 Hi guys it's Julia and welcome back to my channel and for today's video I'm going to be talking to you guys about some of my recent reads. I haven't made one of these videos yet this year for the books that I've read this year. I set my Goodreads goal to 50 and I am at 12 so I am behind. Which is okay there is obviously been a lot going on in 2020 so I think all of us can agree that none of this has gone as planned this year because not for me it has not at all. But I thought I'd talk to you guys about the 12 books that I've read in the past little bit. A lot of them are poetry collections but I'm getting back into the swing of reading so hopefully you guys will be seeing more reviews and more recent reads videos from me. The first book that I read was Aphrodite made me do it by Trista Matour I think is how you pronounce it I'm not sure. This book was so great I really enjoyed this one. This one's a poetry collection that was released last year I believe. Considering the name this collection is big talks a lot about mythology and it's a lot about self-empowerment and also self-appreciation and strength which I really like that theme in this collection. Some of the topics explored were pain, abuse, feminism, obedience, and a few other things so this just talked about a lot of things that I really like. I think if you liked Amanda Love Laces kind of poetry collections you'll definitely like this one but either way if you do enjoy modern poetry definitely check this one out. I gave it a 3.75 out of 5. Next here I have Aquacorn Cove. Aquacorn Cove? Is that how you say it? I'm not sure. This is by Katie O'Neill. She's the same author and illustrator who did the Tea Dragon Society which I love by the way. The third one's coming out later this year I'm very excited I hope that date doesn't get pushed back. So this one is actually a middle grade graphic novel with a with a beautiful art style and a beautiful like pastel color palette that's just really unique and I really like that about this collection. Collection I love how I'm talking about poetry still this graphic novel. This focuses on conservation and saving the ocean is what this main plot is about. This also like slightly touches on the topic of grief which was nice to see that explored and more of like a middle grade graphic novel context. I don't think the main character Lana was just a great character for people to look up to especially people of the middle grade audience. I think she's one of those people that just classifies as those like younger like badass like females that are trying to like make a difference in their own way and kind of just like the girl from Coraline like those brave kids is what I would kind of put her in that category as she just tried to do so much and so yeah I'd put her I'd put her in that category so I think she's a good person that I think she's a good character that a lot of kids could look up to too. She's super brave and like open minded so I just thought she'd be a good person to look up to and I think a lot of younger readers could relate to her and even older readers as well. I wish it was a bit longer and we got more of an explanation of the aquacorn things like I wish we got more explanations about those and I just thought it was it was it was shorter than I would have liked it to be and I think it could have dealt into a lot of more things. However I still did quite like it. I gave it a 3.5 but if you're looking to pick up a graphic novel definitely pick up the T-Dragon Society. Next up here I read 2am thoughts by McKenzie Campbell. This is another poetry collection so I actually ended up reading this collection around 2am because that's usually the time I do read these poetry collections is in the middle of the night but it was just perfect because I read 2am thoughts around 2am it was I don't know but I didn't talk about romance and loss and a bit of female empowerment themes throughout it. Just like an okay modern poetry collection. I had a bunch of poems that I thought were really really stupid and that I put in my review and I was like what is this and then some that I really enjoyed so it was kind of like a half-half situation um but I ended up giving it an overall three star rating just because like it was okay. I wouldn't recommend it highly or I wouldn't recommend like if you have it like sure it's short read it I guess but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to pick it up. I don't don't think it was anything too special. Next up here I read I hope this reaches her in time by R.H. Sin. I love R.H. Sin's work. I've read all of his stuff before and I just I really like his work I do. Some of his collections are better than others but I find myself going back and rereading them. There's something so simplistic about his poetry that I just really enjoy some of it it's like one line but it's still just very nice and I think a lot of people could just relate to the things he talks about. So this one I I quite enjoyed it's very small but I ended up buying the ebook copy of this. That's how bad I want to read it because I usually don't buy ebooks um but I will read you one of the poems that I liked throughout it just so you guys can get kind of an idea of what the poems are kind of like but I said uh I quoted down you're more than just a body count you're