What's on your TBR for this summer?

I vote for the ‘reading books you think I’ll hate’ vlog because that’ll help me know which books to avoid 😂

I think you should do a vlog where you read the first chapter of all the different fantasy books you’re interested in and pick the one that’s most appealing

For ridiculous books, the answer is always Chuck Tingle. But from the options you mentioned, I do think "books I'm going to hate" is the best, simply because it'll help you declutter. It's satisfying!

The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix is his other most beloved work. I'd probably go there next.

Horrorstör is my favourite Grady Hendrix because it doesnt take itself seriously at all! And the beginning of each chapter has unique IKEA inspired horror furniture 😊

I'm voting for the books you hate vlog, immediately followed by the second Ice Planet as a chaser 😂

I firmly believe that we should read whatever makes us happy, even if it’s a completely fluffy piece that makes us laugh. No shame!!! Horrorstör is great in audio!

The Southern Book club ' Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix is good. I appreciated discussions on racism and sexism.

"We Sold Our Souls" by Grady Hendrix is EXCELLENT, and features a fierce female protagonist and a revenge plot, as well as other themes of being human. Its a little gross at times, a little creepy at times, and the pace moves at a breakneck speed like a suspense thriller novel. Pure entertainment. I read it in one day. Defintely one of my top favourite Hendrix books.

My Grady Hendrix journey started with Horrorstore. I still think it is the best one. Really like watching you and the cats!

I actually thought the first Wheel of Time book was just meh, I enjoyed some things about it and I think it was 3 stars. The second book was where I started to REALLY enjoy the story. Since you liked the first book more than I did, I think you’ll like the second one too. I’m so excited to see you continue Stormlight Archive!!

Demon Copperhead is phenomenal. One of my favorites ever

I need a big spoiler vlog of reading "Oathbringer" and "Rhythm of War"! I love these chunky big boys.

A book by a Japanese author that I have loved recently is “There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job.” by Kikuko Tsumura. It’s about a woman who has burnt out on her career so she has quit and now wants a job that demands nothing of her emotionally or intellectually. The book takes her through a series of jobs that are a bit surreal and help her define her relationship to her work. I can’t say for sure whether you would like it because it’s bordering on magical realism but I don’t think it goes too far in that direction and it has a somewhat “cozy” feel and I know you tend to like those. Anyway something to check out if you’re interested in finding Japanese authors you enjoy.

Southern Book Club’s guide to slaying vampires is my favorite, but We Sold Our Souls was fun too!

I hope you enjoy Oathbringer! It's my favorite Cosmere book for sure and it made me cry.

The Dandelion Dynasty series is honestly one of the best series I've ever read. The Grace of Kings is definitely the weakest in my opinion but still amazing. The rest of the series every book was an easy 5 stars. Would highly recommend!

I recommend That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon for a ridiculous read. This book knows what it is and knows it well. It’s not a literary masterpiece- but will she make you laugh? Yes. Will she make you gasp at the retorts? Yes. Will she make you rewind the audiobook to relive the XXX scenes? You darn tooting. This book is hilarious, and features a Black, curvy, independent, strong woman 💪🏽

Charles Dickens isn't as hard to read as most English classics of the era, in my opinion! David Copperfield was a really fun read for me.

You were asking for “out there” spicy book recs, but…how about an out there funny fantasy rec! Highly recommend Dungeon Crawler Carl. It would make for such a fun reading vlog! It looks like a book I’d never think I’d like, but I ended up loving it. Humor is cringe and hilarious and there’s a talking cat companion named Princess Donut. Please give it a try!!

Listen to Demon Copperhead. The narrator does a great accent which immerses you in the setting.

You should read "That time I got drunk and saved a demon" it was so fun, it is spicy but it was a fun time.

