 Hello friends, so we have a little bit of a problem. My reading so far this year has been going pretty well. I feel like in terms of writing we're on the up, in terms of how many books I'm reading, we're on the up. But we have a little bit of a problem and that is not a lot of the books I've read so far this year have come from my TBR. A lot of books I've read this year I have had to buy for videos, be that reading the Goodreads winners, be that reading books for your recs videos. A lot of the books I've read so far this year I've had to buy specifically for videos. And that means my physical TBR has not gone down at all. Here is what I started the year on, here is what I've ended the year on. So in today's video I really wanna try and make some progress in getting my physical TBR down. And we're gonna do that by giving myself an incentive because also barring last week when I had to buy two books cause I was sad that I went to the Waterstones cafe and it was closed. I have not bought any books that weren't for specific videos. I've not done any book shopping on a whim. I've only bought stuff because I had to read it. So today we're gonna read 10 books off of my physical TBR to get that number down. And then at the end of the video I can buy myself a book as a treat. It's the goal. Me at the end of this video. So that's what we're gonna be doing. So in terms of the books we're gonna be reading this video I'm obviously picking quite short books cause we're gonna be reading 10 books in this video which is like perhaps the most I've ever read in a video. But I've also prioritized a lot of series. So we've got a lot of series we're either making progress in or a few that we are finishing. So shall we get into it? I'm gonna tell you the 10 books I've selected and then we're gonna go through and read them. I'm very excited. So this first one is not part of a series. This is a book I've almost read for a few different videos so far this year. And it is a book that I think will be a quick read but it is probably the longest that we've got on this list. And that is Shark Car by Emily Habeck. I'll tell you the plots of all of these properly when we read them cause otherwise we'll be here forever. But this is about a couple where the guy turns into a shark and I've heard it's very emotional. So I think I'm gonna start with this today because also I haven't told you we're leaving Wales. This is the end of our Wales journey. We're finished here. So we are moving tomorrow. So my aim is to finish this whilst we're packing up and cleaning with flat. We're leaving late tomorrow afternoon. So my goal is to finish this by then and then maybe read a few of these on the journey home cause the journey home is like four or five hours. So yeah, I'm gonna start this one today. I'm very excited. A lot of your time is gonna make me cry. I think it's gonna be a quick read because there's quite a lot of pages that are just a paragraph or two and I'm expecting great things. So that's our first book. We're gonna be reading Into the Riverlands and Mounted at the Gate by Nevoe. These are the next two in the singing hill cycle. Another one's coming out this year but I wanna make progress in the series cause I love it so much and I have not made progress for ages. So I'm very excited to read both of these. I think I'm gonna try and read them back to back. We are also gonna read Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. This is the next in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series and it's also gonna be my last one I believe unless this one like blows out of the water. I just feel like my enjoyment has gone down throughout the series and I'm just happy to leave it at four books. Do you know what I mean? Like I feel like I've read enough of it. I've enjoyed it but I don't think I'm gonna cause I think there's loads more that haven't been translated yet. I think I'm gonna end it here. So this will be for the sugar series. Oh my God, what's actually here? One that isn't part of the series but is very short is Thorn Hedge by T. King Fisher. This is a fantasy that whenever I try and read the snops I don't understand what it is. I'm like, what the fuck is that? We have a character called Toadling who gives a blessing to a child or there's a knight who wants to stop it. It's only about 125 pages. It's very short. So I figured this would be a good pick. A graphic novel that we're gonna be reading. Can't stop a volume five. I am so excited. I'm probably gonna have to read this one soon cause I just cannot. Oh, I can't wait. Oh, I can't wait. I'm so excited. So this is making progress on series. This will get us up to date in a series and yeah, this is volume five, Nick and Charlie. They're in love but they go go uni and how do they do that? What's going on? It's a very, it's a tale of all the time. It's a trouble of all the time. My approach to this was just to make Tom come to the same university as me and make him live with me the whole way through uni. So that's an option but I don't know if they're gonna take it off. Another series I'm so excited to make progress in. Rotten to the Core, the next in the Lady Hardcastle Mystery series. I don't know what number this is. I always try and tell you how far I am in the series because I think you should be proud of me. One, two, three, four. This is number eight in the Lady Hardcastle Mystery series and I just cannot wait to make progress and to go back with Lady Hardcastle made flow. So this will be a good audiobook one. And maybe this will be like one that I read when I'm unpacking when I get home or something like that. I need a good audiobook for that. Another series we're gonna be finishing is the Forgotten Women series. I have been reading this for so long, so long. This is basically nonfiction about women throughout history and oh, I'm not finding any good ones. They all have beautiful illustrations in them as well as kind of text about these women. And I've loved the first two that I've read. So we've got the scientists and the artists. So I'm gonna try and space these out in the vlog. I don't think I wanna read these quite back to back but I want to finish this series. I think that would be a good one to finish. And then our final book is not a series one but it's another short one, kind of a graphic novel. We've got The Island of Whispers by Francis Harding. I'm gonna be honest, I don't super know the plot but I think it's kind of middle gradey and it's got illustrations and I loved Skinful Shadows by Francis Harding and I've been meaning to pick another one up. So that is our, so whistle stops the door through our TBR. I'll tell you more about each book as we read them but that is our 10 books that we're gonna be reading in this vlog to get my physical TBR number down and then we get to buy a book as a treat. I am gonna start Shark Hut today. I don't know, I probably for most of these books will just tell you what I think when I finish them. I may check in half