Hey Emily, at work we were lucky enough to have Matt Haig as a guest speaker for a wellness conference this week. I never would have attended without you bringing him to my attention and he was honestly such an amazing, sincere, genuine and endearing speaker which I would have exposes myself to without you. So happy to see him in this list 🥰. E x
I totally agree on the Three Body Problem trilogy. Character work is very weak, but you have to give the man credit for his wild ideas. I come from a physics background and recommended it to another physicist friend of mine. We spent a lot of time discussing the various concepts the author delved into here. It’s an extremely unique story. It literally doesn’t get bigger than this story.
You introduced me to Becky Chambers and I went on to read all her books and loved them so much and can't wait for her two books coming out next year. Thank you!
I loved the Three Body trilogy as well! I totally recommend Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan as another book you might enjoy in that realm. It’s also translated by Ken Liu. Super interesting concepts and I find it has better characterization than Three Body.
Woah, that is a high-calibre best of list! I'm def going to read all of them! My faves for 2020 are The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, the Rage of Dragons by Evan Winters, Children of Time (but not CoR), and of course the Poppy War series. I JUST finished TDR and it was amazing, and I am eagerly awaiting TBG in the mail which I am pre-rating 5 stars too. Ooooh I just checked and I also read the 2nd and 3rd books in the Broken Earth trilogy, they were the best way to start the year!
I definitely agree with your comment on the characters in The Three Body Problem. It took me a few tries to get into it at all because there wasn’t any character development, and that’s usually what I’m drawn to. I think this might be a common writing style with eastern fiction, though. I know personally, I’m used to a certain writing style with western fiction that focuses on individual characters, but that’s also a reflection of our society which praises individual achievements. According to friends that have read more translated Chinese and Japanese fiction, this just isn’t common in many of those books. I don’t think we can expect the same things we’re used to, because the culture the author comes from is very different. That might also explain some of the sexism and other themes we think are problematic. A lot of the scenes were flashbacks to the cultural revolution, when those attitudes might have been completely normal. They might still be- I’m not sure. Not having those problematic attitudes though would be like having an American fantasy novel with a flashback to the 1920’s and not having threads of sexism and racism. That said, Liu certainly doesn’t even make it obvious that he knows it’s sexist, it’s just there. It did make me roll my eyes at times, but I’m trying to remind myself that Liu comes from a country very different than mine and his writing will reflect that. There also are probably a lot of things lost in translation that make the characters seem flat to me (Da Shi was the only one with an actual personality). I had a roommate who was from China and she explained that a lot of ideas were hard for her to translate because there just isn’t an exact term for the same thing.
Thanks for pointing out the differences in our cultures that may explain some of these criticisms. But I’m genuinely curious why you (and Emily) think Liu is “sexist.” Maybe because I’m a guy, but I didn’t pick up on that at all. The female characters seemed very real and powerful. Some of the male characters were sexist, but how does that reflect on the author?
I am so glad you mentioned To be taught if fortunate! :) I absolutely adored this book! I was going through a hard time when I started reading it and it kind of played little part in reminding me of my love for science... (important, since I am a scientist :D)
Skyward & Starsight were my absolute all time favorite books I have ever read so far. I am SO EXCITED for the 3rd book to come out hopefully in spring!! I plan on reading The Midnight Library and the Three-Body Problem in the next month so now I am even more excited to get to those since they're both your favorites this year!!! :)
For some reason I thought this would be the last video in the end of the year series! I was not ready for it, but yeah, everything in here I have either read or is in my close TBR because of you. I'm so glad to see that it was a good reading year for you despite everything!
I just finished the burning god and you are absolutely correct, best one of the three. Will read anything by RF KUANG from now on! Adding a few of the others to my to read as well
Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, A Deadly Education, Nevernight and Croocked Kingdom are my favourite reads of this year, with the most likely addition of Rhythm of War when I am finally able to read it (I have no doubts I'll love it and so happy to see Way of Kings here, the Stormlight Archive is my favourite series of all times^^) And the Poppy War trilogy is in my tbr for next year, so excited to read it!
I already want to reread To Be Taught if Fortunate and I just read it for the first time on your review this summer! Your recs have led to some real wins for me (including finally trying Brandon Sanderson!)
And my TBR has grown again :) My faves of the year were: - first law trilogy - jurassic Park - the deep - final empire - flowers of algernon - Guns of the dawn - the gentleman thief
You’re making me so excited to read The Poppy War!! I was waiting for the series to be completed to start reading it 🤩 Edit: fine 🙄 you’ve convinced me to read the three body problem lmao
We read so many if the same books this year that we loved!! Once they hit the camera part in The Three Body Problem, I was hooked. Have you read Seveneves? Excellent hard sci fi with strong badass female characters.
