 Holy shit! Guys, you know me. Hello friends, welcome back to my channel. I am very blue today as you can see. If you don't know me, I love doing reading vlogs. I love reading vlogs. Oh, they're my bread and butter. They're the core of this channel. I love it. I love it. And it gives me that buzz. It feeds exactly what I want to do. I was thinking to celebrate just hitting 3K, which is like, it's crazy. But what I thought would be fun for us two together was you to pick what I read for a week. So I've made a Google Doc. I've put a handy nifty thing in here with all the choices that you had. And I said pick three, vote on them and whatever wins I'll read. So this was all my physical TBR apart from some books I recently hauled and wanted to do a book haul showing them before I put them on the document and some books that I have specifically planned for certain other themed vlogs that I didn't want to go in there. And I just picked three audiobooks off of Scripps because if I added all my saved books from Scripps, this would be ridiculously long. I've got the form up on my laptop. We have had 322 respondents, which is crazy. What? That is shocking. I thought we'd get like a hundred, maybe a hundred of you would vote on it, but 322 of you have voted on this, which is crazy. That means I think we've got a really good consensus on what you're going to want me to read. That's almost a thousand votes, right? Okay, okay, okay. We have four clear front runners. There's some other high numbers, but there's four that are like much further ahead than the others. So the most voted one is The Hit You Give by Angie Thomas. Now I spoke recently about my shame at never having read this, but this is, you know, a book that everyone has read. It's one that everyone speaks so highly of. I feel like I have to read it. And this 29.8% of you voted for that with 96 votes. That is a really, really high amount of you. I don't know why you all want me to read this. Do you all just think I'm going to love it? Or is it just so many of you guys' favourite books that you think, yeah, I'll definitely vote for that one? I don't know. So next with 90 votes, which is 28% of you voted for this, is The Poppy War by R.F. Quang. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I have been putting this book off for years. I'm not kidding you. I've owned this for over a year and I haven't read it. Everyone who reads it loves it. I know it's about Rin. I think she goes to like an elite military school or something. I don't really know. I don't want to know. I don't want to go into it. But like, this is one that a lot of people have been reading recently. Like, for the first time. I think it's because maybe the third one is going to come out soon. It's still so popular, whereas some fantasy books come out a few years ago and then kind of die down. Whereas on every day, I'm like seeing someone review this. I'm scared! And then we have two books tied each with 81 votes. So the other audio book is You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson. So this is a new release. It came out like two weeks ago. I think it's got a female-female romance about this girl who wants to become prom queen so she can get the scholarship to go to her dream college. But then she starts falling in love with another girl who's running for prom queen. And it just sounds so cute. And I've seen so many people whose opinion I trust and who I often have similar opinions to loving this. I think probably so many of you have voted for this one because it's a new release and because there's been a lot of hype around it in the past two weeks. And maybe you want to read it too and you want to find out if I like it before. And then the last book I'm going to be reading, and this also has 81 votes with 25% of you voting for it. And that is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstin. You've been here a while. You know that the solace by Erin Morgenstin was probably my second favourite book of last year. I loved it. I thought it was incredible. Words cannot describe. Genius. Like pure genius. You lot have made a damn well good decision. I hope you're pleased with yourself. We've got these beautiful sprayed edges. The cover is insane. And like look at the ends. Don't you die. What I know about this is that it's two magicians battling it out. A circus arrives without warning. I'm expecting the same vivid imagery. Wonderful writing Erin Morgenstin has. You guys are giving me two very intimidating physical books that I've been putting off for the longest. I think we'll start, because it's got the most votes, we'll start with The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. So, go. I'm here to enjoy myself, JC Stout. You know what I mean? I am just, I think I'm just over a quarter of the way through The Hate You Give. I can see why everyone loves this book so much. I can see why it's such a popular book. I think it is incredible. I am aware of how often this is the only book people read about the black experience. I don't want to say the wrong thing, because I don't want anyone to be able to think, oh I can just read this book and then I'm done. Which I don't know why you would think that. It is incredible that you should be reading other books than just this book. And also like, this is a very