hello and welcome to the Wicker Library,
my name is Alleah, so happy to have you here with us today. I am going to be filming
yet another reading vlog, one of my favorite things to film here on this channel, and this
time I want to spend a few weeks reading some of my favorite booktubers favorite books of 2023.
and I was having a hard time figuring out which booktubers I would feature in this video, because
there's so so many that I watch and that I love, but I thought it'd be kind of fun t
o only feature
booktubers that I recently discovered in the year of 2023, and just read their favorites of that
year. so I have quite a few booktubers that I've compiled um their favorites, and I am a mood
reader so I'm only going to be reading the books that uh I'm drawn to, and so we'll see which
people get to be in this video. all their links and channels will be linked in the description
as well. and yeah. I have a few books that I'm currently reading right now that I'd like to
finish
before I start to pick out some books for this actual video idea. but I'm currently
reading Fun Home, which I want to finish uh I'm reading it for a graphic novel class I'm in
and I would like to free up that headspace for something new. I'm also reading another graphic
novel called Squire, and I'm buddy reading that with one of my best friends and that's been really
fun so far, we're only just starting it but I do want to kind of get into that before starting
a new book. I'm also reading M
outhful of Birds which is a short story collection which I'll
probably also be reading just throughout this video because I like to read that before bed each
night, and it's not a continuous or linked story of any kind so I can put it down and pick it up
whenever I want to, and it won't get confused in my head with other books that I'm reading. but
enough rambling! I want to start some audiobooks soon of some of my favorite booktubers favorite
books, so when I decide which book I'm going to
start this video off with I will let you know!
in the meantime let's finish some current reads. [Music] hello! so it is Saturday now. I finished Fun Home
last night, it was- it was fine um not one that is really going to stick with me, I think it was just
it was fine. but I am now ready to start I think the first book of this vlog and I want to head
to the library today because I have been making a habit of the last two weeks of going to the
library every weekend to get some homework done,
and it's been really productive, really nice
so I'm going to head that way because I have so much homework to do um. I have really been
putting off a lot of my assignments and so I need to actually get to them, and so I will be
headed to the library to do that. I also have overdue books so I need to give those back to
the library. but in other news, I want to start All The Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby. this I was
recommended through Dezmond Zee's Channel and I absolutely love his videos. I
love the energy he
brings to every review, every wrapup, everything. and I just- I'm obsessed. I found him in the last
year, in the last couple months actually and I'm so glad I did. I also seemed to have a pretty
similar taste to him and he loved All The Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby in 2023 and I really loved
S.A. Cosby's other book Razorblade Tears, and this is his newest book and I'm really excited to dive
into it. I know it's a gritty thriller and I know that it follows was a serial kill
er I believe and
that's all I know about it, that's all I want to know especially since it's a thriller I don't want
to spoil anything. I want everything to be new. but one of the things I loved about Razorblade
Tears was the audiobook and the audiobook narrator was just so magnificent and his voice was so deep
and just perfect for the story and he is the same narrator for uh All The Sinners Bleed's audiobook
as well so I have that. I'm going to bring some earbuds along with me to the libra
ry to see if
I want to start listening to that book there and I'm so excited! I really think I'm going to like
it and I'm in the mood for a dark Thriller with murder and with bloody, like, just everything,
and I'm so excited to get back into S.A. Cosby's characters and worlds and writing style and
yeah. I'm I think it's going to be a good time. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
0:05:59.640,1193:02:47.295
[Music] [Music] [Music] hello! so it is now Monday evening and I have
started and gotten
three or four chapters into All The Sinners Bleed. I'm having a great time. saying
I'm having a great time is kind of incorrect, because it is Gory, it is really sad, it is rather
