- My background is different.
Does this mean I've moved house?
Yes, I've moved out.
But I have not moved in.
Still waiting for the new flat to be ready.
Right now, me and Dan are living at his dad's house
in North Hampton.
So now, I no longer live in London.
And all of my stuff is in storage.
So, there's not going to be a lot of physical items
in this favourites video
because it's all just locked up in a store room somewhere.
So before we get into this favourites video,
just two things.
One, if you're going to Summer in the City,
I will be there this weekend from Friday to Sunday,
the whole weekend.
I'm doing a few panels.
I am not doing an official meet and greet,
but I do have a merch stand.
And I will be tweeting whenever I'm going down there.
I'm gonna be there as much as I possibly can
when I'm not doing panels or like eating food.
So if you're interested in meeting me at City,
that is the way to do it.
So make sure you're following me on Twitter.
And number two, I am taking a break.
The only real breaks I've had this year,
from work and making videos,
have been when I'm in hospital
and recovering from surgery.
But next week, I am proper taking a break,
except to post this video.
So, I'm filming this in advance.
And this video will be going up
during my break.
But basically, what that means for you,
is that next week, there's gonna be no video.
Not going on holiday,
just going to be staying at my parents house
in Manchester, having a bit of a staycation.
So, that'll be nice.
And I'm also going to try and be off social media
for that time as well.
By the time you're watching this, in theory,
I'll already not be on social media
except tweeting the link to this video,
and I'll be back on social media on Friday
for Summer in the City.
Yay!
Okay, housekeeping over.
Into the favourites video.
First of all, books.
And like I said,
all of my stuff is in storage
so we've got no physical books.
I've got two book recommendations for you this month.
The first is Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie.
It won the Women's Prize for fiction,
the Bailey's Prize.
I actually got to go to the event,
which was very cool.
It was outside, it was a beautiful summer's day.
There was lots of Bailey's cocktails.
And Home Fire won,
and just so happened, in my goodie bag,
I had Home Fire.
So I was like great, I'm going to read this.
I really loved this book.
It was unlike anything that I've really read before.
How does one describe Home Fire?
It's about a group of Muslim siblings in London,
except one of them then moves to America.
But each chapter is told
from a different character's perspective in the story.
And it's about family, it's about betrayal,
it's about love.
I've been told it's based on Antigone,
but I don't really know what Antigone is about.
It wasn't until after I finished reading Home Fire
that I then looked up the synopsis for Antigone.
I was like oh yeah, I can see the
how the inspiration worked here.
But the premise is basically that these siblings
they are orphans and their dad was a jihadist.
And they don't know how or why he died, really.
And there's just a lot of secrets shrouding that.
And then one of the other main characters in it
is the son of the Home Secretary
who is also a Muslim man,
and so there's loads of politics stuff in there as well.
And I would just highly recommend this book.
It won an award, so it must be good.
But also, it's super easy to read.
Like the writing is beautiful,
but it's not inaccessible.
And then the second book that I read in July,
was Banging Book Club's book Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.
And I loved this book.
It is so funny.
The premise is that it's Lord of the Flies,
but with beauty queens.
Some teen beauty pageant contestants
get stranded on an island when their plane crashes
and they have to survive,
but then the corporation have like a secret base
on the island.
And there's like conspiracy stuff and politics.
And it's super anti-capitalist, the book, as well.
Like, it's just very funny.
And you get to know all of the girls very well.
I listened to the audio book version of it,
and if you're into audio books,
I would highly recommend listening to this one.
Because the author reads it
and she does the voices of all the different girls.
I did an Instagram live for Banging Book Club
discussing this book and I ended up doing
my Miss Texas impression,
which is like alright now, teen dreamers.
I'm Miss Texas, my name is Taylor Crystal Renee Hawkins.
(laughing)
The pageant is the most important thing.
And girls must be perfect.
No, I'm so, but anyway
what I'm trying to say is that the audio book is great
because also each chapter's like broken up by adverts.
And it's like listening to like a radio advert,
and there's like jingles and music,
and it's just, it's just very funny.
And I have to say this book is also incredibly good
when it comes to representation
and tackling a lot of those issues.
So this book was just great.
I loved it.
So one of my biggest favourites from July
was Hamilton Hamilton Hamilton.
I finally got to go and see Hamilton.
I originally had tickets to see it in December,
but then I got horrifically ill,
and had to cancel those tickets,
and then rebook for seven months later.
And in my head, I was just thinking like
Hamilton is cursed, I'm never gonna be able to go.
And I was just waiting for myself
to get really sick again,
or like some emergency thing to happen
and I wouldn't be able to go see Hamilton again,
but that didn't happen.
So I went in completely blind.
I hadn't listened to the soundtrack at all.
I studied the American Revolution
when I was in 6th form,
but other than that, plot, no clue.
Don't think I really learned who Alexander Hamilton was.
I'm sure a lot of Americans going into watching it
had a better idea of the plot.
So for me, it was just like
I have no idea what's going to happen except for the,
you know, America win the war,
that's about all I could remember.
So went in completely blind.
And just loved it.
My favourite actor in the London cast
was the guy who plays Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson.
