 Hey guys, it's Tilly and today I'm going to be doing a quick reading wrap up and then at the end of the video I'm going to be doing like a quick little like update on I guess like me and what I've been doing because I've been doing a lot and it's been a while since I've actually filmed a video so bear with me and until then enjoy listening about the books that I have read it recently. These guys are in no particular order um some of them I'll talk about a bit some of them I won't because I don't remember some of them and I did enjoy a lot of them and some of them I didn't enjoy as much so I will just do my best. First up we have Daisy Jones and The Six. This one is by Taylor Jenkins Reid and if you guys follow me in any other social media you'll know that I went through like the Taylor Jenkins Reid bandwagon and I read absolutely everything of hers after The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo which is like an amazing book and you guys should definitely read it and I actually really enjoy Daisy Jones and The Six. I've seen a lot of mixed reviews about this book. I feel like people either love it or they hate it. I was someone who loved it. It might be because I listened to the audiobook of it and they have like a full cast of people being the characters and it was amazing but in saying that I did flick between the book and the actual audiobook and I loved it just so much. They follow Daisy Jones and The Six. They are a musical band and they're really famous and it follows the story of why they all broke up as well and their relationships and stuff between the characters and people that they know but it's really good and it's told in like a perspective of like a documentary I believe and it's just really really cool. This next book I actually read when I was on holiday and it turned out to be better than I thought. I picked it up at the airport bookstore because you know, who can avoid airport bookstores when they go travelling? Not me. And I picked up this one which is While You Were Reading. This one is by Allie Berg and Michelle Kalis. I just picked it up because it looked really cute and looked like a kind of reading book so I was down for that. It basically follows this lady who's called Beatrix and she's pretty much described as like what you would think a typical bookworm I guess would be. A bit messy, a bit clumsy, loves her reading, loves her coffee and that's why I kind of picked it up. I was like sounds like it's going to be one of those typical quirky quick reads and it was. I found that it was quite predictable in parts but it was also really really fun and I really liked the characters because they were very realistic and they were very funny which I really liked and I absolutely loved the most out this book was the literature that continuously was through it so the main character loves books and she I think wants to go into publishing but she's constantly mentioning books and it's just great because at the back of the book they do a whole list of books that were mentioned and it's just a great list so I had a lot of fun with this one. It's not exactly a favorite read but it was really enjoyable and it was like the perfect holiday read. This next one I actually read on the plane it is by an Australian author which is Tess Woods it's called Love and Other Battle. She has a few other books as well so check her out and support like Australian authors and things like that. This isn't my favorite one by her it was an interesting read and it deals with some heavy topics. It's told through different point of views I think from three generations so it's got quite an interesting point of view. The only problem that I had is that every time it's like a multiple point of view book I always want to read about one person instead of three so that kind of got me a little bit um but otherwise yeah it was it was alright. I smashed out some of the books in the Diviners series by Libba Bray and this was like really really damn good um so it's like a historical fiction setting with like a magical twist so I don't know if it's called like magical realism or whatnot but it was like that so it's like a combination of my two favorite things which is historical books and fantasy. It's been a little while to actually get into this series but I really enjoyed it now and the characters are just like amazing I loved it. The next book that I've got is one that I found that people absolutely love. When I went to the bookstore it basically sold as like the book club books that everyone wanted so I picked it up and I finally read it thinking that it would be one that is like kind of like Eleanor Oliphant one that everyone tends to love. Um that one is Normal People by Sally Rooney and I thought it was pretty average. I've had a plenty of arguments with people about this book not arguments but debates per se because I don't think it deserves the hype that it has whereas other people think it does. I think I guess people read the book differently which is a very fair call. I just didn't enjoy it that much. There's not really like much to say about this book. It's a very much character driven than plot driven story but it basically follows two characters um throughout their lives and um their past crossing over their lives I guess. I bought this next book when I was actually on my holiday because I haven't seen it in any of the Australian bookstores yet and when I got to Canada and I walked into a bookstore it was the first