 What does it feel like to be successful? Now I know. Welcome back to my channel. I hope you're all good. Today we're going to be chatting about my July, wrap up all the books I read in July and let me tell you it was my most successful reading month of the year so far. I read 13 books in July. The most books I've ever read in a month actually was 14 so we could have like topped it. I didn't even read that much in the last week of the month so we could have we could have topped it. I really I played myself but I am still happy with 13. So if you don't know how I do my wrap ups I'm going to talk about all my reading statistics first and then we'll get into talking about the individual books. So I read 13 books. I read a total of 3,715 pages. This works out to about 119 pages per day which is a pretty good number and an average book length of 285 so I read quite a few shorter books this month but I really enjoyed that. I like reading some shorter books. It gets the numbers out what can I say. So I did have an average rating of 3.26 which is the second lowest average rating I've had so far this year for a month but uh that was that was because of one particular video really and it's all your fault. I hope you're happy because I've told mom. So I don't feel that bad about it was because of like three books I read from one particular video so it's not really that representative. So in terms of the individual star ratings I gave I didn't give out any five stars this month which is kind of sad. I feel like we're gonna get so many five stars in August if you watched my new TBR game, share this plug, if you watch my new TBR game you'll know I have so many good books lined up for August so I feel like we're gonna get a lot of five stars in August so it's okay. I gave one 4.5 star, three four stars, three 3.5 stars, four three stars, one 2.5 star and one one star. In terms of the genres that I read I read three contemporary. I didn't actually read any fantasy this month which fantasy is usually my most read genre so that's kind of crazy. I read one historical, three mystery you love to see it, three non-fiction, two sci-fi and one thriller. In terms of the audience very interestingly nine were adult and four were YA so usually that is like 50-50 but I read a lot more adult this month which I don't know how I feel about that. I really don't know how I feel about that. I didn't realise I didn't read as much YA as usual. In terms of how I acquired the books one was a gift, one was sent from the publisher, one was on script and 10 were books that I previously owned or bought myself so I read a lot of books this month that I bought which is kind of interesting as well like usually I read a lot of books I've been gifted because I am gifted a lot of books very luckily or from publishers but I read a lot that I've bought this month. In terms of like if it's a series or not four were part of a series and nine were stand-alone. I think for the years a whole it's like 50-50 standalone or part of a series and like I'm trying to not read as much series I'm trying to or at least I'm trying to finish series that I am in the middle of because I think for like reading vlogs specifically I start series and then I don't continue them in reading vlogs because I don't think people are gonna care about like seeing me read the second book in a series which I know is stupid and I know you do care but I just start the series and then I never continue on with them. Are you not ashamed of yourself? In terms of author race I read from four black authors, two Latinx authors, one Mexican author and six white authors so that was under 50% white authors which is like always my goal and in terms of author status two were debut authors, four were authors I had read before and seven were new to me. Okay so let's talk about the individual books now I always try to not like listen. I struggle with like not going on about the books for like five minutes even though I've already spoken to you about them in reading vlogs like it's a real it's something I struggle with I really need to contain myself. If I could give you one piece of advice it would be shot the fuck off. Let's talk about the three books that weren't featured in any reading vlog that I kind of read just on my own so first is Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y Davis. This is a collection of essays and speeches by the activist Angela Davis and this was really insightful I gave this four stars. I listened to the audiobook and she narrated the audiobook so I'd really recommend the audiobook for that purpose because she you know puts the emphasis where she would put it in speeches and stuff and there's also like interviews that she's done with people that's put in this. I thought that this was really really interesting it touched a lot on prison abolition and that's a topic that I'm really interested in particularly like in the context of the United States and the prison industrial complex you know how much money is tied up in prisons how rich companies get from exploiting the prison system also just how entrenched in racism the prison system is and hearing her speak about how prisons particularly in the format that they're in in the US like are not conducive to rehabilitation or you know actually helping society in the grand scheme of things so I thought that was really interesting she also touched a lot on Palestine and the Palestinian struggle which I also really found very interesting to read about so I really really recommend this I found it very very educational and insightful and I would say the reason I gave it like a four star and or five star was that there's a lot of repetition because these are a collection of speeches and like sometimes there'll be like a very similar passage in like three of the speeches so you're just listening to it again and of course it's like relevant because each time she was giving that message to different people in that place but I feel like maybe for the purposes of the book that could have been edited a bit I don't I don't know next I read furia furia this is like a YA contemporary about this girl she loves to play football she plays soccer it's not soccer you know you're gonna play a game girl play it right I love football if you don't know that mean football now I found her loving football and like the journey of her playing football and the sexism that exists and and how difficult it is to play football she has to hide it from her family that was super interesting but a lot of it is taken up with this romance with this her childhood friend who has become a really successful footballer for Juventus and I just like didn't I didn't buy into it I would say at the start there's a lot about the football her playing football and at the end there's a lot about her playing the football but the whole middle section is this romance and so by I was just I just wanted us to talk about the football and like her you know struggling in this very like patriarchal society to like play the game that she loves but then we