Hey guys it's Emily! For today's video
I'm doing my March wrap up. So in all I
read nine books in March, which I am
pretty stoked about because some of them
were pretty big, and I read one
absolutely terrible book. Like, so
bad! And then I read a lot of really,
really, really good books, so kind of
either ended spectrum. The first book
that I read was The Angel of History by
Rabih Alameddine. This is a literary
fiction book following Jacob, who is a man
living in San Francisco. It alternates
between present time in which Jacob is
checking himself into a psych ward, and
the past in which he is talking about
living in San Francisco during the 80s,
specifically kind of examining the AIDS
epidemic and what it was like to go
through that as a gay man. And in
addition to Jacobs perspective we also
read about an interview about Jacob's
life between the personification of
death and Satan. And there's also a lot
of saints who actually exist in the
context of this book, but it's kind of
unclear as to whether you're dealing
with figments of Jacob's imagination, or
like some kind of delusion, or if these
are real figures, but regardless
they make for some great metaphors. This
is written very stream-of-consciousness
excepting the portions between Satan and
death. It's gorgeously written. The prose
itself is beautiful. It's so dense, but
because it's so dense... I think I
mentioned this in my TBR--I had already
started this book at that point and I
was like, "It's like you're swimming
through the prose!" But it's also kind of
like you get tired of swimming through
the prose because it's just so dense. So I
think I ended up giving this 3 stars.
this book is also really sexually graphic,
and there is a bit that's like BDSM kind
of stuff, which I did not I was in here
not that there's anything necessarily
wrong with that, but it kind of took me
by surprise, so fair warning if you
want to read this book. I'm excited to
read other works of Alameddine because I
think he knows his way around a sentence
and is doing really interesting,
ambitious stuff in this book, and so I
want to see what he's doing into other
works, you know, if they're as ambitious
as this. The next book I read was kind of
like a screeching shift in terms of
content, and that's because it was the
loveliest YA contemporary. I finally
got around to reading Simon vs. the Homo
Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. I
loved this. I loved it
so much. So much! This is about a boy
named Simon who lives in, I think, a
suburb of Atlanta, and he knows he's gay
is comfortable with his own sexuality,
but isn't ready to officially come out
yet, and he's engaging in anonymous email
conversations with another boy from his
high school named Blue, but he doesn't
know Blue's real name, and Blue
doesn't know Simon's real name, and then
one day one of Simon's classmates logs
on to a computer that Simon had been
emailing Blue from sees the emails and
then kind of blackmails Simon, and it goes
from there. It was so good. I loved all
the characters in this book--they're all
fully realized I really, really liked the
atmosphere of high school that Albertalli
creates because it is the only young
adult contemporary book, kind of like
realistic fiction book, that I have ever
read that really captured the atmosphere
of my own high school experience, and
you know, the kinds of jokes that
you tell, the kinds of things that you
think are funny, and how you interact
with stuff and navigating the more
subtle aspects of social situations
in which so-and-so likes so-and-so, but
then you know they don't want to tell, or
it's not going to work out, or something
like that. I think generally speaking
it's really easy in young adult
contemporaries to kind of blow off the
fact that it's clearly an adult writing
about high school, and that they don't
really get what's going on, but Albertalli
so fundamentally gets high school and
gets what it's like to be in high school,
and I adored that. I loved the ending. I
just loved so much about this book! it's
absolutely adorable. My friend Madalyn,
who hasn't made videos a while but does
run a lovely book blog, this is one of
her all-time favorite books and so I
read it because I trust her opinion so
thank you Madalyn for constantly
talking about this book because it was
so good! It's so worth it. It's so lovely,
and just makes me like feel
like I'm blushing because I love it so
much. Next up I read another incredible
book although it is significantly more
serious than Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens
Agenda and that is The Hate U Give by
Angie Thomas. This book is about a young
girl named Starr. It follows Starr navigating
the aftermath of a police shooting that she
witnesses. She watches a police officer
shoot and kill her childhood friend who
was unarmed at the time. We follow Starr
throughout this. I absolutely adored this.
It is a timely book, it is an important
book and it is
also a very well-written book. This is so
well paced, really, really well paced--I
could not put it down when I was reading
it. It was just riveting throughout the
entire thing, even lighter scenes that
were just kind of about Starr's day-to-day
life experiences, or going through high
school and that kind of stuff. I loved
those just as much as the more intense
serious scenes. There was a couple scenes
in here that examine both kind of
peripheraly and directly at the
militarization of the American police.
Through Starr's perspective we see
essentially tanks driving down the
street. One scene that we experience
through Starr's eyes is when she goes to a
protest and it's broken up by a heavily
militarized police force, is just
really, really intense and so well
written. The other thing that I just have...
Oh this was so well done! This book
examines both on a large scale on a much
smaller scale how it can be not just
dangerous but deadly to reduce someone
to a single stereotype, and Angie Thomas
walks the walk with this, because every
single character in here, as flawed as
some of them are, is a fully realized,
complicated, messy, difficult-to-
stereotype human being. Not only is she
looking at this through a thematic lens,
but through every individual character,
and I just have so much appreciation for
how well that was crafted, how much
thought and effort and skill went into
creating characters like that, because
you so often, especially in young adult
realistic fiction young adult
contemporary, a lot of side characters
get kind of reduced to you know "Oh they're the
funny one, that's the nerdy friend," or, you
know, her parents are kind of dorky, or
something like that. Every single
character is so well realized. Absolutely
love this book, cannot recommend this
enough. The next book I read is one of
the best books I've read of all time.
