**Book Review and Discussion**

RF Kuang's "Burning God" was definitely like 'ooh watch out like we're coming for you white people' but it was like no watch out everybody like we're coming for all of you. I also would love to know - so again I so I enjoyed it and it wasn't that serious. I think that there were a lot of people that were saying like oh it's just this mediocre book, it wasn't great writing. It wasn't meant to be some like incredible work of literature. I think RF Kuang was just having a really good time writing it and at this moment in time, only she could write it and for her to write it and it get as big as it is and her to be allowed allowed to write it you know? I really really enjoyed it and learned a lot about publishing in the process which was crazy. I would love to know though if you guys picked this up - she was very vague, she never like named names but there was one point where she talks about an editor - she mentioned that like this editor is a woman but she tries to silence women that write with a more like feminist lens. And she said that this editor recently worked on a book - she had like a book about this this and this and the third example was a book about a famous pianist that sells her soul to the devil for fame or something like that and I think she even mentioned aliens and that is Light from Uncommon Stars. Why would she make such a specific fake book plot for this editor? This fake editor to be working on? That seemed really like if anybody is in the know, they would know who she was talking about. I'm not in the know so I don't know but I read that and I was like oh whoever is like in the credits for Light from Uncommon Stars better watch out because that's Life from Uncommon Stars!

**My Favorite Book Review: "Yellowface"**

I recently finished reading RF Kuang's "Burning God", which was definitely like 'ooh watch out like we're coming for you white people' but it was like no watch out everybody like we're coming for all of you. I also would love to know - so again I so I enjoyed it and it wasn't that serious. I think that there were a lot of people that were saying like oh it's just this mediocre book, it wasn't great writing. It wasn't meant to be some like incredible work of literature. I think RF Kuang was just having a really good time writing it and at this moment in time, only she could write it and for her to write it and it get as big as it is and her to be allowed allowed to write it you know? I really really enjoyed it and learned a lot about publishing in the process which was crazy. I would love to know though if you guys picked this up - she was very vague, she never like named names but there was one point where she talks about an editor - she mentioned that like this editor is a woman but she tries to silence women that write with a more like feminist lens. And she said that this editor recently worked on a book - she had like a book about this this and this and the third example was a book about a famous pianist that sells her soul to the devil for fame or something like that and I think she even mentioned aliens and that is Light from Uncommon Stars. Why would she make such a specific fake book plot for this editor? This fake editor to be working on? That seemed really like if anybody is in the know, they would know who she was talking about. I'm not in the know so I don't know but I read that and I was like oh whoever is like in the credits for Light from Uncommon Stars better watch out because that's Life from Uncommon Stars!

**My Favorite Book: "My Best Friend's Exorcism"**

After finishing RF Kuang's "Burning God", I moved on to Grady Hendrix's "My Best Friend's Exorcism". This book was a complete take on the 80s, and it was so good. The cover is fantastic - isn't that just great? There are so many details, like it's just so good. This is my third Grady Hendrix book, and I have to say that this one might be my favorite so far. I read his other two books, the Southern Nook Club vampire slaying series, which I enjoyed, and the Final Girl Support Group, which was okay. But there's something about "My Best Friend's Exorcism" that just clicked with me.

I thought it would be a straightforward story about her best friend getting possessed by the devil, but once it actually happens and she starts to be like a demon, it gets a little weird. I was a little like okay let's wrap this up, but then I kept going because I couldn't stop reading. The writing is fantastic - it's like Hendrix has captured the essence of the 80s perfectly. I loved the characters, and the way they all come together to support each other (and exorcise demons) is just so heartwarming.