When I was at uni, my library had two books by Octavia Butler (unlike my local libraries): The Parable of the Sowers in French and Fledgling in the original English. I picked up Fledgling because I wanted to read her prose in the original language and I do like vampires as a concept (though I'm picky about execution and themes). I started reading it and... let's just say there's a reason I never picked up Lolita by Nabokov. 😬 Now that I've moved overseas, I'd have to read her on my Kindle and would love to start with Kindred and Parable of the Sowers when the time comes. But yeah, I don't think her disturbing sci-fi will be for me. 👀 I'm very curious about The Age of Innocence and for having read Grace of Kings (I DNFed it for reasons that do not bother you - I'm very picky with my fantasy reads and do not like gods playing a bigger role or overpowered character in general), I think you will really love it! I really enjoyed Liu's writing style, immersive and original world-building, and his character work and dialogues impressed me as well. The inspiration he took from traditional Chinese myths and culture was fascinating to me, it felt very fresh. Also the fact that there's both magic and technology! 👌I'd be very surprised if it didn't work for you.

The ikea one “horrorstore” is better than final girls group 😊

I am in the middle of "The Wall of Storms", second book of Dandelion Dynasty and it is so good, better that the first one. A lot of court political intrigue, a lot of battles and different tactics in both of them ❤

Just fyi for The Grace of Kings, as others have said it's pretty different from the other 3 books in the series. I had issue with how some of the women were written in it and this was NOT the case for the rest of the series. If it bugs you, I found it was only present in the first book and the rest of the series had awesome female characters.

Haha I just got to the point in the video where you mention IPB book two! I've said before, but book two is definitely more enjoyable than book one. There's none of that crazy stuff from the beginning of book one where the girls are still trapped in the ship, and book two follows the sassy friend, Kira. I vote for continuing this series if you get to a point where you need a quick read to get you through a weekend!

Would defo recommend Kitchen for you!

I made it up to the start of Book 7 in Wheel of Time before it put me into a reading slump early last year - although I don't fully blame the book as 2023 was crazy for me. I'm trying to get back into the series sometime this year but I've been procrastinating! I've been reading lots of shorter books, cozy fantasy / scifi and YA to get out of the slump and 2024 has been going pretty well so far.

Oh, and I want you to read the Ikea book!!

I plan on reading the Stormlight Archive books this summer, too

Demon Copperhead is out of my comfort zone but I keep hearing about it and I'm becoming more and more curious. Can't wait for your review and if you love it I'll pick it up 😂

1. Appalachia- apple at cha 😜 2. I’m trying to get back into YA since there are so many that are apparently amazing now. Iron Widow is first up. And I’m trying to focus on queer authors and stories. A few others: - Will of the Many (yeah yeah yeah 😂) - Caste (I need to finish this) - catching up with Emily Wilde

Fun fact, a 4 book series is called a tetralogy. A quartet is a group of four people playing music or singing together. 😊

The My Brilliant Friend series is fantastic. You should try some other Ferrante books such as The Days of Abandonment. Great!

Demon Copperhead is on my list too! I enjoy Barbara Kingsolver so I'm hopeful 🤞

Demon Copperhead is so good! It's a bit heart breaking tbh so go into it when you're in a good headspace (not in the same league as A little life though), It's set in the Appalachian region in America that was severely hit by the Opioid crisis and this book draws from that (definitely designed - thanks to the Sacklers, Empire of Pain is a great non-fiction book about that too)

So happy you're about to discover Mariana Enriquez!! 🖤🖤🖤 So jealous too!! 😂

My opinion maybe unpopular but I have read The Fledgling and like it - it does touch on some uncomfortable issues, but I think it’s fascinating. Another one that I believe she was planning to expand to a series and I’m sad we never got to see that. My favorite author of all time! I read the Xenogenesis series in the 90s when I was 17 or so and it blew my mind and set completely new expectations for me for sci-fi which had before that been “white dudes in space”.

Good luck with your summer TBR and looking forward to the book reviews. 📚♥️

I just started reading Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. I can already tell it's going to be a 5 star read. The writing is amazing & I love octopuses. I highly recommend it!

Demon copperhead is sooooooo good.

Small warning for the grace of kings, it reads kind of as a history book of the different dynasties, so events are pretty condensed and you have a lot of characters too. People either feel meh about it or love it. It totally worked for me though!

Epic fantasy used to be my bread and butter but for some reason I haven’t been able to read anything but horror with the occasional sci-fi. Well for the first time in two years I was in the mood for a chunky fantasy yesterday and I’m hoping to pick up many more this summer!

