 Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. I hope you're all well. Today, I really wanna talk about the books I never talk about. I wanna talk about my favorite books that I feel like I don't discuss enough. You know, like I've got my heart stopper, I've got my, the strange case of the outcomeist daughter, like I've got my books that I speak about all the time and I recommend all the time, but I just wanna talk about some books that I feel like I don't talk about enough and I don't recommend to you enough. So that's what we're gonna be doing today. Before we get into it, if you watched my last video and remember that I need help with my dissertation documentary, I still need help. I, you guys, two of you are very kindly set to stuff in. I need probably about 10 to do what I wanna do. So it'd be really amazing if you could send me with videos answering the questions that I have. I'll put all the info down in the description so we don't have to talk about it again. But yeah, I still need help. Okay, anyway, into the actual video. It's about time! So the first book I wanna talk about is Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown. This is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. So it's semi-autobiographical. It's about Echo Brown, but it's definitely got this like magical realism twist where she's a wizard and her mom is a wizard and that's something that is passed down throughout their family. There are so many trigger warnings for this book. So definitely be careful. I would say like child sexual abuse, addiction, trauma, suicidal ideations, all those kinds of things that are trigger warnings for. So it's definitely something you need to be careful going into. But yeah, it's kind of Echo Brown's story throughout her adolescence, like her childhood and young adulthood. And it's so powerful. It's one of the most powerful books I have ever read. Me every 30 seconds reading the book. That was beautiful. You did such a good job of expressing yourself. I actually listen to the audio book and Echo Brown narrates the audio book. And there are certain points where you can really hear the emotion in her voice. Talking about these really difficult things that happened to her is very impactful. So I would really recommend the audio book for that reason because I think you really hear how, you know, affected she is emotionally by the memories of these events. But the magical realism element is very interesting. And I like that it's autobiographical but you kind of don't know where the magic starts and ends. If that makes sense, like there's an element of truth in the magic I feel like. And it makes it autobiographical with this added twist, with this added excitement I feel like to it. One of the things that sticks on my mind about this book is there's a few chapters. I think maybe like two of the chapters are told in this way that we are following these two separate events with very similar themes. And it will just jump back and forth between them like in the middle of a sentence, we'll stop being in one and go into the other. And obviously when I'm listening to the audio book I can't tell when these are gonna come up which I think adds to it. And it was just really interesting how these two events she found ways to like mirror them in one another and draw on I guess like the lessons or emotions of these events simultaneously between them. So it was just amazing. I would really recommend Black Girl Unlimited. I feel like it's a very underrated book. I don't really hear anyone speak about it. And it literally is the most emotionally impactful book like throughout I've ever read. Like some books you read, you'll cry at the end or something. But this one was just very like emotionally heavy throughout but in a way that I didn't find too like difficult to read. It was you wanted to carry on reading. So I'd really recommend it. Echo Brand at the moment actually is there's a GoFundMe setup because she needs a kidney. She had kidney failure and so there's a GoFundMe setup and lots of information on her website as well. So I'll leave all the information for that link down below in case you wanted to go check that out and help out. Okay, my next favorite book that I do not speak about enough. I feel like I spoke about this a lot at the start of my channel but I haven't spoken about this recently. But this is Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Nyang. You're perfect, you're beautiful, you look like Linda and Vangelista, you're a model. This is one of my favorite fantasy series. I think, what did I give the second one? Girls of Storm and Shadow. I think I gave it four stars but it's like it wasn't as good. I can recognize that but I love the characters. So basically in this we follow Lei who that's right, isn't it? I'm really bad at character names. So often I try to like like most of these books I can't tell you the character names. I don't remember character names. I don't but I think it's Lei, yay, Lei and Ren. I'm right, I know I'm right. I know I'm right, I know I'm right. Listen to what I have to say because I'm right. She is recruited to be a paper girl for the king which basically is like the king's concubine or these girls are forced to sleep with the king. And so it's a very, you know, emotionally impactful book. Again, obviously it's tackling rape and sexual assault. I thought I did it so well for a YA book, a YA fantasy book. And something I've often said about this book is that you have like, I think maybe six paper girls that are recruited and Natasha Nyang manages to show the trauma of the experience that they're going through in like different, so how different people react to that. So some of the girls really