Maybe Picture of Dorian Gray, but Karin Slaughter is an acquired taste, I’ll admit that. There’s a "jail" scene in Triptych (the 1st book of hers I read) that STILL haunts me.
I love SF, but have a REALLY hard time enjoying anything by PKD, so I hold nothing against you, but.... You should read Tombs of Atuan by Le Guin. I also didn't like Wizard of Earthsea the first (and 2nd) time I read it. Tombs of Atuan is a whole other beast. It's haunting, and beautiful, and told through the eyes of a girl/young woman and it's short and just about perfect. Don't let your dislike of WoE stop you from reading Le Guin, because she's such an amazing writer.
I actually liked Solaris, I like the whole concept of not being able to trust what you're seeing, a very classic sci-fi trope. That being said I read it a long time ago, and I'm sure the writing style was dry, like most classic sci-fi is.
as an Iranian woman i really felt represented reading the handmaid's tale (i knowwww, sounds crazy feeling represented by a dystopian book) a lot of the experiences described in the book are things we go through in day to day life and honestly i had never read a book that confronted the absurdity of our situation to this extent (obviously it isn't brought up in western literature and in Persian literature the current system is normalized and there is no room for criticism bc the regime oversees every book that is published in the country) so i just felt really grateful reading that book. from what i've read Atwood lived in western Germany for 2 years before the collapse of the Berlin wall and she was inspired by the experiences and accounts of eastern German refugees also by the accounts of North Korean refugees, the experiences of Iranian women after the Islamic revolution and some of the historical experiences of western women too (for example American women not having the right to own a bank account in their own name prior to 1974) so it obviously includes the experiences of white women too, this book is based on an amalgamation of the female experience in various parts of the world, all that to say as a WOC i don't feel like our experiences were appropriated and written to cater to white women, specially since Gilead is basically a futuristic version of the US so the world includes WOC too and the author gives credit to the source material so for me personally i'm mostly glad that these issues got attention in western media bc of the popularity of this book. Of course I can only ever speak for myself, obviously there might be others who disagree with my views. from a reading experience standpoint however i do empathize with you, it really did drag at times, i honestly would give it a 3* for the writing if i didn't connect with the themes to the extent that i did. Sorry for the 10 page essay in your comment section lol, this book rlly meant a lot to me so i needed to contribute to the discussion.
Margaret Atwood has said that all the conditions and situations depicted in Handmaid’s Tale are or were actual happenings at some point in time, somewhere. So it is not surprising you feel some familiarity with it. Thank you for your thoughts. Very interesting and relevant.
@@gautamsingh-py7ur the only two that I can remember rn are 1. the stationery shop which I haven’t read yet or 2. Darius the Great duology. They’re not exactly about Iranian’s day to day life inside of Iran but they still have Iranian characters. I hope this was helpful.
Cinder is probably my favorite 'comfort' series. but i am SO glad that i found it before i knew it had any hype because i got to go in with no preconceptions. I definitely agree it got overhyped for what it is. But I'm definitely on it's hype train anyway😂
I teach middle school. I have hooked many of my female students on reading with The Selection series. . Students always hate the ending of The Giver but love the book. It leads to such interesting discussions with kids and really makes them think more deeply about their reading.
Personally I loved Wizard of Earthsea. It helped through some dark times in my life. There’s a sense of loneliness about the world through Ged’s eyes that is filled with subtle sadness, it gives some weight to the redemption in his journey. Wizard of Earthsea and Taren Wanderer were the books mostly tailored for young children, mostly boys traversing childhood and to adulthood. Ged and Taren helped me personally through times where I just wanted to quit everything.
I love hearing why you did and didn’t like popular books. So far I’ve found that I enjoy the books you rate highly pretty much every time. I do enjoy some tropes and plot types that you don’t, but I’m enjoying your recommendations for sure! Especially as someone newer to sci-fi.
I read the Handmaid's tale 2 years ago and i thought it was quite good. I like how she made the main character "silent" while her mind was so powerful. Its like she's saying to the oppressors that they can do whatever they want to her body but they can never touch her mind. I didnt enjoy The Testaments though. That one was not up to par at all.
I saw an interview with Atwood about Handmaid’s Tale. She said that every aspect of the book has really happened or is happening somewhere in the world. I think that is what really made me look at the book closely. This stuff happened, or is happening. That is crazy. If you haven’t, you should watch the tv series. It is very good. The end of the book is up in the air, right? From that point on, the series and the second book do not follow the same path, but otherwise, both good in their own rights.
The Wrath and the Dawn- THANK YOU! I really wanted to love it and bought it on my Kindle, then had to DNF not that far into it because the insta love with a wife murderer was just too much for me. Thought about going back several times but thank you for letting me know book 2 doesn’t get any better lol
aw was in middle school when i read cinder like 10 years ago, and with every book it got better. i loved it; was one of the first cast of characters/found family series i'd read, as well as a sci-fi in the age of dystopian books. never really was able to read the last one, and every year go back and forth on if i'll revisit it
i have to judge people based on their reading taste because i had a man on a dating site tell me with his whole chest that his favorite book was some kind of misogynistic self help book for men and i was like..... 👁👄👁
Yeah a guy said to me colore of magic is much better then earthsea, he meant a direct comparison. I sayed you can not compare these to books directly, these are diffent subgenre. Comparing a comedy with a kidsbook is not going to work, it is plane stupid. And i like earthsea, it is good. And the colour of magic is a bore. Mcbeast is much better.
I totally agree about The Good Daughter. The descriptions of the crime in the first chapter are extremely graphic, not to mention when they pop up again. I’m not one to be triggered by violence but the long, strung out graphic descriptions of violence are extremely depressing. Her books are interesting but they are so dark that I feel them affecting my mood!