dark already but oh my God can S.A. Cosby write, okay? this man has such a good writing style
that is so unique and engaging and unsettling, as well, because the events happening are very
unsettling. it starts off off with a shooting at a school and that's incredibly triggering,
for a lot of people I know, it's yo
u know, it's not exactly fun to read for me either and he
writes these scenes in such a way that I cannot look away. I cannot stop reading or- I cannot
stop listening and the audiobook is fantastic as I assumed. Adam Lazarre White is just such
a fantastic narrator and I- I want to pick up every book that he narrates. but I also think I
just want to pick up every book that S.A. Cosby writes because it is so addictive already, and
I think that it's really exciting too because the characters i
n the story are already just so
fleshed out. and a lot of names are being dropped on you but it doesn't really matter because
it just- you know who matters and whose name you need to think about and they stick with you,
and they feel like very very real, flawed people and individuals. I also just need to say that I
love that the main character- who is a sheriff, he's the first Black sheriff of this very very
conservative town, and that's already one of the most unsettling elements is you ju
st know that
there's this like creeping and- honestly, not even that subtle, racism that is influencing these
actions in this narrative, and it's really scary to read because you just know that in the back of
your head. but this sheriff is also- I love when characters who are detectives or who are trying
to solve a mystery, are actually smart. and they actually know what they're doing. and I love that
he's paying attention and he's realizing these things are not what they seem, and I just l
ike
that the characters (so far) are very competent and it's it doesn't fall on the reader to extend
their disbelief to how ridiculous a character can be or how um ignorant or oblivious a character
can be especially one that is supposed to be smart like a sheriff. like you're supposed to know
what's up if you're in that position. so I'm having a great time so far I am thinking that this
is going to be a great read and I have no notes! [Music] hello hello! so I have been reading All The
Sin
ners Bleed for the last week or so. it has been quite a while since I have last updated you
all but I'm having a great time with that book. I think S.A. Cosby is just going to be an auto
buy author for me. I still have to read some of his backlist to really cement him as a favorite
author but I just love the way that he writes. his writing style is really beautiful, which is
so interesting for these like really dark gritty mystery thrillers because you will be reading
just the most horrendo
us disturbing shit but it will be written so beautifully and with so much
talent and imagery and yeah. I don't want to go into the plot at all mostly because uh the plot is
rather triggering. I would highly [recommend] look up um trigger warnings not even just the plot
summary- the plot summary doesn't go over much of it which makes sense because I know people
don't want to be spoiled. but the triggers start happening in the first couple chapters, and
it's just really heavy. it has much les
s of the humor that Razorblade Tears had which is
so fair, so fine um this is much more serious of a novel but it is just so well written. I'm
engaged, I'm intrigued, I'm really enamored by all of the characters as well. as you all know,
I'm a character girly, I need the characters, I need the good writing style. the plot also
happens to be very engaging so it's hitting all the marks for me and I'm having a good time. I do
take breaks from this story because it is, again, very heavy and it
just weighs a lot on you,
the subject matter so I've been reading some middle-grade graphic novels in the meantime, just
to have something a bit light. and I do think that the next book I'm going to read is one that will
be a bit lighter, so I'm going to pick a booktuber recommendation that has less to do with murder
and crimes against humanity uh so I am looking forward to that. I already have someone in mind
and I also need to finish All The Sinners Bleed in the next day because the audio
book is going to
be automatically returned to the library tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to finish it out in
the rest of today, and if not, in the few hours I'll have of it tomorrow. but I'm really enjoying
it. I think S.A. Cosby is a talent and I'm really happy that I picked up Dezmond's recommendation
because oh my God, I'm having a fantastic time. so I have finished All The Sinners Bleed by S.A.
