Hello everybody. Welcome back to my channel.
What a weird time we're living in. I don't
even know what to say. I don't know how to
start this video, it just feels really weird.
Today I wanted to share with you some free
audiobook recommendations that I have. The
world is in lockdown, everybody's stuck at
home, libraries are closed, and do we really
want to be ordering from Amazon? No. No we
don't. I don't need to go into what is going
on in the world right now. I don't really
want to focus too much on that. We have enough
negativity and enough voices chiming in about
it. There’s like so much noise on the internet
right now. But I thought a video that could
be useful, even outside of quarantine times,
would be me sharing some audiobook recommendations,
ones that I’m pretty sure everyone can access.
I think a lot of people are bored but also
a lot of people are feeling just so overwhelmed
that they don't really want to be reading,
like that's too much concentration. So maybe
an audiobook is a good compromise. Obviously
there is a very large audio book provider
who I would rather not give my money to. So
the app that I use for my audio books is called
RB Digital. This is not sponsored, they don't
know I’m making this video. I don't particularly
love the app, it's not the most user-friendly,
but it is free to use through your local library.
It's got audiobooks, it's got ebooks, comics,
magazine subscriptions. As I said it's not
the easiest thing to navigate. It is kind
of difficult sometimes to find books that
you like on there, but it's free so you can't
really complain. And that's kind of why I’m
making this video. I thought I would share
the ones that I have found on there that I
really enjoyed or ones that I know about that
I would like to listen to. I'm pretty sure
all libraries, at least in the UK, offer some
kind of ebook and audiobook service. There
are a few different apps that provide it and
different libraries go with different ones
but from what I can see most of them use RB
Digital. If your library uses a different
app, then I’m sorry this video might not
be the most helpful to you, but at least you
know to look on your library's website and
find out what online services they have, because
I’m pretty sure they all have something.
Right, I’ve got a list. Some of these, as
I said, I haven't listened to yet but they're
on my want list or they are books that I’ve
read physically but that I’ve seen they're
on there and I would recommend. Anyway my
first recommendation is the Jenny Han books.
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, that
trilogy. I read the first one physical from
the library and then last week I finished
listening to the second one, P.S I Still Love
You, and I’m going to listen to the third
one soon. Once you find a book that you like,
if you click on the author it shows all of
their books that are on there and I find that
really useful once I’ve found an author
that I like. If you haven't heard of to all
the boys I loved before, it was a Netflix
original movie, I think it came out last summer
and then the second film came out quite recently.
It's about an Asian American girl called Lara
Jean and she's written these love letters
to her crushes. Then somebody sends them out
and it follows the story of her trying to
deal with the situation of all these boys
receiving these love letters out of the blue.
So it's a nice teen romantic happy just very
warm and loving feeling book. Both the films
as well. She does like loads of baking and
I love her outfits, it just feels like getting
a hug. So I’d really recommend those books.
Matt Haig has a lot of books on there. He's
got like a lot of children's books on there,
but he also has some books about mental health,
so maybe some of you will like those. I’ve
listened to the one that is called Reasons
To Stay Alive. I listened to that one. It's
non-fiction. It's just kind of about mental
health in general and then there's another
one called Notes On A Nervous Planet which
I haven't listened to yet because it's always
checked out. Both of those are read by the
author himself which is really nice because
it feels a lot more personal, especially when
they're quite heavy topics. Also I find with
non-fiction sometimes I’m not that motivated
to read it, but if I listen to it it's just
like listening to a podcast or something and
it's a lot easier for me to digest.
While we're on the subject of non-fiction
there are two other non-fiction books that
I haven't listened to yet but I would like
to. One of them is the Extinction Rebellion
book This Is Not A Drill. I think that came
out like November December time and from what
I remember it's a collection of essays by
various people all about climate change and
the climate emergency. I’ve heard really
really good things about it I just haven't
got around to listening to it yet. And the
other non-fiction book which I’m pretty
sure everybody would like to read is Becoming
by Michelle Obama. I wonder if that's read
by her, I don't actually know.
