Hi everyone, it's Sandy and in today's  video, I'm going to share with you my
  favorite books that I read in 2017. 2017  was a lot of a slower reading year for
  me, especially towards the end of the  year. As some of you may know, I studied
  abroad during my fall semester and while  I studied abroad, I only read one book in
  the course of four months, so there was not a lot of reading that got done towards the
  end of the year. The videos that I've  posted during the last four months were
  all pre filmed videos and this is the first  video that I'm actually filming in over
  four months. So I'm definitely very  excited to get back into filming videos,
  watching videos, and reading. So let's go  ahead and get started with the 13 books
  that I have to talk about. They aren't in  any particular order other than the fact
  that I'm mentioning them based on when I  read them, so I'm gonna start off from
  the beginning of 2017 all the way  towards the end of 2017. The first book
  I'm going to talk about is History is  All You Left Me by Adam Silvera. This is
  actually the first book that I read in  the year of 2017, and it automatically
  became a favorite of mine.  So my 2017 was off to a fantastic start.
  This book follows Griffin, whose  ex-boyfriend Theo has recently passed
  away in a drowning accident. Throughout  this book, Griffin is grieving Theo's
  death, and reminiscing on the memories that he's had with Theo. He's also struggling
  with his worsening OCD. I do have a full  book review on this book, so if you want
  to hear more of my thoughts, definitely  check out that book review. I will leave
  a link down below. But one of my favorite  things about this book is Adam Silvera's
  writing. Within the very first  page, he hooked me. I was immediately in
  love with his writing. Adam Silvera's  writing is beautiful yet heartbreaking. I
  also really love the format of the story.  The story switches between past and
  present and it allows readers to learn  more about the history of Griffin and
  Theo. Adam writes in a way that makes you  feel all the feels. You feel the rawness
  and the realness of Griffin's emotions.  This is an own voices book and I love
  the representation we had in it. Griffin  is gay, has OCD. This is a book that I
  really loved and if you haven't read it  yet, I highly recommend that you do so. My
  next favorite book of 2017 is The Female  of the Species by Mindy McGinnis. I don't
  have a physical copy of this book, which  I need to get my hands on soon. This is a
  dark book that discusses rape culture  and I feel like it's not talked about a
  lot on BookTube. I definitely do see a handful of people talking about it, but I
  don't think the amount of people talking  about it is enough and I think it
  deserves a lot more hype. This book  follows three different people. I'm not
  going to go into their backgrounds but  each character has a really important
  role in exemplifying certain themes and  messages. I think that this is an
  incredibly powerful book that everyone  needs to read. Rape culture is relevant
  to our society today and it needs to be  talked about. This book talks about
  important subjects that people don't  really talk about. This book talks about
  the treatment of women, slut-shaming, and  so much more. In just over 300 pages, it
  leaves an incredibly powerful impact on  you, and I think it's a book that
  everyone needs to read. The next book I'm  going to talk about is We Should All Be
  Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  This is actually a book that was adapted
  from her TED talk, so if you can't get  access to the book, I highly recommend
  watching that TED talk video. I think  it's like 30 minutes.
  I love the discussion of feminism in  this book, especially coming from a
  person of color. The author is a Nigerian  woman, so it was really interesting to
  read about her views of feminism. Since  this book is so short and you can access
  the TED talk version of it, I think this  should be required reading everywhere. I
  feel like so many people can learn so  much from this woman.
  My next favorite read of 2017 is The  Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. This book
  follows Starr Carter, who is 16 years old  and witnesses one of her best friends
  being shot and killed by a police  officer. I thought this book was
  phenomenal. It discusses police brutality,  which is also something that's really
  relevant to our society today.  I thought Starr was a fantastic main
  character. She felt so authentic and real  to me.
  I really enjoyed seeing her character  growth and I absolutely love the family
  dynamic in this book. I'm so pumped for  The Hate U Give movie. Angie Thomas
  seems to be pretty happy about the movie,  so if an author is happy about a movie,
  you know that the readers should be  happy about the movie as well.