Overall, "My Best Friend's Exorcism" is a must-read for anyone who loves horror-comedy or just great storytelling in general. It's a wild ride, but trust me - you won't want to put it down!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHello everyone, welcome to the video. Today we are doing a wrap-up of all the books I read in June.  I don't know what it was about this month but I read a lot and I think, I'll go into it, but I  think there were a couple of books that number one -a couple of books that I skimmed and we'll talk  about that but also I read quite a few more shorter books. So yeah I have a lot to talk about  and I have a lot of - give you a little teaser - I have a lot of physical books. I can hold them in my  hand while I tell you about them, isn't that weird? So anyway before we dive right into it though...  Hello? I'm getting a call from Cari from the future? Let me pass it over to her. Thanks Cari. Hi  team. How are you? This video is sponsored by the wonderful, the incredible, the BOTM. Yes  BOTM - you guys know them, you guys love them. BOTM, if you don't know, is a  really wonderful service in which there are a team of readers that go through all of the new releases  and it could be from debut authors, it could be from authors that you know and love - and they  pick some of the best books of the month and then you as a subscriber will be able to choose one  or more of your favorites for one low controlled price. They also now have a podcast which is really  exciting. They're just a really wonderful team some of my favorite books have been from BOTM  They also, shout out, they just got a new box design - it's a little bit smaller sleeker.  Shout out to whoever did that. And as always you can use my code CARI to get your first book for  $9.99 and that is for a newly released hard cover book. They will all be hardcover. Incredible. So what  did I choose from their picks this month? I got Hello Stranger by Katherine Center. All I know  about this book is that it's about an artist who suddenly gets facial blindness. I think  it's a romance I think it's cute - there's a dog on the cover so I'm sort of like  I feel like it's going to be a hit. But within this box contains the book that I'm so excited  to get my hands on. Yes I finally got my hands on Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong. I was a fan of her  first duology but I think the story just didn't super connect with me in the second book - I  loved the first book. So I know that I like her writing style but I'm really interested to see  it in a different setting that isn't a Romeo and Juliet retelling. Then look at the cover.  Isn't that gorgeous? So if you would like this book or any of the -what are you trying to tell me BOTM? So again if you would like to get this book or any  of the others, check out all of the listings for the month, use my code CARI - that information  will be down below. So thank you as always to BOTM for sponsoring and back to the video.  Thank you Cari, always a pleasure. Let's dive in starting with the books - I say this every month but  the books from the beginning of the month, it feels like I read them ages and ages and ages ago. I did  actually look at my list before I started filming so that I could remember everything that I  read so hopefully I can talk about things well. But here we go! The first book I read in June is  the Name Drop. This is my friend Susan, this is her second book. It is a young adult contemporary  romance. Susan is obsessed with k-dramas so this is very much written as a k-drama. I would love  to see this actually put to the screen. It is a case of mistaken identity, it is a summer  internship, we have our main boy who is the son of the CEO of the company and then we have our girl  who is the daughter of like a low-level employee in the company. And she wants to do really well in  this internship, he is just there to kind of like please his father. And they have the same Korean  name and so when their roles get switched and he all of a sudden is in this like stupid internship -  you know those summer internships where like they just like go get coffee, you know? He's  stuck in there. She's in this like executive and training position and they're kind of like  we dig these roles would you mind just pretending to be each other for a summer? As you can imagine  it becomes a little bit messy. It takes place in New York City. I thought it was cute. I think  if specifically if you're a kdrama fan, you can see it playing out in your head really well, it  did have like a lot of the kdrama cliches so I would go into it knowing that. But I had a good  time, there were a couple times that I laughed out loud. And yeah this comes out in September  so this is not out yet, this was an arc - September 12th, comes out September 12th. That was the first  book I read. Oh my gosh and then after that - I read this in one sitting that was slightly interrupted  by me having to get off the bus and come back and sit on my couch okay? I read Yellowface. Oh  goodness. So at this point now Yellowface has been out for a while and I've seen, I haven't  watched any people's reviews on it but I have seen like YouTube thumbnails of people having  very different reactions and I think the issue I see other people having with it...first and foremost  I enjoyed, like I said one and a half sittings okay!... I think that people read Babel which was very very  like so research heavy, it was intense, there was so much history to it and then when we hear about  Yellowface where it's also the main theme is about racism, this time in the publishing industry,  people might have expected like a similar writing style. And this is a comedy. This is this is such  like a fluff, no I don't want to say fluff because that usually has a negative connotation, but like  this is a book that for such a serious topic isn't necessarily to be taken seriously. It's supposed to  be horrific but kind of funny, like darkly deeply funny. I think that RF Kuang is brilliant. There  were shots fired for everyone in the publishing industry including herself. I think there's a point  oh well let me tell you what the book is about... So Yellowface is about a woman who was kind  of friends, like low-key frenemies, with this very successful author. They kind of grew up together  through like university and various writing workshops. They were always just like together.  