 Before we jump into the booktube video I just wanted to pop in really quick to let y'all know that the vegan food channel that I keep piping is actually real and live and the very first video went up today. It is a mac and cheese recipe video where I show you how to make this very lovely mac and cheese spelled with a z because we're vegan don't you know? So if you're interested in that I'll have it linked down below in the description of this video. If not just ignore this announcement and we'll carry on now with the booktube video. Finally learned my lesson. I don't like the shutter to say very much. It's so so good. I didn't like either very much. This book let me down. So far in 2022 that is just uh that's not been the case. December wrap up. Final wrap up of 2021. I've been getting into the habit of saying 2022. Now I have to say 2021 again very briefly but uh yeah. So I ended the year with an insane amount of books in one month and I'm hoping to read slightly less books every month so I have more time to just breathe and live and savor and etc and not be scrambling. So far in 2022 that is just uh that's not been the case but you know we're trying. So my final count for the year in 2021 was 177 books. A couple of those were duplicates in so far as I read them twice within 2021. So I think individual books it was like 174, 175, something like that. Let me know. I was thinking last year I did a video of like all of the books that I read kind of going through them. I thought about doing that or alternatively tier ranking all the books that I read. So if that's something you'd like let me know and I'll I'll do it. If you'd rather not then I won't do it. But anyway today, today, today we are here. I am here to discuss the books that I read in December. Um I actually haven't counted how many I read in December. It was 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17. Not the most I ever read in a month in 2021. Not the least. So uh yeah without further ado let us be about the business. So the first book I read in December was actually my November TBR and it bothered me that I didn't read it or finish it because I really wanted to so I just stuck it on uh to the beginning of December which in general I want to do. Just because I don't get to it in a given month it doesn't mean I don't still want to read it. And so my TBRs were just two it's another reason for lower TBRs because in the event that even with a smaller TBR there is a book that I don't quite get to I would like to have the room just like add it on to the next month. But I couldn't do that in 2021 because every single month my TBR was burst. Anyway I'll have to say my remnant of November that was read in December was Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. This book let me down. A patron of mine very kindly sent me this book which I very much appreciate. Also I'm glad that I didn't spend money on it. It's not that makes it sound atrocious. It's not atrocious. It's definitely not. It's not like it belonged all my worst books of the year or anything like that but I feel like both because the subject matter itself is something that I'm particularly interested and invested in and then this book specifically was quite hyped sort of all over the place and I think it was if not if it didn't win I think it was nominated for a bunch of awards. It's New York Times book review 10 best books of 2020. I saw a lot of YouTube channels some of them not really the types of channels that read what I read but I like to expose myself to like other people read things that I don't even if that doesn't get me to pick it up because this is more like lit-ficky. Anyway all that to say I pretty much saw universal praise for this and not just like universal blanking just universal gushing and so this is okay if you don't know anything about this. Hamnet is the story of or a fictionalized it's an imagined kind of a I mean it's historical fiction but it's to do with the death of Shakespeare's son Hamnet which history tells us is what inspired at the very least the name of the play Hamlet and I'd always known that Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet who died and that we got the play Hamlet and I was never really sure how a young child dying would inspire the play of Hamlet. I give you no Hamlet the story who it's about what it's about I just I don't see the connection like the only I mean obviously the name for sure Hamlet Hamnet which I'm given to believe were kind of interchangeable in the time but any event I was like I don't I don't get it I don't get how you're the death of your small young son who was a child um results in Hamlet the play. So I was hoping in addition to the fact that this book was just praised in general so I was looking forward to a good book I was also looking forward to hopefully understanding a little bit better how like the connection there and I was neither impressed with this nor do I really I'm still baffled as to how these uh how the one led to the other and this book does at the end kind of try to explain that which obviously I mean this is all historical fiction so it's all just sort of like the author imagining or playing a thought exercise of like what might have happened what might these people have thought etc because we don't we don't have a ton to go on when it comes to the personal life of William Shakespeare. So the author does kind of have a moment towards the end where the characters are or a character is like they're making the connection about why Hamnet's death is the is the genesis of the catalyst for Hamlet the play and I was already I mean it's towards the end and I'd already been like I'm not impressed with this book and when I got there I was like nah that's that's really a stretch that's that's quite a quite a leap so yeah I don't know like obviously like this is what really happened so like there is some kind of a connection or at least I mean the mind is kind of strange just like in a conversation when you're like how did we get onto this topic when we started out talking about this so like in that way I get why like maybe just general grief would would make someone pour all of their emotions and thoughts into their creative endeavors but not necessarily emulating real life maybe it's so it's different from real life because they're trying to avoid the triggering things of what really happened to them I don't know but point being the connections this book