Hey there book tube Katie here and you're
watching Katie loves to read. You may have
noticed I wasn't around last week that
was just cause I wanted a break and I
won't guarantee that I will be
sticking to a particular video schedule
for the next while. This week as you're
watching this is my very last week of
lectures for my undergraduate degree
and then have a couple of weeks off and
then I have exams - all very scary,
terrifying really and also my exams are
very important because I have offers to
do masters programs abroad that I really
want to meet the academic requirements
to be able to do so I'm going to aim for
one video a week I'm not sure what day
that will be and I'm not even sure if it
will happen every week but that is my
current goal. Anyway let's talk about the
books that i read in March excluding
graphic novels cuz i'll do a separate
video for them soon. The first book i
read was 1 i actually finished off and
this is The Last Light of Sun by Guy Gavriel
Kay. So basically what this is historical
fantasy as are most Kays and it follows
the clash between the Vikings in the
North who are trying to invade the
Celtic held lands in Wales and there's
also influence of the anglo-saxons in
England. It involves fairies and invasion it doesn't really have a
plot so that's why it's really hard to give
you a pot for this one. That's my major
critique of it, there is no real plot
it's just a ramble, a random ramble in
which not much happens. It's beautifully
written, it's enjoyable. I think that in
terms of other Kay novels is definitely
not his strongest work. The characters
weren't really all that exciting or
interesting and it lacked a strong
female characters that I'm used to with Kay.
So probably in terms of his other works I'd
give this like three stars but like in
the vast scheme of things like I'm not
rating it against his other works I'd
give it it about a three and a half. Its
good but i'd say like push it off for a
while if you're kind of working your way
through Kay's back list like i have been
because it's not the most impressive.
Next then I read Pachinko by Min Jin
Lee. I got an arc of this one from
netgalley and I probably should have read
it ages ago. Basically it's a
multi-generational tale that starts out
in Busan in Korea and a young pregnant
woman
marry a Korean preacher/pastor/Reverend,
I don't know what term they used, I
can't remember and they travel to Japan
to Osaka to set up a new life and it
basically looks at many generations from
this family living in Japan and the
discrimination that they face as Koreans.
It goes from well before World War two
up until nearly present day and it
definitely was very educational and also
kind of shocking. I didn't realize the
discrimination that Koreans faced in
Japan. So they were forced to live in
ghettos and they weren't allowed to have
japanese passports, even if they were
born in Japan to people who were legally
there. It was definitely very awakening
to my Western centric view point because
I never knew that this was a problem. I'd
heard before that Japanese people are
known to be quite racist and in fact there
was an article about that in the
Guardian the other week I'll try to link
it if I can find it but I didn't have
any idea that that happened. I really did
enjoy this book, I did not like one male
character who kept coming back into it
whose name I've now forgotten but the
guy who impregnated the girl who just
kept popping back up because I hated him
and I just wanted him to go away and I
also did feel like it drag at points.