I just finished "Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao, it is pure female rage! I think you would love it, the mc is as angry as Rin and Tao combined. And the author is Canadian. ☆☆☆☆☆ for me
I usually agree with your reviews, but I did enjoy Handmaid’s Tale and The Giver. I do agree with Sea of Tranquility, it was a 3 star for me. My Goodreads not worth the hype… Chestnut Man was way too long and drawn out, 4.21 on Goodreads, 3 from me.
I normally love your videos, but I couldn't continue after the rating of Dorian Gray and then the comment that you would have kept it if the cover was a bit more pretty... I was just like that was the whole point of the book 😅😅😅😅🥲 I'll come back for another video.
You said it because the book is questioning style over substance? I don't know, to each their own, but for me it was a real thought provoking book were it questions our social construct.
I liked Senlin Ascends but I absolutely LOVED books 2 & 3 in the series. The world building is insane and the character work is vastly better than the first one. They are easily among the top books I've ever read. The fourth book was a huge letdown though
Here's my hot take. Don't write a period novel, if you're going to make it sound like the characters are from 2023, because I will DNF it and be petty about it. I be reading a historical novel set in the 1800 and the boys and girls interacting like it's a high school cafe of today 🙄 This is in fact one of the reasons why I hated Babel, the dialogues didn't feel Victorian in the least. I'll not even talk about the atrocity that the Bridgerton books are. I started the first one and one chapter in I was like "absolutely not" and DNF-ed it. I am sure I would have given Babel more than the 1 star I gave it, if it was written in the present day simply because I wouldn't be sighing and shaking my head each time it reminded me that it's doing a scandalous job at trying and failing to sound Victorian.
I read “Its Kind Of A Funny Story” in highschool or middle school right when it came out and really resonated with it but I agree it would not be the same reading it through a different lens today
Hard agree with The Good Daughter. I saw it on sale at Barnes and Noble, and I heard people raving about Karin Slaughter. Read it and then got rid of right after. The writing was good, but I hated the plot and found it was too much for me (and I’m usually Ok with everything!).
About The Cruel Prince... I never understood the hype either, right after I finished the book I sold it and bc it kept getting so hype I even thought about reading it for a 2nd time after I sold it but... I'm not doing that, I have a +300 list of books waiting for me
When someone talks about the shadowhunters series i get flashbacks to a friend of mine recommending me the books by saying that i was the female version of Jace. I would have been offended after reading them but she always mentioned how much she loved Jace. Anyway that was a wake up call to me needing to change my attitude 😂😂😂
City of Bone was the first book I ever DNFd 🤣🤣 The Handmaids Tale was also awful, I only finished it because of a book club I was in. I think your ratings were pretty fair if not generous.
Being a STEM female whose favourite genre is sci-fi, the sexism/racism in so much of the classics/"canon" is trying their best to hurt me 🤣The routine now after finishing a book is to cuss out the author in my private reading journal . 😅 I hated that much about Childhood's End but the overall story itself had a huge impact on me, it's still one of my favourite books. So many of the series I really like now there were parts I absolutely despised. Another sci-fi series like that with that whiplash sexism (despite being a contemporary work) is Remembrance of Earth's Past - I'm still obsessed with the trilogy though. Do Androids Dream, however, I cannot stand. That PKD just suffers too much from man-writing-woman-syndrome...
I'm fuming on the Handmaid's Tale 'not well written' comment😲! Margaret Atwood, especially her older titles, are so well written they could be poetry! Her prose is amazing, and I love her above all others. 💜 I recommend everyone try at least one like Oryx and Crake, Alias Grace, Surfacing, etc. to make up their minds! Still love you Em hehe
I completely agree about Cinder. I read it this year and feel like the target audience is 12 year olds. I don’t really understand adults who like it. I have kind of a similar experience with The Giver. I had to read it for my grade 7 English class. At that time I just moved to Canada and didn’t know much English. I reread it a few years later and actually really liked and read the rest of the books in the series.
@@BookswithEmilyFox I liked the other books, too. The first three books are very loosely connected, Gathering Blue and Messenger are set in different dystopian communities from The Giver. And Jonas reappears in the third book so you get an idea what happened to him, but it’s vague.
I'm reading Sea of Tranquility right now, and I agree that it feels really disjointed. It started getting better when the explanation as to why the different parts are connected came around about halfway through. I've got a couple hours left on the audiobook, though. (Also, for some reason, the book reminds me of The Dark Forest/Death's End. I'm not sure how much of a spoiler it would be to explain why it feels like that, though.)
If you are interested in books on women's health I recommend reading Dr. Jen Gunter's books (if you haven't). She works in California now but is from Canada. Her books have content that is representive for both Canadians and Americans which is always nice for us Canadians for a change. She wrote the Menopause Manifesto (which you can read at any point, not just when you are close to menopause) and the Vagina Bible. I think she also has a new book coming out about periods. She also has great content on Instagram and has a podcast but I haven't listened to that so I can't recommended it. Loving the cat content. Thank you for representing black cats, as they don't always get the love!
Completely agree about the Wizard of Earthsea. I want to scream when people recommend it to my 11yo daughter because they enjoyed it as a child XX years ago. I found it so dry and uninteresting. It feels so dated to me. My unpopular opinion is that I hated The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss with a passion. So much arrogant drivel!
Me too. I think part of it was reading cyberpunk as an adolescent when it was a pretty new genre. That book was published in 1968, and I read it in the late 70s IIRC. It felt refreshing and disaffected with the rosy future in many SF books I had read up to that time.
