 cried a lot. Why did I pick this? I know why you picked this. I picked it because I thought it's what cloud people in it but now I remembered after picking it that it isn't cloud people. And I think it is important that we knew what had been happening in his life but like I kind of didn't care. Hey I'm just checking in quickly before the video to remind you if you don't know already that on Thursday the 10th of September so this Thursday it is my one year booktube anniversary so I'm holding a live with some of my favorite people ever Riley, Mina, Nicole and Sabine and we're just going to be hanging out and chatting and answering your questions and just having a fun time. So I'll leave a link down below so you can set your reminders. It's going to be so much fun. It's an 8pm BST and I can't wait to just hang out with you. So I'll see you then and now we'll get into the video. Hi everyone welcome back to my channel I hope you're well. Today for this week's Reading Vlog I thought I would recruit Tom again. Are you happy to be back? I'm over the moon. Lies, lies and more lies and lies on top of lies. For this week's Reading Vlog I thought I would get Tom to pick what I read so I've got I'd say maybe like 25 books of me, 20 books. I haven't got all my unread books of me but I've got a fair few and so Tom is going to go and pick three of those for me to read. So my fate is entirely in your hands. I've already made my decisions. Really? It's got to get a sip of water. I think there's one I really want to read because I haven't been able to read it for ages. I haven't been able to fit it into a themed video and I'm just like hoping you're gonna pick it. Anyway should we go should we go do it? Yeah yeah let's go let's go. Okay so Walter Megan might have her preferences as I'm not a massive reader but I operate mainly on cover. What I've noticed from doing these videos with Megs is how many books are always like red, white and black. So instantly this is a no-go so it's generic to me. You know that's just my opinion. Everybody got an opinion. This one again it's got such a generic front cover. I like the kind of colorful ones are a bit more interesting. I think by far and way the coolest front cover is this one here. I just think it's really sick looking. Yeah that's my first choice. Second choice. I like this the one that look at this one because I think it looks really cool. It's a bit different looking and then what else to pick? Again never night. It's never gonna be something I'm ever gonna pick because again another generic looking cover to me. I'm obviously different than you guys because you guys know what's what whereas I'm like I don't know shit about nothing. I mean look at this. I'm not gonna pick that. If you look the same I'm not gonna pick you. Number one please judge me. Number two please hate me because number three I love it. I'm picking Lane Taylor Stranger Dreamer. I don't know whether Megan's happy about that or not because I kind of distinctly remember we did a video whereby she made up this story about it being in the clouds and I don't know whether that was true or not but I thought it was really sick. I can't remember whether that was what Megan made up whether that's what it was. Me editing. I lost all hope today. I'm here. I think I'm saying that there's one that she wanted to read. I think my guess might be before the devil breaks you. I've seen something that looks a bit like this before. Oh yeah diviners that's right that's the last diviners. Maybe I should have picked this but I'm guessing this might be one she wanted to read but I've already made my picks so maybe I've got a line the grave of the devil. We're back. I don't know whether I've made sensible picks and I don't know whether really made any sort of creative input. I've basically just been describing front covers. Instantaneously I've ruled out three books. I've ruled them out for the heinous offence of generic front covers in the sense of how many books do you see that have got black white and red front covers. I feel like I see loads of them are black white and red. Yeah. These two look how similar they are. Do you see how that's incredibly offensive? Yes I do that's why I said it. My first pick I think was the most unique of all the front covers. I think it's a unique size as a book. Okay. It's got a real heft to it. I just think it looks a bit like Scooby Doo. Oh okay okay that's a good choice. I'm happy with that one. Is it set in a school? No it's set like in a seaside town like a really small seaside town. That sounds like Scooby Doo bro. Over a summer and I think it's like like a horror thriller. Just describing Scooby Doo. It's kind of yeah Scooby Doo. Okay that's a good one. I feel like that'll be one I can read quite fast. Second pick is the one that I thought of all the plots that I would have personally wanted to read. Okay. Because are you comfortable? I'm scared. Are you scared? You should be. Is it different to all of them? It looks a bit more dark. It's a bit more depressing and thought-provoking and I think it's from an author I've heard of before. I've picked