way with you for this one because it's a little bit longer but who knows, I may just check in and you guys finish. Otherwise this vlog would be 10 years long if I checked in half, partway through all of them. So yeah, I'm gonna start Shark Hut today. I'm very excited to see what I think and yeah, I'll let you know when either I'm halfway through, I finished it. One day later. Okay, I tried to make myself like a little bit less of a mess. Oh, this camera, it's like, basically everything's packed up. We're literally leaving in half an hour but I wanted to check in with you because I am halfway through Shark Hut. I did wanna finish this before we left but alas, I did not. I'm halfway through. I just cried a lot. I just cried a lot. I'm sorry and it was just really beautiful. Oh, how ridiculous. Oh, okay, so it was just, oh, so amazing. So essentially, I think I told you all you need to know going into this, it's a couple who just got married and the guy finds out he's turning into a great white shark and it's like this known, I think in this world and there's like magical realism, it's our world but like, you know, it's a magical realism book. People can have deformities where they transform into, where is Tom going? What is he doing? He just left because I was filming but I'm not sure what he's actually doing. So I decided to go and investigate it. Oh, he's getting sound off his shoes. Just walked down the hill and he's, clever and sound off his shoes. Anyways, he's turning into a great white shark and people have these things where they turn into animals. Anyways, and you're following their love story and the reason I was crying is their kind of story or their initial part of the story has kind of come to a head at this halfway mark and we've now begun part two which is Ren, the woman in the relationship's mother which I'm a little bit nervous about because I'm like, I'm gonna tell you, up until now, this is the five star for me. I have loved following these characters. I've loved following their love story. This is written in a very, very beautiful way. I'm really enjoying the writing style. I'm really enjoying the writing kind of format with just like short paragraphs at some points. There are pages that are like longer but I'm really, really enjoying it. It makes me wanna keep turning the page. I feel like I'm propulsively reading it. I'm reading it without an audiobook which again, it's not me dunking on audiobooks. I'm gonna be reading many throughout this vlog but it's just proving to myself I can read without an audiobook for a while there. Oh my God, sure. Yeah, I am loving it. I think it's beautiful. I think the allegory of what, oh bro, it hit me, it hit me here. Like what it means to love someone and what it means to let them go. It's everything you think it's gonna be but I think for a debut, the writing in this is very, very strong. It's a little bit like writing that knows it's beautiful. Do you know what I mean? Like it kind of, it's aware. It's aware, it's aware of it's style and what it's trying to do to you but I am just loving it and I got, I never thought I'd get so emotional about a guy turning into a great white shark and just what she does for him and how she must be. Oh. Tom was on a call. Tom was on like a very important work call and I was sitting next to him like sobbing and I was like, okay, now I've gotta go upstairs so I can sob in peace. I mean, I'm halfway through. I don't have a ton of thoughts because I feel like once you correct that it kind of is like a catharsis of letting all those emotions out but I am really enjoying it but I am nervous about what route it's gonna take in the second half where there's kind of following a different story. I don't know if the magic of it is really contained in that first part of the story for me but it might not be because it kind of continues its format so I can understand why some people had problems with it but I'm just really letting myself be taken along for the ride and letting my heart be stamped on and crushed underfoot. I'm really enjoying it. So I'll see you when we're home. We're gonna go home now. I'm gonna go see my family and my cats. I'm really excited to see my cats. Not my family, no joking. So yeah, we'll be going there. We'll be there tonight. And I will read, I'll probably read the whole rest of this in the car journey. So I'm gonna try not to cry too much. Otherwise, yeah, I'll be like crying on the road. I always need to read books. I remember a very vivid memory of crying, sobbing, reading Daisy Jones in the six when we were driving back to uni one time. Like I'm sitting in the front. My dad's driving. He's like, you're okay. I'm like, no. It was over Camilla and Billy. It was one of their scenes just really got me when I first read it. Anyways, I'll see you later when we get home. And yeah, hopefully I will finish this today. I'll let you know what I thought, either tonight or from two time. I'll let you know first thing tomorrow. Don't know, if I finish that, I might start reading something else on the way home. We shall see. We shall see what I see. But yeah, I'll see you later with cats. So as you guys would have just seen in the last clip, as soon as I got home, I could not wait to be reunited with my serious light. I have missed this so much while I've been in Wales. And serious light are very kindly sponsoring this video, but I cannot tell you guys how much I missed it. I generally think my reading suffered from not having this with me. I think it's because of the way I read it. I think it's because of the way I read it. I think it's because of the way I read it. I think it's because of the way I read it. I think it's because of the way I read it. Having this with me in Wales, I adore this reading light. I cannot tell you how much I adore this reading light. I really find it makes such a big difference to the amount I read, how much I'm looking forward to reading, how easy I find reading. And although now it's spring, I find that spring, we have bright moments, but then we have very dark moments when those storm clouds roll in. So I think it makes the importance of really good indoor light more important. And I just, look at this. I think one of the best things about the serious light is the technology behind it. It has something called daylight wavelength technology where it replicates the daylight spectrum as closely as possible. So our lights maybe have more blue light, but this light is perfectly formulated so that when we use it, our eyes and our brain reacts in the same way that it does to daylight. So I find it very gentle on the eyes. I find it very easy to read with, but I also find that if I read with it late at night, it doesn't make me like stay awake because my eyes have been like messed up by blue light or whatever. I adore this reading light. I have missed it so much. My reading has really, I think, suffered. I've gotten so used to the benefits that this gives me that I think my reading