Can’t wait to read finally Skyward and Starsight in 2021, since then it will be translated in my language.. you hyped it up quite hard so I hope it will live up to the hype...😌
In 2020 I amazed myself. Read way more books than normal, thanks to ongoing pandamic. My top reads Jade city The rage of dragons & the fires of vengeance World War Z Martian Anxious people All systems red The egg Traitor's blade Mr. Mercedes Unbroken The troop Becoming The Rise and fall of third reich Paradox Illuminae The choices Hyperbole and a Half Gone girl Homegoing The stand Edit: didn't realise the list went on and on, I'm too indecisive
Some of the best books I read are Mistborn Trilogy, The Way of Kings and Jurassic Park. Michael Crichton's books are full of scientific details that are mind blowing, so far he's my favorite sci-fi author.
I read To Be Taught If Fortunate just because of you and damn girl, definitely one of my favourites of the year, it made me wept and connect to the characters and like h o w 'cause it's so short. It is really really good, thank you 😭😭😭
Great to get your informed suggestions. The first video I watched of yours you recommended both Madeline Miller's Circe and Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens/Homo Deus which are some of my modern favourites, so I'm going to trust your taste and keep following to get more suggestions as well as your delightfully uplifting smile :-)
You vould try de selection of Chinese sf translated by Ken Liu "Invisible planets" really good, and there is a second part "Broken planets" which I just got for my Kindle. The latest fauvrites were the Slovakian horrors by Josef Karika, great atmosphere building but I don't know if they got translated into English or French, I'm Polish so I got Polish versions, and urban fantasy series based in Hong Kong which is in French so You could read it if you like. I really enjoyed the settings, the kung fu fights, badass Buddhists nun and using Chinese mythologies. Cool stuff. There were some of your recommendations like "Six wakes" and "Sudden appearance of Hope Arden" by Claire North ( I think I just gave English retranslation of the French title). I got the "Trail of Lightning" in progress but as I find it good, I'm so tired I end up reading lighter stuff, so my brain won't overlod, (moving to a different town), but also intresting part it uses Native American myths, which is a huge plus for me. There were also both Molly Southborn stories by Tade Thompson and "Who fears death" by Nnedi Okorafor. Last but not least heavy and depressing read but a very good one "An unkindness of ghosts" by Rivers Solomon,
I loved Skyward when I read it last year, and I'm super excited to read Starsight! One series that I just started this year was the Lies of Locke Lamora and I'm excited to keep reading ❤️
Emily I was thinking that for your first contact with aliens video you should read "Dawn" by Octavia Butler, it's really good although a bit disturbing. Well for the part 2 of that video haha
About something similar to The Three Body Problem, just last month a short story collection by the same author was published in English, it's called To Hold Up The Sky. I haven't read this trilogy, but I'm currently reading the collection and I'm enjoying it so far.
I’ve read 65 books this year so far and honestly wasn’t obsessed with any of them. I really LIKED The Ten Thousand Doors of January and Good Morning, Midnight, but nothing really excited me beyond those two. I think I have a bad habit of wanting to get through books I have low expectations for first, before picking up ones I’m excited for. It’s so dumb 🙃 Ive definitely got a New Years resolution in the making!
I think I'll be skipping The Midnight Library 😅 I read The Humans because you raved about it, but I truly hated his style and preachiness. I did order To Be Taught if Fortunate though! If I like it, I'm definitely trying her other work! (Also I read Children of Time and OMG did I love it!!)
My completely random guess is that 2 more videos will come out this month in which you mention To be Taught 🤞 and in both occasions you'll read out the first sentence like you always do 😄
I 100% agree with everything you said about The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. It's so freaking good. I still need to check out The Way of Kings, The Poppy War, The Midnight Library, Skyward and To Be Taught If Fortunate. Hopefully I'll get to them in 2021 lol.
You made me want to read "to be taught" so much : my next read has been decided! My favorite books of the year : Strange the dreamer (the two books), The Nevernight Chronicles trilogy, Graceling, Daisy Jones and the six, Wings of fire (the entire series), Deadly education, Heartstopper, the prince and the dressmaker, Beartown (the two books), Lightning-struck heart, the Illuminae files trilogy, The blade itself trilogy, Carry on, The silent patient, and Howl's moving castle (it was a great reading year!)
I just started reading To be taught if fortunate today thanks to you lol! My best books of this year were Behind her eyes, The troop and I’m thinking of ending things!
Wow, a really great selection of Best Of 2020. I have heard so many good things about The three-body problem I'm going to pick up all three books and devour them ;-) I'd say my top 5 books of the year would be children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Magician by Raymond E. Feist, The Grey and True Bastards by Jonathan French, and Ship Of Magic by Robin Hobb.
I started the Stormlight Archives this year and I have to say, they are all favorites of mine as well! I really liked Skyward and Starsight as well! I am very excited for the 3rd ook next year!
The Burning God was a ride 😱😭 Rin’s words “fix it” at the end still haunt me. It’s hard to pick a favorite but I think In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom are in my top three faves
The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis! I have been fighting and failing to read with any consistency and find stories I love since I started college (and I graduated from grad school a year and a half ago, so yikes, almost 8 years). This was the first recommendation StoryGraph threw at me when I started an account, and I fell in love with it. It's not perfect and will likely not work for everyone (and it might be too romance heavy for Emily, lol!), but the series has potential and I am very excited to continue once the other books come out.