Cosby and if that man is capable of anything, it is making me cry uncontrollably at the
endings of his books. so, I did indeed cry which isn't saying much, I am a big crier
when it comes to any sort of almost sad books, and I don't know. some of the relationships that
were in that book specifically the one between the main character Titus and his father, as well
as his younger brother? that shit got me okay. I I'm a sucker for family Dynamics like that and it
just was so perfect. I think I'm going to settle on a final rating of like 4.25 Stars. I really
loved the book. I'm he
sitating giving it five stars just because I do feel like the ending
was a little lackluster, like it made me cry, but it was more so the epilogue that made me
cry. uh but yeah. I thought things wrapped up a little- a little too nicely. it's not that
I was wishing for an ending that was unhappy or worse off for the characters, I felt like the
actual ending was really solid and really good, I just feel like the way it was written it was
too quick and it was too fast, and I didn't feel like I
was able to sit in the repercussions and
the after effects of the ending. it felt like it was just over and done. but I really did enjoy it,
all in all, I thought it was a fantastic book and I'm really excited to read more of S.A. Cosby's
work in the future as well well as take up more of Dezmond Zee's recommendations because clearly they
are for me. and the next book I want to pick up is an audiobook, again, for the book Inciting Joy
which is an essay collection by Ross Gay and this was r
ecommended to me through the channel Pato
and I saw them read it and absolutely love it, and I hear that this book, besides the
title, Inciting Joy, just really goes into all of these little joys in life and I feel like
especially after reading All The Sinners Bleed, this would just be a very good book to kind
of give me a different feeling than that book did and be a bit of a palette cleanser as
well. and I absolutely love Pato's channel, I highly recommend them. they are so funny and
ver
y- like their book taste is just so wonderful. so I'm- I have High Hopes about this book and
I'm really excited to to pick up the audiobook because it is narrated by Ross Gay and I love
when books are narrated by their authors, so yeah. I'm- I'm excited to pick this up. it is an essay
collection so I might decide that I want to pick up another book alongside it, I don't know yet.
I might read it in one go, we shall see. [Music] [Music] [Music] all right! so we have some updates
or, I guess
I have some updates for you all, and that is that I've started Inciting Joy. I'm
about 20% through the audiobook. I am enjoying it! it is definitely a book I cannot sit down
and listen to a bunch of chapters at once, like I want to take my time with it and read a
chapter or an essay every now and again. maybe one before bed, or something like that. it just-
that's the way that I feel like my brain will best comprehend and appreciate that book. so I do want
to also pick up another booktuber
recommendation which is a recommendation by the Plant Based
Bride who I discovered in 2023, as you know, everyone in this video, but I've been really
enjoying her content. we have very, very similar tastes so I'm hoping that this book will be a
win. and I found the audiobook because I am, if you couldn't tell, in an Audiobook kick right
now. and it's available and I'm going to snack it up and the audiobook is of Monstrilio, and I am
so excited to read this book. I know it is horror I know i
t is also literary fiction and explores
grief and queerness, I believe as well, and I hear it's devastating but also really dark and well
written and beautiful and I am in the mood for that right now! uh it's been really rainy out the
last couple days and I want something a bit more dreary, but I still want to listen to Inciting
Joy because I would like to not get too down, even though I am still in the mood for something
dark it seems. so I am going to start Monstrilio, and I'll be updatin
g, you know, on both books
throughout the rest of this Vlog but yeah. I'm excited to start it, I'm excited to see how I
feel about it because it was the Plant Based Bride's like top, TOP book of the year so it's
got to be good, right? it's got to be good! [Music] [Music] hello! so it has been a week now since I've last
updated you all on anything at all. and that was because I was visiting a dear friend of mine in
England, and it was my first time- not leaving the country, but going to Euro
pe, and it was
really exciting. I went with another one of my best friends and we had such a good time. we
went to so many bookstores and different places around England, and I will be having a vlog out
with a book haul in it coming soon, so you don't have to worry about me not documenting any of
that to share with you all. so that being said, I did finish some books that I need to talk to you
about, and to finally end off this reading Vlog! it's been a long one uh filming wise anyway and
let's just get started. so first off we have some updates on Monstrilio, and this book I read and I
finished on the plane to England and the audiobook was really well done I think, it had a few
different narrators and yeah it was pretty well narrated. I will say I felt similarly disappointed
reading that and finishing it to how I felt about Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda, I think is the
author's name. so I also feel like those are tonally very similar and that tone doesn't work
for me, but i
f you did enjoy Monstrilio, or Woman, Eating, I think you would enjoy the other one.