thing I saw and I just immediately picked it up. I didn't even really know what the book was about but everyone has been talking about it and rightfully so and that one is Red, White and a Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. I probably didn't even talk about this one because like I said everybody has read this book and everybody is talking about it but basically it is wonderful. So for those two characters you have Alex and his mum is the president of the United States and he's like the older son and then also follows Henry who is the prince in England and they have this frenemies trope that happens and they go from friends to enemies to lovers and it's just really really great. The humor in this book is 10 out of 10. I really enjoyed it and I actually had some laugh out loud moments and I've already been part of this book around to multiple people but definitely it deserves the hype. Heart Stopper by Alice Ostman. So I read a few of Alice's books and they're really really great and I then picked up Heart Stopper. This is the first volume. It's a comic format so it's a really quick and easy read but it is really really cute, really sweet. It's about friendships, relationships and learning who you are. This next book is the one that I have read like I guess most recently except for the one that I'm currently reading which is The Queen of the Tealing by Erica Johansson and I am enjoying it so far but this one was like pretty effed up. That one is American Psycho. This one's by Brett Eason Ellis. I originally picked up this book because its cover is pretty damn sweet. It is pure white except for this one bloody thumbprint down the bottom and I'm someone who loves horror. I don't read much horror books but like the horror movies, everything, I don't mind gore, I usually like this kind of shit. I picked up American Psycho thinking that I would handle this and I got like through maybe a quarter or a fifth of this book and it was like too messed up for me to continue on. I felt horrible reading this book. It was disgusting which I know is the whole point of this book is that you're inside like a psychopath's mind but it was just like really really screwed up. I haven't watched the movie either but apparently the movie is like better than the book but this is just like it was just too much for me. It literally put me into such a dark mood when I started reading it. I had to just put it down like I didn't finish it, I don't even want to know what happens but this book was just too detailed and it was horrifying. So to really make up for that really shit book I decided to reread one of my favorites which is The Messenger. This one's by Marcus Zuzak and I actually annotated this copy as I went. I underlined quite a lot of like my favorite sentences from it and I kind of fell back in love with the story and it kind of makes me want to read all of Marcus Zuzak's books now which I definitely shouldn't do but most likely will do because why would I read the books on my TBR? Why can't I just read the books on my TBR? I think the book that pulled me the most out of my like latest reading slump was Aurora Rising. This one is by Jay Kristoff and Amy Kaufman. It's their new series that they're doing at Sci-Fi and it's epic and I really enjoyed it. Once again I've heard a few people have either loved it or they've hated it but I was one of those people that really enjoyed it. I won't say much about this one because once again I could probably get stuck talking about it for like 10 minutes but it's got really really great like cast in this and if you've read any of their other books you know that their characters are really really good, really realistic and just absolutely relatable and lovable. Quick mention to some other books that I read but also don't currently have here. I've either lent them out or I'm too lazy to actually find them. I'm a little book obsessed so my books span across like four different rooms now so it's hard to find books. It's hard to find them because I have no organization skills anymore. I read The Cool Prince by Holly Black, I read the second one as well. I read The Cool Prince and I gave it a pretty like average review which a few people were like, shark horror how could you do that? I think it's quite a predictable series but I am a little excited for the third book which I think is like Queen of Nothing or something. I think it's because I just want to know what happens and I've also kind of fell into this whole jude and cardin train and I really do ship them. I also read The Alchemist by Paulo Quello. I think that's how you pronounce his last name and that one was really different to what I usually read but I did enjoy it. I actually read that one in like four hours I think. I just sat down and like straight through the book. I liked the message that it kind of had like there were parts that I was a little unsure about and some parts that I was like that's really cool. So like the rating of it was quite like average but overall like I liked the message that the book sent I guess. I read Sadie by Courtney Summers. That book was an emotional roller coaster. I really liked it. I read it for the Dynx Jinx Glut YA book club and it deals with some heavy topics but like it was it was good. I actually liked it. A few people that I've talked to didn't enjoy it but I thought it just but I thought it was really well written and I liked the cast of characters as well. It was really heartbreaking you know