Could you please do a top 10 speculative fiction books/series you’d recommend? Would love to know which authors you think are the best and worth starting with!
Yes please! This would be so helpful, I would love to expand my reading and would be great to have good recommendations for authors/works to start with!
I totally agree with you that not enough people read speculative fiction or believe that it’s for kids or is not real fiction. They miss out on so much beautiful and interesting stories.
I’ve had this discussion about language learning vs language acquisition multiple times. I’m not a native English speaker, although I started learning it when I was 4 and I am now almost 27, and I have learned all the grammatical rules but I feel that the more you expose yourself to a language the more you forget the rules because everything comes more naturally and you don’t think “oh when talking about definite future events we cannot use will, only to be going to or the present participle” for example. And I find this transition actually really funny. I am Portuguese and whenever I talk to people who are learning Portuguese they ask “why do you say this like this? What’s the rule?” and I’m just there like “am I actually supposed to know how to explain this?”. Languages are really fun because you basically learn to think in a particular language and that’s why your personality can shift depending on the language you’re speaking.
Ursula LeGuin is my all-time favorite author. I've read almost everything she's written (I think I still need to get to the 'YA' series she wrote later in life...). I have no idea how Margaret Atwood has managed to escape the 'genre' label - Kurt Vonnegut too - his stuff is all very speculative, but somehow it's usually shelved in 'literary', whereas even the non-speculative stuff LeGuin has written, like her short story collections Searoad (real-world Pacific Northwest) and Orsinian Tales (fictional Eastern European country) are shelved in SciFi. Anyway, good speculative fiction is amazing. There's definitely a difference between plot-driven trope-y stuff and the type that makes you think (which is the kind I tend to like, and LeGuin is the master).
I was really confused about my skin tone until I went to get matched at Lisa Eldridge, I always thought I was olive but they showed me that I’m much more neutral than I realised. Highly recommend getting matched at one of her counters even if you don’t buy a foundation (although it’s absolutely brilliant for my oily skin, best I’ve ever tried). Lisa just understands colour more than anyone in my opinion and all of her products reflect that xx
Really good point that the oldest literature is speculative, inspiring me to read some of the fantasy and scifi books I've had sitting on my shelves for ages.
Love you Jess! I’ve been watching since the very beginning and Vlogtober never fails to make me feel so cozy! If you’re ever in DC, would love to grab a coffee ❤
I really enjoyed the discussion on speculative fiction. I read mainly thrillers and historical fiction but you have opened my mind to broadening my reading. Wonderful vlog as always 👏🏽😊
It’s crazy! I was literally just having this exact conversation about speculative fiction with my partner last night. We both love speculative fiction (albeit very different types), but it’s funny that you mention all this. Yes, more people should be open to the umbrella genera that is speculative fiction.
Recently became obsessed with the Clarins BB which sounds like it quickly does a lot of what you mentioned. I think you’d love 🙂 I’m also pink undertone with a neutral/yellow overtone - and pale so it’s a nightmare finding make up 😩
I also am disappointed in how few people read speculative fiction, my favorite genre. I do wish the marketing was different, especially the book covers. I’m consistently annoyed with how tacky most speculative fiction book covers look, whereas literary fiction gets pure and stunning art!! I recognize that shouldn’t be a deterrent but even for me, some covers are so bad that it makes me not want to read a book. Anyways, absolutely loving Vlogtober, as usual, yours are my favorite videos on UA-cam!!
I have oily skin too, and the only foundation that works for me is the Bare minerals matte powder foundation. I’ve tried to switch back to liquid foundations several times (I find they take less time to apply) but I always get breakouts. I think liquid foundations almost always clog pores and trigger sebum production. So I’d really recommend the one from BM as it looks great, keeps the skin matte throughout the day and can be built up to medium coverage. I add some concealer from MAC to my under eyes as well.
Hi Jess, I think you may be right, you're a cool olive. It might be worth a shout using a green colour corrector beforehand to cancel out some pink-ness and then going in with a olive foundation! I follow Hannah Louise Poston (she's much fairer than you but still cool olive) and it seems to work for her 🙂
I'm really tired of people shitting on certain genres and being snobby about them. I think this type of mentality mostly comes from ignorance an unwillingness to expand their horizon. I don't know if it's not partly because I'm a librarian that I very much have a "all books/genres are valuable" mentality, and that it doesn't matter what people read as long as they read.