tries to make between Hamnet's death and Hamlet the play I'm like that's tenuous at best and up to that point I just I kept waiting for the moment when I would go oh okay no it's hitting now I now I get why people praise this book and I just I didn't the whole thing felt very like try hard like it and it took so long telling it kept jumping around it goes out of its way to not mention Shakespeare's name but everyone knows that's who they're talking about but you know this is Hamnet's book so we're not gonna talk about Shakespeare which again felt like one of those like literary choices of like okay we won't even mention the name of Shakespeare because it's not about him even though it's like that's why we're reading it like that's why anybody's interested in this story and I also kept thinking to myself like how much of a story is there to a kid dying of the plague because that's what happened a lot of people died of the plague Shakespeare's son being one of them and I was like yes I mean that will be an emotionally taxing overwhelming experience for a family but like a whole book like about a kid dying of the plague I was like I don't know you know uh if people say it's great so like people say it's great so I'm guessing the author found enough to say for a whole book but I don't think so I don't think there's a whole book's worth of material here anyway unpopular opinion as usual this book is pretty much universally praised so if you were thinking of picking it up probably still do because I'm about the only one that I know of that was not impressed with this so and I don't think it's bad I just feel like it's very like it's just very try hard and I would rather just read an actual biography of William Shakespeare oh anyway uh it was it was all right next up I read holopox the hunt for morgan crow I just got towns and it's the third book in the nevermore or the morgan crow series begins with nevermore the series I'm buddy reading with vish from books with v we are loving it I say that in every roundup it's it's I feel like I don't say very much about these books in my rap because like I don't I don't feel like it's the kind of thing where I really can't say much more than I have because the plot itself you know it's it's a middle grade book with like whimsical adventure fantasy fun and like unless I'm going to like go into specifics about who the big bad is and like like very specific details about sort of like the friendships and the jokes and the quirks of magic because that's I mean it's a middle grade book so like it's not like there's a ton of layers to this it's not like there's multiple aspects to unpack it's just absolutely perfect for what it is like for a middle grade fantasy book that is for young children to begin to tackle some slightly tougher topics about about people and this one in particular um kind of tackles discrimination immigration that kind of thing and it does an amazing job of introducing those topics in a way that is comprehensible palatable and appropriate for the young audience that it's geared towards and can still be enjoyed by adults so I just find this author's writing and the characters and the world to be utterly charming and whimsical perfect age appropriate fun and that again as an adult I can also enjoy so I absolutely recommend this series I cannot recommend it highly enough if you're looking for a whimsical lovely middle grade story that either for your children or to enjoy with your children or to be an adult that has no children and just read it for shits and giggles anyway holofox excellent cannot wait for the fourth one but I must wait like an entire year next up I have a book that is part two of a duology that made my best book of the year and that is a radical act of free magic by hg perry I read declaration there at some traditions in november and knew immediately that I was going to be picking up radical act I do think that the declaration of rights was a smidge better than radical act when I gave both five stars I think the the way that it wraps up in this book like this the I talked about this quite a bit but if you don't know what I'm talking about or you have didn't hear me talking about it the declaration of the rights magicians and this book what is the series called the shadow histories it's a retelling or a reimagined an alternate history fantasy where we're it's the age of enlightenment but retold or reimagined where there is magic so it's about england and france and the colonies but with magic so you have characters from history william pit robes pierre willard brufours to son levarture they appear in these books but there is magic in this world and each of them either is encountering magic or as a wielder of magic or magic is a very real part of this world anyway I think that these books this duology is an absolute masterclass in how alternate history fantasy should be written so much care and attention is paid to the actual history that is being messed with but there's also the author has done a really good job of sort of developing the magic and you know weaving that into what actually happened in history while also writing uh even though these are historical figures writing them in a way that is compelling and that you can latch on to more so than a lot of fictional characters that are not people from history that I've read about again this one is also five stars I just think that the the wrap up how this is all kind of like how it winds down the big sort of climax I don't think it was bad but it was a little bit underwhelming I don't think it was like quite the like chef's kiss ending that I would have wanted but it was by no means bad I wasn't truly disappointed I was just like okay I was like that wasn't the best ending but like that was that was absolutely fine and I still think the book overall is amazing and continues like the project of these books is amazing overall so the duology as a whole absolutely recommended again if I had to choose between the two the first one is slightly better but the second one is also so good so if you're like a history nerd who likes a bit of magic thrown in and doesn't mind your books being a little bit more dry I love this duology cannot recommend it highly enough next up I read one of the two books that were our blades and bodyserper's books because we read two in December that's which marked my cl poll over the two we read this is one I liked better which I didn't like