The Will of the Many - James Islington (TL;DR)

Mini Book Reviews! originally from Top 5 books of July & August! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Goodreads Synopsis: The Catenan Republic – the Hierarchy – may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them…

View On WordPress

I participated in a year long Buzzword Readathon for the first time, courtesy of the YouTube channel, BooksandLala (Instagram: @booksandlala). Readers can participate in the challenge however they want, and I decided to read at least one book each month that matched the theme. 

I just finished the reading challenge today and felt so accomplished with myself that I had to post about it. (Lala didn’t have a 2022 book cover template, so I took the one she made for 2023 and edited it a bit.) I also used the star emoji to indicate the books that I gave 4 or 5 stars, but I fairly enjoyed all 12 books.  Out of all 12 books, though, my top 3 favorites are Burn Our Bodies Down, My Dark Vanessa, and Marriage of a Thousand Lies.

I’m very much an erratic mood reader, so it was a new experience to pick my books based on a specific theme, but I enjoyed it. It got me to explore authors and titles that I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise and gave me the opportunity to finally read some books that have been on my TBR for awhile. I’m definitely planning on participating in 2023′s Buzzword challenge. 

What Moves the Dead - T. Kingfisher

This was just a well written, eerie read that I could barely put it down. Essentially, the book is a retelling of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, but I felt like it was so so much more than that. Just before reading this I listened to the audio book of the original story, and it definitely felt like it was lacking in so much substance. I get that it's an older short story, but much like T. Kingfisher, I felt myself wishing there was more to it than just "Guy visits creepy house, people die," and this did exactly that. Easton was such a great narrator, having ka as the main character gave the reader more of a soldier's insight into what was going on, and getting the flashes of the horrors Easton experienced in the war really added to the gory factor of the story itself. Also, just having a nonbinary character in a horror story set in the 1890's is such a rare occurrence, but having them be the main character? It felt revolutionary. It added so much in regards to gender roles, which Miss Potter's character did as well. This was also way way funnier than I expected. Easton's sarcasm was so hilarious, I found myself openly laughing more than once. If there was anything I would change, I would have wanted the book to be longer, but I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/5f5d2e7e-6283-4398-9f9d-298adeb30b38/content_warnings

THE HUNGER JUMPSCARE IN THE NEW BOOKSANDLALA VIDEO

Romance readers, I need some help.

So, I don't read a lot of romance. I don't have anything against it but it's never really been my thing. I did go through a brief patch in the mid 2010s where I was picking up some romance centric books (Carrie Hope Fletcher is the author that majorly springs to mind) and I generally don't hate romance subplots in other fiction I read. Plus I really love romcom movies.

All this to say, for various Reasons I have decided to try reading more romance this year. I've bought a couple that I saw on sale and which seemed interesting to me, but I would love to get some recs from people who know the genre better than I do. And I thought I might make a poll with the most recommended titles to decide where to start.

So, I am looking for contemporary romance recs (preferably with a cute illustrated cover but that's not a deal breaker lmao). I don't love the enemies to lovers trope but I'm willing to give it a go if it's done really well. I do not want any recs for Colleen Hoover or Ali Hazelwood. Otherwise, I am open to pretty much anything else.

If you have a suggestion for me please leave it in the replies or reblogs!

FYI ideas like certain lighting or video concepts are not protected under copyright. If I made my videos exactly like BooksandLala does hers that would not be plagiarizing

Oooh the book manhunt sounds really interesting

2023 Wrapped Tag Game

To celebrate 2023 coming to an end, create a moodboard inspired by your favourite memories of the year and answer any (or all) of the questions below <3

1. Top 3 songs of 2023 2. Top 3 artists of 2023 3. Top 3 albums of 2023 4. Top 3 movies of 2023 5. Top 3 tv shows of 2023 6. Top 3 books of 2023 7. Top 3 youtubers of 2023 8. Top 3 podcasts of 2023 9. Top 3 videogames of 2023 10. Top 3 celebrity crushes of 2023 11. Top 3 fictional crushes of 2023 12. Top 3 places you visited in 2023 13. Top 3 new things you tried in 2023 14. Top 3 things you were grateful for in 2023 15. Top 3 things you are looking forward to in 2024

