 Hello, welcome to my channel. If you're new, welcome back if you are not. This book has been in my brain for a while. Basically, the last word of the last book I read is going to choose what I read next. So I read a book and the last word of it then chooses what I go on to next. Very simple, I think. So the last book I read was The Sanatorium by Sarah Pierce. I will leave the reading blog here for you to go and check that out. I basically, I just have to see what last word of this is. And then if the word is in the title of any book that I own physically or I have the audio book for, I have to read that book or like if there's multiple books of that word in the title, which I very much doubt, then I choose one of them to read. If not, if it's not in the title of any book I own, then we're gonna do word association. So it can either be word association with the title. So say I got the word water. I don't know. I may pick the night swim because that swim in the title or it can be something that I associate with the book itself. I can't really come up with an example of that. But like what I know is the synopsis of the book itself, something I associate with that, if that makes sense. So without further ado, let's just find out what the last word of this is. Last word is... Victims. Okay, I cut, mmm, it could be in the title, like a long title of a book I'm thinking of. Let me have a look. Okay, I've just had a look and it's not in the title of anything I own. But I know what I'm gonna read for this. So I'm gonna read The Five by Halle Rubinhold. This is about the five victims of Jack the Ripper. This is nonfiction. It's gonna be my first nonfiction that I have read so far this year. I really love nonfiction, but I definitely don't read it enough anymore. So it was a goal to read one a month, but I haven't, I didn't read one in January. But this is gonna be at least my one for February and it literally is just nonfiction going through these women's lives and what they went through and telling their story so that they are remembered instead of the man who killed them. Let's just start it, I guess. I'm really really excited. This has been on my TBR and something I've wanted to read for the longest. So I am now halfway through The Five and I'm really really enjoying it. I mean, it's like, it's heartbreaking, but I think it's such a necessary book. I've always been very interested in learning about forgotten women in history and as this book is about Jack the Ripper's victims. It's about these women who are just seen as worthless women that he killed and not being deserving of their stories being told. And instead, he's the one who has lived on and what this story is really trying to do is to bring their lives to the forefront. And it's really heartbreaking what some of these women have been through. You know, the first two that I read about had families, had a husband and children. And for various reasons, they left that life and were living in lodging houses or were sleeping rough. And just hearing, you know, one of them had an alcohol addiction and so had to leave her family. And it was just really heartbreaking to hear what they had been through and that it ended for them in the way that it did. It's so well researched. It's so fascinating. You know, really, it paints a complete picture of these women and their lives and what they would have gone through and how they would have lived. I'm like really interesting to see like the rises and falls of their life. You know, it doesn't just paint a picture of misery. There's a lot of points where you think like they're on the up, you know, like they're doing well. And then it all kind of goes wrong. And then it's really, really sad. It just makes you angry. Like how a lot of these women weren't prostitutes. The police just thought they were because of the area in which they lived. There was no evidence. In fact, the people around them, the people who knew them best and other people who lived in these lodging houses would say like they weren't a prostitute. But the police went and the media went with that narrative because it fit what they wanted to say. These white men are dangerous. So if you've ever been interested in any of like the nonfiction I've recommended about Forgotten Women, this is really, really interesting. And there's also lots of pictures in here so you can see the women. This is one of them with her husband. And then the next page has pictures of their daughters as well. It just really brings to life these women who I have never heard anything about other than their names and the fact that they were prostitutes. But that's not even true. So learning about them is really fascinating. Also, I think the audiobook is great and I think if you are interested in like Forgotten Women throughout history but you don't tend to read a lot of nonfiction, I think this would be a great place to start because it's a very easy nonfiction to get into. You're literally being told the story of their life. And so it's not like loads of facts and figures and statistics. It is a human story. It's heartbreaking but it is really, really fascinating. So I'm enjoying it so far and I'm excited to read the rest of it and I will come back to you when I've finished it with my rating. But it's definitely going