I read Ruby Dixon's ice planet barbarians series... they get better than the first in the series, and I love how in each book one of the girls solves her issues and gets together with a blue guy at the end, I was surprised how many different ways she came up with. If you want something with aliens and ridiculous, funny, maybe check out Alien Abduction series by Eve Langlais In a similar lighter style of writing, there's Molly Harper's Jane Jameson and Half-Moon Hollow series - in an Earth where vampires decide to come out in the open and there's also werewolves still secret. I also found J.R. Rain's - Vampire for Hire series as quite enjoyable reading, it's about a woman that's bitten and turns into a vampire and has to work as a detective solving paranormal cases to make a living and raise / protect her two kids and get them through school but over the course of the series through her good deeds she manages to gain abilities like being able to eat normal food, walk in the sun, and even to shift into a big bat like creature (it's really well explained, she doesn't actually shift, she swaps bodies with an alien bat like creature from a parallel universe). It's lighter writing, with lots of dialogue and sarcasm and talking to spirits, as i said, different. If you're interested about vampires, but more serious writing, maybe check out a more serious 3 book series by Julie Kagawa - Blood of Eden series (Immortal Rules, Eternity Cure, Forever Song). Good stuff. And I think you'd like - if you haven't read so far - Richelle Mead's Georgina Kincaid series - 6 relatively short books but the story is a long arc that completes at the end of the 6th book. It has vampires, angels and demons, and other supernatural creatures and it's basically about a girl Georgina which works in a book store but she's actually a succubus and has to steal energy from people from time to time to survive and be in the good books of her "superiors" and falls in love with a book author that comes to her book store.

Horrorstor is kinda like finna and defekt

If you want a ridiculous but fun book similar to Ice Planet Barbarians in a fantasy setting there's That time I got drunk and saved a demon. It's just a FUN ridiculous time in a great fantasy world.

The Age of Innocence has great audiobook options, I'd borrow a copy from the library or spotify and listen to it instead of reading it in the format you have. With the tiny text and double columns, you would probably hate your reading experience

I vote for the reading the books you think you’ll hate, LOL. As for Grady Hendrix, I can’t speak to the Final Girls Support Group (yet) but I really enjoyed Horrorstor. I really liked My Best Friend’s Exorcism, too. I’d love to get your take on The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. People loooove this book and I couldn’t stand it, so I want to know if it’s just me!

lol ice planet barbarians is so bad but so good 😂

Hi! If you’re trying to find a female written detective mystery I would suggest Sara Blaedel and Katrin Engberg. They’re both Danish settings and I thought they were great. I’d be interested to see how you like them!

guuurl if u go for it and read all this book gems my gosh this will be a fantastic summer of literary content =) so glad u have Elena Ferrante, Ken Liu, Mariana Enriquez and Mieko Kawakami over there!! :D I also read (almost all of it) Demon Copperhead with the audiobook and it was so much fun !

A Great Deliverance is awesome!!!

Oh please do Horrorstör. It’s just so fun and funny and one of the most delightful audiobooks.

I don't read spicy books either, I tried reading The Hu German of Gods, but DNFed it after 100+ pages... I have to pick up the caraval series and read it

Watching this while staring at The Shadow of What Was Lost, The Shadow of the Gods, The Way of Kings, and The Grace of Kings all unread on my shelves 😶‍🌫

Ice Planet Barbarian doesn't get "good" until a few books in where she really start explaining the bigger picture behind just the couples and tribe itself. I think that is what's really catchy about it for me. Like believe me, the Universe behind it is BIG big. I think trying another series would be also fun and I'd like to nominate The Prime Mating Agency. Although its also Monster Romance with Smut I feel this series hat so man wholesome moments and feels kinda cozy (?). ☺

I just started oathbringer and love it so far! I think if you’ve liked the others you will like this one.

I have read the Grace of Kings last month and I LOVED it, I will be continuing this series this summer for sure. I think you will love this story because of the smart and strong and independet female characters and some unpredicted events...

I want to read book 4 of the Stormlight Archives this summer. And I lost my sh** too a few times!