I' ve almost finished 'Why we sleep?' Since you've recomended so much. As a psychoterapist, neuroscience fan and a person with insomnia; thank you!!!! I'm loving it!!!! Hugs from Argentina!!
Thank you Emily for mentioning Cixin Liu’s views on the concentration camps. It’s unfortunate that i have already bought and paid for his books but i will be donating them to my local library as i cant bring myself to read for an author who holds such horrible views
You can't really critique the government in China without being in danger or go to jail so his actual opinions are unknown. China is communist and represses free speech and prosecutes people who critizes the government. Additionally the state controls information .
I’m sorry but I was scrolling through the comments and felt I had to reply to this one. A communist system is not inherently wrong or evil, any more than a capitalist one is. Both are ideologies which strive to improve people’s conditions of life, and without the understanding of a country’s history you cannot just go around blindly critiquing one or the other. Every country’s history and politics is unique, and I cannot stand it when westerners, especially Americans, go around holding up capitalism as the gold standard and using the word “communist” as if it were an insult.
@@yezenia9830 And America is? You just don’t get it, do you? Capitalism allows people to improve their lives by promising that people get to reap the rewards of their efforts. Communism promises to redistribute wealth so the average standard of living improves. Neither is INHERENTLY evil. However, HUMANS are flawed and selfish. The way that our society works is that it will always arrange itself into a hierarchy. Therefore in capitalist systems, the effort you put into your work is never proportional to the rewards you reap at the end, because everyone wants to climb higher up the hierarchy and to ensure your position in the ladder means anything, you have to keep it that way by keeping those below you where they are. For communism societies it also doesn’t work, because without the promise of rewards, nobody is willing to work and the economy stagnates. So if both systems have problems, how do countries choose which to adopt? It depends on the starting position of the country. For wealthy countries with sizeable middle class populations, which most western countries were at the start of the 20th century due to colonisation and trade etc, capitalism is the best way to go because it increases the wealth and power of the top elite groups, and hence also the entire country. For countries in which there exists a top elite group and then the rest of the population are starving peasants, which ideology do you think sounds better? Long term economic growth through investment, or immediate relief by getting rid of the elite and redistributing their wealth? You westerners are so happy to go harping on about the “evils” of communism, but have you considered why those countries were put into the position where they chose communism in the first place? If the US and USSR hadn’t used Korea as a pawn during their Cold War, perhaps the country would not have been divided in two. If the whole of Western Europe and Japan had not invaded China continuously for a century, we would not have been left with a population made up almost entirely of peasants. Hard times call for hard decisions, and at the time, sacrifices were deemed necessary. It’s easy for a person who’s never felt hunger in a day of their life to judge the actions and choices of a dying man. You cannot take events, even decades, in history out of context and judge them in isolation. To do so would be ignorance, and to be ignorant of world history is one of the worst things you can be in our current age.
The Way of Kings ALL THE WAYYYYY YAAAAAS I LOOOOOOOVED IT ❤️ Unfortunately I really hated The Midnight Library and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.... but that’s okay. Different taste is important and I’ve found sooooo many favourites thanks to your channel 🙌🏻
I've recently watched a movie called "Prospect" (2018) and it gave me such strong Becky Chambers vibes! It's a about a man and his teen daughter searching for valuable gems on an alien moon under dangerous circumstances. Loved it!
I totally agree with you about the Three Body Problem, I loved the concepts I'm them but man all the sexism really took away from my enjoyment. It was so so so bad.
So I read The Three Body Problem for the first time a few years ago because I went to a talk by Ken Liu and he was talking about how he translated them... I highly recommend reading Ken Liu's short story collection The Paper Menagerie. It's a mix of scifi, fantasy, and perhaps just a touch of magical realism ;), and is overall fantastic! And I think you already have it on your shelves too!
My favourites: - "A Closed and Common Orbit" by Becky Chambers - "The Wonder Down-Under" by Nina Brochmann & Ellen Støkken Dahl (non-fiction that I think you'll enjoy) - "The Hero of Ages" by Brandon Sanderson - "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan :D
I had a bad reading year but I did enjoy a few. My favorites were The Lost World by James Conan Doyle. Everything I never told you by Celeste Ng The Whisper Man by Alex North Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera Also I only gave this book 3 stars but if you like sci-fi and fantasy you might enjoy it more but the book is The Postmortal by Drew Magary. It's not the type of book I normally read. I was surprised by how much I did like it.
Based off your description of The Midnight Library I really think you would like Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore. It's the story of a man who is trying to live a perfect life through many reincarnated lives. So good. I picked it up randomly and it blew me away
Best books I read in 2020 1.Ghost story 2.Different seasons 3.The lion,the witch,the wardrobe 4.Godfather 5.Elantris 6.Equal rites (I also loved Miss Peregrine's home for Peculiar Children)
I've heard Poppy War mentioned so much and I was never that interested in reading it but your description of gods driving you mad when you use magic made me go read the synopsis and now I really want to read it. Side note that might be worded weird but I hope you get what I'm trying to say: Honestly, I'm happy that you mentioned a book (three-body problem) with a possibly problematic author. I like being given the information myself for me to decide how I feel about an author and their works while still getting your honest opinion. Though obviously if someone's like, completely terrible, I get just not including them in something.