  My next favorite read of 2017 is Queens  of Geek by Jen Wilde. This book follows
  Charlie and Taylor who are best friends  and are attending a convention. Charlie
  is actually a Chinese-Australian Youtuber who recently starred in a movie,
  and Taylor wants to meet the author of  her favorite book series, but she also
  has anxiety and is on the autism  spectrum. What I loved about this book is
  that it's really relatable. I related to  both Taylor and Charlie. With Taylor,
  I related to her anxiety. A lot of the  sentences in this book that describes
  how Taylor felt when she was feeling  anxious perfectly describes how I feel
  when I have anxiety. I also really love  the setting of this book. It takes
  place at a convention, which is super  cool. There are also a lot of great
  messages in this book. There were  messages that challenges biphobia. There
  is a biphobic scene in this book and  Charlie was able to shut that down super
  quick. There were also messages surrounding
  slut-shaming and fat shaming, and overall,  I thought this was a really fun and cute
  read. And the two romances in this book  are also super cute as well. My next
  favorite book of 2017 is Lord Of Shadows  by Cassandra Clare. Since this is the
  second book in The Dark Artifices  trilogy. I can't really go much in depth
  about my thoughts on this book. I do have  a full review and discussion on this
  book. If you're interested in checking  that out, I will leave a link down below.
  But briefly, I love this book. I love the  plot. I love the characters. I love the
  Blackthorn family. And this book  destroyed me... but I still love it.
  My next two favorites are part of a  duology and I read them during the same
  year, so I'm going to mention them at the  same time, and that is The Fixer and The
  Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. So at  the moment, this is just a duology, so
  there's only two books in the series.  This series is really similar to the
  premise of Scandal. The main character  Tess has an older sister named Ivy, who
  is known as the Fixer, which means she  makes scandals disappear. AKA Olivia
  Pope 2.0. I love that these books are  very plot driven, and they keep you
  engaged the entire time you're reading  it. These books are also super
  suspenseful and the author will throw in  so many twists at you that you will
  never in a million years expect. The  author continues to blow me away with
  every single twist that is revealed over  the course of these two books, so if
  you're looking for a mystery thriller  book, I highly recommend these two books.
  My next favorite of 2017 is The Upside  of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli. This
  book follows Molly, who has had 26  crushes but has never been in a
  relationship. I adored this book and I  love how there are so many diverse
  characters in this book. We have Molly  and Cassie, who are sperm donor babies
  to two moms. Cassie is in a relationship  with a Korean American girl who is
  pansexual. Molly is also Jewish, she has  anxiety, which she is on medication for,
  and she also has an underrepresented  body type. In
  book, she describes herself as being fat.  I also read Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens
  Agenda for the first time in 2017, and  while I really enjoyed that book, I think
  I love this book a lot more than Simon  vs. mainly because I related to Molly
  a lot more than I did with Simon's  character.
  I found myself connecting to Molly's  character when it comes to how she felt
  in certain situations, the way that she  thinks, and with boys and relationships. I
  also love the portrayal of the sibling  relationship between Molly and Cassie.
  Overall, this was such a great read and I  look forward to all the future books
  that Becky Albertalli will be publishing  in the future. My next favorite of 2017
  is A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab.  This book has to do with parallel worlds
  and I really enjoyed reading about that.  The parallel worlds revolve around
  different types of Londons and I really  enjoyed reading about how the author
  would explain all of that. It was also  cool to see the differing political
  dynamics between these different  Londons. I love how complex the
  characters were. I loved reading from  both of their perspectives.