Please could you make a video on what books you would recommend for beginners to the genre? It is so hard to know where to start when I literally can find any book at a press of a button. X
Just an fyi - Cara Brooke’s brand Seint was (or still is, not sure) an MLM. I personally like the semi method but would not support her /or her product for that reason :) x Also I have an an olive skin tone (medium), a dermatologist told me when I was younger that I had more of a pinkish undertone on my face due to slight rosacea?
love this rant! i also don't like margaret atwood and think her writing and thinking is very regressive. but i think she's a familiar type of white woman 'feminist' whose books aren't very challenging to the core of issues of gender, empire and race (as is le guin, though i think she has her own limitations in discussing race, but at least she is really grappling with the deeper issues) which are inextricably linked. atwood's work to me has always read as sort of second-wave feminism lite. and so her books and ideas are not so challenging but just challenging enough, and can be rewarded to claim there has been progress for women in literature
Generally people don’t seem to think much of the list this year, from what I’ve seen anyway! I don’t think I’ll read the shortlist this year but will be keeping up with the people I follow to see if there are any good ones for my TBR.
Oooh I know you mean well recommending the lady who talks about the demi method, but I would be careful as the makeup being used in the method is an MLM scheme (in case that matters to you)
Could you please do a top 10 speculative fiction books/series you’d recommend? Would love to know which authors you think are the best and worth starting with!
i second this
I will definitely do this in a vlog soon!! ❤️
I was going to ask for something similar! Maybe for those of us who would love to try the genre for the first time?
Yes please! This would be so helpful, I would love to expand my reading and would be great to have good recommendations for authors/works to start with!
Absolutely yes to this! I am desperate to get into it but I need the perfect intro of these books to read x
I totally agree with you that not enough people read speculative fiction or believe that it’s for kids or is not real fiction. They miss out on so much beautiful and interesting stories.
I’ve had this discussion about language learning vs language acquisition multiple times. I’m not a native English speaker, although I started learning it when I was 4 and I am now almost 27, and I have learned all the grammatical rules but I feel that the more you expose yourself to a language the more you forget the rules because everything comes more naturally and you don’t think “oh when talking about definite future events we cannot use will, only to be going to or the present participle” for example.
And I find this transition actually really funny. I am Portuguese and whenever I talk to people who are learning Portuguese they ask “why do you say this like this? What’s the rule?” and I’m just there like “am I actually supposed to know how to explain this?”.
Languages are really fun because you basically learn to think in a particular language and that’s why your personality can shift depending on the language you’re speaking.
Ursula LeGuin is my all-time favorite author. I've read almost everything she's written (I think I still need to get to the 'YA' series she wrote later in life...). I have no idea how Margaret Atwood has managed to escape the 'genre' label - Kurt Vonnegut too - his stuff is all very speculative, but somehow it's usually shelved in 'literary', whereas even the non-speculative stuff LeGuin has written, like her short story collections Searoad (real-world Pacific Northwest) and Orsinian Tales (fictional Eastern European country) are shelved in SciFi.
Anyway, good speculative fiction is amazing. There's definitely a difference between plot-driven trope-y stuff and the type that makes you think (which is the kind I tend to like, and LeGuin is the master).
Love a passionate rant Jess, completely get what you are saying, I would love a recommended list 🫶🏻
I was really confused about my skin tone until I went to get matched at Lisa Eldridge, I always thought I was olive but they showed me that I’m much more neutral than I realised. Highly recommend getting matched at one of her counters even if you don’t buy a foundation (although it’s absolutely brilliant for my oily skin, best I’ve ever tried). Lisa just understands colour more than anyone in my opinion and all of her products reflect that xx
Really good point that the oldest literature is speculative, inspiring me to read some of the fantasy and scifi books I've had sitting on my shelves for ages.
