ALL the books in the SHORTEST month! 😱

what a month 14 books over 4,100 pages read how I  managed this I have absolutely no clue to quickly blast through some stats before I get to the books  themselves I read one hardback five paperbacks seven audiobooks and one eBook that's how I  managed this much is those audiobooks I read from five English authors seven American authors  one Canadian author and one Indigenous American author from the To-Moak tribe. I read from 9 female  authors and 5 male authors and my average star rating ended

up as a four star what an amazing  month and the shortest month of the year I don't know but let's dive straight into what I actually  read first up I read Oliver Twist The Adventures of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens one of the four  books in this collection so I've now read half of this this was not what I expected I knowledge of  Oliver Twist comes from watching parts of like snippets of the films uh when my dad's been  watching them at Christmas my knowledge was that this poor boy is taugh

t how to be a criminal  and then has an awful life thankfully the book is different I did really enjoy this I do think and  having started Great Expectations similar thing there that Dickens over romanticises his young  male main character this child is too innocent and too pure however he's utilising this in a way  of forwarding the message of you know actually caring about poor people so I'll let him off but  yeah Oliver is like far too kind and trusting and loving given that everything that h

e's went  through and the trauma that he's been through it just isn't realistic but it's to make people  then feel for him so I'll let him off then I got this copy from the wonderful Caitlyn from Mad Cheshire Rabbit but I listened to the audio book, thanks NetGalley, of A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizel this came out  in February oh my God this book is amazing I had the best time with this audio book it is vampires  and colonialism Sri Lanka woven into this magical story and I just really liked

it it's the first  Faizal book that I've read even though I already own We Hunt the Stars? We...? I don't know that one but I  need to read it I've been putting it off because it's big and the writing is small but having  now then read this one it this is definitely much shorter uh but this just it was so good I  just really enjoyed it um there's a great found family trope within here I enjoy what they did  with the um vampire lore and there's also a heist I'm a sucker for a heist I love a heist

so I just  really enjoyed this if you like found family, heists, vampires it's a good time it's a really  good time I'm so glad I read it another great book and that is Freedom is a Constant Struggle by  Angela Y Davis this was a really interesting book it is a collection of essays/speeches that Davis  has done so I did listen to this slowly over a multitude of days even though it's a very short  book I wanted to spread it out so that the it wouldn't get too repetitive [bad pronunciation] repet

itive? repetitive. this was really really interesting a lot of topics touched on on racism in the United States  specifically but then also the Apartheid in South Africa on what is currently happening in Palestine  and the genocide that has been happening for 70 odd years I highly recommend picking this one up it  is a really short read you can blast through it if you want to and it will definitely make you think  unfortunately sticking with digital books but not a good time I listened to the au

diobook of The  Patient by Teri Terry now I requested this from NetGalley because I have adored some of Teri Terry's  YA dystopian books I'm thinking specifically Book of Lies and the Slated trilogy, I really loved them, she's coming out with an adult book, yes! No. This was really bad unfortunately for me personally uh it  is a mystery thriller so there's no fantastical dystopian aspect to it other than what is in our  real lives and it was so predictable and also so boring so the first 10-20%

you know you're getting  into the book you're learning who the characters are okay and then the last 80-90% is like stuff  happening that entire middle could be cropped out it's unnecessary I was listening it to it on the  fastest speed that the NetGalley audio app has just to get through it uh also it's problematic as shit  with it handles things like uh PTSD and sexual assault very well but the concept around the the  donor giving is the whole thing I should explain what the book is about so a

girl receives a heart  from another girl who passed away after being, it is supposed, murdered by her ex-boyfriend and so  there's this whole thing of like oh she's got her heart and then she tries like I don't want to  ruin it but yeah the whole thing around the donor the organ donation really fucking dodgy really  fucking dodgy um not my favourite thing that Teri Terry has ever written uh it's made me a lot less  uh excited to pick up Mind Games which I have on my TBR by her it is one of her