1. Top 3 songs of 2023 Daylight by David Kushner, Grüne Augen Lügen Nicht by JEREMIAS, Tommy by AnnenMayKantereit

2. Top 3 artists of 2023 David Kushner, Hozier, Noah Kahan

3. Top 3 albums of 2023 Unreal Earth by Hozier, Wallsocket by underscores and Rush! by Måneskin

4. Top 3 movies of 2023 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, The Boy And The Heron

5. Top 3 tv shows of 2023 Avatar the last airbender, the summer I turned pretty, Julie and the Phantoms

6. Top 3 books of 2023 All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Isles Of The Gods by Amie Kaufman, Five Survive by Holly Jackson

7. Top 3 youtubers of 2023 Rezo, Wendigoon, BooksandLala

8. Top 3 podcasts of 2023 Hobbylos, Not Another D&D Podcast, Creep Cast

9. Top 3 videogames of 2023 Baldur's Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, What Remains Of Edith Finch

10. Top 3 celebrity crushes of 2023 Florence Pugh, Pedro Pascal, Josh Hutcherson

11. Top 3 fictional crushes of 2023 Enzo Berkshire, Fred Weasley, Bradley Bradshaw

12. Top 3 places you visited in 2023 Austria, Köln (favourite german city and Joshua Bassett concert <3), the Netherlands

13. Top 3 new things you tried in 2023 started writing fanfiction again, learned to crochet, got into poetry

14. Top 3 things you were grateful for in 2023 my friends, books, music

15. Top 3 things you are looking forward to in 2024 new book releases, going to more concerts, going to the netherland with friends again

No pressure tags: @pizzaapeteer @slytherinslut0 @finalgirllx @ashisgreedy @jayybugg @theeslutintheroom @suugarbabe @heirofs1ytherin @dramaticals @theostrophywife @berryzxx @ahead-fullofdreams @once-upon-an-imagine @buckyandgeraltsupremacy @cyrygher @njutul @halucynator

+ anyone else who would like to do this just feel tagged by me <3

this is no shade to mother booksandlala but under 1000 ratings is nothing sorry. that's where the good niche shit is too

The Poppy War - R.F. Kuang

Mini Book Review!! originally in Top 5 books of July & August! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Goodreads Synopsis: When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her…

View On WordPress

Almost forgot to post my Buzzword Reading Challenge for 2024. Most of these I rated much higher compared to last year despite me trudging through almost 2 months straight of a book slump this year💀 but anyway i really loved a lot of the books on this list and would easily recommend any of the ones rated 4⭐️ or higher to anyone

If anyone reading this wants to participate in the Buzzword challenge for 2024 you can go to Booksandlala's youtube channel (linked below)

I do think all the people going "if you read X number of books a year you aren't REALLY reading" goes both ways. Like I see a lot of people talking about how it's not okay to make fun of reading and then everyone on this site just shits on fast readers and people who can read a fuck-ton a year and absorb it.

Also you don't have to sit down and read every single book like it's a fucking holy text? I'm not going to spend twelve hours dissecting the symbolism in a cute romance novel, but I might in an epic historical fantasy.

I just. What's the difference, man? I don't read that many books, and while I definitely think there are some people who read too much, or read for clout, or don't actually care about the material and just the numbers, there are also plenty of people, I think BeautifullyBookishBethany and BooksandLala on Youtube are great examples, read so much because that's what they love to do.

I'm sorry but if someone is a quick reader and has eight hours a day to enjoy stories and primarily only consumes books as stories and media (audiobooks are great for this), they can and will read hundreds of books a year. And maybe that's not a bad thing?

For fucks' sake man can't we all just like. Assume the best of other readers and be happy people are reading even if it's not the way we like to read? Fuck.

Favorite Books Bracket

hi hello. I read some books this year. I planned to do a "favorite books" post like I did last year but had trouble like... figuring out what those were. Then I saw booksandlala's honorable mentions bracket video and then proceeded to spend all week on this.

Of the 123 books I read in 2023, I weeded out the weak and put the remaining 64 into a tournament [see below readmore]. I used the covers and the images get a little small, so they're kinda hard to read, but I do intend to write up a favorites book post in more detail as well. This was just a fun visual tool to help me pick that list that I spent quite a bit of time on, so I figured I'd post it.

