 Hey guys, it's Julia and welcome back to my channel, and for today's video I'm going to be doing the mid-year book freakout tag. So basically in this video I'm going to be talking about some of the books that I like this year, some that I thought were disappointing, some new releases I'm excited for, and also some books I want to get to in the second half of the year. So I'll link the creators of this tag in the description box below. It's a pretty old tag, so yeah, I think I did it in 2015 as well. Before we get into this video I want to let you guys know about a company that I'm working with, and I partnered with Anna-Louisa Jewelry, and they sent me this beautiful necklace and these earrings, I'll give close-ups of course, but they are these beautiful little sun, like moon kind of burst earrings, and they're so cute and I'm so glad that they reached out to me and I looked over their site and they had so many beautiful pieces and things that I really like. I also got a jewelry piece that has the sapphire burst stone on it, so I thought that was perfect, and yeah, so I got three pieces from them. They are a sustainable jewelry brand. I also reached out to them and confirmed their stance on the Black Lives Matter movement to ensure that I'm supporting and promoting companies that have similar values and beliefs that I do. As a company they've donated to multiple charities and things like that, so I'm super happy to hear that. To know that the stuff that I'm promoting has a message to it and isn't just, you know, a jewelry brand that's super cheap, but it's a high quality jewelry brand. They, all the pieces are $39 and over, so it's still affordable and I'm super excited to be working with them, so thank you so much to Ana Luisa for working with me on this video. I'm gonna have a discount code down below for you guys. It's gonna be Julia S10 and that will get you 10% off your order if you want to check out their site or any of that, so I'll also have that link down below for you guys. Aside from that, let's jump into the video. Question is best book you've read so far this year. First, if I have all boys aren't blue, this was a phenomenal read and I would highly recommend it. It's a memoir about a black gay man and his experiences just growing up, sex, race, and about the challenges that he faces along the way. It's a phenomenal read. I can't even hide this up enough and yeah, everyone who's hyping it and talking about it highly, it so so deserves it in my opinion and I definitely check it out if I were you. They have, there's an audiobook for it and audiobooks great. It's read by the author, so definitely if you are looking to read by more black authors or anything like that, definitely check out his book. Next up here, I have The How and the Why by Cynthia Hand. This book was so so good and I so I just loved it. It deals with adoption and family and it's it's a thicker for a contemporary but it's so amazing. I really love just how this explored so many topics and I could gush about this book but not gonna but but this book is about a girl named Cass who was adopted and years later she's trying to reconnect with her birth mother and figure out all these missing pieces to her life so it's a really good read. I would highly recommend it. Along with that I also have a book I just finished which is You Should See Me in a Crown and this one was phenomenal. I just listened to the audiobook recently. I thought it was great and it's about this girl and it's a really fun light story in a way, just about her running for prom queen, the complications that come with that, the romances that go with that and all that kind of thing. So it's a super fun read and it it was really nice to just see a book about black joy instead of just tragedy that occurs in those books. So it was pretty nice and I would highly recommend it. The next question is the best sequel you've read this year and the only sequel I've read is sweet cheese food adventures and this is volume three but this is just a really cute little manga series about a cat named Chi and his little adventures and it's super cute and in this one there's like other cats in it and it's all about his journey and it's adorable. It's in color and it's just honestly so cute and they always bring me so much joy when I read them. So the question is a new release that you haven't got to yet. There's a few of them for sure. Like imagine me escaping from Houdini, not escaping from Houdini, I read that capturing the devil, gold for new releases anyways and also clap when you land by Elizabeth Hassovedo. I'm hoping to read this one this week so yeah it's studying if you didn't see my last video just look at... beautiful. I don't know too much about it but I love her other stuff so I'm super excited to read this one and check this one out. Next is most anticipated release so for me this is the Tea Dragon tapestry. This is the third graphic novel in the Tea Dragon Society series. Is that what it's called? I don't know but I read the Tea Dragon Society a year ago and I loved it and I really love the second one as well so I'm super excited for the third one to come out and yeah I might try to request an arc of that because that would be amazing. Next is biggest disappointment so for this I just have The Truth About Magic by Atticus. This was just a collection that I was disappointed in and previously I've really liked this author's collections so this one was just kind of like my least favorite or at least one of my least favorites, at least one of