 So for three years now, I have been doing a Christmas haul slash unboxing every year. The past two years, they've been like unwrapping my Christmas presents together. The first year was just like, oh, this is where I got for Christmas. But the past two years, I've done like unboxings and unwrappings and opening my Christmas presents, my, well, my book, Christmas presents with you. And before we do that again next week after Christmas, I thought we could go back and look back at the old ones and see what I've got for Christmas every year in terms of books. Have I read them and read a book from each year? I don't know if there'll be a year where I've read all the books, probably not. It's me, let's be honest. So yeah, we're gonna read the books of Christmas past. I'm very excited. I'm not gonna play the videos for you, otherwise we'll be here for 10 years. But I am gonna record my screen and we'll just skip through the video and find all the books I haven't read and then we'll make our decision. My guess is the further back in time we'll go, the less books we'll have to choose, but I'm just excited to read the books of Christmas past. The books I got for Christmas, you know, it's gonna be so much fun. Merry Christmas. I don't think there'll be many in this. God, look at my old bookshelves. There's so many books that I don't own anymore. Oh, shit. Okay. Cut the cameras. Da-da. Okay, no, I remember now. This is when I did my independent bookshop London video and I still haven't read most of the books in that video. So we've got Down and Out in Paris and London's option, don't, not feeling that. Miss Pettigrew lives for a day. That could be an option. I've always been intrigued to reading that. We're not gonna read No Surrender, absolutely not. That looks long. It's about a suffragette, I'm just not ready for that. Okay, Prince of the Dressmaker we've read. Lauridine keeps breaking up with me, we've read. If we were villains, I've read. Sadly, I didn't love it. Great Goddesses by Nikita Gill, I've read. Heartstopper, of course I've read. Six of Crows, my makeup, what a moment. Six of Crows we've read. I assume I got Crooked Kingdom as well. Yep, Crooked Kingdom, we've read her. We're doing okay. There's not many to choose from. Illuminate we've read, anything else? Oh, Haven't You Heard? I haven't read, I don't know if I'll read that now. That's like nonfiction around politics and the relationship between journalism and politics in the UK and how those power structures work. I'm still very interested in reading it, but I don't feel like that's Christmas vibes. And then middle game I've read. Oh, hey, Kayla. So, all of the ones I haven't read. Let's read Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. I think that's like a fun classic. I think it was pretty short. It's got illustrations in it. I think that'll be a fun read. Oh my God, this is a lot of pressure. We're just finding out the TVR together, okay. Where is 2020s? This is 2020s. Again, I feel like I've read most of these. Oh, my laptop is making noises. Sorry if you can hear me. Oh, the Christmas jumper out to play. Mexican Gothic. I don't think I'm gonna read Mexican Gothic. I mean, unless it's the only one I have a choice. I haven't read it, but I just read Velvet Was A Night by Silvia Maregasi and I didn't love it. And I knew it was probably the one I was, I was least likely to love, but I feel like it's too soon to read Mexican Gothic. I feel like it would be at a disadvantage because I might like associate her writing style or something with not liking Velvet Was A Night. So unless it's the only one, I don't think we'll read that. King of Crows, we've read. Oh, The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chotsky. I haven't read. I don't really want to read that either because that'd be starting a new series and I don't want to do that right at the end of the year. Let's not do that. God, this is, I actually feel like I'm gonna throw up. I feel like I'm not doing a very good job of talking to you because I feel sick. Mr. the Beechame we've read, Fitbit advert. I feel like I shouldn't have to watch the adverts. It's me. Slowly but surely you start to realize actually I can't nip to the garage of me pajamas anymore for a painting mug even if I want to. Stalking Jack the Reprived Red. Oh no, wait, no, I must have, I must have, yeah, okay. I got gifted a Hunting Prince Jack-Kill. I've read that. I need to continue with that series. Oh, we've got presents. Disfigured I've read. Oh yeah, Nicole gifted me Strange Case and Sinister Mystery which I've read. When the Tiger came down the mountain by Nevo I have read. We're doing pretty well. Forgotten Women the Right as I've read. I've read a lot of these. Only Good Indians I've read. Year of the Witching I have read. King of Skars I think that is. Yeah, King of Skars I've read. Come Tumbling Down I've read. We're doing a great job. Is that Over the Woodward Wall? Read that. Listen, I've read so many of these but that means I might have to read freaking Mexican Gothic or the Gilded Ones which I don't want to read. Hand on the Wall I think by Maureen Johnson that is. Yeah, I've read that. Oh, okay. Waking Gods by Sylvain Nouvelle. I haven't continued on with this series. I always don't know what to do about this because I don't, oh and I got Only Human as well, the sequel. I didn't vlog the first one I read it but I read it in 2020 and like most of you like weren't around then