DNFing books is good for the soul. Even if they’re a book by an author who wrote your favorite book. I love your recent reads because it reminds me that we don’t get vlogs for each of them and I’m bad at goodreads, so it’s nice to see your thoughts and ratings on books I’ve read/want to read. Which means I want to reread The Tea Dragon trilogy. 😖
Friendly Rec for your TBR!!! : I’m currently reading “A Certain Hunger” by Chelsea Summers. & from the very first chapter I knew I had to tell you about it! It’s about a cannibalistic food critic, but the way the author describes things is so addictive. I feel like you’d love it. Im clinging onto every word. I picked it up in the hopes of finding something that had horror elements but wasn’t a man doing the killing ( lol go women) & I’m about 80 pages in and have not been disappointed!
As someone who did finish Hanya Yanagihara's 'To Paradise' i can comfortably say that it does not get better and is worth a miss. I had no prior knowledge of the Author's reputation going into it and had only read 'A Little Life' and as someone with so little knowledge even I could tell something was up. I also thought it was strange that Queerness was socially acceptable yet there was black and POC slurs every other chapter throughout book 1 and book 2. I'm not a gay man or a POC but even I felt disturbed and uncomfortable reading it. Book 3 is by far the best and least problematic section so if you like Hanya Yanagihara's writing and really want to read this book but don't want to support her I recommend buying a copy second hand and only reading book 3.
YES YES YES i fell in love with you the moment I saw the title.. you have no idea how much I wanted to do that but was too scared not to finish and give a vague non critical review because I was scared the publishers would blacklist me for future arcs
I just finished "This Is How It Always Is" by Laurie Frankel and I think you'd enjoy it! It follows a family of 7 (mostly from the parents perceptive) and how they handle & cope with their youngest child being trans at a very young age. The voice is fun & witty. The whole family is loveable. She does a great job at balancing the difficult conversation surrounding gender identity with humor and highlighting each character's individuality. As a trans person, I think it's a really accessible & fun way to present the struggles of a young trans person & finding acceptance
Just finished Pretty Girls by Karen Slaughter and WOW! You were right! Every moment I thought I knew what was gonna happen I was proven wrong! And just also kept thinking how the hell are they gonna survive this! New favorite!
Have you heard of the book Fox & I by Catherine Raven? It’s a nonfiction that sounds right up your alley about a scientist who befriends a wild fox and reads The Little Prince to it
Spectrum Women sounds really interesting! I def think we need more accessible literature about the relationship between non-binary folks and the medical system
If you pick up To Paradise again go to Book 3! I feel like it goes in the 1984, Brave New World required reading list. There is SO much to talk about in book 3!!! I found it eerie and telling.
I couldn't agree with you more on Blindness. I wanted to love it but got half way through the book, put the book in a drawer and forgot about it until you just mentioned it.
My favourite book of the year so far is Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan. I went in blind (which I do with most books I read) and I'm so glad I did. It's such a beautiful story of friendship and reflecting on the past. I also saw you added Indian Horse to your GR bookshelves. I read it last year and it destroyed me. Such an essential story.
More and more, I find myself anxious to watch reading reviews that review a book on my tbr because I get excited to read that book and when the review shits on the book, I feel like it ruins my experience. Which is exactly why, im SO glad you raved about dont cry for me because now im even more excited to read it :^D
I was on the fence about picking up A History of Wild Places because I don't usually get along with the mystery genre in general, but your description just sold me! Gimme a magical forest cult ANY day. Can't wait to pick it up now! Thanks again Ally for such a great video and motivating me to read all the things!
i read house of hollow about a week or two ago after you first mentioned it and i agree, i loved it so much that i’m reading another krystal sutherland book right now (a semi-definitive list of worst nightmares) and i’m only like a quarter in, the vibes are very different but i’m still having a good time
I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 23 years old - even then the only way I truly knew something was up was when I started university and I was very much not on the same level as my peers and after many embarrassing moments and meltdowns later HERE I AM THRIVING
Just give kindness to them because they are naïve. I don’t need thousands of the same things. Just one that works perfectly. Idc about travel. I want a turf backyard and an area for coco. I hold the world in my heart and I watch it through everything but most importantly everyone. Can’t believe my family doesn’t know ‘know’ that I’m me. 😗😌
Recently read How do you live? By Genzaburo Yoshino set to be made into a film by Miyazaki. Absolutely fell in love with it, I read it slowly to savor it. Highly recommended!!!