YA ones so it does  have a higher likelihood of actually being good for me for my personal reading tastes but yes this  one was just too slow too dull too predictable I don't know where the Teri Terry who I loved the  writing from has gone then I listened to two very short audiobooks under half an hour from the  same author Heather E Morris I will put them here and here one of them is Vaccine Breakthroughs and  the other one is Medical Artificial Intelligence Breakthroughs they are usually comic

s as far as  I can tell or at least illustrated books they are intended for kids to teach them about the basics  of these I do think that the actual physical books are likely to be better because they will have the  visual aspect to them however for any kids that either cannot or do not like to read physically  then these are great options as the audio books instead they do go through nice and clearly  everything is segmented nicely clear explanations I do wish that the one on AI did touch on th

e  fact that AI can be problematic but the whole thing is about breakthroughs so I'll I'll let  them off on that one just nice little reads Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett the 10th book in  the Discworld series one day I will know which number I'm on I think this is 10 um I loved this this was  so much fun I won't say it's my favourite because Mort is still my favourite I just love Death as a  character um but this was so so good I am so mad that we don't get any more of it's Victor and I  fo

rget the other girl's name it begins with a G um I think I could be wrong but I'm mad that we  don't get more especially of Victor because his setup and his plot line is perfect for like  being in for the Discworld novels even just like inserted randomly and he's not he's just in  here and it's so sad um this one if you couldn't guess is all about mixing Discworld and also the  magic of film and I really enjoyed how they had movie magic mixed in with Discworld magic and  the way that was done I

just think this was a great time, lots of references to films I will  have missed half of them because I don't watch a lot of films but I did get some of them this is  just a really really fun time and I do think that this would be a decent point to jump in to Discworld a bit like Pyramids where you don't need to have read previous things it kind of was fun  for me cause I got like a little bit of oh yeah I already know these Wizards when they're involved  but you don't need it and it's a lot of

fun I do recommend this one Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by  Lizzy Pook this one was both fun and disappointing the most disappointing part is that there was no  glorious revenge there was just about revenge but it wasn't glorious and also despite being the  self-titled Maude, she was not the main character of this book so we have multiple points of view  one is from Maude, one is from her sister Constance who is hidden away on a ship bound for the Arctic  pretending to be a boy and the othe

r one is the person who then murdered Constance and who Maude is  trying to get revenge on. Constance's diaries are my absolute favourite bit of this book I really  loved reading those I think they were really well really well written really atmospheric and  I really got into the environment that we were in I also quite enjoyed the murderers point of view  we know who it is it's not too much of a mystery that's explained quite soon on but I'll leave it  for you to discover if you do want to read

this and I actually really enjoyed them they're really  dark they do give kind of an explanation but no excuse for why he's so sick and twisted uh but I  actually really enjoyed seeing his machinations and how his mind was working Maude was interesting  but she kept withholding information so she would not tell the reader the full story of what was  actually happening and what she was intending and so the reader is trying to find it out from the  murderers point of view and it was weird kind of

having an actual direct point of view from someone  and then they're withholding information it's not my favourite unfortunately I did really enjoy the  concept and I would be curious about anything else Lizzy Pook puts out but I would probably get it  from the library rather than borrowing it rather than borrowing it rather than buying it I'd like  to see Pook go more into the darker side of things because like the mystery aspect and the murder  aspect so mystery more with the sister who died

and murder with the murderer was done really well  they just weren't supposed to be the main parts of the book so I'd like to see Pook delve more into  that then I buddy read The Island of Doctor Moreau by HG Wells with the wonderful Olivia-Savannah from  Olivia's Catastrophe so this one was much improved by buddy reading it with with Olivia I did have  some issues with this book whilst Wells does manage to write well writing events after they've  happened and our main character stumbling upon t

hem after all of the action something I usually  don't enjoy but Wells does write it with quality I can't I hate saying Wells well um but that was a  little bit annoying for me also again it's of its time of course but it does slightly bring down the  rating for myself in the colonialism the racism the extremist religion aspects that are scattered  throughout this but then also I just wasn't keen on this is such a short book and there's one point  where he just skips 10 months and it's like oh i

t wouldn't be conducive to the telling of the Bruv. Yes it would that's that's the whole point of the story tell me about the time on the island about  you acclimating to living on this island about the little petty fights, give me some atmosphere give  me something, no I'm just going to stick skip 10 months we don't need that what also the science  side of this is less believable now than it would have been at the time of this publication again  not the book's fault but yeah at the time it was