either very much but um I believe my co-hosts all liked the other one better one Amara I think pretty much agreed with me about which mark except that while we both agreed about which mark being kind of here then she put the other book here and I put the other book here so like we met in the middle on this one this was just like better to me than the other one so this is also alternate history it's a male male romance with this historical setting and magic and it didn't help that I read it like right after reading the shadow history because this kind of tries to use magic to tackle topics of like discrimination and um classism and that kind of thing but I just felt like this was such a pale imitation uh such a watered down version of what I had just seen done in the shadow histories and then obviously there's like more of a focus on romance here and I just thought the magic didn't make a whole lot of sense like unlike hg parry where like the history was so good and the magic was good here I was like the history is kind of loose and the magic is kind of loose and there's like an attempt tackling kind of like socioeconomic questions but like not really much like I just had seen all of these things done so much better in the shadow histories that reading this just felt like you know like just just no I felt like I don't know what a good comparison it felt like a store-bought cupcake after you've been to like a Parisian patisserie you're like it's like yeah it's it's sweet there was flour involved it is a dessert but like it's it's not the creme de la creme that is the other book that I had just read so like if you're not such a big history book if you want more romance in your books if you don't care to have like a huge amount of history and detail and like if you don't want all that if you are happy skimming the surface then this you'll probably like this better than I did but I don't like skimming the surface I never do so uh yeah like I don't I think I gave this three stars like it wasn't it wasn't bad I didn't hate it but I was like eh meh meh pretty forgettable next up I read the bind up um called era of navron which is in fact a bind up of two books that's where they split um books five and six in the uh riori revelations they are winter tide and preseplicus and this concludes the riori revelations and then after that comes well chronologically it comes before but in publication order what comes next is the riori chronicles and then again chronologically it's further back but in publication order is next is the legends of the birth empire I have all of those books I feel like riori revelations like I've been reading this series for like three years now four years um so like it's not been like pressing it's not something that I've like felt a desperate desire to continue on every time I read an installment I'm like hmm that was pretty good and then I'm like good and then our you know several months many months later I'll be like oh yeah I need to finish that series so I'll pick up another one I'll be like yeah that was fine and then I'll read the next one I'm like yeah that was fine this sounds like the least to be perfectly honest winter tide actually was like very seasonally appropriate which I didn't really realize I mean it's called winter tide but I mean it's like kind of about basically like Christmas time so I was like oh this is a good time for reading it but I also like for the most part I hate books like that like I've never I mean I also don't like romances but like it's usually romances that are kind of like a Christmas romance and I'm just like ew no I don't like this but like most books that are like you know it feels like the holiday episode or something so it's like kind of corny kind of kitschy and cheesy and it kind of felt like that and as you can see winter tide is considerably winter tide is considerably shorter than Persepolis because it kind of feels like the Christmas book I mean there's more going on obviously and it's developing the political situation I mean we're quite far into a series I can't say too much about it but without being spoilery because this is books five and six but so book six concludes through a re-revelation so like the mysteries that have been present since the beginning of the series the questions are finally answered and the thing is it's a it's kind of hard to pin down what the difference is between an ending that you pretty much saw coming but feel satisfying because you feel like it was like really set up and so like it's you're not disappointed because it didn't surprise you it just it feels like you end this yeah I mean like the end of Lord of the Rings which actually like that's also in here but the end of Lord of the Rings like I don't feel disappointed that like oh man like Frodo like destroying the ring saw that coming like you know you're just like well yes like that's where this was going and it's satisfying seeing it come to that conclusion but this book or the series I feel like it tries very hard to kind of like to throw red herrings out there and to try to make you to misdirect you but not very well but it's so obvious that the author desperately wants to misdirect you doesn't want you to guess the ending so that you will I guess that's the difference but like if a book if you get the sense from a book that it wants to surprise you versus a book that is quite content to just tell you the conclusion of this story and it is the conclusion that is comes naturally after what you've been told so far if that makes sense here I was like I've already guessed what this twist is and you're really dragging out this like misdirect even though and like it's like watching the misdirect just go on and on and on or I'm like I know this is a misdirect I know that I already know this and so we finally like and there it is the big revelation that I already guessed it just feels yeah so um and then it wasn't even something that I'm like well I guessed it but I mean it is pretty good like I don't think it's that good of a revelation or a twist uh or even that good like I feel like there's so much effort put into trying to misdirect you that it honestly like hurts a little bit the logic and continuity of the story because like some of it I'm like this doesn't really make sense for these characters to think and do the things they're doing like they have to be really they're they're such idiots to like not have guesses and then some of it