And our main girl is a white woman who I forget exactly what genre she really writes, and then her  friend is an Asian woman who has had great success. Okay, they've been doing everything together and  then one person just skyrockets. When there is an unfortunate incident, our white woman finds the  almost completely finished first draft of a book that her friend was working on, takes it, edits it  up, and passes it off as her own. And then we just go through through that whole journey with her  okay? I mean it's called Yellowface, like it was very much talking about racism in the publishing  industry but it wasn't just like focus - all of the commentary wasn't just focused on like this  white woman author. It was coming after everyone involved and even the kind of friend character.  She isn't the hero of the story. She's a little like a human, she's not perfect and the way that  she was described as being like this cool pretty smart chick I was sort of like...RF Kuang is that you?  And she wrote that woman as again an imperfect person, so like she also wasn't holding back the  shots about herself and her role in the industry too. So I think that the way that it was marketed  was definitely like 'ooh watch out like we're coming for you white people' but it was like no  watch out everybody like we're coming for all of you. I also would love to know - so again I so  I enjoyed it and it wasn't that serious. I think that there were a lot of people that were saying  like oh it's just this mediocre book, it wasn't great writing. It wasn't meant to be some like  incredible work of literature. I think RF Kuang was just having a really good time writing it  and at this moment in time, only she could write it and for her to write it and it get as big as it  is and her to be allowed allowed to write it you know? I really really enjoyed it and learned a lot  about publishing in the process which was crazy. I would love to know though if you guys picked this  up - she was very vague, she never like named names but there was one point where she talks aboutan editor - she mentioned that like this editor is a woman but she tries to silence women that write  with a more like feminist lens. And she said that this editor recently worked on a book - she had  like a book about this this and this and the third example was a book about a famous pianist that  sells her soul to the devil for fame or something like that and I think she even mentioned aliens  and that is Light from Uncommon Stars. Why would she make such a specific fake book plot for this  editor? This fake editor to be working on? That seemed really like if anybody is in the know,  they would know who she was talking about. I'm not in the know so I don't know but I read that and I  was like oh whoever is like in the credits for Light from Uncommon Stars better watch  out because that's Life from Uncommon Stars! Did anyone else pick that up? Anyway I I enjoyed it.  Again I don't think it needs to be and can really be taken as a piece of like serious literature  and commentary or whatever it was just a good time and I appreciated it so that was Yellowface.  After that I have another physical book. I read My Best Friend's Exorcism by - where  is he - Grady Hendrix. I've literally just wanted it because of the cover - isn't that  fantastic? There are so many details, like it's just so good. This is my third Grady Hendrixbook. I read the southern nook club vampire slaying one which I enjoyed. I read the Final Girl Support  Group which was okay. But I think this one might be my favorite so far. This is just a complete take on  the 80s, it was so good. I thought that once the - so it's, I mean it's not a lie, it is about  her best friend getting possessed by the devil. Yeah it's just like these teenage girls in  the 80s and one of them gets possessed. I think that once it, once the possession actually happens  and she starts to be like a demon, it gets a little... I was a little like okay let's wrap this up. But  I just thought that the atmosphere of this book was incredible. It's absolutely horror so if  you are not okay with like a lot of bodily fluids and stuff - avoid. This is, as funny as it is, it's  also just a horror novel. I talk a bit more about it in my reading vlog where I conquer my physical  TBR and I read only physical books for a week so I do think like just as a little bit of a warning  these are teenagers from the 80s and so there are a few remarks that you're sort of like.... When  they say goodbye to each other they say like \"love you dearly but not queerly.\" It's kind of like  how in the early 2000s people would say \"no homo\" Stuff like that where it's like, we wouldn't be  saying this in this decade but it was never malicious but just it just sounds like...a little  warning. Anywho Your Best Friend's Exorcism. After that I ate up a trilogy. After I posted my video  about my reaction to Fourth Wing, which I thought was fine, I got so many comments from people saying  I needed to read Fireborne. And it's called like the Aurelian trilogy I think. So I did, I read them -  so good okay. So if you guys read Fourth Wing and you were like I loved the world but the romance  was like a little weird - Fireborne. Fireborne is about a world where there was recently  a revolution that overthrew the, I think it was called the triarchy. So there wasn't a monarchy,  there were three ruling families - a triarchy. And there was a very bloody revolution in which  the revolutionaries killed - oh my God he's like Anastasia - okay this isn't this isn't a spoiler  because it happens in the first chapter, there is one person who is allowed to live and it's  our main boy. So yeah it's like an Anastasia story oh my God. It follows the world kind of  a decade after the revolution. We have a group of Dragon Riders who are like the soldiers  and this will be the first graduating class since the revolution. I really loved it, it's a  lot of political intrigue. I will say that the last books get a little choppy because we're introduced  to a lot of povs so it is very POV switchy but I thought that it was really well constructed, really  well paced, I loved so many of the characters and I thought it was a book that actually talks about  how like sometimes revolutions aren't good and you can try you can start things meaning well  and you can lose the plot. How you have to kind of change what you believe in and keep checking  in with yourself. Like it was just, I thought it was really good. There's also it feels like a  bit more Dragon stuff. I know in Fourth Wing the dragons can talk - there is still kind of an  element of that. I felt like it was more, there was more Dragon stuff going on. I really really  liked it guys. And then I posted a Reel about it on Instagram and the author reached out and was  like 'Hey just wanted to thank you and everybody else who's been talking about it, like the book is  picking up steam again' Because these books came out I think 2019? I think it was 19, 20, 21. But she  was just really grateful so those thanks are sent to everybody in the comments who made  me read it. I think it's climb - it's like in the top 10 best sellers now for like YA dystopian books  on Kindle? Like it's - we're doing the thing guys! So yeah I I really, I ate it up  I didn't want to stop. And so that is the Fireborne trilogy. Thank you to everyone who told  me to read it because I enjoyed and I was having issues with fantasy books recently. So that was  a nice that was a nice one, Fireborne. Do you have your fish book? Okay for the next one I'm cheating  this is actually Kurt's physical book. I read this as an ebook but isn't the Korean cover beautiful?  