It's quite a long novel but overall very
interesting and I would definitely
recommend it, it's probably my favorite
thing I read this month. I gave pachinko
four/ four and a half stars it was
wonderful. Then I finished off an
audiobook and that was The Darkest Road
by Guy Gavriel Kay, this is the final book
in his Fionavar Tapestry. It was narrated
by Simon Vance who's my favorite
audiobook narrator. Casically the Fionavar
Tapestry is a portal fantasy
about five college students who get
pulled into this magical world. Yeah it's
not what you think of normally when you
think of Kay. It's his first work, it's a
lot more kind of lord the rings, Tolkien-eque
kind of but it's really enjoyable
and I think as a final book in a series
this did a really good job. It took
twists and turns that I wasn't expecting
whatsoever and I felt like it wrapped
things up really well however it's
definitely dragged at the end like there
was all of this like tying everything
into a neat bows it did not need to happen
at all. Everyone needed to be coupled off
which is so unnecessary and it's also
like incredibly like heteronormative it
kind of gets to me now i've read all
three of them but yeah i did enjoy it. I
do definitely think this is the best
work in the series I think I gave this
like three and a half stars/ four stars I
probably gave it four. Next then I read the
Beekeepers Apprentice and this one is by
Laurie R King and it is the first book in
the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
series. So basically it's about this
young feminist half American half
English girl who is living in England
during the First World War and she
encounters Sherlock Holmes who was at
his summer house and they basically
start solving crimes together they hit
it off. Sherlock Holmes is a bit older at
this point, he's kind of retired from his
career. Weirdly though Sherlock Holmes
all of those books written by Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle they exist so it's in this
world where he's being written about and
doesn't want to be written about it and
Watson exists but Watson's not really
present for a lot of it and then
naturally they go on to solve mysteries
together. This book took forever to get
started like it was laying the ground
for things for like the first twenty
percent like nothing happened but it was
still really enjoyable and when the
mystery did take off I was intrigued by
it. I do enjoy Mary Russell as a
character. She's Jewish and her Jewish
identity is very important to her and I
like how that was woven into the story
because I don't generally read about too
many Jewish characters and I hadn't
worked out the mystery before it
happened like I worked out that some
pieces here and there but it was fun and
nor hugely predictable so I liked that. I
just like the overall feel of this book
it was fun and light and enjoyable and I
gave it about 3.75 stars I think. Then
I listen to Dust and Shadow and this one's
by Lyndsay Faye or the same lady who wrote
Jane Steele which was very big last year
and this is so much fun. This -- I actually
listened to this as an audiobook narrated by
Simon Vance again. It was basically
Sherlock Holmes and John Watson try to
solve the Jack the Ripper murders. So
they're living in London at the same
time as Jack the Ripper is on the rampage
and they're solving the murders and it
was so much fun point though
predictable, points dragged but I
loved us so much, I love Simon Vance,
I love the story. I didn't know so much
about Jack the Ripper but i really was
glad that I actually listened to this
because I ended up going to London
dungeons while I was in London so
part of the tour involved Jack the
Ripper stuff and I felt like really
smart like 'I know what's going on here'
but yeah I just I really enjoyed this
book ,like it's so much fun would highly
recommend! So thank you too Frankie from
Frankie reads for recommending this one because so
good. Rhen I listened to another audiobook
and that was So You've Been Publicly
Shamed by Jon Ronson. It's a nonfiction
book about public shaming in the age of
the Internet and basically he goes
through a bunch of cases of people who
were publicly shamed on the internet
from a woman who sent a not too well
thought out tweet that was arguably racist
got on a plane and by the time she got
off the plane she had been fired and
it's all about public shaming basically.
I liked it but didn't love it. The
message was that we shouldn't continue
to publicly shame and we should think
before we jump onto things and I
agree with all of that but I felt like
it was somewhat emotionally manipulative
in places like Jon Ronson was trying to
convince us at the time he was publicly
shamed for something he said in ARC
copies of this book was inappropriate
especially because advanced reader
copies are not for quotation and it just
it just shows this like misunderstanding
of how the publishing industry and how
reviewers and blogs and booksellers work.
