Hi, YouTube, it's Kathy, and this is my November 2018 Reading Wrap Up.
If you're not already aware, I do Weekly Entertainment Wrap Ups of everything I
read, watch, and listen to, but today we're just talking about the books. I'm going
to start with the nerdy hardcore stats and charts and then get into what I read.
I don't have a chart for this fact, but this month I surpassed 200 books read
this year, so I've already read more books this year than the 201 I read last
year, which just boggles my mind. In November, I read 25 books for a total
of five thousand, seven hundred, and ninety two pages. This takes into account
converting audio book minutes to pages so two thousand, two hundred, and sixty of
those pages were actually about 71 hours of audio. The age breakdown for these
books was 15 adult book,s 8 YA books, and 2 middle grade books. I read 11 novels,
13 graphic novels, 1 of those being an omnibus, and one short story. This month I
read mostly fantasy, in part because of all those graphic novels, as well as some
nonfiction, historical fiction, and speculative fiction. If you adjust my
page count, specfic goes up a bit and fantasy decreases, again, because of the
number of graphic novels. Most of these books, no surprise, came from the library
but I also read 1 arc. I read 11 paperbacks, 6 hardcovers,
6 audiobooks, and 1 ebook. Nearly half of my books were in the 100 to 199 page
range, because graphic novels, and the vast majority were published in the last decade.
Most of these books were by female authors, although I did read a few
male authors, a non-binary author, and some comics with both male and female authors.
Most of the protagonists were female, with a few male protagonists, and
ensemble casts, one non-binary, and some books without protagonists. In terms of
setting, almost half of these books were set in the States, with others being set
in other worlds, Japan, Mexico, France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. I've been
to four of those countries. In terms of diversity, we have some reads including
race, own voices representation, queer content, and feminist reads, but a large
selection of them had no diversity to speak of. In terms of star ratings, this
month I read two 3 star books, three 3.5 star books, thirteen
4 star books, five 4.5 star books, and two 4 star books.
Let's start with the lowest rated read and work our way up to the highest, shall we?
My ordering in this video is going to be a little bit weird because a lot of the
graphic novels I read were in series and I
want to talk about, say, the third one when I talk about my three stars but
then all the other ones when I talk about my four stars, so basically I'm
going to lump all of the comics together in the star rating that most of them are in.
For three star books, we have V for Vendetta. This is one of those books that
I feel like is better as a movie, although, to be fair, I haven't watched
the movie since it came out. It's much to do with the style of this comic book and
the fact that I'm pretty sure they intended all of the government figures
to look the same, but because of that, I often had no idea who was on the page,
who was talking to who. There's a subplot where somebody is sleeping with somebody
else's wife and I couldn't tell you whose wife it was or anything. Basically,
unless the character was V, Evey, one of the two other women, or the one character
that spoke in a Scottish vernacular, I had no idea who it was.
For the most part. Sometimes I could figure it out, but it took some guessing sometimes.
Those gripes aside, this story was fine but it didn't really grip me.
On to my 3.5 star reads - early in the month, I read The Haunted Mansion by
Joshua Williamson. This is a middle grade graphic novel about the Haunted Mansion.
It's a story of this boy who is full of fears and his grandfather who is an
adventurer and the boy ends up having to save the grandfather. It was fun; I really
enjoyed the art. Again, it's just not something that knocked my socks off.
I just really like the Haunted Mansion, as you'll see later in this wrap up because
I read more Haunted Mansion stuff. This month I also read City of Light, City of Poison.
This was me low-key participating in Nonfiction November, even though I wasn't
really participating, because I was taking a break, because I was burning out
on readathons, and obviously I'm hosting my own readathon. I'm coming back with
a vengeance and trying to read 12 books. it's not gonna happen, but I'm gonna try,
and if you somehow missed that, I will link that TBR in places. Anyway, this book
is about 17th century France. I thought it was mostly going to be about the
first police chief in Paris, and a little bit of it was, but a lot of this book had
more so to do with whichever Henry was on the throne at the time and who he
happened to be sleeping with at the time. And then a ton of people throughout
Paris who were just poisoning each other. This period of time actually got the
nickname of the Affair of Poisons because about 400 people were put on
trial, or at least arrested, for being connected to poisonings in some way.