I tend to skip the ones I know I will hate because I am NOT a BookTuber. :D I am sometimes fooled into reading a bad or mediocre book by social media, but now I just wait longer and see what people like you (honest, feminist, inclusive, and not too much younger than I am to have significantly divergent tastes from mine) have to say. I will also review on a sliding scale when I am not the target audience, like for middle grade or YA books. I am a harsh reviewer I think. I rarely give five stars, and I give lots of three stars on Goodreads. One star is I hated it and/or DNF'd. A two star from me is I was offended, I disliked the book, I think it was poorly written or plotted. A three star from me means it was OK, not offensive, readable, probably won't reread, and I don't regret reading it. Four stars is I liked it, recommend it, and maybe would re-read it. Five stars is I loved it, highly recommend it, and would definitely re-read it/have re-read it.
I had to read The Giver in middle school and I couldn’t even get passed the first page. I tried again a few years later and still found it painfully boring. I read The Handmaids Tale in high school (my teacher let us choose any book to read and do an essay on) and I could not stand the writing style for whatever reason. I was actually really excited to read it (which was rare for me when it came to reading for school) and I ended up just using sparknotes for the essay. I do like Cinder though, probably more for nostalgic purposes. I read those books when I was super into the YA dystopian books like 10 years ago and I thought they were really fun
The kittens are so big and active and so showing so much personality and so cute and making my heart melt with joy xoxo 😚 💛🩵🏝️🏝️🏝️💛📙📚📙💛🩵🩵📖📖🏝️🩵📚📚💛🌞🌞🌞📙📚📚📚💛🩵🩵🩵🏝️📖📖🏝️📙📚📚📚📚💛💛🌞📙📙🩵🏝️📖📖📖📖🏝️💛📙📚
Interesting list. Honestly surprised to see the first book of Earthsea here. I absolutely loved it, and it's one of the very few fantasy books I read when I was younger that had a non-white protagonist. Maybe I need to revisit it as an adult, but since reading it way back when, it holds a very special place in my heart.
i also read solaris, after i had seen the tarkovsky adaptation, i'd definitely recommend checking out the film. it's pretty different, but i'll bet that's a similar situation with bladerunner
I am not a Margaret Atwood fan. I remember liking The Handmaid's Tale but haven't read it since 1989 (I think?). And yes, most people have read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep because of the movie. It's not Philip K. Dick's best work. One sci fi novel that I just don't get is Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card). So many people tell me how great it is. It's kind of "meh" for me. It's not terrible.
Actually, I kind of think that’s kind of stupid because she was James do androids dream of electric sheep because people actually liked it before the movie people did
My native language is also French and I was today years old when I learnt that 4.thirteen is not how you say numbers in English. You learn something new everyday 😂
Moi aussi j’ai juste appris ça aujourd’hui et il me semble que c’est impossible que personne ne m’ait signalé ça avant parce que j’ai été à l’université en anglais, dans un domaine où j’ai dû prendre des cours de stats…… Mind blown 🤯
I feel the same about The handmaid's tale, I actually rated it 4 stars back in the day but it's so unmemorable and yeah honestly a bit boring like there are a lot of books like that that are so much better at conveying what this book tried to convey 😅
Totally agree about The Handmaid's Tale. I DNFed it when it was super popular. I thought it was in really boring. I loved The Giver and, when I was teaching, I always taught it. It is a series, but I don’t think the follow up books are as good. I don’t usually like open ended books but I was okay with this one.
I read the Giver as a kid (a translation of course) and it absolutely blew my mind. Like this was the book that really pushed me to reading. So I reread it as an adult and it was not the same experience so yes it is clearly a children's book, but for that it was perfect. I also think because this was the first dystopian book I have ever read (that was years before the Hunger Games, I'm old 😂)
Honestly, I never really read that do androids dream of electric sheep, but from what I can tell I think the review just seems like you watch the movie first and read the book which is fine but I think it’s
I have a huge amount of respect for Ursula K Le Guin and think she was a very intelligent and kind person…but I agree about Earthsea. It could have been good but it just wasn’t. I don’t understand how some other people didn’t find it boring. I definitely haven’t written off her as an author and hope to read something else of hers at some point, but Earthsea was just not for me.
Oooh some thoughts: *Margaret Atwood is one of /those/ people about genre fiction even though she has written at least 3 scifi books (the trilogy starting with Oryx and Crake is really a fun read!) *I love everything Ursula K Le Guin I've read except for Earthsea so don't let that dissuade you! *I didn't even like the Bladerunner movie so I'd hate to see what I'd think of the book it's based on lolll
Bonus thought: I really enjoyed The Giver even though I read it when I was like 11 or 12, the ending never felt "open" to me bc it was clear they escaped. I did later read the other books so that might be clouding my memory!
I liked The Lathe of Heaven by Le Guin and I'm still planning on trying the books I have by her on my shelf but it's been years because I was so disappointed by Earthsea I didn't like the movie either XD
I had to read The Giver in school, but I really didn't understand it or like it. I am never reading it, even though I am an adult now. Awesome video and cats.
English is not my first language either, but I believe you say decimal like 0.6 six tenths and for double digits you say hundredths like 4.13 four and thirteen hundredths. 3 digits thouthandths. And it could just be simplified to four point thirteen as you have been saying or four point one three. I don't think you were saying it wrong. More natives can correct me if I am wrong.
