tier ranking all my best books of the year ✨ 5 years on booktube

This is a book that I know other people don't get it, but I get it and that's what matters. The characters are unhinged. There's like creepy teenagers and then it becomes a romance and it's just Hello, my voice is dead. I was doing karaoke by myself at home. So, my voice is already gone. That's a great great place to start because we're going to be talking about a lot of books today. This is going to be a long video.

I just realized this month is my fifth year anniversary on book and I was thinking how can I look back how can we have fun with this and I thought why don't we go through my best books of the year videos I have five of them and why don't we rank them we love a tier ranking on this channel so I set it up let me get my screen recording okay recording so hi hello hello yeah I have 51 books I think we're going to be talking about I will be linking my 2019 through 2024 videos down below. And just a couple disclaimers setting the scene before we jump in.

I originally started YouTube with a kind of travel lifestyle channel that I will always link down below. And when I kind of got back into reading, I was just about to quit my full-time job. I think I had gone down to part-time for a little bit. So, I actually had time to read again. So, it was like the floodgates opened in 2019 and I was just reading so much and I wanted to talk about it and I discovered after having read Six of Crows. I discovered a video by the wonderful with Cindy who was read with Cindy at the time and um I realized, oh my god, there's a whole community of people on YouTube that talk about books. This is amazing. I would love to be a part of that. So, I started making book videos on my other channel and I realized, you know, A, not everybody signed up for that. Like, people wanted travel video, not book videos. And B, did I say A? And B, I wanted to do more. And so, I started Carrie Can Read in 2020, July of 2020. And I'm just so thankful that I did. This is the channel that keeps me sane, ironically, because it's also the channel that drives me the most insane, but in a good way. Boom, baby. I guarantee she's going to see that. He's a time wizard, but she just called him tick boy. Why the [ __ ] did you ask? I'm exhausted. Can't express enough how much I appreciate you, how much fun I have. Words cannot describe how much my life has changed since I started book in such a great way. So, just thank you so much.

But, uh, so if you're wondering like why do I have a 2019 favorite books video if you started your channel in 2020? I posted it on my other channel originally. So, oh, and then disclaimers. Two things. Number one, I have read books prior to 2019. So, I do have some favorite books that are not going to be on here. This is literally just my book time. And then number two, something I always say in my favorite books video is my opinion in this video should be timestamped. This is how I feel about these books on July 22nd at 12:21 p.m. It will change by the time I edit this video, by the time I stop record, by the time I publish this. So, just light, fun, fluffy. Okay. Into the tears we go.

Number one, we have a forever fave. This is if you ask me what's your favorite book, I will likely list one of these. It is a part of my personality. It is part of my DNA. Next up will be always recommend. So, this might not be like a true piece of me. The words might not be tattooed upon my skin, but I will always recommend them, and I think a lot of other people would like them. Um, this is difficult cuz when I made this list, I recognized that I still like all of these books. So, the differences will be very subtle. We'll see how this works out. I have no idea. Um, the middle ranking is just solid. Just a solid book. Next up would be lukewarm. I think that my feelings might have changed a little bit about them. Um, just Yeah, it's a it's a good book. It's a good book. And then the very bottom tier, which I'm personally excited to see looking at them. I don't know. I don't I don't know where this is going to go. Who is she? Who is she? Who was she that put this in my favorite books of the year video? Okay, I will list them down below in terms of what years they were talked about. I do have a couple that are missing simply because unfortunately the authors have turned out to be namely turfs. Uh, one of my favorite books. Rough rough times. Without further ado, grab a snack, grab some water, hydrate or dehydrate. Let's begin.

Okay, this is exciting. This is scary. Um, where should I start? Where do I I'll start with one of the books that I know is from 2019. Um, when I first really got back into reading. This is even prior to Six of Crows. Okay, this is when I just got my digital library card and I picked up Big Little Lies. This is a thriller. I've always been a thriller girl. It surprised me. I hadn't read a thriller in a really long time, I think. And you know what? It was good. I'm going to put it just in solid because it didn't change my life in any way. But if you're looking for thrillers, I think Leanne Morardi is always a good choice. I think after that, I immediately picked up all of her other books. All her books are being turned into films or TV shows. So, they're fun. They get me out of a reading slump. They're great to read on airplanes. Yeah. Big Little Lies was about like a small community and a re I think it's like a private kindergarten. There's like something to do with like rich parents and scandal. So, I I think I actually read it the last day of 2019. I think I read it on my birthday. It was snowing. I was in a cafe and I read it in one go. And um a solid book if I don't say so myself.

Next up from 2019, we have Pachinko. Pachinko undeniably will be always recommend. This is a multi-generational work of historical fiction about a woman born in Korea and love and tragedy ends up bringing her to Japan which is at the time occupying Korea. We follow this family's life from that point onwards I think all the way into the 80s. Um really fascinating especially because I feel like especially Americans we don't learn a lot about that particular time in history and kind of imperial Japan. So yeah it's just I think a really important work. I think it's really beautifully written. I'm not usually a fan of multigenerational stories and this kept me hooked the entire time. And the people described in this book, so Koreans who grew up in Japan. It's still kind of an issue today. There's a lot of discrimination against Japaneseborn but ethnically Korean um people especially like there's a huge Korea town in Osaka. It's still like a current and ongoing issue and topic. So something valuable to read and Pachinko Minjin Lee will always always recommend.

Ooh, after that we have In the Woods by Tana French. Oh, that's really hard. I'm going to put her in solid but almost to always recommend. I will always recommend it if you are a fan of thrillers. How about that? Um Tana French is a Irish author and she has a series about uh this one particular like murder unit in Dublin and they get sent all over Ireland to solve these murders. And this one in particular, this is I believe the first in the series. This one is scary. This one had me actually have to like I put the book down and I had to like get my bearings and be like, "Okay, you are not in the middle of the woods. You're okay." You know, um I honestly forget what this is about, but I remember that we go to this small town. There was a murder. There's like creepy teenagers. So, yeah, In the Woods, I think, is so immersive and so scary. I remember not loving the ending, but the journey it took us on was worth it. So, In the Woods, Always Wreck, if you are looking for thriller recommendations, a solid book regardless.

Oh my gosh, after that, Brooklyn. Oh, that's really hard. Why? There's such a gap between always recommend and solid. I'm still I'm going to I'm going to put it in always recommend. Okay, Brooklyn is also by an Irish author. You might have seen the film, which I highly recommend. Anything Cersa Ronin is in gorge, but Brooklyn in particular is really beautiful. It's about an Irish girl who is sent to America, to Brooklyn in I think the early 1900s perhaps, and how does she adjust to life there? How does she adjust to possibly falling in love with an Italian-American boy? What happens when she gets an opportunity to go back to Ireland? And it's one of those stories about like how kind of once you leave home you can never go back. Yeah, it it's it's just really really beautiful. Um and again the film is stunning. So um yeah, Brooklyn I think I I do always recommend if that sounds like something you're interested in. Um Brooklyn always wreck.

Next up is a weird one. I don't know what I was really thinking. Um Nocturns by Cosmo Ishiguro. I think I just wanted to talk about Cosmo Ishiguro because he wrote one of my all-time favorite books which is Never Let Me Go, but Nocturns, you know what? I'm going to put it in lukewarm. Um, Nocturns is a collection of short stories and I think at the time I really enjoyed them, but I honestly can't remember a single thing about them now. Yeah, compared to other short story collections that I've read, I don't think it really holds up. I really think I threw that in there in 2019 just so I could talk about Never Let Me Go. Um, so yeah, I feel lukewarm. I mean, if you like Kazo Ishiguro, if you like short stories, certainly give it a try. Like any book that I mention in this video, I would still give a try if it sounds great. Like, none of these are bad books. But yeah, I just I don't consider Nocturns a favorite or a best. Um, so woo, but read Never Let Me Go.

