Hi! It's Penny here! Today we're gonna be going through some new releases that are
coming out in May as well as some other books that I've recently added to my
Goodreads to-read list. Although honestly, I tidied up my Goodreads to-read list
lately, which you might think means I deleted some things... but I actually added
some things. Oops. But anyway, let's talk about the new releases first. So I've got five
new releases to talk about. So firstly, we have Network Effect, which is the first
full-length novel in the Murder Bot series. So far there have been four
novellas. I actually have only read the first half of the first one and then it
returned itself to the library, but recently, Tor did a promotion and so I
now have all of the books on eBook. I just have to find time to read them but
I forgot to put them on my May TBR so not sure how that's gonna work out. but
if you haven't heard about the Murder Bot series, it's basically this AI type robot
person that has hacked their system so that they can just spend most of their
time watching trashy TV and that's all they really want to do. But unfortunately,
they have to keep helping the humans out with the things that the stupid humans
want. Honestly, I'm so annoyed with myself but not having read the series yet
because it's so exactly what I love and the bit that I did read of it I really
loved. So I just need to like sort out my organization! Next, we have Burn by
Patrick Ness. So I think this is some kind of alternate history where there
are dragons. I was really just sold on the fact that there's a line in the
synopsis about the main character's father having hired a dragon to come and
work on the farm. Dragons working on the farm? Yes. As well,
I think the dragon has a secret, there's a cult of dragon worshippers, and a
prophecy. So it sounds like it's gonna be really interesting. Next, we have What
Lies Between Us by John Marrs. This is some kind of story about two women who
live together and then every night one of them gets chained into the attic. That
synopsis kind of gives me the Girl with All the Gifts vibes, in that somebody is
being locked up and you don't know why. Also, I've recently read the One by
John Marrs and I really enjoyed it so that made me interested to pick up some
more of his stuff. Then as well we have the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by
Suzanne Collins. So this is a prequel to The Hunger Games series by Suzanne
Collins and I believe it's gonna follow President Snow, so it'll be really
interesting to see how this continues. Hopefully it will live up to
expectations. It's always really worrying to get a continuation of a really
well-loved series because it's a lot to live up to. But Suzanne Collins has had a
while to work on it so I guess we'll see how she manages. If you don't know what
The Hunger Games is about, where have you been? But it is a dystopian where every
year there is a "hunger game" where people from each district have to fight to the
death. The original series was like the 74th and 75th Hunger Games, so it'll be
interesting to see how different it is with the prequel being set in much
earlier Hunger Games. Then lastly we have the second volume of Ascender coming out
by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen. So this is like a continuation series from the
original Descender graphic novel series. Descender was absolutely amazing. It's
basically a war between humans and robots, except that some of the robots and
humans are working together and the humans definitely aren't necessarily the
good guys. In the second one, we're kind of seeing the result of that war as well
as there's some weird magic stuff going on. The first volume was great so I can't
see why the second volume wouldn't be the same. Okay, so then let's just talk
about a few books that I've added to my Goodreads to-read list recently. So
firstly, I've got River God by Wilbur Smith. This is quite an old book but it
was one that was recommended to me when I was asking for recommendations for
books set in ancient Egypt, so if you know any other book set in ancient Egypt,
please leave them down below. I don't know anything else about this. Ancient
Egypt. Hopefully some cats. Then I also added Snow, Glass, Apples, by Neil Gaiman
and Colleen Doran. This is a graphic novel retelling of Snow White. I
have heard that maybe the story isn't so good but honestly the art just looks so
beautiful that I'm gonna try and get my hands on it just so that I can look at
the pictures. I'm a reader! Honestly! Then I have a couple of graphic novel memoirs.
I believe that I saw a Gaia Athena talking about. So firstly is Lighter than my
Shadow by Katie Green. I think this one's a little bit about a woman suffering
with an eating disorder and then I also have Mis(h)radar. Not sure how to say
that one... by oh dear...Iasmin Omar Ata. I probably screwed that up and I'd try and
look up how to say it but I feel like I would still screw it up.
But anyway, both of these sound really interesting. That secret one is a guy
struggling with epilepsy. I don't often read memoirs but I do enjoy hearing
about other people's stories and I think graphic novels should be like a more
accessible way for me to get into reading those kind of stories, since
they're quicker reads. Of course, without my library, I can't get my hands on any
of them so we'll see how long it takes me to get to some of these. Then I also
have the Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu. So this is one Elliot Brooks has been
talking about a lot recently. It is a story of Wolfgang Mozart and his sister,
who was also a great musician but because of sexism at the time, she was
not allowed to continue doing that after her teens. And then also the brother and
sister had like this magical world that they would imagine when they were
traveling around as kids performing music. I've always found it really
interesting the fact that she was also a great musician but because of sexism we
don't even know anything about her. Okay, then I also have a bunch of different
books from series that I'm supposed to be continuing on, so I'm not gonna get
into that right now. And I also have a whole bunch of epic fantasies that
people recommended to me on my epic fantasy recommendations video. So I'll
link that around if you want to go and recommend any other epic fantasy series
to me. I don't know when I'm gonna get to any of these but I would love to have
like a collection of ones that I can look into reading when I have the
time to. Then I have the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. So this is
one that Murphy Napier was talking about. I believe it's the story of a woman
being stuck in a single room like as therapy for her mental illness and the
author is actually a woman who had this happen to her in real life. She's written
this story to explain why it's not a very good idea. I think it's just a
really short story but Murphy was saying that it was really great so I would like
to read it. Then the last thing that I added is a Swamp Thing, which is a
graphic novel by Maggie Stiefvater, because I realized it's the only
significant thing by Maggie Stiefvater that I haven't read I want to read
everything by Maggie Stiefvater. I have actually put a hold on this at the
library, but all the libraries are closed so we'll see. Honestly, my library hold
list is getting longer and longer and I'm trying to be restrained and not add
more things to it but I just hope they don't all suddenly come through when the
libraries reopen, because that will be a problem. So I think that's all the books
that I have to talk about today. Let me know if you're excited about any of the
new releases or if there are any other new releases that you know about that
you think I should be excited about. Otherwise thank you so much for watching!
I hope that you are having a really great day, and keeping yourself safe, and
I will see you next time :)