This is Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller. Kurt picked this up and told me that I should read  it and so I did. This is a memoir, it's a memoir but it's also like weirdly a biography? How do I  describe this? It follows Lulu Miller, our author, as she is going through a lot of hardships in  her life and during this time she discovers this one particular scientist who is known for - he was  the first president of Stanford and he was known for like discovering a ton of fish. Like  that was his thing, is he would just go all over the world and catalog all of these fish. And the  thing that really struck her about him was that he had all of these like catastrophes happen in  his life where, this was in the 1800s, so he wrote everything by hand and then everything burnt down  and he just started again, you know? And that happened quite a few times where things would  burn down or be lost and he just got back up again and she was really fascinated by this and like  how he just kept getting back up. So the story begins with his story and he seems like such a  happy-go-lucky just like curious young man and so I'm really rooting for him and I'm really enjoying  the story and then it turns out he's actually like a big bigot and eugenicist?? So the story got very  dark and so for me personally, it like, the end, the middle to the end was not super enjoyable just  because I didn't like reading about it eugenics. But it did have a lot of commentary on life and  curiosity and exploration and I guess just like how nature works. I think that humans a lot of  times we view ourselves as separate from nature but as kind of looking at nature and how silly and  imperfect nature is, it makes us whenever we're silly and imperfect kind of feel a little bit  better. So yeah I think overall like if you're interested in science and nature and history  this is a good book but definitely beware that there's a lot of talk a lot  of talk about eugenics, forced sterilizations - not bright things in here but definitely  Kurt really really enjoyed it, I would still recommend it as well - Fish Don't Exist. I have  the air conditioner on and I am sweating. After that, I was on my memoir kick and I read Pageboy  very quickly. This is Elliot Page's memoir. Speaking of dark, I was not prepared for how dark this was  going to be. It basically just follows his life, his childhood in Canada all the way up to now.  And it is really really dark. I thought that there were a lot of really beautiful  reflections and some of it was honestly just dark and difficult to read. It felt a little bit  like I'm Glad My Mom Died where it's another story of like a child actor going through just loads of  that's what Pageboy was as well. It was yeah just like buckle up, I was not prepared  for how gruesome and graphic it was gonna be. But I always loved - I mean Juno was such a big part of  my high school experience so reading about that and like what was going on behind the scenes and  all this stuff - just mind-boggling. And there was a lot of talk of the importance of nature  and human connection and how you find your peace and who you are and stuff like that. So I  think it had a lot in it, it was just like a rough reading experience. But again I I did think that as  a memoir, it was engaging the whole time, it felt very true to his voice and yeah not something  that I would reread but as someone who has loved Elliot Page's work I'm glad that I read it - does  that make sense? Yeah Pageboy by Elliot Page. After that there is a book that has been sitting in my  Kindle for a very long time. It was on - it's on Kindle unlimited. And I saw someone post something,they're like a huge A Court of Thorns and Roses fan and they were like \"this is so much better - if  you like acotar, I think this is even better\" and you guys know me, like when I first read  acotar I really enjoyed it actually. It was one of the first fantasies I read since like starting  reading again, like since when I was in high school. so it hit me really hard and I always thought like  if there were a better version of that, I would enjoy it so whenever I like don't have anything  to read, I'm like let me look for these books that are compared to A Court of Thorns and Roses. So I  downloaded it from Kindle unlimited and it has been sitting on my Kindle for a very long time.  I didn't have any books to read so I decided to read that, it is the Trial of the Sun Queen. I read  the first one and the second one. Guys....We start off in a prison and our main girl has been there  for forever and she gets horribly abused - like it's just this horrible horrible situation and then she  does something really bad one day (really bad - not bad) but she gets sent out to the pit to  be punished and while she is in the pit, there is some kind of crazy riot that happens in the prison  and the guards are distracted and something with wings swoops into the pit and takes her away. Oh!  That's what it was -okay I no no I took a picture of it because I was like what the actual hell. So  I heard about this book in the context of it's better than A Court of Thorns and Roses, right?  The blurb about this book, Trial of the Sun Queen, the blurb says \"The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games.  10 women, a deadly contest, only one can win the sun king's heart.\" That's what it is yeah so  it's compared to ACOTAR, The Bachelor AKA The Selection, and The Hunger Games.I was like I gotta know...so yeah she gets to the Sun King's palace and they're  like surprise, he needs to pick a bride so we're having our trials and we need  representative from every Kingdom including the prison? And there we go. It unfolds from there.  