I read "Skyward" and it was a five star read for me. I'm reading "Way of Kings" and enjoying it a lot, it will probably be a five star book too. "To Be Taught, If Fortunate" was lacking in development and the ending was not believable imo. And the others I'll check out eventually.
Hey ! Addie Larue made my best book of 2020 list too ! I'm also going to pick up the poppy war trilogy soon, I'm glad you liked the ending ! I'm wondering if you have ever read some of Greg Egan's works ? I'm currently reading his sci fi short stories and it blows my mind. I'm not finished yet but if I finish it by the end of december it will be on my best book of 2020 list too hahaha.
ohmygosh, the way you just get past bad or average writing blows my mind! I'm the exact opposite. I could read a book about nothing if the writing is good, if not, I just can't.
You need to read Terminal Alliance by Jim C Hines, if you like more science-heavy scifi. The faster than light travel system is great. They also have more "realistic" depictions of how space combat would really work, and how communications would work. The book follows a woman who is a janitor on a space ship. But it goes much, much further than that, and I can't say much more without spoilers. There's also an exploration of the first contact with aliens trope, but again, I can't really say much about it without spoilers. Oh, and the book is laugh out loud hilarious sometimes. There is an alien species that has given themselves names that humans can pronounce, so they go into Earth history and gave themselves names that are music related, ships that are named after "Earth's most deadly animals" and stuff like that, but since they don't understand human culture, hilarity ensues.
pretty sure the Midnight Library is going to be in my faves too. I also devoured it and kind of want to cry every time I think about it now??? also I was so curious if your worried spoiler was the same as mine....and it totally was HAHAHA. I was like NO PLEASE but thankfully we didn't go that route, PHEW
What are the best books you've read this year??
Tess of thr D'Ubervilles, The humans
The bell jar, Metamorphosis
This Is How You Lose the Time War,
words of radiance by brandon sanderson, our dreams at dusk series by yuhki kamatani, rock by anyta sunday
Words of Radiance, A Man Called Ove, Beach Read, Take a Hint, Dani Brown, A Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet & To Be Taught if Fortunate.
Entering the video and I'm like "HeyEveryoneItsEmilyFox"
If I change it up everyone will be confused XD
I love how she is the only youtuber who says “addie larue” in french. A little hello from a friend from Quebec!
The crown in your hair is so pretty! ❤👑❄
Thank you
Yes! You look like Snowwhite. Whith the red lips and all 🤩
@@mizoompaloompa170 yep
Hey Emily, at work we were lucky enough to have Matt Haig as a guest speaker for a wellness conference this week. I never would have attended without you bringing him to my attention and he was honestly such an amazing, sincere, genuine and endearing speaker which I would have exposes myself to without you. So happy to see him in this list 🥰. E x
I totally agree on the Three Body Problem trilogy. Character work is very weak, but you have to give the man credit for his wild ideas. I come from a physics background and recommended it to another physicist friend of mine. We spent a lot of time discussing the various concepts the author delved into here. It’s an extremely unique story. It literally doesn’t get bigger than this story.
The Midnight Library looks fascinating. I need to read the Poppy War trilogy, too.
Read the first Poppy War, it was pretty good
You introduced me to Becky Chambers and I went on to read all her books and loved them so much and can't wait for her two books coming out next year. Thank you!
Your french popping while naming Addie was so cuuuute!
I loved the Three Body trilogy as well! I totally recommend Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan as another book you might enjoy in that realm. It’s also translated by Ken Liu. Super interesting concepts and I find it has better characterization than Three Body.
Yeah, so glad The Midnight Library made your list!
Woah, that is a high-calibre best of list! I'm def going to read all of them!
My faves for 2020 are The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, the Rage of Dragons by Evan Winters, Children of Time (but not CoR), and of course the Poppy War series. I JUST finished TDR and it was amazing, and I am eagerly awaiting TBG in the mail which I am pre-rating 5 stars too. Ooooh I just checked and I also read the 2nd and 3rd books in the Broken Earth trilogy, they were the best way to start the year!
I definitely agree with your comment on the characters in The Three Body Problem. It took me a few tries to get into it at all because there wasn’t any character development, and that’s usually what I’m drawn to. I think this might be a common writing style with eastern fiction, though. I know personally, I’m used to a certain writing style with western fiction that focuses on individual characters, but that’s also a reflection of our society which praises individual achievements. According to friends that have read more translated Chinese and Japanese fiction, this just isn’t common in many of those books. I don’t think we can expect the same things we’re used to, because the culture the author comes from is very different.