is just too neat like it comes together way too neatly where not just like the big questions are answered but like a bunch of little things are answered in a way that it's just it feels very disney where I was like okay yeah yeah you did plant that and then pay it off but in a way that's so contrived where I'm like uh huh okay yeah I see what you did there wow I guess I guess that did foreshadow that um which I'm being really vague because like I can't really tell you what any of these things are but it's the kind of thing where like you know someone says uh a mysterious and enigmatic thing that's unclear and then the pay off where it later is like when you come to understand what that actually meant and like okay like I guess I guess it could mean that and I guess that can be why they said that but that's pretty stupid that kind of thing where yeah like to set it up in this way where someone had to have been like really like why why would they say it so unhelpfully with the like I guess with the hope and assumption that someday you would figure out what they meant in the exactly the right context for it and only in that context would you then look back on when they said that they must have meant this and it's it's just very contrived I'm sorry I just I was very irritated with it so yeah the ending was just it was very neat cookie cutter wrapping things up and and then and then after we've wrapped everything up it faffs around for pages and pages of pages of just kind of like falling action and what the characters are going to do now and you know what their lives you're going to be like and I'm like oh my god I don't fucking care is this over yet that said I fully intend to read the re-area chronicles which each installment is a lot shorter which gives me hope because part of this it just felt too long it was also his first he first wrote the revelations and I I mean most authors tend to get better with time so I am excited to read the re-area chronicles which is kind of like a prequel series um which should be showing us more just kind of like the heisty adventures of Hadrian and Royce which was kind of the best part of these books anyway and we spent a great deal of time with this kind of like big world stuff which was the part that I thought was the worst written and so I'm if the re-area chronicles is more just kind of like a venture of the week where it's like they're heist and escapades like I'm very much looking forward to that and then Legend of the First Empire is so way back in the day it's like a totally different project and I know just Shana adores that series and all of the beautiful hardcovers that I own are so great that like I'm determined to like it I will do a great deal of convincing myself that I like it until I give in and admit that I don't if I don't which by which I mean like it will be receiving the benefit of every doubt that I can possibly throw at it but yeah the ending of re-area revelations left a lot to be desired in my humble opinion next up I read The Burning God by RF Kwong and I um I've become aware that this book is extremely polarizing and that a ton of people love The Dragon Republic and hate The Burning God or they love The Burning God and they hated The Dragon Republic I don't understand why anyone would feel vastly differently about these two books I feel like I feel exactly the same way about both of them which is to say it's fine like I gave it four stars which is quite high and I gave four stars to Dragon Republic and I'm pretty sure I gave four stars to the Bobby Moore because of the reason I feel like the exact same thing that I had to say about Dragon Republic in my wrap up is what I have to say about The Burning God is that the project of this of tanking the parts of history and the parts of the world that are always drawing inspiration from and retelling it in this way with magic and it's a gender being in a component like I think the project of it is a good project and I think the execution of it is is thorough but I just feel like the writing itself the character's a very one note the whole thing is just kind of very oblique all the time it it doesn't it's not written in a way that for me is all that compelling for that reason because I'm not really latching onto these characters and again I don't mind reading about bad people in fact I prefer it so it's not like oh you know Rin's too unlikable it's not that she's unlikable she's just boring to me because all Rin is about is she's she's kind of like Tao from the what's it called um Rage of Dragons she's nothing like but insofar as like Tao is just kind of like one track mind that's it and I'm just like that's boring to read about same with Rin one track mind it's boring to read about and the whole thing is about Rin and that being said the characters around Rin they might have slightly different priorities and different interests and different goals and motivations than Rin but they are also very kind of like one track with what they are each doing and that's just not that interesting to me to read about like it's not bad they don't it doesn't read like uh they're not caricatures but there isn't like a great deal of nuance to unpack with either Rin or any of the side characters or any of their interactions and dynamics it's very kind of just exactly what you expect the whole time and they're like towards the end it does get a bit interesting but in a way that is utterly predictable and again in that way of like I don't I feel like you want me to be surprised by this and I'm not surprised by this I don't think that it's bad I think the way you've written things you've led me to assume that this is very much possible but it's just written in a way where like I feel like I'm expected to feel shocked and I just I can't get it up um so reading it I was just like yeah just love the dragon republic I was like it's it's fine I just it's difficult for me to feel anything about this other than like you've done a a very commendable job or a qualm but I I feel nothing uh so yeah I I would love to love this but I I just can't manage that for the aforementioned reasons so I don't understand why anyone feels vastly differently about dragon republic and burning god but I don't know apparently they do so next up I read a book that would have gone on my worst books of the year had I read it before I filmed that I don't know which one it would have bumped off the list or maybe it would have been