more than just a conquest you're more than just a name on the list of hearts they took advantage of and even after it happens you will always be more than they deserved. Also one of them is foolish of me to believe that a dysfunctional family could function a way that made me feel loved and there were just so many good poems in this that I really liked and that I could relate to as well so my eyes are literally watering because of my my eyes are watering because of my eyelashes because they're ow but they look really good so yeah overall I ended up giving this four stars I really enjoyed it definitely check out R.H. Sin if you are into poetry next up here I have the truth about magic by Atticus this is um their third poetry collection that they've come out with and I've read all of them up to this point but this one I was excited about because um Atticus's work has a lot of images in it and it's very just pleasing to look at it's full of photography and poems and it's just like an overall like it's it's a real like when you spend $20 on a poetry collection at least this way you're getting something that's full of photos and that's really nice but I also bought this one on ebook though because I didn't want to spend the 25 that it is worth because I didn't know if I was going to like it and I only thought it was mediocre so I'm glad I didn't buy it this collection follows a lot of just self-growth and growing in the world and growing as a human and there's a lot of photos throughout it but I just didn't think it was phenomenal I didn't think it was anything that stood out I thought Atticus's first collection was the best in my opinion so far and the second one was okay and then this one just was mediocre um but I gave it three stars at the end so another more positive one I read shot glass confessional by Cyrus Parker I love their collections so much so I'm so happy I read this one of course didn't write a review for it however I ended up giving this one four stars I think Cyrus Parker is such an underrated poetry author right now and I think they definitely need more credit their collections are just so genuine and they usually talk about body dysphoria they usually at least a few poems in their collections that's about them being non-binary and them identifying as non-binary and there's topics of love and abuse and sadness and just all the things I poetry about and I just think Cyrus Parker is super underrated so definitely check out their collections if you haven't I ended up giving shot glass confessional four stars and I would suggest picking this up I think it's only a few dollars on like the Kindle store so as I read Aphrodite made me do it I decided to pick up another collection by this author so I picked up honey bee by Trista mature we're gonna try that pronunciation again hope that's right so I ended up giving this one just three stars I just didn't think it was great as good as um the new collection about Aphrodite just because maybe I was just more intrigued by the mythology and the little bit of the feminist components within that and then this one was just a bit different I just really didn't like this one that much like it was all right I wouldn't highly recommend it I wouldn't not recommend it it was just like a solid three star read for me but I don't know I'm a little bit worried about picking up future stuff from this author just because you'll see later that I read another book by this author and was not impressed next up here I have the graphic novel bloom and this one is a male male graphic novel it's a romance and that's why it intrigued me to pick it up it also just has a very white and blue color palette which I just thought was pretty nice so this one has gotten some hype so I was anticipating this one a lot and I did read it in a reading vlog so you kind of heard me talk about this before if you've seen some of my videos basically this is about two boys named Ari and Hector and they meet and romance ensues one of them really loves baking there's just a lot of nice components to this story and it's just like a really light it's a lighter graphic novel for sure like if you wanted to read about two boys baking and having a romance then this is a good one for you to check out definitely if you like graphic novels especially um male male graphic novels you'll probably enjoy this one I ended up giving it 3.5 which was less than I thought it was um which I was a little sad about because I thought I would give it like a 4 or 5 just because Heartstopper's incredible and I thought this would be similar to that but I still I still enjoyed it next up here I have Break Your Glass Slippers by Amanda Lovelace I actually have this book way up there out of frame because I took my Uncle Pop's boxes down my mom and I did this for a whole day two days it took to do almost shelves over again so they are different but up there I have it up there and I'm not tall enough to get it so oh well but basically this collection is kind of a loose retelling of Cinderella and talks a lot about female empowerment feminist themes and that's kind of the main focus of this one but I really like Amanda Lovelace's work this wasn't my favorite of her stuff I ended up giving this one a 3.5 and some of her other work I've given like 4.5 and like four star reviews but this one was