Audiobook playing "She used one half to make a compress for Leonie and the other to clean and bind the wound on her arm."
Hoi!
My name is Sanne.
Welcome to my channel.
Now.
I could have sworn that in the 14 years that I've been putting videos on YouTube,
I at some point would have done the mid-year freak out tag.
And I looked through my old videos,
and I guess I haven't now.
This year I haven't read a ton,
but I have read quite a few books that I really,
really enjoyed.
So I thought this would be a good format to talk about it.
Have a giant stack of books next to me.
So let's kick it off. The best book I've read so far this year.
I'm going for a geology and I'm going with Six of Crows.
I started reading Leigh Bardugo books this year.
I'm making my way through the full set.
I read these first because they are the most popular,
So Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom.
And it all started because I watched the Shadow and Bone Netflix series.
So I went back.
Read the original Shadow and Bone trilogy.
Now I'm on to King of Scars.
I am just having the best time with these characters with this world.
Six of Crows is also partly set in Ketterdam
which is inspired by I guess,
Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
And in case you don't know,
I'm from the Netherlands originally,
So I like that connection actually listened to the audio book for the
whole series pretty much.
And hearing the voice actors try to pronounce the Dutch inspired words and Dutch
inspired names in these books was a little bit painful.
I feel like they maybe could have been given a little bit more guidance.
This has a classic rag-tag crew.
There is a heist.
They work so well together.
You slowly discover the backstory for each of the characters they very much take up like a specific
archetype.
I love how they work together,
Just has brought so much joy to my life,
and I do feel like because I've started late with this series.
I've missed out on some of like,
the fandom enjoyment,
but recently it was a Grishaverse giveaway.
I think it was around YALC and I entered it,
and I won a beautiful,
shiny,
Grishaverse bookmark.
So I felt like I was participating a little bit.
That was fun.
But I think I'll get to join in with the fun when Season two of Shadow and Bone comes out.
I'm trying very hard to not have every answer.
Be Grishaverse
related,
so I'm mixing it up a bit.
Question 2
is what is the best sequel you've read so far this year,
So this is not technically a sequel.
But it kind of is.
Last time I talked about this book,
someone in the comments described Emily St John Mandel's latest three books as triptique
which I love. So there is Station Eleven,
Glass Hotel and then Sea of Tranquillity.
There are characters from the Glass Hotel in here,
and there is a reference of Station 11 like a
very clear connection to it in here as well,
because one of the characters in this book is an author who is going on the last book tour on
Earth as a pandemic breaks out.
That part is set in the future,
trying to not give too much away,
but she got famous because she wrote a book about a pandemic.
It all comes together. Really,
really enjoyed this.
I want to talk to more people about it.
I might,
when I read Glass Hotel,
just like,
make a whole video talking about all three of the books.
I got a really gorgeous,
shiny proof coffee and you almost can't, you almost can't see it.
The writing is still as beautiful and sort of serene,
even though we are talking about pandemics, so really,
really enjoyed this,
then a new release from this year that I haven't read that one want to.
It's To Paradise.
This is just going to be carried around in every video from now.
Until I read it,
it's got to be done.
Rosianna and I talked about this book.
She's already read it. In a video.
I posted the beginning of this year where we talked about what we want to read this year.
So if you want to know more head over there.
But yeah,
this is this is on the list.
Then the most anticipated release for the second half of 2022.
I'm splitting this in two because when I initially wrote down my answers,
this book hadn't come out yet,
and it did come out in the second half of 2022 but it's out now,
and I wanted to include it.
It is Infamous by Lex Croucher,
who is one of my good friends,
and I actually got to host the Instagram live launch of
Infamous with Lex. This is their second Regency novel,
The first one was Reputation.
But if you've read that,
you'll you'll recognise the sort of similar cover style.
It has the same witty dialogue and humour.
But the setting for this is that there is a young woman who wants to become an author.
And then she meets Nash Nicholson,
famous poet extraordinaire of the time, competition of Byron.
We don't mention Byron,
and he invites her to come to his crumbling Gothic villa in the
countryside,
together with a bunch of artists and her longtime friend Rose,
and the idea is that he'll help her with her career.
But there's also more going on between her and Rose.
Although Rose is talking about getting married and taking up her place in society,
lots of adventures, loved the setting,
the characters, absolutely fantastic,
so I couldn't recommend this more,
and then the release that's a bit further in the future that I'm very excited about is,
of course,
Babel. Dark academia.
Initially,
I didn't know that much about it.
And then I watched a TikTok by the author sort of pitching the book.
And the hype is building.
People are excited.
Joel just posted his Babel reading vlog,
which I'm going to watch after this. Dark academia,
but also addressing,
You know,
the actual dark side of academia,
I think will be very,
very interesting.
Can't wait to read that. Biggest disappointment of the year.
I think over time I've gotten a lot better with sort of pre selecting books and knowing what I'm
interested in.
So it's become rarer that I read books that I really,
really don't enjoy.
And this is one that was just hyped up so much that I think my expectations
were very high and it didn't quite meet what I wanted it to be,
I guess,
and it is Gideon the Ninth and I read it with a book club.
Think I only read about a third and I think the style is just not for me.
I haven't given it away yet.
I might I might give it another go.
But something about the tone of this isn't quite for me.
It's necromancers in space.
It's a bit crass and sassy and adventurous.
The world building is thick in the beginning,
like it takes a while to get into it.
And I feel like the writing could have been made a bit more accessible in the beginning for new
readers,
especially since it's the start of a series. Did not devour it as I thought I
would controversially. Biggest surprise of the air.