a list of 11 I don't know but um Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore that's it no more I keep getting these books from Book of the Month by Evie Dunmore and I have liked each one less so that's no more I've finally finally learned my lesson I just this these are all like uh suffragette romances so they're all like historical romances where each of the ladies is kind of like part of the suffragette movement they're all kind of blue stockings and the first book I thought that one I'd enjoyed uh at the beginning I didn't think it was amazing but I was like having a good time because I thought the banter was pretty good it was kind of cute and kind of funny and then there was this like horrible questionable consent and I was like no no and so then I was willing since I liked it pretty well to start out with and that was her debut novel I was like well I'll read the next one because it doesn't won't necessarily have the same consent issue and like she'll have grown as a writer the second one was just kind of boring to me it was like it was perfectly adequate but I didn't feel any kind of way about it in a romance you were supposed to feel many kinds of ways and I just felt kind of nothing about it and this one kind of like what I talked about with Witchmark where it's like attempting to tackle some like heavier topics but in a way that's kind of like because the purpose of a romance book like the thing you're here for is romance and so it is necessarily the focal point must be the focal point of what the author wants you to care about that's the thing that has to be kind of like driving the tension and driving the stakes in the climax except then you're trying to use some much more serious things about like socioeconomic disadvantages and problems etc as your backdrop and so they necessarily have to take a backseat to the much pettier concerns of the romance which just feels weird and almost insulting to those topics where I'm like I guess I get the credit goes to you for wanting to tackle those topics but I'm just like this is this isn't the time or place because to actually address those things in a meaningful way you would have to make them more important and they would necessarily overshadow and overtake any kind of like petty concerns of romance or it would turn into a much more serious dramatic possibly tragic story in which case it cannot be shelved in romance because romance has to have a happy ending that's like part of the deal and so like I feel like this is just not not the place to do it I don't I don't know I maybe you could but this isn't it because it makes it feel like it's worse you know what I mean like every historical romance is definitely going to be kind of waving away and kind of glossing over some of the uglier sides of this historical time period because you're not going to have fun with like an escapist little romance if you actually depict the time period the way that it really was and the way that people's lives really are no one wants this and so by bringing in these more serious topics it's like you're pulling the curtain back from our fun little show to be like oh but it's you know it's actually like really ugly back there we're not really going to talk about it we're going to focus on this like fluffy romance and you're like but but I can't enjoy this when you're showing me that and then being like but also like that's not as important as the romance and then the romance itself was terrible and we were back to having not so much consent issues like not specifically consent but just like a problematic romance again where I was like it's very hard to root for this because like it's kind of reprehensible the behavior particularly the male lead where I'm like that's not okay and then the book tries to address that in a very last minute or like 11th hour kind of climactic twist where it's like too little too late especially after like socioeconomic things and how those were handled and then this like too little too late addressing of the major tension of the romance or I'm like what and the biggest red flag of them all is how often this book references Wuthering Heights as idealized romance and any author that either I am aware of because they have spoken about this themselves or it literally writes it into the text that it is referring to Wuthering Heights as an ideal romance I'm like no no no I thought no no no no no Wuthering Heights classic book excellent book can be referenced can be quoted is it's good literature but when it's referred to as like that's how romance should be isn't that romantic or like having the the romantic leads kind of like either identify parallels or seek to draw parallels between their lives positively between themselves and Heathwood and Kathy I'm like like unless it's a story about fucked up people being fucked up and you're meant to think it's fucked up this is a story about like a romance you're meant to root for that you think it's great and it's meant to like you're meant to see a parallel between Wuthering Heights and it like no no so yeah um maybe done more I don't think she's the one for me for all those reasons next up I read the fifth and final book in the Chronicles of Prudain the High King by Lloyd Alexander and I this is probably my least favorite I still really liked it and I still really like the Chronicles of Prudain I felt slightly about this the way that I felt about Perseplicus in the Reiria revelations but not nearly as bad because this doesn't go out of its way to kind of misdirect this very much feel is at all times kind of more that Lord of the Rings style where like this is very classic kind of fantasy logic fairy tale logic you know it's a hero's quest and you know the hero will prevail and the hero will learn lessons and the hero's companions will learn lessons and like it's very traditional in that sense and so having the end be quite traditional is also not is neither unexpected nor unearned like this is what we're kind of set up to expect but the end just felt a little bit too neat and predictable and I can't really put a finger on why because again something like Lord of the Rings I'm like yeah like that's exactly where that was going all along and it went there and yeah uh this I don't know the way it wrapped up it just felt a little bit too too neat it's really the only word I can use for it I still give it four stars I still think it's really good and again it's been it's