Okay, this is the one that I'm actually going to put in. Who is she? Because who is she? Um, no offense to this book. I don't I feel like I read significantly less books in 2019. So, this was maybe a good book just because I didn't read any other books, but this is the last. To be fair to this book, I do remember the premise and I actually think about it often, but this was a thriller that is nowhere near the level of Big Little Lies or In the Woods. So, The Last takes place in a hotel after or during nuclear war or some kind of apocalypse and everyone needs to stay in the hotel. And of course, I think we find a body. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We find a body. So, it's a who done it kind of locked room murder mystery on the backdrop of you're in Switzerland during nuclear war. So, you know, um it tried something. But yeah, I I don't really know why I put it on my list of best because it maybe wasn't. Maybe wasn't. But if I read it again, who knows? I don't know. I don't know. Carrie, what were you doing?

Finally, Where is She? Where is She forever fave? How's Moving Castle? Yes, I think I read this when I was younger, but I read it um again in 2019. It still holds up. It is very different from the movie, actually. So, um, if you're like, I already have the movie memorized, read this book. I love Sophie's curse. Like, we don't really get in the movie, we don't get a lot of information about Sophie's curse other than like she becomes an old lady, but the book really dives into her curse and what she actually gains from it. And um, yeah, also the sisters are different. Michael, the little apprentice, his whole story line is different. Yeah, it's it's great. It's equally great. Um if you love the film you will love the book but it is yeah a slightly different story and um forever fave how's moving castle and anything by this author. So that was 2019.

2020 is when I started my book channel. 2020 is when my life was changed by the one the only Miss Lee Bugo. So no surprises here. Six of Crows wherever it may be forever fave life changed. This was the first experience where I got it from the library when I got to the last page and I realized it was a duogy. Thank god I read it when Crooked Kingdom was already out, but I was so distressed that the wait for Crooked Kingdom at my library was like 14 weeks or something and I was just I was going to come bust and my mom bought it for me. She bought me the ebook. She was like, I don't want to see you suffer. So, I only had to wait like a day to start Crooked Kingdom. Thank god. Um, yeah, when I say Six of Crows, I mean the duogy as a whole. I grew up on fantasy. I grew up in the dystopian era. I grew up with heists and and mysteries and things like that. So, to read Six of Crows in 2020 as an adult, I just I missed it. I felt the joy that I feel like had been missing from my life since I graduated high school. honestly felt like myself again. I almost felt like I had kind of put a huge part of myself on the shelf for college and my first like five or six years of working full-time. Six of Crows like shoved my soul back into my body. Like it that sounds like such an exaggeration, but truly I felt like I returned to the version of myself that I I love the most. Six of Crows, if you don't know, is a fantasy. It's a heist where a kind of found family has to break into a prison and get someone or something or both out. Oh, it's just so good. And you can read it without reading Shadow and Bone. Like I read this without reading um Lee Bugo's previous series that technically precedes this. I had no issue. I actually didn't even know that there was anything before it. Like the world building is so solid, impeccable, life changed. Forever favorite. Six of Crows.

Another fantasy I read that year that I actually just made a video about, which is why this will be ranked where it is ranked, The Black Witch. The Black Witch goes in lukewarm because what the hell was that? It's a fantasy series that has five books. The first two impeccable. Our main character was raised in a racist and like a very conservative religious society and she goes to university which is very diverse culturally, religiously, etc. and she does a lot of unlearning and there's of course a prophecy and a war and magic and etc. Um, so the first two books were really great. The third book was I thought I would rank it as solid and then the last two books I didn't read the last book. So the the fourth book just I have a whole video on it. I really liked it at the time. I liked the first book. I I will stand by it. I really like the first book. Uh, I can only put it in lukewarm now because I've never had a series let me down that badly. Like a series that I've wanted to continue. There are series where I have DNFed the first book or the second book maybe, but to have devoted I read four books and they are hefty. They're like 500 to 600 pages each. So to read almost 2500 pages to have it just lukewarm lukewarm. You can watch my video on it. Uh, that is the Black Witch.

Going back to a kind of thriller drama, um I would say a solid read is Everything I Never Told You. This is about a family that's dealing with the loss of a daughter, a sister, and her death obviously brings a lot of things to the surface. A lot of family secrets, a lot of secrets in the town, you know. Um so this one was a a difficult one to read, but I remember really enjoying it at the time. obviously if it made it to my favorite books. This was a book that I think it is technically categorized as a thriller, but it just felt so emotionally heavy for me. Um it wasn't like a edge of your seat. Oh my god, we got to solve a mystery. Um so I I really enjoyed that. Um even though I believe I cried a lot reading it. So everything I never told you.

Okay, we've got another forever favorite. Of course, Human Axe by Hung. Oh my god. So the first Hungang I ever read was the vegetarian, but Human Axe is like a different level entirely. Human Axe talks about the Guangju uprising in the 80s. In Korea, we had many decades of dictator after dictator after dictator. And in Guangju in the 80s, there was an uprising mainly from students against the censorship, against the just dictator as a whole. And the government answered this peaceful protest with tanks and soldiers and guns and many people died. It's unknown how many. And in Korea, it's a hot topic even today because people are still denying that it ever happened even though we have we have photos. We have oh any well I'm not going to go into it. It's just a very important piece of history and Hungong is from Guangju. Um so this is very personal to her. It's told in different POVs and I've said this so many times. I'm sorry, but I remember getting to I think it's the second or the third point of view where when you realize who is speaking, I I literally gasped and had to put the book down. Like the way that she chooses to tell the story, like what angles she chooses to tell the story from is genius, heartbreaking, gorgeous. So yeah, Hungong, human acts, a must-read, forever favorite, incredible, welldeserving, the Nobel Prize, Hung.

What else did I read in 2020? I had a good reading year. Let's go. Another forever fave. This is how you lose the time war. Yeah, this is how you lose the time war is right up my alley. This book is like sci-fi but told in the form of letters. The world building is very loose. Um, so you just have to be okay with going along with a lot of things. Um, it is so poetic and flowery and I think a lot of people don't like that because they're saying a lot of I don't think some people say that they're saying a lot of nothing. It's just a lot of fuzzy fluffy words. Respectfully disagree. Um, but we are following two secret agents who work for different agencies and they are able to time travel. And so what these agents do is they will kind of like it's all about the butterfly effect. So they will, you know, go back in time to kill someone so that this person can't give birth to their daughter who will write a manifesto that will create a revolution that will overthrow this government that will start this war that will So they keep going back to try and get the outcome that either agency wants and they are both the top agents. So they kind of come across each other, step on each other's toes quite a bit, and they start leaving letters to each other at first kind of like, you know, nah, I got here first. and then it becomes a romance and it's just inject this into my veins. Like this is exactly what this writing I just I just love it so much. This is how you lose the time war. A forever fave.

And last but not least for a favorite book of 2020 is one that I will always recommend, Know My Name by Chanel Miller. This is high praise because I usually don't like memoirs. I will read pretty much anything, but I really struggle to finish non-fiction, get into memoirs, um, and I just do not like self-help. So, those are kind of the genres that I, if I like them, you know they're top tier. This is by Chanel Miller. If you know of the Stanford rape case where Chanel was assaulted when she was unconscious, and it details what happened to her, it details the case. It details just everything that has really happened to her because of this one event that she didn't ask to be a part of. It is written so well. Yeah, I feel like anything I would say about it, it like wouldn't even come close to describing how great it is. Um, Know My Name, Chanel Miller. Incredibly heavy, really powerful, an incredible memoir. Know My Name.