Of course you're allowed to callout
something in an arc like yeah it might;t
have been changed nobody put
pressure on you so stop whining. Anyway
there was just points where it felt
emotionally manipulative like we were
supposed to be brought around to his
point of view and I wasn't agreeing with
him. Rhere are also points that just
dragged about the prison system that
like there was a point to them but the
way in which he told them was
unnecessarily long it was like we were
wandering down random little roads and
but I don't know it just it was too
rambly in places and emotionally
manipulative in other so I gave it three
stars. Then I read drowned world by
Jonathan Strathan which I do have a
copy of I just forgot to bring over here
but basically is the collection of short
stories about
climate change. They're all science
fiction short stories and it was sent to
me upon my request by solaris. I enjoyed
this collection but it certainly did not
blow me out of the water. There are some
really really good stories in here in
particular I definitely enjoyed Ken Liu's
story, there is another story I cant remember
who the author was that had a lovely
male male relationship and it was really
sweet. Some of the stories bordered too
much on nonsense for my liking. I don't
like my science fiction nonsensical like
this one by Catherynne M Valente in which
everybody lives in basically like a
rubbish dump and it just didn't really
work for me even though parts of it were
funny but yeah I do struggle with
nonsense in both fantasy and in science
fiction's I shouldn't really be
surprised by that but yeah as a
collection I don't think it came
together and blew me away as much as I
wanted it to. It was still a strong
collection, I would still recommend it
but I had higher hopes for it because
I'm really interested in the subject of
climate change and I thought this would
be more interesting than it was. I will
try and make full review video for this
one sometime soon though, I think I gave it
three stars. Then I read and listened to
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
basically this was on sale for kindle
daily deal and I also decided to get the
audio book with it. But this is a book by
Cameroonian author about a cameroonian
couple who emigrated to the United
States. The Cameroonian man is trying to
claim asylum or refugee status on a
slightly bogus story. He manages to get a
job working for a executive at Lehman
Brothers right before the financial
crash -- sorry I just knocked my camera so
there will have been slight angle change --and
this was really interesting and
heartbreaking. It's really about the
marriage of the guy who's he's working for
and his own marriage to his Cameroonian
wife and how both of them suffer and at
times it was just so difficult to read
and at times it was it was really
interesting cause i knew the financial
crash was coming I knew Lehman brothers
were going to collapse so it's
constantly just waiting for that happen
and you're getting little snippets of
information here and there and you're
like you know what's happening but the
characters don't and that's a really
interesting
position to be in. What I also really liked
about it was this discussion of
immigration on the refugee system
because I'm currently taking immigration
and refugee law so just from a nerdy
point of view that was interesting, like
the u.s. system is very different. You'd
never get a work permit here if your
decision was taking too long because
everybody's decision takes too long in Ireland
because our system is so
screwed up. Google direct provision if
you're interested but yes I enjoyed this
although in the end I think I gave it
four stars, I'm not all one hundred percent, I
a hundred percent remember what it
was that made me feel like that... Oh yes
there was just a lot of like really
sexist comments in there from our main
character Jende and I'm sure that was
cultural but for me it was just a no no.
I couldn't get on, I did never feel like
he was really checked for the things
that he said in the way he needed to be
by the author's narrative voice. Next I
read another book by guy gavriel kay
this is Ysabel I hated this. I won't talk
about it for too long because just yeah
basically this is a YA urban fantasy
and it's about a young guy who goes to
Provence in France and he manages like
to find a connection with the Celtic
world and also features characters from
the Fionavar Taspestry trilogy. In
fact the fact that it features the
characters was really the only thing I
was interested in I don't go in for
urban fantasy. I don't love YA fantasy
either. I prefer YA contemporary if
i'm reading YA and just this - this is a
mess it was a mess. Sections of it made
no sense, sections of it did make sense
but i was just not interested whatsoever.
The writing is not Kay's level of
writing whatsoever it's like a watered
down version for YA readers. It is very
plain and uninteresting and like I
always know going into a Kay book that
if I hate the rest of it I'm going to
love the poetic lyrical writing -- was not
here whatsoever. I didn't feel like the
characters really felt like realistic
teenagers, it felt like you know a dad
figure trying to write teenagers. He
tried to force this relationship that was
a no no and then he tried to make a
relationship between the teenagers it
didn't feel natural at all it just felt
really forced like he's forcing the
characters into a box. I think that's
what Kay does, he needs to couple everyone
up in his
books. Not everybody needs to be a couple
by the end of your book Kay, you know we
want to focus on the plot to as well as
the character relationships? But yeah the
this book was just a bit of a mess
and I think I gave it two stars. Ok this
is a long wrap up now but three more
books! I'll try and do it quickly! First
stained by Abda Khan I got this as a free
kindle daily deal was like completely
free on Christmas Eve and it was really
enjoyable. It's about a young British
Pakistani girl who is raped by a family
friend and when I say enjoyable
enjoyable in that it was
heartbreaking and also educational. It
features a contemporary world arranged
marriage. It also looks at how rape in
Muslim culture and how that's
dealt with and how do you deal how do
you internalize these feelings of shame
and violation and how do you move on
with your life. Do you tell your family?
