**Book Review: I Just Finished Reading Jeanette McCurdy's Memoir**

I recently finished reading Jeanette McCurdy's memoir, and I'm still trying to process my emotions after finishing it. As many of you may know, Jeanette McCurdy is a former child actress who rose to fame on shows like "iCarly" and "Sam & Cat." However, behind the scenes of her success was a tumultuous childhood marked by an abusive relationship with her mother and struggles with severe eating disorders.

The memoir is raw, honest, and unflinching in its portrayal of McCurdy's experiences. It's a difficult book to read at times, but it's also incredibly impactful. McCurdy shares stories about her time on set, her relationships with her co-stars and crew members, and the pressures she faced as a child star. She also delves into her struggles with eating disorders, which began when she was just 11 years old and continued throughout her childhood and teenage years.

Despite the difficult subject matter, McCurdy's writing is engaging and relatable. She has a way of making you feel like you're right there with her, experiencing all the emotions and struggles that come with being a child star in the spotlight. The book also touches on themes of trauma, mental health, and self-discovery, which will resonate with anyone who has experienced similar struggles.

One of the things that struck me most about McCurdy's memoir was its bravery. She could have easily kept her experiences hidden or sanitized them for public consumption, but instead she chose to share them raw and unvarnished. It takes a lot of courage to confront your demons in such a personal way, and McCurdy's willingness to do so is truly admirable.

I gave this memoir 5 out of 5 stars because it was truly one of the most impactful books I've ever read. It made me cry at times, but it also made me feel seen and understood in a way that few books have. If you're interested in reading more about McCurdy's life and experiences, I would highly recommend this memoir.

**Book Review: Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi**

My next book was Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. This is the second book in The Tales from the Cafe series, which includes Before the Coffee Gets Cold, which I also read earlier this year. While I loved the first book, the second one didn't quite live up to my expectations.

The story follows a similar premise to the first book - it's set in a small cafe where time stands still for those who drink coffee from a certain cup. However, this time around, the stories are not as impactful or memorable as they were in the first book. The writing is still beautiful and evocative, but the characters and plotlines felt a bit more generic to me.

I didn't love this book as much as I loved Before the Coffee Gets Cold, which was one of my favorite books of the year. However, I did enjoy it, and if you liked the first book in the series, you'll probably still like this one too. The themes of time, memory, and human connection are all still present, but they're not as deeply explored or resonant as they were in the first book.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars because it was just okay compared to the first one. While I enjoyed it, I didn't find it to be as impactful or memorable as Before the Coffee Gets Cold. If you're a fan of the series and want to read more about the cafe and its inhabitants, then this is definitely worth checking out.

**My Summer Reading Experience**

Overall, I'm so happy with my reading experience this summer. I read 75 books so far, which is a lot, but it's not like I've been reading every day or anything crazy like that. I just sort of found myself wanting to spend more time reading and less time doing other things. And that's exactly what happened.

I'm getting close to my goal of reading 100 books this year, so fingers crossed! But even if I don't hit that number, I'm still going to keep reading because it brings me so much joy and relaxation. There's nothing like curling up with a good book on a lazy summer afternoon to make everything feel just right.

As for what I'm looking forward to reading in the fall, I have my eye on some cozy fantasy novels and Gothic horror books. There's something about the darker, moodier atmosphere of those genres that really speaks to me right now. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy whatever comes next and see where it takes me.

**Conclusion**

I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I did writing it! If you have any thoughts on Jeanette McCurdy's memoir or Toshikazu Kawaguchi's Tales from the Cafe series, I'd love to hear them in the comments below. And if you're looking for more book recommendations or just want to chat about books, feel free to reach out to me anytime.