I'm early yay I love your videos so much, they helped me get through my depression last year, literally the only content I managed to watch then, thank you for sharing with us❤❤
I had the exact same reaction to A History of Wild Places. I had a good time reading but the twist at the end just was not good. Also I recommend getting the special hardcover edition because the book design is just ✨beautiful ✨.
would love to hear your thoughts on Kikuko Tsumura's "There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job" and also Balli Kaur Jaswal's "Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows"
reading the atlas six atm, only have like 20 pages left and i’m obsessed. it’s such a good dark academia fantasy with interesting characters and twists! definitely would recommend
So I’ve been a fan of yours since the tumblr days, and my baby is also named Howie (Howell is his full name, not Howlette so slightly different, but mostly I named him after your baby) and I get teary eyed everytime you talk about your Howie. ❤️ All of your fur babies are lucky to have you to look after them.
I just wanted to say a quick thank you - I love your videos so much! Showing us how you celebrate the mundanity of everyday life, especially throughout the last two years, helped me appreciate all the great small moments in my life so much more that I would otherwise overlook. Also, thank you for inspiring me to try out graphoc novels! I read "Sheets" and it was so cute! "Nimona" and "Bloom" are next 😉 If you want to give romance another go... Have you read "In at the Deep End"? It's a lesbian love story and centers around the relationship between two women, one of them just came out and tries to figure out her new sexuality and her love life. It's so good! And very steamy 😅 there is so much more going on than "just" the romance so I think you might like it! Trigger warnings for abuse, though...
If you love breeding grass by Robin Wall-Kimmerer would love a shorter one from her more introductory : The Democracy of Species. Aboslutely georgous five stars !
💯agree on a history of wild places. i was expecting something better, considering her previous books. but still, she can do no wrong when it comes to atmospheric/sensory-filled writing.
Ahh, i love your videos!! They make me feel happier and more relaxed 🥰😊 I just finished Piranesi and i l o v e it!! I cannot stop thinking about it. Before that I read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Carson McCullers) and loved it as well. Its like a character study of people living in a small town in the south of USA during the 1930's, and it talks about racism, poverty and growing up. I am so glad I discovered it
I’m gonna be brave and BEG you to read She Who Became the Sun. I know you fell very hard for the Poppy Wars and this one did all that and MORE, which I didn’t even think was possible.
i wish i DNFd to paradise. that bad boy took me 3 months (usually i read a book or two a week) and has put me in the worst reading slump ever. sooo not worth it!
I’m sad you didn’t finish To Paradise, just because I think you would have much preferred the final story (not about rich people!) I also wondered why all her books feature gay men (and so few women) and at an event for this book I went to, Hanya said it’s because she feels better able to detach herself this way and not write solely from her own experience. She also said a therapist may be able to give a better answer 😅 I hear all your criticisms, and I think A Little Life will always be my favourite book of hers, but I’ve found the other two really interesting and important (if not super fun!)
i haven’t found a favorite book yet but i’ve found a least favorite and it’s “ugly love” by colleen hoover 😅. i cant stand the miscommunication trope in romance books and the scene ** potential spoilers ** “ My God, Rachel,” was 85 percent into the book! 85 percent! how can miles possibly redeem himself from THAT in 53 pages!? as you can see, i have very strong opinions about this book. and i do not want to pick up anything else from colleen hoover ever again 😂
I haven't read To Paradise and I DNDF'd The People in the Trees because I found it boring and I simply could not handle the miniscule font size in my copy and all the footnotes that took me out of the story. However I ALSO loved A Little Life. Is she a one hit wonder? Is it that it's palatable for her to write about this stuff once but not two or three times? Is A Little Life just objectively better written? I don't know but I feel like from everything I've heard, buying To Paradise would be a waste of money. Also, I watched an interview/Q&A of her about a year ago and I found her stage presence and the things she said to be kind of...I don't know? Unsettling? She seemed to have no sympathy with the characters she had written, but then isn't part of an author's role an empathetic one?
Sorry if this is a dumb question but how can you get botm if you're in Belgium? I've looked into them because I've been seeing them on booktube a lot but their website says only US residents (and active US military personell abroad) can join?
it’s not a dumb question! because most of the people who watch my videos live in the US, they send them my way for video purposes. they don’t ship outside of the us (quite yet)
i got to page 100 of paradise and had to stop. every sentence was boring me. painful read ! so uninteresting! so glad to hear you say you felt the same and that it wasnt just me. maybe if she condensed it to 200 pages, it could have been finishable. its just so long winded and drags on ! also yes , you said it - there are no interesting characters!