My next recommendation is The Hate U Give
by Angie Thomas. It's a story about a black
girl, I think her name is Star, and she's
a victim of police brutality and her friend
is shot by a policeman in front of her. I'm
sure you've heard all about this book. It
was really massive on booktube when it first
came out and I would really recommend it.
And there's a lot in there about race and
police brutality and injustice and it's definitely
worth a read or a listen.
Another one I’d really like to listen to
is Daisy Jones And The Six by Taylor Jenkins
Reid. I don't know much about it, I’ve just
heard people on booktube say really good things.
I know it's about a 1970s rock and roll band,
but in terms of actual story I have no clue,
but hopefully I’ll find out soon.
Another one I listened to recently was The
Bookish Life Of Nina Hill by Abby Waxman,
which again is another one that I heard about
through booktube. I don't think people were
like raving about this book but every time
I saw the cover I was like “that's - that's
a good cover’. So I gave it a listen and
I’m not saying it's like a groundbreaking
book in any way. It's just kind of nice, light,
fluffy fiction but in times like this that's
kind of what you're looking for a lot of the
time. It's about a girl called Nina Hill who
works in a book shop and has cats, makes lists,
has anxiety. It's marketed at a very specific
type of person, even down to the cover, like,
it got me. It doesn't feel like there's loads
of plot but there is kind of two plots. There's
like a love-y plot and then there's also a
long lost family plot. And I did enjoy it
more than I thought I would. I wasn't fully
convinced, apart from the cover which got
me in like I said, the story just seemed kind
of average, but I did really enjoy it. Nice
and warm and fluffy. If you're just looking
for a bit of a distraction without too much
concentration needed then this is a really
good choice.
Now I haven't listened to any of these, I
have to admit, but I feel like it's important
to include them in this video, and that is
the Harry Potter series. All seven Harry Potter
books are on there. They're the ones read
by Stephen Fry, which I’ve heard very good
things about and I can imagine are very good
but I just never have listened to them. They
are all on there so if that is something that's
really comforting to you, which I’m sure
it is for a lot of people, you can get them
for free on RB Digital. Don't be going and
paying Amazon however much it is a month.
Another recommendation I have is Am I Normal
Yet by Holly Bourne. Now this is definitely
more of a younger young adult book. It's about
a girl called Evie who's at college, she has
OCD and she's just trying to fit in and be
normal and pretend that her whole mental illness
and history doesn't exist. And she's with
all these new people and they don't really
know about that side of her life and she has
a bit of a fixation about being normal, and
I think she gets herself very worked up about
how people might not think she was normal.
So that's another mental health themed book.
A little bit heavy at times, like it's a young
adult book, nothing too graphic but sometimes
I find that it's almost like an unreliable
narrator and sometimes I find that hearing
her thoughts and the way she's thinking them
obviously isn't the most healthy thinking
pattern and I sometimes find that difficult
when I’m going through things myself. Does
that make sense? That's the only Holly Bourne
book that I’ve read so far but I would definitely
like to read more and I think there are a
couple more on the RB Digital app. The writing
style is quite easy to read so when the libraries
do open again maybe I will get a physical
copy.
Okay we've got a couple more. So this is another
series recommendation. I haven't listened
to the audiobooks, I just have seen that they're
on there and I’ve read the physical books.
I’ll just get them. So Cassandra Clare wrote
the Shadowhunters books, the Mortal Instruments
series, and then these ones which are the
Infernal Devices series. By the looks of it
I’ve read two of the three. They're massive
books as you can see. So the shadowhunters
books. It's about a girl called Clary. She
thinks she's just a normal girl and then she
finds out that she is a shadowhunter which
is this cross between a human and an angel
and they have special powers and they defend
the world from demons. These books are like
the prequel series. So the original ones are
set in New York, these are set in London from
what I remember, and follow somebody else,
I think her name's Tessa Gray. Or… yeah,
Tessa Gray. For a moment I was like, wait
that's a 50 Shades Of Grey Character but it's
not, that's fine. I don't think I’m selling
this very well, I don't remember them that
well but I just saw that they were on RB Digital
and they are such chunky books. So big. Look
at that next to my face, that's huge. Physically
they're not the easiest to pick up and read
and also they’re just so long. So I thought
maybe I will listen to them on the audiobook
version and I will actually be able to get
through them, because it's been so long I
think I would have to start again.