It looks a lot at kind of like
survivor's guilt and how do you survive
as a victim of rape and how do you react
and how it's not necessarily predictable
how any one person is going to react and
yeah overall this was really enjoyable. I
think i gave it about three and a half
stars. My real problem was it was a
narrative style especially at the start. It
switched tenses for no real reason in a
way that was quite off-putting. Also it
was told in the first person but was
almost omniscient like it's just
something weird and off about it. I will
write a full spoiler free review for the
blog if you are interested in hearing
more about it but i definitely would
recommend it for own voices fiction. Then
i listened to the third Memoirs of Lady
Trent book which is the Voyage is a
Basilisk and this is narrated by Kate
Reading who I don't love as a narrator
but she's fine for this and these books
are very enjoyable. They're about Lady
Trent who is a dragon naturalist who
lives in kind of like an alternate
Victorian world and goes all over the
world searching for dragons. In this one
she ends up going to a land that's kind
of similar to Polynesia I would say and
it deals a lot with sexuality and and
indigenous cultures and cultural clash
and I thought was interesting. It
definitely wasn't the most exciting of
these books, I did not feel as invested
in it. I was much happier to listen to
the west wing weekly podcast which I love by
the way
than I was to listen to this. Generally I
wasn't feeling very motivated to listen
to this --I can't put my finger on exactly
why this wasn't as strong as the first
two books but I just wasn't loving it as
much. I still gave it three and a half
stars I think, i think i might have even
given it four stars on Goodreads. I like
this series a lot. Then I read the
second Sherlock holmes and Mary Russell
book so basically this picks up where
the Beekeepers Apprentice left off. It
was not a strong first book by a long
shot or at least I just wasn't as
interested in it as I was the first book.
Once again the start dragged for the
first twenty percent. It seemed like
nothing was happening. Now it was
setting up the mystery but I I need it
I'd rather be like dropped straight into
something happening like I don't know we
just felt like I was really slogging on
for the first thirty percent to really
get to anything that was interesting and it
really took me until about halfway
through the book that I really felt
interested and invested in the book. I
thought this was going to be a series
that i was going to devour or but i have to
say after the second book I don't feel
any a huge inclination to pick up the
third book, like I'd say it'll be a
couple of months before i do as opposed
to a couple of weeks which is quite
disappointing. I also felt like we really
lacked in Sherlock Holmes in this book. I
mean I love Sherlock and even though
this is kind of a different Sherlock
that we're seeing, an older Sherlock,
Sherlock not quite like himself in the
books where he feels he's been
over-exaggerated, a kind of warm and
lovable Sherlock. Like I wanted more time
with him as much as I love Mary and as
much as I enjoyed that there's lots of
character development in this and there was
lots of feminism and discussions of
religion and all of that was wonderful I
wanted more Sherlock. Also I'm not a
hundred percent sure about the ending of
this book, if I'm happy with this
relationship going where it's going but
I suppose I'm on board. Anyway what I'm
trying to say is this was not as strong
as a previous one. I would not read these
books out of order and that is why I'm
not giving you a summary of it but it
was enjoyable and in the end I think I
gave it three and a half out of five
stars so not like significantly less
than the first book in the series though
I didn't devour it in the same way that
I devoured the first book. Anyway that's
my wrap up, it's been very long. Thank you
guys for watching and I'll see you in my next
video bye!
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