Hey guys! It's Olivia here from Olivia's Catastrophe. And today I'm here to give
you my May wrap up. I read 19 books in the month of May; a lot of rereading. So,
let's get down to the books that I read.
So, let's start with A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. I've been working my way
through all of Patrick Ness' books and this is the illustrated edition of A
Monster Calls which follows Conor, who's this young child. And his mother
currently has cancer. It's kind of in the dire stages and he's trying to deal with
the emotions that come with that. And as he's going through dealing with all of
that, in the night at 12:07 a monster comes to his windows every night and
tells him a story. This book is an absolutely new favorite
of mine. It was a phenomenal read and it was so so so emotional. And it just
brought up a lot of feelings for me because I was realizing how many moments
I missed by living abroad when my two grandfather's were dying of cancer.
They've now passed away. And of course, when you live abroad you can't be there
for those final days and final moments. And it was all kind of hitting me. And at
the same time this book is just a masterpiece. The storytelling was done
really well; the stories within the story. And I think it did a very great job of
showing character through actions rather than telling. That's the writer in me
speaking this way but really, you get to see those characters and you get to feel
those characters without it ever being like, thrown in your face or very
explicitly told. And the ending was just phenomenal. It gives you a lot
to think about. About the way humans think about themselves and the way
humans act and I was just blown away by the amazingness that is Patrick Ness one
more time. Speaking of monsters I then read Monstress vol 2 which is called The
Blood by Marjorie Liu and the illustrations are done by Sana Takeda. I
really did enjoy this one. It was a great continuation from the first book. It is
about this girl who has this monster kind of living inside of her and she's
trying to find out what happened to her mother who has left her or passed away. I
think I mother's deceased now. So her mother has passed away and she's trying to find
out what happened to her mother and what mother was pursuing right before she
disappeared. It is very dark and grim world. There is some type of fantasy
elements in its some kind of steampunky elements in it. The artwork is absolutely
beautiful and in this one I really started to feel for the characters a lot
more. The characters just grew on me and I just... I'm really enjoying their story I
can't wait to get to volume 3. Then I read My So-Called Bollywood Life by
Nisha Sharma. This is the arc copy and here is what the final cover looks like.
This one follows Winnie who is a teenager and she has this prophecy about
her life that she will fall in love with someone whose name begins with R, he will
give her a silver bracelet and they will live happily ever after together. And she
was pretty sure she found it with her boyfriend Raj. However, when she goes on a
break and then Raj ends up having a cheating time with another girl she ends
up breaking up with him and she doesn't know whether she believes in this
prophecy anymore. She doesn't know whether she should get back with Raj or
if she should try things out with this new boy who tells us she can make her
own destiny. She's also a huge fan of Bollywood and films and that comes into
play as she's trying to navigate through her final year of school right before
University and get into the film course that she wants to get into. It's
basically your typical contemporary but when I was reading this I was smiling so
hard by the end of it that I was just like: wow, this book made me really happy.
And I loved all the Indian main character representation. And all of the
like, Bollywood themes and mentions and it was... it was just so much fun to read
this book. I buddy read Hollow City by Ransom Riggs which is the second book in
the Miss Peregrine's series. I read this with thetravellingbookworm on Instagram.
I'll leave a link to her bookstagram down below. It's been a while since I
made the first one so getting back to this one it was a bit of a push to
remember what happened in the first one. But I did remember in the end and I'll
just tell you what the first one is about. It's about these children who live
in this time loop. And this boy falls into the time loop and discovers these
children who have powers and that makes them
peculiar. And they are being pursued by these hollows and wights who are kind of
wanting to eat them and destroy them. And they've got
this leader who's called Miss Peregrine and she looks after all the children. And
in this book there are some very nice vintage photos that match along with the
storyline and this one is no different it also has the photos. The photos are a
nice touch. I have a couple of problems with this series and I do enjoy it at
the same time. I do think it's fairly decent but it's not the best the
storyline and this one was a bit weak. It dragged out a bit and it felt like it
slipped into the middle grade age range. But at the same time it's still a young
adult novel so I just really wouldn't know where to put it. The whole romantic
relationship is really awkward because the... the kids are kind of timeless. So
they're really old, but they're still children. And also the person that he has
fallen for used to date his grandfather which just... it's really odd and wrong and
awkward to me so I really don't like the romance. I can't figure out the kids need
to act like kids or if they should act really wise because they're really old.