anyway so it doesn't matter if I vlogged it but I'm like, oh I didn't vlog the first one so people won't be interested to know what I think of the sequel. But then I don't really read stuff that I don't vlog anymore. So maybe that could be an option. You guys, I would give you like a, I gave the first one five stars. I loved it. It's like a full cast audio book. It's sci-fi. I really liked Sylvain Nouvelle's writings. Like I guess that could be an option. The Deep by River Solomon I've read. Supernova by Marissa Mayer I've read. Weight of the Stars I've read. I've read so many of these. Oh, I haven't read the new Jim Crow yet but again, I'm not in the mood for nonfiction. I need quick like fun reads at the end of the year. Thursday Murder Club, wow. Moments that preceded important events in history is this. That's history. The couple next door I have read. Oh, Founders of Science by Rita Spettis. I haven't read, I've still never read Rita Spettis but I feel like that's not for right now. I think that's it. Okay, I'm gonna go with Waking Gods. I know you'll be mad at me and people be like, we fix a thing, got it? But I feel like now isn't the right time, you know? I'm gonna read Waking Gods and I think that'll be really fun. I'm really excited to make progress in that series because I've been wanting to read it for so long. And then I'll just read the third one and then the series will be done. Okay, here is last year's. Now this one, I feel there's quite a few I haven't read so we got a lot of choice. I'm really excited to be Waking Gods now. That's got me in the mood. Oh, she looked cute on this Christmas. I'm actually a similar makeup look this year. Oh, my heart's a chainsaw I haven't read. Okay, number one. Finley Donovan. Okay, we're not reading that yet. That's next year. That's like, I feel like that's early year next year. I'm gonna read that finally and you guys can all like get off my back. But that's not now. Caravalle or I'm not starting any series now. Okay, we're not reading any books that means I have to start a series that they immediately get toughed out basically. Unwell Women. We know I wanna read that so badly but again, just not feeling to be a vibes. Oh, girls are fate and fury. I haven't read it. I feel nervous about that. All right, I'm not in the mood. As much as I would be finishing off a series, I'm not in the mood. The Christmas Murder Game. See, I haven't read that and obviously that is a Christmas book. See, I was gonna be doing a video where I solved this but I'm debating not doing it. I don't think I have time to do it anymore. I was gonna do a whole vlog this Christmas. I'll have to think about that. We may not make a decision in this clip of what I'm gonna be reading for this vlog because it may be that but it depends on whether I still wanna do that video or not. Okay, in my dreams of Holder Knife, I have read. That's your guide to not getting murdered in a quite English village. I have not read that yet but that's for a later video. Oh, The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nevao could be an option. Interesting, that could be an option. I really wanna read Sigh and Queen by Nevao which was her more later release but I feel like I should read that first. So that could be an option. That's pretty short. The Escape Room by Megan Godd and Haven't Read. Don't know if I'm in the mood for that. True Crime Story, I've read. Jade War, I've read. A Spindle Splintered, I've read. Velvet Was the Night, I've read. Oh, Blood Like Magic, I still haven't read but that's starting another series. Peril at Endhouse, I've read. I'm feeling like The Chosen and the Beautiful or The Christmas Murder Game. I'm gonna have to think about whether I'm still gonna do that video or whether I'm not. I don't know if I'm gonna have time to do it. So I need to sit down and think about what's realistic and maybe I just read that in this video instead and I don't do that whole solving the video for it because I don't know if I've got time to do it. So we're definitely gonna read Miss Pettigrew is for a Day and Waking Gods and then we're either gonna read The Christmas Murder Game or Chosen and the Beautiful. I haven't decided yet. But let's go ahead and start reading Miss Pettigrew and I'll tell you later on what I've decided. It is clothes wash day. So I am in my Norwich City goalkeeper coach jumper. Tom went through an era of buying these like the club, we support Norwich City and the club was like auction off player-worn like training kits and stuff and listen, titties don't fit in the football player size shirt. But I fit in the goalkeeper coach. So that's what I have. Anyways, I finished Miss Pettigrew lives for a day by Winifred Watson. It's only about 200 pages and there's lots of illustrations. I'm really glad I finally got around to this. You know, Tom bought this for me years ago right at the start of when I had my channel was when I got this. Cause I started my channel on like September of 2019. So I got this from him that Christmas and I still haven't read it. So basically we follow Miss Pettigrew who is a governess. This is like, when is this 1930s in England? She's very, you know, she's a more mature woman. She doesn't wear makeup. She doesn't feel herself. She just like doesn't think she's that great, you know and kind of lives this stressful life. And she falls into the orbit of this one woman called Miss Lafoss and she kind of takes her along for this