This is gonna sound so weird, but even tho you and I have OPPOSITE taste (soooo opposite) - I still watch your videos cause I find them really good and entertaining (plus the kittens are adorable) - and it turns out your reccomendations kind of work in reverse for me, meaning that when you don't like something there's a big chance I will (and viceversa)! Lol 😂
Mean, OK if you I don’t think people like you quite get it because the factors that looks nowadays are so dumb down that like nobody understands older bucks, which is sad
I know I read Childhood's End but don't remember the sexism in that one. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, however, basically goes...science...science...alien culture...science...digression on how distracting women's boobs are for men in zero g...science...etc. The sexism in that one stuck with me. I also remember you said you tried the beginning of the Silo series (Wool, Shift, and Dust) by Hugh Howey but weren't grabbed by it when I recommended the series to you. I just finished the TV series, and it is excellent. Maybe worth giving it a try as a TV series? Interesting dystopian sci-fi!
I loved her until I hated her. I loved the first few books of hers but for me, she went a bit too far, definitely triggering for me and I haven't read another Karin Slaughter since
Hi Emily 🙂 thanks for another awesome video! I have a recommendation for you, one of my very best friends just finished his very first novel and honestly (I'm not just saying this) it is SO AMAZING! It's a Mystery/Thriller but it's not at all a slasher or gory book, just lots of excitement and suspense. The characters are also really wholesome and interesting, you really quickly want to become their friends lol! Its set in a small town in the 1960s and it's called Sunnyville by J. H. Hastings, he's self-published and just starting out but I am telling you, I really think you would absolutely love this book it is an undiscovered gem!!
I´m quite annoyed by Fourth wing rating. It´s the highest rated book I read on my Goodreads (1700+ books) and objectively it´s really not good. It´s addictive and quite enjoyable, but it doesn´t deserve such a high rating.
I read doandrids dream of e. Sheeps! It was mid, i can remember anything spezial, it was very different to the movie, less sexist. But ubik was amazing only i did not get the ending. Marsian timefall is... i do not know it was over my head, did not understand it.
I definitely agree that Record of a Spaceborn Few was the big dud of the Wayfarers series. It just felt really boring and the characters weren't that interesting.
I’m not gonna say that I hated Sea of Tranquility, but I keep forgetting that it exists and that I read it only last year. And I can’t for the life of me remember what it was about, just so forgetable. The hype let me to read another book by her, Station Eleven, and it was fine, a little meh, but fine. Taste is such a funny thing, though, because I I absolutely love The Handmaid’s Tale
Have to say I have never read Atwood. I just can’t .. so boring. Cut that your top today was same as the thumbnail. Super cute Chunky appearance too… that purrrrr!
No, because he’s the thing is that even if the dystopian is more certain like for the times, for when it was written, that’s not the point of dystopian books
I agree on Earthsea. I didn’t read it until I was an adult, and I think that is the main reason why I didn’t like it. I think it needs to be one of the first fantasy books you read in order to enjoy it. If you read that book after being well read in the fantasy genre, it’s going to be hard to like
Any unpopular book opinions on these?
Maybe Picture of Dorian Gray, but Karin Slaughter is an acquired taste, I’ll admit that. There’s a "jail" scene in Triptych (the 1st book of hers I read) that STILL haunts me.
Childhoods End and Do Androids Dream.. (yes i read it dang it!) really hurt 😅 but nice video nonetheless
I love SF, but have a REALLY hard time enjoying anything by PKD, so I hold nothing against you, but....
You should read Tombs of Atuan by Le Guin. I also didn't like Wizard of Earthsea the first (and 2nd) time I read it. Tombs of Atuan is a whole other beast. It's haunting, and beautiful, and told through the eyes of a girl/young woman and it's short and just about perfect. Don't let your dislike of WoE stop you from reading Le Guin, because she's such an amazing writer.
I had to read Solaris in school. I was so bored. I don't remember what happens.
I actually liked Solaris, I like the whole concept of not being able to trust what you're seeing, a very classic sci-fi trope. That being said I read it a long time ago, and I'm sure the writing style was dry, like most classic sci-fi is.
as an Iranian woman i really felt represented reading the handmaid's tale (i knowwww, sounds crazy feeling represented by a dystopian book) a lot of the experiences described in the book are things we go through in day to day life and honestly i had never read a book that confronted the absurdity of our situation to this extent (obviously it isn't brought up in western literature and in Persian literature the current system is normalized and there is no room for criticism bc the regime oversees every book that is published in the country) so i just felt really grateful reading that book.
from what i've read Atwood lived in western Germany for 2 years before the collapse of the Berlin wall and she was inspired by the experiences and accounts of eastern German refugees also by the accounts of North Korean refugees, the experiences of Iranian women after the Islamic revolution and some of the historical experiences of western women too (for example American women not having the right to own a bank account in their own name prior to 1974) so it obviously includes the experiences of white women too, this book is based on an amalgamation of the female experience in various parts of the world,
all that to say as a WOC i don't feel like our experiences were appropriated and written to cater to white women, specially since Gilead is basically a futuristic version of the US so the world includes WOC too and the author gives credit to the source material so for me personally i'm mostly glad that these issues got attention in western media bc of the popularity of this book.
Of course I can only ever speak for myself, obviously there might be others who disagree with my views.
from a reading experience standpoint however i do empathize with you, it really did drag at times, i honestly would give it a 3* for the writing if i didn't connect with the themes to the extent that i did.
Sorry for the 10 page essay in your comment section lol, this book rlly meant a lot to me so i needed to contribute to the discussion.
Another Iranian person on booktube? Yay hi I feel so happy now.
ايول حال كردم واقعا 😊
Hii...would you recommend some books that are based on day to day experiences of Iranians after the revolution.
Thank you so much for you time, I loved reading about you thoughts
Margaret Atwood has said that all the conditions and situations depicted in Handmaid’s Tale are or were actual happenings at some point in time, somewhere. So it is not surprising you feel some familiarity with it. Thank you for your thoughts. Very interesting and relevant.
