Hi everyone. I'm gonna see in this rincey reads. Today i'm going to be doing my
july wrap-up. I have a lot of books to talk about in this video. But that's
mostly because I went on vacation at the very end of June, like during the last
week of June. So I recorded my June wrap up a little bit early knowing that I was
going to read books while on vacation. But I wasn't going to be back from vacation
until like July 1st or 2nd or so. So I figured I would just take all of those
books and throw them in my July wrap-up. I read a lot on vacation. I read like three
books while on vacation. So that really like bumped up my number. So yeah I have a lot
to talk about so I'm going to just like jump right in. So first the videos that I
made this month. I did the beloved books project which was something that was
started on Twitter and Instagram and then Marines over it mynameismarines
made a video talking about it. And I really enjoyed her video a lot so I
decided to do it myself. And basically in this video I just talked about the
really old and beat up and well loved books that I own. I really appreciated
all the comments on that video as well. A lot of you guys shared sort of like the
books that you really love a lot that you still own or you just reminisce
about books that you owned as a kid that you kind of still wish that you still had.
And then I did sort of like a mid-year check in with my reading goals.
So far I'm doing relatively okay but I can already tell that like my brain is
not quite as focused on goals as it was in the first half of year. Maybe it's
just summer but I can tell like my reading is changing a little bit or my
desires in terms of my reading are changing a little bit. But yeah you can
definitely check out that video if you're interested in seeing like what my
goals are for the year and how I'm doing so far.
I'm still like relatively hopeful that I'll accomplish those goals because I
didn't set a lot out. But yeah, I can tell already my brain is that quite as
focused on those. And then I did a book haul. I combined my June and July books
into one haul video because I didn't do one in June. So I just threw it into one
big one, at least big for me. Okay now to talk about the books that I read in July,
end of June-ish, July. So the first three books are all the books that I've read
while on vacation. The first one I read was the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo by
Taylor Jenkins Reid and it's my first Taylor Dickens Reid and she's definitely
an author that I will probably be reading more of her books. There is this
really famous movie star named Evelyn Hugo
who decides that she wants to write sort of like a tell-all biography about her
book and she sort of like hand picks this one writer who is not very like
high staffed on this magazine to be the one to write her biography. And she
basically tells this writer her life story. And so you are basically reading
about Evelyn Hugo's life story. But you also get to see a little bit about her
in present-day and you get to see a little bit about the writer. Yeah, like I
said I enjoyed this book. I gave it I think a three and a half out of five stars.
Taylor Jenkins Reid is like super, super
readable, like you get completely pulled into the story. And it's really easy to
like fly through her books. So if you're ever in like a reading slump or if like
me you're going on vacation you want something that's like easily digestible,
this would definitely be it. But the thing that's really nice about
this author, she takes things that seem very like ordinary or seems like very
like typical chick lit sort of topics but she adds either like extra depth or
extra dimension to all of them. So it's always just like a little bit more than
just a typical like light and fluffy read. So I'm not going to talk about what
the 'something more' is in here because it's sort of like part of the reveal of
Evelyn Hugo talking about her life. But it is also just really interesting
reading this book because, as the title suggests, Evelyn Hugo, this
character, was married seven times. And so she talks a lot about why she married
all of those different people. Oart of it was because of love, part of it was
because of situations, part of it was just to help her like career in
Hollywood. Which is a thing that I think people know happens in Hollywood but I
don't know completely how well-known that is. If you're someone who likes
historical fiction or if you like sort of like old Hollywood type of stuff, this
might be a good book to pick up. The next book that I finished was the moving
finger by Agatha Christie. This is a really, really short book. It's like about
200 pages. So I read this all in one sitting. This one is a Miss Marple book
and yeah there isn't really a lot to say about it. It's not the best Agatha Christie
I've ever read but it's also just like a standard Agatha Christie. It's a fun
mystery book. If you've never read Agatha Christie before start with like one of
her bigger books like the Murder on the Orient Express or and then there were
none or something along those lines or the murder of
roger ackroyd is another really great one. This one is just kind of like mid-level,
not horrible but not great either. In this one you are following these two
characters who like move in a small town in England and the people in this
small town start getting like really nasty letters. And then one of the
people who gets the nasty letter ends up dead. And so it's about sort of
figuring out who's writing these letters and who ended up killing this person and all
of this different stuff. It's kind of like fun small town sort of, I don't want
to say romp because you know it's a murder, but you know that sort of like
small town drama sort of situation that happens here. But yeah it was like a good
vacation read. I liked it. And then the final book I read a lot on vacation was