That might also explain some of the sexism and other themes we think are problematic. A lot of the scenes were flashbacks to the cultural revolution, when those attitudes might have been completely normal. They might still be- I’m not sure. Not having those problematic attitudes though would be like having an American fantasy novel with a flashback to the 1920’s and not having threads of sexism and racism. That said, Liu certainly doesn’t even make it obvious that he knows it’s sexist, it’s just there. It did make me roll my eyes at times, but I’m trying to remind myself that Liu comes from a country very different than mine and his writing will reflect that. There also are probably a lot of things lost in translation that make the characters seem flat to me (Da Shi was the only one with an actual personality). I had a roommate who was from China and she explained that a lot of ideas were hard for her to translate because there just isn’t an exact term for the same thing.
Thanks for pointing out the differences in our cultures that may explain some of these criticisms. But I’m genuinely curious why you (and Emily) think Liu is “sexist.”
Maybe because I’m a guy, but I didn’t pick up on that at all. The female characters seemed very real and powerful. Some of the male characters were sexist, but how does that reflect on the author?
I am so glad you mentioned To be taught if fortunate! :) I absolutely adored this book! I was going through a hard time when I started reading it and it kind of played little part in reminding me of my love for science... (important, since I am a scientist :D)
One of the best things of my year was finding your channel. Thank you for all the recs.
Skyward & Starsight were my absolute all time favorite books I have ever read so far. I am SO EXCITED for the 3rd book to come out hopefully in spring!! I plan on reading The Midnight Library and the Three-Body Problem in the next month so now I am even more excited to get to those since they're both your favorites this year!!! :)
yayyyyyyyyy! my Saturday is made
i love the crown (you should get a matching one for snowglobe Emily)
Bless you for linking your head band!
For some reason I thought this would be the last video in the end of the year series! I was not ready for it, but yeah, everything in here I have either read or is in my close TBR because of you. I'm so glad to see that it was a good reading year for you despite everything!
I just finished the burning god and you are absolutely correct, best one of the three. Will read anything by RF KUANG from now on! Adding a few of the others to my to read as well
The season for my favourite videos of the year is now open!!
Sidenote : your headband is sooooo lovely!
Thank you!!! I looooove end of the year videos :D
Yass to The Midnight Library! One of my favorites of the year as well.
Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, A Deadly Education, Nevernight and Croocked Kingdom are my favourite reads of this year, with the most likely addition of Rhythm of War when I am finally able to read it (I have no doubts I'll love it and so happy to see Way of Kings here, the Stormlight Archive is my favourite series of all times^^)
And the Poppy War trilogy is in my tbr for next year, so excited to read it!
Adding everything to my shopping list, thank you next
Absolutely agree with your point about "Remembrance of Earth's Past"! Great work! Great!
I already want to reread To Be Taught if Fortunate and I just read it for the first time on your review this summer! Your recs have led to some real wins for me (including finally trying Brandon Sanderson!)
And my TBR has grown again :)
My faves of the year were:
- first law trilogy
- jurassic Park
- the deep
- final empire
- flowers of algernon
- Guns of the dawn
- the gentleman thief
OMG! I love you headband!
YES!!!!!!!! Addie Larue and the Midnight Library are both on my top books of 2020 list.
You’re making me so excited to read The Poppy War!! I was waiting for the series to be completed to start reading it 🤩
Edit: fine 🙄 you’ve convinced me to read the three body problem lmao
We read so many if the same books this year that we loved!! Once they hit the camera part in The Three Body Problem, I was hooked.
Have you read Seveneves? Excellent hard sci fi with strong badass female characters.
Every time i see the becky chambers book, i hear your voice in my head reading the first sentence 😅 great video as always 😊
Can’t wait to read finally Skyward and Starsight in 2021, since then it will be translated in my language.. you hyped it up quite hard so I hope it will live up to the hype...😌
I hope you'll enjoy them!
Their audiobooks are awesome ... Give them a try... Won't regret it.. I promise :)
I read skyward and definitely it was on my top books of 2020, also i loved the Midnight Library(LOVED) and want to read the humans in 2021
Currently reading the Three Body Problem and I was tempted to DNF it. You've definitely inspired me to restart it.
My best 2020 books: My Dark Vanessa, The Long Way to... (thanks to you!!!), The Vanishing Half, Mythos, Where the Crawdads Sing, The Midnight Library!
😱 My Dark Vanessa. That book still haunts me...
@@Morfeusm I still think about it sometimes!
God I was so disappointed by Addie Larue. Main characters personality and ambitions were that of a wet paper towel...
Do you stay in a specific irc channel?
My housemate gifted me the three body problem and was expecting you mentioning it. Thanks now I am excited about it.
In 2020 I amazed myself. Read way more books than normal, thanks to ongoing pandamic.
My top reads
Jade city
The rage of dragons & the fires of vengeance
World War Z
Martian
Anxious people
All systems red
The egg
Traitor's blade
Mr. Mercedes
Unbroken
The troop
Becoming
The Rise and fall of third reich
Paradox
Illuminae
The choices
Hyperbole and a Half
Gone girl
Homegoing
The stand
Edit: didn't realise the list went on and on, I'm too indecisive
Amazing video I'm right in the middle of way of the kings right now and I'm so excited to keep going with it!
you are the only reason why i bought The Midnight Library, I can't wait to read it!