like yeah that could definitely happen and now we  know why it couldn't but at the time they were in the forefront of lots of scientific uh inventions  and stuff so that is again of its time and then the ending I just feel like they could have been  more done with it um without spoiling anything it was just a bit lackluster unfortunately however I  had many wonderful like philosophical discussions with Olivia and I really enjoyed those we had lots  of really in-depth chats about colonialism abou

t racism about the impact of religion it was really  really fascinating and I had a great time chatting about it with her so that bumped this up from  the two star it would have been just cause it was a bit disappointing to a solid three star just because  I had a wonderful time reading it because we were talking about it each and every day so that's  the power of buddy reads folks then unfortunately another one I didn't enjoy The Luminaries by Susan  Dennard so I listened to this via audiobook

but I do also have this physical copy I will say that  throughout this physical copy there are some really gorgeous um bits of artwork these they're  great I really like them um this is a very young aimed YA so it's definitely aimed at the 13 to 16  bracket rather than the 16+ bracket that most YA seems to fall in nowadays and whilst I love  that that is available for kids now it's not marketed as such it doesn't market it like that  it markets it like 16+ YA you're gunna enjoy this and it's not

. It's childish they have in my  opinion done the marketing wrong on this I don't think that the right age range is going to be  picking it up and enjoying it whilst I understand that it is childish it's too childish um there's  points where the poor the poor audiobook narrator there's like onomatopoeic sounds like she has to like  it's because it's written on the page I can't find it but she has to like say Ziiiiip Zip Ziiip and things  like that very onomatopoeic, very very middle grade book-y

which was weird cause the it's too old to be  middle grade it's definitely like at least younger YA really weird the main character also has this  thing where she clicks her teeth and whilst I assume it just means like a little [very light clicking off teeth] I don't even  know if the camera's going to pick it up the mic on it but whilst I assume it's like a little when  she's anxious the way it's written makes it sound like she's going [clack clack clack] and it's infuriating to hear  about th

is girl constantly seeming like she's like [clack clack] go go see a therapist you have anxiety  there's a lot of potential in this book and it just didn't live up to any of it I didn't have  a good time unfortunately I do own The Hunting Moon so because it's me I'm probably going to  read it cause it's me hi hi um so I'll probably try and blast through that on audio as well just  so that I actually get through it um but yeah I think if you are a younger reader or if you still  do really like re

ading things from that younger age age bracket totally fair regardless of your  age then I think this would be a fun read for you unfortunately I am skewing quite heavily towards  adult books now and so this just wasn't for me this might be getting unhauled and that  makes me so sad because it's so pretty look at it look look at how how beautiful it is it's  just why would you do this to me then reading a fantastic book I read She Who Knows: Firespitter  by Nnedi Okorafor oh my gosh this woman c

an do no wrong this is another NetGalley one this one was an ebook  and literally every single time my only complaint is that the book is too short not because it  needs more fleshing out not because the short story writing isn't perfection but because I  just need more of Okorafor's writing I adore everything I have ever read from them, her writing  is just absolutely beautiful this is a fantastic setup for a brand new series I think Goodreads  suggests that it's going to be a series and I'm so

so excited for that Okorafor's sci-fi writing  is beautiful she focuses on young women living in what is depicted to be kind of desert Africa but  in future times and these young Black women have power and it's how having various different types  of power whether that is education whether that is intelligence whether that is actual magical powers  and how that impacts their lives it's just so good everything she writes is just gold dust that woman  is an icon I perfe.. perfection. Perfection, s

he's one of my favorite all time authors, Nnedi Okorafor, and  I only own one of her books I am lacking I know back to disappointing it was a really seesaw  month uh The Appeal By Janice Hallett this one was a really quick read very readable because of  the multimedia format of this one um so it's lots of emails text messages notes um things like that  and so very very readable with that aspect in there the book tries to cover too many um delicate  topics to use one of the sensitive topics becau

se I don't want to spoil the whole book for you  I'll go with probably the most obvious which is one of the characters has anxiety and that's  like pretty obvious for the the first like three or four things that you read from their point of  view uh that is the the lowest level one there are other ones but if you want to read this I don't  want to spoil it for you and so they just cover all of them so many different things like there's  like five or 10 different like sensitive topics and they co