to be very high because I just think it's so well researched and explores, you know, these women's lives so well. I'm actually going to give this five stars. I wasn't feeling like I was going to give it five stars until the conclusion and the conclusion just brought it together so well. I feel like I need to reread the conclusion because like I was listening to the audiobook at the time like making dinner and I feel like I didn't fully take it in. Like I didn't fully absorb how brilliant it was. I feel like it's something I want to read again and again. But this book is so incredible and I think it makes you so angry. It makes you so angry that these women's lives have just been forgotten and completely pushed aside for the man who killed them. They'd all been through so much shit and it makes you realise if you were a woman, particularly born into the working class at this time, your prospects were so low. You know, you were so dependent on any man that you married. You were so limited in your prospects for making money. You know, it makes you realise how this whole industry that has been built up almost idolising Jack the Ripper. Museums in his name and like just the myth that he has become, they have become so forgotten in that and the joys and the difficulties that they went through have become erased. Also kind of the discussion around framing them as just prostitutes. It wouldn't matter if they were all prostitutes, but there's only evidence that two of them had ever been prostitutes in their lives. Framing them as that was a way to diminish the worth of their lives and the horrificness of their murders, you know, and it still is today. It's still that has continued today. And so it's just like another way in which women who don't meet societies wrong for expectations of what a woman should be, their personal worth, their worth as a human is like completely eradicated through that. I would literally read it again straight away. Before we actually, I can't remember the last word of this book is, but before we find out what the last word was, I have something. Oh my God, I keep treading on. There's loads of stuff around my feet. I have something that I have been waiting to open. This is from Imposier Blankets, which if you don't know, they are like a bookish blanket company and they reached out to me and asked if I wanted to receive one. And like, I'm so excited. I'm about to live in this. I'm about to live in this. You may say I'm a dream. Oh my God, I'm so excited. It's just sitting there waiting for me. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. So can you see? Can you see how it's all like soft and fleecy? This is the design I picked out. Can you see that? I can't see what you can see. Can they see the deer? Can they see the deer? Uh, you should lift up higher. It can't go much higher. And it's got book was on its endless. That's pretty cool. Hang on. I'm going to put it on. I'm going to put it on. Look at me. She's an icon. She's a legend. And she is the moment. Now come on now. Oh my God, this is so cozy. I feel so, I feel like I'm literally going to live in this. It is so cozy and cute. Oh my God. I can't believe how cute it is. Oh my God, I love it so much. I'm so happy to finally open it. If you wanted to go and purchase one of these, you're set. Oh my God. I just feel like so cool. I can't stop looking at myself. If you wanted to go and purchase one of these, I do have a 10% discount code. It is COSYMEG, but with COSY with a Z, like the American spelling. Oh, it's so cute. It's so cute. What is the last word of this? Enough. I know a lot of things, but I don't know about that. I'm not sure why. I don't know if I have a book with enough in the title. And that's a, that's a really hard word to like come up with association, like word association as well. I've got to go look on Goodreads. Oh my God, yeah, I do. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Oh, listen. This works out so well. This is a book I've wanted to read for so long. The only book I have with enough in the title is Black Enough by Ibiza Boy, edited by Ibiza Boy. This is a collection of short stories from different Black authors talking about being young and Black in America. This is one of the books that has been on my TBR for the longest time that I don't own, but the audiobook and the ebook, I believe, are on script. So I can just read them on there. I cannot remember the last time I read an anthology, like a collection of authors. I don't, it might have been years. Like I generally can't remember the last time I read that. So I'm so excited. I feel like we all know, I haven't quite gotten into my reading game yet this year, but I feel like an anthology could be a really great way to like get me reading faster because you're constantly starting a new story and so the pace is constantly on the move. So I'm going to read Black Enough. I'm so excited to finally read this. I'm about a third of the way through Black Enough. I've read the first six stories. I'm really enjoying it so far. There's been some amazing stories. My favorite one, hang on, let me tell you my favorite one so far. My favorite one so far is Out of the Silence by Keckler Magoon. I hadn't heard of her before, but I've now gone and like put one of her books on my wishlist