I can appreciate how much research went into this, but it didn't really grip me
like I thought it was going to. In addition, there were just too many nobles
mentioned and I really couldn't keep track of who
Henry was sleeping with at what time and why I should bother to know this information.
Moving on to some four star reads, before
we get into the epic amount of graphic novels I have to talk about, let's talk
about A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns. This is exactly what it sounds like.
This is the ARC that I read this month. This book is written from a
non-binary perspective as well as a cis perspective, because it is meant to teach
people that don't know about they/them pronouns but then also it's a little bit
of what to do when people don't understand your pronouns. I felt it was a
pretty great guide. It was done in kind of a comic type format. There was loss of
information and I think that basically every company should have this book on
hand to refer to. Next, let's talk about Goldie Vance, volumes two, three, and four.
Now, to be fair, I gave volume 2 a 3.5 star but the rest of them
were 4 stars; that's why we're talking about them in the four star time.
This series takes place in 1970s Florida in a hotel where Goldie Vance is not only a
person who parks people's cars, AKA a valet - I just couldn't think of the word
right then - she is also a detective. She also has a
really cute girlfriend, an awesome dad, a mom who works as a mermaid, and her best
friend is just so smart. Obviously, each of these different volumes followed a
different case. I just didn't like the one in number 2 as much as I like the
ones in 3 and 4. I also would erroneously thought that my
library just didn't have the fifth volume, but it turns out the fifth volume
isn't out yet, so I have to wait like everybody else.
This comic ends up being about love and friendship and dating and relationships,
and I just really enjoyed it. Next, let's talk about Faith, volumes one, two, and three.
Volumes one and two, I gave 4 stars to. Volume three, I gave 3 stars to.
It was still good, but there was just this deviation in it that I didn't
really enjoy. I know exactly why I was there, but [meh like sound]. Faith is basically my new
favourite superhero. She's fat, she flies, and she is such a nerd. She spews a ton
of pop culture references and when she feels the need to swear she says frak,
gorram, or exclamations from other nerdy science fiction franchises. This is the
type of comic that likes to make fun of its own format, because Faith grew up on
superheroes and sci-fi and that type of thing. She knows about these tropes that
often appear in superheroes and sci-fi and she calls them out, and it's a lot of fun.
For example, at one point there are two of her, and both of her like
"you're the evil clone!" and then they realize that neither one of them is the
evil one, and they're both very confused. On to more superheroes. I read Wayward,
volumes 1, 2, 3, & 4, and I gave all of them 4 stars. This series starts out with a girl
named Rori Lane who grew up in Ireland but her mom is Japanese and her parents
are divorced, so she has moved to Japan to go to school there. Shortly after
arriving, she realizes that she has some superpowers and then she keeps making
friends with more people that have superpowers. The elevator pitch for this
one is Buffy in Japan, and I like it. There are lots of Ghoulies. There haven't
been any vampires, yet, but you never know. It's fast paced, these superpowers that
these different teenagers have are fascinating, and I'm really interested to
see how the series goes from here because there was just a big twist in
the fourth issue, and we're in a completely different place. So yeah, if
you want something weird and fast-paced, try the Wayward series. This month I
also listened to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This is a nonfiction
book again and I actually read this for my local book club. I went into this
thinking it was going to make me extremely angry because I knew it was
about a woman whose cells have been used for research since her death, since
before her death even, and she died and I think it was 1952. Somewhere in the 50s.
And her cells still exist and are still used in labs today. But I got more of an
understanding of her cells weren't taken maliciously, they were taken from
basically all the patients that came in with that type of cancer. There was
really no such basis for informed medical consent back then, and although
that is terrible and some of the practices from back then are absolutely
horrifying by today's standards, it was a different time and different ethics, so
although if something similar happened nowadays I would be outraged,
I understand it a little more, if that makes any sense. This book did a deep
dive into the background of this woman, Henrietta, and then also talked
extensively about her family that is still living - or at least was still
living when she was researching. I really enjoyed the human-interest life story
aspect of it. This month I also read I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.
This one centres around a girl named Julia whose older sister has recently
passed away, and the crux of this book is the family dynamic and people not
understanding each other. It also does a deep dive into her mental health issues,
which I was not exactly prepared for but honestly should have seen coming.