the windfall by Diksha Basu. This is basically a comedy of manners book that
takes place in New Delhi, India. You are following this family who's, the father
recently sold like a website for a lot of money. So they are moving from this
sort of smaller apartment complex in New Delhi to like their own house in a
richer part of Delhi. It's the two of them and they also have a son in his 20s
who is studying in the United States at University. So it's partially about this
family like moving up in society and trying to figure out you know how to
belong in these sort of upper classes of society while also trying not to
completely push aside all of their old friends and neighbors. And it's also
about the son sort of figuring out who he is and what he wants while he studies
in the United States. Yeah again this was just like a really fun read. It talks a
lot about Indian culture and society but I think that a lot of the stuff that's
talked about in here is also just really universal to stories about like class
structure and things like that. This is another one that's relatively short and
so I kind of wished this one was a little bit longer because I think
there's a lot of cultural stuff in here that's talked about really briefly that
doesn't go very deep. Like the whole storyline with the son goes by like
really quickly and really easily and a lot more smoothly than I think it typically
would go in real life. But yeah again overall I think this was just like a
good summer read. It's really fun and funny. And yeah it's a really great
exploration of like class and class structure that just like sort of happens
to take place in India. The next book I finished in July was the beautiful
thing that heaven bears by dinaw mingetsu. This was his debut novel and
I picked this up at a used bookstore. It's sort of one I've like had on my
list for years to pick up eventually. In this story you are following this man
named sefa stefanos who fled Ethiopia around like 17 years prior to when this
book takes place. And so he fled to the United States to sort of like make a
better life for himself but he ends up in this poor part of Washington DC.
He's running his own sort of like convenience store and his only friends are like these
two other immigrants from Africa. And so he leads this very like isolated very
poor life. And all of a sudden things start changing in the neighborhood and
this one house gets bought by this like upper-class white woman who moves in
with her daughter. And so they form sort of like a friendship and so it talks a
lot about sort of the changing and gentrifying neighborhoods in Washington
DC and how that affects these people in these neighborhoods. But also explores
sort of like a failed American dream sort of situation. Like what happens when
you come to United States with all these hopes and dreams and then you know your
life does not turn out the way that you expected it to. So it deals with sort of
like that immigrant narrative, turns it on its head a little bit while also just
taking place in Washington DC. I think I gave this book a 3 out of 5 stars, maybe
a three and a half out of five stars. I don't remember exactly. It's just another
one of those books where it's relatively short and I think there is a lot of like
ideas and concepts that are just explored in here that are really
interesting and really good and the characters are really interesting.
But I think there was just a little bit too much in too little space. I just wanted
more depth. I feel like this is like complete all the time with stories like
this. It's just there's so much that can be explored and it's just too short for
what they're trying to do. Add like 50 more pages in here and I would be happy.
But yeah overall I really enjoyed it and I definitely want to check out more
of his books. I know he just had one that came out last year or two years ago
called all our names that's definitely on my list of books to check out.
The next book that I finished was Once Upon a Time in Shaolin: the untold story of
wu-tang clan's million dollar secret album, the devaluation music, and America's
new public enemy number one. This is a nonfiction book and it goes
over all those topics that are stated in the subtitle. I talked about this a
little bit in my book haul so if you haven't checked that out definitely do
so because I just talked about like sort of how I came to acquire this book.
But yeah, this was a book I was super interested in once I heard about it
because I followed sort of the saga behind this Wu-Tang Clan album. The short
story, if you can liken shorten it is basically they decided to put
out this album that there was only going to be like one copy of in the entire
world. They were not going to sell it and they-- or they were not going to sell
it to like the masses for his people to hear. They were just going to create this
single recording, single physical recording, and they were going to sell
that off as if there was like a piece of art or like an artifact or something
along those lines. Whoever bought it had to sign a contract saying they weren't
going to like upload it or anything along those lines. And this book
basically explores how they came up with the concept, why they decided to make the
choices that they did. It talks a lot about some of the other options that
they had and why those may not have worked out. There's a lot of really great
talk in here in terms of like the value of music as seen by society as well as
the value of music compared to other types of contemporary art. America's new
public enemy number one comes into play because the guy who ended up buying this
album is basically one of those pharma bros who like jacked up pharmaceutical
prices. And so there was like a lot of tension behind that. But yeah, I found it
to be really interesting. The writing in here can get like really bro-y at times.
The guy who wrote this book was basically an advisor on the album as
well which is why he has so much knowledge about this stuff. But yeah I
really liked it. I mean I shouldn't say I really liked it but I
found it really enjoyable and I just found the discussions in here to be
really interesting. It talks a lot about the value of things like Contemporary Art
and how music is viewed as sort of like a lesser in terms of contemporary art
and then like hip hop is sort of even lesser than that and how they were
trying to convey the value that this album was going to have and things like
that without also you know completely alienating their fan base and trying to
pretend like they were something more than they actually were and things like
that. So yeah, I thought it was really interesting. I don't know if this is
going to be everyone's cup of tea. I think it helps a lot that I followed
this sort of saga as it was happening. So to get sort of like background and
insight was something that I personally really enjoyed. But yeah, if it sounds
like something you'd be interested in, I definitely would recommend it. If you are
a fan of the wu-tang clan or you're just really interested in the music industry
or even if you're interested in like contemporary art and discussions around
that, I think that this might be of interest to you. The next book that I
finished was each vagabond by name by Margo Orlando littell. This is a book
that's printed by a small press called uno press. They had contacted me I
think they sent me this was earlier this year or maybe it was last year. And I
decided to take them up on it because it sounded really interesting and it turns
out that it was very good. The story takes place in a small town in
Pennsylvania. It starts off when this sort of like band of gypsies come into town.
I feel like gypsies makes them sound like more like magical or mystical
than they actually are. But it's basically just like a group of like
vagabonds. They're all relatively young for the most part. And you're mainly
following these two characters named Ramsey and Stella who are residents of
the small town that these vagabonds come into. Ramsey own sort of like the local
bar and he becomes really interested in these people who come into town after
like one of them sort of like wanders like near his bar and he realizes sort
of like how hungry and helpless they are. And then the woman Stella, she like lost
her daughter couple of years ago, like her daughter went missing and she
never really found out what happened to her. And so she has this like weird
feeling that these vagabonds might know where she is. And there's a lot of
tension happening between these vagabonds and the people who live in
this town because the vagabonds are basically stealing from the townspeople
in order to get money and to get food and things like that. Ramsey and Stella are sort
of put in this position where they are intrigued and sort of kind of want to
help these people out but also like everyone else in the town wants to sort
of just like drive them out as soon as possible. Yeah, like I said, this was a
really good book. I think I gave this a four out of five stars. The writing in here
is really really beautiful. It's a very like slow moving book. It moves very
slowly through time and there's also a lot of flashbacks that happen. So you get
to see a lot of history in Ramsey's life and a lot of like Stella's history
things like that and you get to see sort of like how they got to where they are
today. I will say that the time line gets like a little bit fuzzy in my opinion.
There were points where I was reading chapters in this book and I couldn't
remember if it was telling me about present day, present day in terms of this
book, or if it was telling me about stories from the past. But I think that the
character study in here is really interesting. There's a lot of really
great discussions in terms of like outsiders and even just like mob
mentality and things like that. Yeah it's just a very beautiful, quiet,
character study of a book. I really enjoyed it a lot. And I kind of want to
see if this author is going to, planning on putting out more books or even just
checking out more stuff from uno press to see if they have other books sort of
like this because it was a really really enjoyable read. Next I finished this is
the story of a happy marriage by Ann Patchett. This is basically like a
collection of essays and a collection of some of the nonfiction pieces that she's
written for various like magazines and newspapers throughout the years. I really
enjoyed it. I really love Ann Patchett's writing a whole lot and I feel like this
sort of like solidified that for me because it proved that she could write
about anything and I'm 100% there going to read it. She talks about a lot of
things because again this covers like decades of writing for her. There are
pieces in here about her family like growing up. There are pieces in here
about her opening up her bookstore. There are pieces in here about her
marriage, there are a number of pieces in here to talk about things like love and
marriage and her relationship with her husband. But there's also stuff where she
talks about like her dog and how she doesn't want to have children.
And there's a piece in here about how like she got in trouble with the university, I
think it was Clemson, banned one of her books and then she went on to speak
there. So it talks about you know her being banned and then it also provides
like the speech that she gave and I think there's also a commencement speech
that's included in here. So it's kind of all over the board. So if you're someone
who likes Ann Patchett's writing, this is a great piece to pick up but like it's
sort of a your mileage may vary sort of situation because depending on
how interested you are in the topics, you may very interest in this actual essay
collection. But she goes across so many different topics that I feel like
there's at least one here that you're probably going to enjoy. Then I read
fact of a body by Alexandria Marzano- Lesnevich. This is a pretty new release.
This is a nonfiction book. The subtitle to this is a murder end of memoir and
that's exactly what it is. It's basically a combination of like a true crime
non-fiction book along with a memoir about Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich's life.
So in this book they're basically like two different storylines that you are
following. You're following this author as she talks about her life growing up
and how she ends up going to law school. And while she's in law school she ends
up like interning or working at this law firm in Louisiana.
