 My name is Megan and I love books. Welcome back to my channel, I hope you're all good. Today I have got 10 amazing books that you need to read. This list I have tried to keep very universal. These are all books that I think regardless of their genre I think everyone could enjoy. I know I read some niche books but these are books that I generally think everyone could enjoy and these are amazing books. I love all these and I think if you haven't picked these up yet you definitely should. I'm actually gonna start with a middle grade. I feel like people need to read more middle grade in general. Like adults need to read more children's books because I think it helps us see the world through children's eyes. But that's quite dramatic. I actually recommend that you read Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow by Benjamin Dean. This is about a boy whose mum and dad have broken up and he is like trying to figure out why he doesn't really understand and then he sees this flyer for pride fought out of his dad's pocket. So it's about him coming to terms with his dad's sexuality and what that means for him and his family, what that means for his family unit, what that means for him and his dad's relationship and it's just such a beautiful story. Like it's one of the most beautiful books I've read this year in terms of how the characters act together and their love for each other and the understanding that grows between these characters. I think its celebration of your sexuality and pride is so amazing. This has drag queens, you know, it has everything that you could want and I think that this is this kind of book is so important for kids today to read. It's just the perfect book I think for everyone to just realize the simplicity of accepting one another and loving each other and celebrating one another. So I just loved it. I think it's absolutely gorgeous and if you have been a bit scared before or like you never maybe even thought of reading middle grade or like children's books, I say go for it. I think there's something really special and nostalgic about reading a children's book but like not even one that you read when you were a kid. Like I think it makes you feel like a kid again and really middle grade is really good at like connecting to core human values. So I just I just love it. I think everyone should read it. Next is a thriller. I love thrillers. I love murder mysteries and this book I feel like got a bad rep for no really like it was a it's a really good book. So do you think I deserve better than that? Yes. It's a really good book and people didn't like it but it's because it's more of a simple murder mystery and I think a lot of people today want like domestic violence, cheating, hospital like women running and I just want us to be stuck in a place isolated and a murder to happen and that's what happens in one by one by Ruth Ware. I love this. I read an arc of it so I haven't actually physically read this copy. It's technically my mom's but I put it on my bookshelf because she doesn't care and I really want to reread it. So basically this is about a company called Snoop who is basically like Spotify plus Twitter so you can like see what celebrities are listening to like what Beyonce is listening to and you can listen at the same time as her basically and they go on this company retweet retweet. Sorry give me a moment. They go on this company retreat into the snowy alps in this cottage and they get snowed in and people die bitch people die. There's a lot of secrets within the group which I always love. I just love like rich people getting killed. It just really fits on my fantasy. It's a lot of fantasies and when I feel the fantasy it is my reality. Something that this book does differently not to spoil anything it's not like you find out the killer at the end right. There's this moment where you start to realise what's happening as the reader like it's not like oh I'm realising what's happening and this is bad like you're meant to realise what's going on and the way that that increases the tension and like the atmosphere and how like I felt sick reading that part. I felt so sick reading that section of the book because you know what's happening and you know what's about to happen because of that and you just feel sick. You just feel sick because this is like a simple murder mystery. It would be a great place to like start if you don't typically read that genre. Ruth Ware is like such a well-loved author you know with like the turn of the key the death of mrs. westerway in a dark dark woods. She's like a thriller juggernaut at this point so I feel like Ruth Ware you're in safe hands if you don't typically read this genre and if you do read a lot of like thrillers murder mysteries I think it's also fun to like read something a bit more simple. I love simple books. I'm a simple gal what can I say? Lies lies and more lies and lies on top of lies. Next is a favorite book of mine that I have not spoken about recently and it is Dig by AS King. So this is I always laugh when I have to try and tell people the synopsis of this. It's about potato farmers. That's it that's all I'm saying. It's very surreal. AS King writes very surreal books and I just adore her. I think she's such a genius. The characters are referred to in very strange ways. You have like the freak and they're only ever referred to as the freak. You have the shoveler. You have a character who believes she has a circus of fleas who can perform and she's always on stage to an audience. It's very surreal but it really is looking at white supremacy and racism and generational wealth and generational prejudice in America. And I think it does it in such an interesting way where like I think for the first 100 pages you're not quite sure what's happening and then the way that it starts to critique white supremacy and how these people can be very uneducated on like their privilege is so interesting. Like the way that it combines this surrealism with real-world issues is so