Waching daily Aug 3 2018

hi hello my name is Oly Bliss this is my channel #Bookdraw for those who don't

know I enjoy looking at queer fiction and occasionally I create little images

out of the books that I review today I am looking at a shortlist for the Polari

prize so the Polair prize has actually been set up since 2011

I only just recently found out about it I know everybody is talking about the

Man Booker Prize which is a great prize and very interesting I'm personally less

bothered by the kind of prize driven agendas with a Literature but when I

came across this one I was very keen and interested because it's a uk-based award

for debut novelists who are interested in LGBT themes so I thought why not do a

little shout out for this prize and some of the nominated authors that have been

put within this so I'm going to take you through my kind of gut reaction to the

sixth which have been shortlisted they will be announced over in October and

what I've kind of trying to do for myself is because I don't wanna I don't

want to commit to having to read six books by October I mean I could do that

I could but I'm too much of a mood reader and basically I just want to try

and draw a bit of these ones which have kind of been highlighted as really good

books and introduce them into my diet so if you want to read along with me and

allocate kind of one book per month but those are ones which are try and

focus on over this next period that's partly the reason why I don't like

knowing about short lists and long list is because it kind of drives you towards

certain books which i think is great in terms of highlighting um some but it

feels like it's the this other collective unknown group of people who I

haven't kind of attachment to who are going these are the books

you should be paying attention too! so what I usually do is just kind of sit

back watch what everybody else is saying about those books and I do love watching

a good prize review or shortlist review and there are loads out there because

and when people start actually reading them you can then kind of make a

decision and you kind of draw a bit of an insight about those books but with

this one because it's kind of lesser-known

I thought well my channel is about queer books so it might as well champion it so

if you want to take a look down the list below our order them about into what I'm

likely to do over the next few months and I'll try and read them but I love a

good buddy read I do a few through Voxer usually so if even if you're not someone

who is making videos and a creator that doesn't matter

excuse me and I've done it in the past with people who don't do that but they

want to just talk about books and that's totally cool and I'll kind of create a

little group around rockzo and we can just have a chat around a book a month

and if you don't like the order which I've done it in but one of the titles

really stands out and you want to read them real soon get in touch because I'm

very flexible this is totally a fluid thing I just want to have a chat about

book and have do it with some other people if you want to because that would

be kind of cool it's really nice to actually it draws out different things

with reading but I don't want to over commit myself don't like I will try and

do a book a month I think that's the kind of achievable goal for myself

anyway so just going through the books which have given me kind of a gut kind

of feeling in terms of what I I'm excited by I will go

from least excited to the most excited and the reasons why so first of those is

Elmet which is by Fiona Mosley and the reason why I've just been and I'm less

excited by this is just because it has been so torqued up by everybody else

that I feel like I've practically read the book already and because so it's I

know that it's gonna be involving a kid called Daniel who is living with his

daddy and his sister and they want to have a kind of isolated life experience

and there are these other people who are trying to claim where they live or how

they live and I think it's about kind of family relationships and his sexuality

slightly and I'm just like I grew up in a rural area and I like not much

happened I'm not sure if I care too much about the story in general

I'm sure the writing is great as a debut novel wicked I feel like I've kind of

lived the experience vicariously through other people at booktube and nothing in

anyone's reviews has made me go oh my god I really really want to read this

book so that's why it's just for me personally one which I'm less excited by

but it's now available on audible I'm not being I'm not advocating for do but

it's only like a seven hour listen so it might be said one which I might just put

