 It's my channel. Today we're doing a video that I am actually, it's one of my favorite videos to do every single year. I'm so excited to film this. I love making big TBRs that are kind of like a challenge to me that then we go back when the kind of time is up and like react to it and watch it and see whether I actually achieve what I want to achieve. I never do. I never do, but I really enjoy doing it. So today we're going to be doing the 23 books I need to read before I turn 23. So my birthday is on January 28th. I actually 23? That means you're old. I'm getting older. I don't know if I can, if I want all this drama all the time, if I'm being honest. I think I said this when I turned 22. Like I kind of just feel like 17 still. I don't feel like I really aged since then. The idea of turning 23, my mum had me when she was 24. And I remember last time I did this, I did the video in like August or September and that's a lot to ask of me. Like to read 22 books. It was that time that I don't really have concrete plans to read in only like four months. That's a lot to ask. So I'm doing it a lot earlier this year to hopefully actually give myself a better chance of being successful. That's the aim. So let's just get straight into it. These are kind of the books I'm most excited to read at the moment. They're like top of my priority list. So first on this list is a fairly new acquirement to my TBR. And it's one of the most beautiful books I own. It is Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Su Lin Tan. I mean, look at the spray edges. This book makes me, it just makes me so happy to look at. It just makes me so happy to look at the painted end pages. Whoa. I mean like come on, come on. It kills me. Alexa, tell me I'm stunning. So I'm very excited. This is from Fairyloot and honestly they just kill it. They get what I want. I feel like their special editions of books are just getting better and better and better. Like they keep pulling out the bag and I'm like, what are you putting in these to make, like how are you doing this? So this was actually on my most anticipated releases of the year even before I got it from Fairyloot. It is like a retelling of this Chinese legend of a daughter of the moon goddess. And I just know that it's basically about our main character like rescuing her mother. Her mother is kind of exiled I believe and it's her trying to rescue her. The vibes, I feel like it's going to be like beautiful and romantic and soft and gorgeous and floaty. I mean, I just love it. You know, I want to get around to reading some of the books I own that are my favorite book. Like this is one of my favorite looking books that I own so I really want to get around to reading it. I'm very, very excited. Then actually let's quickly chat about some of the books I have. You can't see it anymore because I've moved my stuff around a bit. But it's all my books that are wrapped up. I do a series. I missed it last month but don't worry it's coming this month. My 2021 release is that I haven't read a wrapped up that I unwrapped one and I read it in a blog. And let's talk about three there because sometimes it's easy to forget about them because I wrapped up. I don't visually see them anymore because one of them is my other favorite Fairyloot special edition that I own and that's Six Crimes and Cranes. One of my patrons, Melissa, like keeps telling me I need to read this and how amazing this book is. And every time I'm like okay. This was the first like book that I've got recently from Fairyloot that I was like I don't know how to live. Like this one I can't really remember the plot of it. I'm gonna be like 100% honesty. I'm gonna be 100% honest. I can't remember the plot of it but I've almost read it a couple times for many different videos. Like Fate keeps pulling us apart so I'm hoping maybe in the next couple months it will come up and wrap up. Then we have The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman. This is the sequel to The Thursday Murder Club which was my favorite book of last year and like I need to read it. I can't believe I haven't read it yet. I read The Thursday Murder Club I think in like November so I've had a fair amount of time to read this and it just doesn't happen. I own it and it's wrapped up and I need to just read it. Yeah The Thursday Murder Club is this like murder mystery about these old group of friends at this retirement home and it's them like solving murders together. They have a murder club where they solve... well not solve. They try to solve cold cases together and then a murder happens on the doorstep and they actually have to solve it. I like drama. Drama drives me at times. And then this is the sequel and another thing usually when celebrities write books I'm like but Richard Osman it does make sense if you know him. He's like a very intelligent person. I would like he would be someone I would have expected to write a book and I think now he's actually becoming an author full-time. I think well no I think he's keeping one of his TV shows but I know he's stepped down from pointless which if you're not from the UK doesn't make any sense but one of his TV shows he's he's leaving to give more time to his writing and yeah I feel like he's one of the only celebrity authors like especially the ones that try to like do it. Not just one book but like a lot um who I've actually like vibed with and I feel like we can excuse him. Death to all of them apart from Richard Osman. And then finally we have theatre of marvels. So this is what I'm super excited for. It's coming out in the next couple weeks I think months I don't know. It's coming out sometime soon and I have an arc of it. I know it's about this girl I think it's set in like Victorian times who is kind of like in a circus I think she like masquerades like a leopard girl something that's like her personality but obviously she's not a leopard girl but that's like what the circus sells her as and I think like women start going missing or getting murdered like around her vicinity or like in women in vulnerable places that she kind of knows about and she endeavors to kind of figure it