Hey guys, it's Olivia here from Olivia's Catastrophe
and today I'm here to give you the first part
to my November wrap up. Part 1 you ask? Well,
the fact of the matter is in the month of
November I read 30 books. Yeah, I'm kind of
shocked as well. I did the A-Z read-a-thon
where you needed to read a book for every
single letter of the alphabet which is 26
books. And then for the mythothon there were
25 prompts. So it was a lot of reading. It
was very intense. And I also had to do some
reading for uni, which is how I ended up at
30. Which is a book a day. I read 9,200 pages.
That's about 306 pages per book. I'm shook
to my core but let's get down to it because
I want to talk about 15 of these books with
you today and then 15 of these books with
you in my next video. Let's get to the books.
Okay so I thought we could do this going through
the alphabet. So I'll do A - O in this video
and then in the next video I'll do P - Z plus
the extra books that I read. So in no particular
order.
A is for the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Now this is the whole Sherlock Holmes collection
bind up but I read the Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes and that fit for the Apollo prompt
for the mythothon which is to read a book
of short story collections. It's as it says
in the title the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
and I actually really enjoyed this one. That's
the first one I had to read for uni. I loved
getting to read Sherlock Holmes and Watson
and actually just read the actual mysteries.
I thought the deductions were done very nicely
and it was just a lot of fun to read that
book.
Then for B I read Blood's Game by Angus Donald.
That fit for the prompt of Dionysus to read
a book that was released in 2018. And this
was a review copy so thank you to Bonnier
Zaffre for sending that one to me to read.
It's historical fiction set in 1800's England,
and you follow the Blood family. Particularly,
the son who has a mild case of Asperger's
syndrome, and then sometimes also his father.
And his father is a criminal, and his son
is just trying to do the best he can with
what he's given. They come from a poor family
and they get caught up in a political game
which has to do with the king, it has to do
with the king being broke, and a lot of his
underdogs. It's so fun! It was one of my 5
star reads for this month. And I just loved
the main character who has the mild Asperger's
syndrome because those people did live in
history and they had those kind of lives.
And it was very difficult for them because
everyone saw them as odd because they couldn't
have an official diagnosis back then. But
he was just so sweet and he wanted the best
for people. He was innocent when he went into
this book, but so much happens and the suspense
at the end kept getting to me. It was a wild
ride. I recommend it if you like political
games, criminals, grey area characters where
nobody's good or bad and you just love to
be along for a wild ride.
Then for C in the A-Z readathon I read The
Casebook of Sherlock Holmes which was another
short story collection. And it didn't fit
a prompt for mythothon. And I absolutely didn't
enjoy it. Because by that point it was the
3rd Sherlock Holmes one I was reading for
uni and it just got very repetitive. Like
the short stories, once you've read enough
of them - there are about 10 or 12 in a collection
- you start to see the formula and it kind
of takes away your enjoyment because... not
because you can figure it out but you just
know exactly what to expect, and because I
had to read them back to back for uni, it
was a just a bit repetitive and my enjoyment
was completely gone. Also there was one short
story was just a bit racist and I don't enjoy
Arthur Conan Doyle's descriptions of anyone
who is a non-white, male able-bodied character
because the way he describes other people
is sometimes just really horrifying and disgusting.
The D prompt of the A-Z readathon and for
the Homer prompt from mythothon where you
read a retelling I read The Dead Father's
Club by Matt Haig. I've been waiting to read
a Matt Haig book for so long and this was
another 5 star read. I absolutely loved it.
This one is a retelling of Hamlet which is
a Shakespeare play I also love and it follows
a 13 or a 14 year old boy - I can't remember
- whose father has recently died. And he's
the only one who can see his father's ghost
who is telling him to kill his new stepfather
who is trying to make a move on his mum. But
no one else can see the ghost and the question
is of whether this guy is seeing things and
he's got a mental illness and it's grief.
Or if he is truly seeing the ghost of his
father and he needs to kill his stepfather.
Also it's quite a big deal for a 14 year old
to be contemplating killing someone. The format
in this book is so unique. Like Matt Haig
really plays around with the format and I
absolutely love that because it makes it even
more fun to read. I was so hooked because
even though it does follow the original story
of Hamlet it does its own unique take on things,
especially the Ophelia storyline. Also he
adds in these really good nuances and references
to the original. It was just so well written
and so well done that I couldn't give it any
less than 5 stars.
