(upbeat music)
- Hey everyone!
It's your girl Jenn,
and I have been spending the majority of my time reading.
It's either reading a book, or playing Animal Crossing.
And, I find that it really melts by the hours
and makes time go by super fast for me.
But the key is, you got to find the right book.
It's got to hook you, and then reel you in.
So for today's video, I'm going to share with you 10 books
that have really just made time zoom by for me.
But before I get into my countdown,
I want to do a little plug for my book club
that just launched.
It's called Curl Up Club, and it's on Instagram.
You can follow us, and join the community that way.
I will leave a link in the description box,
so without further ado, let's get onto the list.
So my first recommendation
is not going to be a surprise for you
if you watch my channel,
but it is "Dark Places" by Gillian Flynn.
I love suspense, I love thrillers,
I like being on edge, I like being surprised.
And it just had a lot of elements
that really grabbed my attention.
First up, there's not like a murder,
but it's like a massacre.
So there are multiple people who are horrifically killed,
and that happens to be Libby's mom and her sisters.
Second there's a satanic group,
so it's creepy and intriguing.
But yeah, the story follows Libby
and her life 25 years later
and she is finally ready to investigate
what happened on that super dark time of her life.
I just love Gillian Flynn's writing;
it's descriptive but it's realistic
and she just has wonderful pacing.
Like, it just moves fast but not too fast.
She is truly the thriller queen.
So next up on my list I have "Pachinko" by Min Jin Lee.
Now, this is a heartbreaking historical fiction
about what happened to Korea during Japanese rule.
I think this book really hit home for me as a Korean,
because growing up I learned about the Japanese rule
when I was in my Korean classes.
There was a lot of inhumane things that have happened
and racism that still bubbles today.
And in order to understand that tension,
I think this book sheds a lot of light.
It covers all the hardships
that Korean people had to go through during this time.
Some Koreans would actually flee to Japan
in hopes of a better life to try and assimilate
but when they got there they realized,
"Oh crap, it's just as inhumane and racist over there as
"well".
And so, a lot of Koreans had to resort to crime for jobs.
So they would open these gambling stations called pachinkos.
So that's how Koreans living in Japan
made a living that way.
If you guys were ever curious
about what had happened during this time,
this book will shed some light for you.
So my next book recommendation is by a Japanese author
named Keigo Higashino and the book is called
"The Devotion of Suspect X".
And if you love drama, and crime, and suspense,
this book has got it all, baby.
It is very, very intense.
It's about a single mom who has recently been divorced.
The ex-husband is really abusive and he ends up finding her.
And then one thing leads to another,
and now they have to get rid of a dead body.
So this body kind of shows you how difficult it is
to dispose a dead body
and how hard it is to cover your tracks.
And it also shows you how a stranger in your life
can just be so, so dedicated to you blindly.
And there's kind of a beauty in that.
I don't know, maybe it's borderline obsession.
I guess it is obsession and romanticizing but I don't know,
it kind of tugged at my heart a little bit.
So my next recommendation is "Valley of the Dolls"
by Jacqueline Susann.
I actually have a hard copy.
It's very rare for me to have a copy on my Kindle,
and the actual book.
There's something about reading about
extremely glamorous women living
from the 1940s to the 1960s.
And I know that's a very specific timeline,
but there's something about this time period
that really gets me going.
So the book follows three women who are just trying
to make it into the entertainment industry.
First there's Anne, who is so sweet and innocent
and just so naive.
She's like one of those beautiful girls
that doesn't know she's beautiful
and then everyone's like, "Oh wow, but did you know how much
"potential you have?"
And then there's Neely, who is this up
and coming super talented singer, completely undiscovered.
And then you kind of see how fame can corrupt you,
and kind of rot you as a person if you already don't have
a great foundation with yourself.
And then there's Jennifer, who is an absolute bombshell,
but unfortunately that's as far as that goes.
But somewhere down the line, all three of these women
happen to get addicted to popping pills,
A.K.A the little dolls.
And so that's why you see all these pills here.
So this book was released in 1966
and it was hella scandalous.
Like, the tea is hot in this book.
Even when I was reading this I was like,
"I feel like I need to get a towel, like this is crazy."
So I couldn't even imagine what it would've been like
to have read this during that time when it was released.
But, yeah. Please go check it out.
I love this book.
So next up on the list I have
"City of Girls" by Elizabeth Gilbert.
This book is similar vibes
to "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo".
Now that book is also a masterpiece,
but I feel like I have recommended it to you guys
so many times that I just wanted to give it a break,
but they're both similar in a sense
that it's like older women kind of reminiscing
about their lives or the past.
It's about a girl named Vivian,
and she just cannot get her shit together.
So her parents give her to their aunt,
and her aunt owns this amazing theater.
It's not amazing.
But she owns a theater, and now Vivian has access
to these actors and actresses and showgirls.
And she just plunges into the decadent 1940s nightlife.
And Vivian's beautiful, she's rich,
and that opens up a lot of doors for her.
And so, you know there's binge drinking,
there's drugs, there's sex.
It's got it all.
And this book doesn't just follow her in that time period,
it follows her as she gets older and older.
And so you see how she matures,
and how she gains more perspective about her identity,
and what it's like to finally have that first taste
of freedom, when you're away from your parents.