Hope you'll love it!
Some of the best books I read are Mistborn Trilogy, The Way of Kings and Jurassic Park. Michael Crichton's books are full of scientific details that are mind blowing, so far he's my favorite sci-fi author.
I read To Be Taught If Fortunate just because of you and damn girl, definitely one of my favourites of the year, it made me wept and connect to the characters and like h o w 'cause it's so short. It is really really good, thank you 😭😭😭
So happy you loved it too!
Great to get your informed suggestions. The first video I watched of yours you recommended both Madeline Miller's Circe and Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens/Homo Deus which are some of my modern favourites, so I'm going to trust your taste and keep following to get more suggestions as well as your delightfully uplifting smile :-)
You vould try de selection of Chinese sf translated by Ken Liu "Invisible planets" really good, and there is a second part "Broken planets" which I just got for my Kindle. The latest fauvrites were the Slovakian horrors by Josef Karika, great atmosphere building but I don't know if they got translated into English or French, I'm Polish so I got Polish versions, and urban fantasy series based in Hong Kong which is in French so You could read it if you like. I really enjoyed the settings, the kung fu fights, badass Buddhists nun and using Chinese mythologies. Cool stuff. There were some of your recommendations like "Six wakes" and "Sudden appearance of Hope Arden" by Claire North ( I think I just gave English retranslation of the French title). I got the "Trail of Lightning" in progress but as I find it good, I'm so tired I end up reading lighter stuff, so my brain won't overlod, (moving to a different town), but also intresting part it uses Native American myths, which is a huge plus for me. There were also both Molly Southborn stories by Tade Thompson and "Who fears death" by Nnedi Okorafor. Last but not least heavy and depressing read but a very good one "An unkindness of ghosts" by Rivers Solomon,
I loved Skyward when I read it last year, and I'm super excited to read Starsight! One series that I just started this year was the Lies of Locke Lamora and I'm excited to keep reading ❤️
Emily I was thinking that for your first contact with aliens video you should read "Dawn" by Octavia Butler, it's really good although a bit disturbing. Well for the part 2 of that video haha
About something similar to The Three Body Problem, just last month a short story collection by the same author was published in English, it's called To Hold Up The Sky. I haven't read this trilogy, but I'm currently reading the collection and I'm enjoying it so far.
I had my Libby open fully prepared to put all these on hold...only to realize that I’ve either read them or have them checked out already 😂😂
I didn't receive any notifications about that! UA-cam trolling as usual! Always so excited to your end of the year series ☺️
I’ve read 65 books this year so far and honestly wasn’t obsessed with any of them. I really LIKED The Ten Thousand Doors of January and Good Morning, Midnight, but nothing really excited me beyond those two. I think I have a bad habit of wanting to get through books I have low expectations for first, before picking up ones I’m excited for.
It’s so dumb 🙃 Ive definitely got a New Years resolution in the making!
I think I'll be skipping The Midnight Library 😅 I read The Humans because you raved about it, but I truly hated his style and preachiness. I did order To Be Taught if Fortunate though! If I like it, I'm definitely trying her other work! (Also I read Children of Time and OMG did I love it!!)
My completely random guess is that 2 more videos will come out this month in which you mention To be Taught 🤞 and in both occasions you'll read out the first sentence like you always do 😄
I'm so thankful for her doing so 😭😭 it's funny and it's the reason I read it and damn it's sooooo good
One of the best books I read this year was “The Rage of Dragons” by Evan Winter
Nice picks! all of the new ones I heard here seemed interesting for me.... Thank you:)
Ahhh I just got the entire storm light archives and I need to read it 🥺
I 100% agree with everything you said about The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. It's so freaking good. I still need to check out The Way of Kings, The Poppy War, The Midnight Library, Skyward and To Be Taught If Fortunate. Hopefully I'll get to them in 2021 lol.
You made me want to read "to be taught" so much : my next read has been decided!
My favorite books of the year : Strange the dreamer (the two books), The Nevernight Chronicles trilogy, Graceling, Daisy Jones and the six, Wings of fire (the entire series), Deadly education, Heartstopper, the prince and the dressmaker, Beartown (the two books), Lightning-struck heart, the Illuminae files trilogy, The blade itself trilogy, Carry on, The silent patient, and Howl's moving castle (it was a great reading year!)
Hopefully you'll love it too!
Yay!!! This is my favorite video of the year!!
I just started reading To be taught if fortunate today thanks to you lol! My best books of this year were Behind her eyes, The troop and I’m thinking of ending things!
You'll have to let me know how it goes!