Okay, 2021 was also a very good year. This is exciting. Um, starting off with if I had your face, I'm going to put this in again with that in between always recommend and solid. I'm going to put I'm going to put it in always recommend. I would always recommend it for anyone who's interested in Korean culture and maybe is looking through rosecolored glasses and like what they see with, you know, K-pop and Kdramas. But I feel like Kdramas have improved so much in showcasing the darker side of Korean culture, but I don't think it goes quite as dark as If I Had Your Face. If I Had Your Face also takes place, my previous apartment, there are some places mentioned in this book that are literally on my street. Um, so it was very just immersive to say the least. Um, if I had your face follows a group of girls living in one particular villa. They all have different jobs such as one is I think a makeup artist or a hair stylist who works in the K-pop industry. One of them is an escort. I think another one just kind of stays at home. They're just these young girls trying to survive in a culture that is not a safe place for young girls. It talks a lot about the kind of dark side of the entertainment industry or just any business. It's so common for any business owner to go to a meeting and that meeting will take place a place where there are like call girls and escorts and stuff like that's just very normal. Prostitution obviously is illegal here but that almost makes it worse because these women have no protection. So it was just really bleak and eyeopening and um yeah I I will always recommend it but I think it it's it's on the border of always recommend and solid. I think you need to be specifically really interested in Korean culture for this to hit as hard as it can. Um, if I had your face.

Let's go. A forever fave. Where is She? The Gilded Wolves. I have already reread this series once. I always feel like I want to reread it. Like, if I had all the time in the world, I would be rereading Gilded Wolves constantly. And what's what's incredible about this is that I DNFed it the first time I tried to start it. So, if you too didn't like it the first read, give it another try and it might become your favorite. The Gilded Wolves is a series. Disclaimer, did not like how the series ended, but it's worth it. Read it anyway. This takes place, I believe, in the 1800s. It's kind of this steampunky fantasy. There are these magical families that hold all the magic. There's something to do with the Tower of Babel. Everybody has a kind of different specialty. So you have one person who has beautiful plant magic and someone who has beautiful la, you know, the found family aspect of it all is so interesting. Even though it's kind of this alternate world, alternate history, there's still really interesting discussions about ethnicity, colonialism. One of our characters is neurode divergent. So talking about that and there's so much in this book and I really loved it. It's Paris and then we go to St. Petersburg and then we go to Venice and it's just like I said, very steampunky, very weird. a lot of characters making bad decisions and you just kind of want to shake them but you love them. Yeah, I really I still really really love The Gilded Wolves. A forever fave.

Ooh, this was a great year for fantasy books. Um, Legendb Born. Yeah, forever favorite. Um, LegendB Born. So, I've made so many videos about it. I've talked about it so much. Legendb Born is a fantasy taking place in pretty much contemporary USA. We follow a girl who has just entered a early college program. So technically she's still like a I think a senior in high school, but she's at college. And upon her very first night of being there, she sees a demon attack kids at a party. She sees a couple other kids kill that demon and no one else seems to notice. So she immediately gets wrapped up in this secret society. There are ties to obviously demon hunting. There's ties to King Arthur. there's ties to this kind of root magic and more of an ancestral tie to magic. And this is taking place in the heart of the south in the US. Um, and we're talking about these really old secret societies. So, of course, then we have to talk about slavery and white supremacy and the system that is still going on today. I Yes, I can't say enough. I'm so excited to see how she wraps it up. I do think people have um opinions about Oathbound, the third book that has just come out because I feel like she just took the story and kind of expanded it a lot. Um I personally really liked it. But um I think the way that she's going to close out the story is going to be spectacular. So I it's still a forever fave to me, but I am excited to see how she wraps it up because Oathbound really we swerved. But like I said, I really liked it. I I think that Bri is such a complex and fantastic lead because she is especially for a young adult series because she is a young adult. She makes these rash decisions. She's angry, rightfully so. She's inexperienced. She's been thrown into a lot of situations where she just has like no idea what she's doing. So yeah, she's not like this perfect chosen one kind of character, which I really like. Um just everything everything about Legendborn. I could talk about LegendBorn all day. And there's a moody Welsh demon boy. Thank you. Need I say more?

Oh my gosh, and then my life changed. So 2020 I read Six of Crows. What is this year? 2021. Oh my god. So much happened in just a year. 2021 I made the happy accident of reading The Love Hypothesis. I want to put this in forever favorite just because of the impact it has had on my life, but I'm just going to put it in always recommend. The Love Hypothesis was the first romance I ever read. I got it through Book of the Month. I just thought like, I'm not really interested. Like, maybe I'll pass it to a friend, you know, and one day I was sick at home. What do I do when I'm sick at home? I watch romantic comedies on the couch while I recover. And I didn't I don't think at that time we had a TV. So, I was like, "Okay, why don't I read a romantic comedy?" And here I am, everyone. This was just so stupid funny. It reminded me a lot of K dramas. Like there were a lot of ridiculous scenes. I just had so much fun. I laughed out loud. It's very difficult to get me to laugh out loud at a book. Yeah, and and so that just opened the door for me to realize like, oh wait, I I could read romance books. Like that was a genre that I just thought wasn't for me. Thank you to Ally Hazelwood. Now I have things to read on the airplane because I love romcoms. And yes, do you need my opinion about the movie? I just found out that not only do I really like Lily Reinhardt. Um, and I'm I think that the casting of the Adam character is hilarious. Uh, but also I just found out the director is the director of Set It Up. And I loved Set It Up, which is another romantic comedy. Um, so I think we are in good hands, everyone. Even though this will be absolutely cringe to watch on screen, I'm excited for it. I'm so excited for it. The Love Hypothesis. I will always recommend you, Ali Hazelwood. Thank you.

Let's see if I can wrap up 2021 before my battery dies. And then I'm going to take a break. Um, speaking of romantic comedy, because The Love Hypothesis opened my eyes, um, I also in 2021 managed to read Red, White, and Royal Blue, which I will also put in Always Recommend. I know that people have issues with it because of like the absolute fantasy of it all, us having a liberal Texan female president. Um, and then the Well, yeah, I'm not going to go into it. also like having an openly gay prince of England, etc. Um, yes. So, it is a fantasy, absolutely. But was it so fun? Was it so stupid and silly? Was I laughing out loud? I read it twice in the same year. I think I read it when I was at home and then I read it on an airplane to pass the time. And it gets me every time. The text messages so good. So good. Uh, Red, White, and Royal Blue. The movie cringe as hell. I think that they took a lot out of it that I wish they had kept in, but um it was still a good time. It was still a good time. So, Red, White, and Royal Blue. You know what? I'm always going to recommend you. I'm always going to recommend you.

Ooh. After that, I read Fable, which is where Fable, I'm going to put it in solid, but I will always recommend it if you are looking for a young adult fantasy. Uh this is kind of like a Pirates of the Caribbean fantasy. It's about a girl who can hear jewels. She could hear gemstones that are like on the sea floor. Her dad is like a pirate lord. She was abandoned on an island for a really long time. I honestly don't even remember the plot of this. I just remember the vibes are so good. I remember the romance being really great. Something about the words that Adrien Young picks, it just felt like every word was correct. like the names of the characters I was like absolutely this boy is named West. Absolutely. Her dad is named Saint like it was just something yeah something about it clicked. So I really liked Fable and Namesake. She continues the world through other stories. I didn't particularly love any of the continuations but Fable and Namesake in particular so excellent. So, if you are if you are like a Pirates of the Caribbean girly and you're looking for a little young adult fantasy, Fable is superb. Superb.