emotionally draw inward. Some become angry, some become infatuated with their abuser and feel like they love him. That was really well done to me because it showed that there isn't like a one reaction to sexual assault or rape and each of those reactions are equally valid in their own way and I thought that was done really well. But the fantasy of this is amazing. Like the world building feels so, so, so vivid. Like so, so vivid. Some of the most vivid fantasy I've ever read. And that's something I really look for in my fantasy. I need to know how it looks, how I need to know the smells, like the atmosphere. I need to know everything. For me, the world building and the world almost needs to be its own character for me in fantasy. I don't really like fantasies that kind of like brush over that and just go into plot and characters. Natasha Yang's writing was done so well. I can't wait for when she puts out like other series other than this one as well. She's definitely one of my favorite authors and this book really got me back into reading. I remember I read it before I had my booktube channel and I was actually in Florida on holiday and I went into Barnes and Noble, which can I say, I do prefer Barnes and Noble to Waterstones. How dare you? How dare you? I'm gonna get into this, all right? The thing that annoys me about Waterstones and why I don't like doing come book shopping with me is because the books on Waterstones are just on the walls so like you can't hide in like the rows that Barnes and Noble have. Barnes and Noble's like stacks of rows of books whereas Waterstones is just like the books on the walls. So like I'm out in the open filming, I don't want that, I wanna be able to hide where no one can see me. I went with a list of books I remember that I wanted to get but this was one that I saw and I think it was because Kayla had recommended it from Books and Lala and I had all these books that I'd wanted to pick up in Florida because of the editions that the US editions that I wanted. And I remember this was the book I read on holiday so it kind of like evokes that memory of like sitting by the pool and reading this book and falling back in love with reading for me. So it's even like a special book to me but yeah, I love Leigh, I love, oh, it's also sapphic, it's also a girl romance which I loved. It's probably like my favorite sapphic romance I've ever read and the second one isn't as good in a series but I'm hoping for amazing things from the third. I feel like it's gonna kill me emotionally. It comes out I think at the end of this year and I'm not ready, like, oh my God, it's gonna be so good. It's gonna be so good. So if you love Vivid Fantasy, this is one for you. I feel like I just spoke about it but for way too long. Next is You Must Not Miss by Christina Leno. Again, cannot tell you the name of the main character. Fucking useless sack of shit. Get out. This is about a book. Again, it's dealing with sexual assault. This girl who's been through a lot of trauma and is definitely struggling emotionally and dreams up this magical world where she's in control but then the world kind of becomes real in her garden shed. Okay, how do I describe this? So again, it's magical realism, fabulous and kind of thing. I feel like it's such a good job of showing a character, a girl particularly who's been through sexual assault, who's been through trauma, angry and showing that pain and not shying away from I guess the harsher sides of that pain and it was just like the perfect amount of weird and strange, like you're reading it and you're like, holy fuck, like what is happening here? Like what the fuck is this? Help me, let's see what happens. It transitions from like normality to like what the fuck is happening really well. Like the transition is great. I read this towards the end of last year, like and I read it after I'd filmed my best books of 2020 video and I was really annoyed because otherwise this would have been up there as one of my best books of 2020 and so I always feel bad for people who watch that video and don't see this book in there because it is up there. It's one of my best books of last year. It was a complete shock. Like I really wasn't expecting much. I kind of bought it for the cover, but I loved it and I cannot wait to read more of Katrina Leno's stuff. I have Summer of Soul and Horrid and I need to read them immediately. Now the next couple of books, I feel like when I make videos like this, I always gravitate towards my five stars, right? But four stars is still an amazing book and it's still a book I wanna recommend to you. So the next couple, the next three books are like 4.5 slash four star books and they're the kind of books I feel like I neglect to speak about. So the first is Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan. This is a contemporary book and I read this in a day. I have a really great memory. I love when books have memories, you know what I mean? And I have a really great memory of reading this last summer. I was around my boyfriend's house during like lockdown. I lived there for a while and I sat in the garden like literally one seat and I just read this that whole day and it was amazing. It was a really, really great book. So it's about two girls who kind of like wanna start this feminist group at their school and it's just about their journey in learning about feminism and activism and learning about the ways in which their like activism is inherently flawed because all of our feminism and activism is flawed with the, you know, the flaws that we carry. I wanna read more books like that activism element to it. I know Moxie is supposed to be good. I do have that. So maybe I'll read that soon. And it made me