Americana. Is that the one you wanted to read? No but okay. Okay. I'm actually a bit scared to read this because it's quite dense. What is dense? I just feel that it looks and sounded and I like the title something worthwhile reading. Yeah it's like a more serious read. This is like one I think I'm gonna love but I'm scared to read it. I was kind of scared you were gonna pick that. Did you? You thought I'd pick this one? Yeah and I kind of not like I didn't want you to but like I am daunted by it so you've kind of just forced my hand. Next one. I think you're definitely gonna know what this one is. I think you know I picked this one. I don't. I don't think you wanted me to and I've only just remembered that after I picked the next one I was like oh I think I know the one that Megan wanted me to pick and I was like I shouldn't have picked this because I now think I picked it because I thought it was something that it isn't and I picked Stranger Dream because I like the look of Laini Taylor. Laini Taylor. I didn't see that one I picked it but she just looks fun love them. Why did I pick this? I know why you picked this. Well I picked it because I thought it's what cloud people in it but now I remembered after picking it that it isn't cloud people. We did a video called Odd Book Out where I made up a uh and you made it up. I made up the plot of this. Stranger Dream man. This is probably the most unique one out of all of them. This is like set on a in the clouds in the sky on a village in the sky. So our protagonist believes that he can heal the society through dreams. He starts with insects and it's kind of him trying to get more power by getting the dreams of your concept. You're not lying about that. That is nailed on true. This is fantasy though so I'm glad you're going to be a fan. Now tell me what you think I wanted because that was a book I really wanted to read. You know we do a lot of moving back and forth from uni and home and the ones that books I always recognize kind of up and down with these like Aluminous Green one and Aluminous Pink one. I saw this one and thought it's got the same sort of look to it. Then I checked it the back and it said a Divinus and I was like I heard that for and these are like superheroes. Megan probably wanted to read this one. I did want that. I mean you've done well because this one's like a new release so I'm finally reading something on time. These two are both books that I've been putting off because I'm like intimidated by them. Okay so I am 100 pages into Milkshakes for the Almost Dead and I am really enjoying this. It is such a fast paced read. The last book I read was Midnight Sun in a reading vlog and the chapters were like 40-50 pages long which I just don't vibe with whereas the chapters in this are like two three pages long which I absolutely do vibe with. And it just keeps the pace really really fast so in this we meet Diana who is just finishing her GCSEs when she wakes up in the middle of night to find out that her dad is in prison accused of attempted murder and her aunt comes and grabs her and is like we have to go and moves her to like her tiny seaside town. There's definitely something weird going on because her mother committed suicide when she was younger. However we've been having lots of flashbacks that suggest that isn't entirely the case and I think her mother's death or disappearance is going to play a big part in kind of the mystery that Diana and Gloria are gonna have to solve. Okay I mean dang would you want a scooby snack? Because things are starting to occur that are a bit off a bit mysterious so there's definitely a lot of secrets to this small seaside town. I'm just really loving reading a light YA book it's a really fun read it you literally fly through it like I barely feel like it's taking me any time to read it. I'm really intrigued to see where this is gonna go. 227 so I'm quite a big chunk through. It was kind of like throughout the whole thing like this. I was gonna say nice as if it's like pure but there has been hints of mystery and deception and darkness right but for the most part the story is about like this girl finding friendship in this small town and the friendship has been really interesting and I think very realistic of your teenage friendship you know the ups and downs of a teenage friendship so I mean really drawing an aspect of it and then like in literally the last chapter that I read there was just this massive curveball and I really don't know how to take it like I just don't know how to react. A lot of deceiving going on. A lot of deceiving. It was just so unexpected now the blue you got a sense that the perpetrator or perpetrators weren't good throughout the story but like nothing on that scale I could have expected. I don't know if I said this but I do love the atmosphere of this seaside town. I feel like it's really well put up and it's a really good YA book and like I mean YA in its purest form because sometimes you can read YA that is too young you know like really really young and then I feel like a lot of YA these days is kind of new adult but packaged as YA whereas