out. It's like genuinely one of my perfect books. I feel like historical mystery like genuinely I'm gonna eat it up. Oh my god Jesus Christ. Check out the label. So again this is one that I'm hoping I may like I kind of know what it looks like it's like a paper bag so maybe next month I may try and like you know source it out we'll see how well I do but that is another one that's wrapped up that I want to read. Okay back into the physical books. Next is one that I went and bought recently and it is A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle. This is pitched as like a perfect book for Agatha Christie fans. Very very Agatha Christie. November 1924. The endeavor set sail with 2,000 passengers and a killer on board. I actually went um I went and looked at this author's he has like a public Goodreads page and he was just reading like loads of Agatha Christie. Sorry I was trying to get a book out but I can't get it out of my cart to show you. Yeah he was just reading like loads of Agatha Christie non-fiction so some of you may know I own Murder Isn't Easy which is all about like the poisons in Agatha Christie's books and he was like reading that and like no one's read it and I was like me and you me and you Tom we can get along. So obviously this just sounds right on my street. I actually really love murder mysteries on boats. I think they're a great setting because you are trapped and I have plans to read this in the next couple months so this will definitely well almost definitely be getting read on this. I changed my plans. Tom just seems like a nice guy. I mean like look he hails from Leeds where I went to uni, now lives in Oxfordshire with his partner, a cat and two surprisingly cunning tortoises. I mean like Tom I like you. I like you. We can get along and this is his debut so I'm very excited to read it. Next we have another arc that I've got. This is coming out very soon. It may even oh no here we go. Third of May. This is coming out. This is When Woman Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill. So when I requested this I just requested it because I saw about it on Twitter but I didn't realize Kelly Barnhill was the author of I think it's When the Girl Drank the Moon which is like a super popular like middle grade fantasy kind of book but this is like a historical retelling. I'm like into historical stuff at the moment set in the 50s and I think it's about like women used to be dragons and then they were like contained and it's like women becoming dragons again. I don't know this sounds like my kind of thing like fantasy magical realism-y like women rise up and they all become dragons and take the sky. I don't know. Next book right? Next book I want you all to contain yourselves. Like I want you to try not to scream. I want you to try to scream at this book that has found itself into my path today. It arrived this morning and I was like in need to go on the list. Oh my god Nisama! Oh my god! Okay it's happening! Everybody stay calm! Since Courtney Summer's new release this comes out I think in September? Yeah it does September and I'm so excited. A lot of you know Courtney Summer is one of my favorite authors. I just like she gets what I want. She just gets it. Like the darkness, the themes that she writes about just everything is absolutely perfect. This I just know is very based on like the Harvey Weinstein case and kind of like abuse of power. I've read a lot actually about what Courtney Summer has said about this book and I know I read it quite recently where she spoke about how a lot of her books are kind of like protagonists who believe already believe the world is shit basically. Who already already believe that the world has no hope but I think our protagonist in this kind of realizes that as the book goes on. I cannot say enough of a big thank you to Wednesday books for sending this to me because they have to send it like from America to me and that is just so incredible. I'm so thankful. I think that's the first time like a publisher has ever done that for me so I'm just so thankful and this is probably one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Probably this the Paris apartment which I've read. I can't think of what other ones would be up there but like this is so up there. I am going to read it. I'm going to read it before it comes out. I'll probably read it in the next couple months at some point because I keep looking at it and I mean I have no video plans for this but I'm going to like just have to figure it out somehow and read it somehow because I am just so excited. I'm so excited. Next we have a book that's part of the series that I absolutely love and it is A Picture of Murder which is the fourth Lady Hardcastle mystery. It's the next one I need to read. I haven't read one of these in a while. I'm like getting the itch. When was the last one I read? I think sometime in the autumn winter of last year I read the last one so it's been a while. This is Lady Hardcastle. I've sold this every time and they're made flow who are besties. They solve mysteries together in this quaint English town that they've moved to. It's generally my favorite thing ever like this series. It's the perfect palette cleanser to me. I feel like so attached to it. I just love the vibes, the atmosphere. It's just like the perfect like refresh for me as a book which I feel like I need right now. Listen the vlog. I'm doing a vlog at the moment that was supposed to go up on Sunday then was supposed to go up today. We're hoping now it's going to go up on Thursday but like how well it's going to go I don't know. So I do feel like I need to refresh. I agree. I've had it. Remember what I've had? It. It. This one is something to do with they go to a moving picture that's being shown in the village on Halloween but it goes oh yeah it takes a macabre turn when the first night screening ends with a mysterious murder and the second night with another one by one the actors turn up dead in ways that eerily echo their film. I mean come on it's giving me the draw vibe so excited to read this. Next we have two graphic novels. I've spoken recently. When did I speak