interesting. I think if you don't read surrealism that often great place to start. AS King writes very excessively even though it is weird. I really need to read Switch which came out a few months ago by AS King but I haven't got my hands on it yet but like I'm so excited to read Switch. I haven't really heard anyone speak about it yet so I'm intrigued. If you like books with a lot of characters who are all interconnected but were kind of like following on their individual stories this would be great. Sometimes I struggle with that. I think it's hard to do well to like have all these different story lines that eventually converge that start off very very separate but this does it so well. Like we're literally following maybe five different stories and usually I hate it but this time it was outstanding. Don't be closed minded because you will not get anywhere in life. Next is one kind of similar to me, my dad and the end of the rainbow. But I believe everyone, all of you, all of you need to go and get your hands on the T-Jack in Society by Katie O'Neill. So as you can see it's kind of like a graphic novel kids book almost. This is what the inside looks like. It's like generally a tear has just been brought to my eye. How beautiful it is. By the way this is my this is my plea to the world. If anyone anyone has this like hardcover edition of the second book please can I buy it off you because you can't get it anywhere and I need it. I need it so bad but you can't. You can't get it anywhere. So this is about T-Jagons, these little dragons who can like brew tea but it is just the softest most beautiful most heartwarming graphic novel I've ever read. Like it is just gorgeous. It won't obviously won't take you long to read and the characters in this and their little relationship that builds and the T it's just like the cutest thing. It's like the cutest, cutest, cutest book. I need to read the second one. The third one has just come out. But yeah I think if you like a typically like girl I've never read a graphic novel. I am a like thick fantasy novel kind of person or whatever like give it a go. Give it a go. I promise you won't be disappointed. Next is a book that I thought about a lot since I read it and it is The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett. So you may have heard of this. It's like a pretty popular book but it is the story of two girls identical twins who go off and have very different lives. Basically they're born in this town with black people but like light skinned black people and the lighter you are it's seen as like a sign of privilege. So they are light skinned. One of them chooses in her adult life to pass as a white woman and we follow them from the 1950s to the 1990s and we also follow their children and the relationships that their children have and that is really interesting how you know we examine like trans rights in like the 1980s, 1990s you know the lack of like accessibility to transitioning for them and that was really like touching but also it was just really interesting the historical nature of this. The look at race, the look of white supremacy, the look at the privilege that can come with being white passing and the feelings that come with like doing that. Like the guilt that the character feels from doing that. It just examines like colorism really really well and I think I would just recommend this to everyone. I think it's a really insightful book to read. I just think everyone should read this. This is what the whole pointless video is. I think everyone can read this and enjoy it. It does take like don't start and be like making you saw me or lie but I did tell a bit of a lie there. It took me like a good 80 pages at least to get into it. At first I wasn't sold but once you get into it you really get into it and I loved it. Next is one of my favorite books I've read so far this year and it's the Black for Lingo by Dean Atta. So this is the story of Michael from birth to university. We follow him from a charged university being black and being gay and living at the intersections of them. The way that Dean Atta writes, I almost, I have never the skill. The album's amazing song to song. I can't stress it out. He manages to put so much emotion and like underlying thought and feeling into like five words. Like who can do that? It's told in verse so it won't take you long to read at all. When you tell a book in verse you have to be a bit more like effective with less words and Dean Atta just does it so well. It was outstanding. The way that it read and the way that it was told it was so emotional and so emotionally impactful but it has like this magicalness to it as well. I think in the way that it's told it's about him eventually discovering drag. This is like literally the whole plot of the book. The point of the book is not the plot it's the feeling and the emotion and the storytelling throughout it. I think if you haven't maybe read verse this is like where I tell you to start. I know Elizabeth Acevedo is like supreme and I do love her books but I actually love this more. I am actually a bit like a starstruck when I come to this book like I can't I can't put the words in the right order to like serve it what it should be served. Another one that I read this year and it's one that like I think I gave this four stars but I can't stop thinking about it and I think that's the sign of a really good book to recommend and it is The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson. So what the what is wonderful about this book first and foremost is that it's part historical part horror part fantasy and it's literally like almost a third of each basically in its identity and so I think if you read any of those genres predominantly this is a great way to get into the other genres. Like it's absolutely amazing at how split it is almost between them and I think it would just be a wonderful way to maybe read more historical read more horror or to get into any of the genres because it's like manageable in