And they kind of flip between doing the two and it's just really awkward to have
this push and pull of those two sides of things. And the plot was a bit messy and
a bit random and not very connected. So I just feel a bit mixed about this one but
we're currently reading the third one so we'll see how it goes.
Then we have Ascension by Victor Dixon. This is translated from French and it
was a fantastic read. You guys, you're sleeping on this series if you haven't
tried it! So it's a mash up of romance and science fiction. I;m just so excited to
tell you about this book! So it follows this reality TV show where six girls and
six boys are going to be sent up into space. They're going to be sent into
separate spaceships that have one connecting room. And that connecting room
it's separated by glass and they'll have six minutes in there. And the girls can
call up one guy and the guys can call up one girl. And they take turns doing this.
And they have to have a chat in that bubble which is broadcast to the rest of
the world. And they haven't met before they go into the spaceship on their way
to Mars. And they need to fall in love because when they get to Mars the people
that they choose to marry are going to be the people they're going to populate
Mars with in the future. So there's gonna be six couples in total
and they have to pair up in this reality TV show. However, at the same time there's
a lot more going on behind the scenes of this reality TV show. And it also doesn't
just follow the kids who are going up into space and trying to fall in love
on this reality TV show. But it also shows about the people who have created
this whole concept and how everything is basically going to go wrong for them. The
suspense was major in this book. The plot was really good and the character
development was pretty well done. I did think that I was not going to fall for
the reality TV show side of things. I was here for the science
fiction thriller side of it. But I did fall in love with the reality TV show
bit so I was kind of in love with all of it. It did lean on getting a bit
expositional at times. But I'm gonna forgive the book. It's because of the
fact that they've only got six minutes in the bubble that things get a bit
expositional. That's the only reason. It's because of how the book is set up. Ao a
very good read. I can't wait to get to the second book. When it ended, it ended
in a way where I was like: need the sequel now, Then I read The Body in
the Library by Agatha Christie. I've been on a Christie kick so I've continued to
read more of her mysteries. The Body in the Library is a Miss Marple mystery and
it's quite meta because the whole time the characters are like: Oh, a body in the
library, this only happens in books. Or this situation it only happens in books
when this is actually in fact a book. Wwhich was quite entertaining.
Miss Marple does a wonderful job of solving this mystery again. We get to
meet quite a lot of the police force and she's working alongside them in this one.
And I just thought the relationships really really interesting. I am going to
give trigger warnings for fatphobia because there was a fat phobic
comment. And also for ableist speak because Miss Marple said some ableist
things and some other characters did too because there's a character in a
wheelchair here. And you just need to be aware of what they're going to say. I'm
going to leave the quotes of what they say down there. So if you want to read it
in the description box so know what your're coming up against, I will have it
there. But it was a good mystery, It was a good one. It was a good one.