OMG THAT HEADBAND IS INCREDIBLE
The Midnight Library sounds intriguing 🤔
Wow, a really great selection of Best Of 2020. I have heard so many good things about The three-body problem I'm going to pick up all three books and devour them ;-) I'd say my top 5 books of the year would be children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Magician by Raymond E. Feist, The Grey and True Bastards by Jonathan French, and Ship Of Magic by Robin Hobb.
The midnight library is a great bit of escapism. I enjoyed it 👍
The House in the Cerulean Sea- TJ Klune
Fable- Adrienne Young
House of Earth and Blood- Maas
Tender is the Flesh- Bazterrica
Poppy war- R.F. Kuang
The Way of Kings is amazing, but Words of Radiance is a masterpiece! Can't wait for you to read it
I read To Be Read if Fortunate because of your recommendation and I loved it! So thank you so much for that
Yayy!!
I love your white pearl looking faerie crown! :)
Addie LaRue all the way! ✨
added most of them to my tbr:)!! btw you look stunning, i love the crown✨🖤
I started the Stormlight Archives this year and I have to say, they are all favorites of mine as well! I really liked Skyward and Starsight as well! I am very excited for the 3rd ook next year!
The Burning God was a ride 😱😭 Rin’s words “fix it” at the end still haunt me.
It’s hard to pick a favorite but I think In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom are in my top three faves
Ahhh I've been putting off reading The Burning God for so long because Ik how heavy it'll be 🤧
The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis! I have been fighting and failing to read with any consistency and find stories I love since I started college (and I graduated from grad school a year and a half ago, so yikes, almost 8 years). This was the first recommendation StoryGraph threw at me when I started an account, and I fell in love with it. It's not perfect and will likely not work for everyone (and it might be too romance heavy for Emily, lol!), but the series has potential and I am very excited to continue once the other books come out.
I' ve almost finished 'Why we sleep?' Since you've recomended so much. As a psychoterapist, neuroscience fan and a person with insomnia; thank you!!!! I'm loving it!!!! Hugs from Argentina!!
Oh it's one of my next reads!
@@BookswithEmilyFox oh!! In that case l hope you enjoy it!! I'm taking sooo many notes!! ❤
Thank you Emily for mentioning Cixin Liu’s views on the concentration camps. It’s unfortunate that i have already bought and paid for his books but i will be donating them to my local library as i cant bring myself to read for an author who holds such horrible views
You can't really critique the government in China without being in danger or go to jail so his actual opinions are unknown. China is communist and represses free speech and prosecutes people who critizes the government. Additionally the state controls information .
I’m sorry but I was scrolling through the comments and felt I had to reply to this one. A communist system is not inherently wrong or evil, any more than a capitalist one is. Both are ideologies which strive to improve people’s conditions of life, and without the understanding of a country’s history you cannot just go around blindly critiquing one or the other. Every country’s history and politics is unique, and I cannot stand it when westerners, especially Americans, go around holding up capitalism as the gold standard and using the word “communist” as if it were an insult.
@@mq8337 North Korea and Cuba and the Soviet Union are not the gold standard of Human condition
@@yezenia9830 And America is? You just don’t get it, do you? Capitalism allows people to improve their lives by promising that people get to reap the rewards of their efforts. Communism promises to redistribute wealth so the average standard of living improves. Neither is INHERENTLY evil. However, HUMANS are flawed and selfish. The way that our society works is that it will always arrange itself into a hierarchy. Therefore in capitalist systems, the effort you put into your work is never proportional to the rewards you reap at the end, because everyone wants to climb higher up the hierarchy and to ensure your position in the ladder means anything, you have to keep it that way by keeping those below you where they are. For communism societies it also doesn’t work, because without the promise of rewards, nobody is willing to work and the economy stagnates.
So if both systems have problems, how do countries choose which to adopt? It depends on the starting position of the country. For wealthy countries with sizeable middle class populations, which most western countries were at the start of the 20th century due to colonisation and trade etc, capitalism is the best way to go because it increases the wealth and power of the top elite groups, and hence also the entire country. For countries in which there exists a top elite group and then the rest of the population are starving peasants, which ideology do you think sounds better? Long term economic growth through investment, or immediate relief by getting rid of the elite and redistributing their wealth?
You westerners are so happy to go harping on about the “evils” of communism, but have you considered why those countries were put into the position where they chose communism in the first place? If the US and USSR hadn’t used Korea as a pawn during their Cold War, perhaps the country would not have been divided in two. If the whole of Western Europe and Japan had not invaded China continuously for a century, we would not have been left with a population made up almost entirely of peasants. Hard times call for hard decisions, and at the time, sacrifices were deemed necessary. It’s easy for a person who’s never felt hunger in a day of their life to judge the actions and choices of a dying man.
You cannot take events, even decades, in history out of context and judge them in isolation. To do so would be ignorance, and to be ignorant of world history is one of the worst things you can be in our current age.
I am so glad I have most of these on my TBR for 2021 😍
My favourite was definitely The Song of Achilles, even though I cried so much during the end. 😭
It was my favorite tooooo
The Way of Kings ALL THE WAYYYYY YAAAAAS I LOOOOOOOVED IT ❤️ Unfortunately I really hated The Midnight Library and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.... but that’s okay. Different taste is important and I’ve found sooooo many favourites thanks to your channel 🙌🏻
I've recently watched a movie called "Prospect" (2018) and it gave me such strong Becky Chambers vibes!