I vote for «reading books you think I’ll hate», that was so fun last time 😂 also, if you want to read something else by Grady Hendrix, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is even better than My Best Friend’s Exorcism (in my opinion). And Mariana Enriquez’s books are SO good, can’t wait for you to try them out!

I haven't finished the Wheel of time series... Book 3. I think I'll pick it up as you want to get to book 2! ❤ Otherwise, just discovering Donato Carrisi and I loved his "Le chuchoteur" book!!! 😮 In a mood for thriller and fantastic these days!

I don’t plan my TBR very far in advance but the books I know I want to get to are Dawn (discovered Butler from you), The Shadow of the Gods, and The Twelve which is the second book in Justin Cronin’s The Passage trilogy. I also have Demon Copperhead staring me down. 😂 I like historical fiction but this book REALLY intimidates me!

If you have not read Susanna Clarke, you would maybe love Piranesi.

I am waiting for your review on the Dandelion Dinasty series. I heard mixed reviews about it, so I haven't picked it up just yet, but it sounds right up my alley.

"I love giant... floppy... paperbacks" I almost choked on my pie 😂

You will HATE The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. It’s incredibly problematic 😅

Good luck with the Wheel of Time series. I read them all, and well before the end I hated Rand (to be fair, I think EVERYONE hates Rand...). I really enjoyed The Hunger of the Gods, more than The Shadow of the Gods (more gods!). I'm really looking forward to the third book. And those covers! Based on the comments maybe I'll try another Grady Hendrix book, I read How to Sell a Haunted House, it was okay...I read horror rarely, but when I read it I want to be scared. And modern horror novels just don't seem that scary... Lone Woman, meh, Our Share of Night, meh (great cover though). I lost steam with Stormlight Archives...should try it again. Currently reading Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb, my first dip in the Hobb universe. Started slowly, but I'm enjoying it. Pretty old fashioned, old school.

I'm still yet to start The Wheel of Time- one day..

Don’t force yourself to read books you think you’ll hate. That’s just torture. Reading should be fun.

❤❤❤

I’d love to see a books you think you’ll hate vlog again. The last one was fun. For mystery thrillers, have you tried the Aaron Falk trilogy by Jane Harper? I just finished the first one (The Dry) and it was really good.

I think you would really LOVE Green Rider by Kristen Brittain. It's an older fantasy with female main character. She doesn't look strange (hair,eye color) no steamy love story. It's just so good! Very strong reviews and I gave it 5 stars. I have been watching your videos for a few years, I really think it could be a 5 star fantasy read for you!

Dickens is not difficult to read at all!! English is not my first language as well. The problem is that Dickens is just boring 😅

Love your top/dress. Would you mind sharing the link? Thanks

I read Fledgling somewhat recently, after reading and loving Xenogenesis and Parable and... I guarantee within the first 2 chapters you're going to be like wtf am I reading right now 💀

I enjoyed Fledging but there are some topics that are challenging. Where did you find Survivalist? I can’t find it online.

Looking forward to a "where to start" reading fantasy video. Also, the copy of "The age of innocence" you own just looks ridiculously large and waaayy too thin. How does it even stand on a shelf? 😂

There's also a tv show called *_" Pantheon "_* that was based on Ken Liu's short stories and it's sci-fi. It's good show and only has 2 seasons

You should read the books that have been on your shelf the longest.

I found a complex female friendship book yesterday, it is Ponti by Sharlene Teo Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See was an increadible complex female friendship book.

I tried to read fledgling but it’s just way to out there thinking who could write this. Gave up halfway thru first chapter saying gross.

On Hendrix, I read both The Final Girl Support Group and Horrorstor and I would say the latter is better.

AMAZING SUMMER BOOK TBR LOVE IT! 💛🧡❤️🩷🩷❤️🧡💚💚💙🩵🩵💙🤍🤍❣️💕💞💓🩶🩶💖✝️💖💘💓💞💕💕💞💓📚📚📙📙📚📚📙📚📚📙📙📖📖📖💕💜💜💕💖🩷🌈🌈🌈🪷🌺🌺🌺🌼🌼🌺💞📙💚💜💜💕❤️🩵💛🧡🧡📙💛💚💕💕

If you are interested in trying another monster love romance I'd love to see a vlog of you reading Ensnared by Tiffany Roberts!

