the best books i've ever read | easy to read, nonfiction, sally rooney, & MORE

this video is sponsored by squarespace if you go in expecting this to be a romance in which two healthy people make good decisions you're not gonna like it because that's not what it is hi hello how are you how are you doing welcome back to my channel taking care of yourself doing some good drinking some water you better be anyways i've moved this is my new space we'll do a little update at some point not now because i'm just hanging out so i get a lot of comments on this channel because i think i attract a certain kind of viewer there's people who already read who watch my videos i want recommendations but there's also people who don't really know where to start when it comes to reading so i figured today what i do is i would go through every book i've ever given five stars to i've cut them up into little sections based on genre hi girl bosses i'm moving which is explains this beautiful background but i thought we might just take a moment out of our hectic girl boss schedules to discuss today's sponsor squarespace from websites and online stores to marketing tools and analytics squarespace is an all-in-one platform to build a beautiful online presence and run your business squarespace has actually sponsored me a couple times on this channel i love the product before i even started youtube i used squarespace to create my own professional website it's so easy to use and it's great if you're trying to start a business or even just become a freelancer because it looks so professional and you don't need any design knowledge or website design knowledge to make it look that way so check out squarespace.com for your free trial and once you've checked it out fallen in love just like me go to squarespace.com uncarly to save 10 off your first purchase of a website or domain i love squarespace i'm so happy that i get to work with them thank you so much to squarespace for sponsoring this video i have a [ __ ] ton of fiction first and foremost literally who is surprised no one no one's surprised sally rooney sally reading is my favorite author i have and will read literally anything she publishes she can publish a hit piece on me in which she invokes her intense deep following to kill me and i would read it sally rudy's most popular book is normal people but again every single one of these i gave five stars to her books are literary fiction but they're kind of also new adult so they basically will follow a young woman in her early 20s dealing with the fact that she's probably depressed she has some toxic relationships but also toxic qualities herself that's basically what happens there's not a lot of plot they often have romantic aspects normal people is about marianne and connell and their relationship from high school into their adult lives this is the first one i read [ __ ] loved it obsessed it's not a romance i think in order to really love sally rooney you have to go in knowing what it is if you go in expecting this to be a romance in which two healthy people make good decisions you're not gonna like it because that's not what it is it's more so an exploration on power and class and sex and relationships but i also love conversations with friends her first novel this is about francis and she gets involved in a relationship with a married man and again it focuses on power and sex it's basically just again a woman getting in a relationship with a married man and then being like ew i'm confused then there's beautiful world where are you we're gonna do a more in-depth video on beautiful world where are you when it comes out it's coming out in the september i got an arc from penguin random house canada thank you literally highlight of my [ __ ] life this is her most recent book it feels a lot more adult it feels a little different than the other two this follows two best friends eileen and alice and it focuses on how their relationship is affected by their own ability to communicate but also their relationships with these two guys and at its core it really just focuses on how we're living in a time which it seems like the world is literally [ __ ] ending and we know that and we're conscious of it and we want to fix it but also at our core human beings just care about friendship and love there's a lot of reasons i love sally rooney i also think her portrayal of queer women bisexual women is so realistic a lot of people are like those books are so straight and it's like bi people can be in a straight relationship and that doesn't erase their bisexuality but i gave five stars to all of these books if you're very much like i'm the main character i'm different oh being in your 20s is so hard what am i to do but you also don't care about plot and you just kind of want to romp would recommend in a similar vein if you've read all of sally rudy's books and you want a little bit of a fixer i would recommend exciting times by nasha dolan it's by a different irish author but it's the same vibe of 20 year old woman entirely lost she's working as an english teacher in hong kong she's a relationship with an english banker julian who's a man and also a hong kong-born lawyer edith who's a woman so if you're directionless i would recommend exciting times by nisha dolan okay this is less by andrew sean greer one of my favorite books of all time i read this last year and was blown away by it so less is a literary fiction but it's also kind of just like a literary highbrow rum kind of moment like i could see this as a movie and it follows the author andrew less him and his boyfriend broke up a couple years ago and now his boyfriend is getting married to someone else and he gets invited to the wedding but he doesn't want to go obviously because he doesn't want to be like pitied and it