what's up booktube, welcome to my channel
if you're new here, welcome back if
you're not. this is the bookish life of
Laura, I am obviously Laura, and today I'm
talking about every single book that I
have read and loved so far in 2020.
this is going to be a two-part video
where I talk about all the books that I
have read in 2020 so far, from January
first up until now. I'm filming this on
April - April 6th apparently, I don't know
what day it is. so at the time of filming,
this is every book that I've read so far
this year. this video will be the books
that I have liked, which will include
every book that is a 3.5 star or higher.
and then part two will be every book
that I have not loved, which will be 3
star and lower. so without further ado,
here is my list. since I did a march
wrap-up video already a few days ago - or
I guess when you're watching this it'll
be last week - I'm not going to talk about
the books that I've read in March,
because I already did, so I'll link that
video down below. but for the rest of
them I will give like my brief thoughts
on them, and like why they got that
rating, why I love them, or for the next video
why I didn't love them. so for this video
it'll be all the books that I have loved
from January until now, there are way
more of these than there are the ones
that I didn't love, which is great, but
this video will be up quite a bit longer
than that one is. I think I have like 20
books? 19 books? something like that for this
list, and like 7 for the other one. So
it's a bit of a difference. which is
great, I love that, I'm very happy that
I've been reading more good books than
bad books this year.
love that for me. so let's get started!
starting with January - obviously, it's the first month of the year/
first book that I read and loved this
year was on the come up by Angie Thomas.
this one in YA contemporary. this is
the book that made me realized that I
don't like contemporary anymore. so since
I went into this book thinking that I
still liked contemporary and then just
realize that, you know what not really, I
didn't let that change my rating of it,
because you know I thought that
I still like the genre at the time, so I
didn't think it was fair to give it a
lower rating because my tastes had
changed. so I still gave this one four
stars.
I think Angie Thomas is a amazing writer
and she tells really really good stories.
this one, I said
my review on Goodreads I'm not going to
like give my thoughts on it, because the
thoughts of a white person is not
needed for this type of book, so I
encourage people to go and read reviews
from people who actually can relate to
this story. next up was come tumbling
down by Seanan McGuire. this book got a
full five stars, not even a question. I
adore this series. this one - it wasn't my
favorite book in the series, that one I
think will still always be the forth one
because I love the goblin market, like
that would be my world. but I do love
Jack and all the characters from the
first book, so I love seeing them again,
so this one still got a 5 stars.
honestly I think every book in this
series has gotten a 5 stars for me, which
like looking back there are some that I
would maybe change to a 4, but this is
not one of them, this one definitely
still gets 5 stars.
I do wish that these books were longer, I
think a lot of people wish that. I think
they would really benefit from being
longer, but I just love them so much
and they mean so much to me that like,
they just get 5 stars automatically
basically. I don't often like think
critically about my ratings before I
post them, I just kind of pick
whatever I feel and these books are
always 5 stars for me, even the ones that
I don't like as much as the other ones. I
think it's the third one I'm not like
huge on but I think it still has 5 stars
on Goodreads because that's just who I
am.
I love these books, they are a wonderful
series, I love portal fantasy and I love
all the characters and just the writing
style and oh my god! So so good, so good.
next was the night country by Melissa
Albert. this is book 2 of the Hazelwood
duology, or series I don't know if it'll
be a series. right now there's two books,
there might be more later on, who knows.
this is actually one of the books that I
changed my rating for right before
filming this video. while I was going
through my Goodreads and writing down
which books would be in which video, that
one was at a three, so it was going to
be in my books that I didn't love video. but
I was like, you know what I actually
liked this one more than some of the
other
that are on that list so I'm gonna bump
up to a 3.5, that
way it can be on this list, because it
wasn't my favorite book ever, I
definitely liked the first book better,
but I did still love this book - well, kind of.
I love the world of this book - of this
series. the actual plot line isn't really
my fav, and I honestly can't stand the
main character, I think she's so annoying.
but the world is just so much fun, it's
pretty much the same reason of why I
love the wayward children series.
anything to do with like a portal to a
different world, and this one also like,
wraps in fairy tales. so it's portal
fantasy but the otherworld is a fairy
tale world and I think that's wonderful,
like that is so cool, I want to go there.
but yeah no, I love that world
so much that even though the actual book
itself wasn't my favourite thing ever, I
still wanted to have this one on this
list is because that world is so good, so
beautiful.
next I read the gentleman's guide to
getting lucky by Mackenzi Lee. this book
takes place after the events of
gentleman's guide to vice and virtue and
before lady's guide to petticoats and
piracy, and it was just so  much fun.
there wasn't that much to it, it's
literally just Monty and Percy trying to
get laid, but it was really cute. it was
fun, I liked seeing a more vulnerable
side to both of these characters.
they both really open up and kind
of get emotional, and I thought it was
wonderful. it was a great way to like see
more who their characters are and it was
just really fun. so I give this one a 4
star. the next one that I loved was dark
and deepest red by Anna Marie McLemore.
this one was so good. I had never read a
book even similar to this before. this
book is about the dancing plague in the
16th century, and it takes place in that
time period as well as in the present
day, so it goes back and forth and has
like the descendants of the characters
from the before time period. and it was
really interesting, it was so beautifully
written. I really need to read more of
her books because they're just so good.