about this? No you know what I spoke about it in a Patreon personalized video I made not on here but I spoke in that video about how I'm wanting to read more graphic novels because I just don't pick them up enough but I love them and so the two that I absolutely want to make sure I read are the two that I have left in the Tea Dragon Society, the Tea Dragon Festival and the Tea Dragon Tapestry. I read the first one and it was like one of the most perfect graphic novels I've ever read up there with Heartstopper. I just need to read these now. I'm gonna try and like paste them out. I don't want to read them both at the same time but genuinely I just want you to know some of the most gorgeous art you will have ever seen in your life. Some of the most gorgeous art you've ever seen in your life. I just feel so lucky to own these. I think I'm gonna cherish them for my whole life. I think the stories in it are amazing. I can't wait to like read them with my kids one day. Like I just think they're amazing and I love them and I need to read them and I think they're the most perfect graphic novels ever so I want to read them both. Next one that I had to put on this list was Finley Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano. Now this is like Booktube's obsession at the moment. The girls are eating it up and like as I feel like a resident mystery cozy mystery person booktube I need to read it. Like I feel like I'm letting everyone down by not having read this yet. I'm not holding it up. Like I'm not holding up my standards. I know this about an author Finley Donovan who is a struggling writer and when she's like pitching her next book to her editor or agent a woman over here's her and thinks she's like a hit woman and gives her money to kill her husband and it's her like kind of like struggling through this and like oh my god what the hell is going on. Everyone loves it and I haven't read it yet which is shameful. It's a start of another series though but like who cares at this point. Next we have Over the Woodward Wall by Aiden Baker. Another start of a series but I feel like this has been on my TBR for so long. Sean McGuire is one of my favorite authors ever. Yeah we're following two kids as they explore this magical world kind of thing. This is a book from Middle Game that is written about in Middle Game that Sean McGuire has then gone on to write so I'm very excited to read this. I've spoken about it a lot lately though so I don't feel like we need to get into it. Next let's actually talk about these just together briefly. These are two like ends of duologies that I feel like I definitely need to finish these two duologies this year. I always say this year because my birthday's so near to the start of the next year like only a couple well a couple weeks into the new year that it always feels like I have this year and then you know a couple weeks bonus at the start of next year. But we have Muse of Nightmares by Lenny Taylor and the Monarchs by Cass Morgan and Danielle Page. I really love both of the start of these duologies. This one is like very hard to describe but it's this magical fantastical world. We have Leslie Strange who's obsessed with the mythical locity of Weep and then he finds out he couldn't go there and it's crazy. This one is a sorority book where we're following these witchy sisters in the sorority and them like bonding and like crazy stuff happening and I really really like the first one. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did so these are two duologies that are definitely like top of my list to finish. Next we have one I haven't spoken about in a long time so I don't know if people will be expecting to see this but it is The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nevo. So I love Nevo. I love the Sinning Hill cycle which is like her novella short story collection but I put a tweet out recently about how I really want books that give that old Hollywood vibe that Evan Hugo has. We need this. This is essential. This is a crisis. It's something I feel like there's not enough of. I can't believe there's not more books set in that kind of golden age of Hollywood actors. I love like the behind the scenes of studios in Hollywood. I love that kind of thing and there's just like not enough books about that and a lot of people mentioned Siren Queen which is Nevo's release this year which I'm so excited for but I feel like I should read this before I buy like another book. Like I just feel like morally that is the correct thing to do and this is I heard funny things about this but I think I am gonna love it. This is a great Gatsby retelling but it's like fantastical and it's focusing on Jordan Baker and it's like a retelling. It's magical. Jordan Baker is queer and Asian in this and I just love Nevo's writing. It's pretty short. I think it's only just over 200 pages, about 250 pages so hopefully it won't take too long to read. Then we have one of the books I have wanted to read for the longest time and I just have never fit it into a vlog. I think at some point I am gonna have to do reading the books. I couldn't fit into vlog's video because it's like gone on too long but it is I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle MacNamara. Michelle MacNamara is kind of trying to figure out who the Golden State Killer is. I believe he has now been caught. Michelle MacNamara has passed away but this is like her basically trying to figure out who it is and I think actually some of her research led to the actual killer being caught and I love true crime. Me and Tom watch a lot of true crime stuff together. Not so much lately. We haven't been watching a lot of like Netflix true crime stuff because it is very heavy. So I prefer to watch like I do love Shade and Ryan from X Used to Be Buzz for Yourself Now on the Watcher. I love their true crime stuff because it does have a bit of not lightness to it but like it doesn't crush your soul quite as much. The genre is interesting but you've got to be careful how you consume it but anyway I really really want to read this. I've wanted to read it. I've probably owned it for like two years at