seems sad but he also doesn't want to reject it because then that seems petty so what he does because he's an author is he accepts every invitation he gets to a literary event around the world so he can basically go on a really long trip and miss the wedding so he goes to france he goes to morocco he goes to germany it's just a study and heartbreak on life and what it means when you kind of are accepting that you're getting older it's super super funny i just really loved it it's also joyful which i love because i feel like so many books are like sadness is the only way to create serious art this is a happy funny book that also poses interesting questions i'd recommend this if you want like a fun read but you're also like serious next we have memorial by brian washington this book is one of the best books i've literally ever read i would recommend this to you if you want to start getting more into like a literary fiction adult literature moment but you don't feel super confident in your reading skills because this is super easy to follow plot super relatable characters and the language is super super accessible and easy to read this basically follows benson and mike they're a couple and they don't really know why they're still together they've just been together for so long then mike gets informed that his dad who's living in japan is terminally ill and he goes to take care of his dad and reconnect with his dad who is absent his whole life while benson stays in texas and lives with mike's mom who has come to visit so mike's story is a little bit of a sadder more introspective look at this father and son rekindling their difficult relationship while benson's story is more of a funny story about him learning to live with mike's super serious mom and it's like an odd couple situation it like made me cry it made me laugh okay next we have a tornado weather by deborah kennedy i read this book three years ago and i gave it five stars this is basically a literary fiction slash thriller what happens is there's a girl daisy gonzalez she is in elementary school and she's in a wheelchair and every day at the end of the school day she gets on the bus and then the bus driver drops her off right in front of her house and her dad comes to pick her up but one day her dad isn't there the bus driver leaves and then daisy goes missing after this you find out what happened by every chapter being about a different person in this small town and it's all these different people in the small town giving their perspective on what happens what they know and then slowly you piece together what happened to daisy i mean i love a thriller moment but i thought this was a really interesting way of doing it it like feels so literary but also it's like gripping because you're like what the [ __ ] happened i've gotta know then we have my year of rest and relaxation by otessa moshfig this is such a dividing book which is why i almost never recommend it to individual people because you either love it or you [ __ ] hate it this book basically follows an unnamed narrator she experiences a huge trauma in her life and in order to process the trauma and grow from it she gets prescribed sleeping pills and decides to sleep for a year to then come out refreshed and renewed and ready to take on the world i wish it was me i know the point of this book is to be like look how [ __ ] up this narrator is she wants to sleep for a whole year can you believe it but i'm like that was pretty good you will like this book if you want to read something about a depressed woman a woman who is mentally unwell if you want to read a character study about the intersection of gender and privilege and mental illness look no further but if you need plot or you need likable characters this baby is not for you but i will say the way that otessa mosh fake understands the gruesomeness of mental illness in regards to being female identifying so often when there is a book about a mentally unwell woman oftentimes it is written from the perspective of a man it's like she beautifully lay in bed she was so sad lying there perfectly and this is like no mental illness is disgusting and you're dirty and you're unwell and it makes it gruesome which is so refreshing next we have such a fun age by kylie reed this is a story about alex and amira alex is a mommy blogger woman who just moved from new york to like the suburbs of philadelphia and she needs a babysitter for her child so she gets amir a tucker one day when amira is taking care of alex's child in the supermarket the security guard is racist and infers that she's kidnapped alex's child and that traumatic moment unravels their relationship again this is a good book if you want to get more into reading literary fiction but you don't want to read anything with too complex of language i think i read this book in like three days i couldn't put it down and it's one of those books that you finish and you just think about constantly like the questions that it poses so i would recommend next i'm gonna do plays the first one if you just want to get into reading plays and you don't know where to start the author neil simon is great i would recommend to you the odd couple female version the odd couple is like a very famous cultural touchstone at least here in north america why is my nose so itchy am i okay there is unger and madison they are two very different individuals one is kind of messy and tomboyish and the other is very uptight tightly wound and when one of their relationships falls apart they live together and it's basically about the shenanigans they get into as opposites it's fun neil simon's writing is super accessible it's not too serious and i like the female version because they update it even a little bit more neil simon is