Until next time, happy reading!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello hi welcome so summer is nearly at an end we've reached September and we are  finally entering the fall season and I am so excited about it but before we officially get  into fall I wanted to give you all a wrap up of the books I read over the summer because I  read a decent amount of books this summer which was really nice and I wanted to be able to give  you all reviews of everything I've read over the past several months so these are basically  all the books I've read since June when I made my mid-year book freakout tag video and it's a  pretty good number I actually haven't counted so I don't know how many books I read but um  it's quite a bit and I'm pretty happy and pleased with myself and I had a really good reading summer  um I read so many books that I absolutely loved some new all-time favorites some that I didn't  love so much um but nonetheless I'm very excited to get into all of them really quickly before we  get into all the books I want to remind you all that my bracelet that I designed with Anna Louisa  is linked in the description box below as always if you'd like to check it out as is my reading  journal the Clockwork reader reading Journal so be sure to check both of these out in the description  box below alright now without any further Ado let's talk about all the books I read this summer  so so starting off we have a book that I'm really excited to talk about because I loved this like  this was five stars so enjoyable for me um and that is a far Wilder Magic by Allison zaft this  is a why a fantasy novel where the magic system is based in alchemy and it is definitely inspired by  Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and if you know me at all you know that that's like one of my  favorite anime of all time just one of my favorite shows of all time in general I've seen it so many  times I love Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and this is very much inspired by that so the  chances of me liking this were very high and when I started it I did not know that I literally just  picked this up because I thought the cover was really pretty but I had no idea what it was about  and then to make things even better not only is it inspired by Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood  I've mentioned this now in like one other video but I fully believe with my whole heart and soul  that this book is essentially a fanfic of Roy and Riza from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood but like  their early life like when they were young the stuff that's like not in the show and I love Roy  and Riza they are like one of my favorite ship of all time all time I've read so much fan fiction  about them it's an alarming amount of fan fiction but I've read so much of it okay so I know my Roy  and rizafig and I promise you this is heavily influenced heavily inspired by or written by  a person who also really knows the Roy and Risa Fick because I can tell you the fan fiction that  I think this one is inspired by or like the head cannons and stuff that are in here the  um tropes and things that are in here between these two characters are just such common tropes  in the fandom for this ship specifically and like there's just no way there's no way it's not and I  fully mean this as a compliment I'm not trying to say that it felt fanficy and like super tropey I'm  saying that like I just I see it because I know and anyone who knows anyone who's read Roy and  reserfic anyone who's like super into the Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood fandom specifically  with those two characters you'll know you'll easily know and it is such a good time it's so  much fun to read it is obviously different and I don't want to dissuade anybody who um  isn't interested in Full Metal his Brotherhood or Roy and Riza from reading this book if you don't  know anything about them this is not one of those situations where it's like oh the characters are  really really Bland because they're supposed to be these two characters so you feel like something's  missing if you read it if you don't know anything about them if you don't know anything about that  world or don't care at all I think you'll still enjoy this it really stands on its own as its  own story as well however I just want to like clarify that I think the reason I like it so  much is because of that specifically because I can associate it with those characters and  that just made my reading experience all the more enjoyable so if you're like I don't care about Roy  and Riza I don't care about Fullmetal Alchemist I don't know anything about those things will I  still like this book yes I think you could still like this book if you like quiet like low fantasy  books I think you'll definitely enjoy this it's not like super high Stakes or really intense if  you're more of like a character development than a plot development type of person I definitely  think you'll enjoy this I think the author is a great writer as well sometimes in fantasy books  it can be kind of difficult to understand what's going on on a lot of the time but personally with  her writing I found it to be very clear if you're looking for a good why a fantasy Standalone novel  I highly recommend if you want something that kind of has sorcery of thorns Vibes that type of like  um these two characters meet and they have to go on some kind of like Adventure or accomplish  some kind of mission or something together this will