@@gautamsingh-py7ur the only two that I can remember rn are 1. the stationery shop which I haven’t read yet or 2. Darius the Great duology.
They’re not exactly about Iranian’s day to day life inside of Iran but they still have Iranian characters. I hope this was helpful.
Ngl i keep waiting for you to change your account name to BooksAndCatsWithEmilyFox 🐈⬛
Why not “Book with Emily Fox & Cats”?? They’re clearly into books too lol
Books and Emily Fox with Cats. They're the main characters now lol
@@BookswithEmilyFox PLEASE,MAKES ABOUT LADY GODIVA
Cinder is probably my favorite 'comfort' series. but i am SO glad that i found it before i knew it had any hype because i got to go in with no preconceptions. I definitely agree it got overhyped for what it is. But I'm definitely on it's hype train anyway😂
15:40 learn to notice things is why I'm here. Your commentary helps me spot those things I wouldn't have spot years ago. Thanks Emily.
I feel the same way about Handmaid's Tale. It feels so good to know I am not the only one who was bored by it.
I teach middle school. I have hooked many of my female students on reading with The Selection series. . Students always hate the ending of The Giver but love the book. It leads to such interesting discussions with kids and really makes them think more deeply about their reading.
Personally I loved Wizard of Earthsea. It helped through some dark times in my life. There’s a sense of loneliness about the world through Ged’s eyes that is filled with subtle sadness, it gives some weight to the redemption in his journey. Wizard of Earthsea and Taren Wanderer were the books mostly tailored for young children, mostly boys traversing childhood and to adulthood. Ged and Taren helped me personally through times where I just wanted to quit everything.
I love hearing why you did and didn’t like popular books. So far I’ve found that I enjoy the books you rate highly pretty much every time. I do enjoy some tropes and plot types that you don’t, but I’m enjoying your recommendations for sure! Especially as someone newer to sci-fi.
I read the Handmaid's tale 2 years ago and i thought it was quite good. I like how she made the main character "silent" while her mind was so powerful. Its like she's saying to the oppressors that they can do whatever they want to her body but they can never touch her mind. I didnt enjoy The Testaments though. That one was not up to par at all.
I saw an interview with Atwood about Handmaid’s Tale. She said that every aspect of the book has really happened or is happening somewhere in the world. I think that is what really made me look at the book closely. This stuff happened, or is happening. That is crazy.
If you haven’t, you should watch the tv series. It is very good. The end of the book is up in the air, right? From that point on, the series and the second book do not follow the same path, but otherwise, both good in their own rights.
The Wrath and the Dawn- THANK YOU! I really wanted to love it and bought it on my Kindle, then had to DNF not that far into it because the insta love with a wife murderer was just too much for me. Thought about going back several times but thank you for letting me know book 2 doesn’t get any better lol
It really doesn’t!
aw was in middle school when i read cinder like 10 years ago, and with every book it got better. i loved it; was one of the first cast of characters/found family series i'd read, as well as a sci-fi in the age of dystopian books. never really was able to read the last one, and every year go back and forth on if i'll revisit it
I still have to read the fourth one, too 😄
i have to judge people based on their reading taste because i had a man on a dating site tell me with his whole chest that his favorite book was some kind of misogynistic self help book for men and i was like..... 👁👄👁
I think it’s totally fair tbh. Our taste doesn’t exist in a vacuum so 🤷♀️
Yeah a guy said to me colore of magic is much better then earthsea, he meant a direct comparison. I sayed you can not compare these to books directly, these are diffent subgenre. Comparing a comedy with a kidsbook is not going to work, it is plane stupid. And i like earthsea, it is good. And the colour of magic is a bore. Mcbeast is much better.
I love the slander lol. Now I want to see the ones worth the hype!
I totally agree about The Good Daughter. The descriptions of the crime in the first chapter are extremely graphic, not to mention when they pop up again. I’m not one to be triggered by violence but the long, strung out graphic descriptions of violence are extremely depressing. Her books are interesting but they are so dark that I feel them affecting my mood!
Actually I loved Solaris. But I am the kind of reader who likes long, detailed descriptions. It makes the scene so much more vivid in my mind.
I just finished "Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao, it is pure female rage! I think you would love it, the mc is as angry as Rin and Tao combined. And the author is Canadian.
☆☆☆☆☆ for me
I usually agree with your reviews, but I did enjoy Handmaid’s Tale and The Giver. I do agree with Sea of Tranquility, it was a 3 star for me. My Goodreads not worth the hype… Chestnut Man was way too long and drawn out, 4.21 on Goodreads, 3 from me.
I normally love your videos, but I couldn't continue after the rating of Dorian Gray and then the comment that you would have kept it if the cover was a bit more pretty... I was just like that was the whole point of the book 😅😅😅😅🥲 I'll come back for another video.
That’s why I said it? Lol
You said it because the book is questioning style over substance? I don't know, to each their own, but for me it was a real thought provoking book were it questions our social construct.
I liked Senlin Ascends but I absolutely LOVED books 2 & 3 in the series. The world building is insane and the character work is vastly better than the first one. They are easily among the top books I've ever read. The fourth book was a huge letdown though
Here's my hot take.
Don't write a period novel, if you're going to make it sound like the characters are from 2023, because I will DNF it and be petty about it.
I be reading a historical novel set in the 1800 and the boys and girls interacting like it's a high school cafe of today 🙄
This is in fact one of the reasons why I hated Babel, the dialogues didn't feel Victorian in the least.
I'll not even talk about the atrocity that the Bridgerton books are. I started the first one and one chapter in I was like "absolutely not" and DNF-ed it.
I am sure I would have given Babel more than the 1 star I gave it, if it was written in the present day simply because I wouldn't be sighing and shaking my head each time it reminded me that it's doing a scandalous job at trying and failing to sound Victorian.