He was just incredible and so funny,
and just so dynamic.
And the way that he like moved his body.
And I think he probably had
one of the hardest raps to sing, as well.
Like the Lafayette one is really fast.
And obviously, since going to see it,
I've now listened to the soundtrack a lot.
It is the original Broadway cast.
I think I prefer the king from the London cast
to Jonathan Groff.
Even though I love Jonathan Groff,
but the London cast king was just so funny.
He like nailed his comedic timings in those songs,
it was great.
And also just the dance numbers,
and like the swing and the ensemble
and everything that they're doing like around,
and also how the song Satisfied starts
with that like whirr,
that like rewind.
I was like, not expecting that.
But it was great, and it worked.
Definitely want to go see it again.
Not sure when I'll get a chance to,
but so good.
So one of the things that I did in July
was I relaunched my Patreon.
If you don't know what Patreon is,
it's where you can financially support creators
that you like in return for like some perks,
and rewards and things.
And so I've revamped mine.
So now, people who are Patreons have access
to a private discord server
which is kind of like a slack or a chat room/forum
and can chat with each other and chat with me in there
and I have been loving this discord server.
There's like chats about mental health,
and like sex geeks, and like games, and like books.
It's a really awesome way
to be able to like engage with you
and also for you to all engage with each other.
So that's a Patreon thing.
And then also one of the other things
that I'm doing on there
is I'm creating monthly like reading lists,
although it's not all reading,
cause sometimes there'll be like videos,
and like podcast episodes.
But basically things that I have read or consumed
in that month that I think may be of interest to you.
Not in the same way as favourites videos,
it'd be more like articles and think pieces,
and stuff like that.
So yeah, if you're interested in that kind of thing
and you want to support me then I'll leave a link
to my Patreon in the description.
Okay, I also have some more games favourites from July.
This one is actually super recent
because it's basically been since we moved back here,
because now we have access to Dan's computer
and so we can stream and we can play games
on like different computers.
So Dan has been teaching me Diablo, which I love.
I am a barbarian called Genevieve
and he is a wizard called Gary.
I don't know how to describe that game.
You're running around a map
and you're fighting bad guys, basically.
But there's like an overall story, as well.
So if you're interested in watching me and Dan
play some games, I've been doing Twitch
a bit more recently.
And then the other gaming thing
is not a game that I am playing,
it's a game that I am watching.
Yogscast have a poker night,
and I'm just obsessed with watching their poker nights.
They're all really bad at poker,
so it's quite fun to watch,
and then there's two of them who are in a separate room
commentating on what's going on.
And one of them really knows his shit about poker
and like understands things.
And it's so funny, because he gets so angry.
He's like no, you should have folded!
No call him, he's got nothing.
And they're just like yelling at them.
But they can't hear what they're saying.
And it's just fantastic.
I love it.
And I'm a big fan of Texas Hold'em as well.
So it's just great
because I'm just like, there's people playing poker,
and I like poker.
And then there's just people commentating on it
and it's hilarious.
It's just very funny seeing someone
who understands how to play poker
and what good poker is like
watching people who are bad at poker.
Hilarity ensues.
And then this favourite, I actually have the physical things
because it's dresses.
Oh my goodness.
So I've got a few weddings this summer.
It is finally happening in my life.
People my age-ish are getting married,
it's happening.
Three weddings this summer
but friends of mine go to like seven or eight weddings
a year and I'm just like good luck.
So I needed some dresses to attend these weddings.
And I literally could not find anything.
And then my friend was like
have you tried Joanie Clothing?
I think you would like Joanie Clothing.
And I went on their website
and I was like I'm in love with everything.
This is my style.
This is my love.
I will buy clothes from Joanie Clothing
forever until the day I die.
And then, because I'm a social media influencer,
and I'm really cheeky,
I tweeted them being like,
do they happen to have an affiliate link?
And it turns out they do have an affiliate link
and they were kind enough to send me
the pieces that I wanted.
So the first dress I got was this yellow one,
and I wore this to the first wedding I went to.
Oh, so my walking stick is like red and orange
and autumnal themed,
and so I tried to get dresses
that would like match with my walking stick.
So this, it's all like lacy and it's cute,
and diddly dee.
And then, I couldn't decide for the other dress
between the yellow and the red so I ended up getting both.
But I love this.
It's got these like cute little buttons down the middle.
And it's got pockets.
Oh my god, look at this, pockets.
But yes, this is the red one.
And then this is the yellow one.
You'll probably see me wearing all of these dresses
at Summer in the City.
And also in this UK heatwave that we're having,
just having a million and one summer dresses
is pretty damn useful.
I will leave my affiliate links to those dresses
in the description.
And that is it for my favourites video.
I feel like this has been a lot shorter than usual,
but it's because I don't have any physical things,
because I'm technically living out of a suitcase,
and all of my belongings are in storage.
Yay!
Please give this video a thumbs up
if you enjoyed it.
And let me know in the comments
things that you have been enjoying this month.
Any recommendations that you have.
And don't forget to subscribe
because I make new videos every week,
except for next week 'cause I'm taking a break.
So I'll see you the week after.
Bye!
(funky music)