Then for E in the A-Z readathon and for the
Athena prompt where you had to read a book
that's not the first in a series I read Exile
for Dreamers by Kathleen Baldwin. This is
the 2nd book in the A School for Unusual Girls
series. And I'll tell you about the first
one and not this one because y'know, spoilers.
So the first one is set in 1814 England, it's
historical fiction. And it's about this girl
called Georgie who is really into science,
but of course her family just want her to
pour tea and y'know, do what girls are supposed
to do at that time. But she is determined
to practice science and she accidently sets
the barn of her house on fire. And her parents
are outraged and sends her to this school
where girls are supposed to go and get very
disciplined and come back out as these mindwashed
ladies. However, when Georgie ends up at that
school she starts to realise it is not all
that it seems. And it's not actually a school
for torture but it's a school for unusual
girls to do some very unusual things. I absolutely
loved the first book and this one was no different.
Just like the first one you do get alternate
historical fiction, but you also get a very
very sweet romance, you get feminist girls
in historical England, and you also get fighting
against Napoleon, a war, war strategies, girls
kicking butt but then also, y'know, girls
being girls, having friendships and pouring
tea. It's just... it was such a fun read.
For F in the A-Z readathon I read Finding
Audrey by Sophie Kinsella. And I just cannot
believe I did not read a Sophie Kinsella book
until now. It's so much fun! So this one follows
Audrey and she has a severe case of social
anxiety and depression where she doesn't ever
leave her house and she always wears these
sunglasses because she doesn't like to make
eye contact with anyone. However, when her
brother starts to bring around this friend
called Linus, I believe, they start to talk
a little bit and they talk by passing notes.
Because she doesn't want to talk to people.
And things just go from there. It's not a
romantic recovery story because she doesn't
fall in love and recover if that's what you're
worried about. It's so funny, Kinsella just
inserts so much humor. Felix the toddler in
this one cracked me up so much and I love
kids so it was just so nice to see him. There
was a great family dynamic. There's a mum,
dad, brothers, her, all there and they're
all working together and also fighting. It's
just a very realistic family dynamic - not
entirely dysfunctional but just family being
a family. And it was a really cute romance.
It's lacking a bit of that depth, y'know when
it goes really deep into things. But it was
just a whole lot of fun and that's what I
was expecting. You've also got good medicine
taking rep and good pyschiatrist rep because
sometimes y'know, people are always unwilling
to get help and unwilling to take medicine
and that sometimes that promotes a very bad
idea and I see that quite a lot in mental
health books so it was nice to see a bit of
a difference in this one.
For the G prompt I read The Golem's Eye by
Jonathan Stroud. This also fit for mythothon
Echidna where you needed to have monsters
in your book. And since this one has djinn
and demons it was perfect. This is the 2nd
book in the Amulet of Samarkund trilogy by
Jonathan Stroud and it's basically - I'll
talk about the first book once again. It's
basically about this boy, Nathaniel, who is
14 I believe and he lives in London where
magic is a thing and magic is practiced especially
by summoning demons and djinn and making them
do your will. And you have to follow these
rules and all that. But he... I think an amulet
is stolen and he wants to make a name for
himself as a wizard practising magic so he
needs to find this amulet and solve this problem
going on - I'm trying to remember the first
book - and he summons this very funny and
humorous djinn called Bartimaeus and they
kind of have a love hate friendship going
on. It's really hilarious and the author uses
footnotes to just add humor to the book. I
just find it so funny, it made me laugh out
loud so many times. This one I did enjoy it
a little bit less than the first one. It was
a lot more slow paced, maybe because it's
bigger. And they add in a 2nd point of view
because before it was Nathaniel and Bartimaeus
switching off but now it's Nathaniel, Bartimaeus
and Kitty. And sometimes one storyline was
more interesting than the other so it was
a bit slow paced but it was still very funny
and it still had me laughing and I still really
enjoyed it.