I read “Its Kind Of A Funny Story” in highschool or middle school right when it came out and really resonated with it but I agree it would not be the same reading it through a different lens today
Hard agree with The Good Daughter. I saw it on sale at Barnes and Noble, and I heard people raving about Karin Slaughter. Read it and then got rid of right after. The writing was good, but I hated the plot and found it was too much for me (and I’m usually Ok with everything!).
About The Cruel Prince... I never understood the hype either, right after I finished the book I sold it and bc it kept getting so hype I even thought about reading it for a 2nd time after I sold it but... I'm not doing that, I have a +300 list of books waiting for me
When someone talks about the shadowhunters series i get flashbacks to a friend of mine recommending me the books by saying that i was the female version of Jace. I would have been offended after reading them but she always mentioned how much she loved Jace. Anyway that was a wake up call to me needing to change my attitude 😂😂😂
LOL outch
You just popped up on my home feed, and I was so pleasantly surprised. Glad to see you're still on here, but I do miss your other channel.
City of Bone was the first book I ever DNFd 🤣🤣 The Handmaids Tale was also awful, I only finished it because of a book club I was in. I think your ratings were pretty fair if not generous.
it’s the first one I DNFed too and my teenage self felt so sad for spending all my pocket money on a book I ended up finding so shitty hahaha
I lol’d at the section re: The Selection. At least Emily is honest! 😂
Being a STEM female whose favourite genre is sci-fi, the sexism/racism in so much of the classics/"canon" is trying their best to hurt me 🤣The routine now after finishing a book is to cuss out the author in my private reading journal . 😅 I hated that much about Childhood's End but the overall story itself had a huge impact on me, it's still one of my favourite books. So many of the series I really like now there were parts I absolutely despised. Another sci-fi series like that with that whiplash sexism (despite being a contemporary work) is Remembrance of Earth's Past - I'm still obsessed with the trilogy though. Do Androids Dream, however, I cannot stand. That PKD just suffers too much from man-writing-woman-syndrome...
Oh that series had so many interesting concepts but the sexism was so painful XD
I'm fuming on the Handmaid's Tale 'not well written' comment😲! Margaret Atwood, especially her older titles, are so well written they could be poetry! Her prose is amazing, and I love her above all others. 💜 I recommend everyone try at least one like Oryx and Crake, Alias Grace, Surfacing, etc. to make up their minds! Still love you Em hehe
I completely agree about Cinder. I read it this year and feel like the target audience is 12 year olds. I don’t really understand adults who like it.
I have kind of a similar experience with The Giver. I had to read it for my grade 7 English class. At that time I just moved to Canada and didn’t know much English. I reread it a few years later and actually really liked and read the rest of the books in the series.
Is the rest of the series worth it?
@@BookswithEmilyFox I liked the other books, too. The first three books are very loosely connected, Gathering Blue and Messenger are set in different dystopian communities from The Giver. And Jonas reappears in the third book so you get an idea what happened to him, but it’s vague.
I'm reading Sea of Tranquility right now, and I agree that it feels really disjointed. It started getting better when the explanation as to why the different parts are connected came around about halfway through. I've got a couple hours left on the audiobook, though. (Also, for some reason, the book reminds me of The Dark Forest/Death's End. I'm not sure how much of a spoiler it would be to explain why it feels like that, though.)
If you are interested in books on women's health I recommend reading Dr. Jen Gunter's books (if you haven't). She works in California now but is from Canada. Her books have content that is representive for both Canadians and Americans which is always nice for us Canadians for a change. She wrote the Menopause Manifesto (which you can read at any point, not just when you are close to menopause) and the Vagina Bible. I think she also has a new book coming out about periods. She also has great content on Instagram and has a podcast but I haven't listened to that so I can't recommended it. Loving the cat content. Thank you for representing black cats, as they don't always get the love!
I have the second one on my library waiting list! I'll definitely check them both!
Emily in pink is giving Disney princess vibes ✨ 👸🏻
I feel the same about Selection. I don't think it is a great story. But it was definitely entertaining. 😄
Completely agree about the Wizard of Earthsea. I want to scream when people recommend it to my 11yo daughter because they enjoyed it as a child XX years ago. I found it so dry and uninteresting. It feels so dated to me. My unpopular opinion is that I hated The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss with a passion. So much arrogant drivel!
I see a black tail and hear purring. 🐈⬛
love this color on you!
Thank you! Matching my profile pic 😂💕
I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep before the film. I believe the novel and movie were good.
Me too. I think part of it was reading cyberpunk as an adolescent when it was a pretty new genre. That book was published in 1968, and I read it in the late 70s IIRC. It felt refreshing and disaffected with the rosy future in many SF books I had read up to that time.
The Giver was not giving? Hmm figures.
I tend to skip the ones I know I will hate because I am NOT a BookTuber. :D I am sometimes fooled into reading a bad or mediocre book by social media, but now I just wait longer and see what people like you (honest, feminist, inclusive, and not too much younger than I am to have significantly divergent tastes from mine) have to say. I will also review on a sliding scale when I am not the target audience, like for middle grade or YA books.
I am a harsh reviewer I think. I rarely give five stars, and I give lots of three stars on Goodreads. One star is I hated it and/or DNF'd. A two star from me is I was offended, I disliked the book, I think it was poorly written or plotted. A three star from me means it was OK, not offensive, readable, probably won't reread, and I don't regret reading it. Four stars is I liked it, recommend it, and maybe would re-read it. Five stars is I loved it, highly recommend it, and would definitely re-read it/have re-read it.
