- Hello there.
Welcome back to my YouTube channel.
There are a million of you here now.
What the heck?
A million subscribers.
That is absurd.
That shouldn't be allowed.
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
You have changed my life completely
and it means absolutely everything to me.
Thanks a million.
Okay, that intro was not just a little bit cheesy,
that was a whole cheese platter.
I expected a little sprinkling of Parmesan.
We got the whole charcuterie board.
Let's just talk about some books, okay?
Recently I have been reading a lot of silly little books
for my silly little mental health.
And I wanted to share some reviews with you.
So I thought a fun way to do it would be to do it
in a quickfire way.
To add a little bit of danger, you know?
A little bit of spice.
We might have quite different definitions of what fun means,
but bear with me here.
I am going to be giving myself 10 minutes on the clock
to talk about the 10 books that I read most recently.
And so I have, here's what I made earlier.
Just to add another element
to this already incredibly elaborate video.
I wrote down the names of the 10 most recent books
that I read and I put them into this glass.
And I'm gonna pull them out at random
and give you my little review.
Listen, I don't know.
I thought it was a good idea in my head.
Maybe we should just turn this
into like an ASMR thing instead.
But speaking of quickfire,
I have something very cool to tell you about,
because one of my favorite apps ever, Blinkist,
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You lucky sausage.
Don't say I don't treat you.
Trust me,
you'll actually be surprised how much you can fit in
to 15 minutes.
Why did that sound like an innuendo?
Get that out of your brain you filthy thing.
Maybe it's just me.
Anyway, I'm gonna try and do 10 book reviews in 10 minutes.
Let's go.
Let's get 10 minutes on the timer.
And I think I'm gonna put it here.
Can you see that?
Oh no, it's all going wrong.
Man down.
Jesus.
Okay, stop delaying it.
Three, two, one.
Let's go.
Ah, ah.
I'm panicking, I'm panicking.
Okay, first one is "The Girl With The Louding Voice."
I love this book.
It is completely and utterly stunning.
It's basically about the importance of girls' education
and the rights of young girls.
And I read this just after coming back
from an educational charity trip to Cambodia,
where I met girls exactly like the main character
of this novel, who would have been married at age like 13,
if it wasn't for education.
And this book is set in Nigeria, but it has this one line,
which has completely stuck with me,
where she says that she wants her mind
to be swollen with ideas,
not her belly to be swollen with a baby,
which is the reality for a lot of young girls
that age in those conditions.
So absolutely gorgeous, stunning,
and really important and powerful and empowering book.
Okay.
Right.
Next one.
This is "Black Swans."
This is by Eve Babitz.
And look.
Right, so when I read a book and I really love it,
I fold down the pages where there's great quotes
and underline my favorite quotes.
I don't think I've ever underlined
so many things in one book.
Like seriously.
I wanna read you one line.
This book starts with the line,
"It seems that only people on TV who don't dye their hair
these days are recently released captives."
Like the audacity to start a short story with that line.
But Eve Babitz gets away with it.
This is all about LA in the 80s and 90s.
And I think there are definitely like hits and misses.
Some of the essays are way better than others.
There's one on jealousy,
which I absolutely adore and I keep thinking about.
But the ones about her kind of close friends
are not quite as endearing,
but still I love her writing style.
This is definitely a new favorite writer for me.
And I can't wait to read more of her work.
Okay.
I did not think this through
'cause now I'm gonna put the book back
and pick the next one out of the jar.
"After Lives."
This is by Abdulrazak Gurnah,
who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2021.
It is definitely an important book.
And it's about the colonization
of the area that we now know as Tanzania.
I'm forgetting to breathe.
Okay.
However, I found this book kind of underwhelming.
Like the themes super important,
and something I was fascinated to learn more about,
but as a novel, I think that this reads more
like a history textbook than a fictional story.
And so I just didn't find it quite as captivating.
Like you don't get to know the characters
as well as I would've liked.
They sort of always seem to keep you at arms length.
And I wanted to, you know, embrace them.
So yeah, I was sort of disappointed by that book,
I'm not gonna lie.
But I also don't have a Nobel Prize, so who am I to judge?
Okay.
We're doing pretty well with the timing so far,
but I am stressed.
Okay.
"The End Of The World Is A Cul De Sac"
is another book that I was sort of underwhelmed by.
This is by Louise Kennedy.
It's another collection of short stories,
but I just didn't connect with it.
I didn't really find it that engaging or compelling.
It's basically 15 stories, I think,
about different Irish women
and their dysfunctional relationships.
There were a few stories, don't get me wrong,
that I did really enjoy.
But for me,
this short story collection was more misses than hits.
You know?
There were skips.
There were definitely skips.
Right, moving on from that.
I actually bought that book
specifically because of the title.
"The End Of The World Is A Cul De Sac" is absolutely genius.
So I really liked that.
And that was where the things I liked pretty much ended.
Okay.
Not to do all the negative reviews in one go,
but "Ragnarok" is a book,
it's actually a very slim book that I bought
on a bit of a whim on my way to the till in a bookstore.
And I didn't love it.
I thought this was gonna reignite my love
for old Norse mythology 'cause I am a mythology stan.
But unfortunately,
I found this incredibly boring and quite dull.
It basically is like a retelling of the end of times
from Norse mythology, which is known as Ragnarok.
And they basically believed that soldiers were killed
prematurely because they were being chosen by the gods.
They were the strongest fighters and so the gods needed them
on their side for the end of times war.