had a lot of it about the romance and then by the time we got to the end and we finally got more about the football I was just a bit disconnected and like uninterested it wasn't bad like it was fine I gave it three stars but I just wasn't in love with it I just felt like the romance didn't add more than it took away I feel like sometimes wire contemporaries there was this tendency to make it all about the romance when the actual topic that the rest of the book was about was much more interesting to me listen don't get me wrong the romance is fine but I was just like let's just talk more about football that's what I came here for next I read home by Nnedi Okorafa this is this equal to binti which I feel like a lot of you know about this is like a novella trilogy basically and I'm reading this as part of my objective to finish series that I start I made like last month I think or this I saw this month I made a series spreadsheet about all the series that I've started let me tell you I wanted the ground to like swallow me up you good no you're not you're not baby and it's okay I am so ashamed at how many series I've started and haven't continued so this is like an easy place to start because they're short novellas that I can access quite easily so I'm gonna I read this one this month and I'm probably gonna try and finish the series next month even though I I don't think I've loved any of the books like they're okay I've given I think both of them three stars I gave this three stars the basic thing in this binti is going home and discovering what home means to means to her a science fiction and I really like the world that's been built up but I just struggled to read this it took me like a whole week to read it and it's like 160 pages I just didn't really want to read it I think I listened to binti as an audiobook and I think I preferred that but I couldn't find the audiobook for this anywhere listen I'm excited for the satisfaction of finishing this series but I just thought it was okay I really don't have any thoughts about it like it was fun I enjoy the world building I think the writing itself is great but something I something around it I just didn't click with okay and then let's quickly okay I'm gonna try and not spend too long on these I will point you towards all the videos that these are in let's talk about all the other books I read this month so first I read history of what comes next by Sylvain Neuvel I read this in a tri-chapter tag where I read the first chapter of three books and I read the whole book of whatever one interested me most and this was by far the wackiest like oh my god this first this book was made for the first chapter challenge because let me tell you the first chapter of this ends in a way that you're like oh oh shit uh okay too much drama for me this is a sci-fi about this lineage of women who throughout history have tried to get humanity to the stars basically is kind of their their motto in this one they are trying to manipulate kind of like the space race from like the end of world war two into like the 60s I guess I just thought it was so interesting I just thought this was Sylvain Neuvel does some of my favorite sci-fi I think he's my favorite sci-fi author like Fire Long Mile and it was just like strange like it's a difficult book to describe to you but I really loved how it manipulated real events from history and kind of like inserted our main character Mia into it and like she took the credit for it and it just makes it more believable because there is an element of truth to it and you can kind of you know fiction is a lie these books are a lie and every fiction book has to convince us that it's real basically it made it so much easier to do that because you're like Mia was there Mia was pulling the strings Mia was behind it all my queen Mia was there it's a conspiracy theory that I'm actually interested in so yeah I really really enjoyed it it hasn't had great reviews it's strange it's told in a very strange way like there's no speech marks it's like just told through dashes and it's never like this person said like you've got to keep track of who's talking because it's literally just told through dashes so it's like weird I understand why a lot of people didn't like it but I would really recommend it I thought it was very imaginative I gave it four stars and I love Sylvain Duvall and I can't wait to read all of his stuff because I think he's actually a really really great sci-fi author so listen I say don't listen listen don't listen don't listen to everyone saying it's crap because I really enjoyed it then next I read two books for my booktuber scavenger hunt video where booktubers give me prompts and pick what I read and then send me on to the next booktuber so a moment of silence please a moment of silence a moment of silence I don't want to talk about it I don't it was hard enough to talk about this in the vlog I can't even look at the wall without sad pics I read The Seven Dance of Evelyn Hardcastle and I gave this what did I give it 3.5 I gave this 3.5 star this was a five star prediction fuck you know fuck my life many of you probably know this is the story of Evelyn Hardcastle who dies at this party that our family are throwing and our protagonist is waking up in the body of a different party guest every day and he has to like relive the day and try and figure out who killed Evelyn Hardcastle listen I love the premise I love the idea of it I love the vibes so like the first half of this book I was into it like I was like we're going somewhere this is so much fun I loved you know waking up in these different bodies the detective work the complexity but then for me the book just started to trip up over itself and thought it was like so clever and it didn't work it was supposed to give but it did not give what needed to be gave I feel like it spawns so many threads that by the end I was like this isn't satisfying like the way that it ended was like like that's it that's it that's it it also had that thing where like the body like here's how it all happened and I'm just like can we avoid that I know it's hard to avoid that but like let's please avoid that because it wasn't satisfying and then also for that video I read honey girl by Morgan Rogers I really enjoyed this it's I gave it four stars on the trees everyone says it's a romance but I categorized it as a contemporary because I don't think it's really about the romance so we follow in Grace she's like a very kind of like burnout stressed person she's given everything to her career for most of her life and she goes to Vegas and she gets drunk and gets married to just go out there and it's about her not only kind of figuring out this like new relationship in her life but it's about her coming to terms with like the burnout that she's facing how difficult it's been to me up to her parents expectations how she's been on this treadmill for so long and she's kind of reached this endpoint of like her phd and stuff and she's like oh shit what do I do now so it's not really about the