because it was just so good. It was really short. Like some of them are about 20 pages, but this one was only like six pages or something. So really brief, but really just so good. Like that one was dealing with the protagonist knowing someone who had been killed in his car crash. I won't say anything else than that because literally only six pages long. But it was really interesting. And I'm just loving the variety of stories that we've got going on. Some are more serious. Some are just like snapshots of friends joking around with one another. So you've got a real variety of stories. And I'm just loving like getting introduced to all these new authors that I've never read from before. I feel like there's definitely going to be some more authors like reading forward that I want to pick up their books. I feel like that's what anthologies are so good for. And they're so good for discovering authors and finding the authors who's writing you just click with in such a short amount of time. I'd really recommend it if you like anthologies, if you want to read some black authors and maybe discover some new ones. I'd really recommend it so far. Like I said, great variety of stories. We've touched on like sibling relationships, academic pressure, just friendship, like young love. Like there's been so many interesting topics covered already. So I'm really enjoying it. I didn't finish black enough because I was really enjoying it. And I feel like short story collections are a bit hard to speak about throughout, but I really, really enjoyed it. I am going to give it, I don't know, it feels like a 3.5 though to me. And I think that is a little bit harsh. I'm going to rate it as a 400 reads, but I think on the whole it's a 3.5 because I loved the kind of like idea and experience of reading it with the variety that it gave. None of those short stories were five stars to me or maybe like one, one or two were five stars, but the majority were like three and four. So it just feels like a 3.5 overall. I was thinking throughout reading it, I generally cannot remember ever having read a short story collection. Like I'm sure I have in my life, but it's been years and years and years. And now I just want to read more. So if you have any recommendations for short story collections you think I'd enjoy, please let me know because now I just want to read them. I think they're so great. I love finding like new authors that I really wanted to read. So there's been loads that I have put on my want to read now because of this. I think it did such a good job of like having joyful stories, having stories about pain, having stories about difficulty, having stories that are bittersweet, having stories that like are wrapped up in a nice neat bow. It had a really great variety. And in terms of, I always think it must be hard to decide the order that you're going to like put the stories in. And there was never anything that felt samey from story to story, but there was never a story that completely broke the tone that the previous one had established. I thought that was done really, really well as well. I'm obsessed. Yeah, my favorite ones on this, I really liked Ibiza Boys at the end. Oh yeah, Keckler Magoon. I really liked Jay Cole's one. I really liked Justina Island's one. I really liked Donnel Clayton's one. So they were probably my favorite short stories. I just really loved the experience. If you like me have never really read short story collections before, I would just really recommend it. Like, I loved the experience. So this was a success. Even though like it's a 3.5, I think like the experience of reading it was a 4, but in terms of my rating of the content, it's a 3.5 if that makes sense. So now I have to read one more book in this vlog, so I have to find out what the last word of this book was. I've completely forgotten. Smile. Smile. I don't think I own any books with the word smile in the title. So I feel like it has to be a happy book, like the happiest book I own. I don't... I don't really own happy books. Like I don't read... I don't read happy books. There's always going to be an element of like sadness or difficulty in there. Shit. All right then, we'll just hand it out of days. And this is one of mine. Okay? Oh, let's go for this. I'm gonna go for Me, My Dad, and the End of the Rainbow by Benjamin Dean. This just came out a couple months ago. This was very kindly sent to me by the publisher. All I know about this is that it is about a boy whose dad comes out as gay, and it's kind of like their story together. And I've heard... Okay, on the back it says, Are you ready for a rainbow-colored joy-filled adventure? That's gonna fit. I generally don't think I have a happier book than this. There's no other happy books here. And this is one I've been so excited to get to, one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I'm really, really excited to read this. This is one I've been trying to figure out how I'm gonna fit into a reading vlog for ages. So hopefully this one will go well. Okay, I'm really excited. I'm gonna go start this now. I think I was definitely right to pick this for the word smile, because literally when I turned to the first page, all of the reviews that are on there, the first three... The first three of the five reviews all have