I wouldn't prioritize Our Share of Night. It's good not great but way too long for that. It has like 3 books in one.

Dickens is very readable but super scary. I want to overcome my fear of big books.

Je vote 100% pour que tu lises le volume 2 de Ice barbarian. J'avoue que je pousse pcq j'aimerais avoir ton avis sur le 3e volume ;) Et le fait que, suite à ta vidéo, j'ai ''binge-read'' les 7 premiers volumes de la série n'a aussi rien à voir... Sinon pour les livres japonais/thriller, je pense que tu pourrais aimer Confessions par Minato Kanae. Le livre est construit à partir de différents POV, donc c'est moins ''dry'' que certaines traduction. Ou tu pourrais écouter l'adaptation en film qui est aussi excellente :) Comme toujours excellente vidéo!

I’m currently reading A Great Deliverance and I will warn you that there is a little bit of fat shaming toward one character (it was written in the 1980’s). But that being said, I absolutely love watching British mysteries on Britbox and this totally gives me those vibes. While I don’t like the fat comments, I am otherwise loving this book and may continue with the series.

Good luck with Edith Wharton - I read one of her books earlier this year and it made me so mad. The writing was literary/poetic, but the subject matter was infuriating (it wasn't Age of Innocence though).

Happy Memorial weekend Hope you have a wonderful relaxing weekend 📚📚📚💚📚📙💕💖💖📖🧡🌺🌺🌼🌼🩷🪷💘🩶🌈💜🧡📙📚💚📚📙🩵🩵💖💙💙🩷💞🌈🌈🧡📖💖🩵💛📚💜💜💜🩶💘💓💓🌷🌹🌸🩶🩶🩵💛

Pls pls pls read the danmei series Heaven Official’s Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. I’d love to hear what you think of it. Also I think you should give some manga series a chance this summer! Some of my favorite series are A Sign of Affection, Yona of the Dawn, and Spy x Family. Some manhwa series I love are Business Proposal, True Beauty, and Villains Are Destined to Die.

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I really liked Fledgling, so I want to hear your thoughts! But I know I'm in the minority of fans. 😅

☀️☀️☀️☀️🤟🏽👌🏽👍🏽

Demon Copperhead is beautifully written, but was just too trauma for me

I have some random, unconnected comments. But yeah, it would be funny to keep reading Ice Planet Barbarians probably. You've read enough books in a "read it or unhaul it" type setting, expecting that you might not like it. Why punish yourself with books you've been told you won't like? I think you'd enjoy continuing with Wheel of Time. At least in my opinion, the female characters are the best characters of the series so far (I'm up to book 8) and it's the male characters that don't seem to be as complicated, nuanced, etc by comparison. (There's a couple exceptions of course, but still, the ladies rule the day in my mind.) Out of the Grady Hendrix books, I read Horrorstor earlier this year and I think you'd enjoy that there's some commentary on capitalism and the realities of working in retail- in addition to the actual horror stuff. I was not expecting anything that happened in the book, but I'm also new to horror so it's not like I have a wealth of knowledge of the genre to help me predict a plot. Lastly a fun fact about the Appalachian Mountains- they are older than trees. They are older than Saturn's rings. They are older than dinosaurs. They were formed about 480 million years ago, and just the amount of things that hadn't evolved yet at that time is rather mind blowing. I can absolutely believe whatever stories of weird stuff that happens there because those mountains have been around for so long. They've been eroding ever since, and we might think of them as "oh they're just baby mountains" because of that. Anyway- any book set in the Appalachian Mountains would be at least worth checking out.

Deamon copperhead has been unavail in my library for more thasn 6 months

Have you (or anyone here) read anything by Elisabeth Wheatley? I've been following her on booktube shorts for a while without realizing she's an indie author, and she posted a short recently about her Daindreth's Assassin book/series, and I'm curious about it. I'm not much of a fantasy reader but it sounds interesting.