Hello everybody, my name is Cara, and
today I'm here with my May Wrap-up. The
first book I finished in May was The
Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer. This is
the fourth Artemis Fowl book and because
of the timing our liveshow was actually
at the beginning of May which is why I
didn't finish *laughs* this book until May, I will
link that live show down below. And I ended
up enjoying this one more than I
remembered, like I don't tend to think of
this as one of my favorite books in the
series but I think overall it was really
well-executed. We have really high stakes
in this book, this one gets I think
darker than the rest of the series has
up to this point,
Taylor pointed out that it's similar to
Goblet of Fire in that it's kind of a
turning point in the series. And I thought
that the character development was
really fantastic and it's really
interesting in this book because there's
sort of character regression and
progression but I don't think it's done
in a way that's frustrating, it felt very
believable and really interesting and I
gave it 4.5 stars. Next I finished The
Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang.
This is a graphic novel about Prince
Sebastian who likes to dress up in
dresses at night and go out as Lady Crystallia,
and he hires Frances, the other
main character, as his seamstress. Frances
is really wanting to expand her business
and she actually wants to become--I think
she wants to own her own dressmaker's
shop, but because of the fact that nobody can
know that Sebastian goes out at night as
Lady Crystallia she can't really get
her name out there, like she's not
allowed to take ownership of her work
and that starts causing some friction
between Sebastian and Frances. And I
really enjoyed this graphic novel, it was
really cute and really sweet but with--
with some really important themes as
well about self-acceptance.
The only reason I gave it 4.5 stars
instead of 5 is because I would have
liked more time spent on the development
of Frances and Sebastian's friendship or
relationship. Next I finished Heretics by
G.K. Chesterton and this is a collection
of essays and I talked about the reason
for the title in my most recent book
haul but basically he was joking about
the fact that he was addressing a lot of
these essays to specific people, who were
often opponents of his but also friends,
like they got along really well, so he
would just like write an essay addressed
to a particular person and publish it
about like why they're wrong *laughs* and they
stayed friends actually. And this
collection covers a huge variety of
topics and here's a list of just a few
of them that I could think of: ethics,
pleasure, scientific advancements, modern
life, theology, storytelling in art and
what kind of art is most important or
valuable, classism, politics. And
Chesterton wrote these essays because he--from his perspective he was living at a
time where a lot of thinkers and
scholars were kind of saying we don't
need ethics anymore, like we don't need
to argue about these kinds of moral
questions, and he was saying like yes we
do.
And I enjoyed this overall, I found
Chesterton to be
surprisingly forward-thinking in some
ways, and like there are definitely essays
where you can tell he has a certain
perspective that he is writing from and
then he's coming from, you know, about
like England being like the best country
ever and things like that, but overall I
found myself pretty surprised and
impressed by how forward-thinking he was,
like he was one of the first opponents
of eugenics like from the beginning; at a
time when a lot of other prominent
thinkers of the time thought it was the
best idea ever he came out immediately
against it, and he also talks about
things like how Cecil Rhodes was like
a trash can of a human being, things like
that. And Chesterton is definitely a
brilliant writer, he's one of those
people where even if I don't agree with
everything he says, I'm interested in how
he says it, like what he says, why he says
it, and he has this really interesting
writing style where sometimes he'll go
off on not tangents exactly but he'll use
sort of examples, but the way he does it
it's like he makes this brilliant point
that makes you like reconsider an aspect
of life in like a completely different
way, and it's like not even the main
point he's making! *laughs* which I found really
impressive. And overall this collection
just left me very thoughtful, like he
leaves you with this feeling of like
glorious uncertainty almost about like
the world and about questions and the
fact that asking questions is part of
the point, and I just--I don't know, I
really enjoyed that and as somebody [me] who
hates and fears uncertainty *laughs* quite a bit,
that's pretty amazing that he left me
with that feeling, so I ended up giving
Heretics 4 stars. Next I finished
When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie
McLemore. This was a buddy read with
my wonderful friend Priscilla from
Bookie Charm. So we follow two main
characters, Miel and Sam, and Miel is a
girl who has roses that grow out of her
wrists and Sam is a boy who paints and
hangs moons around their town, and Sam is
also trans so that representation is in
here as well, and this is just a really
lovely story about these two best
friends falling in love and how they
know each other and it's also about
family and kind of family history, like
Miel has some really terrible things in
her past that she is trying sort of not
to remember and a big part of the book
is about her and other characters kind
of accepting their past, and then the
main conflict of this book comes from
this group--this group of sisters called
the Bonner girls, who like they're not quite
witches but people talk about them as if
they are, and they decide that they need
to get the roses that Miel grows out of
her wrists. As with all of McLemore's books that I've read, I loved the
writing and how beautiful and poetic it
was, although Priscilla and I did kind of
agree that there were a couple of places
we had to like reread because we weren't
quite sure what was going on because it
was *so* beautifully done.
