 So the other day, I was just scrolling through Twitter, minding my own business, when suddenly I see this. Mariah Carey. Oh my god! Miss Mariah posted a picture of herself with a stack of books saying essential 2020 reading. And like, I just knew in that moment I had to make a reading vlog. Like I had no choice. Miss Mariah is the Queen of Christmas. She is the Queen of December. In December and a Christmas time, we're all just living in her world. Like she is in control. Anyway, so I'm in control, but I'm out of control and I'm also, um, controlled. So in a way, I'm everything. I love her. I think she's an icon. She's a regular on this channel in terms of like means. I love that she is posting a picture of herself with a stack of books and like telling everyone educate yourself. Like, she's a clever woman. I love her. Thank you, darling. So I looked at the stack. It's a nice stack. It's a very nice stack. Some really nice books on there. I have read Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. It's the only book on that stack I've read. I really enjoyed it. I listened to the audiobook and it was great. He narrated it. I would really recommend it. The only book on this stack that I already owned was Such a Fun Age by Kylie Reid. So this is going to be the first book I read. I know that this is about a black woman who takes the child that she's babysitting to a local supermarket and there's this incident with a woman there and the security guard because they accuse her of stealing the child. And it's like a very racially charged situation. Someone else films it on their phone like you often see with these kind of situations. Then I think it's kind of about how the white people in the situation act in the way that they think they're being allies but they're often doing much more harm than good. I've had so many good things about this so I'm very, very excited to get to it. Then I had a look at the other books on the list. I didn't own any more of them. But one of them I had wanted to read for a very long time and that is The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. All I know about this is that it is about two twin girls and I think one of them chooses to present as black and one of them chooses to present as white. I think and it's about their relationship and how this affects them and it's about race in the time that they're living. I think it's kind of, yeah, like the 1950s to the 1990s. So I'm really excited to read this. I've had so many good things about this. It's won so many awards. It's like one of the most popular books out there. So this is gonna be the second book that I am reading this week. And then I thought it would be unfair. Like I thought it would be unfair for me to do this vlog and not read her new memoir. Like I have to do it. And I was actually, I was watching, I was watching a video of her the other day. Not for research. It's just what I do in my spare time. Like I wasn't even thinking about this video. And she mentioned that she likes the audiobook. Like she was like, oh my God, please read my memoir. Especially the audiobook. So I am gonna buy the audiobook. She narrates there. And I think it's gonna be really fun. I'm really interested to learn about her. So I'm gonna start with Such a Fun Age by Kylie Reid. And I'm gonna go start this now. But to get into the Christmas spirit first. Cause this video is to get me into the Christmas spirit with Mariah Carey. We're gonna go decorate our tree. We're gonna go put up the tree and decorate it. So let's go do that now. Well, we'll just have to wait and see. You are so inquisitive, my darling. Page 113 of Such a Fun Age. So I'm just over a third of the way through. And I'm really enjoying it. The thing is with this book, and I think probably all the books in this video is that it's not got a lot of plot. It's not really about that. These books aren't going to be plot heavy. They're much more based on like characters and characters' feelings and characters' journeys and emotions and motivations. So like I said, the main character in this gets confronted by racist people essentially in this store. They think she has kidnapped the young girl that she's taking care of. But that happens like within the first 20 pages. And then the rest has kind of been us learning about the white characters in the story, their back stories, the parents of the child that she looks after, particularly the mum. It's really interesting to see the way that these characters act in ways that they think they're doing the right thing and that they're helping, but they're really not. Wait, stop the motherfucking music. You. Are you dumb? And it's just because they're so blinded by not only their racial privilege, but their class privilege and like when privileges intersect, it like doubles. The privilege is more than just the sum of its parts because you have all those different privileges. That is a privilege in itself. And I think if you're white and you read this book, you should really look at what you do yourself that you think is helping. Trying to look at the ways in which we act. Wrongly, you know, like the ways that we act and we think we're helping, but we're really not helping. You should be using it to critique your own actions. I mean, true to a story is going to go now. I don't think this is a spoiler, but I'm not going to like explicitly say it because I don't want to spoil anything accidentally. But we're starting to find out some tea between some of the white characters that Amira is linked to. So there's tea between her new boyfriend and the mum and like. I didn't call me a bad server because I always spill the tea. What are the chances of this happening? So I'm really intrigued to see where that is going to go. What part we're going to go down with that? I think it is dealing with the themes of race, white privilege, ingrained racism. What it's doing so well is it's showing how racism and white privilege and ignorance, racial ignorance is embedded in everything these characters do and how they move through the world. It's the first time I've ever read that. I think I've always read books where racism has been more overt or even if it's been like subconscious bias, it's very like this is subconscious bias, you know, like how you usually read about subconscious bias. But this is doing very well at embedding that throughout everything else. So yeah, really excited to read on. I have actually finished such a fun age. I did want to check in at the two thirds mark, but I just couldn't stop reading last night and I just wanted to get through it all. So I didn't just finish it. Your behavior. Come on. It's unacceptable. And I really, really liked it. I'm going to give it four stars. There's no, there's nothing