If I mention a Shakespeare one it's from this
collection but I'm not going to lift up the
collection because it's heavy. I'll just mention...
like, have an ebook version up there.
So the first one that I read... no. For H
I read Henry the 4th, Part 1 and it was for
the free choice part of mythothon. And I just
had to read it for uni. I found it very dry
and boring. I think. This is the only historical
play of Shakespeare's I've read but I don't
think I'm going to be a huge fan of them.
It just most consisted of fighting, a little
bit of politics but mostly just fighting and
people not agreeing with the king and then
choosing to fight the king and... yeah, it
was quite boring and dry and that's all I
have to say about it.
Then for I for the A-Z readathon I read Ignite
Me by Tahereh Mafi. And this also fit the
Ares prompt for the mythothon which was to
read a book with an interesting antagonist.
Y'know there's Warner, there's his storyline
so I chose this one. Guys, if you've seen
my review of Shatter Me you'll know I wasn't
the biggest fan of this series from the beginning
and I kind of pushed my way through it because
I needed to for my explicit scenes videos.
This final one was an absolute joke, guys.
It was an absolutely joke. I don't know how
this could be an ending to a trilogy. I read
250 pages of - no. First I read 100 pages
of pure exposition. Then I read 200 pages
- 250 pages of love triangle shenanigans and
drama when a rebellion is supposed to be going
on. Then we had 50 pages of rebellion that
was resolved way too quickly. It was just
ridiculous that this was the ending to a trilogy.
Just... don't read Shatter me guys, just don't
bother if you haven't already. Okay, then.
Moving on!
For J I read The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.
It's a classic. And it fit the prompt for
Demeter which is to read a book with a nature
word in the title which is jungle. I went
into this one thinking I was just going to
get Mowgli and... Mowgli's story. But it's
not only that! It's a short story collection
and also poetry is in there too of jungle
stories. So the first one is Mowgli but then
you've got different animals in there and
they're having their own stories so it was
just interesting to see. I thought the poetry
was done really well. There was one moment
of racism. I wasn't surprised because I knew
that Rudyard Kipling was a racist and I was
actually prepared for more than there was
in there. It was a nice read, very quick.
I read it in like 2 or 1 hour.
Then, then for K I read Kid by Simon Armitage.
And this fit for the Perspehone prompt of
reading a book of less than 200 pages. This
is a poetry collection and I really enjoyed
this one - my other 5 star read. So at first
I found this one a bit difficult to get into
because the poetry was quite conversationalist
and casual which is not my type of poetry.
But then it started to grow on me and I think
it's worth giving it a shot. And as well as
that he has this persona called Robinson who
flies through a couple of the poems. Like,
he's not in every poem but he's in enough
poems for you to add up a story about Robinson
which I thought was very creatively and well
done. And the way that he placed the poems
was just mind blowingly well done and I've
never seen this done in a poetry collection
before, so I was very happy. And this edition
is truly beautiful.
Then for L we have Lady Audley's Secret by
Mary Elizabeth Braddon. And this one also
fit the prompt for Ancient Greece which was
to read a book set in the past. Seeing as
this at the time it was written, in 19th century
England. So this one is about Lady Audley
who has a secret and it's a crime fiction
novel. And basically, it was really well done.
And it wasn't a plot twist kind of shock,
but it was a slow reveal that was suspenseful,
well done. And then the resolution of things
was so well done. Mary Braddon writes really
really well and it wasn't ever boring. I loved
that the detective was driven by emotions
rather than it being a job assigned to him
because it made it - made the whole case more
intimate. And the villain was just like: wow.
The villain went above and beyond to get what
they wanted. And I was all for that because
I love a good villain.
For M I read Measure for Measure by Shakespeare
and that also fit the prompt of Gaia for the
mythothon which was to read a book published
at least 5 years ago. I mean it's Shakespeare
it was published ages ago so it fit the prompt
perfectly. Measure for Measure is about this
girl called Eliza - Isabelle. I believe her
name is Isabelle, sorry. And her brother has
been imprisoned very harshly for something
that was a crime but he was trying to resolve
it. So it wasn't really a crime. He got someone
pregnant without marrying her and he was just
about to go and marry her and then they're
like, "Okay, go into prison now." So he was
getting the like, death penalty for this which
was really harsh cause he was about - thanks
- cause he was about to marry her anyway.