the words joyful in them. So this book is just obviously very happy and joyful. At the start we're very much dealing with difficulties, but you can tell it's just this positive happy book. So basically Archie's parents have just split up. They're arguing a lot, like around him and at his school in front of his friends. He comes home at one point and they don't know that he's there, and he hears his dad say that he's gay. And that's why their parents are split up. And so it's just him kind of trying to understand that and understand what that means for like him and his dad's relationship and how nothing's gonna really change. And I think what's about to spur the story on is a pride leaflet, which has fallen out of his dad's pocket. It's really just like heartwarming so far, I can already tell. I think this is gonna be one of my favorite middle grades I've ever read. I'm just really loving the experience of reading it. I love the writing. Like this is a debut. And I think the writing is just absolutely wonderful so far. Like the way it sometimes breaks the fourth wall and talks to you directly. I really like that in middle grades. Well, that little books, but I think that's something really fun. Like when you're a kid, it when the book starts speaking directly to you, that was always the coolest thing. Like I loved when I'd be reading and it'd like say you and talk to you. And I'm like, oh my God, oh wow. I just really love the writing. I love Archie. I love our friends. I love like the dynamics between the parents. I think the kind of the way it's explaining this complicated relationship between his parents is perfect in the way that it like, it simplifies it enough for kids to understand. But there's also layers to it that make it a really enjoyable thing to read when I'm like 21. Do you know what I mean? So I think it does a really great job of like balancing it for everyone. I don't know. I really love it. I think I'm gonna just be absolutely in love with this book. There's just a lot of great discussions around sexuality. And I think it'd be really helpful for kids if maybe one of their parents comes out as gay. The discussions we're already having about how it doesn't change who they are and it's just like a small piece of who they are and the kid doesn't need to worry and stuff like that. I just think is really helpful and lovely and touching. I'm just gonna read the rest of this today. I don't think it'll take me that long to read the rest of it. I feel like middle grade. I would already recommend this. I think it's wonderful already and I'm only like 110 pages in. So I'm now two thirds the way through this and I'm still loving it. They are going on their adventure. Archie and his friends. And I don't know. It's just taking me back to being a kid again. I don't know why but I'm getting a very specific like visceral reaction. And maybe it's just because it's just been World Book Day but when you're a kid and the book fair used to come and it was like amazing. I don't know why but this was like the kind of book I would have got at the book fair and I feel like that's so weird. There's nothing wrong with my views or beliefs because I have freedom of speech and everything I'm saying is true. I feel like I'm literally a kid again at school reading this and I just go at the book fair. I love when I read middle grade and I can enjoy it so much now but I can also look at it and think this is such a great book for kids to read now at the same time. I feel like this could even end up being a five star. I don't know. Like it's not going to be an all time favorite five star but there's nothing wrong with it and I'm loving it. So like I feel like it could be a five star. So then we'll have had two five stars in this video. I just really love what it's teaching about friendship, about family and yeah it's just fun. Like it's just joyful. It's just a celebration of you know sexuality and learning about that as a kid. So before I finish it I thought I would just quickly show you what came in the February... It's upside down. Fairy Luke. Yeah the February Fairy Luke box. I opened this yesterday because I was feeling sad and I needed... I'm ready to go home, lads. I'm knackered. I needed to pick me up but I thought I would just show you because this is genuinely one of my favorite book boxes ever again. Like I feel like fairly pull out the bag. I was just gonna like open it myself and look at it. But Fairy Luke just kill it every time. Like I love their items. I love the books. I love the like the special editions they do to their books. So I'll just show you quickly. So we've got a candle inspired by the Lunar Chronicles. It smells so good. It's so different than anything I've ever smelled. Like usually I get very caramelly vanilla candles but this one is Cranberry Peach Citrus vanilla. And it smells so good. So I can't wait to like that. Then I thought this was super useful. A really great useful item. We've got Cutlery set inspired by Warcross and I just thought this was super helpful for like when I eventually have to go back into the real world not that I really want to do that. Because it makes it super helpful to take your own cutlery in and like reusable cutlery and this I haven't unwrapped them all actually to have a look and it's like gold