definitely be up your alley plus if you love  Roy and Riza if you like Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood at all I just read it read it oh  my God this was five stars for me I loved it it was so enjoyable highly recommend the next book  that I read were all of the books that I read in my I read five more Romance Books video so  I'm not gonna go through them in much detail I'm basically just going to mention them if you want  to hear more details about my thoughts on them you can go and watch that video but the first book I  read for that video was seven days in June by Tia Williams I really loved this and I gave this four  to like four and a half out of five stars next up I read a new all-time favorite which was the  charm offensive and I gave this 5 out of 5 Stars this is like my new favorite romance book if you  want to read a really great romance book in my opinion this is my number one recommended station  um highly highly recommend please read it it's so good next I read book Lovers by Emily Henry  another one I really enjoyed I gave this four and a half out of five stars then I read Delilah green  doesn't care by Ashley Herring Blake this one I didn't love too much I gave it three out of  five stars it wasn't bad by any means but it just wasn't really my thing and then lastly I  read a lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall and this is a historical romance novel and I loved it this was  another four and a half I think out of five stars really really enjoyed it highly recommend as well  alright so the next book that I read this summer was Juniper and Thorne by Ava Reed I loved this  like absolutely loved this I read Ava read the other book earlier this year which was the wolf in  The Woodsman and I really enjoyed it I thought it was really good and I was really excited to pick  this one up because it was her new release for this year and I'm so glad I did I don't know how  to explain like I can't stop thinking about this I think I read this in July and it's like still  stuck with me I think about it a lot I did Mark up a lot of the pages I don't think you can see  that very well on camera but like oh my God I I'm obsessed this is a Gothic retelling of the story  of the juniper tree and I honestly don't know anything about the story of the juniper tree I  do want to read it now since I've read this and I enjoyed it so I'd like to know all the references  and everything but I honestly didn't know anything about it didn't know anything about the premise of  this I just knew that it was like Gothic horror and definitely going to be a bit disturbing and  it absolutely is but basically the book follows the story of these three sisters who are witches  and they live with their abusive manipulative father and marlundchen the youngest sister is  our main character whom we follow as she and her sisters sneak out one night to go to this ballet  performance where she meets one of the dancers there and there's like a bit of a romance in it as  well but the whole story doesn't necessarily all revolve around the romance there's definitely a  lot more to it I would say the main themes of the story are more about like familial relationships  and abuse and power and it was just fantastic it was really disturbing I definitely want to  preface it with that it was really dark and really disturbing it's Gothic horror you're gonna have  have horror elements in this the descriptions of the events that happen of even some like really  small details are just really grotesque and uh disgusting at times but it all like is obviously  very relevant to the story and it adds a lot to the atmosphere of the story and obviously that  comes with the genre there were definitely like I mentioned themes of abuse in here um there's  a lot of graphic imagery in here as well so some things are very graphic so definitely just look  up content warnings if you decide to read the book but personally like I I don't know how to explain  why I loved this so much I think I just found my luncheon and just all of the characters in general  to be like a bit different from what I typically see in like Standalone fantasy romance books and  this isn't really a fantasy romance obviously it's more Gothic horror like I said but more Legend was  just so different she was messy and she made a lot of mistakes she was always trying her best and she  was also a survivor of like severe abuse and just seeing somebody who has experience that get to be  just who they are and make the mistakes that they make without being judged was so nice despite the  fact that there are definitely characters in the book that do judge her and are cruel and mean to  her from the author's perspective I felt like the author wasn't judging her and the author was just  letting her be who she was and letting her be as messy as she needed to be and I loved that  I loved the characterization in this book every single one of the characters I felt like was very  well fleshed out and I feel like the message for the book just came across very clearly  without being like two in your face it was still subtle you could tell what the author was trying  to say you didn't need any sugar coating or spoon feeding like you clearly got the message through  her extremely descriptive extremely beautiful disturbing writing and characterization of these  characters and development of this plot like it was just I don't know how to explain it I  feel like this is just the type of thing that you have to read for yourself an experience on  your own