“heterosexual couples exist” why would you say something so controversial yet so brave?
DNFing books is good for the soul.
Even if they’re a book by an author who wrote your favorite book.
I love your recent reads because it reminds me that we don’t get vlogs for each of them and I’m bad at goodreads, so it’s nice to see your thoughts and ratings on books I’ve read/want to read.
Which means I want to reread The Tea Dragon trilogy. 😖
Friendly Rec for your TBR!!! : I’m currently reading “A Certain Hunger” by Chelsea Summers. & from the very first chapter I knew I had to tell you about it! It’s about a cannibalistic food critic, but the way the author describes things is so addictive. I feel like you’d love it. Im clinging onto every word. I picked it up in the hopes of finding something that had horror elements but wasn’t a man doing the killing ( lol go women) & I’m about 80 pages in and have not been disappointed!
Read this last year and LOVED IT!!! Chelsea G. Summers is a bad ass woman!
kirstea went on a whole trip while watching this
howie plant 🥺💘
howie plant 🥺🥺🌱
what a funky sponsor, bopping it out
this might be taking me out of the slump sally rooney put me in
there was SO MANY good quotes in that damn book
the tune playing behind blindness 💀
it’s so pink panther
As someone who did finish Hanya Yanagihara's 'To Paradise' i can comfortably say that it does not get better and is worth a miss. I had no prior knowledge of the Author's reputation going into it and had only read 'A Little Life' and as someone with so little knowledge even I could tell something was up. I also thought it was strange that Queerness was socially acceptable yet there was black and POC slurs every other chapter throughout book 1 and book 2. I'm not a gay man or a POC but even I felt disturbed and uncomfortable reading it. Book 3 is by far the best and least problematic section so if you like Hanya Yanagihara's writing and really want to read this book but don't want to support her I recommend buying a copy second hand and only reading book 3.
i loved the sound track! it's always a good sunday whenever you upload
the ad integration are always SO good!!! especially with the addition of hannah montana music
YES YES YES i fell in love with you the moment I saw the title.. you have no idea how much I wanted to do that but was too scared not to finish and give a vague non critical review because I was scared the publishers would blacklist me for future arcs
How do you get arcs??
i've never been given an arc before so maybe it's artificial bravery!
I recommend and would love to hear your thoughts on both Follow Me to Ground, Comfort Me with Apples, and Every Heart a Doorway!
Recommendation: A Psalm for the Wild-Built (short and
I just finished "This Is How It Always Is" by Laurie Frankel and I think you'd enjoy it! It follows a family of 7 (mostly from the parents perceptive) and how they handle & cope with their youngest child being trans at a very young age. The voice is fun & witty. The whole family is loveable. She does a great job at balancing the difficult conversation surrounding gender identity with humor and highlighting each character's individuality.
As a trans person, I think it's a really accessible & fun way to present the struggles of a young trans person & finding acceptance
Just finished Pretty Girls by Karen Slaughter and WOW! You were right! Every moment I thought I knew what was gonna happen I was proven wrong! And just also kept thinking how the hell are they gonna survive this! New favorite!
Have you heard of the book Fox & I by Catherine Raven? It’s a nonfiction that sounds right up your alley about a scientist who befriends a wild fox and reads The Little Prince to it
DNFing books feels so freeing!
okay YES bloom is such a cute little graphic novel. it’s such a sweet and honest story. i love that you made the muffin recipe 😭❤️
I only read Coraline by Gaiman but I’m really interested in reading more of his stuff… maybe i’ll read this one next!
Spectrum Women sounds really interesting! I def think we need more accessible literature about the relationship between non-binary folks and the medical system
spill the tea on yanagihara !!
a history of wild places has a BEAUTIFUL cover… the synopsis sounds amazing. i gotta add it to the tbr right tf NOW
Definitely picking up House of Hollow, I could really use a “I have no idea what’s gonna happen” book lol ☺️
If you pick up To Paradise again go to Book 3! I feel like it goes in the 1984, Brave New World required reading list. There is SO much to talk about in book 3!!! I found it eerie and telling.
I couldn't agree with you more on Blindness. I wanted to love it but got half way through the book, put the book in a drawer and forgot about it until you just mentioned it.