wrong with it. I just didn't get that five star feeling from it that I think you need to get to give a book five star. I feel like just the discussion, it opens up about ingrained racism and white privilege and like how someone will act. The difference in how people act, if you're constantly chasing success and never getting it versus if you have success from birth and you're constantly trying to grab it and hold on to it. I think they're too polar opposite. Experiences obviously. But I think it was really interesting how they were examined in this book. I think the writing was great. I think the dialogue was really, really well written and it read so fast. Like if you're a bit intimidated of it because it's kind of like an adult contemporary, don't be. Amira is such a cool, relatable, young character. Briar, who is the toddler that she looks after. Like Briar almost made me cry in this book. Like when like the adults around her do shit, you're like, I'm so sorry. And you just hope that she's not gonna end up like the culture and the adults around her. But you're also terribly scared that she will. But she's so funny. Like that kid is so funny. And her and Amira's dynamic is just beautiful through all of the other kind of difficult and serious stuff to read about in this. And the discussion of like boundaries and how privilege can erase boundaries. Like I think when you have privilege, you start to become unaware of other people's boundaries and what is the normal thing to do and what is the acceptable thing to do in some situations. She kind of becomes a bit obsessed with Amira in this strange way. And it was so spur on with how it examined white people's attitudes towards black people even when they think those kind of people who think they're doing the right thing but they're really, really not. So I'm so glad that I finally read this. It was such a quick read, such an enjoyable read. I really, really loved it. I would really recommend if you haven't picked up yet that you do. Yeah, I really, really loved it. I would really recommend it. And what's worse, she's on her way to a special audience she hates. I am now 100 pages into the Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett which is the second book that Mariah Carey had on her list that I chose. So basically this is about two sisters who live in this town full of black people who are light skinned. And so it's kind of like you shouldn't be dark skinned if you live in this town. You're supposed to be very light skinned almost able to pass for white. And the girls when they were teenagers ran away somewhere along the line they separated and have been separated for many years. And one of the twins returns to hometown. And that's what we've really read so far. I guess it's gonna be exploration of time and of these characters coming apart and coming back together. And just an exploration of like what it was like to be light skinned during this time. I really liked the writing so far. It is very character-based, very like writing-based which I'm kind of in the mood for something like just quick and fast. Do you know what I'm... I'm just in the mood for something that's got a really fast paced plot and this isn't it. So if I was mood reading I wouldn't be reading this. Do you know what I mean? But I am still enjoying it. I think it is really well written. I'm starting to get more into it now. I'm really intrigued to see because one of the girls, Stella she is the one who has kind of gone missing. No one knows where she went to. She is living as white. So she's presenting as white. We don't know to extent people in her family know that she isn't white. And so I'm really intrigued to see where Stella is and what's happening with her because so far the book has all been about Desiree who is the other twin. But I am enjoying it. They took me a second to get into it but I'm enjoying it much more so now. I am now 220 pages into the vanishing half and I'm loving it. Yes! Yes! It took me a hot minute to get into it but I am just obsessed. Like I'm really really loving it. It's such a beautifully written story. It's so interesting just looking at these characters in such a deep deep way. So we followed Desiree for much of the first 100 pages and then in the past 120 pages we split our time with Jude her daughter and Stella who is the sister who ran away. And usually I struggle in books where we follow a character for 100 pages and follow another one for 50 pages and we're just constantly being introduced to different stories. But I'm really liking this one to see the different paths that all these women are going on from the same family, how race and gender and their role in society affects each of them differently and affects their paths and they're all connected in this really subtle, interesting way. It's quite slow, it's quite drawn out. You're really just taking a really deep dive into how these characters think. You just follow them along in their life, you know? Like it's not like a plot book, you know? It's necessarily a start, middle and end. But rather it's just an exploration of these women throughout time. I really love Jude. I think Jude is a really interesting character. As much as it is interesting to follow the two sisters, the twins, and see where they end up differently, in Jude's storyline, issues of gender and being transgender have been introduced through various characters and exploration of gender and I just wasn't expecting that from this. It wasn't something I had heard anyone speak about and it is beautiful and so interestingly explored, particularly for its time period, like in the 1970s and 80s, I've never read about a trans character from that time period and it is just so interesting. I feel like that's something that needs to be spoken about more is about gender and not fitting gender binaries throughout history because I feel like a lot of the great literature we're seeing come out now about being transgender is contemporaries, like young adult contemporaries where I love reading from a historical standpoint on this topic. I didn't realise till I picked this up but that is definitely one of my favourite parts. I am loving this way more than I initially thought. I initially thought I was going to be bored, but I have really gone into it across last night and today. I finished the vanishing half and I'm going to give it four stars. I really, really liked it. I feel like the pacing in the last part wasn't as good as in the middle but we followed Kennedy for a large majority of it who is Stella's daughter and I just wasn't interested in her. Oh really? That sucks. And I wasn't entirely satisfied with the resolution at the end but I think you always knew that you weren't going to be. I always knew that I