I also found
all the relationships really interesting
and really believable, and Sam and Miel,
like you guys know that best friends to
lovers is like my least favorite *laughs* one of
my least favorite romantic tropes, but I
think it was done so believably and so
beautifully here. I also thought that the
antagonists in this book were really
interesting, like they did--they did
things or they threatened things that
were horrible but as Priscilla and I
were talking about like there's still a
part of you that feels for them or that
wants to see them somewhat happy in a
way at the end of this, and I think that
was impressive as well. And as with all
of the books I've read by this author,
the ending was just beautiful and made
me super emotional. The only like
negative things I could say about this
book is that there were a couple of
places where it sort of felt like the
characters weren't as...focused on the
stakes of the story? it was almost like
all the characters like temporarily
forgot about this huge threat. And there
were also a couple places especially
between Sam and Miel, there were a
couple of places where it felt like they
weren't talking to each other just so
that the story would be a little bit
longer rather than like for a real plot
or character reason, so I feel like that
wasn't as well-executed, but overall I do
think this book was fantastic and I gave
it 4 stars. Next I finished A Thousand
Beginnings and Endings, edited by Ellen Oh
and Elsie Chapman. And this is an
anthology of short stories all based on
Asian folklore or fairy tales or stories
and I really enjoyed this. I tend to have
a hard time with short story collections
but I think this is one of my favorites,
and just kind of a rapid-fire review
here:
Forbidden Fruit by Roshani Chokshi I
gave 4 stars; Olivia's Table by Alyssa
Wong I gave 5 stars, I really loved
that one and how it incorporated food;
Steel Skin by Lori M. Lee 4 stars;
Still Star-Crossed by Sona Charaipotra
stars the counting over million
beads by Elliot DeVoe dard 3.75 stars I
thought the sister relationship in 
that one was really well-done; The Land
of the Morning Calm by E.C. Myers, that was
5 stars, that was another surprising
one because I'm not generally a huge fan
of like virtual reality, like video game
stories but I thought the way that
incorporated grief was really fantastic;
The Smile by Aisha Saeed 5 stars, loved
the writing and the exploration of power
dynamics especially in such a short
story;
Girls Who Twirl and Other Dangers by
Preeti Chhibber 4.5 stars, I thought that one
was really funny and really enjoyable
friendship between the girls; Nothing
Into All by Renee Ahdieh 3.5 stars; Spear
Carrier by Rahul Kanakia 2.75 stars, that
one had a really cool concept but I feel
like it felt like a concept rather than
a story; Code of Honor by Melissa de la
Cruz 2 stars and honestly for
enjoyment it's closer to 1 star but I
tend to save 1 stars for like
actively harmful books; Bullet, Butterfly
by Elsie Chapman 3.5 stars, I didn't love
the setting but I felt a surprisingly
strong emotional connection to the
characters; Daughter of the Sun by Shveta Thakrar 4 stars, thought the writing
and the imagery was beautiful and the
romance was surprisingly well-developed
considering again it's a short story; The
Crimson Cloak by Cindy Pon 5 stars,
that was another favorite, I love the way
that she reinterpreted a story to give
the female lead more agency, Eyes Like
Candlelight by Julie Kagawa 4 stars.
And I felt overall this collection felt
like a 4 star book to me and when I
averaged out all my ratings for all the
stories it evened out to exactly 4
stars average which pleased me greatly.
Next I finished A Face Like Glass by
Frances Hardinge. This was a reread for me.