ride of glitz and glamour and rich people and people loving Miss Pettigrew and thinking she's amazing. And I think it was just a really fun read, you know it was a nice like older classic to read that kind of feels, I don't know I think it felt pretty revolutionary for the time, you know, Miss Lafoss has three guys she's sleeping with. So I think for the time that was pretty revolutionary for like her to be having multiple bows. I don't know. I think that's kind of cool. Completely not ever been done before unafraid to reference or not reference put it in a blender, shit on it, bomb it on it, eat it give birth to it. And it was just like a fun, enjoyable read that you don't have to think too much about. I'm gonna give it a 3.5. I would say an enjoyment. I'd probably give this a four especially for being a classic. I think it's very accessible but there is a bit of racism. I'm docking it half a star. I would say it was only like two lines that I noticed but you know, it's very typical of the time. It was like talking about how one man that they met had a bit of Jew in him. There's somewhere in his lineage, there's a Jew. That was basically what it was saying and how it's always better to marry in your own race. So Miss Pettigrew was recommending her to marry the Englishman, the one who's most English. And I was just like, oh, I don't vibe. I don't vibe. I've read worse from books of this period but it still takes you out of it, you know? It still takes you out of the moment of reading what otherwise is a pretty pleasant book. And you go, oh, come on. Why did it have to be in there, you know? You know, a question, where do you draw the line, right? So like Agatha Christie, yeah, occasionally Miss Gurley can give into the opinions of the time. I mean, don't we all though? I mean, what do we think now that in however many years, like 80 years will be offensive and outdated? I don't know. I hope not a lot, but like, you don't know how these, I mean, I'm not saying that they shouldn't have known that that was a wrong thing to think they should have done. Anyways, some of her books have racist elements in them, particularly I thought the big four wasn't great for that. And so I gave the big four one star because I really thought it wasn't good and it really took me out of the story. But like, should I, part of me goes like, well, should I be giving this a one star because it has those two lines in it? And I think, you know, I have lowered my rating because of that. I don't know, I think with reading classics that's something you have to be conscious of and critique. But like, you also have to recognize when opinions of the time are coming out through the book. Do you get what I'm trying to say? I don't really know what the right thing to say is. There'll be people in the comments, probably who are mad at me for even bringing this up and saying, oh, it was just the opinions of the time. You know, it shouldn't be brought up. You shouldn't mention it. And there'll be people who are upset. Probably I didn't give it a two star or one star because of that. Do you know what I mean? And I don't know personally what the correct route to take is. But anyway, I don't want that discussion to take away from me talking about this book because again, it was like two lines in the book. Otherwise, I thought it was a pretty, pretty fun read. You know, she's bouncing around the place meeting all these suitors and it's fun seeing Miss Pettigrew come into her own and believe in herself and feel herself. They like make her up and do all her makeup when they get to the wherever they are, they go to like this dinner. And she's like, can you like put me, can you seat me near a mirror so I can like keep looking at myself and reminding myself what I look like. Cause what I look like is giving me confidence. But if I forget what I look like, I just won't be confident. So she had to keep like looking at herself in the mirror, like, I'm feeling my own, let me feel my own. So yeah, I'm glad I finally read this. I have decided I'm gonna read the Christmas murder game. I'm not gonna have time to do that vlog. I was gonna do a whole video solving this that was gonna go live on Christmas day. But I don't know if I've told you guys but I'm away from the 20th to the 22nd doing some work stuff with Tom for his job. Basically, if I were to still try and do this when I got back, that would mean I would have to edit my Christmas book haul that's gonna be coming to you on the 27th on Boxing Day. And I wouldn't be able to have Boxing Day off with my family, which I do really wanna try and do. But I love Boxing Day. Boxing Day is all about lounging around your pajamas, like going through all your presents that you've already had, you know what I mean? I love Christmas. And so I do wanna try and have Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day just with my family. I'm still gonna film my Christmas book haul unwrapping everything because that is Christmas in itself. That's not really filming. That's like me unwrapping my presents that you guys and my family have got me off my Amazon wish list. But yes, so I'm not gonna do the dedicated vlog for this but I'm still gonna read it. I feel like that's a pretty good compromise. So all I know about this is that we're in a manor house with families and there's murder. I'm very excited. I will let you know what I think. I've heard mixings about it but I'm not going into expecting it like