on my headphones once I've got a credit and give a go through that way so the

next one was in my order of preference is Transmission which is a memoir by

Alex Bertie and I like this is also to say like I am interested in all of these

that's where I'm going to be reading them it's it's in terms of like a kind

of casual okay yeah that's interesting up to oh really oh my god I want to read

this book with some states but this is Alex's memoir looking over the last six

years from transitioning from female to male and how

his story of coming up to his friends and family taking hormones dealing with

healthcare system I have like explored a bit of trans narrative in the past and

I'm kind of looking for narratives which beyond that time just that transition

research stage and just about kind of living stories because I feel like I've

I've read and listen to some of that transition narrative quite a bit and I

don't think that's the only story that someone going through transition or who

has transitioned has in their life there are lots of other interesting things

that happen to that person regardless of which way records and I'm not curious

about that story instead now I felt like I've consumed some of those

transitionary stories but I'm curious if also because this is based on real life

events and also this is a youtuber so I'm kind of gonna explore that as well

and I just watched um Alex's introductory interview and he's

pretty fine but also like very engaging lovely person as well and so far like

and I might be exploring that a little bit more as well yeah so the next one is

called Little Gold by Ali Rogers now I think a little gold is the name of the

the key character um but because just from what I've read it doesn't seem like

the the key character is named or sorry that could tackiness tops that of the

story but it's set in brighton m in 1982 and it's basically by about a boyish

girls adolescence growing up who forms a relationship with this elderly neighbor

called Peggy Baxter I can't even read my own notes and it seems to be of that

kind of feeling a little bit isolated facing a chaotic family and

for some reason she has this kind of wave system and solitude through this

little tree which is in the back garden to me this sounds like something that

Russell from inks and paper would be really interested in just because of the

older female character or like Simon - Simon savadge I'm less interested in this

kind of domestic growing up thing that is seems to be cropped out more and more

but I'm curious just because it's based it's based in the 80s and I'm more

interested in that as a kind of period of history and time having grown up and

lived it so part of means interested less suggestive editor like I'm not like

oh my god I really really want to read this but I'm curious about it so the

ne xt one is is one which I'm really quite excited for it's called pansy boy

by Paul Harfleet late and and it's a graphic novel and I'm aware of

Paul powerfully as an artist who has done some various different things

around Manchester predominately focused on this narrative around the pansy so he

goes to places where there have been acts of violence against people who are

predominately gay I think but I don't know if any kind of homophobic attacks

that have happened he's planted pansies as a kind of a healing representative in

those spaces but also a kind of call to action of why are these acts of violence

happening out in public and he's done this up and down the country and now

it's produced it as a graphic novel describing this story in France

create this change and so just as someone he's based more locally and I'm

really pleased that his work has progressed and moved into a graphic

novel and I'm hoping to see some maybe a little bit more insight to his backstory

and learning more about his work and also graphic novels are ace and easy to

consume so I'm quite excited for this one really pleased to see it in this

list I'm looking forward to checking this one out the next one I'm I felt a

little bit wrong for being so interested and kind of curious about this one but

this one's called Carnivore and it's and by Jonathan Lyon so this is actually

about a young man with a debilitating invisible illness I'm gonna have to read

this called I'll get this wrong apologize Fib-ron-la gearia?

I think Fibromyalgia err- it's some invisible illness

but he basically becomes quite self-destructive with this illness that

he's got and it leads to violence sex rape prostitution and drug abuse and

something kind of self-destructive in myself was curious about this character

and why he gets a buzz from hurting people and how that works this might be

like really perverse of me to be curious about this type of individual who takes

enjoyment from hurting others it's not something I personally identified with

and I was talking to some other booktubers I've had they've had comments

recently we're seeing that like I don't have a tendency to pick up really joyful

nice books I have a tendency to pick up the darker books and

what that exactly says about me but I do find these type of things like I like I

get a sense of buzz from getting into these other stories from the safety of

being able to read them and I like thrillers and I like Horrors

I do love comedies and dramas and everything else but I'm a little bit

dark in that sense like I and I enjoy being in a safe space and kind of

getting myself scared that might be ridiculous to other people but I'm okay

with it I don't mind putting myself into a situation as long as I feel and know

I'm safe and that I'm happy I go on a scary ride i watch the scary movie and I

will like the suspense of wondering when that next jump is gonna come and I feel

like this might be a bit of a thrill out and I haven't read a proper thriller for

for ages so I'm hoping that that would provide that kind of not neat I don't

need it in my life that's a really wrong but will provide that a little bit of

frivolity god I might be saying something really really bad and this

might be oh but so it took my interest which might sound really sensational and

really wrong but yeah the hook worked for me basically personally and then

finally the one which I'm most kind of excited and curious about is one called

Mussolini's Island and this is by Sarah Day my handwriting is atrocious I

just checked that yes Sarah Day I believe I have written it down so

Francesco has a memory of his father and a reminder in his head

give up but he's rounded up with a group of other young men and taken off to the

island of San Domino and from what gleam from this they're

trying to kind of put together a bit of a revolution and there appears to be a

bit of a love triangle thing going on where he's got a strong bond and

friendship with this one guy and some other guys that jealous of it but then

there's this third character who's female who seems to be going for a bit

of Francesco and the family I say no you don't want to get involved in that I'm

less interested in the kind of a love triangle drama or whatever that would be

kind of cubic love dynamic that's going on they're more interested in to this

idea that their revolution is occurring and those kind of power tensions and it

sounds like there's a bit of narrative going on around like the family's

involvement with what is happening around you and those who are elites and

supporters and those who create resistance and tension in that and I

just thought on a more political level this one sounded more interesting and a

bit more ambitious and so out of the six of these books and this book in

particular is the most appealing to me personally and so I'm most likely to

pick this one up first and consume it quite quickly out of the bunch and so

but what I will be doing and over the course of like the next six months as

opposed six books six months I might whiz through a couple of them quicker

than that we just see what happens I am gonna take the 'Peg Approach' so Peg

really recently put up a video which is going to be looking at the book of man

Prize and she has actually got a grading system for herself where she is taking

different aspects of the book and giving them scoring between zero and

five and there's five areas so potentially a book can score up to 25

points effectively and and so she's going to be marking them and giving him

this rating I'm so I'm totally gonna adopt and steal Pegs approach crediting

to her she's changed her name recently but you can check her out at reading and

knitting on the porch and I had a link down to the video so you can see it and

her scoring system but for this short leg short list I will use this approach

and talk about it in my wrap ups just in terms of how these particular books felt

to me under that criteria basically that's loosely what I'm gonna do over

the next month and if you want to get involved it would

be lovely to share the experience with other people and I'll just keep on

updating you as it goes along and how it's been going

and using that Peg Approach but this was not initially my gut reaction

that I'm most excited for Mussolini's Island I think that's

probably going to be the most interesting book and but we'll see if

that stands to the test of the time and I'll update you once I've read through

all of them ago actually it was totally right and or no did that book sucked and

this was look at the book that was really for me and I hope that's been I

hope that's all made sense to you I feels a bit like I'm having a ramble

today but I will see you all again real soon okay

Bye!