Then I read Srsly Hamlet by Courtney Carbourne and William Shakespeare. Guys, this
was so entertaining. So Srsly Hamlet is basically just Hamlet told via texts
and tweet. And it was just so entertaining how they did the text and
tweets. I just... I love Shakespeare. It was just really funny and
light-hearted to read this really quick short book. I will say that nobody really
texts like this. Nobody uses emojis as much as this. But it was just for the fun
of the book, so yeah. If you want a retelling that's really quick and short
of Hamlet told in text speak this is... this is the way to go. Next I'm going to
talk about my two other favourite reads of this month. Romance was really giving
it to me this month. I was in a romance mood. So I read Waiting for the Flood by
Alexis Hall. Alexis Hall is officially my favourite new adult author. He writes
m/m usually explicit fiction but Waiting for the Flood is non explicit and it's a
novella. It follows Edwin who is this guy who went through a
breakup that was really bad after being a relationship with this guy for 10
years. The break-up happened a while ago but he still hasn't quite moved on. And
he lives in a part of England which is prone to flooding. So he's waiting for the
flood to happen when the like, flood management guys show up to kind of help
people prepare their houses. And in this flood management group there is Adam
Dacre who is this really out going, ginger, energetic guy. And him and edwin kind of
start to have this kind of connection. However, at the same time Edwin's
not quite let go of his past relationship. So can he let go so that he
can fall in love? It was so cute. It was so brilliant. I love that Alexis Hall
is very literary. You can tell this guy did English literature degree
because the way his characters appreciate words and books and
literature is just very present in his writing. And you see that in Edwin's
character because he restores books that have been damaged that are very old. He
really likes certain words. Edwin is also a main character with a stutter so you
get to see that representation. I don't see a lot of characters with stutters in
books that I read so that was really nice.
Adam is basically the biggest sweetheart. Edwin is basically a sweetheart. And also
Edwin has an elderly best friend. I love when you have an elderly young
connection. It was... it was just so cute and it was not explicit. And it was only six
chapters long. And I just wanted it to last for ever. So that's a new favourite
of mine. Then I also read American Fairytale by Adriana Herrera which is the
second book in the American Dreamers series. But you can read as a standalone.
This book guys, was so so good. It follows Tom who is this billionaire
and also Camilo who is this average worker guy. He is a social worker who
works with people who have been sexually abused and helping them recover from
that, escape from the bad situations and live a normal life and move on.
Brilliant representation as Camilo is Cuban-Jamaican and living in New York.
His mother was a Cubanita. And then you've also got Tom who's a white
passing guy from the Dominican Republic. So he does consider himself Latinx but he is
also white passing and aware of that. And what happens in the book is
that Camilo goes to this... gets tickets by chance to this very fancy event and Tom
is there. They meet up have a one-night stand and then Camilo goes to work, finds
out that there is this billionaire who has decided to invest like, money so that
they can make a Wellness Center for his business. And the billionaire wants to be
in contact with the head of the project which is Camilo. Guess what? The
billionaire is Tom who is actually very interested in Camilo after their
one-night stand. However, Camilo is a bit reluctant
because this is his job and things like that. I'm gonna make a parallel to
another series... I hate when people do this but the Raven cycle guys! Tom is
kind of like Gansey and Camilo when it comes to money is kind of like Adam.
However, they don't have the same personalities. They're totally different
characters. I think this book did so many things right. The relationship and how it
developed wasn't insta lovey at all. It was slow and steady. In fact this
book spans like, a whole year. Which was really good. There is healthy
communication in this book literally all the way through. However, that doesn't
mean there's no problems and no tension. They still have their fair share
of things that they need to work through. You get to see a brilliant
son mother relationship and son parental relationship in Tom's case. You get to
have a lot of discussions about being a white passing cultural person. And I
thought those were done really well. You get to see brilliant friendships in
this especially as Camilo has a very tight friends group and I love that.
The only things that I have problems with was that I wanted more of the young
child in this book because I love when they were young children in books. And
personally I just wanted to see more of it. And also I didn't enjoy the
explicit scenes. I don't know what is it this series but I'm just not about the
explicit scenes. However, the explicit scenes in this one were better than in
the first book, American dreamer. And this was also a new favourite for me. Five stars.
Okay, then I did my Shakespeare exam this month. May 16th. And for my Shakespeare
exam: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Did I read all of it? No. But
I reread eight plays that I decided I was going to focus on because I wanted
to write about them in my exam. Did I write on any of these eight plays? Yes I
did. So it was worth the while of me rereading and annotating them as you
could bring the book into the exam. So I'm just gonna quickly run through
what I reread. I'm not gonna tell you what these plays are about because I've
mentioned them in past wrap ups, but I will say just one word to summarize how
I felt after rereading it. So I reread Othello. That play is still brilliant and
amazing and it was brilliant and amazing to reread it. I reread Coriolanus which
is actually becoming one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. And I'm gonna put the
rating up for that one because I really enjoyed reading it up on second
chance. And again, it's one of the tragedies that I feel was very tragic.