the greatest work of literature. I'm going into expecting a fun Christmas-y book. And hopefully that's what we're gonna get. So I'm coming to you with some very un-Christmas-y news. I'm DNF-ing it. I love you. I love myself too. I'm going to bed. I know what's good for me. I'm going to bed. I feel like I don't use DNF but like the dam, is that right? The floodgates have been opened a bit. I just, I do enough Daisy Darker. I'm DNF-ing this. Like I feel like I'm DNF-ing a lot more. So here's the thing. This is a Christmas-y murder mystery. With a game within a game, you have to like the author. Ooh, good thing I found my bookmark. The author has put like anagrams throughout the 12. This is set in the 12 days of Christmas. And each of the days is like anagrams you can find and the family are playing a game to win the inheritance of the house that they're playing the game in. I, here's the thing, right? There's a multitude of reasons. I was just bored. I was not interested at all. I read about a hundred pages, which I feel like, you know, a third of a book, a hundred pages, I always feel like is a good enough go. You can't blame me, okay? I was so bored. It wasn't even that I hated this. I think it would have been a two or maybe even a three star. Had I finished it, probably not three star. Probably just a two. I didn't even dislike reading it. I wasn't like, oh, the writing's so bad or whatever. I just could, I could not care less. I could not care less about what was happening about any of these characters. It's all like cousins coming together who hate each other. The main character's mother died at the estate many years ago. I just was bored. And I was like, I'm not interested in reading this. And it wasn't giving me any Christmas vibes. It was not even really Christmas. The parts I read were set on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Nothing Christmassy happened. No Christmassy descriptions, no Christmassy murder stuff, nothing. None, none. No Christmassy shit, no Christmassy shit. And I'm sorry. The whole anagram thing is a great idea. I can't pick out anagrams when you give me an anagram and say, oh, okay, that's an anagram for that. Basically, it was an anagram on each day of Christmas for that, what that 12 day of Christmas is. So a partridge and a pear tree. Do you expect me for like, fucking however many, like 40 pages to be looking out for what could be an anagram? Like I just can't live my life like that. Constantly on edge and tense. Firstly, don't theorize much when I read mysteries. I just let myself be taken on the ride. But like the idea of me sitting there, looking out, but like it could be anywhere. These days of Christmas can be like 40 pages long, 50 pages long. And it's for me to be like looking out for a partridge. I can't get anagrams when they're put in front of me. And I think perhaps, I don't think I would have DNF'd this were it not Christmas, which I know is, you know, it's a Christmas book. But I think if I was reading it another time a year, I would have just stuck it out. But like time is precious right now. And I think I'm the opposite to a lot of people where I don't read tons around Christmas time because to me, I just want to spend time with my family, chill out, play games, chat, eat with them, watch stuff. Like I think reading for me, I kind of wind it down a bit at the end of the year to then go again really hard at the start of the year. You know, the days when I've been reading this, I've been doing loads of fun stuff with family. And there's been times where I've been like missing out to read or whatever. And I'm just like, no. I've got so many other things you can do at Christmas time. Go places, do things with your family, hang out with them that I feel like I just, this wasn't worth my time, you know? I feel like my time is of a higher preciousness around Christmas and it just wasn't worth it. So I'm DNFing it. I'm glad that I didn't do the solving video for it because I don't think it would have been very fun. I just didn't like it. I'd probably give it a two star on the writing but it wasn't even that it was bad. I was just completely like checked out from the beginning. It didn't do anything to grab me at any point. So yeah, a bit of a dud. A little bit disappointed. So I am about halfway through Waking Gods by Sylvain Nivelle. I need to be careful with what I say to you because obviously this is the sequel to Sleeping Giants and I read that so long ago. I really need to think about what's spoiler and what's not because I don't really know. But basically what I can tell about Sleeping Giants the first one is that we've got a character called Rose who as a child falls into this like crater I think as she discovers this big hand. It's very strange. It is made of like strange material. Seems a bit strange. And it's very sci-fi. And as an adult she's a scientist who is kind of like recruited. This is why I've read in the synopsis and other people's reviews. So I think it's not spoilery. Recruited to find the other body parts that may be around the world basically. And I was so worried about going into this and like not remembering anything but I read a good recap and I was like, right, okay, I'm ready to go. And then this book actually starts 10 years after Sleeping Giants ends, which was great for me because it felt like we had to relearn all of our characters and relearn where they are at this point in time before the book really