I color-coded the books by genre, and then set them against each other and you know what. You know that post about poll tournaments that's like "dont yall know how to seed a bracket?" i absolutely do not. a lotta rly good books got blasted way too early. whatever i had fun lol. the top tournament winner is at the bottom, followed by all the rejects, bc i felt weird leaving them out altogether. (in general, i left out ones i enjoyed but have nothing to say about and ones i hated but have much to say about so theyre stuck in a gray neverwhere.)

I don't rly expect anyone to care about this, but if someone does, i'd be happy to answer questions or give recs or just chat abt the books!

For booktuber anon, one person that pops up is With Cindy (prev readwithcindy but she does movies now too and recently reacted to an album). I haven't watched her in a while, but she collabed once with coleydoesthings (I think that's her name?) And while she might sometimes dig into potentially problematic things, she usually tries to be nuanced , one example being talking about Addie LaRue vs A Deadly Education, where the first had p much no POC characters, while the second had nothing malicious, but a couple things that should have been caught by a sensitivity reader (and I think one specific paragraph even got taken out for future editions). She read off differing opinions in the comments about both books, and it was a good video imo and showed that yes, when it comes to POC rep, we aren't a monolith and differ when considering something good vs bad rep. And when reviewing ACOTAR, she brings up the dubcon scene in the first book and the coming out scene in the 3rd(?) book. Iirc she personally found the dubcon scene hot (she's unapologetic about loving smut too) and basically said "he's a fairy"/"it's fantasy" or something. Though she was harsher about the coming out scene, more making fun of it, though she liked some comments disagreeing with her, so she's open to other ideas, even if she doesn't always state them in her videos (and also at that time, she was closeted/figuring herself out, so that may have influenced her feelings).

For more technical reviews, maybe CrimsonRogue? He has a day job, so he doesn't update regularly, and it's obvious he has major squicks, like when reviewing one of Onion Boy's books which has a 11(?)yo protag and dates a 15(?)yo girl, and for the bit, he puts on latex gloves to touch the book and keep reading. I like how he talks about world building, character development, and sometimes more technical stuff like sentence structure/dialogue/etc. He's been doing more "bad book reviews" recently, so good if you like seeing common beginning author mistakes or just like salt. Same with his "the book was better" series.

I saw someone mention Dominic Noble, and I agree, but his ability to step back from certain kinks and view it without obvious discomfort... well, in his 50sog he admits that due to circumstances involving loved ones, he cannot understand the kink, but he does also talk to someone who participates in the kink scene, and he focuses on James not understanding that the relationship is toxic as the bigger problem, which I appreciate.

Anon mentioned preferring technical reviews I think, but in case anyone else is curious and enjoys sweeter/not salty reviews, booksandlala reps the polite Canadian stereotype is a good one. When talking about any potentially problematic things in books, she states that it's either to her personal tastes, her understanding of the topic at hand, or how it might make some uncomfortable if she were to rec the book to someone. Her book vlogs can be nice to keep as background noise, and her shocked face at a twist can be funny lol, especially if I know the book she's reading and what twist she just reached lmao.

for anon!

My enjoyment of reading and booktube keeps fluctuating to extreme degrees

Hi! I was wondering about how you discover new books to read? Totally agree that the vast majority of TikTok book recommendations are trash.

hello! first off according to goodreads i have a backlist of 800+ books but that doesn't cover all of it ajolrkdf this is the result of about 6 years of me adding books and removing books from my tbr shelf so most of the books I'm interested in are backlist titles

i think booktube or i should say specific booktubers who know how to talk about books are responsible for a big chunk of getting to know about books I'm interested in. then on bookstagram u have more chances to come across books that aren't widely talked about on video-based platforms. finally sometimes I just go to a bookstore and pick up books I know nothing about and then read the synopsis!

one of the books i really haven't seen anybody talk at all on any platform is when we cease to understand the world which is one of my fave from this year and probably of all times tbh and it was recommended by a professor from LSE I follow on Instagram! her page is radical_reading and she always brings up books that are new to me. i also like sunbeamsjess on youtube because she reads from such a wide array of genres. for horror I always go to booksandlala bc she knows her shit. there's plenty more people whose content I check and get recs from based on what they like or dislike about it and it has a snowball effect