the best and worst books i've read so far this year ✨

hi it's once again been a couple of weeks since  i've uploaded a video um but you know i have been   doing things and i know i keep saying that i will  explain it to you all in detail eventually and by   eventually i mean literally later this month so  you'll know what's going on and why i've been   uploading less i promise i think it'll be worth it  for you just thank you for giving me the space and   time i've needed to take little breaks here and  there i've been very busy but we're back we're   talking about some books so it's finally that time  of year and by that time of year i mean at the   middle of the year or actually a little bit past  the middle of the year i'm a little bit behind on   things however it is the middle of the year now  and what does that mean it means that everyone is   filming their mid-year book freakout tags which is  a book tag that's been around for years now i've   done it multiple times but it's been a few years  since i've actually done it and i really love this   tag it's just kind of like a mid-year check-in to  give you all updates on the books that i've read   so far this year and my thoughts on all of them  what books i plan to read in the second half of   the year and it's just like a bunch of questions  so that you all can know how my reading has been   going so far this year and i can give you an  update and that's what we're gonna do today   and i'm very excited about it i will of course  leave links to the original creators videos in the   description box below so you can check them out as  well as time stamps for each of the questions if   you want to jump around but before we get into the  tag i do have a couple of like quick announcements   that i want to mention first of all i do want to  let you all know that the necklace that i designed   with anna louisa is back in stock for those of  you who have been asking about it it took a bit um   there were some like problems with like warehouse  stuff but the necklace is back in stock so if   you are interested in purchasing the um hannah  necklace from annalisa i will leave the link in   the description box below you can head straight  there and pick one up for yourself if you would   like to i know a lot of you messaged me about  it and i did mention it on instagram recently   but i wanted to let you all know on here as well  because i know plenty of you were asking about it   so thank you all so much for being so patient  while we were trying to get them all back in stock   but they are back now so if you would like to get  yourself one you can do so and then the second   thing i also just quickly wanted to say thank you  all for um the like reaction and response to the   necklace in the first place um it sold out in a  day which was incredible and unbelievable and um i   am just so overwhelmed and floored and full of so  much gratitude for all of you because you send me   all of the pictures and messages telling me how  much you like it showing me yourself wearing it   and stuff like that and honestly it makes me like  tear up every single time because it just makes   me so happy to see you all wearing it it means  a lot to me and i'm so glad that you all love   it as much as i do and that it means as much to  you as it does to me so yes i wanted to quickly   thank you for that and also let you know about  the restock but without any further ado let's get   into the questions of the tag and find out what's  the best book i've read so far this year and the   most disappointing book i've read so far this year  and everything in between so so far this year i've   read a total of 18 books which is literally double  what i read last year which is incredible for me   at this point honestly um considering that i've  been busy doing other things and haven't actually   had that much time for reading so 18 books is  really nice i'm very happy with that number and   like i said many times in like previous videos  i've loved everything i've read so far this year   so it's been a great reading year and i'm really  hoping to keep up that momentum in the second half   of the year as well but the first question is what  is the best book you've read in 2021 so far so   i'm gonna take this question to mean best like  objectively the best book not my favorite book   i've read so far this year because those would be  two different books even though i consider this   book that i'm gonna mention as one of my favorite  books i've ever read and one of my favorite books   i've read this year i just objectively think this  is the best book i've read this year even if it's   not necessarily my favorite one because there's  a different one that's my favorite one which i   think you can all guess but in my opinion the  best book i've read so far this year is on earth   we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vong i've talked  about this book in a couple of videos now i think   but it is honestly one of the greatest things  i've ever read this book is a letter that a son   wrote to his mother who is illiterate and it's  about his experiences and his life growing up   as gay and vietnamese-american and what that was  like and her life as a vietnamese immigrant coming   to america and what it was like for her and her  mother as well and it's just so beautiful it's   honestly some of the most beautiful pros i've ever  read in my entire life it's heartbreaking it's   really difficult to read at times but honestly  it's one of the best things i've ever read and i   thoroughly enjoyed it and i know i'm definitely  gonna read plenty more that oceanvong writes   i'm very interested in picking up his poetry as  well so yeah definitely i think this is probably   the best book i've read in 2021. question two is  what is the best sequel you've read so far in 2021   and this was a no-brainer for me such an easy  question to answer and also this i could consider   my favorite book that i've read so far this year  as well but that is none other than chain of iron   by cassandra clare no one here is surprised i'm  sure most of you have seen the vlog at this point   it's just like an hour of me crying and losing  my mind over this because i loved it so much   still my favorite book i've read so far this year  i've read a lot of really good books but this was   still the most enjoyable reading experience