really suffered when I was without it. So I cannot recommend it enough, guys. I really think this is revolutionary to readers all around the world. I love it so much. So I have got a code which is very exciting. I've got a code which is SR515 and that will get you a hundred pounds off a high definition light, which is the model that I have, and free delivery. It's an incredible deal. Go check it out down below. I've got a link down below. But yeah, you can get a hundred pounds off it. That's like an incredible saving, a hundred pounds, guys. I am so happy to be reunited with it. I feel like my reading is gonna be rejuvenated now because I'm back with my serious light. I have missed it so dearly. So yeah, I recommend it so much. Go check it out down below. The benefits are incredible. I think the technology behind it is incredible. I cannot recommend it enough. So yeah, I love it so much. Let's now go find out what I thought of Shark Heart. Hello, friends. I'm home. I'm so happy to be home. We got home very late last night. The cats, I'll show you the cats at some point, but I'm about to go out for a walk. But yeah, we got home very late last night. I have not unpacked anything. I don't know if you can see any of the mess, but there's quite a lot of mess. I haven't unpacked anything. So that's mostly what I'm doing today. But last night when I got home, I did finish Shark Heart by Emily Hubeck, and I'm giving it five stars. Oh my God, Jesus Christ. Check out the label. They've blessed me. I absolutely adored this. I loved, I can't discourage you how much I love this. I adored the way this was written. It's got such a unique writing style, got such a unique cadence, got such a unique way of storytelling. And I think it was how different that felt that really made me fall in love with it. It felt like someone was taking my hand and like leading me on this journey, but I had, you know, it was like an exciting journey, but I had the comfort of someone with me the entire time. This makes no sense, but I absolutely loved it. I am broken and never be healed. And I think it's a really beautiful portrayal of lots of different types of love. And, you know, like I said, the main story that like the synopsis that I kind of tell you and like you'll hear is the first half of the book. And then it kind of goes off in some different directions. And I just adored the entire, this is such a good debut. I absolutely loved this. I absolutely loved it. I had such a wonderful time reading this book. This is only my third five star of the year. So I'm very happy to have found it. I think we're gonna find probably at least one more in this video. The characters we met, they felt fragile. They felt like I was holding them in the palm of my hand. Like it was so beautiful. I can't explain to you how beautiful and eloquent and just, oh, this book is incredible. I cannot recommend enough. Quite a few of you have said like you're waiting to see what I thought. And I can understand why some people don't like this. I could easily envisage someone having a very similar reading taste to me and giving this like a two star. This is the kind of book that a lot hinges on how you find the way that it's told. Like the writing style, the short paragraphs, like how you react to that is really gonna determine your enjoyment in this book. And you could very easily not react to it well. You know what I mean? But I did really, I loved it. So I cannot recommend enough. What a great start to this vlog. And yeah, so today I'm basically just unpacking. It's kind of my main plans. I'm gonna go out for a walk with my dad now and then we'll come back and I'll start unpacking and sorting my life out. The books, oh God, I don't even wanna talk about the books. It's a bit of a state. It's a bit of a mess. My plans are why I'm gonna start next. I do wanna start the singing hills cycle. I think the audio book for this is what I'm gonna listen to whilst I unpack. I'm undecided whether I wanna read these back to back or whether I should space them out a bit. I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't read them back to back because then I always get confused when I read series back to back. So maybe I'll just start in three lines now and then I'll pick up something else. But yeah, this is the third in the singing hills cycle. But all of these books, I mean, I haven't read them in a long time but I'll tell you what I think when I've read it. But I do feel like these kind of can be read as stand-alones or they're just the kind of self-contained stories where we're following Chi, the cleric, as they go around and speak to people and find out stories. So I am so excited. I think these books have both been at least a 4.5, the first two books, or at least definitely at least a four, the first two in the series. So I'm really, really excited to make progress in this series. So yeah, I'm gonna start the audio book for this now and it's very short. I don't have a lot of plans. I'm gonna walk my dad now, then I'm unpacking and I wanna do a dance workout and have a bath later because I fucking missed having a bath. Oh my God, I'm so excited. I'm gonna use a bath bomb. I'm gonna get it so warm. Oh my God, I'm so excited to have a bath. You don't even understand. Cannot wait. So that's my plan. So other than that, I'm gonna be doing quite a bit of reading. So yeah, I'll see you when I have finished The Riverlands by Nevo. Okay, hello. Hi, why is unpacking so tiring? Can someone tell me please? And can you focus on me? Thank you. The hair's gone crazy again. My hair keeps going a little bit crazy. I'm not sure. I don't think the water in Wales agreed with it. So I'm very excited. But I think I've already told you that I'm so excited. Anyways, I'm finishing The Riverlands. We're gonna keep this very short and sweet because I just did not enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed all the others in the series. I'm gonna put a pause on my mess at the gate or read that later because I just don't think, I think this is on me. I think this is on me. I just didn't connect to this story at all. Clarke Chee and the Bird. Almost brilliant. The Bird is called. They meet a pair of women and a couple and they go on this road together and there's an old story about this ancient feud and ancient story and what have you. And here's the thing. I think, I need to keep this, I need to talk about this very carefully because I don't want to spoil anything. I think the magic of this particular installment in the series is how it all wraps up at the end. And because of how it all wraps up at the end, certain characters throughout the book, I kept very much at a distance and that just meant that the reading experience for me was difficult because I was like, who are these people? Like what? What is going on? I felt it hard to remember them. I kept getting some characters confused. I did not grow attached to them at all and like that makes sense with how the book wraps