It was stupid. You can give it a try, like it didn't put me in a reading slump, it passed  the time. There were just elements that I think she didn't think about like I remember kind of  wanting to give up on this when I read this one line - there's the sun area and then there's the  aurora area and the whole thing with the Aurora is that it's dark there but there's the Northern  Lights so the sky is always like crazy colors and there was a line that was like, I forget the girl's  name but she was like, I looked deep into his eyes that were as dark as the Aurora sky. And I'm like  so not dark? The Aurora sky is green. What? So there were just like these details that really took me  out of the story and so I would still say like if that like ACOTAR, The  Bachelor, The Hunger Games peaked your interest and you have Kindle unlimited, check it out.  It wasn't good. The second one is like smut city. I would just like you to know. Smut City. But give  it give it a go. If you were to purchase it with your own money, I would say don't but  that was the Trial of the Sun Queen, one and two. And I will not be continuing to three because...  After that I think I took a break from reading and then a hold - a book I've been waiting on for  many many weeks, I think it was like a 16 week hold or something like that finally came in and I read  Burial Rights by Hannah Kent I think is her name. First of all I liked it. So the sigh is frustration  for other things. I didn't know going into it that this was a true story. So I could have saved myself  a lot of pain had I read the Wikipedia page. And it is about the, well that's is that a spoiler? See now  I don't know what is a spoiler - I feel like most people go into it being spoiled because they  know it's a true story but I didn't so I don't want to tell you. It is about a woman living in  Iceland and she is one of the last people who was ever sentenced to death in Iceland. This book was  fictionalized so it reads as if you're reading just the story of this woman's life. It taught me  a lot about the older not current, but like older Icelandic laws and the absolutely crazy ways that  they had to do their like criminal investigations and stuff. Like their Supreme Court was in Denmark  so they had to like wait for those judges to get back to them but then they don't have prisons so  where do they put the prisoners? So we follow this woman as she's waiting for her death sentence  and she has to live in just a family's house because they don't have prisons so we follow her  through that, where she's basically accepted that she's gonna die, everyone thinks that she's this  crazy crazy psychopath murderess, and then maybe she's not. I thought that it had a lot of really  good female rage. I think if you like reading about that, it was not only she was angry but  like as I was reading it I was getting really angry. I believe that this started as the author's  dissertation or something - she studied abroad in Iceland, heard about this story, and was so  interested in it that she made this like her life and I think that this book is kind of the product  of, if not is the actual dissertation, it's the product of all of the research she did for that.Just very interesting. I really enjoyed it. It was short and it was rough - definitely be in  the right headspace for it but yeah Burial Rights, feminine rage, highly recommend. After that to lift  my spirits I read Love Theoretically. You guys know that I love laughing at Ali Hazelwood's  descriptions of men. She knows what she's doing. So this, I was so excited. It was another giant man -I loved. So Love Theoretically is about a woman who, what is she, she's like an adjunct professor  and she hates it. She doesn't like being a teacher, she wants to be a researcher and she is up for  it's between like her and one other candidate for this position that she really really wants.  When she gets to the interview she realizes she's because she has a side gig (because  education does not pay a living wage) her side gig is she is a fake girlfriend for hire. Like  if you need a date to a wedding, if you needed this or that - and she's not supposed to go on  repeat dates but there's this one guy who she really likes as a friend, he really needs a  help so she has become his like unofficial fake girlfriend for family events and his brother  is interviewing her. So it, as you can imagine, it gets really messy really fast. This book - my only  I don't want to call it a complaint because I would love to see more of this but like maybe  a little bit more subtle - a lot of this book felt like kind of a handbook for how a relationship  with a lot of communication and talk about consent should be. So it kind of took me out  of the story a little bit because there was - it felt like Ali was kind of telling us like  hey by the way, like to be a good partner you should be checking in. And like they're  for various reasons like both of them they need to have serious talks and I agree but  this just felt a little bit, like I said, kind of like a handbook of how you, of what a  good relationship should look like. I didn't fall into it as much. I think that her other books are  like silly, this one felt a little bit more like okay guys but let's talk about how to actually be  like responsible. But I, you know, I still enjoyed it. I read it in one sitting. It was fine. I think  that she knows what she can do and she hits those every time. Like you know what you're getting when  you're reading an Ali Hazelwood. However she just announced that she's working on a werewolf book...I'm so stoked, you have no idea, I'm so excited to see what she  does. Yeah she's coming out with a like a werewolf romance book and  you best believe I'm gonna eat that up. So Love Theoretically - if you don't like Ali Hazelwood  don't read it, if you enjoyed, if you had a good time with your other books, read it. Simple as that.Love Theoretically. After that I read the Parasites. I got this at a used bookstore in Tokyo and I just  loved the cover and this is the author of Rebecca which I love so I thought I would give it a shot. I  would never have read it otherwise. This book is about three siblings. Their parents are artists -  I think their father is a singer and their mother is a dancer. They put on shows together so they're  constantly traveling the world, they live a very luxurious kind of frivolous life. The story starts  present day - when does this take place, this is like in the 19...I think it's the like the 10s 20s  30s? Or is this World War II? It's one of the world wars I'm so sorry this is it's been a while since  I read this - but it takes place when they are kind of in the present and then they're constantly  looking back and talking about childhood memories. Overall I really like the beginning I  would say like 50%, I enjoyed the atmosphere, it was just very like again this lavish lux lifestyle in  the early 1900s, you know a lot of like French villas on the sea. But as it continued it got  a little bit old and the reason it's called the Parasites is because the main girl's husband calls  her and her two siblings parasites but as you kind of read the book you realize that everyone is just  kind of a parasite of each other, or that's what I got from the book, is that they take from everyone  else, everyone else takes from them. Yeah I'm - I wouldn't say I would rush to read this, I wouldn't  read this again, I wouldn't even compare it to Rebecca - Rebecca is like completely different level.  