important and is pertinent the right word? It's a very relevant book for us right now, as obviously it's about our protagonist's style witnessing her friend being shot and killed by a police officer. But I also want to push you to not only read books about black trauma, I feel like they are often the most popular books about black protagonists. And when I'm reading this I'm like, it's so important and I'm very happy that in this video I'm also going to be reading You Should See Me in a Crown. Because as far as I know that's very much about black joy, about black love. In terms of the book, I'm loving it. I think the way that it is dealing with loss and with pain is so good. It's so powerful. The plot is moving along at a really great pace. And usually when I am listening to audio books at first I start listening to this. I listened to like the first 10 minutes and I was like, oh I don't listen to this as an audio book. But actually the narrator is incredible and it's getting better and better as it goes along the audio book. I think this is one of my favourite audio books I've ever listened to. So I take back that initial assumption. But I did tell a bit of a lie there. So I really recommend the audio book. I think that often in audio books I struggle sometimes to connect to the minor characters which can be a drawback of listening to the audio book. But this one, you know her parents, her brothers, they feel like such in-depth and vivid and vibrant characters and so different from one another. And even when you only spend a 15 minute scene with say, the grandparent of the boy who was shot, there's such a complex character in such a short amount of time. I'm just loving it. I've listened I've listened I've tried three times to I think about three hours of it today which I never listen to that much of an audio book in one day. Like I've just been trying to do as much as I can that means I can listen to the audio book. So I literally just got out of the shower. I was about to start doing my makeup, listen to the audio book. I looked and I realised I'm 75% of the way through the book. So I should probably check in with you about what I'm thinking right before the end. I love it. I think it is an incredible book. I don't really know what I can add because surely you've heard from everyone else why it's so wonderful. I'm so happy that it is as popular as it is and so many young people you know maybe people who don't read as many books as you and I do and stuff people who don't watch Booktube but people who read like because it's so popular they are likely to pick it up and they are likely to learn so many important lessons from it. Not only about police brutality but about the ways in which black communities particularly in America have had a scythe taken through them by the prison system there and how often young black men are left with no other opportunity turn to things that they don't even want to do but their situation that the government really power all the way down police everyone has put them in that exploring white privilege you know she's a friend that is racist really it's about a star exploring that and about someone who she's thought she's been friends with believing and thinking all these terrible things and it's just such a powerful book and I think it is something we should all read but like I said we should read other books other than just this it is one of the most assured books I've listened to or read in a long time characters doing and saying things not the shock you or you don't expect but like isn't the easy answer isn't just the easy response you know and that shows that these people in the book from Angie Thomas's mind have real lives in a way I mean obviously they're not their fictional characters but these people are real so I finished the hate you give the ending was really really good I liked how it explored activism and stuff like that often in YA there is a tendency to tie everything up with a bow for everything to be fine but that's not always the case and so I liked the fact that it wasn't a neat ending I am going to give it four stars it didn't feel like a five star you've been very very harsh nice to meet you Kelly very harsh it was a brilliant book but I just don't fucking give it five stars but also like I feel like maybe the first three quarters could have been a five star but in just that last quarter there was just some pacing issues for me like there were scenes that happened that I can accept in our commonplace earlier in books you know like in the tough kind of filler scenes to allow you to get to know some of the characters and their motivations and stuff but they didn't advance the plot at all and I was just kind of like why are we reading this like why is this happening when it doesn't need to happen I appreciated it but I feel like those types of scenes should have been earlier in the book cause in that last quarter all you're really wanting is everything to kind of come together and to know what is happening with this plot line and we were kind of like introducing some things that went nowhere it's an important book and I hope it's something that if you haven't read you get around too soon cause I'm so happy that I got round to it four stars pretty successful star so now let's get into the next book