but I personally just absolutely loved this when I first finished it I was like that was  really really good and I think I gave it like four or four and a half out of five stars and  then I just kept kept thinking about it and I was like no you know what I love loved this this is a  five-star book for me and I'm so happy I read it again please be sure to look up content warnings  if you decide to read it I want to emphasize that it is extremely disturbing at times extremely  disturbing however in my opinion absolutely worth it so great and now I just want to read  every Gothic horror Gothic romance whatever novel I can find because I love this genre alright the  next book that I read was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson this is a classic very well  known obviously but as you can tell I was still in like a Gothic mood so that's why I picked this up  I also picked this up because there are so many references to Jekyll and Hyde in pop culture in  general and while I've understood like the base of the references a lot of the time I wanted to  know like the full context of the story so that was another reason I decided to read this and  I'm glad I did personally I didn't love it um I listened to this one on audiobook and while  I actually enjoyed the narrator I just felt a bit disconnected from it for some reason I feel like  I'd have to read it again in like a physical book and maybe I would enjoy it a little bit more but  personally I just didn't love it I think I was expecting to really love this and I ended up  rating it a 3 out of 5 Stars I thought it was good in some ways and in other ways I was honestly a  little bit bored from time to time it's definitely more of a type of book that I feel like I would  benefit from a bit more if I were to read it for a class or if I were to read it with like a group of  people and we could discuss it but other than that it's very short I don't know I wasn't thrilled by  this the way that I was expecting to be so it was just okay all right the next book that I  read is now also another all-time favorite like I mentioned I read a lot of really great books  this summer and this is potentially number one I don't even know I can't decide however I'm  obsessed with this book and that is parable of the sower by Octavia E Butler if you know me at  all you know I don't really like dystopian novels I like the Hunger Games and I like Scythe as well  for like a newer-ish why a dystopian but in terms of more like major dystopian books I haven't read  the handmaid's tale but I'm not a fan of 1984 and I just don't like the majority of the genre I have  a lot of problems with it in general however this book it's everything it is one of the best things  I've ever read in my entire life I finished it and I immediately texted someone I was like I  think this might be the best book I've ever read and I feel like that that might actually be true  it's incredible when I say I was like mesmerized reading this I mean it I was absolutely just  immersed into the story completely the outside world did not exist I don't even know how to talk  about it I feel like it deserves its own video If you happen to not know what this book is about it  is essentially a dystopian post-apocalyptic novel set in the year 2024 to like 2030 somewhere around  there it's like a long span of time basically the book starts out in the year 2024 and we are living  in a dystopian like future version of America this future version of America in the book without  spoiling anything is essentially the America we are living in today with a few embellishments  here and there a few things that are a bit more exaggerated than the real life that we have now  however if you really look at it it is essentially the world we have right now and Octavia Butler  wrote this in like 1990 or something and she fully predicted like completely predicted the reality of  actual 2022 uh two years later she's like two years off she's either psychic or she's just  extremely intelligent and looked at the patterns of history and saw what continuously happens and  looked at what the reality of the world was in the 90s and predicted what it would be like eventually  because um like I said she was really smart our main character is this 15 year old black girl who  is living in her neighborhood with her family and these neighborhoods are extremely like segregated  people of the same like culture and race and religious background all kind of grouped together  for protection because there are people who come into these towns and just destroy everything steal  everything and the government just like doesn't care about people people are starving and dying  homelessness is rampant crime is rampant like it's just an extremely terrible world to be living in  and the story follows Lauren our main character over several years as things change in her life  and she has to move from Los Angeles because she lives in Los Angeles and all the while she has  been kind of writing and journaling about this idea that she has had called Earth seed which is  essentially a religion that she creates and like I think that's all you really need to know I don't  think you should know anything else about it but I I can't explain what this book was like for me  it was honestly like a religious experience there were lots of references in it to um the Bible and  religion in general that I personally didn't know very much about or didn't understand very much  so I think had I had that context it would have been an even more immersive