It wasn't wasn't my favorite but I did finish it and I was proud of myself for doing that so.  After that, real quick, I read a very short book called Exciting Times. This is by an Irish author  and it follows an Irish woman who moves to Hong Kong to teach English and at first I thought like  I don't know how I'm gonna like this because I'm not like the biggest fan of people using teaching  English abroad as like a fun time, like kind of a paid vacation, and that's kind of what it felt  like. She was like it I'll go to Hong Kong because anybody who speaks English can get a  job easily. So reading the first chapter I was not sure how I want to read, like if I want to  continue but she ends up not even really talking about her job as an English teacher. She meets  this British guy who is a banker. They have this really weird friendship that goes on and develops  and I ended up really liking that commentary - for such a short book I thought that it was very  insightful in terms of how honest she was about like the tiny things that she hates  about herself. The things that she hates that she loves. The emotions that she wishes she  didn't feel. The second I started getting bored with it we were introduced to a new character  and I felt a lot less bored. So overall it like wasn't my favorite read but I recommend if that  strikes your fancy. Next up, as you can see, not finished - I started to read I Went to See  My Father. I got to page 102. The chapters are all like 50 to 60 pages long so I read two chapters.  I really enjoyed the first 100 pages but it's just a very heavy book in terms of it's very sad  there's just a lot of emotions and I just wasn't in the space to continue it and I didn't  want to force myself to keep reading it and then end up not enjoying it because I wasn't you know  ready for it. But this is about a woman who lives in Seoul and her family lives in the countryside.  She very rarely goes to see them but her mother had to come to Seoul to get some kind of medical  thing done and has to stay there for a while so her sister and her mother went up there, her father  is alone in the countryside house, so she goes to check up on him. And we go through kind of her  childhood experiences with her dad, her dad's life experiences living through the Korean War, stuff  like that. I said this in my reading vlog but like my chest just felt tight the whole time. If that  sounds like it is interesting to you, the writing is good, it's very much - I again talk about it more  in my reading vlog but - every thought flows into the next thought so there's not a lot of places  that you feel comfortable stopping. It's like once you start reading you have to read for 50 pages  straight or else like you're it feels like you're kind of cutting her off in the middle of a  thought. So I didn't love that but I will finish this one day. I Went to See My Father. After that  one of my friends started a readathon with just herself and one of her friends and I joined  where we are going to be reading pirate books for the month of July. And I cheated and I got a head  start and I read Dark Shores. This is by the same author as the Bridge Kingdom which I did not know  as I was reading it but Dark Shores is a kind of piratey themed book that is also a fantasy.  I lost the plot of this book. I thought that the beginning was really interesting and then it hit  this point where I was reading and all of a sudden I was like what is going on? Like I completely lost  the plot. Basically in our world there is one kingdom that is colonizing every piece of land  that they can get their hands on but there is a sea that is very treacherous and it is - people  think that there's nothing on the other side of that sea but there is there's a whole other land  mass over there. But it's only this one particular group of people who know how to navigate the sea  to get there. So there's some hullabaloo where our main girl is forced to betray her people and show  them how to get through the sea and it's just - it just wasn't a good time. Like I said, I think  up until the point where they left for her to like show them how to cross the sea I was into it.  There's her best friend is being forced to marry this evil man and so we're trying to save her and  the male, I assume romantic love interest, is this like weird tortured soul kind of guy. I don't know,  there was a lot of potential and then once the story actually, like the adventure started I lost  the plot. I was like what is going on actually? And I can't even tell you because I don't even  know. So I really didn't enjoy Dark Shores and I feel like people, I had some comments when I said  I didn't enjoy the Bridge Kingdom or it was just like mid - people said oh Dark Shores is better but  I would argue that the Bridge Kingdom at least made sense in terms of the plot. I feel like the  whole like three quarters of the book of Dark Shores made no sense to me whatsoever. So let me  know if you had that experience or if I just like read it wrong, I don't know. But yeah Dark Shores  was so confusing and put me kind of in a reading slump so just a warning there. That was Dark Shores.In order to break my reading slump, I bought a $12 book that I read in like an hour and 40 minutes.I finally read Lemon. This is a very short book, it's a 140 pages. It is about  a girl whose older sister was murdered when they were in high school and where  this book isn't about solving the crime, it's more about just the aftermath of  how her sister's life is changed, how the friends of the sister and stuff like that. It's  three povs. I thought it was good for a, for a book to tell me this much in 140 pages, I enjoyed it.  