Julia is an introvert in a family where that is not a thing they understand,
which is strange because her parents don't want her to go out and have
friends, but they do want her to come to all the family gatherings and talk to
every single person she might possibly be related to, when she would rather just
be sitting alone with a book, which, I can relate. This one looks at generational
interests, it has a mystery aspect when it comes to her sister and the double
life she might have been leading, and I really enjoyed listening to this one.
Another book I read this month was City of Ghosts. This one I mostly picked up
because the majority of it is set in Edinburgh, which is my favorite city on
the planet. About a year previous to the start of this novel, Cassidy almost died
and was saved by a ghost, so now her best friend is that ghost because he's still
following her around. Since her near-death experience, she can go beyond
the veil, which is see things in this ghosty world, and this really only
happens when there are spirits in the place that she's in, so she's very much
looking forward to going to the coast where it is very isolated and there not
a lot of spirits hanging around, so she can just hang out I read books. However, she
finds out that's not how her Summer is going to go, because her parents are
taking her to Edinburgh. Her parents, by the way, write books about ghosts but
that doesn't mean that they understand what she's going through.
Additionally, Edinburgh is not a place free of ghosts. It's actually very well
known for being haunted, so obviously some mischief goes down. This book very
much sets itself up to be the first and what could be a very long series and I
would be fascinated to find out if one of the places that they visit in a
future book is my city, because it is also pretty well known for being haunted.
Speaking of hauntings and murders, that's as good as segway as I'm going to get into
His Bloody Project, which is a book that as you're beginning to read it it seems
like it's meant to be nonfiction, but it is in fact fiction - I checked .This book
is about a trio of murders that happen in 1869, in a very small town in Scotland,
and it is presented in a series of documents. The first document is meant to
be written by the murderer and it's basically his whole life story and what
led up to the murders, and then after that we have court transcripts and
excerpts from newspapers. I figured pretty early into this that it probably
wasn't actually nonfiction because there was a narrative structure to it, whereas
if you were told to sit down and just write about what you did with your
crime,s you probably wouldn't start at your parents meeting. But that's what this does.
However, I made sure to not actually research this until after I'd
finished listening to it, and it was a lot of fun to go back
and forth with "maybe this was actually a thing; probably wasn't actually thing.
Maybe it was? Maybe it's based on events? I don't know." If you like your narrative
nonfiction, you'll probably enjoy this even though it ends up being fiction.
Onto my 4.5 star reads, this is where I'm going to talk about the six single
issues of the Haunted Mansion comic I read from the early 2000s. My best friend
realized that that's my favorite attraction and she had these single
editions because she really likes one of the artists that's in them, and she lent
them to me, and they were delightful. Each issue is filled with different stories
about the Haunted Mansion and then there was one continual story throughout all
of these six issues, so it came in six parts. I just enjoyed seeing all the
different art styles and the different portrayals of the Haunted Mansion.
This month, I also read When the Moon was Ours. This is magical realism about a girl who
grows roses out of her wrist and a trans boy whose community does not know that
he is trans. There are bullying elements in this. There are elements of people
just not talking to each other ,which can be frustrating, but you can see why
they're doing it, and then there is also a love story. The story is also told with
a lot of visual elements to it, mainly talking about different hues of colours
over and over; different hair colours are described and described again. The colours
of common objects are also integral to the storyline, and this has a very
flowing narrative, so there are points where I'll have read through a paragraph
and thought I missed something because it goes from one point to another quite quickly.
This month I also listened to An Unkindness of Magicians, which is giving
me Night Circus vibes except for there's way more families vying for this prize.
