 Welcome back to my channel, I hope you're well. Now, I've been in a reading slump. Oh no, that would not do at all. I've been in a reading slump. I've been in a really bad reading slump, so I'm not quite where I would want to be right now in regards to my reading goal of the year. I don't know, I've just been struggling to read a bit and I've actually seen quite a few people saying the same thing. I think it's been a bit of a strange year for reading for a lot of us already. So what I thought I would do is just do a quick video recommending you the books that I think will help you get ahead on your reading goal. I always call it the Goodreads Reading Goal, but I shouldn't be paying it that much respect. It's not the Goodreads Reading Goal, it's just the Reading Goal. By the way, I don't have a lot of these books with me because all of my unread books or anything I haven't read in the last couple of weeks is back home, so I don't have the majority of them here. But the first books I want to recommend to you are Hella Short. They're really short. And that is The Wayward Children's Series by Seanan McGuire. This is the fifth in the series. I haven't read this one yet. As you can see, it's short. This one is coming in just over 200 pages, so it's really short. And I have read all of the other ones on this by Audiobook, which I would really recommend. They're all on Scribd, I believe. I do have a link in my description for you to get. I think it's two months free of Scribd. I use both Scribd and Audible currently for my Audiobook recommendations. I wanna use some services that a lot of people recommend, but usually the really good ones that draw from libraries or independent bookshops or whatever are very US only, and so I can't really access them. So currently I use Scribd and Audible, and I'd really recommend using the link in the description if you want two months free. I get one month free, but you guys have already got me having Scribd free until like 2028 or something. So it's kind of like inconsequential at this point, but I'd recommend that you get that link. These are these wonderful portal fantasy stories focusing on these children who go through these doors into these worlds that are perfect for them, very much like Narnia. When they come out of the world, back into our world, they really struggle to live and to adjust. And so half of the books are in these portal worlds, and then the other half are at Eleanor West's school for wayward children. Eleanor West's home for wayward children, sorry. You did your best, but I guess your best wasn't good enough. And I really like the ones at the home. I really like Eleanor West. She's a really cool character. And this is a place where these kids can go and it's to kind of help them adjust and help them live with these changes. You could literally read all of these on a day. You could very easily just like sprint through the audiobooks in a day. The audiobooks are each like three or four hours long. If you listen like on speed up, that's hardly any time at all. And they are just such magical, magical stories. I love Shauna McGuire. She is one of my favorite authors out there. The stories don't hold back as well. They are very emotionally charged. The kids are going through a lot and they are not afraid to get dark. The stories aren't afraid to get twisted. And I really enjoy that. I really, really like it. I can't decide which one's my favorite. I really liked In An Absent Dream and I really liked Every Heart, A Doorway, which are the first and the fourth. And I'm really excited to get to this one and the newest one, which is Across the Greengrass Fields, which I need to get my hands on at some point. But yeah, this is my first recommendation. Then I have to recommend You Must Not Miss by Katrina Leno. Oh my God, this story. I'm obsessed. I read it in one of my Wrapped Up videos, which is a series I do where I've wrapped up. I think I've got about 40 left now of my physical TBR. I wrap them all up and I unwrap them and I have to read what I unwrap. And so this was like completely unexpected to be such a high rating for me, but it is so good and I just flew through it. So in this, we're following a girl who has kind of like gone through a lot. Recently, her parents split up. She walked in on her dad cheating with her on and her sister kind of like abandoned her after that and moved away. And she was also sexually assaulted at a party. And so she's got a lot of hurt and anger inside of her. And she has this journal, which she writes this like perfect place that she like wishes she could go to. And then that place becomes real and she can set the rules for this place. And it's just like the perfect amount of strangeness and weirdness and a bit unhinged, which I really, really like. You know, it's set in our world, but it's just off kilter. It's just like off slightly and gets weird and weird as you go along. I think it captured like rage and hurt in a young girl so perfectly. And I was just completely enamored by the writing. I can't wait to read all of Katrina Leno's other books. I'm really excited to make my way through them. It's not a contemporary, it's kind of like fabulism. It perfectly bridges that gap of it being YA, being easy to read, but having so much grit, so much meaning, so much feeling to it. So I would definitely recommend you must not miss. Oh my God, I love it so much. I just thinking