this is like pure YA. I don't want to compare it to John Green because it's nothing like that in writing style or premise or anything like that completely separate. Not a vibe of YA of age range but I don't think John Green does a good job of it but now you know what kind of YA I'm talking about right where it's like the pure YA. Not too young and not too old even though that's what I was saying John Green was doing so I completely ignore my John Green example. Well she tried at least you know she I feel like this would be a great read for like a 14 year old. The story is just going to take on a completely unturned from this moment like I can't wait to see where it's going to go because literally everything that's happening has just kind of it's just been really sudden. Like the last two chapters so much shit has hit the fan so I can't wait to see where this is going to go now. I finished Milkshake to the Almost Dead last night and this was like a crazy ending like this book didn't feel like a thriller at the beginning really it felt much more like contemporary and then as like in that last little bit that I read since that last check in with you just so much shit at the fan that I could barely keep up with it. Twist after twist after twist after twist after twist and I just I still don't really know how to react to everything that happened. There were some things right that towards the end were like stated as if they were facts who've known throughout the whole book and that led our main characters to be able to work things out and I was like hang on since when do we know that otherwise I could have figured stuff out. When did we get told this? Obviously I just wasn't paying good enough attention. I think it is leaning towards like a 3.75 I'll give it a 400 read. I really enjoyed it. Yeah the link will be down below as always I always link in my description all the books I mentioned in this video if you wanted to go and purchase them through my affiliate link. Also I just checked it out and it is on Kinder Unlimited as well so I'll leave my link below where you can get 30 days free of Kinder Unlimited but it definitely is like a YA thriller. This book is very Young Adult and I've been trying to emphasize that throughout because I feel like the Young Adult I often read is like on the boundary between Young Adult and New Adult whereas this is very Young Adult and it does a very good job of that but if you are typically someone who reads more adult thrillers I don't think this would be the book for you. If you love Young Adult thrillers I think you should definitely check this out. I did mention this when I got it but like full disclosure this was sent to me by the author and the author is my dad's cousin but she's been sending it out to loads of like book instagramers and booktubers. I've seen a lot of people receive it. So now I am going to start Americana by Trumman and the Gozi Adichie. I am so terrified of this book. The font is teeny tiny. Tom is horrible. I hate him. Like I hate him. I'm nervous but hopefully I'll love it. I am about 100 pages into Americana so I'm reading all that far in and I'm gonna live with you. I have been in like the worst reading slump ever recently. That's so upsetting. I am just really struggling to read at all. I don't have any desire to read. Essentially we are following two characters who were in love and dated during like secondary school and they went to university together. That's the point I'm up to now but we know that they have left each other for like 15 years, 20 years or something you know. She went to America. I think he went to the UK. After some event happens at the university but I'm not sure what yet. I haven't reached that point and it's very much focused on the characters. It's very slow moving but beautifully written. Often reading this and going wow this is so well written. I'm really enjoying the prose, the tone of voice but I just think my reading slump is like preventing me from like fully getting into it. I'll check in once I've actually read some more and like I'm not wallowing in pity about how I'm like not reading at the moment. Okay bye. I'm 22 pages into Americana so I'm almost halfway through and I'm enjoying this a lot more now. I feel like I've got a lot of a better understanding of what this book is now that I've read a bit more. That's what we wanted. Ifemolu and Obinze and I originally thought it was kind of gonna be like one chapter for each of them but ifemolu is definitely the protagonist she is the one who has to travel to the United States to go and live there, to go to university there because of the strikes that are happening at their university in Nigeria. We're following her life. I wouldn't say if you want like a book with a typical plot like a beginning middle and end with a really simple story arc. This isn't it. We're just following her life which isn't something I've read in a long time. I do enjoy it. It's something a bit different. I know it's not going to be for everyone. It's kind of just using her life to discuss topics like race, like immigration, like identity, like having