each of them. Even if you read none of them maybe you only read like non-fiction you stumbled across this video it's so digestible in its three parts that I think anyone could read it. So we're following Emmanuel who's born on the fringes of Bethel which is basically a cult. There is like this historical telling of the original prophet who's like the leader of the cult who cleansed these four plagues but now it seems like the plagues are back. Emmanuel finds the diary of her dead mother and it talks about like the relationship that she had with these supposed witches and Emmanuel just kind of dives down this whole of finding out more about the witches as opposed at least to lurk in the dark forest and finding out about her own power. This book is just so dark and mysterious and like atmospheric and like pressurised that I think everyone would enjoy it. It really examines the power of men and the how men abuse their power and how women are oppressed. It was just such a wonderful book with the atmosphere and the fantasy and the horror the slow burn horror that it had but how it also like examines oppression and rebellion and like ideology. I think cult books are really interesting I really want to read more books like centred around cults. It was just like creepy and I feel like that creepiness is something I really remember like it's a really oppressive creepiness so it's one that I think about all the time so if you haven't picked this up yet I would really recommend it. All of you are about to go and buy this The way I am going to read your ass on Tuesday. Then I've got a duo to recommend to you and it is Empress of Sword Fortune and When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nevo. So these are like basically novellas they're really really short and we are following this cleric called Chi and it's historical and basically they're like a cleric who goes around and gets people to tell them stories and they record them for like archives basically and so we're just kind of with Chi and the person that they're with and they're telling their story and it's being like recorded and I just loved these. These are a great way to get into fantasy if maybe you don't read fantasy. It's some of the most beautiful beautiful writing I have ever read and something I love particularly I think I prefer When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain but this is the second one. You don't have to read them in order though they don't really spoil each other and this examined the differences in how stories are told and recorded and retold and how stories can change as they kind of like word of mouth go down the line and I thought that was so interesting how we examine that. This one really examines women's resistance in oppressive male societies and how women must resist and overcome and find power within themselves and this one like I said it kind of examines like the truth of stories and how trustworthy stories are that are passed down but it is just some of the most fascinating high fantasy I've ever read and beautifully written so if you haven't read these yet I would really recommend giving them a go they're super short it won't take you long they're so accessible but they're so gloriously written. That's a bit dramatic that I just love them and then the last book I'd have to recommend is No Exit by Taylor Adams. This is about a girl who gets trapped by this snowstorm at this like service station by the side of the road and she finds this girl tied up in one of the bands or the people that is like four people at the service station with her she knows one of these people has kidnapped this girl and suddenly she has to be the one to kind of save her. Now you find out who it is pretty early on. The point of this book is a race against time a race until she can with the girl like escape where they are and it let me tell you a book has never made me feel more ill. This is disgusting I like it though. I have never felt so sick and ill when reading a book I felt like I was gonna throw up I had heart palpitations my but my whole body tense up I was sweating buckets like I have never felt more nervous when reading a book. I genuinely don't know how Taylor Adams did it like I it was horrendous it was absolutely awful I would not I was gonna say I wouldn't recommend this anyone but I would because the book has never made me feel this way it is so tense the way that does her name is Darcy right yeah Darby sorry the way that Darby has to use her imagination and like be brave and like push through it to like save this girl is absolutely crazy like it's crazy I whoa even thinking about this book again like I'm I feel sick like it is just so well written it just keeps the pace I've never read a book that like starts here and it just like goes up but but you think you're already at the top it like breaks the tension barrier like I don't know how it was done how'd you hold that tension and that scaredness the whole book I genuinely don't know usually books have like ebbs and flows but this one I just felt sick about the whole thing I feel like anyone could read this I generally have not found a book like it since I want to I want a book like this like I want to read more books that like make me feel that kind of way but no other thriller has made me feel like this I'm hoping uh Taylor Adams newest book has just come out lately I haven't had anyone speak about it yet but I'm hoping maybe that will like give me the same feelings because I need it so there we go that is the 10 books that I would recommend to you that you read I think all of these books for different reasons are books that like everyone needs to read they are just so amazing for so many different reasons and I think genuinely anyone could read any of these books and get into them so yeah I hope you've enjoyed the video if you've gone to the end comment a car emoji and thank you so much for watching make sure you subscribe if you haven't already and I will see you very soon in another video bye