 It's cars are loud Hey fellow reading warriors and welcome to today's video as you may have noticed we are in a completely different location That's because we are in a Tent-like structure It's my reading vlog where I'm going camping Doing this weekend camping trip with my family Literally for the past almost two months This is an annual camping trip that we go on every Memorial weekend We drove back home to Michigan to be with their family. It's very exciting The book that I planned on reading during this camping trip Was the Stars in April by Peggy were go and I thought this would be a great camping trip Book because it is short so it leaves me plenty of time to still play games with my family but it also it's a historical fiction about a Titanic survivor and Being by Lake Michigan, you know, I just kind of thought water Plus I've been really wanting to Read a historical fiction for quite a while and this is faith of this true story of Ruth Becker But the thing is is that I haven't finished my current read so like I will prioritize this first I was just like a weekend reading this book, but I am hoping to finish it because it's like 227 pages and it's a fast read So I'm hoping that'll still leave me time for my current read which is homegoing by Yagiasi and I am a hundred page into this book and it's also 300 pages Again, it's a short book except that it's very dense. So it's kind of slower Then I was hoping but that's it's also not slow-paced, which is promising Also, my aunt has read this book and she's actually reading Yagiasi's other book Translucent Kingdom, so I'm really excited to continue talking with her about this author But I will catch up with you guys when I do something interesting or have started reading The stars in April and so So it is Saturday morning. We just finished breakfast I didn't do an update last night because I did go to bed quite late That's kind of what we do in camping but I hope you're enjoying some of the montage clips of Me reading as well as games. I honestly might have more montage clips of playing games just because a it's hard to film while Camping there's no place to set your phone to fill me reading but be Pretty much all we do when we go camping is play games We don't do much else and as you can tell it's cold so we're not really going to the beach or Like doing any of the summer camping things. So we're it's supposed to warm up today So hopefully won't be as bad as it was yesterday. It's freezing But I did read the first 50 pages of the stars in April and I'm enjoying it so far I feel like the main character very much has to fill the shoes of She's a child, but she has to help her mom out So she kind of has to take a mature role, but she doesn't always fulfill that role Just like because she's a child, which is totally fair The writing is beautiful. Yeah, it's simplistic so you can just like fly through it and it makes you feel good And yeah, I definitely see there's a lot of room for growth for the character and I am very much just kind of anticipating Their journey on the Titanic as the starts with them on the train getting to the boat to get them to the Titanic so there's a lot of like build-up to it and so The build-up is not too bad. It is going pretty quickly But I am really just anticipating and excited for what it's actually like for her on the Titanic And if the ending is going to be like her being saved from the Titanic or like Where that's gonna be pretty sure there's an epilogue. So that'll be good But yeah, I just wanted to give you guys an update. It is Saturday morning We will be here for another for today Sunday, and then we were planning on leaving Monday morning We might leave Sunday night just depending but Yeah, I am hoping to finish this I don't want to jinx it, but I would love to finish this today and then get some reading of my current read of homegoing Happening Also because my aunt is here and she has read it so I would love to discuss it with her a little bit But still my priority is the stars in April so I'm hoping I can read this fairly quickly So I can keep talking with my aunt and yep my hair is My hair is my hair if we're camping. So, you know, we're just gonna deal with it But I'll catch you guys up later when I have read some stuff Yes, I think that's right My baby Olivia You had a lot. It's your tummy full of eminence Roar Alrighty it is about midday and I have been reading not as much as I wanted to but like I also figured that that was gonna happen You know, I sit here. I'm like, oh, I want to read and then I play a game instead But I am almost a hundred pages into the stars in April and it's a shorter book. It's only like 230 pages. So like Under halfway I am enjoying it. I It's like I'll notice some small little thing and then I'll forget about it I'll be like, oh, I want to talk about that and then it's just gone. I'm enjoying it I kind of it's very interesting how like the stars are a prominent theme, but then like they're Only a prominent theme at the end of the chapters and not so much in them But I think this beginning part of them not being on the Titanic But being on other boat is starting to take up more space in the book than I thought it was So I think I'm just gonna have to keep reading before I decide if I actually liked the pacing of this book or not So Yeah, that's my midday update. I Hopefully will update you again before the end of the day, but I'm not making that promise Time to report. I did not finish the stars in April quite yet. I am over halfway I have less than a hundred pages left Again, if I can just sit down and read for even just like an hour. I expect to have this done I know the lighting is terrible. I'm so sorry. I'm in the camper. It's warm in here But I sleep in a tent so I don't get to be in the warm camper But I am still enjoying it so far. There are a couple of things that kind of threw me off Just like I would read a line and be like I Feel like that's just not quite right or it doesn't match my own experience with things I have in common with some of these characters and I'll go more into depth at the end of it But yeah, it is midnight