experience um and I  would have gotten even more out of it however even without that the different topics that she touches  on about religion and her like world view and like just view of religion in general and how to create  a religion uh was just absolutely fascinating to me it was just beyond anything else I've  ever read I do not know like how to explain what I felt reading this book because it was  just so wonderful and so well written I genuinely couldn't put it down and I wanted to read it again  immediately after I finished it I almost did but I had other things I had to do so I couldn't but  I probably will read it again before the end of the year because I liked it that much and I feel  like I need more than one reading to fully get everything out of this book the main themes of the  story one of the main themes at least of the story was about change because her religion earthseed  that Lauren creates the like Pinnacle of this religion everything that it hinges on is change  she believes that God is change for her God is change and the way that she talks about that about  change and growth and time the perspective that she had on that was it like it altered something  in my brain I'm so serious and obviously it's a dystopian post-apocalyptic novel so it's going to  talk a lot about different social issues as well like the economy poverty race uh class just all  of these big social problems but it was just done with so much nuance and so much thought and and so  much grace as well to the point where I don't feel like I'm being preached at and I feel like I am  learning something from this but subconsciously do you know what I mean not because the book is  like telling you you should be thinking this but because like subconsciously like what you are  taking in is forcing you to think about things differently than you might have thought about  them before and that was the first time in a while that that's happened to me while I was reading a  book specifically a fiction book and I loved it I absolutely loved it I cannot recommend this enough  5 out of 5 Stars I want to read the sequel I want to read it again I will read it again number one  recommendation for me in terms of dystopian post-apocalyptic fiction just read it read  it literally like my number one recommendation for the year I will be surprised honestly if it  doesn't end up being my favorite book of the whole year because that's how much I loved this it's  beyond anything else all right and then on a very very different note complete 180 here I read the  vi count who loved me the second Bridgerton novel by Julia Quinn I as most of you probably know have  been super into Bridgerton this year specifically Bridgeton season two I was not a fan of season one  but I love season two I have watched it like five times at this point is that unhealthy probably  will I watch it again probably anyway point is I love Bridgeton season two and I was like you know  what I have to read the book because it's sitting here I may as well read it so I can compare it to  the season I've seen it so many times what's the harm in getting more of the same story the  harm is that this wasn't good I unfortunately did not like this at all there were parts of it that  were definitely fun and were very similar to the show obviously since it is based off of it however  personally I find the show so much more enjoyable so much more nuanced so much more emotional than  the book is the things that they changed in the show for the most part not everything  necessarily but for the most part personally I really liked I felt like it added a lot more to  the characters I felt like it added a lot more to their relationship and the problems that the  characters had with each other felt more realistic than they did in here nothing was really going on  in this book also the B scene that was that was a lot it was a lot it was too much actually it was  too much and I wasn't a fan hi so I just quickly want to add that one of my biggest gripes with  this was that the you're the bane of my existence and the object of all my desires line was not  even said like he doesn't even say that to her it was narration it was in his head he he never says  those words to her so like what was the point if he doesn't say that to her what's the point  it was so lackluster compared to the show Kate had no personality whatsoever in this book and Anthony  was just an and I didn't like it it wasn't fun whereas in the show they're both like complex  and complicated and they have their own flaws and everything but you can still find them lovable and  this one personally I just found them boring and lacking and one-dimensional so yeah um I was not  not very pleased with my reading experience of the vicount who loved me unfortunately so I'm  just gonna go back to re-watching season two over and over and over again until season three comes  out alright next up I read a book talk favorite a book that I'd been putting off for months and  months I got this back in like February because I saw one quote and it sounded really good and then  it blew up on Tick Tock after that and now it's being traditionally published and that book is  along with you in The Ether by Olivia Blake yes I finally read alone with you in The Ether I didn't  love it I don't think it was terrible I'll just say that off the bat I gave this like three out of  five stars it's probably like 2.75 five to three ish you know like in that range not like bad but  I wouldn't really recommend it personally here's my thing