We all have that moment of moving out of your parent's house
and you're like, "damn, I can do whatever I want."
And it basically shows you what it's like
to feel that and do that in the 1940s.
So, I love this book.
Next up I have "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng.
I feel like this book is getting a lot of traction
because the TV show is up and going on Hulu.
It takes place in Shaker Heights, Ohio,
which is just a perfect cookie-cutter neighborhood
with specific rules and philosophy.
And, there's a Elena Richardson who has lived
in Shaker Heights her entire life.
She lives, she breathes it, she loves it,
and she has this house where she just kind of
rents out to tenants.
And a new tenant comes in, Mia Wallis,
who is the definition of a starving artist.
She will put her art above everything else,
like maybe not her daughter, but they're up close.
And so Elena is really bewildered by Mia.
At first she's like, "oh wow, this is
"the kind of tenant I want."
And then she realizes , "oh my gosh, we're so different."
And then vice versa.
So it shows the friction between both the mothers.
It raises questions of, "what is a good mother?
"What is a good life?"
Like, what is the right way to live?
And it just made me ponder a lot of that,
and I like books that really make me think and go,
"Hmm. I can see both sides."
I think a good book for me is when there is no real enemy,
because you can empathize from both perspectives.
Now I have the book "After I Do", by Taylor Jenkins Reid,
another author that I'm constantly plugging.
But this book is about what happens after marriage.
So this follows a couple named Lauren and Ryan
and they're married, but they're at their breaking point.
I feel like she does such a great job of describing
that feeling where you're at the end of the road
in your relationship.
Where you're looking at your partner and you're just like,
"I have no idea who you are anymore."
By the way, this is not mirroring my relationship with Ben,
like me and Ben are good.
But it just reminded me of how I felt at the end of the road
with my other relationships in the past.
But, yeah if you've ever been through any heartbreak,
this book might be for you.
Or if you just want to feel and read a realistic love story,
this book is for you.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of rom-coms.
I'm just like, "this is a lie! There's so much fluff!"
I just like honestly in love,
and love can look like so many different types of things
and this book really highlights that.
So check it out.
So next up on the list I have
"Edie: an American Girl" by Jean Stein.
This is a biography about Edie Sedgwick
who was a complete icon of the 60s.
Like, she was probably the first it-girl,
superstar, socialite.
She was Andy Warhol's muse,
she's a lot of people's fashion inspiration even today.
And there was something so charming about her,
and I've been fascinated and intrigued about her life.
I think the first chapter you can kind of skim over,
because it goes down the Sedgwick family tree.
Like, you are learning about her grandparents, her dad,
her mom, and you're just like, "okay, this is a lot."
But once Edie gets into the picture,
I feel like that's when it got really interesting for me.
I find that the chapters when she meets Andy Warhol,
I found that chapter to be the most exciting.
Because I feel like that is the era
that I always romanticize about.
I was never there, but there's something about it
that seems so cool.
It's like the height of art.
Of music. Of just collectiveness.
Even if some of it was an illusion,
I think the intention was there.
And I think it was so new and novel to the people,
I think that's why it was so exaggerated.
And I feel like that's why the 60s are so crazy.
It's like, it was a lot of rebellion against the crimped,
cookie-cutter lifestyle that was once worshiped.
The 1960s was just drugs, it was sex, it was expression,
it was everything, and I feel like
that's why I am so drawn to it.
So yeah, this book really follows you throughout Edie's life
all the way up to her untimely death
while still representing what it was like in the 60s.
So next up, I have Ali Wong's "Dear Girls".
I love Ali Wong, she is one of my favorite standup comedians
and her book is so funny.
I literally smashed it out within two days.
It's a memoir but in the form of letters to her daughters.
It's one of those books where you just feel like
they're talking to you,
and sometimes you just need a book like that too.
It's really hilarious and funny and very honest.
I also love the parts where she talks about San Francisco
because I always get a big kick when I'm reading something
and I'm like, "I know where that is!"
Or like, "I've been there before!"
I don't know, I just get happy about that.
But, I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Bay area,
and through her lens.
So, yeah, if you guys are looking for
just like a good memoir that's light, funny, and also deep,
check out "Dear Girls".
So last up, I have Steve-O's "Professional Idiot".
And I know you might be thinking,
"why are you recommending this book? Is it worthwhile?"
Yes.
I enjoy reading about people's lives who are colorful
and interesting, and honestly Steve-O's life
is both of those things.
I ran across Steve-O's YouTube channel,
and I got into this binge hole of just watching his stories.
And he'd always say, "if you want more stories,
"just check out my book," and I was like,
"all right, I'll check it out."
And I was not disappointed.
It was very interesting to see what it's like to be someone
who is addicted to adrenaline.
All the way from when he was younger, doing skating tricks,
to when he got into clown college,
and then he was doing stunts, and all the way to Jackass,
and then just how fame kind of changed him.
Like, it's all of that, and he hold nothing back.
It's definitely a wild ride.
All right guys, those are all my recommendations.
I would love it if you wrote any your suggestions about,
you know, books that make time go by really fast
in the comments down below.
Also, if you'd like to join my book club,
it's called Curl Up Club, I'll also leave that
in the description box.
I want to thank you guys so much for watching
and I'll see you guys in the next one.
Bye!
[Sentimental Music]