OF ALL TIME. And it is My Favorite Thing Is
Monsters by Emil Ferris. I don't have
words for how incredible this book is.
It's like... Oh! It's so gorgeous and funny
and weird and amazing and I reread it
immediately after finishing it--that is
how good it is. I don't think I've done
that since Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows. That is how much I love this
book. This is a very big graphic novel.
This follows a young 12 year old girl who
imagines herself as a werewolf she's
super into like be old school horror
movies kind of like creature from the
lagoon you know the Wolfman that kind of
stuff a woman in her apartment building
commit suicide but our main character
Karen believes that it was actually a
murder and so she investigates and it is
oh my goodness if I up iced I'm just
gonna say if you want to know why this
book is so amazing in like full detail I
did a full spoiler free review of it
which I will link of the cards and down
below it's done in predominantly
ballpoint pen and it's a ton of cross
hatching Anil Ferris did this after she
had been bitten by a mosquito contracted
West Nile virus become paralyzed and
then re learned how to draw that is just
the backstory of the author who is an
amazing incredible woman who was so
brilliant on so many levels and then
what she managed to craft in this book I
am just completely astounded by this
book is sold out almost everywhere as of
now they went into a second print day if
you see this at your local library if
you see it anywhere pick it up like
Steve just immediately purchase it that
is how good this book is next I have a
big all reread I made it through all
three of the books in his dark materials
by philip pullman this is a very famous
trilogy it's high fantasy originally I
think kind of a middle grade young adult
audience in mind but not in the way that
a lot of young adult is written now I
was talking to my mom I guess I
originally read this in the sixth grade
I think and reading us now I'm thinking
oh myself like a lot of the language in
here it was definitely over my head
because it's pretty sophisticated and
how it's written I love this series I
love this series so much I can
completely understand people not really
liking it I think the first book is
difficult to get into and then I also
think each book is kind of an abrupt
shift from the last so aspects that you
love from the first book might not
necessarily show up in a second and then
aspects from the second might not
necessarily show up in the third they
also get more explicitly allegorical as
they go on the idea and you're kind of
like okay like there's like really
Paradise Lost
worried i still i adore it i think the
final 20 or so pages maybe like final 50
pages of the amber spyglass is the best
ending to any book or series i've read
do you think about like deathly hallows
in the end of the Harry Potter series
the epilogue is very divisive in terms
of whether or not people like it and I
totally get that I fall a category I
really like the epilogue but I do think
it's very fanservice II I think it isn't
necessary to the series like I really
liked that it was included but I don't
think it heightens the series in any way
the final 50 pages in this are gorgeous
and heartbreaking and make me bawl my
eyes out like I had to keep putting the
book down because I was crying I love
this this is so near yours my heart and
this is such a gorgeous edition I'm
really excited to hold onto this for
years to come next up is a book that I
hate it like hated and that is the
Bronze Horseman by paulina Simon's
Paulina sentence god this was like a
trash fire of a book and I want to say
like I don't I I separate book from
author and also book from fan so like I
really care if you super liked it I
don't care you know I have no opinion on
whether other people like it or not and
this is just my own opinion in my own
opinion is that this book is garbage
it's 800 pages of recycled plot shitty
characters and no character growth I
absolutely had it oh also toxic
relationships super fun i love that it
was infuriating to read i posted a
really grantee review on Goodreads about
it and I just oh it's so bad if I'm just
like let's okay here's a great example
of why i hate this book so much so this
is a romance book which I definitely did
not know going into it but like nothing
wrong with that I just personally don't
read a whole lot of romance books so I
was kind of like hug the meat cute for
this couple is when a 22 year old
soldier sees a 16 year old girl across
the street and is like oh great idea to
follow her around for hours that's
really cool of me to do that's not
creepy at all technically it's the last
day that she's 16 because she's turned
70 in the next day nope still
unbelievably creepy
hey this book I handed so much it's so
bad okay I knew sup I do stop any stuff
so to pull me out of the all consuming
rage bubble that was created by the
Bronze Horseman I needed something good
and that is exactly what I got with the
voyage to the magical north by Claire
fares this is just a delightful lovely
whimsical middle grade fantasy book it's
such a fun adventure it's about
basically a bunch of misfit pirates I
just loved this it's such a good
adventure it's a story about the
importance of stories which I have a
total sucker for absolutely love that
stuff and that's what this isn't it's so
wonderful oh it just makes you so happy
I would really recommend s to people who
like middle grade or for younger readers
because it is like very clearly middle
grade it has a lot of the silly middle
grade jokes in it which don't make me
laugh out loud but I kind of like tip my
hat to them I'm like oh that's cute so I
really enjoyed this it was just such a
great book to end the month on so that
isn't for all the books that i read in
march a lot of amazing books and one
terrible one I hey oh okay are you stop
I keep it still come back to me how much
I hate that book but ignoring that I
also read one of my new all-time
favorite books like I want to say this
is like top three books of all time
because i still can't pick just one i'm
gonna ignore the Bronze Horseman and
focus on my favorite things monsters
that's like oh that's how we're getting
it out of this situation thanks so much
for watching if you liked this video
give it a thumbs up hit subscribe to see
more of my face and I will see you next
time
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