moved on. So I feel like it actually gave me a good grounding for where this story is beginning. What is so unique about this series is that it is mixed media. It's told through a series of interviews. We've got some other stuff like TV reports but mainly interviews with this kind of nameless interviewer who's very mysterious and seems to have a lot of power. We all do other characters. They all kind of have discussions with him and their files in this. And the audiobook is incredible. If you're gonna read this, listen to the audiobook because it is full cast. And let me tell you, they are acting. They are acting with a capital A. It's so good. This is a kind of book where I'm actually trying to read it quite slowly. I'm not really sitting down and reading it. I'm just listening to your book whilst I do other stuff because that's the perfect speed. If you go too fast, you kind of lose that tone and stuff a little bit. And I'm just loving. I think this is so good. It's so good. I love a full cast and it's funny. Sylvain Nevelle's always a bit funny, a bit weird. It's pushing the boundaries. And I can't spoil to you where, you know, what's happening in this. But it feels like we've taken book one and we've upped it. Like book one, you already felt like this is high stakes. We're dealing with some all-encompassing sci-fi here without spoiling anything. This takes it and times it by 10. Like it's a really interesting new plot. I'm so glad I picked this up guys. I remember two Christmases ago, I would have got this and I was so excited to carry on with the series and then I just haven't. And I'm so glad that this video is meaning that I'm doing this. The audiobook is just so good. It's so good. They're really acting. And I feel like I've just fallen back in all the characters. All of the different links between everything. It's pretty easy to follow. I'm loving it. And I'm just loving the development of where this plot has gone. I can't tell you anything, but it's just the scale is so much bigger than book one. And I'm loving it. So I'm gonna go ahead and finish it. And yeah, that's even a bit when I know what I think of it. So I finished Waking Gods and I'm gonna give this a four star. I didn't enjoy this quite as much as the first book. And I also think the second half of this is weaker than the first half. I've just gotta say it, right? I'm not gonna spoil anything. Don't stress out. But listen, when you read a sci-fi or fantasy, you know that I think characters are more expendable than like other genres, you know? People can come in out of stories more, but a lot of people can die more, you know, or whatever. And I'm just not happy with some of the character decisions that have been made in this book because I think it's gonna make the next book way less interesting. And that's kind of why I didn't love the second half of this as much. I'm just like, where do we go from here? Like what is interesting about this going forward? I don't know. So I'm dreading the last book a bit because I'm a little bit pissed at Mr. Sylvain. Sylvain, Sylvain? I never know how to say his name. I just accept I'm saying it wrong, like most things that I say. But you know, I think these audiobooks are like second to none. I think the actors, they really, they step definitely up, you know what I mean? The actors in this are incredible. They are so, so good at setting the scene, at setting the atmosphere. I love it. They're generally some of my favorite audiobooks. So I really wouldn't recommend now having, because the first book I only read by audiobook, this book I did get the physical book as well. And when I look at this and read it with my own brain and then compare it to how good the audiobook is, like the audiobook is what you need to read. So if you're interested in picking the Sleeping Giants series up, I would recommend just listening to the audiobook. I think I'm probably gonna try and just finish this series off in January. In the last book, it won't fit into any vlog I have, but I think I will just read it and I'll talk to you about it in my wrap-up that month because yeah, it'd be nice to take another series off right at the start of the year. So there we have it. I read kind of three books of Christmas past. Really, I read two books of Christmas past and DM another one. I'm so sorry about this, but it doesn't have the best reviews. And I think perhaps this author, like if you're gonna do Christmassy Madden Mysteries, give me camp and it wasn't giving me camp. But I did enjoy the re-experience of both Waking Gods and Miss Pettigrewless for a day. And I'm so glad to finally read both of these. I'm definitely gonna try and finish this series in the new year, give you my thoughts in a wrap-up. And this has actually made me feel a lot better about reading more classics at some point soon. It's made them feel a lot less daunting. So anyways, I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope you're getting in the mood for Christmas. I hope you're excited, doing lots of fun things. If you do celebrate it, whatever you're doing in the holiday season, that's a very American saying. We don't really say that in the UK like happy holidays, but like whatever you're doing in your holidays, whatever you celebrate, I hope you're enjoying them. If you got into the end of the video, comment a Christmas tree down below. Thank you guys so much for watching. I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye.