless passions of youth I'm falling asleep while thousands of preteens march look I know this is that okay I know historical fiction like people love it because it's like moving and and you know it's real life and it's intense and sad and it teaches you stuff maybe blah blah blah she meets someone her sister a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France and she falls in love as only the young can't completely but when he betrays her isabel joins the resistance and never looks back is this telling me the entire plot with courage Grace and powerful insight best-selling author Kristen Hanna captures the epic panorama of World War two and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen the women's war the nightingale tells the story of two sisters separated by years and experience my ideals passion and service and each embarking on her own dangerous path towards survival love and freedom in german-occupied war torn France a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women it's a novel for everyone I'm not afraid it's a novel for everyone we'll see it has such high readings so I should like it really like actually excited to read it to see why everyone else likes it that has a 4.5 6 average rating by the way next on the list please don't be historical fiction not that bad dispatches from rape culture when did that come out May 1st 2018 um that's exciting do I think on that no this has a 4.5 3 average rating and it says in this vulnerable and revealing anthology cultural critic and best-selling author Roxane gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure their harassment violence and aggression they face where they're routinely second-guessed blown-off discredited besmirched belittled patronized mock shocked gasp lit insulted bullied for speaking out let's see the author list I don't think it's anyone I've read from before Gabrielle unions on here ok that's the second book on my TV I next we've got educated by Tara West over I meant to have that one in my stack because I was gonna hold up the whole stack that Chapters Indigo sent me last year of like the best books of the year they're ones freaking out about but I guess I didn't grab it I'll be right back I'm honestly surprised that well actually no I shouldn't be surprised there are 2 2018 releases on this list already but that's probably because the majority of my TBR is from 2018 sovereign this year has been telling me to read educated when I hauled it everyone told me to read it obviously indigo told me to read it cuz they sent it to me I say that I don't love nonfiction but a lot of nonfiction that I end up reading I end up reading really high I just think sometimes it's boring to get through so I don't pick it up this is what a girl like educates herself I've read the synopsis before Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in the classroom born a survivalist in the mountains of Idaho she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling supplies and sleeping with her head for the hills beg in the summer she stood herbs for her mother and Midwife and healer in the winter she salvaged her father's junkyard gashes and concussions even burns from explosions we're all treated at home with herbalism the family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to intervene when her brother became violent or when her father's Mormon beliefs drifted towards each stream then lacking any formal education Tara began to educate herself she ultimately taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to bring them Young University where she studied history learning for the first time about important world events such as the Holocaust her quest for knowledge transformed her taking her over oceans and across continents to Harvard and to Cambridge only then would she wonder if there was still away home so not like super jazzed about reading this but I mean okay that's not historical fiction so I'm good next is home going by yah yah see okay I know I just sounded excited and I know this is a historical fiction but I'm excited because don't come for me but at least it's like one of my like well I guess most of these books are diverse homegoing takes place in like the 18th century taste life in Ghana which I haven't scratched off my map so any nice exciting Ghana eighteenth-century two half-sisters fe ax and se are born in two different villages each unaware of each other I have read this before one will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort the other will be captured in a raid on her village imprisoned in the very same castle shipped off to America and sold into slavery with breathtaking scope homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations from the slave traders of the Gold Coast the plantations of Mississippi from the Asante struggle against British colonization to the first stirrings of the American Civil War from the jaws of twentieth-century Harlan to the sparkling shores of modern Ghana interesting that both of my historical fictions have involved sisters and their respective paths I feel bad for not being like psyched about this one okay I'll get excited these are gonna be great but the last one is going to be a man called Ave by Frederick Bachmann's where is that book I think that one's in Mike - so I own three Frederic Bachman books one of them I've read Beartown and I liked it and then I have a man called Liu Bei and whatever the grandmother won is my grandmother asked you to tell me tell you I'm sorry she's sorry someone's sorry and there's a grandmother this one is one of the ones that I've just picked up because people talked about it I've never the synopsis I think it's about an old man named vague at first sight booth is almost certainly the grumpiest man you'll ever meet a curmudgeon with staunch principles strict routines and a short fuse people think him bitter and he thinks himself surrounded by idiots hi Lola from the future oh it's cold days later I haven't started reading yet I'm probably not gonna read until like later into the month but I needed to update you because I messed up why did I keep saying Bachman first of all it's Backman Fredrick Backman right see now maybe I'm wrong but noting that a man called who thing's not on my TBR I have to remove it because I don't know if anybody like clued in because they know how popular crooked Kingdom is crooked Kingdom I linked up on Goodreads after because I was like oh how how far off was I from reading crooked Kingdom crappy Kingdom wasn't on my Goodreads TV I whoops in fact it has a higher average rating than every single book that I just mentioned so it was either come on here and fix it and look stupid or refilm it and fake my reactions to the books that showed up which like how would I do that so my TBR has already changed because I'm dumb and I can't believe I didn't have Kirk the Kingdom on my TBR so crooked Kingdom has a like a 4.6 average rating so I was right like this actually just reinforces the fact that I was right with one of my predictions that a fantasy sequel would be on the list because they always get higher ratings in the first book series so my new team yard is now home lowing educated crooked Kingdom not that bad and the nightingale that is my new TBR so I'm starting my first book I just got an audio book for not that bad dispatches from rape culture and I also requested the book from the library because it's not in stock in my town didn't really think I had for that one but at least I have overdrive in library and whatever so I'm going to start listening to it tonight I can't think of why I wouldn't like this one some of the other books as we've discussed are questionable I am NOT super stoked to read them to be perfectly honest this one I have no preconceived negative feelings about this so it's a good place to start I picked up the book from the library so I now have a physical copy to read I am like a hundred twenty pages in so far I mean obviously it's a five out of five I guess I would rate every story I hate writing nonfiction but I would rate them all a 5 out of 5 if I had to choose a number like that these stories are impactful and important and well read like well written but I was listening to the audiobook for the hundred twenty pages and they're all really well narrated to by the people who wrote them so I'm kind of mixed if I want to continue with the audiobook or keep reading I'll probably do a mix but yeah first book I get the high rating and I think it's it makes sense we'll see by the end so I finished my first book not that bad and it by Roxane gay there were so many more essays in here than I thought there would be so when you go on Goodreads and only lists I think six different authors so I thought they were going to be lengthy essays that it was going to be exhaustive to get through that's just going into it when I was anticipating that there was actually I don't even know 30 to 40 experiences it was written in lots of different ways like poetry opinion pieces experience-based pieces there was even a kind of graphic novel comic in here and I liked I didn't like anything in here this is such a difficult read and extremely like graphic and thorough and I'm sure triggering for a lot of people putting a numerical rating to people's live this is what I feel like I'm doing and it feels wrong and bad and I don't want to do it so it was incredible I highly recommend if you can handle it I guess I'm giving it five stars so decided my next book is going to be home going I decided to go to the audiobook since I really just wasn't in the mood to read I thought I would listen to home going all right let's talk home going by yo Jessie basically I just didn't love it I want to give it three stars it's harvick books that I feel like have a lot of literary merit and people clearly have rated really high for a reason you know I should have liked it it's kind of like an anthology there are a bunch of different characters but they're all from the same family tree and you're following them throughout years and years it's hard to explain my feelings because I feel like I was waiting for something and I wasn't waiting for something to tie them together they were all tied together because they're all from the same family I will say like I don't want to be a dick like if you if your only option is to listen to the audiobook listen the audiobook but like if you have the choice don't listen to the audiobook reading it in physical form is so much better you have a family tree you can flip to which I feel like you might want you frequently seeing all the names and being able to connect them and connect each chapter with somebody was a lot more helpful then listening to it and because I just kept getting lost which is why I stopped the audiobook I was trying to listen to his audio book for the first I'd say third and then I stopped I want to give it a three start just objectively because obviously there's something that people love and giving it as a 2-star seems way harsh because it didn't do anything wrong and I can't even explain like what I was looking for that was missing so this is a difficult one so I have these three books and I'm actually in the middle of filming my February video where I read 116 pages every day and I'm in the last two days of that if you watch that video like hi shout out to you because you didn't know what I was reading when I was filming this same clip in that video and I thought instead of like trying to figure out the math of like what two books make up 232 pages for the last two days trying to find two books at 116 painted law I figured I would just start something and not complete it in February which usually would not be okay I'm not cool with reading a book over the span of two different months like my brain just doesn't like to segment things that way but it's okay in this instance because I'm doing it for a specific video and I don't actually want you in February to know what I'm reading because then it would just ruin this entire video so I'm letting you know two of the books I read because I am mentioning them in February you just don't know why I read them until this video so I need to choose which of these I'm going to start and I think what I'll probably do because it's already so late at night and tomorrow is gonna be exhausting I want to start an audiobook so I can just like lie here and relax I'm gonna pick educated cuz this is the one I most want to listen to the audiobook for anyway hopefully it's on scrimped or overdrive it's been out for a while but I feel like on overdrive I'll have to go on the waitlist for it and my last resort is audible Terra Westover script let's check overdrive not an overdrive no