 I'm up for another episode of Wrapped Up Risk. How excited are we? I'm feeling, I'm excited but I'm nervous. So this is a series of Wrapped Up that I started in December where I wrapped up 25 of the books I was most excited to read and 25 of the books I was least excited to read and I unwrapped one and reread it together. We've done three so far and I'm pretty sure if my memory serves me correctly they were all books that I was most excited for so our chances of keeping on getting that keep dwindling. So let me tell you about what's happening in my life at the moment. I'm starting to get sick. I've got migraine, I've got headache. Come on love. No forget it. You know when you can feel it coming on, I'm just trying to repel it because my birthday is in two days. I had to check what the day was then. And I don't want to be on my birthday but I've really sore throat, like my sinuses feel, I feel like this, like my face is like. So I need something that's fun to read on my birthday that's fun to read when you're sick. And if you watched my most recent vlog where I read books that TBR Cluedo had picked you'll know that I have just been feeling bored with what I've been reading lately. Like I need a book that like maybe like a thriller or something that has a fast pace that keeps me excited, that keeps me reading that makes me excited to read. So that's what we're hoping for. Well let me tell you you'll never get it. And I would like a book that I'm most excited to read but we'll see what we get won't we? I don't know what our chances are. What are we feeling? I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Okay I'm going for this one. I'm going for this one. You can't even see it. I've grabbed wallets off screen. How unprofessional of me. There we go. Okay I'm not even gonna, I'm not even gonna doubt myself. We're just gonna open it. Oh my god. Okay. Okay can I get in please? Oh I know what this is. Yeah okay. Right. We're gonna be reading The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker which I'm not sure this was entirely what I was looking for. But let's give it a go. I have had a lot of good things about this. I'm pretty sure this was on the list of books I was not as excited to read. Just because this is one of the oldest books on my TBR and so my excitement for it has dissipated somewhat. Like I've owned this I think since before I started my channel. And yeah okay okay okay okay okay okay okay. So it is one of the ones I'm less excited to read. But you know what? I could be up for this. I could be up for this. I don't think it's quite what I was looking for. I was looking for like easy quick read. Doesn't require much thought. And I think this is quite the opposite of that. All I know about this is that it's a Greek myth retelling. I think it's to do with the Trojan War. But I'll let you know as we get into it why and what we learned that it's about. Okay well it'll be my first Pat Barker. I have heard great things about all of Pat Barker's Greek retellings but it's not quite what I was looking for. But let's give it a go anyways. This clip isn't going to be very long because I have no energy and talking is painful and I don't want to be seen. I've been picking this off all day like I've just been lying here all day because I don't want to be seen. I have just this cold and cough from hell. Oh my god talking is painful. This is horrible. Okay let's get through this quickly. I was ill a couple days for my birthday on 28th and then the past couple days have just been terrible. Anyways moving on. What's fair? Right. Life's not fair. I am however 100 pages. More than 100 pages. This is actually in three parts which is very convenient for this vlog. I can check in every part. So on page like 110-ish of The Science of the Girls by Pat Barker this is not the thing you want to be reading when you're sick. Explain the plot to you whilst I'm sick. Like that is too much heavy lifting to ask me to do. Well following I think the women are or some of the women from the Trojan War, the fallout of the Trojan War. We're following mainly Sofar Bricius who was the queen of a certain part. And she was taken as one of Achilles' slaves. He kind of conquered the area. Took her as a slave. Okay I've been reading over the past couple days because when I've been sick I haven't been a client to pick this up. I've been playing a lot of Cozy Grove, my new favourite switch game. But when I do read it I do enjoy it. I remember when I read the first like 20 pages when I was more coherent up in the brain I felt like the writing was immediately like sucked you in. I think Pat Barker can really write. We're trying to get, I'm determined to be well tomorrow by the way. We're trying to get all this through my haze right now. I think the writing is incredible. I really like the point of view of our main character and like she goes there straight away with the brutality of war and the brutality of you know Greek mythology and doesn't shy away from it. I actually might, I think I prefer her style of writing and style of retelling these events than Madeline Miller. And I loved Cersei. But like there's something about the style of writing here that I really do enjoy. But I have been reading it very fragmentedly because I've been sick and now that I want to read it like I want to read. I'm hoping if I sit down this evening and like really try and read a fair amount and not get distracted by my switch or social media then I'll have more coherent thoughts for you in the morning. Good morning. It is the next day and you'll be glad to hear I'm feeling better. We're not totally better but like I can breathe again. I got myself out of bed. I've got myself looking more like a human today. Yeah I still feel 100% but I feel better. And I have read another hundred ish pages. I'm on page 225 on Science of the Girls now. But before I talked about this I've got something like I actually don't know how to, I don't have to talk about this unit coherent manner. I got something I'm really excited to tell you about that I've been keeping it a secret. I've been waiting until I'm better to talk to you about. But it's about maybe we can go on holiday together. How do I drop that calmly? So basically yeah we might be able to go on holiday together. So I've gotten back into travelling this year well last year now. I went to Norway for the first time and I cruised through the fjords there and that was an incredible experience. Then I went to Palermo and I had so much fun eating the food in Palermo, exploring the history there, going to the beaches there and now the opportunity has arisen with Trovertrip where me and you could go on holiday together. So I've got this survey down below which takes about two minutes only for you to fill out and it's to kind of gauge interest as to whether this is something that we can possibly do. It feels like a lofty girl at the moment. But how amazing would it be for us to meet each other as a community, explore somewhere new together, do in-person reading sprints, explore history. We could go to beaches in Costa Rica, we could go to waterfalls and jungles in Bali, we could eat pizza in Italy, like the opportunities are endless. The survey is down below to gauge interest and see whether this is something that we could possibly do. So if you have an interest in going on holiday together please fill out that survey down below so I can kind of know what the levels of interest