And last but not least would be Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I want to put it uh you know, I'm going to put it in solid. I think the first time I read it, I would have put it in forever fave. I think now I've kind of cooled down, but um Daughter of Smoke and Bone is excellent if you're looking for is this young adult or is this just adult fantasy? Anyway, a fantasy. It is about a girl who is raised by a demon. And she's kind of like a courier. Like he'll tell her like, "Oh, you need to go to Egypt to get me this thing." And so she'll use a magical door and go pick up this thing from a market and bring it back. And she has no idea what she's collecting, right? And one day when one of her errands gets interrupted by a fallen angel, I think she unravels some secrets about her past, her guardian, and the life that she thought she knew. A lot of it also takes place in Prague. Um, she has a best friend that is great. I actually loved her best friend and her best friend's boyfriend are like my favorite part of the whole series. But if you like angels and demons and something that feels like a very old fairy tale, um, but also super modern because she's like this young art student living in Prague and she has like crazy blue hair. Yeah, it was just great and I and very different in feeling from Oh my god. Strange the Dreamer by the same author. Yeah, just a just a feat a fun time. Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Um, I do think that as it continued, it got like a little too fantastical for me, but still such a solid series. Daughter of Smok and Bone.

Uh, we are entering the year of 2022. Ooh. Ooh, this was an interesting year. This was an interesting year. Okay, so um a book that I'm going to put in. Oh my god, this breaks my heart. Wait, I feel like Okay, that's what I'm missing. I need a tier that is between Always Recolid. I would do recommend with the asterisk of I know you. I will recommend it because I know who you are. And this goes in that category. So, I'm going to put it in solid, which is insane for me. I'm just putting it in there simply for I'm thinking in terms of like how would I recommend it to others instead of how it feels directly to me because that's different. For how it feels directly to me, this is a forever fave. But in terms of when it comes to recommending it to others, I'm going to put it in solid. No, I'm gonna put it in always recommend. The Ballad of Never After. This is a very particular kind of fantasy book. I think you either love or hate Stephanie Garber's writing. I happen to love it. You have to suspend some disbelief. You have to be okay with sometimes sickeningly sweet writing. I think she just did something with especially the sequel. This is the Once Upon a Broken Heart series. Um, but specifically the second book is I will say I am of the camp that believes you should read Caraval beforehand. Technically, you don't have to. Some people say some people say you don't have to. I'm not some people. Um, I believe you should read Caraval first in order to really understand some of the characters. But yeah, Ballad of Never After that second book, man. Oof. So great. The final book though, I think it was a ride to be on, but um I understand why it's not everybody's favorite. Um I think as I was reading it the first time, I enjoyed it, but then when I finally like sat with it, I was like, well, well, what actually happened in that book? I don't know. So, yeah. Um not a perfect book. I would recommend it if I know you. Not going to recommend it to everyone, but I can't just put it in solid. That just doesn't sit well with me. under that. Always recommend, potentially even a forever fave. I'm going to put it in always recommend.

This is Our Wives Under the Sea. This is about one woman whose wife is, what is she? She does some job that requires her to dive deep into the sea and investigate something. And when she comes back from her job, she's not quite right. It's a little magical realism, almost a little bit of horror. Um, literary fiction, so poetic just about grief and relationships and what it is to lose someone that is still here. Um, what happens when you grow apart, what happens when you love people through things. Um, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Um, our wives under the sea will always recommend it.

Oh my god, this was a book that I feel like I can't recommend because it will ruin you. Like actually, it will ruin your life. Um, so that being said, I'm going to put it in the always recommend category. How high we go in the dark. I made the mistake of reading this book, starting it in public. I was sitting at milestone coffee where I always go to read my most traumatic books. So, they've seen me through it all. I have cried. I have laughed. I have quickly stood up and walked out because I just couldn't deal with being in public. Shout out to Milestone Coffee for not putting me on like some kind of watch list. Truly, thank you. How high we go in the dark. I feel like I want you to go in prepared, but I also don't want you to know anything. Um, this is a story told in a series of short stories. The plot spans millennia perhaps. We're following a disease that um kills a lot of people. So, this was like especially rough to read when we were still semi in the the height of the pandemic, but it's it's about a virus. It's about death. It's about what do we do with death? How do I describe this? I can't I can't go into detail. It's got this kind of sci-fi element as well, just because of how far we do end up going into the future. Please look up your own trigger warnings. I went into it. The first story is just about this scientist who is doing research and finds something in the perafrost and surprise surprise, it's this ancient disease that we don't have any immunity for. Um, so I thought like, oh, it's going to be this thriller about, you know, whatever. Wrong. It's a book that once you read it, it will not leave your brain. And I almost couldn't finish it. But it's beautiful. I think how it ended was really great. But yeah, it's hard to talk about. It was it was a book that like shook me to my core and I was already having kind of like a bad day. And then I started reading this and I was like, what the like life is so cruel and hard and and why do we go through with it and stuff like that. Um, fair warning for that one. How high we go in the dark. But certainly certainly a book that will stay with you. Let's just say

Next up is where did she go? Um, a book that I'll always recommend, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea. And I may be friends with Axi now, but I read this book before I knew Axio. So, this was purely had nothing to do with me being friends with her. I read this and loved it. Very kind of studio Ghibllyes. Like, I was I could see everything happening in this. It was such a visual book and it was very to me like jibli tinged, I think. Like I saw it almost in an animated way. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is a fantasy retelling of a Korean fable um about a sea god that needs to be appeased by having a young woman thrown into the sea as a sacrifice to be his bride um to keep the seas calm so that this you know the coastal villages can fish and survive and the storms won't be bad etc. what happens when our girl sacrifices herself to save her brother's beloved. And um when we follow her into the sea, into the underworld, things are not as they seem. Yeah, I I just really really loved this. Something about it. Um this was also one of my first experiences with Korean fable inspired fantasy. Um, so it was just really great. And and now every time I go to especially I feel like the east coast of Korea. Every time I go on a trip and I look out at the water, I'm like, "Oh yeah, there's Hey, there's the sea god." You know, this was this was great. This was so fun. Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea for sure. A forever fave. A forever fave.

As long as the lemon trees grow. Oh my god. I forget who I gave this to. Anyway, I need to get I'm going to buy another physical copy because I got this book, read it, was blown away. So, I immediately gave it to a friend because share the wealth, right? But I need to reread this because it's been long enough. She's working on book number two. Yeah, this was a debut. How was this a debut, Zula? How was this a debut? Come on. Um, this is about a girl living in Syria. Relatively contemporary. Um, this book came out three years ago, I think. We follow her as she continues to work. She was, I think, just like a pharmacist. She was in the medical world, but she's not trained to be basically a paramedic or a emergency room doctor. Um, but that is what she is now because in Syria, so many people have either left or died that there's no one to take care of the people who are being injured in these incredibly violent attacks. So, she is like this young girl who has to see things that she should never see. She has to operate on people without anesthesia. She has to decide who to save, you know, like just like horrible, horrible circumstances. She's also trying to keep her family alive. Um, she's living with her sister-in-law, um, and I believe some of her younger siblings. And when given the opportunity to leave Syria, which is dangerous in and of itself, right? We hear every day about refugee boats being capsized and things like that. When she has that opportunity to go, it brings into question, you know, who's going to be left if everyone leaves? Who's going to keep your home alive? What happens when she may or may not fall in love with this cute, moody artist boy who's great? Like, couldn't have written a better romantic interest. Truly, what happens when you know everything you think is true is not? She's also followed by this kind of hallucination of fear. It's really a book about a girl who is about to crack and um it's beautiful. It's written with so much love for Syria and the Syrian people. I Yeah, I don't know how this was a debut. Like it's an incredible book. So if you haven't read it yet, as long as the lemon tries go, forever fave, always recommend. I will get my hands on another physical copy because this deserves a reread very soon.