just, they work together really well in my head. that being said, Monstrilio disappointed me for
a few reasons. I felt like it just did not go dark or deep or weird enough for me. everything
felt very surface level, and just very blank. I didn't feel connected to the characters or their
story, and usually I prefer to feel connected to at least one of those things. I don't need to
like the characters, I'm no
t saying they were too unlikable for me, I actually really enjoy
an interestingly written unlikable character. but the characters in this one just felt very
forgettable, like I cannot even tell you any of their names except for Monstrilio, and he is
arguably the most interesting character. although, we only really get in his head the later few
chapters of the book. and when we get there it's just like eh. and I felt like the ending
that we were working up to was very clearcut, and just easy
. it felt like a very drawn out
Ode to Frankenstein, and Frankenstein's monster, but just- nothing that I could really grasp on to,
sink my teeth in and enjoy, if that makes sense. I felt like Monstrilio just did not deliver on
the horror or the weird or the writing that I was looking for. even the grief. I felt like I would
really get touched by a mother losing her child, which is you know, the main point of this book,
and then she creates like a monster from her child remains. but it just
did not hit. and that was
unfortunate, but there are still a lot of books that I share, favorites wise, with a Plant Based
Bride, so I think this one was just a miss for me personally. but that being said I also chose to
DNF Inciting Joy which is so unfortunate. but this one is a little less of a miss for me, I really
enjoyed what was being discussed about the commons and collectivity. that's basically a title of a
course I'm taking this semester, anyway, so I'm just really interested in d
iscussions and essays
on that type of thing. and I felt like the writing style of Inciting Joy was alright, I don't think
I loved how repetitive a lot of the essays were, not even essay to essay but within the essay
I just felt like there was so much repetition, and I kind of wanted them to be a little more
succinct. but that's completely just a personal writing style taste, so there weren't any
points docked for that. I will say as much as the audiobook was narrated by the author, I
didn'
t love the narration. I just could not match the tone to the narrator's voice and for me when
I'm reading an audiobook that's kind of important for me to really get engaged with the story, and
even with non-fiction. I just didn't not love it being narrated, so I might return to this one
day physically but I'm not certain about that. I do still really really want to read The Book of
Delights which was also one of Pato's favorites, and I think it was the one they read first. and
I feel like I
should actually do it in that order instead and so yeah. this one was a DNF but I got
around 20% through it, maybe a little more. I did want to give Pato another chance though because I
felt weird dnfing one of their reads when I know we share so many books in common, so I picked up
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison on the plane ride back and unfortunately I- this is not a DNF,
but I didn't get to finish it before arriving home because the audiobook like glitched out on my
phone and I couldn
't redownload it because I was in the air. so that was really sad and upsetting
cause I was hoping to finish it. but I am absolutely adoring that book. The Writing- I mean
it's Toni Morrison, so of course I'm enjoying it, but it is just so well written and fascinating
and interesting and intriguing and I already feel so deeply attached to these characters. and
girlhood and- is just so well written in this book and just that age of being young and just
all the feelings, all of the sensory de
tails, everything is just perfect in that book so far,
I'm about 13% through the audiobook. the audiobook is phenomenal by the way. if you didn't know,
like I didn't know, Toni Morrison had narrated a lot of her books. so The Bluest Eye is one of
them that she narrated, and so it's her voice, and her reading her own story just works so
beautifully. it is just perfection. and so yeah. I am reading that, I'm not technically done with
it but I did want to mention it in this video as technicall
y a win for that booktuber which is
Pato. as for the end of this video I hope you all enjoyed! I hope I introduced you to some good
books, or some books that might interest you even if I didn't personally enjoy them. I really had
a good time filming this Vlog and just reading based on booktubers because I get a lot of my
recommendations from booktubers that I watch, but I've never sat down and been like "I'm
reading this because of blank" before and it was just a very fun time so I might do
more of
these kinds of videos in the future, but if you're here still after all of this time, feel free to
comment the emoji of a green heart- I'm looking at my matcha right now, which I need to drink
because I genuinely flew back home yesterday, so I'm very tired, but I need my caffeine
because I need a good work day today. so much work has to be done. but enough said, enough
rambling I will see you all in the next video!
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