are. But the trip that we'd be going on but the price would include accommodation, airport transfers, some food depending on what trip we go on it depends to what extent food is covered. I've been looking at some of the itineraries, there's somewhere like a lot of the food is covered like all breakfasts, for lunch, it's only going for seven days, for lunches, three dinners or something like that would be covered. There's somewhere lesser covered so it kind of depends on what itinerary we pick in terms of food. But yeah there's so many options and I would love to know if you're interested. I think it would be so fun to meet each other. I've got a lot of fun ideas for stuff we could do together and I'm just really excited so please fill out that survey. I'll take two minutes to see how many people are interested. I know this is something that isn't possible for everyone but the fact that this is even like an option for me to meet you guys and travel together when I've been falling back in love with travel over the past year, this feels like a blessing, feels incredible. So yeah check out the survey down below or take you about two minutes. So silence to the girls, let's chat about it. I'm enjoying it so I can't tell you the plot because that would be a spoiler even though I mean with books like this with Greek myth retellings like if you know the myth you know what's going to happen in the book. There's moments in this so Akili's perspective, I can't remember what I told you last night but she was basically given as a gift, as a slave to Akili's. His perspective has been introduced a lot more in this section which I have been enjoying but at times I felt like it drifted away from the perspective that we'd been having of women in this society and how women, women and how women are affected you know that kind of felt like the point of the book and then at points it felt like we were missing that. Now there has been a few sections in the last last few chapters that have really just bowled me over. There's a section, obviously I don't know it's probably the thing where Bobricius is like kind of talking to us kind of breaks the fourth wall and I found that really impactful how kind of like justifying herself and hinting at the decisions that she goes on to make and I found that very interesting and then obviously this is a war so like not everyone's gonna live but I found it very interesting her talking about women particularly like mothers what happens to mothers and their memories of the the boys they had that grow into men or some some cases don't even they go to war as boys and die at war and kind of the memories that they have of them I found that very impactful but like it's on a five star and there's just something about it that like that I don't know if Greek myth can be a five star for me because it always feels a bit constrained by the myth that already exists you know I feel like the plot never kind of moves on with a with a natural naturalness is that a word? It feels like we lose the certain like I said the focus on women for example in order to advance the plot that's happening with the men because that has to happen in order to follow the myth but it feels like um yeah it kind of we lose some of the themes that we've been building up um oh gross as a result of that so that's kind of what I'm feeling at the moment I'm enjoying it I'm so glad that I am finally finishing it I want to know has anyone read this because the next one is the women of Troy and on good reason it's a series if anyone has read this and the next Pat Barko in this kind of wild would you class it as a series or should I class them as like connected standalone so basically I want to know should I add it to my series spreadsheet or not can I get away with not because I didn't think of them as a series I just kind of thought of them as because I got my mom she loved this I got her the women of Troy for Christmas Mother's Day I don't know she still doesn't read it um I always thought of them as like connected standalone like kind of Madeline Miller's books are right but is it a series am I starting another series do I have to count as a series please let me know anyways I'm gonna go finish it and I'll see you in a bit hey I'm sorry for the lack of b-roll this vlog listen I've been sick and it's miraculous I feel very proud of myself that I'm getting this out to you tonight okay so I finished Science of the Girls I do not have many original thoughts that I did not give to you last time I'm gonna give this I've just had another four originally I was like is it a 3.5 but I think it's a 4 I think Pat Barker can right you know she reminds me of like a classic she feels like a classic writer I don't mean like oh authors of classics I mean just like what you think of when you think of an author I feel like Pat Barker is you know I still stand by the problems I had of this is supposed to be a story about women and yes I know we're playing up in the duality of like the silence of the women but most of the book you are following you know brice yes and other women storyline so at the book and it really makes points on that and hones in on that but there's moments where we're just following the men because the story of the odyssey has to happen I'm just like okay okay okay okay I agree I've had it and I'm you know what I have it it and I do think I do have that problem going forward with greek myth retellings that have to adhere to the original story but guess maybe this is a problem I have with all retellings but there's something about the kind of like historical setting of the myths that I feel like it makes it a bit more constrained but yeah it just I just wish we could go off the railroad tracks bit there's moments where you you feel like you're not like entirely convinced that what has happened had to happen because it only had to happen because it had been in the myth not because it was what was natural to happen in this story does that make sense but you know I think the writing's great there was so many moments in this that I was like wow yeah oh yeah Pat oh yeah let's go there but um I also want to recognize it probably was not the best book to read whilst I was ill I said what I was looking for at the beginning I could see where it was going I could see how I was about to deteriorate into and it probably wasn't the best book for that so wrapped up did me dirty a little bit I feel like you know even when I am doing another reading vlog with like a theme and a set tbr I can pick what book is best to read in the moment for that video do you know what I mean and I just feel like this perhaps wasn't the best time to read this but my mum does have women of choice she has yet to read it so I can read the next in this is it a series who knows I need your input on that it was good you know not not the most interesting vlog I apologize for like I've let everyone down a bit so anyways thank you for watching this vlog I hope you enjoyed it let me know if you have read this and if you have read it what you thought of it also make sure you go check out the survey it'll be in the description and the pinned comments down below yeah even if you're mildly interested please just fill out the survey so we get an idea of you know who's interested and where you might want to go and stuff like that but yeah thank you so much for watching the vlog I love you guys so so much and I'll see you very soon in another video bye