on Saturday. So It's kind of it's almost Sunday, which is going to hopefully be the last day I have to do this But we've also got a lot planned for tomorrow. So we'll just have to see Okay. Hi. So it is now Tuesday morning and as you can tell I'm not camping anymore. I did finish The stars in April by Peggy Wargo. I finished this Late Sunday night and so there wasn't good lighting to film and I was tired And then we spent all of Monday driving back to Minnesota driving back home, which was a good like 10 hour drive So I just I didn't have time to film and I really did not I was really tired last night So I'm filming the ending to this now So and I wish I had more clips of some of the fun games and activities we did while camping But every time I brought out my phone to film it would die Because my phone was consistently looking for service and there was none at the campground Even if I like turned even if I put it on airplane mode. It just it refused to not die on me, so Hopefully this vlog wasn't too dry, but I am gonna talk about this book now So I rated this four out of five stars. I I enjoyed it I kind of had that feeling where it's like I was I was kind of getting through the half of the book Even almost like two-thirds and I was like, this is a three-star book But then that ending kind of slipped my whole perspective around and that's what made it a four-star book So it was very obvious that the author did a lot of research for this There were just little elements where I was like, oh, I never would have thought about that But yeah, because it's a different time period that is different and it was very well thought out very well put together especially in the fashion so Peggy Wargo did a lot of description of what the main character Ruth was wearing and Some other lady passengers who were very fashionable And so I thought that was a really fun cool element to just kind of expand on but that's because that's another personal interest of mine ever so slightly But yeah, so also description of this book this follows This is told from the perspective of Ruth Becker who is like a 12 year old child I believe and her parents are from the United States, but they were missionaries in India They ran an orphanage in India and so Ruth was born and raised there as were her younger siblings But her youngest sibling her baby brother has gone very ill And so none of the doctors in India can help them So they have to go back to America and they're going to go to Michigan That's where I'm from Michigan yay And they're gonna live with their grandparents in Michigan and hope that the American doctors can help his condition And so they get on a train to get to a port where they get on a boat to take them to England And then from that port in England, they get on the Titanic So we all kind of know how this ends, but it is based off of the true story So you again, you know how it ends vaguely You know that the Titanic goes down on our maiden voyage, but you also know that Ruth is going to survive because How else would we have this story? And if you are interested in this book, I actually posted the trailer for it on my channel and I'll have it linked down below You can watch the trailer you might recognize my voice as the voice of Ruth Becker And fun fact my husband is voicing the narrator So that's that was a really fun thing for us to do, but if you want more information go right on ahead and Click it in the description below and watch it Also fun fact there are photos in the back of the printed book and some of them do appear in the Book trailer as well. They're of different like characters and different rooms on the ships So that when you get a description you can go back and see the photo and actually understand what's being described Which is really fun and really cool. The main character Ruth. She definitely drew. I Personally have never really been a big fan of books where the main character is more of a child So like to kill a mockingbird lovely story Not a fan of the nary Just because it's a child I not that I don't handle children well It's that I just I have a harder time reading from a child's perspective Because they are a child, you know, I like having more grown up more mature narrators rather than like Children, but Ruth obviously did a lot of growing up on this journey. And so I got to enjoy her More than I thought I would like she definitely was a character that grew on me But I still feel like there was a little bit of telling rather than showing in the book in terms of how much she grew up Like obviously we see through her actions how she became more mature But I still think just the amount that she reflects And she talks just kind of seemed A little too mature and it was a little too telling Um, and especially because she asked all the suspenseful questions all the time Um, like it would be like, oh, is this going to be okay? And she would be like asking three questions every chapter that are like full of suspense And it was like fine a little bit because like yeah, those are the questions that I'm asking But it got to be kind of repetitive In asking the suspenseful questions like I get it Let's keep going with the story I also felt that um So they because they were on two different boats There was a lot of exploring the ships, which makes perfect sense. You know, that's what children do That's what I would do if I went on the big ship. I would explore But again, it still felt kind of a little repetitive of like you explore you explore you eat dinner You explore you get on the next boat You explore you eat dinner It did seem just kind of repetitive in those actions But I did enjoy a lot of the characters that we met on these boats and they kind of helped to break up the repetitive action So like having the gossip between the three ladies and the two acrobats was fun or like meaning Ann and her family who were from Ireland like they kind of helped Break up a little bit of the repetitiveness Of the actions in the book. And so that was something that was really nice I felt like at the at the beginning or when I was reaching halfway I was like so