The camera just died so apologies if that
moved slightly. Right, so my final recommendation
is My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan
Braithwaite. I follow a book account on Instagram
called monumentous which is all about women
in literature, we love that. They have a book
club called The Crisis Club and I think it
was January’s book that was this book, My
Sister The Serial Killer. And that was one
I knew I could get from RB Digital so I joined
it and I really really enjoyed it. I especially
enjoyed it in audio form because it's set
in Nigeria and it's read with a Nigerian accent
and I think if I’d read it myself a lot
of the pronunciations I wouldn't have got
right. It just felt a lot more authentic and
therefore like a lot more immersive. Yeah,
I don't know whether I’d have picked it
up, at least so soon, if it hadn't been for
monumentous on Instagram. It's about these
two sisters in Nigeria, they're quite well
off I think. From the outside they look like
they've got a very nice life but one of the
sisters is a serial killer. It's not a spoiler,
quite clearly it's in the title. And the other
sister is having to clean up all of her mess.
Literally clean up all her mess, but also
just like deal with hiding the fact that she
keeps killing people. The people she keeps
killing are all ex-boyfriends and she seems
to keep coming up with these reasons to why
she had to kill them, so there's a lot of
themes running through the book like domestic
violence, there's a lot of stuff about like
childhood violence, childhood abuse, obviously
murder. And that all sounds very heavy but
it doesn't feel heavy in the book. I think
it's done really well where there's a good
balance between a lot of dark humour but still
addressing serious topics and not making light
of them. I love a good murder book, I have
to admit, so I was gonna like this book. But
I really enjoyed it and it's good because
I think it pushes me to read more books by
black authors and stories from perspectives
that I wouldn't normally listen to. Normally
I just stick to my typical young adult, chick-lit,
maybe some LGBT stuff but a lot of the stuff
that I read is about people very similar to
me. One of the things I really liked about
this book was that even though it was about
a serial killer, the focus of the book wasn't
around the murders, it was more about the
relationship between the two sisters and how
far would you go to protect your own sister?
And I like the book was centred around the
relationship between two women. I love books
about female friendship and just strong female
relationships.
So those are all my very specific recommendations.
I know I said that was my last one but I do
have one more kind of general recommendation
which is classics. Obviously a lot of them
are out of copyright now so they're quite
easy to get your hands on, so a lot of apps
like this have them.
So those are my recommendations for audiobooks
on RB Digital. There are so many on there
but I do find it quite hard to navigate the
app and find books because you have to kind
of search in and a lot of books obviously
aren't on there, so it's kind of like finding
gold when you actually find a book that you
want to read and it's on the app. So I thought
I could compile them into a list so if you're
stuck trying to find books on there, there
are some ones to get you started. Please let
me know if you use RB Digital what books you've
listened to on there that you recommend because
I’m always trying to find more. It’s such
a huge catalogue of books and there's not
really much of a way to filter through them
to find more specific genres than just modern
fiction, so any recommendations I would really
appreciate it. I’ve tried googling this
and it doesn't exist so I am making it.
If you don't have RB Digital but you've watched
this whole video, then first of all well done.
Second, go and look on your local library's
website. I'm with Surrey Libraries obviously
and they offer it, and I’m pretty sure most
libraries around the country either offer
RB Digital or another service very similar
with a different app. All you need is a library
card. If you don't have one of those I’m
pretty sure you'll be able to get one online.
And of course if you have like a kindle or
a tablet or even just you want to read on
your phone, not for me but they have loads
of ebooks as well and magazines, so definitely
worth checking out. As I’ve said this isn't
sponsored in any way. I just think more people
should know about it.
I hope you're all doing okay. I know this
is a really weird time. I don't want to touch
on it too much but yeah I hope you're keeping
well and healthy, staying inside, or if you're
a key worker then thank you very much. You're
doing a great job, everybody at home is very
very grateful for what you're doing right
now. Thank you all so much for watching and
I will see you very soon
[music]