to come and live in America and how much do you hold on to your old culture and how much do you try to fit in in America. Natural hair for black women that just was a great section where that was discussed. Interracial relationships, sexual assault, stuff like that are all discussed in really, really interesting ways and like this book is long and dense and like it is a bit of a slog to get through but I'm enjoying this much more than I was like a hundred pages ago. I think I'm starting to appreciate it for what it is and I'm glad that this has made me read it, that Tom picking it has made me read it because otherwise it would have been like years until I got around to it. Cheers. Cheers. I'm so glad you're here. I am now page 340 and the thing is like there's not really a plot. Like I genuinely think I could tell you everything that's happening as this story goes along and it wouldn't impede anyone's enjoyment of reading this book because what's important is the topics discussed and the ways in which they discussed and how certain ideas are like challenged. There was just this whole section discussing like fiction and like race in fiction in America. There was this quote, the character says we are very ideological about fiction in this country. If a character is not familiar then that character becomes unbelievable. That reminded me of a lot of discussions that have been going on lately about how white reviewers or white readers often go oh I didn't find that character believable, I couldn't relate to that character and so write a book below when it's about a person of colour when you're not supposed to be able to necessarily relate to that character. There was like 40 pages following Obinze from his point of view what had been happening in his life and I just kind of found that boring. Sorry to this man. I really like him as a character and I'm interested to see how he comes back into the story at the end and I think it is important that we knew what had been happening in his life but like I kind of didn't care. I just finished Americana. Okay I'm gonna give it like a 3.75 so like a 4 on Goodreads. I did really enjoy it. I just felt like towards the end it just started to bleed into some stuff was a bit unnecessary. The nature of what was happening at the end was important however I feel like it just went on for too long. It is such an insightful book, such a powerful book you know it's brilliant. I really liked Roxane Gay's review actually of it on Goodreads. One part that I definitely agreed on is she says this book is at points indulgent just on and on the writing goes. The writer showing off her admittedly impressive way with words. Stronger editing would have done wonders for this book which I definitely agree with. There are points to this where you're like okay. Should we speed it up a little bit? Like let's move on but the point also of it is that it is just her life, the character's life. There are aspects to this that seem slow but are important to her progression as a person. There's not really many scenes until towards the end that I felt weren't necessary. Like I understood why everything was there but Roxane Gay also says but when this book is good it's absolutely brilliant and that is so true. Like the points where it makes you go oh you know or like really makes you realise something are amazing. I'm so glad that I have finally read this. Like I'm so glad I've finally gotten around to it so thanks Tom for finally making me do it. Otherwise it would have been years and I'm very excited to read more from Tremendo Nogosi Addicci now. I think the topic that this covers and the way in which it does is something that so many people would benefit from reading right now. It's now five o'clock so I have this evening and tomorrow to read Strange the Dreamer. I don't think that's gonna be a problem. Bitch let me tell you something. I think it's gonna be the kind of book that I just lie through. I really think Laini Taylor is gonna be a new favourite author. I'm really hoping it's going to be whimsical. Kind of like Erin Morgenstern vibes is what I'm hoping for. So like I'm ten pages in and I love it. I love the writing style. What the fuck? I haven't had a five-star read since the end of June. It's been two months. It's been it's been two months since I read a five-star book and I need it so bad and I'm really hoping this is gonna be five stars. I love it. I love it so much. I am obsessed. This is so good oh my god. I can't tell you how good it feels to be in love with a book again. Finally I have a book that feels really really special. Encountering this writing that feels so special and personal to you for the first time. Like getting to read that kind of writing for the first time is incredible. Essentially we're following Laszlo Strange who has been obsessed with the like Lost City of Weep since he was a child and he ends up working as a librarian in this big city and he devotes his life to trying to figure out the mystery of it. He encounters someone called a godslayer and people supposedly from this kingdom and it's able to travel with them and that's