But that being said, like it was very dark. It's just kind of talking about grief and anger and  envy - yeah I don't know how to describe it but I liked this book. Like I went to  the bookstore, immediately went to a Starbucks and sat down and ate breakfast and finished it  while eating breakfast. So I feel like that says something about the book for you. But yeah,  Lemon. And because I was still a little bit in the throes of that reading slump (thanks a lot Dark  Shores) I picked up, God I told myself I wouldn't do this after Vampire Academy, but I picked up a book  based off of a Reel (I know) on Instagram. I saw a reel - I'm not going to tell you what I saw because  it actually was a major spoiler for the book so I'm surprised that this person did this but  yeah it's a major spoiler so I'm not going to tell you but the book is called Better Than The Movies.  I find that a rom-com is good when I'm having trouble reading so picked this one up. It's  definitely young adult, it's definitely a little childish. I know that I just said it's young adult  but like this felt like if I were a high school student having a fantasy about fake dating, I would  come up with this book. Like it was very much like it popped out of the mind of a high school girl  which I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. It made the reading experience a little silly but  overall it's about a girl who is going to high school, she's obsessed with romantic comediesbecause her mom passed away in an accident when she was quite young and the thing that they shared  was a love of romantic comedies and so that's her obsession. I think it's our senior year of high  school and this boy that used to be her neighbor that she had a huge crush on when she was like  five came back to school. And she's like this is our meet cute again, this is our destiny and we're  gonna go to prom together and he's gonna fall in love with me and this is gonna be my story. But  in order to get him to realize that she's not the little girl he played hide and seek with anymore,  she enlists the help of her other neighbor and best friend of this guy to fake date her and  make him a little bit jealous. These two are like notorious enemies, they're constantly fighting  over the one parking spot in their neighborhood so they kind of hate each other but they put  their differences aside to fake date and it's, you know, you know how it's gonna go. It was fine like  I said it felt like the daydream of a high school student so the plot was like not all there but it  was absolutely fine and past the time and so if you need a romantic comedy to read, like you've  got a long flight or a long car ride or something - Better Than the Movies delivered what I needed it  to - totally fine. We're almost done I promise. So after that, again I just was kind of grabbing  for any book that I felt could get me back into reading so so many people had been recommending  this in my comment section so I finally decided to read The Prison Healer Trilogy. This was a  series that I wish had been edited down. The first book, well let me tell, let me tell you what it's  about. So we follow a girl who is thrown into a very deadly prison, kind of like Trials of the  Sun Queen, but she was put in there as a child with her father and her father passed away and so  she took on his role of being the prison healer so she's like the nurse of the prison right? One day a  mysterious prisoner arrives along with a note that says keep her alive, we're coming to get you and so  she believes that she has family on the outside that's going to eventually try to get her out. But  it's been 10 years so I feel like maybe she should have given up hope? But she is like no, I'm going to  keep this prisoner alive no matter what and that includes risking her life to take part in these  trials, which it gets it gets explained. So I don't want to go too far into it but she basically has  to go through a lot of ordeals in order to try and protect this prisoner who she doesn't know  but she just has this image that like this is going to help her escape right? The entire first  book should have been 50% of what it was and it should have been combined with the second book.  This was - how do I even explain this? Minor spoiler incoming, timestamp on the screen!!! The  whole thing about the trials, I just wish that she had found another way. Basically like the trials  exist so that we can learn things about the characters obviously right? I wish she had found  any other way to do it because we did not need to drag it out so long and all that did was make  me hate our main character. Because the girl, this isn't, I don't think this is a spoiler but the girl  doesn't do anything herself. Like if we're talking about The Hunger Games or like anything that has  these kind of Trials right, the character should be able to like pull a crazy stunt and save herself  or like find some hidden strength or like whatever. The whole first book our main girl does  nothing. She's a great nurse, that's a superpower in and of itself all right? She's a great healer.  But everything else that she does is like helped by other people. Like she doesn't do anything and  it kind of continues throughout the whole book. Like all our main character does is like get help  from random other people just because they see potential in her and then she's very very  naive and a little bit brainwashed and she like causes problems the whole book. That's all  she does the whole book. And it really drives me, it really drove me crazy because I just wanted her  to do something.So overall like I - the the next two books I was interested in the world, there was political  Intrigue, it's all about like who are the rightful rulers of the kingdom, all of this  stuff. I also enjoyed particularly one character is like very funny absolutely loved him whenever he  was on the page I was happy. I just don't know why she wrote the first book that way because - I know  that she wanted, she has like she has a reason for pacing it the way that it did but I think  that had she rearranged some of the plot points it would have hit harder and felt less drawn out  and less - honestly the first book just felt kind of stupid like after I read it and I reflected on  it, and especially after finishing the series and looking back onto the first book, it just felt like  this kind of extra limb like it didn't need to be there. So I liked the next two books but the first  book of the Prison Healer really turned me off and turned me off of the character. So let let me know  your thoughts - what do you think about Kiva? Just let me know your thoughts about Prison Healer. It  was easy to read, it was quick to read, but I felt like the first book was a waste of my time. Let  me know what was your favorite book in the series. Next up, really quick, this was an incredibly short  collection of poetry, is it? This was Split Tooth which is written by an Inuk throat singer  but it is about her upbringing? I'm not sure if this is, if all of it is her or if some of it  is a character but some of it reads like a memoir, some of it reads very much as just very quick, very  dark poetry. There's a lot of magical realism in it. It is incredibly dark I must warn you.  