And finally, I feel like every year I have a book that changes my life. And in 2022, I read finally Gideon the Ninth. Oh yeah. Forever favorite. Gideon the Ninth. What the hell? What the hell? Like I cannot. If this is the first time you're ever watching my channel, maybe you haven't heard me talk about it, but if not, you've definitely heard me talk about it. I love Gideon the Ninth so much. This is a sci-fi fantasy. There's necromancy. The banter is Oh, no. I can already see that my camera's going to shut off. Hold on. Do not interrupt me when I'm trying to talk about Gideon the Nine. how rude the banter is on another level. The characters are unhinged. Like truly, Gideon is one of my favorite characters of all time. Harrow close second. This is an a book that cannot be described. We're in a solar system where each planet is ruled by a different royal family. And each royal has been invited to kind of the first planet uh to partake in this kind of challenge or this right where if they complete it, they can ascend to like this next level of power. Every royal needs to bring their knight or their second or whatever, their cavalier. Um, and our girl Harrow begrudgingly chooses Gideon because Gideon is the only person left alive on this planet. Um, they hate each other. They love each other. It's just so so [ __ ] good. Some days I feel like the only thing keeping me going is the thought that Alto the Ninth is going to come out someday. The fourth and final book. Yeah, that's all I got to say. Gideon the Ninth, man. Woo.

2023. always, always recommend Burial Rights by Hannah Kent. If you like historical fiction, if you like feminine rage, if you like a kind of witch hunt, um, or like legal proceedings, um, if you like Iceland, oh man, this is a true story about the last woman to ever been put to death in Iceland. It's about a woman who was accused of murder. Iceland has a very unique legal system still to this day, but especially when this was taking place because they didn't have jails and their legal system was really still tied to Denmark. So any big cases that couldn't be resolved at like a small local level would go to the Supreme Court in Denmark. And obviously that this takes place in like the 1800s. This takes a while. So in the meantime, our main character Agnes has to stay in a home. like there's no jail, so where can they hold her as she's being accused of murder? And it's just kind of this account of the murder and also like who she is as a person like living with this family who deserves to be put to death. Yeah, it's it was just written so beautifully. All of the characters and their kind of unique perspectives were so intriguing. Agnes as a

The character actually doesn't speak that much. She's kind of like checked out. She's pissed. I feel like we don't hear a lot from Agnes, and I think that's on purpose because it doesn't matter what she says. It only matters at this point; her entire life, the only thing that matters is how other people view her. It lit a fire under me. Like, I was mad. And I read this right before I went to Iceland. And when I told, um, our tour guide that I had read this book, he was actually really excited about it. Like, people don't tend to know a lot about Iceland. Um, and so, yeah, if you are going to Iceland, you can actually go to her burial site. Um, but yeah, it's this was a great, great book, Burial Rights.

Next up on my list, um, Scattered All Over the Earth. I'm currently putting it in solid because I remember really enjoying it, but I don't think I would ever reread it, and I don't know if I would recommend it unless I really, really knew your taste. That being said, Scattered All Over the Earth is about a future in which, I think partially due to climate change, um, and like islands being swallowed up by the rising seas, we get a lot of not only misplaced people, but we get a lot of misplaced or extinct languages. Um, so we're following our main character who is the last, or possibly the last, speaker of Japanese. Um, but it's not called Japanese. Like, at this point, we have forgotten the names of countries. And she gets on TV because she's currently living in somewhere in the Nordics, and she has created this specific language, um, that is kind of a combination of all of the Nordic languages so that she can be understood no matter where she travels, whether she's in Sweden or she goes to Finland or Denmark or anything like that. Another character sees her on TV, finds this fascinating. I believe they study linguistics, and they go kind of on this adventure to find the one other native Japanese speaker, um, to unite them. Having to stop and underline so much while I was reading it because there were really beautiful passages talking about culture, how words really affect the way that we see the world, how language is just one of the ways that we can connect with people. And yeah, I, yeah, if you're interested in linguistics especially, um, this is kind of this post-apocalyptic journey with a bunch of linguists and languages, and yeah, I, it's a solid book. Um, but I wouldn't put it in a favorite category as of now. Uh, but that's Scattered All Over the Earth.

After that, a forever favorite, will always recommend forever and ever and ever. Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin. What can I even say? This was my first experience with James Baldwin. Oh man, this is such a short book, but I feel like I underlined. I feel like it would be easier to count how many sentences I didn't underline than it would than it would. I feel like I highlighted the whole book. Like, every single word is perfect. Giovanni's Room follows a man who has moved to Paris, who's going through a kind of tumultuous period in his relationship and his engagement, I think, and he meets this man in a bar and starts a relationship with him, and it's just about love and shame and identity and Paris. The way that he writes about just the city itself, it's told in kind of flashbacks, so we already know that this is going to have a rather tragic ending. And so it just, there's this feeling of doom to it, but you want, you're so hopeful. You want everyone to be happy, except for some of his friends. I didn't like some of his friends, but, um, yeah, this was just so short, but so complex. I felt so many, I felt like I went on a journey with this book. Really, really beautiful. If you haven't started James Baldwin and you don't know where to start, I would start with Giovanni's Room. Again, another book where I feel like my words are insufficient to describe it, but that is Giovanni's Room.

Oh my gosh, 2023 was an amazing year. Um, always recommend. I'm going to throw this real quick up here. All Systems Read. Uh, this is a series of short novellas. It is sci-fi. It is funny. We're following Murderbot, a robot that was made to be like a either a soldier or a security guard or something like that. But our particular Murderbot has changed their code so that they are not controlled by their government settings. Um, so what do they do with their free time? Watches shitty reality TV shows and soap operas. And, um, when they get assigned to a project to be the security detail and things start to go very wrong, and they actually grow to care for the team that they are caring for, it's just a mess. It's just a mess, and it's just funny. It's stupid and funny. Yeah, I will always recommend, and I keep them. I actually haven't read more of them because I keep them for when I'm kind of, if I ever am like, truly in the depths of despair of a reading slump. Um, so, yeah, I've only read the first one, but I am sure the series only gets better. All Systems Read, or The Murderbot Diaries. Yeah, truly. I feel like all my favorite books I read them in 2023.

Um, after that, we have A Master of Djinn. This is, uh, I'm going to put it in always recommend. How about that? Um, it's it's close. It's so close to being a forever favorite. A Master of Djinn is a fantasy, very steampunky. Um, it's also a kind of murder mystery, and it is an alternative history that takes place in Egypt in the 1910s or 1920s. There's a lot of Egyptian mythology. We've got a detective and her hot burlesque dancing secret spy girlfriend, and then her partner who is this goody-two-shoes rule follower. They have to solve a series of murders. Someone is targeting this particular cult. The cult is made up of a bunch of white men who are obsessed with Egypt. So on one hand, you're kind of like, don't save them. It turns out that maybe the god that they worship is real. And yeah, it's it's just so funny. It had a very similar kind of wit to it that I feel like Gideon had, but the world-building is so cool. Like I said, it's an alternative steampunk fantasy Egypt. It's great. It's, yeah, every character is my favorite character. I had so much fun with it. And it also has a bunch of novellas. So, if you liked that writing, you can read more. Such a good time. A Master of Djinn. I will always recommend it. Yeah, man. This year was really great. Wow. 2023.

Okay, next up, the only author that's on here twice, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride. I want to put it in recommend if I know you, but I'm, but I'm going to put it in always recommend. Um, Last Tale of the Flower Bride is this dark, almost gothic fairy tale. It's about two girls that play around and they believe that they are, you know, changelings. They believe that once they get old enough, or once they get smart enough, their fairy parents are going to come back, take them back to fairy, and they're going to be queens of fairy, you know. So, so it's a lot of this imagery of like girls taking baths in milk and honey and running into the woods and doing these weird kind of creepy rituals. But that ends up being a flashback. We flash forward to present day where the girls don't seem to be a part of each other's lives anymore. We are being kind of told the story of their youth by one of the girls and what happened to them. What happened to this man who fell in love with one of them. I don't think it hits for everybody, but for me, that just like gothic weird fairy tale, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride.