up. However, it did not make if a good reading experience for me. Does that make sense? So I'm giving this three stars which you know, the writing is still magnificent. The writing is still beautiful but I just never got into the story. I think it's hard with the novella as well. It's so short. I never like settle in the story. I was always like playing catch up with it a little bit. So I don't want to talk about anymore because it's sad and we're just gonna move on. We are going to pretend we didn't hear that. Pretend this doesn't happen. Hopefully I'll enjoy members at the gate more but I think we're gonna go into another series now. Where I'm so deep into the series that I know the characters like the back of my head and I'm just looking for something a bit comforting this afternoon, this evening. We're probably only gonna read this is one of the longer books. I think actually like audiobook length wise this is the longest book that we've got on this TBR. So we're probably only aimed to read the rest of this tonight or the whole of this. I haven't started yet. That is run to the core the next in the Lady Hardcast Mystery series. So yeah, I'm very, very, very excited to make progress in this. To go to Chipping Bevington, meet my girlies again in the apple orchard and people are gonna die from eating apples. How camp? I love it. So yeah, we'll move on from Nevo. We're gonna come back to that series later on in the video but for now let's make some progress and read for on to the core. I've unpacked for lead. The only thing I haven't done is sorted out my books. So I'm gonna sort out my books. I feel like it's daunting but I'll actually be a much quicker exercise and I'm fearing. So we're gonna sort out books and then we will, I'm gonna do a dance workout and then have my bath. I'm so excited. I'll probably see you late in this evening once I have finished reading. ["You and Me What's Wrong?" by Tia Kenzie plays in the background.] Hi cuties, how are we doing? Apologies, I mentioned in my last video that my neighbors are having work done. They're playing, the bill doesn't play music outside. Apologies, you can hear it but there's nowhere I can really film that would get you away from the sound, basically. But I have finished Rockin' to the Core by Tia Kenzie, the eighth in the Lady Hardcast mystery series. Here's the thing, these books are now a five-star reading experience for me every single time. I love these characters so much. I love the audio generator so much. I love the writing style so much. I love the town so much. Basically, today there is a murder at like a local apple orchard and it's to do these, like they're all linked to like the apple orchard or like there's all these secret, it's not secret, there's like this little group of men, like a little society of men that it's all linked to as well. And I loved how in this one it's much more focused on the town. My favorite ones are the ones that are set in the town. I don't like it so much when they go to other places. I really like the town and the pubs and the village green and the people who live in the town and the characters. Like that is my favorite place for the books to be set. However, there were a lot of new characters in this book with this whole like society of men and like the murders were related to that. There's a lot of new characters. I could not remember one of them. I hate to say it. I hope I don't sound ridiculous. I don't know who this man is. I mean, he could be walking down the street. I wouldn't know a thing. Sorry to this man. There was like different couples and different, there's like five different groups of couples or men on their own. And I was just like, who are these people? I couldn't remember who the people were. I needed like a character at the beginning. So I want to give it five stars because like I kind of didn't care. I kind of just had fun and went along for the ride but by the end I was looking for scenes that the, you know, who'd done it had been in. I was like, when did I meet them? When did, who are you? So I think for that reason I've got to give it a 4.5. I'm gonna give it 4.5. I love these books. I love them. I love them. I love them. I love them forever. I've now got two more that are already out. And then I think another one comes out in the first half of this year. So three, three more to read that out so far. I just, I, you guys understand how much I love. If you're looking for a cozy mystery historical series, this will be my number one recommendation. Like I don't want to, this series, like you do go into it. You have to imagine it's a palette cleanser. It's like a little break from the world. You know, it's not as high concept as other books. If you know what to expect, if you've read other cozy mysteries, and I'm talking cozy mysteries, right? But I think these always have a great mystery. And I love the characters. I love Lady Hardcastle and Flow's relationship and the humor in these books and all the different characters that we now know so well. I love the setting. I just think it's perfect. I think these books feel like a little tea break. I don't know, like a little cookie. They feel like a little cookie, you know? It's not substantial. Like I say like Babel by R.F. Kwong is like a lasagna. Like it's like that meal's gonna leave you feeling full. Like it's like, there's a lot to it. Layers, you know, oh, the analogy is really working out. But this is like a little cookie. It's like a little biscuit. It's like a little break, you know? Cheers you up, get your going, you know? But it's not, it's not like the greatest piece of fiction you've ever read. Like it doesn't leave you feeling satiated necessarily, but it leaves you feeling satisfied. Wow, what a good, and that is so right. Anyways, I love these characters. Love them, I love them, I love them. I can't wait to read more. The next one is an act of foul play where I think there's murders within like the like local drama group or something. Oh, it's just written for me. Now we've read that and chart card, what are your biggest books? Today, we're gonna try and read a lot. I'm aiming to read at least two, if not three more books today. I know that sounds crazy. I'm basically just editing this video and reading for this video today. I wanna get as much of it done as I can today because it's Friday, this video's jumped on Sunday and I wanna have a weekend, some semblance of a weekend. So, I think next, because I wanted to break these up, I'm gonna pick up one of the Forgotten Women books and I'll probably read one of the graphic novels, either Island of Whispers or Heartstopper after this. Maybe Heartstopper, I feel like I'm in the mood for Heartstopper this afternoon. But I'm gonna pick up one of these because I wanna break these up throughout the video and then we'll finish a series. I think I'm gonna read the artists. I'm interested in the artists. What are the four categories we've got in this one? Because they're always broken up