appropriate for it to be a neat ending it was just too neat I don't know how to say it and I don't really know how to adequately explain even if I was to go into spoilers how it could have done things differently to better satisfy me I don't know I just know that that's how I felt when I got to the end where I was like okay yeah like that's that's a little bit neat um so yeah I mean I can still really like the Chronicles of Pridane absolutely recommend and the journey was apparently a little bit better than the destination a little little way of Kings Easter egg there for you but uh yeah still worthy of reading still a fun time still a lovely little world to be in still wonderful creaky characters just just a bit a bit cookie cutter and a bit I guess a bit saccharine is also the my problem with it and with the ending anyway still good definitely still good next up I read A Marvelous Light by Freya Morsky this is the other play than Vodas Ripper's book club pick which as I already alluded to I disliked quite strongly um this was a mess this was sort of pitched as being John the train to mr. Norrell meets red white and world blue because it is a historical fiction book with romance and with magic so I it is definitely a straight up romance I mean it doesn't have magic in it but the comparison to John string Jonathan stranger mr. Orrell led me to believe that it would be more more straddling that line between romance and fiction where obviously there's gonna be a strong romantic current but that it won't be a romance novel and it's published by tour.com not by a romance imprint but this is a romance book which if I had known that I wouldn't have been excited for it suggested it or hyped it or or uh encourage the ladies to choose a dream I thought it'd be good because I thought it would have romance in it so like so they'd like that and I could I could be fine with that um but that wouldn't be the whole point of the book and that is the whole point of the book and then we're still I didn't like either of the romantic leads and I didn't think I didn't like them individually and I didn't think they had very good chemistry the magic was a shit show I was so angry with the magic system because it made no sense and it kept trying to make extra sense it went out of his way to explain itself to you to the point where I was like you're making it worse stop digging stop digging the hole and I just was so frustrated the entire time and then the historicalness of it was it was it was often wrong like the prose was bad because there was often sentences where I was like that's being correct that's no that sentence is no that's no so I was just pretty deeply aggravated by this the entire time and there was like no part of it where I was like but at least this there was no at least anything the whole thing I was just like I cannot wait for this to be over so yeah that's that's a real quick note from me um but if you want to see more glowing opinions everybody else uh in Blades and Vata Serpers really liked this and liked it they liked both and they liked this way more than witchcraft I don't claim to understand but if you want to see us talk about it I'll leave a link down below the live show where we chatted about it and uh they all liked it and I hated it per the usual. Next up I read The Clockwork Sparrow by Catherine Woodfine um this is a middle grade mystery um this is a middle grade series of mysteries that are set in sort of like the og glamorous department store of Edwardian England and it's just it was so cute I really really really enjoyed this it kind of I've never watched these shows but it kind of you know has the vibe of like the paradise or cell fridges because it's this you know glamorous old department store the main character she works at the department store but you know there's the furious goings on in the department store there's a mystery that she gets all kind of like swept up in and it's possibly is a wrongfully you know a suspect in what has gone on so she's you know got to solve it herself to get herself out of trouble and just the atmosphere and the vibes and the attention to historical detail as I was reading this this is middle grade historical fiction and I was like why does this history feel so much better and more well researched and more authentic than these adult novels that I've been reading so I do definitely recommend this as like a nice fun light mystery historical mystery like it's for kids so it's not like an incredibly complex layered mystery but it's a good little mystery and um it's got some quirky nice characters to follow that I feel like you can root for very quickly it's a fun environment to escape into and um I just had a good time and I definitely intend to read the other mysteries in this series. Next up I read The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien the third and final book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I know that this is Klaus's favorite and I will say this is definitely my favorite experience of the three full disclosure this is the only one that I listened to Andy Circus read because Andy Circus recorded new audiobooks for the whole trilogy but those either either I wasn't aware they weren't out yet when I did when I read the first two books so this one was the only one that I've experienced via Andy Circus reading it to me which is an absolute treat I cannot recommend that highly enough but that being said I can I'm not entirely confident that I or I don't feel I don't feel like I can tell if I would think this was my favorite if Andy Circus hadn't read it for me like I don't know if that's the difference you know if that makes sense like maybe if I went back and listened to Andy Circus reading the first two I'd be like oh they're all just as good as Return of the King uh it's really just Andy Circus reading it that makes it amazing or it's Return of the King is my favorite and Andy Circus is just a great way to experience it I honestly cannot tell I think that at the very least I would like this like just as much maybe slightly more than the first two if it wasn't for the Andy Circus variable but Andy Circus reading the Return of the King was I mean I was excited for it and I figured it would be good but oh my god it was so good he was born for this I I mean I fully intend to go back and listen to Andy Circus reading Fellowship and Two Towers and also The Hobbit because you know May as well so so