This is sort of a reverse Alice in
Wonderland retelling but it's a lot
darker. We follow our main character
Neverfell and she lives in this
underground world called Caverna, and
it's a really strange place, it's
like a place of great beauty and great
danger and...murder?! *awkward laugh* um...Everybody in this world is born without an expression,
they have completely blank faces and they
can only learn Faces if they are taught
them, and that feeds into the class
system in this book because the lower
classes, the drudges, they're only taught
a few Faces and they're all like very
compliant ones and--because they don't want
to encourage like rebellion by being
able--by like teaching the lower class
how to show that they're angry. And Neverfell
sort of gets tangled up in a lot of
these conspiracies and these like
court politics and everything because
Neverfell is the only person in this
entire underground city who has a face
like glass *gestures to title*, who has a face that has
expressions and that can change
expressions constantly like a normal
face basically, without being taught
Faces. There were times where she was
incredibly naive, but the way she grew up and
her environment and everything, I
understand why she is so naive and she
definitely grows throughout the book,
like she starts to learn more about the
world and about other characters and
everything. I ended up really loving her
and her journey and her character growth
and her strength, I think Neverfell ends up
being a fantastic protagonist. I loved
this book just as much the second time, I
think there were some aspects I
appreciated even more on this reread,
like the things this book says about
classism and about expression and how
important expression is, I just really
liked the emphasis on emotions and on
how feelings are not a weakness. I loved
the writing as I do with all of 
Frances Hardinge's books, and I think the
worldbuilding of this one is just so
fantastic, like you really--you understand
Caverna and why it's so terrifying but
why people love it at the same time. And
as I mentioned
this is definitely a very dark book, like
the stakes are really high and some of
these characters are just so ruthless,
and I think this is a great book to
recommend [to] people who--people who's
like, have stayed away from middle grade
because they don't think it's gonna be
dark or gritty enough for them, I would
recommend giving this book a try. I
gave A Face Like Glass 5 stars. Next
I finished American Panda by Gloria
Chao, and this is about Mei, a Taiwanese-
American girl and her parents have
wanted her to go to medical school and
to get a degree and to marry a nice
Taiwanese boy, but the problem is
that Mei actually hates medical school,
she's terrified of germs,
she doesn't like blood, this is a
nightmare for her basically. And then on
top of that she gets a crush on a boy
who is Japanese-American and that is
also something her parents will not
approve of. I thought this book had a
pretty good balance of like cuteness and
really more serious topics, like
especially as the book goes on you find
out part of the reason why Mei is so
afraid of disappointing her parents. I
really liked her relationship with
Darren, there were a couple of scenes at
a comedy club that I thought were really
fun and really interesting, and I think
overall this book just did a really
fantastic job of showing how Mei is sort
of straddling two very different worlds,
like she's caught between her parents'
culture that she loves and that she
wants to honor, and with kind of the
American culture and sort of this idea
that she wants to choose what's going to
make her happy. There were a couple of
things about this book that I didn't
like so much, um, one of them...like there
was this reveal that happens that I saw
coming and that I also feel like sort of
negated some of the messages of this book
and made things just a little bit
convenient I think, and on top of that
like I don't know why I went into this
book thinking that like--like I knew it
was gonna be about like Mei hating
medical school and for some reason I had
assumed that because that's what this
book was about it would be written in
such a way that if you also don't like
reading about like medical things that
you would be okay...that's not the case! um,
there were some scenes that like
honestly made me sick to my stomach that
I did not enjoy so if you're like a
little squeamish about like cutting open
bodies and pulling things out like maybe--
maybe skip this one? And also PSA:
please everyone
do not use hand sanitizer as often as
Mei does in this book, like...oh my God.