and the ending just like kills me. I gave a very very low rating to a book that I picked up thinking it was a historical fiction which turned out to be a really shitty romance book. That one's called The Spell Book of Katrina Vantassel. A Story of Sleepy Hollow. That one's by Alyssa Palombo and I really liked the idea of picking up this fiction of a book that had a twist on like a sleepy hollow tale like The Headless Horseman and things like that. But yeah it turned out to be terrible so I gave that one two stars but I'd probably give it one if I look back at that. And one of the most amazing books that I've read so far this year was The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Basically read it. It has dragons in it which is like what more could you want. So there you guys have some of the books that I have recently read. I don't really know like the time frame of when I've read those books but I find that I'm actually reading more than I was at the start of the year which makes me very happy. So that is the wrap up part of my video and now I'm going to go on to the quick update version of me. I'm going to say quick but it's probably going to drag out to be super long but let's get started. So if you guys follow me on any social media you'll notice that I have been very very quiet. As of late I haven't really been posting anything especially on my Instagram which is where I'm most active. I mean you probably know if you watch my videos that I am really shit at keeping a schedule. I would always try to film videos and schedule posts and it just took up a lot of my time and I found that after I got a job at a bookstore as well I kind of started to like dislike reading books and doing bookish things. It became like a chore for me and in a way I guess my job was to do with books. So I just felt that I wasn't loving it as much as I used to. So now that I actually don't work at the bookstore anymore and I've taken a step back from it all I've decided to kind of step away from social media as well and go back to finding the roots of what I love about reading which is the actual stories and the characters. So I haven't been posting very much anymore but I'm not going to set myself any more like schedules to do more videos or to do more posts. I just kind of want to bring it back to what I actually really enjoy. So I'm going to try and be more active on my Instagram account but I'm definitely going to say that the quality is going to drop. I'm going to be doing things that I want to do. I'm not going to do photo shoot days that I used to do just to have content to push. I'm just going to post about books and talk about the books that I'm enjoying that I'm reading and things like that. I don't even know if I'll be doing a video any time again soon or if I will ever do a video again but I think I'm just going to do whatever I enjoy because I need to focus on my happiness and happiness comes from me reading my animals and spending time doing things outside of I guess forcing myself to stay on social media for book things. Which I know sounds stupid but I don't know. I feel like for me a big part of my identity was this bookish stuff that I do but it's not anymore and I need to let that part of it go. I think that I'm going to take the most important things out of this and that is my joy for reading and the people that I've met through all this bookish stuff but I don't want to keep on forcing myself to do videos and social media just to kind of fit in with that group anymore. I have my friends and the people that I talk to and I'm so thankful for them and I will hopefully still be friends with everyone but I just won't be as active because it doesn't make me happy anymore and I just want to be happy. So I went on a very spontaneous trip over to Canada. I did two and a half weeks of camping and travelling over there which was amazing. I did the Outbird area and I actually went over there to go and meet someone. He is a very amazing person and when I recommended a book to him once, he immediately went and bought it and read it and it was amazing and I had the best time. There were so many animals over there and so many amazing things to see and I definitely want to go back over to Canada. I was just, yeah it was just a really great time, very happy time and now that I am back home I am just trying to settle down and figure out what the hell I'm going to do with my life because I seriously have no clue. When I went to go work into the bookstore I realised that I don't think I want to have a job to do with books and that my passions really do just lie with my animals so I think I'm going to try and look into doing some sort of animal thing for the future but I'm still trying to figure everything out. I mean otherwise that's like really all that I've got for you guys. I haven't really done anything else with my life. Yay! So I will leave it there for now. If you guys do want to see anything else that I post, I recommend following me on Instagram. It's just Tilly and her books all one word and I will hopefully be posting more and hopefully being happy. Thank you guys for watching. If you have any books please recommend them to me because I'm in a real reading mood at the moment. I'm kind of not reading as much young adult as I used to so feel free to throw the recommendations from everywhere but please don't recommend me anything like American Psycho because that still has me creeped out. Bye from me and bye from Pippa. Pippa!