I had to read The Giver in middle school and I couldn’t even get passed the first page. I tried again a few years later and still found it painfully boring. I read The Handmaids Tale in high school (my teacher let us choose any book to read and do an essay on) and I could not stand the writing style for whatever reason. I was actually really excited to read it (which was rare for me when it came to reading for school) and I ended up just using sparknotes for the essay.
I do like Cinder though, probably more for nostalgic purposes. I read those books when I was super into the YA dystopian books like 10 years ago and I thought they were really fun
The kittens are so big and active and so showing so much personality and so cute and making my heart melt with joy xoxo 😚 💛🩵🏝️🏝️🏝️💛📙📚📙💛🩵🩵📖📖🏝️🩵📚📚💛🌞🌞🌞📙📚📚📚💛🩵🩵🩵🏝️📖📖🏝️📙📚📚📚📚💛💛🌞📙📙🩵🏝️📖📖📖📖🏝️💛📙📚
Interesting list. Honestly surprised to see the first book of Earthsea here. I absolutely loved it, and it's one of the very few fantasy books I read when I was younger that had a non-white protagonist. Maybe I need to revisit it as an adult, but since reading it way back when, it holds a very special place in my heart.
I just finished the Lathe of Heaven a couple of days ago and agree...underrated. I really enjoyed it.
There’s nothing wrong with saying “four point thirteen”! That comment must have been that persons individual preference.
Now I'm back to being confused lol
I'd love to know what books you find underrated.
I really liked The Lunar Chronicles, but I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings.
The Unseen World is one of my all-time fave books haha
i also read solaris, after i had seen the tarkovsky adaptation, i'd definitely recommend checking out the film. it's pretty different, but i'll bet that's a similar situation with bladerunner
I am not a Margaret Atwood fan. I remember liking The Handmaid's Tale but haven't read it since 1989 (I think?). And yes, most people have read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep because of the movie. It's not Philip K. Dick's best work. One sci fi novel that I just don't get is Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card). So many people tell me how great it is. It's kind of "meh" for me. It's not terrible.
Actually, I kind of think that’s kind of stupid because she was James do androids dream of electric sheep because people actually liked it before the movie people did
I loved Solaris, I found it soooo creepy. 😅
My native language is also French and I was today years old when I learnt that 4.thirteen is not how you say numbers in English. You learn something new everyday 😂
Like we say here "On va se coucher moins niaiseuse!"
Moi aussi j’ai juste appris ça aujourd’hui et il me semble que c’est impossible que personne ne m’ait signalé ça avant parce que j’ai été à l’université en anglais, dans un domaine où j’ai dû prendre des cours de stats…… Mind blown 🤯
C'est tellement vrai aussi que nos chiffres ne font pas de sens 😅😅
I feel the same about The handmaid's tale, I actually rated it 4 stars back in the day but it's so unmemorable and yeah honestly a bit boring like there are a lot of books like that that are so much better at conveying what this book tried to convey 😅
Totally agree about The Handmaid's Tale. I DNFed it when it was super popular. I thought it was in really boring. I loved The Giver and, when I was teaching, I always taught it. It is a series, but I don’t think the follow up books are as good. I don’t usually like open ended books but I was okay with this one.
I read the Giver as a kid (a translation of course) and it absolutely blew my mind. Like this was the book that really pushed me to reading.
So I reread it as an adult and it was not the same experience so yes it is clearly a children's book, but for that it was perfect. I also think because this was the first dystopian book I have ever read (that was years before the Hunger Games, I'm old 😂)
I have tried some books that get a lot of attention but I rarely don't like them.
I really liked "Senlin Ascends" 😄
I am reading Station 11 right now…it is pretty good. I think I am really liking dystopian/apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic books.
Honestly, I never really read that do androids dream of electric sheep, but from what I can tell I think the review just seems like you watch the movie first and read the book which is fine but I think it’s
11:34 - I love this book, but I'm wondering why this version of the cover has a picture of Franz Liszt on it xD
I watch your channel because I don’t agree with your opinion often and can often find good books by reading ones you don’t like. 😂
Is Mortal Instruments great? NO
Do I still love the rest of shadowhunter series? YES
I have a huge amount of respect for Ursula K Le Guin and think she was a very intelligent and kind person…but I agree about Earthsea. It could have been good but it just wasn’t. I don’t understand how some other people didn’t find it boring. I definitely haven’t written off her as an author and hope to read something else of hers at some point, but Earthsea was just not for me.
I love your cat😻. And I find your videos informative
Oooh some thoughts:
*Margaret Atwood is one of /those/ people about genre fiction even though she has written at least 3 scifi books (the trilogy starting with Oryx and Crake is really a fun read!)
*I love everything Ursula K Le Guin I've read except for Earthsea so don't let that dissuade you!
*I didn't even like the Bladerunner movie so I'd hate to see what I'd think of the book it's based on lolll
Bonus thought: I really enjoyed The Giver even though I read it when I was like 11 or 12, the ending never felt "open" to me bc it was clear they escaped. I did later read the other books so that might be clouding my memory!
I liked The Lathe of Heaven by Le Guin and I'm still planning on trying the books I have by her on my shelf but it's been years because I was so disappointed by Earthsea
I didn't like the movie either XD
I had the read The Giver in maybe 6th or 7th grade and I remember I loved it until the ending. I also hate open endings like that lol
Cinder is getting an animated adaptation, so it might get much popular now
wait, why can’t we say four point thirteen? (native spanish speaker here)
A memory called Empire .. omg this book bored me to tears and i was so disappointed that i didn’t like it.
I had to read The Giver in school, but I really didn't understand it or like it. I am never reading it, even though I am an adult now. Awesome video and cats.