I'm a massive fan of the dictionary you know we should be like promoting the dictionary anyway because like it is such an amazing like historical British thing isn't it I'm only 60 pages in but I'm loving it I'm obsessed I think it's incredible I think it's going to be a work of art I'm loving the school vibe that we're at I'm loving the academy I'm loving the training I'm loving all the different characters why you so in love with me Jesus tell me I wanna know when you hung on the crust you'd die for me cause everybody knows I am about 300 pages into this it's about 500 in total I am loving it I'm obsessed it is so well written it's one of the most well written books I've read in quite a while it's so engaging the pacing is incredible the amount of stuff she's fitting in without it feeling overwhelming is so good we've kind of spanned about three years well I actually know probably about five years really in terms of content it's kind of easily even split into a trilogy just this one book alone from what I can see so far there are three parts and I was reading part one and thinking to myself some people would try to make this into a whole book on its own because in the first part Rin is a orphan she's like adopted into her family but they're not nice to her and they try to marry her off so she goes no I'm gonna take this really prestigious test and try to get into kind of the military academy and she does so she works so hard she gets in there and then it's her story of battling its adversity at the academy but also like working super hard to be the best that she can be in discovering her abilities and who she is if that makes sense and I love the school vibe of this if you're looking for something with like an academy a school feeling and a fantasy book I loved it in this I don't think we'll be going back there now that what's happened has happened and kind of coming into part two I love the history the mythology the politics behind every single calculation I love the part that we're in now I can't tell you what's going on the most exotic fruit we can find when it has what it also does really well is the characters throughout this and I have the feeling we're going to meet a lot more they're all well rounded enough to not feel empty the main story is Rin Rin is such a protagonist she's at the forefront of the whole story but the characters still feel engaging they still feel well thought out it's so vivid so vivid sometimes in some books like in the never-tulting world I struggle to visualize some of the drama dramatic scenes some of the fight scenes but the fight scenes in this are like it's like a movie it's so well done holy shit guys you know me I'm so happy that you voted for me to read this wow I have been putting this book off for over a year it threw a lot of curveballs at the end there oh I love it it's like a 4.75 it's not quite a 5 but I'm going to give it a 5 on a good read I love how Rin is flawed you know from the first chapter that she is going to commit actions that you don't agree with you know you know from the get-go that we're going to go down that path however you don't know to what extent I loved the beginning of this I loved the vibes at the academy that kind of like magical academy but I read the last two parts much quicker but they're kind of like a blur to me but the ending so good and I'm so excited for where the rest of this series is going to go my dad just ordered the second book because I was like this is technically his book so I'm not fuming I'm like I'm a little bit but yeah I'm bothered I'm bothered I'm really bothered there is a chapter in this that a lot of people say how hard it is to read and it's it's such a hard chapter to read and this more than any other book I've ever read I'd say you must be aware of the bigger warnings for this as someone who has had to study like in politics stuff like that a lot it's important to remember like that's not only fiction you know this book is heavily based on truth and our world and there are horrors they may not be committed by fire gods but there are horrors that happen in our world too and it was very very very realistic when you read like in politics when you're studying these kind of events or what those events are I just think it's a great book so if like me you've been putting this off for a year get to it hello just to say I appreciate I really appreciate the opportunity Apologies oh you actually can't see any of the scenes I thought you'd see all these scenes they're highlighter and this top is very comfy so I'm not about to get changed out of it I'm not wearing something that's actually dirty those scenes are never gonna come out I am 150 pages into the night circus I'll try and hold it up while I'm doing this and I am obsessed with it success it is magical it is incredible it is amazing it's one of just the most enchanting things I have ever read so we are following the story of I wanna know what does it feel like to be so god damn ugly two magicians kind of they're both particularly skilled kind of in allusions but allusions of different kind exact same skill set and one of them is the daughter of a really renowned magician her father agreed with this guy that how many people are scared me too I was really really scared I look crazy her father agreed