Love you Jess! I’ve been watching since the very beginning and Vlogtober never fails to make me feel so cozy! If you’re ever in DC, would love to grab a coffee ❤
I really enjoyed the discussion on speculative fiction. I read mainly thrillers and historical fiction but you have opened my mind to broadening my reading. Wonderful vlog as always 👏🏽😊
It’s crazy! I was literally just having this exact conversation about speculative fiction with my partner last night. We both love speculative fiction (albeit very different types), but it’s funny that you mention all this. Yes, more people should be open to the umbrella genera that is speculative fiction.
Recently became obsessed with the Clarins BB which sounds like it quickly does a lot of what you mentioned. I think you’d love 🙂 I’m also pink undertone with a neutral/yellow overtone - and pale so it’s a nightmare finding make up 😩
I love Ursula, her imagination is so dreamlike and captivating.
I also am disappointed in how few people read speculative fiction, my favorite genre. I do wish the marketing was different, especially the book covers. I’m consistently annoyed with how tacky most speculative fiction book covers look, whereas literary fiction gets pure and stunning art!! I recognize that shouldn’t be a deterrent but even for me, some covers are so bad that it makes me not want to read a book. Anyways, absolutely loving Vlogtober, as usual, yours are my favorite videos on UA-cam!!
I have oily skin too, and the only foundation that works for me is the Bare minerals matte powder foundation. I’ve tried to switch back to liquid foundations several times (I find they take less time to apply) but I always get breakouts. I think liquid foundations almost always clog pores and trigger sebum production. So I’d really recommend the one from BM as it looks great, keeps the skin matte throughout the day and can be built up to medium coverage. I add some concealer from MAC to my under eyes as well.
Hi Jess, I think you may be right, you're a cool olive.
It might be worth a shout using a green colour corrector beforehand to cancel out some pink-ness and then going in with a olive foundation! I follow Hannah Louise Poston (she's much fairer than you but still cool olive) and it seems to work for her 🙂
Oo thank you for this!
I'm really tired of people shitting on certain genres and being snobby about them. I think this type of mentality mostly comes from ignorance an unwillingness to expand their horizon. I don't know if it's not partly because I'm a librarian that I very much have a "all books/genres are valuable" mentality, and that it doesn't matter what people read as long as they read.
I agree! Ultimately just getting people to read is a win.
what eyeshadow did you use? it looks gorgeous!
I’m sure you have spoken about this before, but where would you recommend starting with LeGuin?
I’ll be chatting about this in an upcoming vlog I think!! ❤️
Please could you make a video on what books you would recommend for beginners to the genre? It is so hard to know where to start when I literally can find any book at a press of a button. X
Just an fyi - Cara Brooke’s brand Seint was (or still is, not sure) an MLM. I personally like the semi method but would not support her /or her product for that reason :) x Also I have an an olive skin tone (medium), a dermatologist told me when I was younger that I had more of a pinkish undertone on my face due to slight rosacea?
Omg as if 😭 thank you for letting me know!
love this rant! i also don't like margaret atwood and think her writing and thinking is very regressive. but i think she's a familiar type of white woman 'feminist' whose books aren't very challenging to the core of issues of gender, empire and race (as is le guin, though i think she has her own limitations in discussing race, but at least she is really grappling with the deeper issues) which are inextricably linked. atwood's work to me has always read as sort of second-wave feminism lite. and so her books and ideas are not so challenging but just challenging enough, and can be rewarded to claim there has been progress for women in literature
100% on the money! She’s very ‘safe’ to me.
Saludos desde México, adoro ver tus videos me ayudan a seguir una rutina de lectura.
What is this thing about Booker this year you mentioned? can you please tell us what you think of the shortlist and if you’ll be reading it?
Generally people don’t seem to think much of the list this year, from what I’ve seen anyway! I don’t think I’ll read the shortlist this year but will be keeping up with the people I follow to see if there are any good ones for my TBR.
Please PLEASE dont chop your hair, long hair looks soooo good on you !❤❤
Hi jess, would love to see some kids clothing hauls!
I was gonna study england accent listrning skill but theres no subtitles !!:;;
Oooh I know you mean well recommending the lady who talks about the demi method, but I would be careful as the makeup being used in the method is an MLM scheme (in case that matters to you)
I feel the same about Atwood
So do I! I felt so validated when Jess was talking about her 😂
Same, haha.
Please go and get a color analysis done professionally and make a video about it!!