But, yeah. Then this very corrupt official
says, "I'll free your brother if you'll have
sex with me." And she's like *gasp*. It's
very corrupt. So basically this play is talking
about corrupt people in power, the law, what's
right or wrong, is there grey area in the
law, is there room for movement, is there
room for justice to really be done. And it
was just a very interesting read. Very thought
provoking. I loved the themes it discussed.
I loved how Isabelle handled everything thrown
her way. I didn't really care about what the
secondary characters were jabbering on about
in their scenes. And the Duke jabbered on
a little too much. But other than that I really
did enjoy this play and all the things that
it went into.
For the N prompt I read None of the Above
by... oh gosh, I'm gonna forget it but the
cover will be up here. And it fit for the
Achilles and Patrolcus prompt which was to
read an LGBT+ book. None of the Above is about
a girl who finds out she is intersex. Here
we go, this is what Google is saying intersex
is. “Intersex” is a general term used
for a variety of conditions in which a person
is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy
that doesn't seem to fit the typical definitions
of female or male. In the case of this book
in particular the girl is born with a vagina
outwardly but she also has testes, and she
just discovers this when she tries to sleep
with her boyfriend for the first time. And
this book is mostly about her trying to come
to terms with her diagonsis and trying to
figure out her gender identity. And also her
own self-identity as well. She's really struggling
with balancing everything. She's also a runner
and it comes into question whether she can
run on the female team. And people at school
start bullying her. It's basically that kind
of story, it's a contemporary young adult
novel. And I did really enjoy it and I was
so intrigued because I was learning so so
much. The ending was a bit too happily ever
after and it came tied together too quickly.
And I did read this very negative review that
really raised a couple of important points
- I'm going to try and find it on Goodreads
again and link it down below because I am
not the authority to speak on this subject.
And I just thought if you're going to be thinking
about reading this one, you might want to
read that review as well. But I did enjoy
the book, I gave it 4 stars I believe.
Lastly, the last one I'm going to talk about
in this video is for O and that one was Othello
by Shakespeare. And it also fit the prompt
for Poseidon. Which is to read a book which
features the sea. And I was pushing it a little
bit, this one. But in Othello they do spend
quite a bit of time on ships. Which are on
the sea. And there's this whole fight going
out, between these fleets on the sea, so you
know it counts okay. :) And Othello was another
5 star read. I literally had so many this
month. And it's about this black - like guys,
this is Shakespeare's time - the hero is black
and he is this great war fighter general or
whatever. But the person who works under him
is major jealous and they're racist and they're
like, "I don't want to work under this black
person." Who is newly married and very happy
and winning wars and all that stuff. So he
decides to manipulate him to make him think
that his wife is cheating on him which leads
to things... it escalates. It e-s-c-a-l-a-t-e-s.
It was just so interesting. I really liked
the female characters and the choices they
made. I'm not going to say they are the pinnacle
of feminism but they were driven by what they
believed was right and I always like that.
I loved Othello. I mean, he gets manipulated
to like the moon and back and he's not a perfect
character. But I did like his character. And
it also said a lot because in the beginning
he was a slave, he was called Moor, he was
nameless. And when he was useful to the war
and he was winning all these wars, suddenly
he was Othello! He was a general! He had a
title! But then when things go down he's reduced
back to being called slave and Moor again
and I just think it shows how when you are
a miniority and you're useful, y'know, you're
not going to hear those slurs. You're going
to be like praised and everything. But the
minute you're not useful to the non-miniority
needs you're reduced back to your minority
character and put right down. So it was very
interesting themes, really well done. And
I'm just like, so proud of my Shakespeare
for having, taking the risk and making the
black character the hero in one of his plays,
in that time.
Okay, that's it for part 1. We've been through
a lot of books. I hope you come back for part
2. I'll put it up soon. Please let me know
in the comment section down below what your
favourite read in the month of November was.
And, yes. Please give this video a thumbs
up if you enjoyed it, hit subscribe if you
want to see more and don't forget to hit that
notification bell to be updated every time
I have a new video. I'll see you guys in the
next one. Goodbye!