Like I understand it supposed to
communicate that she's really afraid of
germs and she doesn't wanna get sick but
it's actually a lot better if you just
stick to normal soap [that does NOT say antibacterial"] and water because soap washes off like the bacteria
and everything, hand sanitizer
does kill most of it but the stuff that it
doesn't kill reproduces and builds up a
resistance to
antibiotics, and this is actually a huge
problem in the medical field right now
so it really bothered me that the author
like didn't allude to that at all,
considering this is a book so heavily
influenced by like medical--the medical
profession and everything, so that really
bothered me that there was like no
reference to that. Next I read my first
1-star book of the year and that was A
Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev. So this
book is about our main characters Mili
and Samir and Mili when she is very
young she's forced into marriage with
this young boy, in her village girls are
sometimes forced to marry very very
young, and [Mili and the boy] don't live together,
they're not forced to like consummate it
or anything but she's technically
married, and she ends up going to school in
America and then Samir is actually
the brother of the man that she was
forced into marriage with, and [Samir's] like
this fancy rich Bollywood movie director,
he also lives in India and then he has
to basically fly to America to find
Mili and to get her to sign divorce
papers because his brother, who she is
technically married to, is trying to get
married to somebody else, and it turns
out that this marriage wasn't annulled the
way it was supposed to be. And of course
along the way Samir ends up falling
in love with Mili and she falls in love
with him...Um...*laughs* I hated every single thing
about this book. And I think a lot of the
things I hated about this book could be
summed up by Samir's character. I
hated this man so so much. It was like
physically sickening to read from his
perspective sometimes, um...he's sort of
supposed to be like this reformed bad
boy I guess, like he's reformed by
Mili's love...which is like not my
favorite trope anyway, but the thing that
I hate about the like "reformed rake"
trope is that so often it's not that--
it's not that the guy has these bad
experiences with women and then like he
finds the one woman who teaches him that
like women are not automatically
terrible people, what usually happens is
this guy who hates women
falls in love with one woman and he
decides that she is like the ONLY good
woman and he continues treating the
rest of them like shit, and that's what
Samir did and I hated it so much. Like
the "not like other girls" vibes of this
book are so strong, like to read this
book you would think that Mili is the
only, the only woman in like the entire
world who is attractive, who has a brain,
who is worth anything, like the only
women worth knowing
according to Samir is like Mili who
he's currently trying to like sleep with,
and the like two women in the story that
he's actually related to. All of the
other ones are idiots, and sluts,
and oh often ugly, or they have
annoying voices. Like even Mili's best
friend who honestly was one of the only
highlights of this book, I thought she
was actually kind of fun and kind of
interesting, every time her best friend
would like open her mouth or do anything
like we would just be treated to
paragraphs and paragraphs of Samir's
disgust and irritation because her voice
is too high or like she's talking too
much or just--I don't know why he hates
this girl so much but he does! Another
thing that I hated about him um was like
the way that Mili and like the fact
that she ate food was sexualized to a
ridiculous degree, like oh my God. I'm not
exaggerating when I say that Samir
almost had an orgasm every time Mili
ate anything, and--I just--I guess this is
part of the like "not like other girls
thing" cuz you know *sarcasm* normal women don't
eat, right? just special ones! After Mili
had a meal or like ate anything,
Samir would be like so unbearably
horny and it *snorts* and it described it in like
great detail. It was like he needed to
go take a cold shower basically every
time Mili ate a bowl of rice [or anything!], it was
ridiculous. Oh another thing *sarcasm* that was
really really fun about Samir, um, he
nicknames his dick?! and like refers to it
by name in his narration constantly, like
arguably his penis had like more of a
supporting role in this book than most
of the other characters. I don't know if
we were supposed to find this charming
or like why the author did this but um...