romance the romance plays a role in kind of facilitating grace realising stuff but I feel like it's much more about the journey that grace goes on and I thought it was beautifully written like some of the most beautiful writing so I really really recommend this okay then I did a video where I tested out whether beautiful covers means beautiful insides whether if a book has a most beautiful cover whether I'm gonna love that book I read Fat Chance Charlie Vega by Cristal Maldonado and I loved this I gave it 4.5 stars this is my favorite book I read this month this is the story of Charlie Vega who is fat and it's about not only you know the way that like society kind of disrespects her because of that her mom tries to put weight loss shakes on her boys constantly use her to get to her best friend but it's also about like this romance that she has with this guy at her work and it was just really beautiful like I really I really just loved it she's incredible she's a beautiful person her talent and brilliance is beyond I just thought it was such a nice YA contemporary it's like one of my favorite YA contemporaries I think I've ever read I really loved Charlie as a character I loved the storyline I thought it was placed so well I thought it was written so well it had that kind of like softness that I really like in YA that kind of like soft joyfulness that I think is really cute and I would just recommend this to anyone who reads like YA contemporary romances then I read a book that I think is very forgettable I read Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth McNeil I gave this 3.5 stars this is about this young girl her name's Nell right who has birthmarks that kind of you know it's set in like Victorian times so she's very much singled out because of her birthmarks and it's about her being sold into the circus and the kind of life that she leads there now this is like your historical fiction that knows it's clever that knows it's a great book and is a bit more like serious I thought this book's discussion of the abuse that many people faced in circuses in the Victorian times was great particularly after seeing films like The Great Showman which you know everyone loves but that guy was not nice he took advantage of marginalised and disadvantaged people to make money off of them basically so I thought his discussion around that and the toxicity of circuses at this time was very good but I was just a bit bored and I wasn't as into it as I wanted to be the ending the ending the last like epilogue did get me I'm not gonna lie I'm thinking about that right now and my heart I know I don't look upset don't get upset don't worries my heart is breaking a little bit I'm not gonna lie to you but on the whole it just was like a bit lackluster for me and I just wanted something more and it never really gave me more and then I read The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie and I gave this three stars so this is the sixth in the Urquiporo series which as many of you know I'm reading in order and listen it just wasn't for me it was just a bit boring and the ending I said in the video how my favourite kind of endings from Agatha Christie are when it's not only the person you couldn't expect being the murder but it's the it's the way that the murder was done that is crazy and like unexpected and this just wasn't that it was just a bit like okay it's about this girl who is murdered on the train that her husband is on but they're like getting a divorce and it's this whole thing and it was just okay it wasn't the best Urquiporo for me then in a wrapped up episode if you don't know I have wrapped up a lot of my books and I unwrapped them and I read them I read Where No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole I gave this 3.5 stars this one was also a bit disappointing for me particularly because of the ending again so this is about kind of gentrification in Brooklyn this woman have town her street houses the previously owned by black people keep getting bought up very suddenly and why people keep moving in and something sinister is going on and I really enjoyed again like the first maybe even 200 pages of this it was really good really slow suspense building like a really good thriller and at the end it went fucking bonkers and I just feel like if you're gonna go fucking bonkers it needed to happen a bit earlier because it was just a bit like too much too quick like it was like I wasn't expecting that at all I felt I feel like I then needed to continue that kind of suspense for slow pace or be crazy a bit earlier I would have accepted either of them but for me reading this I was like oh my god and then these last three books I'm just gonna like speed through I read them because they are Kylie Jenner's favorite books for a video I will link that like all these videos if you want to go check it out I read Only Love Is Real by Dr. Brian Weiss this is a psychiatrist he believes he can connect you to your past lives we all have past lives and if you have a pain in your shoulder is because you were stabbed in the back in Roman times I gave it one star I didn't buy into it didn't really like it didn't even like the writing itself the guy needed a co-writer and it just wasn't good wouldn't recommend it don't waste your time then then ladies and gentlemen I read Pretty Little Liars now I gave this three stars listen this was shit it was awful it was trash but I enjoyed the reading experience I'm not going to lie to you I did enjoy the reading experience the rules don't apply it was awful but like I kind of admired it for its awfulness these people are awful it's problematic as shit but I enjoyed reading it please don't judge me and then finally I read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz this is another like spiritual self-help book about the secrets behind the world I thought it was interesting but I also felt like it was kind of just like saying common sense and like passing off as like oh my god I'm so genius it was like don't take things too personally always do your best I'm like girl these are things we just need to like know like they're just common sense they're just normal human morals I didn't think it was anything super insightful so I gave it 2.5 stars so there we have it that is all of the books that I read this month plus obviously the three that I don't own physically so a great month in terms of volume for me but not in terms of like ratings I didn't have many like great books in terms of ratings but I'm still happy with how the month went let me know how your reading month went down below in July I would love to know any plans you've got for August as well and if you've gone to the end comment a train emoji for the mystery of the boot train comment that down below thank you so much for watching as always I really really appreciate it I cannot thank you guys all enough for your support lately I just love making videos and I'm just I'm just enjoying it so much so thank you so so much and yeah I'll see you very soon in another video bye