  I did like Lila's perspective a little  bit more. I read this book in the summer
  and I did intend on finishing the  trilogy before the end of the year but
  did I do that? No, but I hope to soon. My  next favorite of 2017 is Far From You by
  Tess Sharpe. This is a mystery thriller  book. This book follows Sophie, who has
  nearly died twice. First, it was a car  accident that left her disabled and with
  an addiction to drugs that helps her  cope with her chronic pain. And second, it
  was what everyone thinks was a drug deal  gone wrong where her best friend Mina
  was shot and killed in her presence.  However, Sophie has been in recovery for
  months when Mina was killed. She is now  determined to piece together the truth
  of why Mina was targeted and who the  murderer was. When I picked this book up,
  I did not expect this book to have the  impact on me the way that it did. It was
  such an emotional and compelling story  that took me by complete surprise. The
  book is told in alternating past and  present timeline and I love the way that
  it was told. I loved the way it was  written. The writing was just so
  beautiful. Sophie is also bisexual, so I  really like that we have this
  representation in the story, and I love  the portrayal of Sophie's relationship
  / friendship with Mina. This book  discusses a lot of tough subjects such
  as chronic pain, sobriety, drug  addiction, losing a loved one. The story
  and the writing is beautiful yet  gut-wrenchingly tragic. I think
  this is such a great underrated book and  I would highly recommend it. My next
  favorite is I Believe in a Thing Called  Love by Maurene Goo. This book follows
  Desi Lee, who is determined to get this  new guy who recently transferred to her
  school to fall in love with her, and she  does so by creating this step-by-step
  guide, which is based off Korean dramas.  This book can be pretty ridiculous at
  times and Desi does make a lot of  questionable choices. In no way am I
  trying to excuse the decisions that she  makes during this book but I am able to
  sort of look past it because of the  whole Korean drama aspect. I don't watch
  Korean dramas but I do have friends that  do and from what I've heard from them, a
  lot of crazy things happen in those  dramas that usually wouldn't happen in
  real life, so that is why I was able to  sort of look past some of the crazy
  things that happen in this book. But I  think those crazy things do add a
  comedic aspect to the story. I really  love the development of the romance
  between Desi and Luca, and I also really  love the friendship in this book. Desi
  has two best friends, Wes and Fiona, and I  really love seeing their interactions
  throughout the entire book. Desi is  Korean-American and I really enjoyed
  seeing the relationship she had with her  dad, along with the incorporation of
  Korean culture in this book. I also find  myself relating to Desi a lot. She's
  quirky, nerdy, and can be pretty awkward  at times. This was such a cute
  contemporary. I think it's the perfect  rom-com book. This book is very easy to
  get into and it had a great balance of  heartwarming and hilarious moments. And
  the last book I'm going to talk about in  my favorite books of 2017 video is
  Warcross by Marie Lu. This book follows  Emika Chen, who is a bounty hunter, which
  means that she hunts down people who bet illegally on this game called Warcross.
  One day, as an attempt to make some money, she accidentally glitches herself into
  the game Warcross during the  championships, and so she thinks she's
  going to get arrested but instead, the  creator of the game Warcross offers her
  a job opportunity. This was such an  action-packed book that was so thrilling.
  It kept me engaged the entire time  I thought the world-building was really
  well done and I thought the world of Warcross itself was incredibly unique. The
  whole concept of virtual reality does  remind me of Ready Player One but this
  book does add a lot of very unique and  refreshing elements that I haven't read
  before. I love seeing how virtual reality  and reality was
  combined and used in everyday life. The  main character is also really likable,
  witty, and clever. I also love the  different types of representation that
  we had in this book. There were side  characters from all around the world, a
  side character who is disabled, and two  other side characters who had feelings
  for someone of the same-sex, and our main character is also Chinese-American. I
  really enjoyed the romance scenes in  this book and how it was written. The
  romance didn't feel rushed and it was  also a bit slow burning, which is exactly
  how I like romance scenes to be written.  Overall, this was a really great sci-fi
  read, and I highly recommend it if you  have it picked it up already.
  Those are all my favorite books that I  read in the year of 2017. If you've read
  any of these books, let me know your  thoughts in the comments below, and let
  me know some of your favorite books in  the comments below. Thank you so much for
  watching this video. I hope you enjoyed  it, and I will see you next time. Bye!
     
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