wasn't going to feel completely satisfied with it because it's not the kind of story that's going to be wrapped up neatly with a bow on it but it was just beautiful, intricate prose the look at racism within so many different communities and in so many different forms the idea of passing and the privileges that gives you but also the difficulties that it brings look at sisterhood, look at motherhood like it was just really great across the board. I really, really recommend this. I've had a really successful vlog so far. I'm really glad I read this because I would never have read this for like years to come. Like I probably would have got run to eventually but thank you Miss Mariah. Thank you Queen Icon Legend. She's an icon. She's a legend and she is the moment. Now come on now. For recommending this because it was a great fascinating educational amazing read. So yeah, I really, really enjoyed it. So now we are going to move on to the book of the Queen herself Miss Mariah Carey. We're going to read her autobiography. I've got the audio book and I'm so excited to listen to her talking about her life. So let's go start. Christmas. Hmm Christmas. I don't know what to say about it. Kind of obsessed with it. Let's see. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. Never performed it. So I'm halfway through the meaning of Mariah Carey and I love it. Like I love her. I love Mariah Carey. She's incredible. She's a beautiful person. Her talent and brilliance is beyond. It's so interesting learning about her life and all that she's been through. She's really gone through a lot. I didn't know before coming into this what she'd been through. Predominantly the part I've listened to a lot of it was focused on her childhood I would say up until like the 40 maybe 45% mark it was all focused on her childhood and now we have gotten into the start of her music career and her first marriage which was a very abusive marriage. She's just so open in it. She's so honest and brave and so interesting to listen to. So I'm really loving it in a way that I never expected. Like when I started this off I was like yeah I'm gonna be reading Mariah Carey's book. But it's actually so interesting and enlightening. There's this kind of persona of her as this materialistic diva and in this you can just completely see where she's come from and all that she's been through the really poor, disadvantaged life she had growing up and let me tell you Mariah was not lying when she said it's so much better as the audiobook because like she is incredible. Like I want her to narrate all audio books because she's a teacher. She's constantly going darling and she just put so much life into the book like she's constantly laughing at memories or you can tell when a memory is really sad for her to recount and like one thing that I adore is that obviously this is written in the book too but like randomly it will just break out into one of her songs like she'll just start singing one of her songs when that song obviously applies to what she's talking about she obviously wrote it about the experience that she is discussing now in the book let me see if she's let me put it on one speed so you can actually hear her she just starts singing she just starts singing I just live for it where's, hang on it's a whole as production like Mariah didn't come to play it is a whole as production the echo on the vocals come on now come on I never thought I would be like super recommending Mariah Carey's autobiography but I am I remember I watched an interview and she said it was like I don't know if she was just saying this to get people to buy the book but she was saying that it's the most important project she'd ever done and sometimes I think you read celebrity autobiographies and it's like okay but this feels like it's important to Mariah Carey like it feels like it's really important to tell her life story and to discuss everything she's been through I think it's so hard to be a woman in the industry especially at the time she was coming up like I think it's easier now for women but musical artists of her age like there's barely any of them left and they have to constantly reinvent themselves and constantly change it up in a way that I don't think girls have to do now and I just think they were treated differently and so I just love hearing from her and hearing her point of view so I'm really enjoying it I'm gonna go finish it and then I'll come back to you with my final thoughts so I just finished the meaning of Mariah Carey and I loved it I'm gonna give it I think a 4 stars maybe if it's even closer to like a 4.25 4.5 Thank you darling she's an incredible woman she's been through so much shit just learning about the logistics of the media industry and what she's had to go through and just to how she's become a woman today it was actually fascinating in a way that I could not have expected if you're gonna read this read it via the audiobook like I think that's how it has to be consumed she's amazing at narrating her life you can really hear the emotion about every single part of her life Mariah Carey needs to narrate every audiobook I read from now on I loved it I would really recommend reading the meaning of Mariah Carey if you haven't already I don't think many of you will have read it but it was just fascinating and such a fun audiobook and I loved it I never thought I would love that book so much but it was fascinating and she is such a strong woman she was so open and candid about her relationship with her abusive husband her relationships with her family I love that she made fun of the New York New Year's Eve debacle where she like it all went wrong the performance went wrong because that's what I always thought of but in this book she was like that was nothing like I've been through more shit that was just one bad night the world can't seem to forget about it and I can and so it was just so interesting to hear all this other stuff behind her that we didn't know I love her so much now after reading this I hope you've enjoyed this vlog where I read like her for a week it was actually so much fun it was super interesting to see what she likes to read she spoke in the book about reading fairly often about like finishing a book and having to turn back and sight again straight away so she's obviously a reader herself and I really loved reading like her for a week so I hope you enjoyed this video I hope to help get you in the Christmas mood a bit make sure you give it a thumbs up and subscribe if you did enjoy it if you got to the end of this video comment the Christmas tree emoji down below because we're getting super Christmassy I'm so excited for Christmas like I can't wait I'm so excited I will see you very very soon in another video bye