one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century would recommend if you want to read shakespeare i'd recommend the 12th night my copy is entirely ripped up but i found this to be a shakespeare play that's super fun to read it's a comedy it involves lots of gender swapping and romance and it feels very modern it feels very fun basically what happens is there's two twins they get lost in a shipwreck viola the sister pretends to be her brother and the brother pretends to be someone else entirely and it's just a very funny comedy of errors where viola is meddling in this duke's personal life the woman that the duke likes is in love with viola's brother like it's just a mess but it's actually a fun shakespeare play you know it's not like death death i want to kill myself it's like love is so weird and finally i'd recommend slave play by jeremy o'haras i gave my copy to my sister so i don't have it jeremy o'haras is a contemporary playwright if you are looking to read more plays this is a great one i don't want to spoil too much because there's a really big twist in the middle but it talks about race and sex and oftentimes the racist tendencies of well-meaning white people jeremiah harris is like the most exciting young playwright we have these days their work is chef's kiss and if you want to read more contemporary jeremy o'haras is where you should look for novellas i would recommend this is pleasure by mary gatesgale i found this to be a very interesting and unique take on the metoo movement i am always very reticent to read more on the metoo movement because when you're a woman you get it like you've lived it it's not something i need to read about because it's like fully a life and something that we've all known forever this take is so interesting instead of dealing with the perspective of a woman who's been traumatized by sexual misconduct or sexual violence by a man it deals with a woman who is a friend of one of these men who has been accused of sexual harassment and how the human brain processes this information somebody that you are connected to that you know being accused of these horrible things what does your brain do in that moment and it's literally incredibly short like how long is this it's 82 pages if you want a short easy to read story that poses really really interesting questions and makes you think this is pleasure by mary gate scale okay now we're moving on to nonfiction first we'll do the two memoirs this is lust and wonder by augustine burrows and it follows the author's life and characterizes it through his different loves so you start out when he's 19 he moves to san francisco to pursue marketing because marketing is his love then you follow him through his deep addiction to alcohol because alcohol is his love and also there are romantic loves in there as well you talk about his relationship with his husband his relationship with his ex-husband augustine burroughs is [ __ ] funny it's a little dated i will say i think it came out in 2014 so there's some jokes in there that you're like but i love how funny it is he deals with really serious subject matter like his own addiction a failing marriage infidelity but he's so unwell that the ways that he deals with it are so funny he tries to catfish his ex-husband at one point he talks about trying to be the most interesting person in his therapy sessions it's just very relatable very funny it's a nice voice you know then we have i am not myself these days by josh kilmer purcell this follows josh who is a drag queen in the underbelly of new york city's nightlife and follows josh's relationship with his boyfriend who is a sex worker who is addicted to crack i think i think it's crack i don't know a lot about drugs and talks about how that relationship ping-pongs between incredibly supportive and loving to emotionally abusive and scary at some points it's a wild story i think i read this book in two days i couldn't put it down his life is just wild this is not a memoir this is like hardcore non-fiction and it is so you've been publicly shamed by jon ronson this basically follows public shaming through a modern lens and talks about cancel culture but it's not one of those books that's like cancelled culture is cancer it's killing our society it's the worst thing ever it like talks about it from a very nuanced and neutral perspective it basically compares cancer culture to in the old times when we would like we'd put someone up to one of these things and we'd like stone them or throw rotten food at them the need to publicly shame other humans who are acting outside of society's norms is not new so he talks about a lot of big public cancellations and why certain people get cancelled and other people don't i just found it very gripping it's a great non-fiction to read if you want to get into non-fiction but you're like i don't want to read like a textbook that's boring so yes those are the books i have given five stars to those are the best books i've read i guess hope you enjoy all of my information my socials is in the description below thank you so much to squarespace for sponsoring this video other than that i'll see you soon bye [Music] can you tell me why can you tell me why i'm down

Channel: uncarley

Views: 247,346

Keywords: the best books ive ever read, life changing books, books that changed the way i saw the world, actually fun books, easy to read books, books to get back into reading, literary fiction recommendations, the best books of 2021, five star books, book haul, the best books ive read this year, how to start reading for pleasure, sally rooney, beautiful world where are you sally rooney, uncarley, books you need to read, easy books, booktok, conversations with friends, summer reading

Id: HWNafFzsxjE

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 16 2021