for me  because it just made me feel every single emotion   so yeah definitely my favorite sequel i've read  so far this year i am so excited for the finale   of this series i never want it to come out because  i never want this series to end but also i need it   like today because i'm so tired of like having  this cliffhanger i just i need a resolution   question three is a new release you haven't read  yet but want to there have definitely been quite   a few new releases this year that i have been  eyeing and wanting to read i just haven't had the   time or the motivation to pick up yet but the one  that comes to mind right now is one last stop by   casey mcquisten who is the author of red white and  royal blue i've mentioned that book multiple times   i read it in 2019 i think and i really really  enjoyed it and i've been looking forward to their   next book for some time now so i'm very excited  to pick that one up it just came out recently   and i'm very interested to see what i think about  it i feel like i'll definitely enjoy it i've heard   a lot of people say that it's actually better than  red white and royal blue i mean i really like that   book so if it's better than that i would love this  so yeah i'm very excited to try that one question   four is your most anticipated release for the  second half of the year and for me this is easily   easily the sequel to aristotle and dante discover  the secrets of the universe which is aristotle and   dante dive into the waters of the world that title  i'm i'm so excited if you've been with me from the   like start of my channel you know that aristotle  and dante discover the secrets of the universe is   one of my all-time favorite books i love this book  it is like classic y literature to me i love it   so much i think it is so so good it is one of the  books that got me into reading why a contemporary   in general and benjamin larissance the author has  been teasing like a sequel for years and years now   and we're finally getting one i believe it comes  out in october and i'm so incredibly excited   i love arie and dante i would die for these two  they are precious to me and i'm so excited to   see their story continue i'm really hoping that  it's good usually i don't have that much faith   in sequels but like i'm willing to give this a  chance i'm willing to like be hopeful about it   because i just love them so much and like i just i  want to be back in that world in their world with   these characters that i love so deeply so yeah i'm  so excited for this book i had no idea that it was   coming out this year so when i found out about  it i was over the moon and i just i can't wait to   have my hands on it question five is your biggest  disappointment so i have two for this actually   first up we have king of crows by libba bray the  finale to the diviners series i've mentioned this   book in a video before i think and mentioned that  it wasn't my favorite in the series i think it was   kind of a bit of a letdown for a series finale it  was by no means bad i did enjoy the book i think   i gave it three stars like a solid good read and i  enjoyed it but it just didn't live up to the rest   of the books in the series in my opinion and it  was too long i think that's my main criticism of   it it was just way too long it was just like not  what i wanted it to be i expected a bit more from   this so again not a bad book by any means i still  highly recommend the series i really enjoy the   whole series but just not exactly what i wanted it  to be and then the second book i have to mention   shouldn't come as a surprise either because i  also talked about this in another video i've   talked about most of these books in other videos  i haven't read that much this year so you'll hear   me repeat myself multiple times but that book is  the invisible life of addie larue by v.e schwab   again i want to preface this with i gave this book  four stars i did genuinely enjoy this book i don't   want you all to think i like hate it or something  i don't i enjoyed it i thought it was a good book   i just do not see it as like exceptional the way  that everyone else does and it just didn't live   up to my hype that i built up for it in my head i  thought i would die for this book like i thought   i'd be head over heels in love with this story and  it would be one of my new all-time favorite books   and it just wasn't so it was disappointing to  me again it's still a good book i still think   it's worth reading i think it was enjoyable but  in my opinion it's not really anything special   and in my opinion victoria schwab has much  better books that's just how i feel personally   um so i was a little bit disappointed by  this one so yeah this one in king of crows   are definitely um the two that have been the most  disappointing but again a three and four star book   like i've still read great books i haven't read  anything less than three stars so far this year   who knows maybe second half of the year i'll read  some really terrible books maybe i'll read some   terrible books for fun and then we can vlog that  who knows leave recommendations for really bad   books and maybe i'll read some of them all right  question six is biggest surprise and for me this   easily goes to my reread of the entire shadow and  bone trilogy i filmed a whole reading vlog when i   was rereading this trilogy and it was honestly  one of my favorite videos i've made so far this   year because it was really really fun for me i'd  never read ruin and rising before but i'd read the   first two years and years ago but i just didn't  really care that much about the series i thought   it was three stars just okay good but like not  my favorite thing and then i reread them this   year right before the show came out because i  wanted to prepare and i love them now like i   literally love this series i would call this one  of my favorite series it's genuinely such a good   series i was so taken aback by how much my opinion  on it had changed and it's definitely made me want   to go back and reread a bunch of other series to  see how my opinions have changed on them now like   four or five years later so yeah hands down this  has to be the biggest surprise for me because i   genuinely did not think i'd ever come around to  loving this book series as much as i do now but   i'm so pleasantly surprised by it it's a good  