From page one there is sexual assault, sexual abuse of children - it is graphic. There is drug  abuse, alcohol abuse, physical abuse, everything in between. But I do think that it was a perspective  that I haven't read a lot of - I haven't read almost any indigenous voices from Canada. So she  did mention residential schools, there was just incredibly beautiful imagery of the ice, in the  Northern Lights, and how she views life and death and energy and the connection of things. There were  these really beautiful moments but a lot of really dark stuff so if that sounds interesting to you, I  would definitely recommend it but be aware - look up the trigger warnings ahead of time please. And  last two, I did read Violets. This is by the same author as I Went to See My Father but I actually  did finish this. This one felt a lot easier to read. It still had a lot of darkness to it but it  wasn't quite the same flavor of darkness or like emotional content as I went to See My Father. So  this follows one woman who we first meet her when she is a child living in the countryside where she  has this moment with her best friend and they suddenly have a falling out and that is kind of  the catalyst for her - she always felt kind of out of place but with her friend she felt she finally  found some kind of connection to the world around her and then she was just kind of sent off again  to feel very detached. Her mother is also like not very present. We meet up with her again when  she is older, she is living in Seoul and she gets a job at a flower shop and then we just follow  her through that period in her life. I actually really enjoyed it. I loved the character of the  other Woman who runs the flower shop. It also all took place in the one particular area that I'm in  a lot so it was very funny to have her use very specific places. She would walk home from work andshe'd be like, she would turn here and then she would go here and here and here and I would be  like oh okay I know exactly where she is. That was sort of fun just as someone like if you've  been to Seoul or lived in Seoul and you know the Gwanghwamun area - that's where it all takes place.Like the Sejong Art Center, stuff like that. But I thought that it was very beautiful, very melancholy,  but I recommend - Violets. If you couldn't get through I Went to See My Father, this one is much  more digestible. And then our very last book, I promise you. I thought it was gonna end with the  Prison Healer and then I just like kept sliding in all these books at the very end. The last day  of June, I read in one day - The Garden of the Cursed. I think it was an Instagram account I really love  Peculiar Pages, she got I guess she got an arc of this and she was talking about how she enjoyed it  so I immediately picked it up. I knew - and I knew ahead of time that this was part of an  unfinished duology, so I knew what I was getting myself into. So this is an unfinished series, it  just came out like June 20th or something so we have to wait a long time. Garden of the Cursed  was a cute fun little time. It is about a world where there is kind of the five ruling families  and they each have five different libraries that control their own spell collection spell  books. I'm not describing this well at all what the heck. Let me start over. We follow a girl  named Marlow who is a curse breaker. She gets hired by people who have had curses placed on themand she runs around and finds whoever did it and then burns the curse card. So all of the magic in  this world is placed in these cards and so you can buy them or you can make them. You can just  like kind of like Pokemon, like you can just pull out a card and say the magic word and throw it and  the magic will hit the person you intend you know? So I really love that. Like it felt like a kind of  new magic system that I hadn't really seen before. And Marlow, her mother used to be the chevalier for  one of the five ruling families so she grew up going to kind of like royal school and living  in the Palaces and stuff like that. And then her mom mysteriously disappeared and the only thing  her mom ever taught her was if I ever go missing, get the out of the royal sector, you know? Go  back to the marshes where she grew up. So she does what she's told, she left that life behind until  one day her former best friend, who is the heir to one of the royal families, shows up her at her  door and is like hey girl, I got a curse for you to break. I thought the world itself - like the the  descriptions of the city, the city itself was really interesting. And also it's got fake dating...  So I talked about this on Instagram but I think that the cover makes the book look way way more  intense than it is. There is intensity and like gang warfare and fights and death and stuff like  that but the actual characters are very cute and lovable and sarcastic and funny. It's a lot lighter  than I think the cover makes it seem like. And it's got yearning and fake dating and romance, you  know? So I highly recommend it. It was, for someone who had been kind of striking out with fantasies  towards the end of the month, Garden of the Cursed was a great change of pace. It wasn't the best  fantasy I've ever read, like it was a little bit predictable whatever, but it scratched whatever itch  I needed it to. So I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel. That was how I ended the month!  So Cari, do you have anything to say? Thank you again to BOTM and my code  CARI will be down in the description box, you can get your first book four $9.99. And  that's it for me. And my voice is completely shot so I will end the video here. I will  see you guys later. Let me know what you have been reading, what I should be reading - let me  know your thoughts on all the books I have mentioned, especially Prison Healer. For those  of you who recommended it, what do you think? I apologize if my opinion lets you down. But  I'm glad that you enjoyed it. And yeah, I will catch you guys next time, okay! Bye!\n"