still good and I'm excited to see what else she writes because I always am super excited when she comes up with new releases but it was still enjoyable I also talked about this one more in a vlog as well next up here finally my first physical copy of the video but I have what if it's us by Becky Albertalia and Adam Silvera this one took me like a little bit to read but I finally finished it and I also talked about this one quite a bit on my channel in a vlog I think but this one is about Ben and Arthur and they meet up at the post office one day when one of them is returning their things to their ex-boyfriend they are mailing their ex-boyfriend all of their stuff back and they run into each other and it's it's pretty cute they try to find each other throughout New York and it's this book it's just if you're looking for something fun and kind of romantic I would suggest this I don't think it's the greatest romance out there I don't think it tackled any like super super tough issues in my opinion and I don't know I'm very I usually love all of Becky Albertalia's books but Adam Silvera is usually a miss for me out of the ones of I've read by him unfortunately but so this one was kind of just like middle middle for me a lot of these books are more like 3.5 star reads or three star reads but I ended up giving this one three out of five stars next up here I have Sailor Moon volume one which I'm happy to be talking to you guys about because I showed this in my reading rush tv air and I never got around to post I was gonna do a vlog and I filmed part of the vlog however I only read like nothing I read like nothing during that so right after I made sure we're finishing Sailor Moon so I ended up finishing this one this is about our main character who discovers that she is Sailor Moon she meets a talking cat named Luna who is super cute I love this cat I'm honestly so surprised about how much I enjoyed this just because you know Sailor Moon's huge everybody kind of knows about it and I was just surprised to hear that I was just surprised that I enjoyed it so much but it was very very fun it was an enjoyable reading experience it reads a little juvenile but it is um for like it reads a little bit juvenile but I still think it's really fun and I don't know I'm really excited to continue with this series it's not one that I immediately bought the manga afterwards but like I'm excited to read the next one I think they're very like feel good reads kind of like similar to how Cheesweet Home is like a fun like light read when you want to read when you're sad so I did quite like this one I ended up giving it a 3.75 out of five those of you guys who have commented that said you really like this book I really liked it too so I'm glad that we both liked it for those of you who haven't picked this up I would suggest it if you are into manga or even if you're not that into manga I think you still would enjoy this just because it's a very like light and fun story it's not like too much to follow or anything like that up here I have I am more than my nightmares and this is by Janace Cecilia I think is how you pronounce the name again there's so many names I can't really pronounce properly in this video so this book talks a lot about anxiety and nightmares and just what it's like to be a really anxious person and to overthink things it was also another poetry collection but I also read this one in the middle of the night and it was it was okay it was kind of middle ground for me as well unfortunately I just kind of saw it for I think I got on Kindle Unlimited um but I just read it for fun and it was pretty good I could relate to a lot of the topics that talked about anxiety but I don't think it was anything too spectacular or well too well written but I think it was just okay I gave it three stars but it wasn't like my favorite poetry collection ever but I did like how it talked about anxiety and how it just talked about nightmares and fear and all of those topics and last but least I'm gonna be talking about the Trista mature book the other one that I read this one is called the dogs I have kissed oh my god this was so boring and horrible and cringy that I could not even finish it and it's a poetry collection so this made me so angry that I actually had to DNF a poetry collection which these are usually like 150 pages so it's like and there's not a lot of words on each page so I was really surprised because I usually don't DNF poetry collections like ever but this one was so bad and I cannot describe to you enough that this is just stupid and I would not recommend picking it up the only one that I really liked but I think this is the author's like older older works because again I got on Kindle limited however her new book the Aphrodite one highly recommend that one this one absolutely not could not even finish it there you guys have it those are some of my thoughts on my most recent reads let me know your thoughts in the comments down below but I hope you guys enjoyed this video let me know your thoughts in the comments down below if you've read any of these books or if you'd like to pick any of them up if you enjoyed this video give it a like it just helps creators out and if you want you can subscribe down below thank you guys so so much for watching this video and I'll see you super soon bye