Ooh, another one that I actually am planning to reread this year to prep for my trip that if you follow my other channel, you'd know a little bit about. I am so excited to reread Our Hideous Progeny, which honestly could be in my forever favorites. All right, I'm going to put it in always recommend. I'm going to update this when I do a reread of it. Our Hideous Progeny is so good. This is inspired by Frankenstein. We are actually following the great niece of Dr. Frankenstein, who is also a scientist. Um, she is married to a scientist, and they're struggling financially. They don't really have any money to continue their research. They decide that what they need to do, this is still taking place in kind of the late 1800s. I think what they need to do is they need to make an incredible discovery to really put them on the map in the science world, and then they will of course be able to get patrons and financial support and things like that, and they've run out of ideas. They're really desperate. What happens when our main character finds the journals of her great uncle, Dr. Frankenstein, and sees his notes that he took while he was making his beloved monster, and is like, "Let's do it again." And oh my goodness, it's wonderful. It's dark. It's gothic. It's queer. It's great. I really, really love this book. So good. So good. Our Hideous Progeny.

Oo, I was just kind of hitting it with the sci-fi this year. Um, Kindred, also always recommend. This was my, was this my first? I, yes, this was my first Octavia E. Butler. Didn't know what I was getting myself into. Kindred is a heavy book. It involves time travel. It's a woman, I think it's in like, she's in the '70s. She's moving houses. She's packing a box of books or something, as one does. And all of a sudden, she just looks up, and she is transported to the 1700s, the early 1800s. And before she can even really understand what's going on, she sees that there is a boy drowning. And without thinking, obviously, she saves him. And that action sets off a series of events that just makes up an incredible book. We just follow her as she is constantly being pulled back to the past and kind of discovering why she's being pulled back. It asks a lot of like hard-to-answer questions about how we think of an individual, how we think of a system, how can we think of our past. An incredible book that is Kindred, which I will always, always recommend.

I can't believe I read all of these books in one year. This is insane. Um, next up, we're going to be talking about Paladin's Grace, a forever fave. Oh my god. Um, this was just so much fun. I love T. Kingfisher to death. As you know, Paladin's Grace is a, I guess you could call it a romantasy. It is a romance, uh, that takes place in a world of gods and magic and poison and potions and all of this stuff. Um, we are following one particular knight or paladin who has pledged his life, his soul, to serving a god that has died. The absolutely unthinkable has happened. How does a god die? So he has kind of lost his entire sense of self and doing like odd jobs, kind of working security detail for like whoever needs it when he stumbles across a woman in distress, a little damsel in distress, or so he thinks, and he kind of gets roped into this murder mystery. And when he's not clumsily falling in love, he is knitting socks and just being a general great human. And this was just so warm and cozy and funny and awkward. And if you're looking for romances that involve like slightly more mature characters, um, I think that both of these characters are in their late 30s. Absolutely wonderful. This entire series, but particularly Paladin's Grace, I bought the physical of it. That's how much I love it. Love you so much, T. Kingfisher. Love you so much.

Another funny romantasy that I will not shut up about and I will always recommend is Thrown in the Dark. Thrown in the Dark is just stupid. And I say that with so much affection. It is a very self-aware take on a romantasy. We have like this shadow daddy villain character who is an absolute softy and is trying so hard to be bad, but he cannot be bad. Um, and he gets roped into a quest with this, again, so he thinks, damsel in distress. Their relationship is so funny and just truly such a fun time. Like, if you want something light and silly and self-aware, this is really for people who love romance but are kind of sick of it and are willing to have it be made fun of, but also you fall in love with these characters and you are absolutely rooting for them. And the series gets a little crazy as it continues, but the first book is a gem, an absolute gem that is Thrown in the Dark.

Last two for 2023, we have Where is It? The Spirit Bears Its Teeth. Always recommend. Um, this and Hell Follows With Us. Unbelievable. But The Spirit Bears Its Teeth is a little more fantasy, a little more gothic. It's about a society where women have no rights, but they are needed in order to produce babies that have magic. And that's a problem in and of itself. But what happens when our main character is trans and thus does not fit into these very rigid gender roles? And when their very strict society calls on them to, you know, perform their duty, what can our character do? And what does society do with people who do not follow the rules? And it was just really dark, but so well-written. Anything that Andrew Joseph White writes, that's always a tongue twister for me. I will read. And yeah, The Spirit Bears Its Teeth was undoubtedly a favorite of the year. And there's always a little bit of body horror as well, so be prepared for like a gruesome book. But I felt like this one ended with so much love and hope. But yeah, that is The Spirit Bears Its Teeth.

And last, but certainly not least for 2023 favorites, One for My Enemy. This is a book by Olivia Blake. This is a book that I know other people don't get it, but I get it, and that's what matters. One for My Enemy is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet if it took place in present-day New York City, and instead of the Capulets and the Montagues, we have a family of warlocks, um, and a family of witches, and they are constantly at war. But what happens when a son and a daughter fall in love? And what happens when their little gang war starts to get a little bloody? Olivia like can scratch such a specific itch in my brain. Um, but not all the time. Like I'm famously her books are hit or miss for me. Um, but something about One for My Enemy hit so hard. I loved it. The writing is just gorgeous. I actually have two physical copies. I have one signed copy from Toppings and Co. in Bath. I spent money to ship it to myself. Like, that's how important this book was to me. And then my fairy bookmother, Susan Lee, was on a book tour with Olivia Blake, and she got me a personalized signed copy. Olivia Blake wrote my name in One for My Enemy. So, needless to say, I understand the criticisms. People don't vibe with it. That's totally fine, understandable. But me and my brain, we got it. We got it. So, that is One for My Enemy, a forever fave. 2023, what a year. What a year. Wow.

Um, but now I'm going to take a break, um, to rest my voice and eat lunch because this is getting difficult to speak, and we've still got two years to cover. One year to cover, but I did like a lot of books, um, in 2024. So, we've still got a couple to talk about in a second. All right, let's finish this. It's a race against time because the, you can't see it, but the sun is about to hit me. Let's go. Um, 2024. I'm just going to link the video. All the videos will be linked down below, but specifically 2024 last year because I ended up listing close to 20 books because some of them were honorable mentions. Like, my honorable mentions were just as long as my favorite books. Um, so these are just a sampling of my favorites because I didn't want this to be obscenely long. So, there are of course books that I'm not mentioning. Diving right in, 2024. I'm going to start with a short book, uh, the shortest book on this list, in fact, which is The English Understand Wool. I will put this in solid even though I personally thought it was so great. This is a story of a girl who is raised with the wealthiest parents. Like, they will take a private plane to Paris to visit this one particular person that does their dry cleaning. So, um, what happens when this girl's parents go missing, and perhaps she learns a bit about her past? She's also, it's kind of meta because she's also being approached by people to write, asking her to write a memoir about her life. And so this book is almost like a letter to the publisher who is asking her to talk about her life. You know, it's, yeah, it was just a really satisfying read. Um, and it was very short and a great time. So that is The English Understand Wool.

Another really small one, which is one I will always recommend and is perhaps a forever favorite for me personally. In fact, I'm going to put it in forever favorites. How about that? Is go up there. Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector. This was my first Lispector. Everyone said to start with Hour of the Star, and I'm so glad that I did. This is so short as well. It is a story about a story, I guess. Um, our narrator talks directly to us. Most of the book is our narrator telling us about why he's going to tell this story. But it's about a girl going through life. Some unfortunate and fortunate things happen to her, but it's really more about our narrator being like, you know, listen, I know this girl isn't extraordinary. She's honestly a little sad. Honestly, I can't believe that I would even deign to lower myself to talk about her, but like, it's just, it's very funny. Um, it's very sad. I just, I've never read anything like it, and I loved it. So that is Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector. If you started any other Lispector and you felt like, whoa, this is too much. Like, I tried to read Agua Viva and my brain turned to mush. Don't give up on Lispector, read Hour of the Star, a forever fave. Mhm.