much of this book is leading up to the titanic and not actually On or about the titanic and it kind of irritated me until we actually got to the titanic Um, because when we got there everything just happened so quickly, which at first I was like, um, That's kind of the point of the book. I wish it was drawn out more, but then but then I grew to appreciate it because I was like, well, of course, it's happening quickly That's how it felt to the characters that everything was happening so fast You know, you got to rush up to the deck and you get your blanket and you you get on a boat like it just It made sense that it happened so quickly after I had read it So by the time I reached the end of the book I reflected and looked back and I kind of had my Perception change where I was like this book is not about the titanic. It's about Ruth's journey to America it's about her Getting on a train getting on a boat and then ending on the titanic It's about that journey rather than the titanic itself So I grew to appreciate more the pacing of the book and what the characters went through and kind of just how much time was spent in each section of the book and so And of course the ending made me want to cry I didn't actually cry but that's because I I never cry for like books or movies But I can definitely see like my mom reading this and crying or like my aunt reading this and crying like I think that this would be a good book to pick up If you have a prompt from like a read-a-thon or something That's like a book that will make you cry or a book that will make you very emotional Give this a shot because this will make you cry most likely it kind of got to a point where I was like, okay because of The journey that this book took me on where I wasn't liking it at first But then I liked it a lot And now I kind of want to reread it and I don't really reread books all that often But I'd be very willing to reread this one and it almost was like because I read it during like an annual camping trip It almost it tempts me to be like, maybe I should read this Every year on that camping trip. I don't know if I will That's definitely something I'm gonna think about because it's it's definitely that kind of book, you know, it's not that long it's not like Super complicated or like where the writing is so dense like no, it's a good fun fast read. Well, not fun It's a good fast read. I could definitely see myself reading it Camping weekend every year. I don't know if I will but it's definitely like that kind of book Where I can see if you pick it up you love it You reread it like every year or something There are a couple other things I want to touch on One being there was a lot of teasing Going on in the book and that like from the beginning her mom was not a fan of getting on the titanic because it was its main voyage Which is fair. Yeah, you can definitely expect that from something I do not Blame her for that But then it's like there are all these little jokes or little teasing about like, oh, just one of this went wrong Or oh, don't worry. It won't go wrong because we're like right and I'm sure that it's very accurate to what people said But it's just like when you know what happens Oh, you just every time it just makes you go. Mmm your poor baby. You don't know But that's probably what it was like back then everyone was so excited because it's this brand new ship It's so modern. It's so advanced There was one scene Where the timing was just weird like Because what happened was It was it was a circusy scene And so the adults are like, okay, we're gonna go get some food do some shopping You kids can just sit here and watch the circus. We'll meet back at this place at this time And so then they described one act that probably took like two or three minutes And then when they met up with the adults the kids it seemed like so little time had passed but the adults were like Oh, we bought tea. We bought clothes. We bought this. We went out to dinner. We and it was like I highly doubt that the adults got all these things done in the two minutes that the kids watched the show Like it just it just seemed like the timing was like off or weird and it just did not Make sense and there so there were a couple like little timing things But you know, you're jumping around because there's not much to do on a boat um, but it just Yeah, that was probably the only thing that like really bothered me still by the end of the book Is everything else I bothered me like got better by the end of the book. And so that's why I'm rating it four stars Because it was a really good book by the end. I loved it, but it was not a perfect book And you know, I have a hard time rating books Five stars So but I would very much recommend this to anyone who wants to feel emotions It's interested in the titanic or you know, it's just a good historical fiction. Um Yeah, she definitely knew how to like Pull at your heartstrings. So this is what I read Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it Let me know in the comments below if you guys ever go camping If that's something you've grown up doing or if your family does it or if you haven't if you'd be interested in camping because I love I love camping and we do it every year multiple times a year. Um Comment down below if you've read any other historical fiction books around the titanic because I feel like So many historical fiction are around like world war two Which like makes sense, but at the same time It's like there are so many other events in history that could be talked about So I would love to find more historical fiction that aren't around world war two So let me know if there are any other titanic books or any other historical fiction that you guys enjoy that May or may not be around world war two like obviously I'll still read world war two stories because like they're still good books Um, otherwise give this video a thumbs up if you liked it Feel free to subscribe and click the notification bell so that you get notified when I post Which is every thursday Every thursday. Um, and until I see you all in the next video. I wish you a happy reading