into like mini groupings. We have got abstract figurative, performance and conceptual craft photography and design. How exciting. And like I said, it is just nonfiction. Each woman has like two to three pages and they're beautiful illustrations with them as well about all these women that have been forgotten throughout history. So, I am going to go ahead and read this now and edit it and I'm also on a live stream with my patrons doing some reading sprints. So, I'll probably see you this afternoon. I wanna go see the cats. I'm loving being back with the cats. Yes, my family as well. But I just keep going and just look, I just stare at the cats like 10 minutes and they just rejuvenate me. So, I'll go see the cats because otherwise we haven't seen them again in this video yet. Cause like life has been so crazy. I mean, I've been seeing them a lot but you haven't seen them yet. And then I will check in with you once I have finished this a little bit later. Curved me. Good evening friends. I have finished Forgotten Room and the artists and I absolutely loved this. Perhaps my favorite in the series so far. I'm gonna give it, whoa, can we unpinkify please? Whoa, that one's very thick. Perhaps my favorite in the series so far. I loved the experience reading this but I think it is because of the way that I read this book. So like I said, we're following different art, different women who are artists throughout history. It's an incredibly, like all these books are incredibly diverse in terms of women's ethnicity, women's time period, women's country. And I loved this because for every woman that came up with this book, I looked up their art. I looked up their art. Excuse me. I'm a genius. Look. The illustrations that are in this book kind of often mimic their art style and do give you a flavor of what it's like. But I loved looking up every single time these women and looking at their art, looking at, oh, some of the photography but some of the best photography I've ever seen. It was so inspiring. I would love to like go on a deep dive about all of these women and find out more of them. I found them absolutely enchanting. So yeah, it's a 4.5 star. I cannot recommend this series enough. We're going to be reading another one in a second later in the video, but I cannot recommend these books enough. They are some of the least rated books on my shelves. I think they often have like a hundred ratings. Like that is nothing on Goodreads. And I just can't recommend this to you guys enough. It's like a little flavor of all these women who have had such often instrumental impacts on our history but have been forgotten. And it's just so, it feels so wonderful to finally hear their stories. I was thinking about why this one worked so much for me and why the writers didn't. And I think the writers was difficult because for every woman, they'd be like a short extract of some of their writing. And part of that was a little bit jarring because we were moving from woman to woman. There's like three pages usually on each one. And so there'd be like a paragraph of each of their writing. And so you were constantly kind of being exposed to different writing styles, but only fleetingly. But also I think those quotes were perhaps chosen as something that was impactful for someone who had read a lot of their work. And in isolation, they didn't always work and weren't always hitting for me. But because this is visual and often, you know, this is a wonderful reading experience because of the way I read it and the reading experience that I had of me, like Googling their imagery in tandem with reading it. But I, I loved it. I loved it. I cannot recommend this series enough. I absolutely loved it. If any of you went to, this is like a very niche, but if any of you went to RF Kwong's talk in London with Waterstones for not bad, or Yellow Face for Yellow Face, Zing Sing was the interviewer and it was incredible. I took all my forgotten women copies for her to sign, but she left before she like walked straight out after the talk. I was like, oh, I bought all these heavy books for that next, okay. But yeah, I loved this. I found hearing about these women's stories so fascinating. I thought it was particularly interesting how a lot of these women, particularly like the more subversive artists in this, were women who began their art journey after having a marriage and kids and were often in the later stages of their lives. And it just got me thinking about women's room for creativity if you're also trying to create a family and how that often comes at the expense of that and how do you hold both things in tandem. I just think it's interesting. So yeah, I'm not going to read Heartstopper tonight like I promised you. I think I'm gonna start the audiobook for Thorn Hedge. Now I'm fancing something a bit fantastical. Teaking Fisher's writing is something that I really know I enjoy. I think I'm gonna save Heartstopper for the weekend. So I'm gonna start the audiobook for Thorn Hedge. I won't see you again tonight, but hopefully I will see you at some point in the morning with my thoughts on Thorn Hedge. ["Thorn Hedge"] Okey-dokey, I finished Thorn Hedge. This one's a tricky one to rate because my instinct is to give it a four. I really enjoyed it. But like, I don't know if it's got quite enough. I don't know, how am I gonna give this? I'm torn between a 3.5 and a four. I think I'm just gonna give it a 3.5. No, I'm gonna give it a four. It's a 10 to a four. It's like a 3.8 if you had to tell me to. No, I really do enjoy this. So this is basically, I don't wanna tell you much because it's a super short, it's like 120 pages novella. But this is basically a sleeping-duty retelling and we're following Toadling who's like this little fairy and she has been protecting this keep, it seems, for many, many years and one day a night comes across her path and notices her when she hasn't been noticed for many years. And that's kind of all you need to know. And I did really enjoy this. Teaking Fisher's writing is absolutely lovely. I will say I think now I've read two of her fantasy and two of her horror. I think I prefer her horror style. That's why I'm a bit tempted to give it a four because this was lovely, right? I loved the journey this went on. I think it was really well-paced for a novella. I liked what the book, I'm trying to really talk in riddles because I think this is a very vague synopsis so I don't think you should necessarily know too much before going into it. But I liked what it was saying around childhood and belonging and all these things, right? But I feel like with her fantasy, it's very safe. You better f***ing take that back right now. You better f***ing stop right now. I don't know, but in some ways that's nice, right? It's a very like, it feels familiar. It feels familiar with the tropes and the storylines that we know from fairy tales but she also twists stuff, like twists, you know, the maiden and the tower trope or, you know, all these different things. So it feels safe and familiar but also the tropes that we know are constantly being twisted. But I like a horror. I like how weird her horror is. Her fantasy is focused on like, yeah, like twisting tropes whereas the horror is like weird and I love her horror. So I really did enjoy this. I don't think it's something everyone has to read. I would maybe recommend picking up the audiobook. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I think it's a nice little story but like, am I gonna, is this gonna be, you know, in like 10 years am I probably gonna remember this back? Maybe not, you know what I mean? So yeah, that is now five books completed. In terms of what I'm gonna read next, I'm not entirely sure. I'm leaning towards one of these two because I have the audiobooks for them. One of these two will be what we're reading next but I'll check them with you once I've read something else. But we're making good progress. Hello friends. It's been days. When did I last check in with you? Probably Saturday. It is now Wednesday. I've not been reading because I have not really felt incentivized to pick this up. I have just finished it and I'm gonna give it a three star. I don't think the series is bad, right? I think the writing is great. I loved the first in the series but the rest of the series just haven't hit the same for me. In some ways I feel like the series could be read as stand-alones and you could kind of read any of them as stand-alones because, oh my God guys, they're so repetitive. I can't get over how repetitive these books are. So the premise, I don't even want to tell you the premise because I've heard it 10,000 times. I'm hearing the same conversation over and over and over again. The premise is there's this cafe where you can travel back in time but you have to finish the coffee before the coffee gets cold and you can't change what happens in the past at all. So it's kind of very specific reasons why people would want to go back and each book has kind of four short stories in it. And I swear to God, they explain the rules every single short story. Every single short story they go through. There's like loads of rules. I've just kind of distilled it for you but there's loads of like aspects to it and they go through it every short story. And I'm fed up. I'm fed up. It's very repetitive and I really don't feel like a lot of these stories are saying anything new. I feel like that first book had some really interesting dynamics and it's some really interesting storylines. I cried at two of them. Two of them made me cry in that original book and I haven't cried any of the other ones because they just feel so derivative of everything I've read from before. I think if you're doing this, each short story needs to be about a new kind of relationship or new reasoning and it just feels like, oh my God, I've read this, I've read this 10,000 times. There was one in this one about a dog and that one was my favorite because we haven't had a pet one yet, I don't think. And so I appreciated that. That one was good. That one was like probably a full star but the rest of them, I was so bored and I had no inclination to pick this book up at all. So this is the end of the series to me. There probably will be more published into English but this is the end. So I finished a series, which is pretty good. I mean, we're gonna finish another one at some point in this video and get up to date with a few more. Yeah, this is the end of the road for me with this series. I would just recommend the first one. I think the first one is magnificent and then I think if for any reason you don't wanna read the first one, you could probably read any of the other ones. I don't know. I just feel like if it's gonna go on this long then you need to give me something different. So anyways, I don't know what I'm gonna read next. It depends whether I pick something up tonight. If I don't, I'll probably read Heartstopper tomorrow. If I do pick something up tonight, I will probably listen to Mamma's at the gate whilst I'm cooking but I'm feeling like getting through this was enough. Maybe it's even a bit less. I don't think it's less than a three star because the quality is there. The writing, the storytelling somewhat is there. It's just like I've had enough. You know what I mean? So yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna pick others up next but you'll see in the next clip what I've picked up. We're getting there guys, only four books left to go. I've been working on this for five weeks. I'm already planning what book I'm gonna buy. I'm like, hmm, it's so hard. I don't know what book to get. I'm like, what book do I want for my reward? Anyways, I'll see you a little bit later with whatever I've picked up next. Heartstopper Volume Five didn't take long. I'm giving it five stars. Do I think it's my favorite in the series, no but I also think I'm growing up and like when I started this series I was reading a lot more YA than I am now. However, it's sort of five star. I absolutely adored this. So obviously it's the fifth in the series. However, I feel like this series now because of the TV show and like, just let me show you the cover. You gotta know, you know, some things that happen at least. Nick and Charlie fall in love in this series. We all know that's what it's about. Do you want spoilers? But this one is about Nick is in year 12. He's a school year older than Charlie and so he's having to start to think about universities and how they're gonna deal with that and their relationship and it's also them talking about having sex for the first time. And I just think Alice O's men again and again and again manages to like really hone in on what it's like being in a teenage relationship. I always said reading the first one viscerally reminded me of like me and Tom falling in love because we met at school and like that kind of teenage nervousness and like all the feelings that come with a teenage relationship that I don't think come with a mature one. Like of course people get nervous but there's just different dynamics to it when you're at school. You know what I mean? Oh my God, it's like, it takes me back. It's insane. And so I feel like Alice O's men touches on these subjects so well and I just think these books would be absolutely wonderful for young people to read. They are YA that I can really see the value in young people reading them and seeing themselves in it or seeing questions that they have answered. I absolutely loved it. I loved, I always say the facial expressions that Alice O's men does in the body language is so expressive without being over the top. Like it's subtle but you feel so much about it. I love these books. I love them so much. So yeah, Nick does go on a university road trip with Tara and Elle and they're visiting different universities and there's like, you know, obviously it's all drawn and one of the universities they visit is University of Leeds which was where I, me and Tom went to uni and it was so crazy. Alice O's men have obviously done such a good job of researching the actual locations. It wasn't just like, oh, here's, you know, standard university buildings. They were spot on. I had so much fun like, oh my God, that's the Roger Stevens building, throwback. Yeah, it was really interesting seeing those places come to life in this book. So I really enjoyed that aspect of it. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. And this volume five was originally supposed to be the last book in the series but there's now going to be one more. And of course I always say like, I'm so sad that it's ending. However, I'm glad it's not ending with this one because I feel like there's a few things that feel unfinished and I think it would have been very rushed trying to fit all into one volume but it does feel like their story is coming to a lovely close. Do you know what I mean? Like you don't want something so wonderful. You don't wanna go on forever and ever and ever and ever. You do want it to have an entire arc and like feel like it comes full circle and I really do feel like the stars. I just loved it. I loved it. I loved it. It's gonna be sad to let them go. It's gonna be sad to say goodbye when the last volume comes out but it does feel like Alice Eisenman is doing it with a lot of care and like making it feel like, okay, this is a really good ending to their story. So I loved it. It's so much fun to really get. I'm now gonna pick up tonight Mamma's at the gate by Nevo. I'm gonna try and finish it tonight. Again, these are very short. This is only how many pages? I think this one's a little bit longer than it's interval. This is 118 pages so it's very short. So I don't know if I'll check in with you tonight but the aim is definitely to finish this tonight. So we will see how that goes. But yeah, I'm very much enjoying myself and we're almost there. We're almost able to buy a book. Woo! How exciting. Good morning, friends. How are we doing? Let's chat about Mamma's at the gate whilst I do my skincare. Where can I put it so that you can see it there? You gotta really see that. There. Yeah, that'll do. So I finished Mamma's at the gate this morning. So this one is about clergy going back to their home kind of. It's like where all the clerics live. It is their home. Where all the clerics live and where like the birds live. They're not birds, they have another name but I can't remember what it is. We're almost brilliant lives and almost brilliant has become a mother. And yeah, clergy has gone back there and someone who was a very important part of their life has died. And there's these mammoths at the gate with these other people who there's a bit of tension between them and them. I don't want to spoil anything. These books are so difficult to describe to you or even talk about because I find the magic of them is just reading them. Like I kind of don't ever want to say anything to about the singing hill cycle. Cause I'm like, you just have to experience Nevo's writing and what these, sorry, what these books are saying, you know? Like I don't want, I don't want to tell you anything but I really enjoyed this one. I gave, I'm giving this one four stars. I feel a little bit worried that I'm not enjoying this series as much as I used to. I don't know. I don't know. I've just become a lot pickier though in terms of my ratings since, I mean, I read the first two ages ago, like years ago. So I think I've just become a lot pickier in terms of my rating. But this book is a really beautiful look at grief and loss and, you know, the way that people can live on in the stories that we tell after they're gone. And I mean, I really, really, really, really enjoyed this. I really enjoyed the setting of this one. I think my problem with the last one was I felt like there wasn't a strong setting. Like the previous book is kind of just told like on a road, like we're just walking along on a road. Whereas this one, we're at the, I wanna call it like an abbey, is there a word? Yes, the abbey. It just feels like a very nice, calm setting that there wasn't a ton of world building. It wasn't a ton of description, but you kind of like have an idea of this place just from the descriptions of it. And I really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun when reading this. You know, I love Niveau's writing. I would really recommend these. These are great like audiobooks if you're wanting to catch up on your reading goal. They're all on ever and I believe. Yeah, I really, I really enjoyed it. I know that's not the most insightful thing, but I find them very difficult to talk about because I just think they're so short. They're like a hundred pages and you kind of just have to experience it on your own. So, hang on, I need to finish rubbing my wish on cream in. So we have two books I've to read. I'm gonna do some editing of this vlog now and then get ready. We have got The Scientist and Island of Whispers. I think I'm gonna pick Island of Whispers up next. I'm really excited to read this one. It's a middle grade. It's by Francis Harding who I've been meaning to read more from and then we'll finish on The Scientist. I just want to say now guys, by the end of this video, I'm going to have finished two series, got up to date with two series. So then this brings me up to date with the singing hill cycle or be it for only two months, but it counts. And made progress on another series. This video has been great for series girls. Anyways, I'm gonna pick up Island of Whispers now or once I've edited for a little bit and I'll let you know what I think when I finished it. But I think this could be a magical reading experience. I'm very much excited to pick this up. 🎵 The sound of rain leaves my feet 🎵 🎵 I close my eyes, they're home of bees 🎵 Hello cuties, Miss Laura is a snorer right now. She's on my bed sleeping right there. So we're trying not to speak to her, aren't they? Maybe I'll just have to like do the... I don't know, that's enjoyable. I am very uncomfortable with the energy that we've created in the studio today. Let's stop that there. But I finished Island of Whispers by Francis Harding and I think this is gonna end up being like a three point her tail something. She's not happy I'm talking. Let's pick this up. I think it's gonna be a three point five. I enjoyed this. This is playing up on the classic tale of a ferryman taking the souls of the dead to like their afterlife. Basically it's the story of this. So following Milo, whose dad is the ferryman and he is thrust into the role suddenly. And I enjoyed this but it's very short. It's so short. Like it's 115 pages but a lot of those pages are taken up by the illustrations which I really did like a lot of the illustrations. I thought they were really beautiful. This is like less than an hour's worth of reading. It was very, very fast. Probably like the quickest book we've read so far. And I just didn't feel like we really got into the depth