about reading Katrina Leno's other stuff makes me so happy. I'm really happy today. Yeah, this is for all of us. And before we get any further into the video, I want to take a moment to thank our sponsor for this video, Skillshare. So if you don't know, Skillshare is an online learning community with so many inspiring classes for creative people. They have classes on creative writing, which I've been doing, classes on photography. They also have a ton of bullet journal classes, which I know is something a lot of people on BookTube love. I, for life of me, I'm not artistic. I can't write nicely. I don't think bullet journals are for me. Maybe I should do the class though, because maybe then I'll feel like it is for me. But if you're interested in bullet journals, definitely check those classes out. Recently, I've been taking some classes to improve my editing, particularly because I'm hoping to make a documentary for university in the next few months. So I've been brushing up on some different areas of editing for that. In that documentary, because of the current world, I'm having to use a lot of found footage. So I've been doing the course, filmmaking from home, turn found footage into a compelling video by Penny Lane. And that's been super helpful for me in learning how to collate that footage and use it as my own. Skillshare is created specifically for learning, so there's no ads. And once your free trial is over, it's really affordable at less than $10 per month. And very excitingly, the first 1,000 of you to click the link in the description will get a free trial to Skillshare. And I would really recommend it. I've loved using it. It's helped me level up in so many different creative skills and I've had so much fun doing it. So I recommend you have the free trial and just have a little explore on there and see if there's anything that interests you. Okay, back into the books. Next is Heartstopper by Alice O'smen. I cannot mention it. I think graphic novels are great if you're trying to get ahead on your goal or get catched up, caught up, quarter on your goal. And Heartstopper is my favorite. I cannot wait for the new one to come out in May. But this is a story of Nick and Charlie meeting and falling in love. It's boy meets boy, boy and boy falling in love. And it's just perfect. It's perfect. No, it's true. No, it's true. This cross is a lie. Go ahead. No, this is real. Go ahead. It's set in the UK and it captures aspects of the UK and being at school in the UK so well that I almost have a bit of an out-of-body experience in reading it and I'm like, holy shit. Like I don't want to be back at school, what is this? But you all know how much I love this series. Like it's incredible. If you haven't picked up yet, please do. It's like the softest, cinnamon roll, cuddle of a graphic novel. So please go read it. If you haven't, I think it's perfect to getting you out of a reading slump. Like just sit there and read all three and just be happy and sad. I need to do a reread. When I'm back with my books, I will definitely be rereading them because I love them so much. And then next is With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. This is probably one of my favorite contemporary books, like Young Adult Contemporary. In this, we're following a girl. Can you realize, apart from like Nick and Charlie, I'm avoiding names. I'm really bad at remembering character's names after I read the book. But I think it's like Imoni. But in this, we're following a girl who is a young teen mum and she is having to balance school and taking care of her daughter and raising her well. She loves to cook and she wants to take the culinary class at her school and then she finds out there's this like trip involved in it that she doesn't know if she's gonna be able to afford. And it's just this beautiful story of family and self-discovery and balancing kind of your responsibilities with doing things for yourself and doing things that will make you happy. And it was just so touching and beautiful. And I just, I really, really loved it. That was beautiful. You did such a good job of expressing yourself. Elizabeth Acevedo's other books are all told in like poetry. They're told in verse. And this is one that is told in like a more traditional format. And I loved, I mean, I really enjoyed her other books, but this one, we just got to spend longer with the characters and her writing still had that lyricalness, that beauty. But we just got longer with everyone. So that is definitely why I preferred it. I hope that she releases another one that's told in like a more traditional style. Is it prose? I always get confused. It's prose, right? And then the other one's verse. I always mix them up. Oh my goodness, I'm so embarrassed. So embarrassed, they love you. But yeah, with The Far and High is beautiful, touching and also, helpfully, a very quick read. Ooh, and then the next one I wanna mention is The Midnight Library by Matt Hague. So this is a super popular book. Like it won Goodreads Fiction of the Year or something. This year, I loved it when I read it. Another one in my Wrapped Up series. I'll leave the playlist for the Wrapped Up series down below in case you wanna go check them out because I'll have another episode coming out this month. But The Midnight Library is about a woman is very depressed and basically is contemplating suicide and then commits suicide and she doesn't