I'm screwed you guess I'm getting it from audible oh just kidding my visa expired and now my account even though I have two credits is not accessible okay nothing wants me oh you know what I could do actually read dot pages I don't want to okay well the nightingale is available on overdrive oh just kidding it's an eight week wait time okay peeps I'm really crooked Kingdom tonight I don't remember a lot of crows but I do remember all the characters it's now March so I read the first 200 pages of crooked Kingdom the first hundred probably I was like super confused I really should have brushed up but now I'm more back into the story I can't tell you if I'm loving it yet we'll see I'm not really thinking about this right now because I've actually moved over to the audiobook for educated let's begin to have a lot of time where I will be actively doing things where I can't be reading but I can't be listening to an audiobook and since you saw this was the only audio book that I could access right now I fixed my audible account so I now have the audio book for educated it says right oh no it says on the audio book available only for audible um I'm actually 24 chapters in I have been working I work from home yesterday so I could just like pop in some earbuds and listen to the audiobook well I was actively working and then today I just like satin did my makeup and curled my hair and that took like an hour stylist to another hour the audio book then I did an hour of cleaning earlier and listened then I guess I'm just over halfway through so I'm reading both like cricket Kingdom and educated right now educated uh it just doesn't interest me like memoirs like this don't really interest me when it's just little stories about someone's life I mean I am the target demographic for this right probably like grown middle-aged white women who want to hear about like the trials that another white woman has persevered through it's fine I guess so I'm nearing the end of educated and I don't like it if I wasn't doing this challenge I definitely would have dnf'd it it's I found out is written in three different parts I'm just going to enter part three which I don't even know what it is but part one was like her childhood which I was okay with it was I hate reading nonfiction I just don't like the idea of putting a value on someone's experiences and I know that it's not really about their life it's more about the writing of the book can I say I don't think it's interesting like it's it's sad and hurt child so I had a lot of trauma and like I'm supposed to care about her I I'm a cold-hearted [ __ ] right I am ready to read book number four of this challenge and it's the one that I already started reading but I'm gonna start from the beginning again with crooked Kingdom I just reread the last couple chapters of six of crows and then read a couple of reviews of it so I kind of just remember where we're at I was honestly just like really confused by the beating of this and I did start to get back into it but I had just forgotten so much the six of crows that I thought it was worth going back so I'm gonna start from the beginning again and let you know what I think this time because I think my initial impression was wrong and I don't want that to skew like my feelings about the book or my rating or anything like that alright I'm starting in on the nightingale I'm going into it just thinking it's gonna be the best book ever all these five books this has been on my TBR the longest I probably picked this up I'd probably find the haul um maybe my second year on booktube so I was still buying a lot of stuff just because I'd heard of it and wasn't really sure what I loved and now that I've read a lot more historical fiction than I ever have I know that I don't tend to like it but I don't know how to explain why really so at the end of this I'll be able to either tell you why I love it or tell you I don't think I like historical fiction hopefully so I'm at the halfway point of the nightingale on chapter 21 and I have never been more bored during a book so far what I think about me and historical fiction is I can't really explain it I think just like some people don't like reading science fiction and things set in the future I don't like things set in the past I just don't like reading about war times and people hiding out and trying to escape things and army soldiering people there's one sister who wants to like stay behind and follow the rules and there's one sister who's like helping out people to escape the Nazis and I don't care about either of their storylines I don't find them particularly interesting or compelling I also really don't like the hair have you call it a trope but I don't like this storyline where there's like bad people and then one of the main characters like is falling in love with a bad person whether like she just sees the good parts of him or he's like secretly good and just appears to be working for the bad side I just don't like that dynamic I don't mind like I hate to love type romance but an enemy's two lovers that more specifically I really hate it I still don't know actually if it's going in that direction at the halfway point we've gotten little like parts of that I just don't like his character I don't like his storyline I don't like anything that I mean the commentary on how people should and shouldn't be treated like so important I just don't like the process of reading this I think it's not something that I'm interested in reading about okay I have now finished the nightingale by Kristen Hanna and I hated it no one is surprised there was nothing like wrong with it I'm not like everyone is wrong you should have read it it lower this is overhyped I recognize that this just isn't for me so I want to give it like a - just just so the whole world doesn't hate me on - crooked Kingdom which I feel like these clips might have been confusing but I'm sure I'm pretty sure I've mentioned crooked Kingdom a couple times and I've picked up and put down crooked Kingdom three times now and I'm just gonna chalk it up to a subconscious want to complete and end this challenge on a high note and I've been putting it off because I want to read the stuff I don't think I'm gonna like and end on a high note that's what I have to hope because it's just not grabbing my attention but I haven't really been putting my