wasn't a fan! Then there was also this
like weird thing where like Samir looks
white, he's white-passing, and it seems
like there's a couple parts where the
book is gonna really address that and
like the colorism
in his community and everything and kind
of the implications of that, but that
never really happens, so you kind of end
the book thinking like that he was only
written that way to seem like "more
attractive"? which is messed up in a lot
of ways, and it was just, I don't know why
that was in there because it wasn't
addressed. I gave this book 1 star. And
next I finished one of my favorite books
of the year so far and that was Spinning
Silver by Naomi Novik. This is a
retelling of Rumpelstiltskin that
incorporates Jewish culture as well
because Miryem one of our main
characters is Jewish, and she is the
daughter of a moneylender but her father
is really bad at it; Miryem is really
good at being a moneylender so she sort
of takes over the family business and
she ends up taking on this job in order
to
provide for her family, like her mother
is really sick and they need money for
medicine and all this, and then one of
the kind of like fairy characters I
guess you could say, but they're called
the Staryk in this world, he gets it into
his head that she can turn silver into
gold. So he sets her an impossible
challenge to basically continue doing
this and things sort of take off from
there, um, this is a book I think you
really don't want to know too much about
the plot going in because the way that
it all intersects is one of the most
impressive and like enjoyable parts of
this book. We do pick up several other
point-of-view characters along the way
and one of the things I thought was most
impressive about this book was that like
I loved all the characters so much and
every time we would have a new
perspective added I was like "oh no! like
I don't, I don't care about this person, I
want to stay with like our core group of
characters or our main character that I
love and that we have already seen," but
within like two pages, every single time
Naomi Novik won me over with this new
point of view character and I was like
"all right, I'm sold, you can stay now." *laughs*
Like I just thought that was so
beautifully done. I have heard a lot of people
say that like one of the things they
didn't get on with with this book was
the fact that there are so many
point-of-view shifts and that they're
not marked with like the character's
name at the top of every chapter: I
didn't have a problem with that at all, I
feel like within like two sentences I
could always pick up on who was talking
because their way of thinking and
speaking was so specific and like they
would refer to other characters in a way
that you knew who was talking. I also
loved the writing of this book and like
the setting and like the wintery
atmosphere and everything. And like the slow
build like that I mentioned earlier with
the plot and how everything starts
fitting together and connecting and
building to this conclusion where like
all the stories come together, it's just
so masterful to watch. Like I said I
loved all of the main characters, like
especially like the main female
characters, my heart belongs to all of
them, like I love them all so much.
They're so strong and capable and smart,
they're doing the best they can and
making so--so many difficult choices
because they want to protect the people
they care about and I just admire them
so much. I read some ownvoices reviews
on the Jewish representation
specifically and it seems like some
people thought it was really good
representation, some people were less
satisfied with it, so it seems like
opinion is kind of divided as far as
that goes, and that's not an aspect that
I can speak to personally, but definitely
check those reviews out if you are
planning to read this, but I really really
loved this book, I gave it 5 stars, I
just...the wintery fantasy of my dreams, it was
just wonderful.
Next I finished The Missing of Clairdelune
by Christelle Dabos, translated by
Hildegarde Serle. This is the second book
in the Mirror Visitor Quartet and I
received this copy from the publisher in
exchange for an honest review which I
already did a video on, I will link that
down below, but I really really enjoyed
this one, I think I enjoyed it even more
than book 1, I loved the plot in this
and how there's kind of a mystery plot
at the center of this one, I really loved
Thorn and Ophelia's character development,
I gave it 4 stars, and again check out
my review if you want more thoughts on
this one. Next I finished The City of
Brass by S.A. Chakraborty, and this is a
desert fantasy following Nahri
and she is a con artist and she doesn't
believe in like magic or djinn or anything,
she just kind of fakes it to, again, cheat
people out of their money, but one day she
summons a djinn by accident and that is
what sets her off on this like journey,
they have to travel to the city of djinn
and there are some questions about
Nahri's past and like who her family is
and how that affects this world of djinn,
and then our other point of view character
is Ali, one of the djinn princes of this
world. I went into this book assuming I
would love it, and I ended up like really
disappointed in it, um, I know a lot of [my]
friends like love this book and I wish I
could have loved it too, and it did start
out really well for me. Like Nahri
wasn't my favorite protagonist, she's
like a character type that I have a
harder time connecting to than some
others but she was fine, and I liked
Dara at first, he's the djinn that she
summons and even though like a lot of
this book is a journey book, at the
beginning of the journey I didn't
dislike that, like I wasn't bored because
we were seeing them, these two characters
interact and we were getting more
information about the world. But then
things started going downhill, like they
were just walking through the desert for
weeks on end and it was so repetitive. On
top of that I ended up really really not
liking Nahri and Dara, they just
frustrated me so much, like Nahri is one
of those characters where it's like
she's--she's like sassy but with no
personality underneath, like she just
talks back, like her whole personality is
bitching to people! *laughs* and I kept hoping
that we would find out like more about
her kind of underneath that, but to me it
didn't feel like that really happened.
