 Hi everyone, welcome back. So today I'm going to be doing another recent reads video in which I'm going to be telling you about the books that I read at the end of October, when I was reading slightly spookier books for Halloween, and also the books that I read throughout November, when I was reading nonfiction for nonfiction November. So getting straight into it, the first book that I read at the end of October for Halloween was The Raven Boys by Maggie Steve Arter. So this is a YA novel, it's the first in the series, which follows a teenage girl called Blue, whose family are clairvoyants. Blue herself has never been able to see spirits or see dead people. Up until one night when she's in a graveyard and she does see a dead boy and he speaks directly to her. So this boy is called Gansey and he is a Raven Boy. So Raven Boys are boys that go to this particular rich private local school. And Blue's always stayed away from Raven Boys in the past. Firstly because she knows that the Raven Boys are trouble, and secondly because she knows that when she kisses her true love for the first time he will die. Naturally, Blue becomes involved with Gansey and his group of friends. And there's mystery, there's intrigue, there's romance. So I read this book at the perfect time. I was really in the mood to read something a bit darker and a bit more magical for Halloween, and this definitely fit the bill. And so I really did enjoy my reading experience of this one. I definitely enjoyed the characters the most in this novel. Blue and her mum and her aunties were a particular highlight. I thought they were awesome. And it was also quite fun getting to know the Raven Boys. They were all quite distinct from one another and very unique and intriguing. So that was fun. This book is also very easy to consume. It's quite fast paced and relatively short. I know it doesn't look it but the writing's pretty big. And so overall I thought it was just quite an enjoyable easy read. Because this book is so well loved I was expecting to kind of be more blown away by it than I was. I didn't think there was anything particularly special about it. The plot in particular I didn't find to be that amazing. It wasn't as intriguing as I thought it would be. And I just didn't feel like there was enough substance to it for me. And that might be because it's the first in the series. I'm sure it gets better as time goes on. But there was definitely times when I was reading this and I was kind of thinking is this it? But like I say I did really enjoy reading it and it was fun. I don't think I'll be continuing on with the series. And that's not because I don't think I'd enjoy it. I think I probably would enjoy the rest of the series. But there's just so much else I want to read at the moment. I can't really see myself going out and picking them up and then prioritising them over some of the other books I've got at the moment. So it's probably just going to be left at this one for now. So in the end I gave The Raven Boys 3 out of 5 stars and I would recommend it if it sounds like something you'd like. The next book that I read for Halloween was Coraline by Neil Gaiman. And this is a children's book. So this story follows a young girl called Coraline who manages to get through a locked door in her family's new flat. And when she goes through the door she finds an alternate world that's very similar to her own but in which her parents are super creepy and have buttons for eyes and want to keep her there with them forever. So I had quite an odd reading experience with this one. I love Neil Gaiman as a writer and I read it at the perfect time and I kind of enjoyed it whilst I was reading it. But I don't think I actually like this book at all really. So I've read a few Neil Gaiman's before and loved them all. So I've read The Graveyard book and The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Stardust which is one of my all-time favourite books. So I definitely had really high expectations for this one and it just didn't really live up to them. So starting with the positives, Neil Gaiman's writing is brilliant. It was brilliant in everything I've read before now and it was brilliant in this too. And his imagination is just in another league. The story here is so imaginative and unique and whimsical. And so I really liked everything that kind of grounded this novel but really I just didn't feel like this novel reached its potential. I just kind of wanted more out of it whilst I was reading and it's kind of hard for me to put my finger on what I wanted more of in this book. I think the characters were maybe lacking but I'm not really sure. I don't really know but whatever it was I was definitely left feeling quite disappointed. Not to mention this book is creepy as fuck and not like a little bit creepy for Halloween, more like I wouldn't give this to a child to read creepy. I was so surprised by how disturbing moments in this book were. Like I kind of felt uncomfortable reading it. So yes, I guess it's a good Halloween read if you like that kind of thing but it's definitely not my favourite Gaiman. So in the end I gave this one a 2.5 stars. The final book I read for Halloween was There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbour's Baby by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya. This is a collection of Russian fairy tales written by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya and collected and translated by Keith Gessen and Anna Summers. I was super excited to read this one. I love fairy tales and I love learning about fairy tales from other parts of the world and different cultures and kind of seeing how they're similar to ones I know. I think that's really fun. And because this book has a kind of darker twist to it I thought it would be perfect to read around Halloween and it was. And surprisingly there were some stories in here that I didn't like as much as others. To be honest some of them kind of felt pointless to me like kind of incomplete and I don't mean pointless like there's no point in reading them at all. I mean more like I didn't get what the main point of the story was. And I think that's probably because these stories have been told and retold over many years. Maybe some of it has kind of got lost in the storytelling and maybe in the translation as well. I don't really know but I definitely was left a little bit disappointed by some of the stories. But overall I really did love the tone of this collection. It was so creepy but