I'm going to say The Other Black Girl,
I've had this for a little while and I read this because I was doing some freelance work around it.
This it was at the same time exactly what I thought it was going to be.
And also not.
It's about a young woman who works in the publishing industry.
She's the only Black girl working at the publishing company that she's at.
Another Black girl joins.
She's very excited.
But then things take a bit of a turn and she starts receiving notes that say,
"Leave Wagner now"
which is the company that she works at.
There are lots of other things that play. It is definitely more of a thriller than I thought it was going to be.
It is still very much about racism in the workplace,
but it has loads of other things intertwined with it,
and it just takes a slightly different format,
maybe than I thought it would,
but really,
really enjoyed
this. It was a great surprise.
Favourite new author of the year is going to have to be Leigh Bardugo. literally.
Half of the books I've read this year have been by her.
I went to an event for the release of Ninth House and got to see her there, again
that was before I'd read any of her books.
So I'm greatly enjoying being in this world.
I feel like it's swirling through my head all the time.
Newest fictional crush I don't think I have one at the moment,
but newest favourite character has to be Nina Zenik
again from Six of Crows,
Just a wonderful,
relatable character. I'm just going to Google a character description of Nina Zenik.
I want to do a justice,
and I wonder what other people have written about her not to make sure I'm not getting any spoilers here.
"Nina Zenik is a Corporalnik
Grisha soldier from Rafka who joins The Dregs..." this is not going to mean anything if you haven't read
it.
She is a boisterous,
confident,
baked,
goods loving character who is part of Kaz Brekker's crew
She's a H eartrender,
so she can kind of I don't know what the best description is,
but it feels like she's kind of moulds people's emotions,
but also kind of like how they're physically feeling,
which comes in handy a lot when you're trying to charm or convince people she is an absolute joy
to read about.
Think.
One of the things that describes her was that she constantly has to go undercover,
and sometimes she has to try and not stand out while she's undercover.
And that is not one of her strong suits.
Absolutely wonderful.
Then a book that made me cry this year.
It's got to be John Green's The Anthropocene reviewed.
I already listened to this when it was a podcast and I bought the book.
I read a few chapters,
really,
really loved it,
and recently I got the Audiobook from the library and read that there are just so many chapters of this
that have made me cry.
So these are essays about our world,
about humanity.
It's also partly a memoir.
It's also partly about living through a pandemic.
It was written through,
I think,
maybe the first year of Covid,
and it's absolutely filled with interesting historical
facts.
It's hard to marry up that description,
but I'm just going to read you some of the topics of the essays you've got.
The QWERTY keyboard,
uh,
Kentucky bluegrass, Googling strangers.
That one definitely made me cry.
Velociraptors,
Humanity's Temporal Range.
Haley's Comet.
I can see myself reading this again.
I don't think you need to have read any of John's like YA books for it to make
sense.
But I would say if you enjoy any of the stuff he does online,
then it makes sense to read this as well,
because it's it's a great match.
Books that have made me happy this year, I've got two! Number one is Pride and Prejudice.
I finally reading Pride and Prejudice.
I read some of it on my birthday and around like Pride and Prejudice Day.
I did some activities around that.
I'm listening to the audiobook at the moment,
and it's just just bring me a lot of joy. Reading it for the very first time after seeing the film about
30 times.
And then I also have Bargain Bin Rom Com by my good friend
Leena Norms, fellow YouTuber.
I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with her.
I got to go to the launch for this as well is that this is Leena's poetry
collection,
and it just makes me so happy both as a friend who's just very proud of her.
But also reading this, it is just like a nice,
warm hug.
There's some sad stuff.
There's some happy stuff in general.
This just really,
really cheered me up.
And is anyone surprised that one of my favourite ones is 'In the event of zombies',
which is a love poem about the apocalypse?
The next one is the most beautiful book you've received or bought this year.
For me
It's received,
and it's actually a set.
So it is the what are they called?
This is the Vintage Earth Series.
Here's what they look like.
It is a set of eight books,
all related to humans and the earth,
and how we interact. Some of its directly about climate.
Some of it is a bit more about nature,
I think they're all books that have been published before,
although some might be newly translated, not entirely sure they are so
beautiful.
They have a really nice,
like unfinished Um,
I think that's what it's called paper like.
You can really feel the texture of it,
a gorgeous set, I'm so excited to read some of these.
Then the last book question is a book I want to read by the end of the year.
It's gotta be Lapvona.
I feel like I can sit down like one sitting,
read this whole thing and I want to be in on the discussion.
Got to read this and I was gonna be gross.
It's mediaeval.
Can't wait.
The final question is one that I don't know if always gets included in people's tags.
But I wanted to included,
which is your favourite book community member at the moment,
and I'm going to say booktuber Hannah May.
She lives in the Netherlands at the moment.
She's from the UK,
I believe,
but is currently living in the Netherlands.
I think I found her channel either last year or earlier this year,
and I'm religiously watching every single video, she has an excellent taste in
books, she talks a lot about like small presses.
She also talks about disability and disability in books,
absolutely loving her videos.
I know she is a fan favourite,
but if you haven't seen her channel yet,
please go check it out.
So I feel like that probably gives you quite a good overview of some of the stuff I have been
reading this year,
even though it has been dominated by the Grishaverse.
There's only a book and a half left for me to read,
so I'm gonna have to move on to something else after that.
Obviously,
I would love to know your number one book of the year so far.
If you want to stay updated on my videos,
don't forget to subscribe.
Thanks for watching,
and I'll see you soon.
Doei!