And Dara too. Like there were a couple of scenes
with them that I really liked and that's
one of the things that made this book so
frustrating is because there were
glimmers of things that I absolutely
loved, like there's this one scene with
Dara and like smashing a table that is
just
so extra and so funny and I was like
"this is great, I'm gonna finally 
like him again" and it didn't really
happen 'cause like that wasn't sustained. I
like didn't care about the main
relationship of this book either, like it
just did nothing for me and all of this
was kind of weird because from what I
had heard about this book I was
expecting to really enjoy Dara as a
character and I did not. Like him and
Nahri both just like kept making stupid
decision after stupid decision for the
sake of the plot basically, and although I
really liked some of the worldbuilding
and mythology of this world, as a whole
it was incredibly confusing, like I have
a pretty good memory for like character
names and like books in general but I
could not keep some of these characters
or groups straight in my head! like there
were so many of them that were
introduced to us at once
and there were multiple times reading
this book where we would have something
like alluded to or revealed to us, like
sometimes in a different character's
perspective and I think we were supposed
to be like astonished, like this was
supposed to be like a plot twist, and I
felt nothing because I'm like "I can't
even remember who these people are. *laughs* Like
this name that you're--that you used for
this like reveal means nothing to me."
There were a few things I liked about
this book and most of them came down to
Ali: his point of view chapters like saved
this book for me because I really liked
his character, I liked his development
and kind of the moral questions that he
was facing about how he could do the
most good, and like he feels a sense of
loyalty to his family but when he knows
that they're not doing the right thing
like what should he do? especially when
he knows in the long run this might be a
good choice but in the short run it'll
lead to a lot of other people dying. Like
things like that, I thought those moral
questions were handled really well, like
 they were really interesting and Ali
himself I really liked, but that was
pretty much it and I ended up giving it
2.5 stars. Next I finished The Beholder by Anna Bright and I won this
copy in a giveaway from the author on
Twitter so thank you so so much!
We follow our main character Selah and she is
the daughter of the current leader of
this region called Potomac and she is
like next in line to inherit this and as
part of like her succession she has to
make a public proposal and be accepted,
so she makes her public proposal and she
gets turned down, and then as like damage
control and also to get her out of the
way her stepmother and her counselors
decide that they're gonna send her on
this tour across the ocean and she has
two weeks at each of these stops to secure a proposal for them--from them [the eligible suitors] and
then at the end of her tour she's going
to decide who she will accept as her consort.
I really really enjoyed this, I have a
full spoiler-free review for this book
as well which I will link, I definitely
go more in depth there, but I really liked
this overall. I loved like the soft focus
kind of fairytale world building,
I really liked Selah as a character, I
liked the way that Anna Bright used
romance as a--like as a way to make a
point: to say things about women making
choices in their own lives, like agency
and everything like that, and I thought
that was so clever. So I ended up giving
The Beholder 4 stars, and I have already
bought my finished copy because I
enjoyed this so much.
Next I finished The Candle and the Flame
by Nafiza Azad. And we follow our main
character Fatima and she lives in a
city called Noor and it's a city that's
at like kind of a cultural crossroads,
both between different groups of humans
and also djinn: djinn rule half of the city.
One of the most powerful djinn, [from] one of the
good [djinn tribes],
dies suddenly and this really affects
Fatima and she gets drawn into this
whole world of like djinn politics. The
diversity in this book is fantastic, so
effortless and casual and I love the
fact that Noor, our main setting, was such
a--such a place of like tolerance and
respect and acceptance, like that was
just really nice to read about. I really
liked some of the female friendships in
this book even though some of them like,
some of the female characters took quite
a while to grow on me I eventually ended
up really liking them. Like there's this
group of three sisters especially that I
just adored so much, they were so funny
and cheerful, and there's also this
storyline that focuses more on some
members of the royal family, I actually
really enjoyed that storyline quite a
bit more than Fatima's story, but I only
ended up giving this book 3 stars because
despite all those wonderful things
I felt absolutely no emotional
attachment to this book or to these
characters, like even the ones I enjoyed
they didn't really--like they didn't
really like draw me in and like hold me,
you know? I think a huge reason for that
is the writing style for this book: to me
it felt very...very much like telling and
not showing, you were basically told how
all the characters were feeling so like
every time there would be a moment that
should be like really emotional
it was just like related to the reader,
like there was just so much emotional
distance with this book. I don't mean to
dissuade people from reading this book,
these character connections are so
subjective that I think it's possible
people could read this and really like
fall in love with it and connect to the
characters in a way that I couldn't.