whimsical and kind of richly dark and I really enjoyed that. I do think it was the perfect Halloween read. And there were a couple of stories in here that I absolutely loved. Particularly the title story in which a woman tried to kill her neighbor's baby. That was strangely very addictive and so much fun. It was so dark and I definitely really liked that one. So overall I really did enjoy this one. I gave it three out of five stars and I would recommend it to somebody who likes reading short story collections or likes fairy tales. And I think probably some of you should pick it up next Halloween so we can talk about it. Moving on to the books that I read in November for nonfiction November. The first that I read was The Gender Games by Juno Dawson. So this is one I'd been meaning to read for ages. I won it in a Goodreads giveaway early this year I believe. And I really wanted to read it ever since then. I just didn't pick it up and I'm really glad that I finally did. Simply put this book is about gender. How gender is a social construct that is constricting and basically screwing over everyone in society. And it's also about Juno Dawson's experiences as a transgender woman. So I knew that this book was going to be good. Everybody loves it here on BookTube. Everyone says that it's a really great introduction into these social issues. And I wholeheartedly agree. Even if you don't know anything about gender, if you didn't know that there was a distinction between sex and gender, if you don't know much about the trans movement then you can still read this book and you'll get tons from it. Really there isn't much more to say about this one. I thought it was really interesting and informative and important. And it was also quite touching at times and humorous as well because Juno Dawson uses a lot of her own personal stories which was really nice. So overall I just thought it was really good. So I gave this one a four out of five stars, would highly recommend to everyone. The next book that I read for nonfiction November was actually a graphic novel and that was Brazen by Penelope Bargeo. So this book tells the story of lots of different women from across the world in different time periods who have all done amazing things. So this is very on trend at the moment, what with the recent search of feminist nonfiction in children's publishing, about influential feminine figures which I am 100% here for. So I was actually lent this by my friend Rhiannon who is a designer at the publishing house we both work for. And I'm so glad to now have her lending me graphic novels because I never read graphic novels and I really want to. And so now it's great that I have a guide to kind of tell me what to read because I have no idea. I love this book, I thought it was really really great. I learned so much about these various women who I've never heard of before basically just kicking ass in lots of different ways. One section I particularly enjoyed was about a woman called Annette Kellerman who broke away from women having to wear massive heavy clothing that covered everything while they swam and she actually invented the modern swimming costume so that's pretty awesome. I also love the art style in this. It's so unique and fun and colourful and it really just brought everything alive I think. I'll try and find you a good spread. Look at that. So yes this was great, I loved it. I might have to buy myself a copy. Thank you very much Rhiannon for lending me it and everyone else should definitely go out and try this one and I gave it a four out of five stars. And the final book that I read recently was The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostin. So this book tells the true story of a woman named Sandra Pankhurst who is among other things a trauma cleaner. So what that means is she helps clean the homes of people who suffer from mental illnesses such as hoarding or depression, helps clean the homes of people who have vermin infestations or homes have been abandoned since someone killed themselves there and many other things. But this book isn't just about Sandra's job it's also about her life. So Sandra was born with male genitalia into a very uncaring household and she's experienced many different forms of abuse during her life both before transitioning and when she was living as a woman. And throughout this we get to learn about how Sandra channeled all of this abuse and hostility into this amazing job which she now does to care for some of the most in need people in society. I really really enjoyed this book I found it so interesting. It was particularly interesting to learn about Sandra's profession because I'd never thought about this kind of job before. I'd never really considered who helped these people in society in this kind of way and who cleaned up these kind of messes. But it was also really great to just learn about Sandra as a person distinct from her job and all of these other things she'd been through. I thought that was really interesting and important. This book made me reflect on transphobic issues, roles within the family, drug addiction, sex work, many different forms of illness and a lot more really. So overall I found this to be an incredibly unique book. I think it was really interesting and I would highly recommend it to somebody who's looking to read a bit more of an unusual non-fiction book something a bit more varied and overall I gave this one a four out of five stars. So those were all the books I've read recently. I hope you enjoyed hearing about them. I know they're not really my typical kind of books that I read. I don't tend to read kind of darker, scarier books and I don't read much non-fiction either. So I hope you enjoyed hearing about them anyway. If you've read any of these books I would absolutely love to hear what you thought of them. Did we agree? Did we disagree? I'd love to chat with you about them down below in the comments. I am so happy that it is now December. I'm so excited for my birthday and Christmas and I've got all the books that I want to read over the Christmas season planned out already. I think I'm going to share them with you in my next video so definitely keep an eye out for that if you want to know what I want to read this Christmas. Thank you so much for watching everyone. I know I say it every time but I really do appreciate it. Thank you so much for just watching my videos and talking to me if you ever do. I really really like it and I hope you're all well. I'll see you next week. Bye!