cutlery with a little quote on them. So I thought that was so cute. So usable. Something that I actually feel like maybe I needed. So I always love that when you get like a usable item. I haven't tried these out yet. I haven't put batteries in them. But you also get some little present moon fairy lights which are so cute. I am a big fan of fairy lights. So I'll never say no to more fairy lights. There is also a red rising pillowcase which comes with R on both sides which is very nice. I haven't read red rise. I haven't read red rising. I haven't read red rising. Just get to the point. But I think it's very lovely design. There's always a fairy loop. An enamel pin inspired by villain, villains? The villain series, The Vicious by V.E. Schwab. And it says plenty of humans were monstrous and plenty of monsters knew how to play human. Just looks like that. And then the book isn't one that I'd actually heard of but it is This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria which I know nothing about at all. But it actually looks kind of interesting. I don't know. I'm really excited to give book box books as a go because I don't think I've even read one yet. But obviously you know I'm not reading a ton at the moment. But this does look interesting. It's something about orphans, the girl trying to find her brother, traitors, this kind of thing. I don't know. It sounds very exciting. And I really like the um oh my god just look at that like the pink and the blues come on. The artwork that's on the inside of the cover. So oh my god wait I haven't seen that. Look at the design on the hard cut. Oh my god. If I had a wig I would throw it. That's so cute. Oh my god I love it. So like I say fairly in my opinion if you want to get some book boxes get fairly. Like I just love them. I just love them so much. I think they pull it out of the bag every single time. So yeah I want to show you this quickly. I'm now going to go watch the football like always on a Saturday. And I'm going to finish the last third of this. I'm really excited. I'm back with slightly strange lighting. So very dark in here. And I have finished me, my dad and the end of the rainbow by Benjamin Dean. I'm going to end up giving it 4.5 stars. I'm going to rate it as a 5 on Goodreads because I think you know it's a debut middle grade about like queerness. So I think you know it deserves to be boosted in that way on something like Goodreads but just in like my personal rating I'm going to give it a 4.5. Nothing was wrong with it. Just the ending. I wasn't as into reading it as I had been but I also think I would at that point I was just reading it to finish it to finish this video. And I so I think that plays a role. I'm trying to keep reading for enjoyment not just for content which is hard when like I feel like like my I feel like I'm not as good at these check-ins at the moment. Like my brain is just a bit like I don't know. It's just like my life. You know everyone knows my life is quite overwhelming at the moment. It feels like uni but hopefully that will all be fixed soon. But anyway I loved this. I loved it so much. I think it is the perfect middle grade for educating kids about queerness about the LGBT community about love about family like whenever I read a good middle grade I'm like I can't wait to give this to my kid when they're old to read. I know that's kind of weird but it's the truth. Like I said throughout it was beautifully wonderfully written like I could not tell this was a debut it was absolutely incredible and it was just so much fun. It was so much fun. It was perfectly paced you know the dynamics between like his mom and his dad and him and his dad were also interesting and real and you know it didn't shy away from like how difficult it was for his mom for example like to find out that her husband was gay maybe it could have done but it didn't shy away from her pain and like almost like denial of that fact I guess and so I really liked that aspect that wasn't something I was expecting from this and I could not wait to read everything that Benjamin Dean writes in the future because it was just amazing it was just so so good so if you like middle grade or if you like queer books or if you're like anything like I would recommend this to anyone I think it's generally the kind of kind of book that anyone could pick up and enjoy it was the first book I've read for ages without an audio book so I think that tells us something that's a point in its favor so yeah I feel like this vlog has been very successful so maybe if you've enjoyed it I'll have to do it again in the future with the last book of the last book I read picks what I read next I really just think it's a fun way to like not get a choice on what you read like I have had black enough on my tbr for so long and haven't read it so I was so happy to finally read that and yeah I had a lot of fun with all the books that I read so I think maybe I might do this again if you've gotten to the end of this video leave a rainbow emoji of course for the book I'm gonna go bed because I'm tired and I will see you next week with a vlog that I've been promising for a very long time okay I'll see you next week with that and on Thursday Friday Wednesday on Wednesday for the next night okay I'm gonna go now peace love you bye