really die. She goes to this place called The Midnight Library where all of her possible lives, all of her possible lives are held in these books and the librarian there gives her a book of regrets which is all the regrets she has in her life and she has to choose to have performed all those regrets. So I wish I hadn't bailed on the marriage that I was gonna have. I wish I had gotten married. And then so she goes to the life where she got married and if she feels disappointment at any time in that life she just gets pulled out. Like it's not a conscious decision. If she feels disappointment in any way she gets yanked out of the life. And so she's able to surf through all these different possible lives she could have had but she's kind of like dumped in them and she has to act like she knows what's going on and like who she is and like the context of the situation. And it's basically a book about mental health and persevering and although we have dark times like there's always better things on the horizon and to appreciate what you have in this life and it was just such a beautiful book. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did because I didn't really like The Humans by Matt Haig when I read it years and years ago but this was just so touching. I think it's a really gorgeous book that discusses depression so well. Yeah, it's a book I'd recommend to everyone because I think it is just so gorgeous and really makes you think. I love books that make you think but it's something you'll fly through because you're only in those lives for a short amount of time and so you're intrigued about that life and what is happening to her in those circumstances and then you're yanked out and then you go into another one. So it's so many stories layered on top of one another so I think it definitely reads really fast and it's not that long. I think it's under 300 pages or maybe just over so it would definitely take you long to read if you wanna get ahead on your goal. Then I wanna recommend the Truly Divious series. I have the third one here and although I didn't really love this one this was my least favorite in the series so far I think this is a great series to get you out of a reading slump or to get you caught up on your reading goal. This is like a Young Adult Murder Mystery series and it's like the best Young Adult Murder Mystery I have read. It's set at this school which was built in the 1930s by this like rich guy and it's for gifted and talented children who have special interests. There was this murder in the 1930s and Stevie our main character is like a true crime detective superfan and wants to solve it. So that's what she gets to go to the school for in present day but suspicious stuff starts going down. It's basically following the mystery of the present day with the mystery of the past Stevie trying to solve the past but also trying to figure out what's going on to her in like right now and it just balances those two really well. It has that kind of like old Hollywood vibe with the 1930s, that kind of classic detective story. They're going palette cleansers so I think they're great to refresh yourself in terms of reading and then move on. So I would really recommend this series if you're in a slump or trying to read some more cause you'll just breathe straight through them. I think poetry is really good to get ahead on your goal. I definitely need to follow my advice and read some more poetry but my favorite poetry is Charlie Cox's poetry. So she has two poetry collections which are she must be mad and validate me and both of these are also on script and she narrates them and I think they're like an hour long maximum but I really love the experience of reading them as well. So maybe do both. This is such amazing poetry focusing on like what it is to be a young woman today struggling with weight issues, struggling with mental health issues, struggling with social media, validate me, particularly focuses on like our need for validation on social media, our need for like affection and being validated by people we don't really know on social media. So as someone who's like posting stuff every week on social media I think it's good for reflection to kind of try and stem that need for validation and it's just beautiful. Like it's my favorite poetry I've ever read. It's so insightful. It cuts the core. I also really love Charlie Cox's voice. Like she has got one of my favorite voices in the world. So that is another reason why I'd recommend the audiobook. I've only listened to the audiobook for she must be mad. Like I reread it and I want to reread, validate me through the audiobook at some point. So maybe I'll do that soon. Yeah, I'm gonna do that. That's gonna be the next audiobook I listened to just to like take my own advice. So, so good. And it again, it's so short. Like an hour. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that. Like an hour long audiobook. So perfect. So there we have it. That is all the books I'd recommend to get on head on your Goodreads reading goal. Let me, no, just your reading goal. Not Goodreads. We don't need to keep saying Goodreads. It's just like a natural reaction. Like I just say it. Anyway, that's the books to get ahead on your reading goal. Let me know how you're doing on your reading goal at the moment. Like what your goal is. How many books you read. And I will see you very soon in another video. Bye.