Yes, Coriolanus is a stuck-up guy but he keeps getting told to do things that he
doesn't want to do. When he does them he gets dire consequences so, it's not...
he's like giving in to peer pressure the whole time and I just feel for him. I
reread The Taming of the Shrew. Still don't know what Shakespeare was doing or
thinking, and I don't really like that play. Reread Henry the Fourth Part One.
Enjoyed it a lot more this time. But since I reread it the first time I've
seen an adaption and then read it again. And I think seeing an
adaption of that one definitely helped. And I actually think it's a brilliant
play now. I reread Macbeth and I'm starting to get why people love it
so much. The first time I read it I just thought it was okay. But after studying
it and seeing the themes I can understand why it's one of his most famous plays.
Still not a favourite of mine but it's pretty good. I reread Hamlet which is
still a favourite but honestly, you don't realize how long Hamlet is
until you try to study it, because that is a long play. I reread King Lear for
the like, the fourth time now. It is a favourite and will always be a favourite.
And it also reread Antony and Cleopatra which I thought was just okay the first
time. But now I've seen an adaption and then reading this again I can say that
it's one of my favourites now. I think it's a really great play. I love
Cleopatra so much and I love Antony and his little dramatic soldier self. I just
love these characters. I'm gonna take a bit of a break from reading Shakespeare
so you might not see it in my next wrap ups for a little bit. Because this module
has been intense. But I do want to finish the complete works eventually. Now down
to the last two books. The first one is a reread which is The Mythology of Touch
by Mary Stone Dockery. Mary Stone Dockery is one of my favourite poets. She
doesn't seem to be publishing anymore and she is published by a small press so
she's not like, a famous poet. But her writing is so beautiful. Her imagery and
her wording is fantastic. And Mythology of Touch is poems about relationships and
love and sensitivity. The first part is short stories which was unexpected when
I first read it but I do like them. Parts two and three are poems and they are
fantastic. I've been doing this thing where I go to
my favourite poetry collections and I annotate
every single poem. You probably can't see it. But yeah, I've gone through and
annotated every poem. And I'm very happy with that. And last but not least we have
Murder She Wrote by Patricia D Maida. You cannot see the cover because the dust
jacket is just a horrendous vivid red. Like, look at this cover! It's so ugly that I
threw away. So I've just got the hardcover. And this is a nonfiction all
about Agatha Christie. It's about her life. It's about her
characters. It's about her plot and her tropes that she uses. And I absolutely
adored reading this one. I thought it was so interesting to learn more about her
life. I think it was so interesting to really get deep down into her characters
and her tropes. And as I did a crime fiction module this year it was just so
nice to wrap up lots of the things that I learned in a single nonfiction book. I
do not recommend this one if you haven't read any of her mysteries. Do read quite
a few. It doesn't explicitly spoil or name any of the murderers.
But it does kind of hint at their relations to other characters or how
many murderers are in each story. So it could be like semi spoilers. So don't
read this unless you've read quite a few of Agatha Christie's works and yeah, just
be aware that it can spoil it. And those things and it does spoil what happens to
Poirot in his final book so just be aware that there are... there's quite
spoilery in some regards. But it was so nice for me to read about her
inspirations as I've read a lot of them on the crime fiction module. So I could
draw the parallels myself and really agree with what the writer was saying. And the
writer does a very good job of when she's saying opinion--because she doesn't
know everything about Christie's life of course. She's not Agatha Christie.
But when she's making comments on her life she does a good distinction between
saying this is fact and this is my opinion. Or this is a possibility of what
this could have meant. They don't say like: this is the everything you need to
know. She's like you can't know everything but this is what I believe.
Which I thought was really good. And yeah, those are the 19 books that I read in
the month of May. Please let me know in the comment section down below what was
your favourite read in the month of May. Give this video a thumbs up if you
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every time I have a new video, and I'll see you all in the next one. Goodbye!