of everything. Now, this is a middle grade, right? This is for kids. I am not the target audience of this. You are very old and you need to play your age and not 12, you are an old lady. So I'm saying for my personal enjoyment it's a three point five but I think this is a great story for kids. Do you know what I mean? I would really recommend this to kids in my life in terms of like understanding kindness and caring and feeling empathy for other people's lives and other people's stories and coming to times with difficult things, perhaps a loss of a loved one, et cetera. I think this is wonderful things and I really enjoyed as always Frances Harding's writing. I cannot wait to pick up more. I own so many Frances Harding's. I think this was Frances Harding. Definitely when I owned, when this was still unread was like the most books on my TBR by a single author. I own Unraveler, The Lie Tree and I feel like I own another one. It's just a little lot there. So yeah, I did enjoy this. I thought it was lovely. It was just short and I felt like a little bit rushed and I just never like fully got there for me, you know? But I would recommend this especially to like children. I think it's a lovely book. I think it's been a lovely gift to someone. Like the book feels very nice to hold and to read. It's like an interesting shape. I don't know, those are all important things. The shape of a book is very important. And you know, I liked how it played upon this classic story. But yeah, I just don't, I don't know how to say it. It was fine. I enjoyed it. We're gonna get into our final book now and then I get to buy a book. I'm gonna go ahead and read Forgotten Women Scientists. My opinions of this will probably be pretty similar to they were of the artist, but I will read it anyways and let you know what my thoughts are. But yeah, I'm intrigued to read about scientists that time has forgotten. So let's get into this. Okay, so I finished our final book Forgotten Women Scientists. I don't really have a lot to say about this one but I haven't already said to you about the other one. If I'm honest with you, I enjoyed this. I'm gonna give it a 3.5, which is like crazy that I am giving one book in the series 4.5 and one 3.5 when they are essentially the same thing. They're exactly the same thing. You're what? I'm you. This series concept as a whole is a five-star concept. Like going through history, finding these women, telling their stories is absolutely a five-star concept. I'm just rating it based on my personal enjoyment and I'm just not that much of a science gal, you know? I'm not into science. And if you're into science, into mathematics, I think you would absolutely love this. It was very interesting because all the books in this series really aimed to highlight women from across time, race, country, whatever. But at the beginning of this one, it says like this one is gonna be particularly like Western, modern, white to focus because those are the people who have had the money and the access to education to learn sciences. So I just found that very interesting how this one was a little bit different in that regard to the rest in the series, but I still enjoyed it. I would recommend this series. I think it is grossly, grossly underrated. I just like, you know, I don't really care about science. The artist's reading experience was so fun because I was looking up all of their art, but this one was just like, you know, it was okay. It was okay. So now with that, we have read 10 books. We've read the 10 books that we needed to read in order to buy one as a little treat. So let's head over to my laptop and let's buy a book, shall we? Oh my God, I'm so excited. I can't believe I'm getting to buy a book. What's going on? I'm actually so proud of myself for doing this video. Like I read 10 books. That's gonna get my physical TVR down so much and really the series focus in this video was so good. Like finishing two series, getting up to another two, making progress in another one. Like we really did that. We really made series progress. So we now got to decide what book to buy and I know I want to buy a 2024 release. I haven't read any 2024 releases yet this year. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it. That's really bad. But I don't actually own a ton. So this is my anticipate releases part of my spreadsheet. I use Ali from Hardbite called a spreadsheet. I cannot recommend it enough. So this is my spreadsheet and the ones are highlighted in the color, orange or yellow, the ones that I own, orange ones I was sent by the publisher, yellow ones I got myself or was sent by like one of you. Green ones I've read and I've only read one it was one I read last year and it was on my worst books of 2023. I read an argument last year. So we don't want to talk about that. That's not a great start to my 2024 reading. So everything that's out is up until here. I just got last murdered into the world the other day. So it's anything here. It's anything on this list here that I'm interested in getting really. And I think I've decided what I'm getting. I want to get how to solve your own murder by Kristen Perrin. Let's go find it. I really like the UK cover. I know not everyone likes it. I feel like the US covers very nice as well. So it's a little bit controversial but I really like this cut. Oh my God, it's a series though. That's fine, that's fine. I'm making so much good progress in series. That's fine. This one is about a woman who's told and she's younger that she's going to be murdered and she spends her whole life trying to solve her own murder like setting up files on all people in life like he's gonna kill her. She's murdered and I think it's her great niece arrives from London and discovers that her worst fears come true and she is trying to solve the mystery. It's picture fans of Richard Osman and Janice Haller. We need to look no further. So I think I'm gonna get this. Add it to my basket. Oh, extra spicy sauce. That's gonna strain my basket. I'm very excited. I'm very, very excited. I think this is gonna be a great read. I also, I really do like the style of the cover. I think it's a really good style cover. So this is the book I'm gonna buy as my little treat but yeah, that's the end of the video. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. I had a lot of fun making it. We've had a lot of books. This is gonna be good for my yearly reading goal progress as well because I was getting a little bit behind on terms of aiming to read 150. I set my goodies goal at 100 but really I'm aiming for 150 and we were behind. So this is gonna have helped with that as well. So thank you guys so much for watching. Let me know if you try this out yourself. Reading 10 books and buying one. This has been a thing on Instagram for like forever but it was really fun to try it out and I'm very excited to get my hands on little book as a little treat. It feels like a reward. So yeah, I'll see you guys soon in another video. Bye.