Basically, every 10 to 20 years there is a tournament to see who will continue to
be the leading house in the magic realm, and although some of the houses are
knocked out quite early in the easier challenges, challenges near the end tend
to be fatal. What I really enjoyed about this one is the descriptions of the
different type of magic and illusions that were taking place. I also enjoyed
the slight nods to other tales of magic. For example, one of the houses is house
Merlin and one of the characters is Miranda Prospero. Speaking of magic, we
might as well lead right into Something Borrowed by Paul Magrs. This one is
actually the second in a series and I didn't realize that when I picked it up
but it was very good at filling the reader in on what you should know from
the first book. When I first picked this I thought it was just about two little
old women who are best friends that solve mysteries, and it is about that but
it's also about so much more. One of those women was actually the Bride of
Frankenstein, which I didn't realize until at least halfway through because
I'm pretty sure that's something that was introduced in the first book and not
really re-discussed until although halfway through the second book, and then
her best friend is known for being in a long line of witches. There are other
magical elements to this story and it takes place in a very small town in the
UK and I really enjoyed it. I've asked my library to get the other
volumes because why would you just have the second book in a series? Why? Why?
Onto a different type of magic, because apparently I read a lot of fantasy this
month; didn't plan it that way it just happened.
I read Girls Made of Glass and Snow. This is a Snow White retelling, which I didn't
realize when I picked it up. I think I just picked it at random from the
audiobook app on my phone and started listening to it and realized that's what
it was and was intrigued. This one is told in two perspectives, one
from Nina, and from Lynet. Lynet is the Snow White character and Mina is the
evil stepmother queen character. You first meet Mina when she is a young
girl and then we also see her in Lynet's timeline when she is the queen, and then
between those two perspectives we slowly fill in the intervening years. Something
else I was not expecting but was very happy happened was Lynet has a queer
love interest. I feel like I've said this a couple of times in this video, but I
really enjoyed the magic system in this book. The descriptions of the magic they
were using and how the magic came to be just, yes, it worked for me.
So if you want a queer Snow White retelling, here you go.
And onto my 5 star reads this month, the first one being Certain Dark Things. this one is a
vampire tale that takes place in Mexico, which honestly if that's not enough for
you to pick this up, I don't know what's wrong with you,
but in addition it was pretty stinking good. So in this world, the human
population found out in 1967 that vampires were a thing and that there are
different breeds of vampire. Mexico City is meant to be a vampire free state; they
have certain immigration laws and sanitation laws and it's really hard for
vampires to get in there, and yet there are at least a few vampires there. One of
them is Atl, who is running from a different breed of vampire for reasons
you find out while reading the book. She meets some sort of teams up with
young garbage collector from the city of Mexico and the book switches
perspectives between those characters as well as the vampire that is hunting her,
as well as somebody who works for the vampire, as well as a police officer.
It's dark, it's twisty, it is extremely bloody as you would expect from a vampire tale.
I really enjoyed the amount of lore and the amount of times that Domingo said
"but isn't this a thing that's real about vampires?" and her just being "you read too
many comics, kid." So if you want a vampire tale that isn't your usual Eastern
European vampire story, definitely pick this one up. And then my favourite read of
the month was Muse of Nightmares which is the follow-up to Strange the Dreamer.
I'm so happy it came out this month because I read Strange the Dreamer last month not
knowing that it wasn't a standalone book and that it had a sequel coming out, so I
had questions, obviously, at the end of that book that needed to be resolved and
they were resolved very well in this sequel. Obviously, there's not too much I
can say about this one, given it's the second in a duology, but the first one
starts out with Lazlo Strange, an orphan who has an interesting life and an
obsession with a city that seems to have vanished from people's memories. I also
really enjoy these because I am a sucker for bookish books and Lazlo ends up
working as a librarian. He also, at one point, gets a book of fairy tales that
hits him in the nose and breaks his nose. It's actually a prominent feature of his
face when he's described that he has a crooked nose because of fairy tales.
This might be disjointed and the light might have changed because somebody started
vacuuming outside my door, so I don't know exactly where I was besides halfway
through talking about Muse of Nightmares. I think the point I mostly just want to
make is I understand that some people find it very very slow-paced and can't
really get into the world. I'm not that type of person, because, like I said, I'm a
sucker for anything bookish. I love bookish books. I love stories. I love the
kind of magic that's in this. I just - I really enjoyed it. If you want to hear me
talk more about these books, or other books for that matter the playlist for
my Weekly Entertainment Wrap Ups is always listed down in the description below.
If you've read any of these, let me know about it down in the comments below.
On the way down to the comments, if you hit that subscribe button that would be very nice of you.
You can like and share this as you see fit and I will see you very soon. Bye!
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