My favourite book of the year so far is Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan. I went in blind (which I do with most books I read) and I'm so glad I did. It's such a beautiful story of friendship and reflecting on the past. I also saw you added Indian Horse to your GR bookshelves. I read it last year and it destroyed me. Such an essential story.
I gasped in excitement when I saw this video !!
More and more, I find myself anxious to watch reading reviews that review a book on my tbr because I get excited to read that book and when the review shits on the book, I feel like it ruins my experience. Which is exactly why, im SO glad you raved about dont cry for me because now im even more excited to read it :^D
ah you just made me so excited to read a history of a wild places!! my boyfriend picked that one for his botm so I’m pumped I already have it yay!!
KINGDOM HEARTS MAIN TITLE SCREEN THEME SONGGGGGGGGGG. THE SEROTONIN BOOST I JUST RECEIVED.
I was on the fence about picking up A History of Wild Places because I don't usually get along with the mystery genre in general, but your description just sold me! Gimme a magical forest cult ANY day. Can't wait to pick it up now! Thanks again Ally for such a great video and motivating me to read all the things!
i read house of hollow about a week or two ago after you first mentioned it and i agree, i loved it so much that i’m reading another krystal sutherland book right now (a semi-definitive list of worst nightmares) and i’m only like a quarter in, the vibes are very different but i’m still having a good time
I read 25 books in March, including a reread of The Anthropocene Reviewed
getting to watch your videos after a heavy month of school, feels like home ❤
YT just recommended your content and I couldn’t be happier… I’m on a Allison beautiful binge 💛🧡❤️
The tea dragon society! Yay! Looks so adorable! I'm going to put it in my TBR! Thanks! ✨
not sure if anyone else has commented this but the author of the tea dragon society no longer goes by katie and is named kay o'neill!
oh thank you for letting me know! i must have an older book.
I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 23 years old - even then the only way I truly knew something was up was when I started university and I was very much not on the same level as my peers and after many embarrassing moments and meltdowns later HERE I AM THRIVING
:,) teared up a lil reading this
HAPPY FOR YOU ✨
Just give kindness to them because they are naïve. I don’t need thousands of the same things. Just one that works perfectly. Idc about travel. I want a turf backyard and an area for coco. I hold the world in my heart and I watch it through everything but most importantly everyone. Can’t believe my family doesn’t know ‘know’ that I’m me. 😗😌
I really love your show so much.
I loooooooved House of Hollow! But I also enjoy her other YA books. She is such an impeccable storyteller.
Recently read How do you live? By Genzaburo Yoshino set to be made into a film by Miyazaki. Absolutely fell in love with it, I read it slowly to savor it. Highly recommended!!!
one of the books that found real estate on my favorites shelf! top book of last year
I'm early yay I love your videos so much, they helped me get through my depression last year, literally the only content I managed to watch then, thank you for sharing with us❤❤
ROAD TO 20K, ALLY!!! Missed you and your videos
Bloom is so cute!
Woooooo yeaaaaa,I have been anxiously waiting your new video🥰
I had the exact same reaction to A History of Wild Places. I had a good time reading but the twist at the end just was not good. Also I recommend getting the special hardcover edition because the book design is just ✨beautiful ✨.
everytime you upload a video, I open my StoryGraph profile right next to it to put everything on my to read list :D
Same!
Literally LOLed at "the more you know" 🤣🤣🤣
would love to hear your thoughts on Kikuko Tsumura's "There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job" and also Balli Kaur Jaswal's "Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows"
Those “ooof”s are such good sound bites
reading the atlas six atm, only have like 20 pages left and i’m obsessed. it’s such a good dark academia fantasy with interesting characters and twists! definitely would recommend
THANK GOD!!
So I’ve been a fan of yours since the tumblr days, and my baby is also named Howie (Howell is his full name, not Howlette so slightly different, but mostly I named him after your baby) and I get teary eyed everytime you talk about your Howie. ❤️ All of your fur babies are lucky to have you to look after them.
I just wanted to say a quick thank you - I love your videos so much! Showing us how you celebrate the mundanity of everyday life, especially throughout the last two years, helped me appreciate all the great small moments in my life so much more that I would otherwise overlook.
Also, thank you for inspiring me to try out graphoc novels! I read "Sheets" and it was so cute! "Nimona" and "Bloom" are next 😉
If you want to give romance another go... Have you read "In at the Deep End"? It's a lesbian love story and centers around the relationship between two women, one of them just came out and tries to figure out her new sexuality and her love life. It's so good! And very steamy 😅 there is so much more going on than "just" the romance so I think you might like it! Trigger warnings for abuse, though...