I absolutely loved “sea of tranquility” 🎉but her other books disappointed me 😢
English is not my first language either, but I believe you say decimal like 0.6 six tenths and for double digits you say hundredths like 4.13 four and thirteen hundredths. 3 digits thouthandths. And it could just be simplified to four point thirteen as you have been saying or four point one three. I don't think you were saying it wrong. More natives can correct me if I am wrong.
Solaris movie by Terkovsky is also boring 🥴🥴 but wanna try Stanislav lem one day🤷🏽♂️
Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf is my favorite french number 😂 forgot all the french i learned i school except this number honestly
This is gonna sound so weird, but even tho you and I have OPPOSITE taste (soooo opposite) - I still watch your videos cause I find them really good and entertaining (plus the kittens are adorable) - and it turns out your reccomendations kind of work in reverse for me, meaning that when you don't like something there's a big chance I will (and viceversa)! Lol
😂
Not weird at all! I watch people who read books I’d never read 😂 if it works it works!
I'm one of those people who love Senlin Ascends and the rest of the series.😊
I had the same reaction to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I was so confused as to why it's so revered.
Mean, OK if you I don’t think people like you quite get it because the factors that looks nowadays are so dumb down that like nobody understands older bucks, which is sad
I loved the good daughter 🥹
I know I read Childhood's End but don't remember the sexism in that one. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, however, basically goes...science...science...alien culture...science...digression on how distracting women's boobs are for men in zero g...science...etc. The sexism in that one stuck with me. I also remember you said you tried the beginning of the Silo series (Wool, Shift, and Dust) by Hugh Howey but weren't grabbed by it when I recommended the series to you. I just finished the TV series, and it is excellent. Maybe worth giving it a try as a TV series? Interesting dystopian sci-fi!
Karin Slaughter is one of my favourites but she is indeed a difficult read. Triggering is the perfect word for her😂 I've read 90% of her books.
People either love her or hate her XD
I loved her until I hated her. I loved the first few books of hers but for me, she went a bit too far, definitely triggering for me and I haven't read another Karin Slaughter since
Understandable. Have you watched Will Trent? They changed so much from the book that I don't think I will watch it.
Hi Emily 🙂 thanks for another awesome video! I have a recommendation for you, one of my very best friends just finished his very first novel and honestly (I'm not just saying this) it is SO AMAZING! It's a Mystery/Thriller but it's not at all a slasher or gory book, just lots of excitement and suspense. The characters are also really wholesome and interesting, you really quickly want to become their friends lol! Its set in a small town in the 1960s and it's called Sunnyville by J. H. Hastings, he's self-published and just starting out but I am telling you, I really think you would absolutely love this book it is an undiscovered gem!!
I´m quite annoyed by Fourth wing rating. It´s the highest rated book I read on my Goodreads (1700+ books) and objectively it´s really not good. It´s addictive and quite enjoyable, but it doesn´t deserve such a high rating.
I read doandrids dream of e. Sheeps! It was mid, i can remember anything spezial, it was very different to the movie, less sexist. But ubik was amazing only i did not get the ending. Marsian timefall is... i do not know it was over my head, did not understand it.
My high school teacher asked if I liked the gifter. I said no bc of the ending also.
I actually loved Do androids dream of electric sheep the most out of all his books that I've read. 😅 And I also didn't like the movie that much.
I definitely agree that Record of a Spaceborn Few was the big dud of the Wayfarers series. It just felt really boring and the characters weren't that interesting.
I’m not gonna say that I hated Sea of Tranquility, but I keep forgetting that it exists and that I read it only last year. And I can’t for the life of me remember what it was about, just so forgetable. The hype let me to read another book by her, Station Eleven, and it was fine, a little meh, but fine. Taste is such a funny thing, though, because I I absolutely love The Handmaid’s Tale
I also felt so-so about Station Eleven. Something about her writing doesn't work for me!
Read The Handmaids Tale it was okay and the Hulu series ( to me) was diefferent
About the karin slaughter books 😅even i was traumatised after hearing the audiobooks that too 3 of them i did i tortured myself 😅😅
I am blaming this book on you. I got a copy of The Memory Police. It is in the 90s the rest of the week so I am going to hunker down with a book.
We have a heat wave here too and it's hard to read lol
We can do this!!
SO EXCITED!!💛🏝️🏝️🏝️📙📚📚📚📙💛🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🏝️💛📙📚📖📖🩵🏝️🏝️📙📚📖📚📚💛🏝️🩵🩵🌞🌞🩵🏝️💛💛📙📙📚📚📙🌞🩵🩵🩵📖📙🏝️💛🏝️🩵🩵🏝️📙📚📖📖📖
Have to say I have never read Atwood. I just can’t .. so boring. Cut that your top today was same as the thumbnail. Super cute Chunky appearance too… that purrrrr!
hahaha I read The Selection last month and I know that it’s not great literature but I still enjoyed it, it’s junk food in the form of a book
Completely agree with you on the handsmaids tail!!
No, because he’s the thing is that even if the dystopian is more certain like for the times, for when it was written, that’s not the point of dystopian books
Just in pure spite to the person who corrected you for 4.13 I will keep saying decimals like 13 ... 🤣
Lol petty 💅 I like it
Oh no, not A Memory Called Empire 😱😱😅
Ok, hear me out... the selection trilogy? Same. Literally same 😂
Idk what's in it but it's addicting!
@@BookswithEmilyFox true! I remember when i reviewed it i said the exact same thing, i took ut to a long flight & didn't move once from my seat
I agree on Earthsea. I didn’t read it until I was an adult, and I think that is the main reason why I didn’t like it. I think it needs to be one of the first fantasy books you read in order to enjoy it. If you read that book after being well read in the fantasy genre, it’s going to be hard to like