She is staunchly pro-life in terms of like the death penalty. She ends up
working for this law firm that defends people who are on death row and one of
the cases that she comes across is for this man who is a pedophile as well as
murdered someone, murdered a small child. And so she is forced to sort of like
reckon with that as well as reckon with some stuff that has happened in her past.
I'm not sure if I want to say any more than that because I think part of what's
interesting about this book is how she reveals parts of her life to the reader
as well as reveals parts of Ricky, who is the murderer in this case, his life and
his family's life in this story. Yeah this was a very good book but it's a
very difficult book to read. The memoir parts are actually the hardest part of
this book to read about. I think that there is a slight detachment when she's
talking about Ricky and his family because obviously it's not her life that
she's talking about. So it makes it a little bit easier to read about those
things. But when she's writing about the things that happened in her life, it's so
difficult to read that I actually had to take like breaks, like significant breaks.
Like I would could only read maybe like 50 pages at most a day because it was
just like too much. I will say that I kind of wish that there was more of the
true crime aspect or the mystery and like murder stuff happening in here.
She gets like really heavy with the memoir side especially towards the end.
And while, again, it's all interesting, I also felt like I was missing a little bit
with the other side of the story. But overall I really -- I feel like enjoyed is
the wrong word with books like these -- but I was just like so intrigued
by the story and so like pulled into it. It's very, very well written, but yeah,
major trigger warnings if you have any sort of triggers which deals with like
abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, any of those things because she's very
forthright and all of those types of details. But yeah, I definitely recommend
it, especially if you're someone who enjoys true crime or you enjoyed memoir,
this is one to pick up despite the fact that it's a very difficult read.
And then the final book that I finished this month was the bastard of Istanbul by
Elif Shafak. This is a book I was really looking forward to because I really
enjoyed the other two Elif Shafak books that I have read and a lot of people
highly recommended this one after I read those other two. I liked this book but I
didn't love it. I feel, I'm like hesitating saying that because I feel
like I should have liked this book more than I did. Because it wasn't so much
that it was a bad book but I felt like I couldn't really connect with this book.
So in a story you are following sort of like two families. There's this one
character named Armanoush who is half Armenian, half American and she's sort
of like figuring out her place and her identity when she decides that she wants
to learn more about like the Armenian side of her family and travels to
Istanbul. And then you are also following this other family that is Turkish. One of
the characters is named is Astana Asia a Shia I don't know how you're supposed to
pronounce that name I apologize. Like I said her family's all Turkish. They live
in Istanbul and she is sort of getting to the age where she's starting to like
rebel against her family and she thinks a lot about like philosophy and
she's really into like Johnny Cash and things like that. And their two sort of
like storyline sort of collide. The writing in here is really fantastic.
Elif Shafak is a fantastic writer. She really paints a picture and she really
creates interesting and complicated characters who explore sort of like
these grey areas of life which is the reason why I think I like Elif Shafak so much.
The problem that I had with this book is the problem that I have been
repeating a lot and it's just that it wasn't quite long enough or deep enough
for all of the things that Elif Shafak was exploring. She does this really
interesting thing because Armenians and Turkish people have this sort of wraught
history. And so she uses these two characters as a way to explore that
a little bit. There's also a lot of really interesting
discussions in here about like Middle Eastern culture, there's discussion of
philosophy, there's discussions about family and history and fate and it's a lot.
There's a lot happening in this story and I think that's just my problem
with it, it's that there's so much and it is also interesting but none of it was
quite enough. I feel like there are like four different storylines happening in
here that all could have been their own separate books. This one gets a three and
a half out of five stars for me because it's again really, really well written,
really fantastic characters, but there's just so much happening in this book that
I feel like isn't explored in the way that I wanted it, like the depth of the
exploration wasn't what I wanted it to be. Cut out a couple of those storylines
and expand them out into their own separate books and I would have been so
much happier. So yeah those are all of the books that I have to talk about in
this video. If you've made it all the way to the end,
congratulations cause this video's hella long. So yeah, feel free to leave a comment down
down below letting me know if you've read any of these books, your thoughts on them.
I know a couple of these are books that are really well loved by viewers out
there cause you guys have told me that you really enjoyed them when I like hauled
them in separate videos and things like that. So feel free to talk about them
down in the comments below. Or if you have any questions about any of these
books feel free to leave that down in the comment section as well. I know that
I went through this relatively quickly because there were so many books to talk
about. So yeah, feel free to ask any questions that you have down in the
comment section. So yeah that's all I have for now and thanks for watching.
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