good yeah so if you're looking to reread it or you read it for the first time and you're into audio I even if you're not into audio you will be into audio if you listen to Andy Circus it's impossible not to and there were multiple times when I was listening to it that I teared up and uh it was it was great five out of five stars no question about it again in part some of that credit it might go to Andy Circus and not dare our Tolkien but I had an absolutely amazing time reading this it was it was beautiful it was emotional it was Chef's kiss and like I'm really kind of relieved because having read the first two I was like I am a huge fan of like Lord of the Rings but if I'm honest a lot of it is that I'm a huge huge fan of the movies and that I've been enjoying the books but it's the movies that have my whole heart and reading The Return of the King we're listening to Andy Circus read The Return of the King I was like oh now I don't feel like a fake fan anymore because Return of the King as a book as read by Andy Circus I am here for it blown away ready to hype it so again I don't know how much credit is is to Andy Circus but I loved this and I love that I love this and yeah uh yeah that's all I have to say about that next up I read Christmas Carol or Charles Dickens which I'd never read before I have seen several adaptations of it on film and I've seen it as a stage play but I've never actually read the original story and I mean most adaptations including the stage play pulled directly from the book like a lot of it like reading the actual book now it felt like I've read it before because you know a lot of the text either like is narrated like actual like what Dickens's words like not like not dialogue but the narration of the book is narrated by a narrator in voice in adaptations of it uh and then obviously like famous lines from the characters themselves like it feels very much like I had read this before even though I hadn't um but anyway I mean it's a lovely little story that is you know tis the season to read it there's a reason it's a classic I feel like it still stands the test of time it had me kind of choking up at the sort of like overall even though you know it's just kind of like saccharine little story and you know if you've I've seen it before and even if you haven't you could probably guess where it's gonna go with a big message and meaning of everything will be but even if you know where it's going it's kind of like I mean I knew where Return of the King was going and I still got emotional about it so even though I knew where Christmas Carol was going and exactly what beats would occur to get us there I still felt like emotional because it's like it's good it's it does its job very well so uh yeah I mean you can read it in January but I would say if you haven't read it then you know next Christmas you know try reading the original next up I read The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb which I buddy read with Mara from books like well I need to film a review for this because it is traditional on my channel to review Robin Hobb books every January now and Mara and I have absolutely been adoring the Liveship Trader series and Mad Ship is no exception Mad Ship is amazing it's Mara and I was we're talking about it at length there's so much to pick apart with it a lot of it is quite spoilery like what we were picking apart it was like specific moments and specific character choices and character lines and like what do we think that means or what do we think that says about the character but there's like so many layers to this you just jam I mean it's a long book for sure but even it is even like even I don't know like it it still packs a punch like usually I would say that about a short book but like it's short but it packs a bunch this is long and it's packing so many punches because it never feels like it overstays its welcome it never feels like this is just kind of like filler to have a long book like it every page is just like dripping and drenched with depth and character development and plot development and lore development and it's just Robin Hobb man I wow just wow so I'm very much looking forward to reading the third and final book in the Liveship Trader series which Mara and I will be tackling in February the Ship of Destiny and um and yeah I just I cannot say enough good things about Robin Hobb next up I read A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin which is the book in the Song of Ice and Fire series as myself Alex from AlexMiaVeis and Jimmy from the Fantasy Network are hosting a read along to the Song of Ice and Fire so we talked about A Storm of Swords on Jimmy's channel where we were joined by special guest Jim R. R. Martin full weird and overalls uh so if you didn't catch that live that is the replay of it is available on Jimmy's channel um Storm of Swords man there were so many things in this book that all of us were like oh my god yeah that happens in this book too and that and that and that oh my god everything that you think of about Game of Thrones and about A Song of Ice and Fire all the iconic moments nearly not not all but nearly all the iconic moments are in Storm of Swords like talk about packing a punch oh my goodness this is also the first book that you finally get for chapters from Jamie's perspective and he's my favorite character so like reading this book I'm like ah Jamie yes it's time so I feel like that automatically elevates this book in my estimation because like we finally get Jamie some quality time with him you such a fascinating character yeah uh yeah this is the what a ride there's I think I know I believe this is Jimmy's favorite book of all time and I mean I could safely say this is my favorite book in the song of ice and fire perhaps the winds of winter will dethrone it but you know we'll see when we get there but yeah um it's been again an amazing experience rereading these books I feel like this the room that has been given to breathe kind of between having read the books ages ago having seen the show quite some time now ago now coming back to the books kind of uh having had a little bit more room to breathe and kind of like set aside and rest those kind of hot emotions about the show etc to kind of come back to this and be like okay well it kind of like let's see where this all started and like you know what it's it's really really good and it's the kind of books that really do reward a