I gave both A Little Life and The People in the Trees 5/5. Now im scared to read To Paradise 😩
If you love breeding grass by Robin Wall-Kimmerer would love a shorter one from her more introductory : The Democracy of Species. Aboslutely georgous five stars !
I heard so many mixed reviews about hanya's new book. I'm waiting for my copy so i can see it for myself
💯agree on a history of wild places. i was expecting something better, considering her previous books. but still, she can do no wrong when it comes to atmospheric/sensory-filled writing.
Ahh, i love your videos!! They make me feel happier and more relaxed 🥰😊
I just finished Piranesi and i l o v e it!! I cannot stop thinking about it. Before that I read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Carson McCullers) and loved it as well. Its like a character study of people living in a small town in the south of USA during the 1930's, and it talks about racism, poverty and growing up. I am so glad I discovered it
8:44 Everybody deserves good vibes as chonk as that mug ☕
Amazing as always! ❤️
Love the video - as always!!
I’m so intrigued to why you disliked get a life Chloe brown. Also thank you for brightening my Sunday😘
If possible...when you have time... can you make a video about how you annotate 🥺
Have you read The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow?
I’m gonna be brave and BEG you to read She Who Became the Sun. I know you fell very hard for the Poppy Wars and this one did all that and MORE, which I didn’t even think was possible.
i wish i DNFd to paradise. that bad boy took me 3 months (usually i read a book or two a week) and has put me in the worst reading slump ever. sooo not worth it!
Yayy!!! 📚📚📚
I’m sad you didn’t finish To Paradise, just because I think you would have much preferred the final story (not about rich people!)
I also wondered why all her books feature gay men (and so few women) and at an event for this book I went to, Hanya said it’s because she feels better able to detach herself this way and not write solely from her own experience. She also said a therapist may be able to give a better answer 😅
I hear all your criticisms, and I think A Little Life will always be my favourite book of hers, but I’ve found the other two really interesting and important (if not super fun!)
i haven’t found a favorite book yet but i’ve found a least favorite and it’s “ugly love” by colleen hoover 😅. i cant stand the miscommunication trope in romance books and the scene
** potential spoilers **
“ My God, Rachel,”
was 85 percent into the book! 85 percent!
how can miles possibly redeem himself from THAT in 53 pages!?
as you can see, i have very strong opinions about this book. and i do not want to pick up anything else from colleen hoover ever again 😂
I haven't read To Paradise and I DNDF'd The People in the Trees because I found it boring and I simply could not handle the miniscule font size in my copy and all the footnotes that took me out of the story. However I ALSO loved A Little Life. Is she a one hit wonder? Is it that it's palatable for her to write about this stuff once but not two or three times? Is A Little Life just objectively better written? I don't know but I feel like from everything I've heard, buying To Paradise would be a waste of money.
Also, I watched an interview/Q&A of her about a year ago and I found her stage presence and the things she said to be kind of...I don't know? Unsettling? She seemed to have no sympathy with the characters she had written, but then isn't part of an author's role an empathetic one?
Soon E-Books Marketplace Berlin Germany
can i ask, what is the song you use in your outro? i've been trying to find it and failing epically.
sure thing! it’s from the harry potter and the sorcerers stone PC game and it’s titled “happy hogwarts”
she’s on youtube!
What was the book with slug on cover and it's about girl who is looking at this slug? Cannot find the title I would love to read it .... :*
the sound of a wild snail eating
Sorry if this is a dumb question but how can you get botm if you're in Belgium? I've looked into them because I've been seeing them on booktube a lot but their website says only US residents (and active US military personell abroad) can join?
it’s not a dumb question! because most of the people who watch my videos live in the US, they send them my way for video purposes. they don’t ship outside of the us (quite yet)
@@allisonpaiges ah okay, got you! I thought maybe they had expanded to Europe but I'll keep waiting patiently
i skipped botm this month lol too many on my tbr already
I threw To Paradise across the room. Such a horrible reading experience. I can’t remember the last time I hated a book so much.
i got to page 100 of paradise and had to stop. every sentence was boring me. painful read ! so uninteresting! so glad to hear you say you felt the same and that it wasnt just me. maybe if she condensed it to 200 pages, it could have been finishable. its just so long winded and drags on ! also yes , you said it - there are no interesting characters!
You really didn't miss anything by DNFing To Paradise... Just more pretentious depressing thoughts...