fall in love with Renee Watson's writing in particular. I loved the chapters that she wrote. Like the chapters that she wrote were five stars and the chapters that Ellen Hagen wrote were like four, maybe 3.5 stars. I really loved the character voice and what she went through it deals with like being fat and the way that that bleeds into feminism and being black and how that, you know, black feminism and how exploring that and the ways in which her friend actually in the book is kind of ignorant of the struggles that she goes through as a black, larger girl. Yeah, I really could relate to some of the stuff, particularly like I was always the fat friend like back at school when I was younger. And so I could relate to those kind of passages and I thought it was just done so well. So if you're looking for a contemporary with a bit of like feminism activism twist, this is what I recommend. Next is Empress of Sault Unfortune by Nevo. Also when the tigers came down the mountain, I recommend this both. It's kind of gonna be like this series of novellas. My mom actually read when the tigers came down the mountain before she didn't know that Empress of Sault Unfortune existed because it's so small. She just didn't see it on my bookshelf. So you can read them not in order, I guess. But Empress of Sault Unfortune in particular is about a cleric named Chi. They are a non-binary character, which I really appreciate reading about a non-binary character. I think that's something that we don't have enough of. They go to this woman and the woman explains that she was like a servant of the Empress of Sault Unfortune and basically narrates her life with her and kind of like what they got up to when the Empress was exiled. And it's just beautifully written, like Nevo's writing is just beautiful. The amount of storytelling, world-building vividness in this short novella, like it's literally only a hundred pages, is incredible. It is brilliant American literature. And I don't care what anybody, it is. It should be taught in schools. It has this short snapshot. It's a bit confusing. Like you're reading it and you're like, I am not a hundred percent sure what's going on, but I don't mind. I can live with not being a hundred percent sure just because I enjoy the vibe. I loved Nevo's writing. Like the vividness and the beautiful lyricalness, I feel like of the writing of these is what makes them. If you like novellas, maybe if you're in a reading slump, you can read these when it should take you an hour to read, an hour or two. Yeah, just such a beautiful book. And then the last book I want to speak about is one I loved and I really, really, really, really need to read the sequel to. It's wrapped up at the moment. I definitely need to read it. Is Strange to Dreamer by Lain Taylor. So this is definitely a booktube favorite, but I feel like I don't speak about my love for enough. So you have, oh my God, what are their names? I know it. I know it. Dum dum. Laszlo. You have Laszlo Strange who works in this library and is kind of obsessed with this mythical Lost City of Weep. And then the people of Weep kind of come to his town and like try and recruit people when he ends up going to Weep to solve this problem that they have. And there's also another character. Should I say, you kind of don't know her at the beginning, but there's another very influential character in this whose perspective you follow kind of like from the third point on of the book, maybe even a bit earlier, who is very interesting. I don't know if this is a spoiler or not. Hang on, let me, I've got to look up the synopsis to know what is a spoiler and what's not for this. It all says in the description, the answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries, including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Laszlo's Dreams. Okay, that's who she is. Their dynamic through these dreams is such an interesting dynamic. Again, this is some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read. Some of the most beautiful writing ever. Like Laini Taylor, oh my God, I cannot wait to read everything that she has written eventually when I'm reading again properly because it's just so beautiful. Like very kind of Erin Morgenstern, they kind of give me the same feeling of this whimsy, this magical-ness, this fairy-town-ness, you feel like you're a child being read a story again. When I tell you, I sobbed. I sobbed. I was, this ending killed me, like it killed me, like it killed me. He is an experience for me to go through how I want him. But Laszlo, amazing character. I really love all the characters in this. I feel like there's a lot of characters with really interesting dynamics. And when I just cried so much. And I remember when I read, Stranger Dreamer, I was like, I need to read Muse of Nightmares straight away, the sequel. And I haven't, and I'm really sad about it because it's like one of the books I'm most excited for. So hopefully, listen, I've only got a couple of weeks, months, months, yeah, months left of uni. Once that's done this summer, when I tell you, I'm gonna read. So that is all the books I wanted to talk about that I love so dearly and I think about all the time. But I feel like I do not speak about enough. Let me know some books that you feel like aren't spoken about enough that are your favorites. I would love to hear them down below. I'll maybe get some sneaky racks. And thank you so much for watching. If you've gotten to the end, comment. I don't even know. Tom, what emoji should they comment if they've gotten to the end? A goat. A goat. Okay, comment the goat emoji if you've gotten to the end. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you very soon in another video. Bye.