kind of the point I'm up to now. I'm not sure if you pronounce her name Sarai or Suri but she seems to be some kind of descendant of a god and lives with these other children of gods. I honestly was 30 pages into this book and thinking I can't wait to reread this. I can't wait to come back to this again and again and that so very rarely happens. And bitch I love that motherfucking song. I love it. I love it. I love it. It feels like you're stepping into a dream. The writing is everything I love. This is my favorite kind of writing. It just feels so delicate and special and I'm just loving it. So I'm only 150 pages in so I've got the whole day to read this book. It's all I'm gonna be doing. I'm just gonna be chilling out and reading this. Laszlo is such an interesting character and just the way this world is crafted is just perfection to me. It's everything that I love. Okay so I know I said I was gonna finish this in one day. You know what? I did say that. My bad. That didn't happen. It wasn't because I like didn't want to read it or anything. I just felt very similar to this in the way that I did when I read The Starless Sea and that I just wanted to take my time with it. It doesn't feel like the kind of book that should be rushed or kind of read quickly. So I'm now on page 280 so I'm over halfway. I'm really enjoying where this is going and the path that the story is taking. I think I've already said how magical and like enchanting and whimsical this story is. I love fantasy books that read like a fairy tale you know that read really dreamlike and obviously dreams play quite a big role in this. I don't want to say why because I don't know if it's a spoiler. I don't think it's mentioned on the back at all but it is quite a slow book. So if you're in a reading slump like me maybe wouldn't recommend it but it is slow. There's not like this big thing happen and this big thing happen but I like that. I like books that take a bit of time to tell the story. Also a lot of really interesting characters that I wouldn't even say are morally gray you know like a lot of people love morally gray characters are like oh my god fishes. But like characters that are objectively bad but you can completely understand why they are bad. Like you can completely understand their path to their point of view. So I think that's a really interesting dynamic to have you know like a character who is morally wrong in many ways who you disagree with in many ways but you can completely understand why they are that way. I don't know if it's going to be a five star like I was like that in the first hundred pages and then like the 180 I've read since then I'm like oh it may be a four like a 4.5. I just finished it. I had very mixed emotions about this book. The first 150 pages of this were five stars. The next I can't do maths but like up until page 480 were like four stars and then the last 50 pages were five stars. Let's talk about why I was crying. The ending is sad. I cried a lot. This book does a good job of making you so attached to some characters. To some characters and that's another one of my points is that there are a lot of sub characters in this book that I wanted to know more of. However the attachment we did have to the characters we did have was very powerful and I don't think the ending would have been as powerful if we had spent time getting to know some of the other side characters and the writing is so beautiful like some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read. I did feel like it lost a bit of its whimsicalness and dreaminess in that middle section. I still really liked it you know still four stars so I think I'm giving this like a 4.5. It's not quite the five that we were hoping for that I put out a tweet saying I was gonna have a new five star read. Like it's not quite that but it's close. Rarely do I finish a book and think oh I need to read the second one the next one straight away and I feel like that with this. I don't own it so like I probably won't because I'm trying not to buy any books at the moment. I haven't cried at a book in so long for months and I cry a lot like you've seen me cry a lot on this channel. Lots of positives with this. There is that middle section I lost but the ending was just incredible. One of the best endings I've read in a long time. Completely mind-blowing, completely heart-wrenching, completely all-consuming. One of the best endings I've read in a long time and like I said it's been a long time since I've cried at a book a long time and I cannot wait to get into more of Laney Taylor's writing. I'm so glad I finally read this and I'm so glad this video is finally finished because I've been in a massive stump not because of this video I've been in it before this video. Tom picked well you know like we had like all four stars really so I feel like he did a very good job and he picked very well. I'm proud of him. So that is it for this vlog thank you so much for watching if you've gotten to this point. I love you all so much and I'm so thankful for all the support I get on this channel and I will see you very very soon. Bye!