with this it is trying to do way too much  all at one time and it doesn't work the book is trying to have like this really unique format and  sometimes it does it definitely does have a really unique format but that's because it's using like  seven different literary devices or whatever all at once and also trying to have multiple different  formats in one in a way that's just convoluted and pretentious that's the best way I can describe  this book it is extremely pretentious I don't really necessarily even mean that as like an  insult I just mean that as the literal definition of pretentious like that's what the book is which  makes sense because one of the characters is a math PhD student slash professor and the  um other character works at an art museum and she's an artist so like by nature of the story  and the characters it's gonna be a bit pretentious and that's definitely in part one of the main like  themes of the story I don't think that that was unintentional however it is pretentious I  did take a few notes so I'm gonna go through most of these to try and talk about it in a more like  coherent and concise way but first the writing was extremely dense and extremely heavy like it was  hard to get through because you had to read every single word otherwise you would not know what's  going on and sometimes I mean that as a compliment because there are some books that like really just  command your attention and they force you to read every single word because you really just want to  know what's going to happen and you don't want to miss a thing this was not like that if you missed  one word you would not know who was speaking you would not know what was going on it just  dragged it was dense and it was Heavy the book would also go on a lot of tangents they wouldn't  finish sentences sometimes or finish thoughts it almost felt like stream of Consciousness which is  actually a writing device I really like in terms of Storytelling I think books that are written in  that kind of stream of Consciousness format can be really effective however this just felt like a  bunch of like unfinished thoughts thrown together and some of the finished thoughts were really well  done but there were too many unfinished ones and this could be because it is self-published and  it didn't have a full Editor to like go through and like fully edit things out I think this book  will definitely heavily benefit from an editor and maybe the traditionally published version will be  a bit more clean and a bit less dense however it just truly just felt like some thoughts were just  not complete it was just missing things kind of like a diary entry but like not a very clear-cut  one one year like in the middle of like a crisis and you're really going through it which you could  argue is kind of the point since these characters are definitely going through a lot um emotionally  mental health-wise they're not in the best place so you could argue that however as far as like  a reading experience goes it was just so unclear at times and so convoluted that it was difficult  to get through so that's why I don't think it was that effective the other thing is that the  book had a very like intentional like formulaic structure almost as if it was like a math formula  since one of the characters is a mathematician and so that's why I feel like that stream of  Consciousness kind of Unfinished thought style of writing was really inconsistent with the structure  of the story and that style of prose just didn't work like I said the book has like multiple  different formats of Storytelling first it starts off with some like narrators who are like random  characters or people sometimes they are the characters in the books it's very weird I started  reading it and I was like oh that's not what I was expecting so we're gonna have like these random  narrators who give us stage directions almost as if this is a play which I thought was really  unique and really cool but after like chapter one that never comes back again until the very very  end like the last page but it's not like related to the rest of the story and once I was like  getting towards the end I was like when is this narrator thing going to come back and is it going  to tie back into the beginning and once we got to the end at first I was like oh let me go back and  check like maybe this is tying back in somehow but it doesn't like it there's just no reason  for it other than to like seem cool and different like I said it was trying too hard to be too many  different things at once I don't want to say this in like a super mean way but this was a very like  I'm not like other books book like it was very very much trying to be like I'm not like other  books watch me have like seven different formats and be extremely convoluted because no other book  would ever be written like this like that's kind of the vibe it was giving me I was like please be  like other books so that I can try and understand you a little bit more this is a personal complaint  that is not at all the book's fault but more of a thing that I'm just tired of seeing because  I've seen it so much because it's just a really popular Trope in media and again not the book's  fault this is just a thing I'm personally tired of reading about I think I read and watched too  many things about this recently but this is just another book about a mid-20s woman who is mentally  unwell and is coping by having a lot of sex and like that's fine I don't mind that Trope existing  it's just I've seen it in so many