What next one I will put in? I'm going to put this in solid. Uh, When Ghosts Call Us Home. This is again, I would recommend it if I knew you. This is about these two sisters. When they were teenagers or pre-teens, they moved with their parents to this very old house because their parents are architects. And so they moved into this house to renovate it or whatever. And when teens are bored, they, and sometimes if they have a camcorder, they're going to make home movies. And so the eldest sister wrote and directed this horror film, and the little sister starred in it. And it became this kind of cult classic. A lot of this book is bits taken from forums and like fan spaces talking about this book. And I love a book that is about a piece of fictional media. Like, this movie does not exist. But the amount of world-building that she put into this, it felt like I should be able to find it on the internet. You know, we are now with the youngest sister who is much older, and her older sister has gone missing. And so she returns to the house to kind of unravel the mystery of what happened there, where her sister could be, etc., with the added layer of she's there with a documentary team because they want to make a documentary about this film. It's like a book about a film about a documentary about it's a lot, but it was spooky, and again, I just love a book about a fandom and a fake piece of media. So, um, I personally really liked it. It was very creepy, and, um, but it's just a solid read. I would say I would reread it though, actually. Um, that is When Ghosts Call Us Home.

Next up is one that I was unsure if I should put it in honorable mentions or favorite books. I ended up putting it in favorite books, but I kind of wanted to walk that back. A solid book is Intermezzo. This is the one Sally Rooney that for me, 100% hit. I ate this book up. I struggled with the first chapter because it's told in two POVs. We're following two brothers dealing with kind of life after the death of their father, and they have this very broken relationship. Um, but life kind of keeps bringing them back together, and their two POVs could not be more different. One brother is very anxious, stream of consciousness, just like, if, if your anxious thoughts could be put onto a page, that is what his POV reads like. The other brother's writing style is much more like normal, readable, but once you get into it, like the first chapter is the anxious thoughts chapter. Um, but once you kind of get used to it, I really, really enjoyed it. Sally Rooney is very hit or miss for me, and this was the first one that I hit. That is Intermezzo. I think it's solid though. I can understand why some people don't like it, just like how I don't like a lot of other Sally Rooney works. So, just a solid, solid read. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney.

One that I will always recommend if you are a fantasy girl, Daughter of the Forest. This, oh, I believe this was written in the '90s. I think it came out in the '90s. It feels like that. Like, there's this nostalgia to it. People aren't writing like this anymore. And I said this before in my review, it's interesting that I liked this because it has so many elements in the story that I don't enjoy. This is also much more epic. So it is a series, but it spans many generations, and I'm the kind of person that gets really attached to characters. So when, you know, in the next book, these characters are old, the kind of understanding of time and the circle of life is just different from how I feel like a lot of fantasies now are writing. It's much more about the characters than it is about this overarching story. A lot of times characters will suddenly be given immortality because it's so horrible to watch your favorite characters die. But in this series, like characters get old, they pass on their wisdom, and they pass on to the next plane, you know? So, just the storytelling feels different. Um, slower, deeper, I don't know. Um, but Daughter of the Forest, this is kind of a retelling of the, is it the Seven Swans? What is that one? Anyway, she has an evil stepmother that turns her seven older brothers into birds. Our girl has to figure out a way to reverse the curse. And yeah, this was it was dark, I believe. Yeah, in this book, check the trigger warnings because there definitely is on-page descriptive sexual assault. I've read the second book as well. Um, I, why aren't we getting writing like this anymore? Why aren't we getting writing like this anymore? That is Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.

But that's not to say that there aren't any good fantasies coming out recently because I have one that is an always wreck. The Invocations. This was just a funny good time. It's about three girls who are dealing with a bunch of murders that they are going to solve. There's magic, there's curses, there's a girl who did magic and it didn't go well, and so she has a leg that is like basically dead. Like, she has a corpse leg that she drags around everywhere, and so she's stinky. Yeah, it's, it's just a really, this was a really great time. I had a lot of fun. So, if you're just looking for a fresh fantasy, well, it's not, it's not exactly fun. I think that it's funny. Um, but the, the story is actually quite dark. It's got just like this great amount of feminine rage, but also like comedic relief. That's The Invocations. I highly recommend.

Another great fantasy that will be an always wreck is To Shape a Dragon's Breath. I am so, actually, let me, let me look this up. Hold on. When's the next one coming out? If I'm going to find out that it's already out. Okay. Okay. Okay. It's expected to come out in 2026. If you love reading about dragons, if you love reading about like dragon companions, like having a mythical creature companion, if you love reading about complex worlds, a magical school, and then with this added layer of talking about the effects of colonization and the eraser, the eraser, erasing cultures and practiced traditions and arts and knowledge, this is the book for you. We are following a girl who has found a dragon egg. So, she's going to raise this dragon. Um, but you need to know how to care for a dragon. It's not just like a dog that you can, you know, feed it and it will love you. You need to know how to train your dragon, as it were. And in her community, there was a rich tradition of raising dragons, but as they've kind of gone extinct or they've been taken away, the community doesn't have any elders that can pass down the knowledge of how to train a dragon. So reluctantly, our main character needs to go to the colonizer's school. The only people who kind of currently have the ability to teach her what she needs. Um, but when she gets there, she finds that their approach to pretty much everything is not the best way to do things. Um, so she's dealing a lot with obviously discrimination and prejudice, but it just talks a lot about how a lot of things that especially kind of like capitalist and and imperialist cultures, like the way that they tend to do things is not a natural or healthy or freeing way of doing things. Um, so it was just, it had so many layers to it. The dragon, I will say, just if you're excited for like dragon content in this book in particular, it's still a baby. So, the dragon is really more like a cat. Um, so that's my, that's really my only critique. I also think that this was very heavy on the world-building, so that the second book is going to be very action-packed. I'm just very, very excited for the sequel. And I will always recommend for fans of like a very complex world-building in a fantasy world to To Shape a Dragon's Breath.

Um, this one. Oh, no. This one's hard to place. Where do I put you? Where did I put? Okay, I'm going to explain myself. I'm going to put Air by Sabatha here in solid only because you need to put in a lot of work before you can read Air. So, for me personally, Air was a favorite of last year because it's a continuation of Ember in the Ashes, a series that I adore. Air was kind of marketed as a spin-off, but this is a direct continuation. Like, the characters from Ember in the Ashes are all in Air. Like, you need to understand their history in order to fully understand Air. So that's why I'm putting it in solid. Anyway, this is, yeah, I don't even want to say too much of what it's about. But if you're interested in again, really great world-building, a wonderful magic system. Yeah, I can't really say too much about this because I don't want to spoil Ember in the Ashes. Yeah, and I don't know why Ember in the Ashes isn't up here. Like, I put in Gilded Wolves, but I don't know why I didn't put Ember in the Ashes as one of my favorites. So that's again where these lists are wonky. But yeah, Air is like a solid, wonderful fantasy, but I would say only read it when you've read Ember in the Ashes, but that's just me personally. You can ask other people. Some people I know read it without the background and they still liked it. So maybe I'm just, I'm just biased because I read Ember first, but yeah, Sabatha here, an excellent fantasy. Thank you very much.