full effort into it so that's what I'm gonna do now because I have no books left this is it alright I am officially into crooked Kingdom I've been I've been sucked in I'm invested you know what realization I made it's that I actually listened to six of crows via audiobook didn't physically read it I think I started reading it and then listened to the audiobook and for some reason just like reading the words was so like just wasn't connecting in my brain all of the different like terms in this fantasy world they just weren't clicking they're making me just like not focus on the story I don't know what was happening to me but then a hundred pages once in Mina's first chapter I think happened I was back into like my feelings the way that I just like connected and felt like oh so just invested in the six of crows book Mina's chapter got me back into it I'm at like the halfway point so excited to continue with a newfound like love of the story I don't think this is gonna be like a five star read just that's just my feelings like at the halfway point I'm enjoying it but if you're wondering like the whole reason I said that I don't typically read series I just find it hard to care about the same world and the same characters in the same overall situation for more than like four to five hundred pages that's just me and my reading and I don't think there's anything wrong with it I know that you probably all think it's weird it's like the same with TV it's why I don't watch TV it doesn't hold my attention I could never be the type of person that watches six seven twenty seasons of a show like that is just I usually can't even make it through one full season I just always want something new and interesting and different and that's I'm glad this is a duology although I think there's actually more coming I still don't know if I'm gonna read King of scars like I don't know if I want more from this Grisha verse I'm like twenty pages from the end that's my update it's so weird finishing this book because like I've been doing this video challenge thing for six weeks and you guys like didn't know what I was doing this whole time and now you finally like get you know when I finally get to tell you about the books I was reading and put out this video and it's just it's exciting even though uh not loving burger came out don't hurt me okay final update I'll do a little recap of everything tomorrow but I just finished rookie Kingdom as long as it took me to get really started and invested in this I feel like the latter half I got through really really quickly and review it was fine I don't want all my friends to hate me but I just thought it was fine it was okay I'm giving it three stars all right here we are at the end of the experiment I have read the five highest rated books on my TBR not that bad dispatches from rape culture homegoing educated crooked Kingdom and the nightingale if you skipped forward just to this part of recap the ratings so not that bad I gave five stars homegoing got two stars educated got two stars crooked Kingdom got three stars and the nightingale got two stars so something I think is interesting is the one book that wasn't already sitting on my TBR shelf got the highest rating and these books that have been on my TBR shelf for a while or were sent to me that I didn't ask for they were all I mean three stars isn't lowly rated but you know I'm not in love with any of these I don't I guess technically agree with the high rating the here's the thing I can say with confidence that I recommend all of these books because they still have such high ratings obviously they worked for somebody and like I'm so happy that they did and honestly like I'm not surprised by any of the results here I really did go in hoping I would love everything even if I thought maybe I wouldn't this I assumed would be really highly rated and it was this one like I was hoping I would like but the fact that was historical fiction I thought that would work against it but only a little bit like I thought maybe I'll just give it three or four stars and I'll love everything about it except the fact that it's historical fiction educated being two stars did not surprise me I guess maybe a little bit it did because just non Chinn I don't pick up very much and when I do I actually do enjoy it a lot but this one wasn't on my TBR so like I wasn't like oh I'm gonna love and connect with this nonfiction so much the nightingale like I don't think anybody thought I was gonna love this I don't know why I didn't unhaul it before now and now I feel like controversially I might actually head into that TV our closet and ditch a lot of the other historical fiction that's been sitting there for a very long time and the last one I guess the most surprising here is crooked Kingdom but at the same time I'm not shocked by not being completely in love with this I don't know am I the only one like I just I guess I am the only one I just didn't connect with the same I didn't have the same feelings towards it there were a couple moments in here that really impressed me they were shocking or adorable or hilarious or something but in general just like kind of repetitive like somebody being kidnapped and then people have any go find them and save them somebody getting kidnapped and then time to escape and somebody getting kidnapped I don't know and maybe I'm just in that phase again where I'm not loving fantasy but that's it those are the five books I would love to hear your thoughts down below which I almost guarantee will be different opinions than mine just based on obviously where these books came from and the whole reason I was reading them and that's it thank you so much for watching honestly I've been filming this video for so long that I can't really recall how well I have explained what these books are so if you don't know like put in some time and go look them up on Goodreads and see if you want to read them and don't just take my opinion for I don't know the only opinion like obviously there's merit to all of these stories and experiences so give them a try if you feel so inclined and I'll see you later bye

Channel: BooksandLala

Views: 118,149

Rating: 4.8927021 out of 5

Keywords: books, booktube, bookish, booksandlala, obbsandlala

Id: bqy6TtVN2vg

Length: 35min 12sec (2112 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2019