my least favorites. Kisses first to work, Love Her Wild was probably the best so definitely check that one out if you're interested in like poetry by this author but I was just not impressed with The Truth About Magic. The biggest surprise so far has been Sailor Moon. Shockingly this was just a huge surprise for me. I didn't think I would end up enjoying this as much as I did and I just really enjoyed my experience reading it and it was so fun. It's not like my favorite read ever but it was just a super fun manga series and I'm just it surprised me. Surprised me. So hopefully I'll pick up the next few volumes of this when like Mongos on sale or something like that. Fave new author I put on George M. Johnson as he's the author of Boys Aren't Blue and I just thought his book was phenomenal so I'm super excited for more work by him or Fever Leases anything else. I'm just really excited to read it, pick it up. Next is Fictional Crush. You know Fictional Crush. I don't really have any so this is your favorite character and again this I was just like I don't know. I could say Kass from The How and the Why. The main character in Aquacorn Cove I really like that main character so those I guess are some of my favorite characters so far. A book that made me cry. I haven't cried ever from a book at least. All Boys Aren't Blue in this category and The How and the Why because they were both just emotional reads for sure. A book that made me happy would probably be Aphrodite Made Me Do It by Trista Mature. This one is a kind of feminist mythological poetry collection and it's it's well written and I just think a lot of the poems just take us to home for me and I just resonated with a lot of them. It just made me really happy reading it and usually I have I feel better when I read poetry so. A book to film adaptation stuff I've not seen any I don't think so I don't have an answer for that one. Next is like your favorite video that you've made so far this year. For me it'd probably have to be my recommending books based off of metal songs. I just really enjoyed making that video and a lot of you guys seem to enjoy it. I also love the comment section on that video it's just full of people recommending songs and like being like oh my god you like that band too and I thought I was really key so I'd love to do like a part two of that if you guys are interested maybe I'll put a poll up in the corner but yeah that was my favorite video and I just think like I like the way I edit it. I feel like I presented myself decent and all that stuff so I really liked that video and yeah it was just one that was really fun for me to film. It's the most beautiful book that you bought so again I could clap when you land. Wait wait for it. Wait for it. Boom. Beautiful. Volumes one and two of Heartstopper. Beautiful and so happy to have these right now. Volume three is coming in the mail but I hope it shows up soon. The poppy where I just got based off of Jesse's recommendation and yeah I'm super excited for this it's a high fantasy I heard it's really brutal so that's why I want to pick it up and yeah Jesse from both types of books just convinced me to buy it like a while ago so I was just like okay and it finally arrived from Book Depository. I also just think the cover is absolutely gorgeous so yeah hopefully I'll get around to this one. I should do like a weird little fantasy read read along or read reading vlog or something because I don't read fantasy that often. Next is books to read before the end of the year so there there's so many that I could say but I'll just throw up some be not far from me by many beginners this is a survival story. I'm excited to pick this one up, read a book by her before and really liked it. Tyler Johnson was here, another beautiful book but this one deals with police brutality, followed Blackman character so I really want to read this one. A boy named Marvin whose twin brother was killed by police so we follow that story and yeah I want to do a reread of the first two of these because I've read these two and then read the third one for the first time so I want to really do that like a little video on that or something I think that'd be really fun. That is all for this tag. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Let me know your favorite book that you read so far this year. I haven't read that many. I think I'm only like 17 which for me isn't that great. Oh that's so many books that you used to read in a month but I don't know I'm not gonna be bitter about it. 2020 has been an unexpected year for sure so yeah but let me know your favorite book that you read so far this year or any books that you enjoyed. Again thank you to Anna Luisa for working with me on this video. I will have my discount code and a link for you guys in the description box and also in the comment section down below. Thank you guys so so much for watching this video. If you liked it give it a thumbs up and subscribe down below. I will have all my social medias in the description box and my Goodreads and all of that stuff if you want to check any of that out. I will have multiple links down below for ways that you can help with the Black Lives Matter movement. It takes only a few minutes to assign petitions and to do some research and all that stuff. It doesn't take too too long so definitely if you're able to and like if you have a little bit of time it's not that difficult so I'll have those linked down below for you guys but thank you so so much for watching and I'll see you super soon. Bye!