things recently like I said because it's been so popular and every  like book about like an unhinged quote-unquote unhinged main female character is always that  same Trope and she's like not unhinged she's just really going through it and doesn't know how to  cope with anything and they always have her cope with that through having a lot of sex and again  that's fine it's just the like main Trope that exists right now and I would just like something a  little different again not the book's fault that's just like a personal complaint I have since I feel  like I see that everywhere now and I just want a little bit more variety you know that's all I'm  asking for and then I guess I would say my other main complaint about this I would never categorize  this as a Roman dance book um it's a book like a love story as the title says I would say it's  a love story because it is but it's not a romance book this is about two codependent people who are  extremely impulsive and who are also going through a lot of emotional problems a lot of mental health  problems and they are not coping with them well in my opinion more than anything they were like  obsessed with each other I would consider it a study in what people can be like when they are  really mentally unwell and find somebody else who might be in a similar place and how they  can become extremely codependent on that person how sometimes that that can lead to like true  real feelings true real bond with somebody but how it can also be extremely unhealthy I would never  call this romantic in my opinion it's not really romantic there are romantic moments more than  anything this is just a book about mental health and I don't know I feel like the way people talk  about it doesn't really make it seem like that's what the book is about I feel like people talk  about it way more as if it's just like a love story a romance book and while that's obviously  a main significant part of the whole story it is about two co-dependent emotionally unstable just  not okay people we're just really going through it they're having a really hard time oh yeah and  there is one one section that I won't even read for you I will leave the quote on the screen  because people love to say that this book has really beautiful writing and yes at times it does  have beautiful writing however I will include this one quote because I feel like whenever people talk  about how beautifully written this is this should also be mentioned because in my opinion this was  just so out of nowhere so uncomfortable to read and such weird phrasing why would you phrase it  that way it was giving fan fiction it was and not in a good way so yeah do with that information  what you will but I feel like if you're going to talk about how beautiful the writing is I feel  like this also needs to be mentioned because in my opinion that's it's not very pretty the  format was very very strange because there would be times where the book was just like regular  um like dialogue where the characters would have dialogue back and forth with quotation marks  everything is normal then it would get switched up into this like Sally rooney-esque thing where the  quotation marks would just disappear except it was beyond that like we're just gonna like take  the quotation marks away and then also just make it not technically dialogue I don't know how to  explain this I can't find a section right now and I don't want to spoil anything for anybody if you  wanted to read this but essentially there would be times where there would be like legitimate  dialogue and then times when the dialogue would switch up into he suggested that they should go  get pizza she suggested that that maybe wasn't the best idea he looked at her she looked back at  him she thought maybe this place down the street would be a good idea he thought that that wasn't  the best idea because they just ate there recently like that's how they would do dialogue sometimes  like I don't know how to describe it in any other way it's like it was third person dialogue  that I don't know it was so strange and it would just switch up halfway through like  halfway through a scene where we'd have regular just dialogue with quotation marks they would  just switch up into that all of a sudden and then we'd switch back like there was no reason that's  what I mean when I say the book was pretentious and it was just like trying to be different and  there was just no reason behind any of it so it wasn't effective because like there has to be a  reason why you're using a specific format to tell the story you know it has to be doing something  effectively for the story in order for it to actually work in order for there to be a need  for it but there was no need for any of the like unique formatting to the story because it didn't  actually do anything especially when you're using so many different formats all in one and just  switching back and forth without any warning it was so strange and yeah this book was just it was  a lot at times I thought that that like formatting thing was just because the book was supposed to  feel convoluted and heavy because of the emotions of the characters so we're kind of trying to  mirror that and you could make that argument but again it was ineffective in my opinion there were  scenes where it wasn't like intentional like there was no reason to be switching back and forth that  often could have stripped some of that back and it would have been far more effective in this case it  was just trying to do everything all at one time