her writing style is just incredible, she
has this really magical way of telling
stories that I just absolutely
adore. her writing style is probably one
of my favorites. I didn't love one of her
other books, Blanca & Roja, like I ended up
DNFing that one. but like I wanted to
keep reading it just for the writing
style because it's
so beautiful and like she just really
really knows how to tell a story.
this one is magical realism, it's good,
please read it.
it's her newest releases well, it came
out I think mid January,
something like that. just read it, it was
so good,
it was so so good, I loved it. next up was
upright women wanted by Sara Gailey. I
loved this book, I give it a four star. I
mentioned this in a different video
where I talked about my undying love for
Sara Gailey and just how beautifully they
write stories. this book in particular
isn't like a new favourite or anything
but Sarah Gailey as an author definitely
is a new favourite, because their
storytelling is just so well crafted
that I just, I will now read anything
that they write. and I'm hoping to get to
hopefully two of their books this month
for the OWLs, if I can if I can swing
that, that would be amazing. it's just so
good, I loved it.
it was a really interesting take on the
future of America. it's the future in
America but they went back to Wild West
time. and it's just like this band of
queer librarians. they were meant to be
like working for the government but
they're actually part of the revolution.
so they use their position and their
jobs to actually defy the government, and
it's just like a bunch of queer nerdy
ladies on horseback riding through the
desert. it's amazing, I can't recommend it
enough.
next up was the cold is in her bones by
Peternelle van Arsdale. this one I considered bumping down to a 3-star to
have it on the other list, but I kept
it where it was because I did really like it.
it just kind of had like some pacing issues
for me. I found it was a bit slow
paced in the beginning even though like,
a lot was happening you know, it just felt very
slow-paced. but the overall story was
amazing, I loved the writing style, I
thought the world was really cool, and
like the lore and all that stuff behind
it. it was it was really interesting, like very
very well crafted. it was just a well
told story for the most part, aside from
the pacing problems. this one got a 3.5
star from me. next up is red white and
royal blue by Casey McQuiston, which i
think is my only five star read for this
year. I kind of picked that one up on a
whim.
like it was already on my TBR, and on
Valentine's Day I was just in the mood
for a romance, so I just went through
Goodreads and picked the first romance
that I found on my TBR. It happened to be
this one, so I read it in a day and a
half and just oh my god. I fell in love, *singing* I
fell in love with it! basically from the
first page - or first -
it was the audiobook so the first
whatever that would be. I keep telling
everyone that I know to read this
book because it was so freaking cute, and
I think that a lot of people would like
it even if they're not really big
readers. I would gladly read a whole
series of this book, of just these two
characters being together and like them
growing in their relationship. I think
they're wonderful. I loved the writing,
the pacing was really good actually for
this one, I thought that it was paced
perfectly. any faster or any slower and it
wouldn't have been good. it needed to be
that length, I think that was the perfect
choice and this author did an amazing
job with it. and then I read Pillow Thoughts II
by Courtney Peppernell. this is a book
of poetry. I read this on audiobook,
I couldn't sleep one night so I just put
it on and it was really beautiful. it's
narrated by the author which is really
nice, and it's just a really beautiful
collection of poetry. and this one got
four stars from me. and then I read The Lion
the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis. I
know that there's some like discourse as
to which book is actually the first book.
I don't really care which one is to be
honest. so I read this one as though it
were the first book in this series and
it was great, it was really fun. I have
seen one movie, I'm not sure how many
movies there are to be honest. I've seen
a movie from this, pretty recently I
think like earlier this year I watched
it for the first time, and it was awesome
it was so good, so I wanted to read the
series as well. this is part of my like
children's book catch-up project that
I've been doing for a few years, so I'll
definitely be reading the rest of this
series at some point. and this one got a
four star from me as well.
so these next few books I already talked
about in my March wrap-up so I won't go
into them all, I'll just leave that video linked down below for you guys. but
those books were Red Hood by Elana K
Arnold, which I gave 3.5 or 4, not sure
yet.
Havenfall by Sara Holland which was
also a 3.5. Finna by Nino Cipri which
got a 4 stars. artificial condition
by Martha Wells which got four stars as
well. the wide window by Lemony Snicket
which also got four stars. and the song
of Achilles by Madeline Miller which got
three and a half stars. oh wait that one
I didn't talk about in my might wrap
up, that book I talked about in my vlog,
so I'll leave that down below as well if
you want to see my thoughts on it. and
then the last book on this list is Rogue
Protocol by Martha Wells which also got
a four stars. I've read a lot of Martha
Wells this year. *laughs* they're so good. so that is
it for all the books and I have read and
loved so far in 2020. I will hopefully
have a hell of a lot more books that I
have loved as we go farther into the
year. I'm loving everything that I'm
reading right now, I'm just having such a
good time this year with all of these
fantastic reads. I think there's a lot
coming out that's really good this
year. yeah so my - my my reading goal for this
year is to try and keep up with new
releases, because I have this horrible
habit of adding a book to my TBR that's
not released yet and then just
forgetting about it for like three years.
so I'm really trying to keep up with the
new releases and read them as soon as I
possibly can after they're released. I'm
a few books behind and I also have quite
a few coming up so I'm a little bit
overwhelmed, but I tried to work in as
many as I could for the OWLs. so I will
eventually catch up with those, and
there's so many that I can't wait for.
that will be all for today's video. look
out for part two of this video coming
out shortly where I talk about the ones
that I didn't like this year. if all goes
to plan that video should be coming out
a few days after this one does, so you'll
see it soon. but I hope you're all having
a great day, and
I'll catch you in the next video. bye!
