Hey guys, I am back from my NaNoWriMo hiatus and, before you ask, no I did not manage to
win this year.
I only got about 15 thousand words, but that's okay because I had a really good time, I'm
feeling super inspired, and I think that's really all that matters.
I'm not going to do a video wrap up of my NaNoWriMo experience, but I did a blog post
on the things that I learned during NaNoWriMo so I will go ahead and link that in the description
in case you are interested.
Now today, to get back into the swing of things, I thought I would just wrap up all of the
things that I read in October and November because, although I recorded an October wrap
up, for whatever reason I did not edit it or put it up.
Just a head's up, since I haven't filmed for a month I'm a little bit long winded and rambley,
so hopefully I can focus myself in.
And also, I just wanted to mention that I have a dog asleep on my lap right now, so
if you hear snoring that's what's going on.
I don't really remember what order I read these things in, but I'm going to start with
this one since it's the only physical book I have to show you.
And this is The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win WWII
by Denise Kiernan.
I did start this back in September and I finished it off in October.
This is a nonfiction book about the small town of Oak Ridge, TN, that popped up during
WWII so that they had a place to refine uranium for the atomic bombs.
I've talked about this in a couple of different videos and I personally would classify this
as kind of a social history because it's told from the perspective of several different
women who moved to Oak Ridge because they were promised jobs that would help with the
war effort.
Aside from their perspective, you get some chapters talking about women who were influential
in atomic and nuclear science at the time, you hear from generals and war strategists
and journalists.
And all and all, I thought this was a very interesting read.
It's definitely a view of WWII that I don't think you get, at least in the American school
system we didn't get anything like this!
I ultimately gave it three stars.
I gave this three stars mainly because 1) the writing didn't blow me away.
Although it did follow these women, I didn't think the form or the style was anything mind
blowing.
And also, this is kind of pitched as the "women of WWII," but quite frankly there's a lot
about men in here too, so if you're looking for a feminist history of WWII, this is not
that.
But it's interesting all the same and I would still recommend it if you're into history.
I also read The Red Shoes and Other Stories by Metaphrog and I'm a little bit torn as
to whether I should call this a graphic novel or a comic.
I'm going to go ahead and go graphic novel.
From what I understand, Metaphrog is an artist and author duo that do these really beautiful
comics or graphic novels based on fairy tales and folklore.
The Red Shoes is based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale The Red Shoes and it is
absolutely beautifully done.
If I hadn't read it on my Kindle I would show you guys the artwork, but if you can, go check
out some of their work.
They have a website that I will link down in the description.
Something I really liked about this collection was that it was done in a series of green
hues, so each story, the artwork for each story, was done in a slightly different green
and that kind of works to pull them together really well.
I will say that these are definitely based more on the original fairy tales.
They're all fairly melancholic.
They're not gory, but they're definitely not like bright and happy, so if you're into darker
fairy tales I would definitely, definitely check this out.
I believe I gave it four stars.
Next I read Black Blood by John Hennessy and this is a new adult novel that I was sent
by the author in exchange for an honest review.
So, the plot of Black Blood is a little bit complicated so hopefully I can do it justice.
From what I remember it is about an 18 year old girl named Aberdeen who is one of the
few human survivors that lives in basically this colony that is ruled over by these aliens
that somehow came to the earth right in the middle of the apocolypse.
The aliens provide the humans with safety and shelter in exchange for their labor and
they keep the humans under control by putting them all on these emotion suppressing drugs.
However, the drugs don't work on Aberdeen even though they've continuously upped her
dose.
So, right of the bat you know that Aberdeen is a little bit different than all the other
humans and that becomes even more clear when her blood suddenly turns black.
Believing that the aliens are going to kill her for her blood, Aberdeen manages to escape
from where all the humans are kept and finds herself out in the real world for the first
time ever and basically realizes that it's a very, very dangerous place.
She probably wouldn't have survived if she wasn't rescued by a young man named Ash who,
like her, has black blood and also has some other abilities and helps her learn about
her own.
So basically Black Blood is an odd mix of fantasy and sci-fi and ultimately that didn't
really work for me.
That was actually my biggest critique of the book that it was just, there was too much
going on.
I was trying really hard to wrap my head around these aliens at the beginning because they're
not super well described and I still don't really think I could explain them to you.
But then there are vampires and werewolves and witches and I kind of wish the author
had just picked one.
I will say that the writing is pretty good and I think what I enjoyed the most were the
descriptions of the physical landscape.
I thought it was really easy to picture where exactly the characters were and what the world
they were interacting with looked like.
Unfortunately, I ended up giving Black Blood only two stars because, like I said, I thought
there was a little bit too much going on, the story was a little bit unfocused, and
I personally found Aberdeen incredibly irritating and by the end of the novel I didn't really
care what happened to her.
Lastly and, I believe, the only thing I read in the month of November was "We Should All
Be Feminists" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
This has definitely made the rounds here on Booktube, but just in case you don't know
what it's about, this is an essay on feminism, pulling together a lot of the author's own
life experiences and kind of expanding on those.
This is an incredibly quick read and I don't know how many pages it haas, but I literally
read it while I was sitting in a doctor's office waiting room, so in case you haven't
read it yet you really have no excuse not to.
I thought this was a really easy to read, fresh take on explaining feminism and I particularly
liked that the author didn't just focus on how gender equality affects women, but also
how it affects men and how society's definitions of masculinity ultimately harm everyone.
So, like I said, if you haven't read it you definitely should.
It will take you no time whatsoever and I definitely, definitely would recommend it.
I believe I gave it four stars.
So that is what I read in October and November and I won't show you what I'm reading right
now because I'm basically reading the same three books that I have been finishing all
freaking year long.
We're just going to say it, this is taking me forever.
That's all I had for today so I'm going to go ahead and sign off.
I am trying to catch up on videos and comments and comments and things right now since I
have been absent, so if there is anything that you've put out that you are particularly
proud of and you would like me to see, let me know in the comments below and I will go
check that out.
If not, I hope you're having a great day and that's, I guess, it.
I will see you next time.
Bye!