and it just wasn't working so yeah um those were  my thoughts on alone with you in The Ether again I gave this like 2.75 to 3 stars it was okay  um I would not read it again it didn't really have like a lasting impact on me it's not the  type of thing that I'm Really Gonna think about there were some really beautiful lines in here  I did Mark some stuff up that I liked and also some stuff I didn't like more than anything I  really just came away from this book feeling like it was way too convoluted and was trying just too  hard to be something new but unfortunately for me it kind of missed the mark alright so the  next book that I read was nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher this is another kind of Gothic fantasy  a little bit of Gothic romance book I picked this up honestly because I liked the title I  thought nettle and Bones sounded really cool and I had heard people talk about t Kingfisher before  but I'd never read any of their books and so I was curious to see what I would think and I enjoyed  this I gave it 3 out of 5 Stars I thought it was mostly just like okay but if you are looking for  like a Gothic fantasy book that's another book that's like girl has to go on some kind of like  Adventure or mission to save her family and she teams up with this group of people has a little  romance in the meantime as well and we have some like Gothic horror-ish elements thrown  in there you might enjoy this that's pretty much what the book is about and I think that it does  what it sets out to do pretty effectively however personally I just didn't like really connect with  it or really really love it the way I did with some of the other books that I read in the same  kind of vein so yeah I thought it was mostly just like okay I don't really have any thoughts  about it I don't have a lot to say about it but I did like the bone dog bone dog was very cute  if you've read the book you know what I'm talking about but bone dog was very cute and I want my own  bone dog because he's adorable then the next book that I read is a book that is extremely  popular right now that everyone has been talking about and that is I'm glad my mom died by Jeanette  McCurdy if you've been on the internet at all you know what this book is everyone's been reading it  everyone's been talking about it I finally read it and I loved it I gave this 5 out of 5 stars  um this is Jeanette McCurdy's Memoir if you happen to not know about her relationship with  her abusive mother and her time as a child actor and a child star and how she dealt  with like extremely severe Eating Disorders her entire life so it was an extremely hard book to  read like it was really really hard there were parts of this that made me feel like truly sick  parts of this that like I just don't ever want to think about again but it made me extremely  emotional it made me cry at times and like I said was very difficult to get through However I truly  think this is one of the best Memoirs I've ever read just honestly one of the best books I've  read this year and I think it's the type of thing that I wouldn't say everyone should read because  again it's really hard to read so definitely look up content warnings if you choose to read  it obviously the subject matter is really heavy however it was so so impactful and so emotional  and she was just so brave for telling her story the way that she did and I'm very excited to see  where this takes her and I'm very happy for her and all the success that she's had with this book  because she deserves it absolutely all of it after everything she's been through she truly deserves  it alright so the next book that I read was Tales from the cafe by toshikazu kawaguchi this is the  second book in the tales from the cafe series or not Tales from the cafe before the coffee  gets called series which I read earlier this year and I loved that book so these are just basically  some more stories from that same coffee shop that same world I didn't love this one I gave  this 3 out of 5 Stars I thought it was just okay compared to the first one the first one I gave  like four and a half to five out of five stars I loved it this one kind of just felt like more of  the same personally I didn't find the stories in this one to be as impactful as the stories  in the first one so yeah I am glad I read it I did enjoy it um and if you like the first one I think  you'll still like these but in my opinion this didn't even really necessarily need to exist um  so yeah I gave this three out of 5 stars did enjoy it but the first one is definitely where it's at  but there you all have it that is it for all of the books that I read this summer like I said I  was so happy with my reading I loved so many of these and I cannot wait to continue reading into  the fall and read so many cozy fantasy Gothic horror novels because as I said that is what  I'm in the mood for I've read like 75 books or so so far this year and I'm very close to like 100  I hope I hit 100 no pressure on myself but that would be very cool and yeah I'm just excited to  continue having a good reading gear so let me know in the comments down below if you've read  any of the books that I mentioned in this video I'd love to discuss your thoughts on any of them  and also let me know what the best book that you read was this summer if you would like to follow  me on any of my social media all of my links are in the description box as always but thank you  all so much for watching this video I hope you enjoyed and I will see you in my next video bye\n"