Let's wrap up my my lighter, funnier books. This is my last kind of light book. You Should Be So Lucky. I'm going to put it in always recommend. Why isn't The Queer Principles of Kit Webb in my top books? Like, this is so funny to look at these and be like, "But what's missing?" Like, I'm missing so many of my think books that I consider my favorites now. Anything by Cat Sebastian is my favorite book. I love her to death. You Should Be So Lucky is a historical romance, but she mainly focuses on like queer stories that we don't really hear about or like especially in, in kind of like mainstream media. So, what would it be like to be a public figure gay in the '70s in New York City? Um, we're following a baseball player who is having a really hard time. He's in a slump, and a journalist who is tasked with helping him like ghostwrite an article, um, that will hopefully kind of boost his reputation and his fandom and then hopefully get him out of his slump, like encourage him. And I don't know. I don't know. It's just, it was really great. So sweet. You don't need to like baseball to get it. In fact, the journalist doesn't really know anything about baseball, so you'd be, you know, it's right up your alley. Really wonderful. But yeah, anything by Cat Sebastian, impeccable. You'll be laughing out loud. You'll be crying. It's, yeah, Cat Sebastian, my love for you knows no bounds.

My love for another book that knows no bounds. I will put this in a forever fave, but also always recommending it. Braiding Sweetgrass. When I told you when I talked about the Know My Name memoir and how I, it's rare for me to love a memoir or a work of non-fiction. Oh, see, here comes the sun. And I told you I'm going to be fast. Don't worry. Braiding Sweetgrass is a work of non-fiction. It's, it's, is it a memoir? No, not really. No, but it is a work of non-fiction by this woman who, oh my god, Robin Wall Kimmerer, I believe is her name. The audiobook. I also don't do audiobooks, so like me, non-fiction plus audiobook should not work. Her voice, the way that she speaks. Oh, my battery's going to die. How did that happen? Hold on. Anyway, the audiobook is incredible. This is just a collection of stories and wisdom about kind of indigenous beliefs and traditions, how they could and should be applied to modern day, and kind of why our current society has so many struggles is that we're just kind of our priorities are off-balance. And, um, yeah, it's just, it's really, really wonderful. So there's Braiding Sweetgrass, and then there's also The Serviceberry, which is a continuation of one of the chapters specifically about like gift-giving and and receiving. Braiding Sweetgrass, if you're looking for non-fiction and just to have your point of view kind of re-entered, you know, um, highly recommend, highly recommend.

Another book that I will always recommend, it's getting kind of crowded up there, is Martyr. This was obviously, it's on the list, one of my favorite books of 2024. This was a book that came to me, I believe I was in a reading slump. I had this, I bought it at like a warehouse sale. So, um, I had the physical. It was kind of sitting on my shelf because physical books tend to just kind of sit and rot in my house for a little bit because I have so many library books coming in. So, luckily, I don't know why I picked it up, and it is so good. Um, everything that everyone says about it is correct. This is about our main character who is a little bit death-obsessed, more so in wanting to make sure that your life, or your specifically your death, has meaning. This is partially because his mother died in a very tragic accident that is a real thing that happened, and he really questions like, what, what did her death mean? Like, what did her life mean for her to die that way? Um, and he really becomes obsessed with the idea of martyrdom. And when he notices that the Brooklyn Museum of Art has an exhibit with this woman, this kind of performance artist who is dying of cancer and is just going to sit in the museum and you can talk to her about that, he jumps on the opportunity to meet her and and talk to her about death and dying. And it's, I can't even go further into it. So good. Let me add my name to the list of people saying go get it. It's a beautiful, beautiful book.

A book that is also about death. Maybe not as beautiful. I will always recommend it though. Um, The Library at Mount Char. It's kind of like The Umbrella Academy, I've heard people comparing it to. It is about a group of children who are now adults that were raised by their father, capital F, to learn very specific tasks. We, I mean, spoiler, not spoiler, but their father is God. And what makes this so funny is that first of all, God goes missing. What happens when God goes missing? And second of all, depending on what point of view you're looking at him from, God could be a terrorist. And it's, it's just so, oh my god, it was so bonkers and so violent. Like, very, very gory and dark. Like, I know that I'm smiling when I'm talking about it because so much of it is actually funny, but it's actually very, very dark and gruesome. So, like, look up the trigger warnings. The main character is named Caroline, which is my full name, which was very bizarre to read. The ending, or like the ending of one particular character, so shockingly beautiful. Like, the, I think about this book all the time, but it is very dark. So read it at, you know, reader discretion advised. Whoa. The Library at Mount Char.

And then my final favorite book, and this is now a forever fave, and it's a book that I want to reread, but I think my brain needs to be in the right space. That is, get up there. A Memory Called Empire. This, uh, this was so good. This is science fiction, but strongly tied to language, specifically poetry. If you're very interested in like words and their meaning and their weight, it just kind of discussed communication honestly. Um, this is about, oh my gosh, this is about our main character who has just been promoted to become the ambassador. We are obviously dealing with an empire, and she lives on this like small little substation in space. Um, and she's going to be their ambassador. So, she has to move to the capital city. And when she gets there, she realizes that she is way out of her depth. Um, because her predecessor, the person she's replacing, died mysteriously. It was murder. Okay. Normally, she would at least know what she would be stepping into because her society has figured out how to like, basically put all of your memories in a chip so that when you die, you can give your chip to someone else, and they can kind of, that's how you pass down knowledge. So, normally she would have a very updated chip of everything that her ambassador knew, everyone she talked to, all these things. Um, but when they put the chip in her head, something goes wrong, and instead she wakes up with the ambassador's consciousness stuck in her brain. So, she's got voices in her head. She's got someone who tried to assassinate her predecessor and is likely trying to assassinate her. She's got a really funny, wonderful handler that's supposed to help her get used to living in the empire, whatever. And when I say that this is my favorite book, similar to Six of Crows, I'm talking about the duology as a whole. So good. I had so much fun with them. It is kind of a difficult read because so much of it is about language, and we kind of go on these tangents about like why we're picking this particular word or even body language, like why this person smiled, and why did that person like lift their hand in this particular way. I really, really had fun with this. And that's my list. I'm satisfied with this. I feel like because of how many are in the two tiers, it makes the solid tier look lower than it should be. But best believe, I still love those books that are in the solid. But yeah, I think it is funny though. Like, I feel like I almost want to go back through like my StoryGraph and figure out what books I wish I had put in here. That's why I'll link 2024 in particular. I had a long list of honorable mentions. Anyway, that's my list.

As you can tell, now I am in the sun, which I don't want to be sitting in right now. Um, so I'm going to check out, but let me know. Do we match? Do we not match? I'm always fascinated by the people who tell me that they watch my channel, but they don't agree with my recommendations. What, what do you think? Um, and yeah, thank you again for five great years. Um, happy to keep going, and I'm excited to see what this year brings in terms of favorite books. Yeah, just thank you. Thank you always. And yeah, if you have any based on these, if you have any recommendations for me, so many of these were recommendations from you guys, so keep at it. And I will catch you guys next time.

Full disclaimer, um, in August I will be back in the US for a bit, so I might not have enough time to keep up with our regular schedule. I already talked about it on Instagram. If you're not following me there, but I did print out my pictures for the final installment of the Shadow Hunters plot summary videos. So, I'm going to be filming that and editing it at the end of August to hopefully have it to you by the first week of September. That is my goal. So, yeah. Hopefully, you only have to wait about one month from today. So, when I'm posting this, when am I, when am I posting this? Hopefully, you will be waiting only about three weeks for the plot summary video. So, thank you for your patience. That's what's coming up next. So, if I go MIA from this channel for a little bit, it's because I am in my room with my wand talking about the Shadow Hunters, or I'm in my editing cave trying to fight copyright claims for all of my Jace thirst trap edits. Okay, thoughts and prayers appreciated. So, I will see you guys then. Love to you always. See you next time. Okay, bye.