this point and it's one of the books still if you ask me like what would you like to read most it'd be up there but for some reason I never get around to it. Oh then we have one that a lot of you have been telling me to read. It is the Marlowe Murder Club. This I believe is very similar to the Thursday Murder Club. I think we have yeah we have another like old protagonist who then has to figure shit out. Figure a murder out essentially. So I decided to go and investigate it. Oh yeah a lot of you have been telling me that I'm really gonna love it. Again very agatha Christie event. Again very murder mystery and my kind of jam. I feel like I'm actually worried about my shelves because I feel like I'm actually running out of a lot of space on my murder mystery thriller shelves and I've like got loads of space in my fantasy. I'm like should I switch them over but I don't really want to do it. I don't know. I don't know. It's a problem. It's a problem. Oh then we have an author that I absolutely cannot wait to start. This is The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St James. I can't wait to read this. I've always wanted to read Simone St James. I think a lot of you have told me I'm gonna like her stuff. We have this murder that happened in the town many many years ago in the 70s and the suspect was seen fleeing from the crime but she was acquitted and then in the present day we've got like a true crime blogger who interviews her and weird shit starts occurring. Like it's like is it haunted? Is there a little bit of hauntedness to it? Like items move when she's not looking and she could swear she's seen a girl outside the window. So I'm very very excited. I've always wanted to read Simone St James and I think I might read like more than one Simone St James this year which is very exciting. I'm hoping to get around to a lot of her books. Oh we've mentioned Agatha Christie a little bit. So the next book is on my list is Lord Edward Dives by Agatha Christie. So Parallel Endhouse is on my 2022 TBR and then this is the next one in the Urquiparrow series that's why it's on here. A lot of you have told me I am gonna enjoy this one as well. This is literally just on here because I would like to get up to this point at least this year with Agatha Christie, Parallel Endhouse and this one and then probably my reread of Murder on Neuron Express because that's the next one in the series. So yeah I would like to read those three at least this year and they're not very long. They're only like 250 pages so I'm very excited. I haven't read a novel of Proro since last summer so it's been a while. It's time to get back into it. Then we have one of the top books I want to read which is A Spindle Splendid by Alexi Harrow. I was talking about this a quite a bit lately as well I think. This is A Sleeping Beauty Retelling. It's a novella. Listen there's illustrations throughout it. Many of you will know Alexi Harrow wrote my second favourite book of last year which was The Once and Future Witches. I mean this book which looks so cool and so I want to read all of her other stuff. I do own $10,000 January. I don't know when I'm gonna get around to do that though but this I can definitely get around to. Next we have Until the Last to Me by Sylvain Nouvelle. This is the next in, oh my god what has happened to my page here? This is a very strange fiction series. It's very strange. Word of these women who tried to influence historical events. The first book was kind of World War II into the space race. I'm not sure when this one is set but yeah it's like an alternate history. It's very hard to speak about but Sylvain Nouvelle just kind of gets, I feel like him and Andy Weir are my two top, top, top, top sci-fi writers. They just kind of get what I want. They get like the weirdness, well this is weirdness. Andy Weir gets like the, the factualness of what I want but this gets the weirdness that I want. I feel like the, the thrilleriness of this is like almost apocalyptic. It's sci-fi. Oh it's so good and I'm very intrigued to see where this, the series is gonna go. Okay we have two more, two more. I feel like we've gotten through that quite fast. Next we have Only a Monster. Now this one when it arrived in Fairy Loot, it's another Fairy Loot edition, I like, I was, I didn't, I'd never heard of it before and I was like am I gonna want to read this? Then loads of you were telling me how it's perfect and how again it has that kind of like fantasy historical mystery combination that I love that it's like my favorite combination. I get the sense that it's kind of like dark academia-y. I've seen a lot of fan art for it and like the vibes are immaculate but I, I don't know anything about the plot. Like I generally don't know anything about the plot. Sorry, sorry, it's one of those. I don't know anything about the plot but so many of you have told me that it's like gonna be my new favorite book that I'm like okay well I have to read it before I turn 23. And then finally it's another book of the month book that I have and that is Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins, another like murder mystery. Again it's like six friends isolated on this island and I think they start dying essentially. One person goes missing and another turns up dead. From Rachel Hawkins what I expect is like just a fun mystery that's like high stakes. It's fairly short so I feel like it's gonna have a very fast, fast pace. Okay so there we have it friends that is my 23 books I have to read before I turn 23 on January 28th next year. Let me know if you've read any of these, what ones you think I should get to first. I feel like I genuinely believe I'm gonna read all of these. I think I'm doing very well with making these TBRs now. I feel like I've got a sense of what I end up reading. Yeah let me know which of these you've read or which of them you're most excited for me to read. If you got onto the end of the video comment the butterfly emoji for the monarchs. Comment that down below if you've gone to the end. Thank you so much for watching, I love you so much and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!