reread they're not the kind of books we're like well you can't really understand it until you reread it because I hate those kind of books but they're the kind of books that they do rereading it is very very rewarding because you will catch things that you didn't see before there are things it's not that you can't understand the whole of the book the first time but there are individual things that you can't really have guessed or fully understood the first time through so like those things you're like oh and like yeah like I didn't really know what that meant the first time but well now I surely do so I'm having a great time I believe Alex and Jimmy are as well so I'm glad we're doing this next up I read half a war by Joanne Bercronby this is the third and final book in the shattered sea and I don't like the shattered sea very much I was really hoping that the third book might be the one that makes me go actually but I gave every book in the series three stars like none of it is bad none of it is badly written none of it is badly executed it's just completely adequate and which is so painful to me when it's from Joanne Bercronby because I just expect great things and there are so many things in these books that I just feel like are the seeds for a truly great story that Joanne Bercronby had he chosen to not pull his punches and to truly flesh out like if the I think it was that this is YA or that he was gearing this towards a YA audience that made him think that he had to really simplify and strip things down and and make things it's still dark and violent but like a lot less so and I feel like he didn't just make it less violent he just made everybody more boring and I was like you can still have intricate interesting characters like you can still do that and I just there the one character that I feel like did get progressively interesting with each book progressively more interesting with each book was Yarvie he's the main character in the first book and then the second and third books they each kind of follow different protagonists in the same world with following up on the events of the previous book but now centering different people and Yarvie's always around in these books he just becomes so much more interesting and enigmatic as a character kind of like off not even to the side he's still a prominent character but he's not the POV character not the main character and I did enjoy watching him grow as a character and become more interesting as we went on but it was the it was like the only part of it it wasn't like in any other Abercrombie book Yarvie would be like the most forgettable one here he was the most interesting one which is just like it's very disappointing so if you're interested in reading the shadow to see I wouldn't say like don't read it but like don't start here if you've heard a lot of things about Abercrombie this this is this is not the Abercrombie that you've heard about this is fine it's fine it's certainly better than a lot of YA that I've read but it's nowhere near as good as the other Abercrombie that I've read. Second to last I read The Bear and the Nightingale reread The Bear and the Nightingale by Catherine Arden because it was both the buddy read for me and my patrons and also Evie is hosting a read-along for these books so this time I did it on audio which zero out of ten did not recommend I had read it twice before as a physical book so my five-star love for it was locked in had I not already read it before and read it twice before this audiobook would very easily have convinced me that I hate this book don't listen to the audiobook if you love the audiobook I'm sorry you're wrong it's bad but the book itself like I was able to because I was familiar enough with it having read it before that I could I could kind of like get my brain just try to try to ignore the narrator and just kind of like get back to my memories of the story and replace her interpretation with like the real core of it and like I feel like the beauty of the writing is utterly lost when the narrator is reading it it's it's insane how bad she can make such a good book sound but this is an amazing book I love it so much it's one of my favorite in the series girl in the tower but the first one is also five and five stars and a really good start to the series actually just have my chat with my patrons about it today all of us were kind of gushing about it and all the things that did so right and so well and so much better than so many other books we've seen attempt these things and execute them badly it is so lush and atmospheric and full brimming with folklore and vibes and it's so good it's so good and last I read master of jinn by pdjley clark this was the book that my patrons chose for me to vlog and review for them and I was quite disappointed with this um I talked about it at length obviously in that vlog so I used to say I just feel like this was executed very sloppily that was like the main thing I kept saying over and over there was other problems I had with it but the main thing I kept saying was like this just feels very sloppy and feels very rushed and careless um there's a lot of mistakes in the pros there's a lot of mistakes in in like choice of words it just it feels very try hard about things it's very rushed the kind of misdirects it tries to do with the mystery are again sloppy and so I I really wanted to love this this book and this world but I just feel like the author kind of like doesn't let you marinate in any of it doesn't let you marinate in the characters in the world in the lore in the mystery it keeps rushing from thing to thing to thing and honest this book reads like a video game which is not a compliment so yeah it I was very very let down but the concept is cool there were parts like individual moments in it where I was like I'm kind of enjoying that that was kind of fun that was kind of interesting but overall I just feel like yeah I feel like the the concept is cool but and if this was like a first draft I'd be like you've got something here but you really need to work on it um but as a final product no so those are all the books that I read in December let me know the comments down below your thoughts and feelings about my thoughts and feelings whatever you want to let me know I post videos on saturdays other end of time as well but I'll see saturdays so like and subscribe join my patreon if you feel so inclined well see you when I see you bye