It's a about a man and his teen daughter searching for valuable gems on an alien moon under dangerous circumstances. Loved it!
I loved the three body problem. Eager to read the next two books. I felt so stupid reading it though lol
The last book was... humbling lol
So many good books! Starsight needs to go on my TBR, at some point.
'Skyward' was the best thing I read this year and it's thanks to you!
I totally agree with you about the Three Body Problem, I loved the concepts I'm them but man all the sexism really took away from my enjoyment. It was so so so bad.
So I read The Three Body Problem for the first time a few years ago because I went to a talk by Ken Liu and he was talking about how he translated them... I highly recommend reading Ken Liu's short story collection The Paper Menagerie. It's a mix of scifi, fantasy, and perhaps just a touch of magical realism ;), and is overall fantastic! And I think you already have it on your shelves too!
I do have it! I need to get around to reading it. I always get nervous to pick up short story collection, idk why!
My favourites:
- "A Closed and Common Orbit" by Becky Chambers
- "The Wonder Down-Under" by Nina Brochmann & Ellen Støkken Dahl (non-fiction that I think you'll enjoy)
- "The Hero of Ages" by Brandon Sanderson
- "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan
:D
I had a bad reading year but I did enjoy a few. My favorites were The Lost World by James Conan Doyle.
Everything I never told you by Celeste Ng
The Whisper Man by Alex North
Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Also I only gave this book 3 stars but if you like sci-fi and fantasy you might enjoy it more but the book is The Postmortal by Drew Magary. It's not the type of book I normally read. I was surprised by how much I did like it.
Based off your description of The Midnight Library I really think you would like Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore.
It's the story of a man who is trying to live a perfect life through many reincarnated lives. So good. I picked it up randomly and it blew me away
Great list
Best books I read in 2020
1.Ghost story
2.Different seasons
3.The lion,the witch,the wardrobe
4.Godfather
5.Elantris
6.Equal rites
(I also loved Miss Peregrine's home for Peculiar Children)
I think you would enjoy Jade City! Also Equal Rites yay 👍
I loved The Midnight Library too!
I've heard Poppy War mentioned so much and I was never that interested in reading it but your description of gods driving you mad when you use magic made me go read the synopsis and now I really want to read it.
Side note that might be worded weird but I hope you get what I'm trying to say: Honestly, I'm happy that you mentioned a book (three-body problem) with a possibly problematic author. I like being given the information myself for me to decide how I feel about an author and their works while still getting your honest opinion. Though obviously if someone's like, completely terrible, I get just not including them in something.
Came for the headband, stayed for the book favorites. ❤️
Ahhhh yes The Midnight Library and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue are going to be in my top favorites of the year too 😍❤️
They're so good!
That headband! You keep convincing me you're **royalty**
I read "Skyward" and it was a five star read for me. I'm reading "Way of Kings" and enjoying it a lot, it will probably be a five star book too. "To Be Taught, If Fortunate" was lacking in development and the ending was not believable imo. And the others I'll check out eventually.
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest and Fight Club were my favourites.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is one of my favorite novels and Fight Club not so much.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was amazing!
Hey ! Addie Larue made my best book of 2020 list too ! I'm also going to pick up the poppy war trilogy soon, I'm glad you liked the ending !
I'm wondering if you have ever read some of Greg Egan's works ? I'm currently reading his sci fi short stories and it blows my mind. I'm not finished yet but if I finish it by the end of december it will be on my best book of 2020 list too hahaha.
I haven't but a few people mentioned him! Any specific one I should check out?
@@BookswithEmilyFox The one I'm reading is Axiomatic
ohmygosh, the way you just get past bad or average writing blows my mind! I'm the exact opposite. I could read a book about nothing if the writing is good, if not, I just can't.
You need to read Terminal Alliance by Jim C Hines, if you like more science-heavy scifi. The faster than light travel system is great. They also have more "realistic" depictions of how space combat would really work, and how communications would work. The book follows a woman who is a janitor on a space ship. But it goes much, much further than that, and I can't say much more without spoilers. There's also an exploration of the first contact with aliens trope, but again, I can't really say much about it without spoilers. Oh, and the book is laugh out loud hilarious sometimes. There is an alien species that has given themselves names that humans can pronounce, so they go into Earth history and gave themselves names that are music related, ships that are named after "Earth's most deadly animals" and stuff like that, but since they don't understand human culture, hilarity ensues.
pretty sure the Midnight Library is going to be in my faves too. I also devoured it and kind of want to cry every time I think about it now??? also I was so curious if your worried spoiler was the same as mine....and it totally was HAHAHA. I was like NO PLEASE but thankfully we didn't go that route, PHEW
We're definitely thinking about the same thing lol
This is an awesome book channel. This is for the record.