ver all of them on a surface level and  therefore they do a disservice to each and every one of them they're not necessarily offensive  with any of them but it's just lackluster I feel like if Hallett was wanting to go down this route  she should have had a fewer number of these like deep things that she's delving into and delved  into them all a little bit more also the end was quite lackluster and it I just it was very  very readable I read it incredibly quickly like if you do want to pick it

up like airport read  holiday read needing to blast another book off of your TBR or things like that like yeah pick it  up you'll blast through it but I don't think it's very skilled I I'm not going to sit here like  hyping it it's fine it's fine and after hearing so much hype about it that makes it even more  disappointing my last physical book and finally finishing almost a series is The Toll by Neal  Schusterman the third and final book in the Arc of the Scythe this is because there is a preq

uel  like a set of short stories that I don't own yet I need to grab myself a copy I'm on a book buying  ban it's so inconvenient uh but yeah so I haven't read this prequel the collection of short stories  cause I don't own it so I read the actual series I would like to read Gleanings but I've read the  series I love this I loved it so much so I adored Scythe to within an inch of its life and then I  read Thunderhead and was disappointed it was fine still a good book but like three three and a h

alf  stars it had middle book syndrome thankfully this came in hard strong oh it was good the ending is  both open and closed enough to satisfy both types of readers I adored how the world integrated  and redeveloped it's really good really good discussions on AI on humanity on death on power  on what humans should be Neal Schusterman does it again like another writer that I have adored this  one I have adored since I was a child I love to I forget the name of the series every time I think  it w

as Unwound um I need to re-buy them they're on my wish list I will get them the book buying ban  oh in 2025 I'm going to be buying so many books but yes so I I love this this was such a good time  my memory card decided to fill up in the middle of me ranting about how much I love this book I am  offended uh but I love it it is a fantastic end to a series I think it has done brilliantly well  it is such a pity that Thunderhead does have a little bit of a dip but this is beautiful and  Neal Schust

erman has been an author that I've loved since I was a child and he is showing that  he is still just as good today and then my final read of the month was The Rediscovery of America  by Ned Blackhawk this was another audio book that I read on NetGalley like I said I was heavy on  those ARC audiobooks this month and this is a non-fiction that I was expecting to be all  about what the people who immigrated to America did to the Indigenous peoples I was wrong this is  essentially a history book of

the United States of America but primarily from an Indigenous  point of view and focusing on the Indigenous peoples so not at all what I was expecting but  very very educational I will say going in as a Brit did make this one interesting especially  with not knowing it was that going in that is my own fault but a lot of times they mentioning  names of Presidents and people important in US history that I just don't know like I know a lot  of the big names of the Presidents but they they named a

few Presidents I was like I didn't know  there was a President with that name at all um so be aware of that if you're American this will  be amazing like the research that has went into this it's done beautifully I was even with the  change in what I had expecting what it was I was expecting it to touch more on some of the  atrocities really truthfully but it didn't so if that is something that you don't want to read  just because it is too close to home for yourself uh if you are Indigenous or

if it's just something  that you don't feel comfortable learning about in this medium then this is a fantastic book for that  it doesn't it it mentions it in passing it's it is a comprehensive history of the entirety of the the  United States from the beginning of the colonisers arriving on the continent it mentions a little  bit about um what happened pre you know like 1600s boom, it's fantastically written I wasn't  keen on the narrator of the audiobook I'm not going to lie uh wouldn't recomme

nd the audio book  it sounded like IA... IA?! Sounded like AI generated at points so not a recommendation I would give  uh but the actual content of the book itself was fascinating, really educational, I definitely  learn a lot and I really recommend this book and that is my February reading I mean this is a hell  I mean it doesn't help that that's a bindup of all of Dickens's book but this is a hell of a stack  on its own and then I read how many audiobooks Was it seven? And some ebooks so I ha

d a fantastic  month let me know down below what your favourite book of the month was I am torn between two uh  if it had been any other month Moving Pictures could have been a favourite but these two were just  too good just too good so yeah let me know your favorite of February down in the comments below  if you'd like to see whether or not I managed to read my March TBR which is up here and also  how I get along with my reading for the rest of the year then please do hit the Subscribe button 

down below and I'll see you in the next video, bye folks! End Card Music [details in description]