And this book basically takes that concept and then puts it
alongside and in the context of the second world war.
And I thought,
"Oh my gosh, how interesting does that sound?"
Like that is fascinating.
However, this just fell flat for me.
It basically does a lot of just explaining.
It's not a retelling so much as just a telling.
And I just honestly thought that it had so much potential,
but it didn't quite live up to it.
Okay.
Right.
Falling behind on time here.
Come on.
Let's go.
"Magpie."
"Magpie" by Elizabeth Day is a brilliant little book.
It is a psychological thriller.
I genuinely think,
if you're gonna take any book on holiday with you this year,
this is the one.
If you're gonna buy any book
for like your parents this year, this is the one.
It's basically about a couple,
who have a lodger living with them,
and the wife in the couple,
the woman in the couple basically starts to believe
that maybe this lodger knows a little bit too much
about them and maybe is a bit of a stalker, strange person.
It's hard to explain without giving away the whole plot
'cause there's a massive plot twist.
So the less you know the better going into this.
But such a page turner.
Completely draws you in and swallows you whole.
I really, really enjoyed this book.
And I read it all in one sitting because I just devoured it.
It's so good.
Okay.
Right.
Four more minutes left.
"Great Circle" is a mammoth of a book.
It's huge, but she's so beautiful.
Anyway, not the Nick Minaj meme.
Right, focus Jack.
"Great Circle" is a book about a female pilot,
who sought to circumnavigate the world.
And it's basically her life story.
But also we have an actress,
who is playing her in a movie half a century later,
and she starts to recognize similarities
between her and this pilot,
starts to discover more about her story,
and she's also going through her own stuff,
which I thought was really interesting.
But it's very inconsistent in terms
of how much detail we get between these two characters.
I wish that we'd had slightly less detail about the pilot
and slightly more about the actress,
because she was really interesting too.
But overall, beautiful stunning writing,
a really long sprawling narrative,
which does go on a few, maybe unnecessary tangents.
But the overall effect is huge.
And you really feel like you've dived in,
delved into these peoples lives.
It was nominated/shortlisted for the prize this year.
It's not my favorite to win.
"The Promise" by Damon Galgut won the Man Booker Prize.
And rightly so.
I am in love with this book.
I would give it six out five stars if I could.
It's basically about apartheid in South Africa
and we follow a white family.
And it basically is about the erasure of black voices
and black people within that culture and society.
But also the narrative style is fascinating.
It is structured over the course of four different funerals.
So it's in four parts, each part is a funeral.
And the narrative voice is like a camera.
So it changes to different perspectives.
Sometimes we're in one person's head,
then we move to someone else's,
then we're from the perspective of like an inanimate object.
Absolutely brilliant and such a great writer.
I cannot wait to read more of his work.
I wanna write a whole thesis on that book.
It was so good.
Okay.
Right.
Two more.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
"Boy Parts."
This is by Eliza Clark.
It's a great Geordie voice.
I went to university in the Northeast of England,
so I loved reading a voice from Newcastle.
It's kind of messed up.
It is absolutely crazy.
We basically follow a, we follow the villain.
This is written from the perspective of the villain,
which I kind of loved.
It's kind of fun reading something
from the perspective of the bad guy.
It's essentially "American Psycho,"
but from the perspective of a woman.
And this woman is taking erotic pictures of men,
but ends up having kind of strange relationships
with those men that she takes pictures of.
And completely unique, completely original.
But I would highly recommend
if you want something a little bit weird.
Okay, one last book.
What is it?
I can't remember.
"Electra" by Jennifer Saint.
Jennifer Saint is writing these fantastic retellings
of Greek mythology, but recentering female characters,
whose voices have often been silenced.
And so, Electra is essentially a retelling of the Iliad
and the Trojan War and is the tale of the house of Atreus,
who is kind of like cursed house in Greek mythology.
We follow three different female characters,
and it's so action packed,
but it doesn't feel overly stuffed, you know?
Everything is lingered on for the perfect amount of time.
We really feel the emotions of each of the characters.
And I just think it is such an accessible way
to tell the stories of Greek mythology,
but through a feminist lens.
So thoroughly enjoyed this book.
We got two seconds left.
I'm chuffed.
(timer dings)
Oh yeah.
That noise literally send shivers down my spine.
The iPhone alarm noise is a trigger for me for sure.
Ooh okay.
I'm gonna need to lie down
for like three to five working days after that.
I'm sweating.
I'm stressed.
I hope that I did these books justice.
But those are my quickfire reviews
of the last 10 books that I read.
I hope that you maybe picked up a recommendation from this.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading a diverse range
of voices and authors and perspectives.
And I'd absolutely love to know,
what is the best book that you have read recently?
Please do comment it down below.
I'd love to read through them.
And let me know why as well
'cause I need to pick up some new books for my TBR I think.
Tap the like button if you liked this video.
And if you're new around here,
I would absolutely implore you to join this kind, brilliant,
gorgeous community of book lovers.
Come and join the family.
There's officially 1 million of us
and we'd love to have you here.
So thank you, thank you,
thank you so, so much for watching this video.
Thank you for all the support over the years.
It has absolutely blown me away.
My feet are chilly because you have knocked my socks off.
So thank you so much for watching this video.
Don't forget the link to Blinkist is down below.
You can get a free trial and 25% off premium membership,
which is incredible.
For now, all the best.
Stay in touch.
Have an absolutely wonderful day.
And I love you loads.
Bye bye.