Next I finished I Am Malala: The Girl
Who Stood Up For Education and Was Shot
by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai with
Christina Lamb. And this is a nonfiction
book about Malala's life and the
fact that in Pakistan she was one of the
foremost voices for women's education
and her and her father were very much
involved in the right of all girls to go
to school and for this reason she became
targeted by the Taliban and one day they
shot her I think three times, in the head, and she miraculously survived: [the bus driver and doctors] were
able to get her to a hospital and like
save her life. And I'm so glad that I
finally read this because this book
really focuses on her life growing up in
the valley of Swat in Pakistan and how
she became so involved in the movement
for women's education and I just thought
this was so brilliant, the way it's
written is very like conversational, it's
like Malala is like sitting down with
you like you're a friend and she's just
telling you about her life and I really
enjoyed that, like I like the way that it
felt like this was very much her own
voice. I don't know how much Christina
Lamb contributed to the writing of this
book and like how she, I don't know,
formatted it or edited it or wrote parts
of it, I don't know how much of that was
done but from the way this was written
and the little I know about Malala this
felt pretty true to her own voice and I
really enjoyed that. I also think this
book is so important especially for
American readers like I am because it
really--it really covers the U.S.
involvement in what happened in Pakistan
and other--other countries in the
Middle East and how we really
contributed to a lot of these terrible
things that happened, I think that was
explained in this book in a really clear
way that is perhaps not focused on as
much in our schools here. I really don't
know what else to say about this one,
Malala is an incredible woman, as I said
I am very happy I finally read this book
about her because I've admired her for
quite a while now and I just think this
is such a--such a powerful book to read, I
don't think it's just about an important
topic although it is, I think it's also
really engagingly written and it
provides a lot of important cultural and
political context. And I know some people
feel uncomfortable rating memoirs and I
understand why they do, but this one I
loved so much that I could very
comfortably give it 5 stars and not
feel--like not feel strange about it so
that's what I did. And finally the last
book I finished in May was Love From A
to Z by S.K. Ali. We follow two main
characters, both of whom are Muslim, and
one of them is Zayneb and one of them is
Adam, and Adam is dealing with a recent
diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and so
he hasn't told his family yet and he's
really struggling with that and he is
currently living in Qatar with his
family, and Zayneb gets sent there to
visit her aunt because she gets
suspended from school because she stood
up to her teacher who is
incredibly Islamophobic and Zayneb has had
enough. And these two cross paths and
this book is about them getting to know
each other and falling in love but also
about love between family members and
friends and about allyship and standing
up for what you believe in even when
it's difficult, and I just loved
everything about this book so much. I
loved our characters Adam and Zayneb and
even though they're very very different
people, you see why they work so well
together. Like Adam is such a sweetheart
and Zayneb is so--she's so strong and
she's the kind of person who looks at
the world and says "how can people not
want to fix this?" like she has such a
fiercely good heart, I just like really
admire her so much; she's the kind of
character where you read the book and
it's like "God I hope she'd be my friend!" *laughs*
you know? like she's--she's so wonderful. I
love the fact that this book balanced
the really really cute love story with
some really heavy and serious issues too.
There's also a lot about grief here. I
like teared up like four times while
reading this book, like there's this one
scene with Adam and his mom making
French fries that I was just like...
wrecked, when I read that, like it was
just such an emotional experience. In
case you can't tell I loved this book, I
gave it 5 stars, I can't say enough
wonderful things about it. I cannot wait
for what S.K. Ali writes next. Okay
everybody, so that was everything I read
in the month of May, um, if you stuck it
out to the end of this video,
bless your heart, thank you so so much!
Let me know if you guys have read any of
these books what you thought of them or
if you're going to pick any of them up.
Thank you guys so much for watching, I
will see you soon with another video, and
I hope you love the next book you read.
Bye!