surprise very happy surprise question seven is   your favorite new author and for this i definitely  also have to go with oceanvong like i mentioned   before i loved this book so much that i definitely  plan to pick up his poetry books as well because   i feel like i will absolutely love anything that  he writes definitely a new favorite author for   me like an auto buy author okay questions eight  and nine are new fictional crush and new favorite   character and quite honestly i don't think i have  one for either of those because every single one   of my new favorite fictional characters or  fictional crushes has just come from anime   this past year i don't think i have a new like  fictional crush or favorite character in a book   i guess you could count mal from shadow and bone  mal and alina like the two of them i like love   them i love their relationship their relationship  is my fictional crush i guess we could pick that   and they're like two of my new favorite characters  so we'll go with mal and elena actually i think   that's a pretty fair answer question 10 is a  book that made you cry and i could go with like   a number of books because a lot of the books  i read this year made me cry some of which you   have witnessed on camera i'm gonna pick two that i  haven't mentioned in this video yet and the first   one is the stationery shop i've mentioned this  book in a couple of other videos before i think   and i have talked about how much i love it it's  definitely one of my new favorite books i've read   i genuinely enjoyed this book so much and it  definitely made me cry it was heart-wrenching   and just very very emotional for me it's basically  like historical fiction romance and i don't know   what it is about that genre specifically like a  story that takes place over like a very long span   of time that really gets to me i think it's just  getting to see characters entire like lifespans   or life stories like play out over time really  gets to me in some way it's like that and found   family or like the two tropes that really make  me like lose it emotionally and the stationery   shop is very much that like it starts in the  50s and then we move on to like 2013 so it takes   place like throughout all of that time and so we  really get to grow with these characters and see   how they change and what happens to them in their  lives and it's beautiful and it's so emotional   everyone should read this book it's so good and  then the other book that made me cry which has a   very similar plot structure is uh malibu rising by  taylor jenkins read i finally read malibu rising   it just came out like last month or something like  that and it took me a bit to pick it up but i just   finished it like yesterday and i loved it i'll  talk about it some more in like a wrap up once   i've read some more books and i'll like wrap up  some of the other books that i've read recently   for you all but um i did very much enjoy this book  and it did make me cry i definitely do not like it   as much as i like daisy jones or evelyn hugo those  two were like god tier books for me this was like   four stars and really great but just not as great  as those two i do think it's more similar to her   other books i've read her entire backlist so um  i've read like all of her other romance books as   well before daisy jones and evelyn hugo and um  i really like those two and i think this book   is more similar to that even though it has the  same kind of structure as evelyn hugo and daisy   jones where it's about these like fictional  celebrities in this fictional taylor jenkins   read celebrity universe but this did make me  cry because of the sibling relationships which   is like the core part of this story and the like  commentary on like family and stuff um which was   again like the main aspect of this and it was very  emotional um i really enjoyed it though it was a   great read highly recommend taylor jenkins read  never lets me down she never disappoints so yeah   these two books definitely made me cry but like i  said a lot of books make me cry i cry very easily   now in contrast question 11 is a book that made  you happy see books that made me cry can also be   books that made me happy um those two things are  like kind of interchangeable sometimes i cry from   sheer happiness and i did tear up a little bit  in this book from sheer happiness um but this is   definitely a book that i would say made me happy  and that is the house in the cerulean sea i've   mentioned this book multiple times on my channel  now as well i love it it's so good it is so happy   and it's all so sad of course like i said but  at the same time it's mostly just like a purely   happy book if you're looking for something to just  like cheer you up something to like escape into   for a little while this is definitely the book  that i would recommend it's really heartwarming   and it will definitely put a smile on your face  all right and then the next question is the most   beautiful book you have either bought or received  this year and for me this hands down has to go to   the collector's edition of clockwork angel or the  10th anniversary edition not collector's edition   10th anniversary edition i love this book it is  one of the few books i've actually bought this   year i really haven't bought that many books this  year but i love this edition i saw it and i was   like i need it i know i already have a copy of  clockwork angel but i want this one because it's   so pretty and this is like my favorite series so  yes i'm very happy to have this i do want like the   other pretty editions of the um what's it what are  they called what is chain of gold called the last   hours oh my god that took me so long i do want  the pretty collector's editions of the last hour   series like the waterstones ones they're so nice  um but i did not buy them when they first came out   and now they're like 300 on um depop or like ebay  or something like that so i'm not paying that much   money for a book but i do want them maybe one  day i'll get them who knows uh but yeah i love   these pretty like hardback cloth bound like foil  books they're very pretty they're making them for   so many books now like they're making so many  books with these like editions and i know there   are so many subscription boxes that do like all  these special fancy editions and i've mentioned   