with this guy that they were to do a competition and apparently this was a competition they've done multiple times before we don't know how you win the competition we don't know what the rules of the competition are and so then this other guy would be his subject essentially the night circus which of the people the book is called is kind of the place that the competition is now gonna take place the girl is hired as an illusion artist there whilst the boy is the assistant of the guy who's running the circus so he isn't able to like go round with the circus he has to stay with London while the circus tours so that limits how much he's able to do because whereas the girl Celia is there every night performing he has to kind of construct tents that will work and be part of the game in his absence I love Erin Morgan so's writing style like it is still as wonderful as the style to see for me a lot of people's critique is that it's boring and I do understand why for some people they would see it as boring like it's a very slow book the pace is not fast by any means you are distanced in all of I was saying all of them were business books but this is only surely got two books you are distanced from the characters somewhat you are not supposed to necessarily relate to them you are not supposed to understand them you are not supposed to feel like you are in the story with them you are very very distanced from the story and for people who like plots to be really heavy or for people who like to feel really immersed people who like to feel like they are there with the characters or they can relate to the characters like this is not gonna be the book for you I love a concept you know like it reminds me the reason I love Erin Morganston's book so much is it reminds me of back when I did drama everything was a concept everything was an experience and like it's so meta because that's what the circus is like in this you know the circus is this big experience this concept but Erin Morganston's books don't worry I am blending that Erin Morganston's books are that as well I love the dramatics of it I love how it's not afraid to really go there you know and to push the boundaries it is brilliant American literature and I don't care what anybody it is it should be taught in schools and I've often said I love in stories and this isn't something that stories do very often but where they really bulk out the story and tell you things that aren't necessarily essential to the plot building up the wider world and exploring other parts of the world and how other minor characters are affected that's something that this book is doing so so well the vibes today are just perfect like it's really grey out and windy and I just feel like that adds an extra dramaticness to the reading experience I've been sitting there and like the wind has been blowing in and I've been like oh my god this is so dramatic I love it so I'm not quite as far in as I wanted to be before I checked in again I'm about 250 pages in instead of 270 I I'm in love I'm in love the mystery the intrigue Erin Morgas is writing does something to me I just sit there in awe at this book I'm completely immersed it is it's Fandaby Dosey shut up that is so stupid Erin Morgans is a fucking genius like legit the best writer history has ever known it's so mysterious so many things are slowly revealed to you time is not linear the plot is not linear and you get nuggets of information from different characters then you slowly piece the puzzle together for yourself and it is brilliant this is inspiring me for plot in the kind of book I want to write I feel like I've had like a fucking epiphany oh calm down calm down it's so good I love the circus theme I love a circus I love a circus I love how absurd it is I love how all over the place it is I love how unclear it is like I don't want to be served up all the informational platter I want you to like tease stuff out and drag stuff out and like confuse me so I finished the night circus I'm giving it five stars who gave it the right to go off like that I paramedics paramedics make sure she's okay because I was not ready not Erin Morgenstern has solidified herself as one of my favourite authors of all time this bitch can do no wrong the magic in this the atmosphere in this her writing is the most magical writing I have ever read I was not expecting the ending I really enjoyed the ending I feel like the stylists see how this is well where there's like the promise of more the magic doesn't stop with the last page there's the promise of some elements of the story going on beyond the book itself and I really love that like it really invites you at the end to use your imagination and to figure out how it would have ended and to think of all the different possibilities for the situation going into the future and I just think she's I think she's a genius I love how everything interweaves Erin Morgenstern is great at having a lot of characters a lot of storylines like perfectly meshed into one another do I prefer it to the the stylists see I feel like the stylists see will have a special place in my heart forever because it's her the first book of hers I read and so her writing was completely new to me and completely blew me away and the writing still blew me away in this one but like I kind of knew what to expect I need more Erin Morgenstern books please I was going to say more books set in circuses but like none of that would compare so actually I don't want it all I want is more Erin Morgenstern books I am about 30% of the way through you should see me in a crown well that's the worst we've had today I'm really enjoying it I don't typically read loads of contemporaries like this I haven't read like a good back to high school YA in a long time I feel like I'm back in secondary school Leah Johnson is great at writing teenagers like that's it's a really hard thing to do it should not be underestimated how fricking hard it is to write how teenagers speak it's so hard it's so hard like just phrases like your mind you know stuff like that gets me and I'm like okay you get what's going on we're here let's go we also have that kind of like evil girl at high school and I I I enjoy that I feel like if you're going to write a high school YA book you kind of need that girl and like let's be honest that girl exists this is about a girl who has set her sights on this college the fund that she was counting on falls through and so she doesn't have the money to go to that university unless she wins prom queen however she's very unlikely to win prom queen and so it's going to be the story of her and her friends trying to work really hard to get her to that because like her school is obsessed with prom it's their thing it's like I think this is somewhere in the mid like middle of nowhere America these people don't have a lot to do with their life so they just love prom they just love prom she is starting to fall in love with another girl who is running for prom queen and it's so cute I'm totally vibing with it they've only just started and like I'd say the last 5% I think they're a really cute dynamic the other girl is very talkative on the go quick quick quick like a bit all over the place and I just love it pairing that with someone who's very school orientated disciplined I love that clashing so now I'm now 70% of the way through you should see me in a crown and I am enjoying it I think it's somewhere between like a 3 and a 4 star right now so the couple got together like 50% of the way into the book and whenever that happens you know well shit's gonna go wrong come on again I and it has gone wrong just now although I understand like it has to have conflict the story has to have some kind of conflict to move it forward I am not annoyed but like I wish it hadn't know how to be in the relationship because I just want to see some gay girls who are happy like I'm fed up not fed up but I feel like every time I read a sapphic romance the relationship is always very fraught I understand that it's necessary and maybe if it hadn't happened I'd be like the book's boring but I just wish that the tension could have been somewhere else other than the relationship because I just want to see them happy and I think by the end everything will be fine it's a funny book it's a light book it's really enjoyable the audio book narrator is wonderful like I I would really recommend the audio book to you if you haven't read this book yet but I feel like I don't have anything really really notable to say to you about the book other than I'm enjoying it I think it's really good I think it's a great sapphic YA that you should be looking to pick up if you haven't read it already featuring a black girl as a protagonist it's a book I'm struggling to be analytical about in any way I'm just kind of sitting back and enjoying it it's very much like those 80s 90s chick flick vibes I think it's really strong in that department it feels like I'm watching Clueless or something like that they're like my favourite films and so I think because of that it's kind of taken me back a bit and I'm just sitting back and listening rather than thinking of what I can say to you so I am really enjoying it I think it's going to end up being a forced up especially as a strong ending so I just finished it and I did really enjoy it I really enjoyed the ending I thought it was just a nice wholesome book and really well written I think it's going to be like a 3.75 for me just because I just want a bit more oomph from it and that's not really something that I can like necessarily put into words I just felt like it was lacking a bit of punch 6 months to a year from now I think I would struggle to remember parts of the plot or remember why I enjoyed it so much if that makes sense I feel like it lacked memorability in some ways but I still think it's a brilliant YA contemporary and I think it's also important that you guys remember like this isn't a genre I ever really rate super highly for me the audiobook was on scrib so check if it is on scrib if you have it where you live I really really loved the audiobook I thought that the narrator did a great job of bringing the book to life that was my video reading the books that you guys voted for I had so much fun reading these books and you picked so well like if you're honest this is one of the best reading vlogs I've had in terms of me enjoying the books so obviously I need to trust you and your taste and what you think I'll like thank you for watching to the end if you have I hope you've enjoyed the video and I will see you very soon with another one bye