this before i used to be way more into like pretty  editions of books and i've recently like kind of   gotten out of that but every now and then every  now and then when i see one i'm like yeah i could   i could have that that would make me happy so  i caved with this one and got it and finally   question 13 what books do you need to read by  the end of the year so i have quite a few books   that i still need to read by the end of the year  there's one that is definitely the most important   i'm gonna list a couple of them and then i think  you'll all know what the number one book is first   off i definitely want to read king of scars um i  need to continue on with like the grisha trilogy   and go back into the gracia world because i have  been spoiled now at this point thanks to some   people um for this series and i kind of know what  happens so like i need to read them um as soon   as possible so this is definitely high up on my  priority list of books that i need to get to and   i'm thinking about filming a vlog for it like i've  mentioned before so might be doing that and then   another series that i really need to read by the  end of the year i mentioned this in my last video   um as well that i started like reading manga and  i've gotten super into manga specifically i've   gotten really really into fruits basket and it  has consumed my entire life my entity my whole   soul now belongs to fruits basket literally  no thoughts head empty just fruits basket   there's nothing else up here i've watched the show  four times at this point yes i did finish it yes   i did start re-watching it immediately after i  finished it i've shown it to literally everyone   in my life and i'm like you all need to watch this  it's the greatest thing i've ever seen my life's   mission is to now make everybody in the world  watch fruits basket because it's my favorite thing   on earth i literally posted on my instagram story  the other day about how i think fruits basket   might literally top avatar the last airbender is  like my favorite show of all time i know that's a   controversial statement um i know that i never  thought anything would ever come even close to   avatar for me but i'm telling y'all fruits basket  is it fruits basket it's consumed meat okay i can   make an entire video just about why i like this  series so much or maybe i will just vlog myself   reading the entire manga series but to get back  to the point the fruits basket manga that's one   thing i need to read before the end of the year i  have volume one and volume five those are the only   two volumes i have um i do need to buy the other  volumes as well but maybe when i do that i'll   just vlog myself reading this entire series maybe  that's what i'll do but that could be something   let me know if you all would be interested in  seeing that because the only thing i'm interested   in doing anymore is talking about fruits basket  i've annoyed so many of my friends but annoyed   them into watching it and now they're like thank  you hannah for introducing me to most depressing   yet best thing i've ever seen and i'm like you're  welcome because it's the greatest thing ever   anyway um i don't know how to explain to you all  how obsessed i am with fruits basket like when i   say consumed me i mean like fully consumed me like  i literally cannot think about anything else i do   not love anything the way i love this um so yes  i need to read the entire manga series asap it's   so important uh my life depends on this so yeah um  that's one thing i will definitely be doing within   like the next month or so because yes um i love  this series with my whole heart and soul read it   watch it let it consume you let it consume you and  then come back to me and you can thank me and we   can cry together because i will never stop crying  about fruits basket and then last but certainly   not least we have the book that everyone has been  begging me to read for like two years now i know   but but you'll all be very happy to know that this  is the next book i plan to read and i'm vlogging   it so it'll it'll happen it's coming the vlog is  coming you'll finally get to hear my thoughts on   this book and that is of course none other than  the starlet c by erin morgenstern i know it's   been a million years i know you've all been asking  for me to read it for so so long but i'm finally   doing it um literally actually finally doing it  i'm probably starting this either tomorrow or   the day after whenever i finally have time but it  is literally the next book i will read i promise   you that you can yell at me for the rest of time  if i don't read this next i promise okay okay and   i will vlog it so you can see my whole reaction  and my whole like reading experience of it like   you've all been asking me to do since it came out  in like 2019. it's fine it's fine we're doing it   but yes um i will read this this will definitely  be read by the end of the year this will be read   probably by the end of the month so i'm sticking  to my word now okay i'm sticking to my promise i   will keep my promise but there you all have it  that is it for the mid-year book freakout tag i   hope you all enjoyed watching this video i hope  that it was fun for you to hear about the books   i read so far this year and the books i plan to  read for the remainder of the year i hope your   reading year has been going well as well let me  know in the comments down below what your favorite   book and your most disappointing book that you've  read so far this year have been i'm very curious   to know also um if you do want to see any of those  reading vlogs and stuff that i mentioned or videos   that i mentioned definitely let me know that as  well but that is it for this video if you'd like   to follow me on any of my social media all of  my links are in the description box as always   but thank you all so much for watching i hope  you enjoyed and i will see you in my next video bye you

Channel: A Clockwork Reader

Views: 172,189

Rating: 4.9667468 out of 5

Keywords: books to read, book recommendations, best books of the year, best books of 2021, worst books of 2021, worst books i've read, best books i've read, reading, booktube, mid year book freak out tag, book tag, book haul, a clockwork reader

Id: xp-1P5oBB5g

Length: 19min 36sec (1176 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 08 2021