Your informative memoir category is actually called autoethnography in academic spheres! It is a mix of the self's experiences and connects to society, larger contexts, and previous research. The books you're describing liking are autoethnographies. Also "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" is a narrative autoethnography since it's also about Ocean's own mother.
and “narrative nonfiction” is on the other end where it’s more nonfiction and less memoir but still with plenty of personal stories pulled in (not always always the authors story as well)
I don't know if you have considered this, but you would be an incredible person to put together/curate/edit a short story collection. You have such a talent for organizing, recognizing themes and audience expectations, and overall approaching reading in such a unique and needed way
That's so kind of you to say!! 🤗 I do think that if I ever found myself working in the publishing sphere, this type of compiling is exactly what I could see myself doing.
@@BooksandLala If you asked for submissions from your readers, you could get quite a few stories. If you like enough, you could suggest a percentage of the sales to each author for the first year.
I agree, it would be interesting to see! I for one am so into the portal fantasy type of a book that I always think I'll rate a book higher if it has that trope in it… so it would be interesting to see if there's a correlation, and if there is… what is it that makes a book bad and another good of the same trope. That would be an analytically interesting point.
i think that the death category could be called “books that reconstruct death” because it seems like all of the books have and overarching theme of finding new ways to look at and feel about death. loved this video!!!!!!
Have you read “I Who Have Never Known Men”? It’s basically a mix between non-urgent apocalyptic, women’s love prevails, written like a fictional memoir & unfamiliar circumstances. So if you haven’t read it, it might be a hit for you!!! 🎉
For books about books, i would HIGHLY suggest 84 Charing Cross Road. It's these letters that were written between one woman in New York and the people who worked in a bookstore in London. It's a true story and it's amazing. Short and just so cute.
The Appeal is told through emails! It’s about drama that goes down in a theater group in London centered around an appeal (go fund me situation) and a murder does eventually happen. it was really fun to read but definitely a slower read. it’s fun to try to guess what happens as you’re reading! im about to read her newest book which is also mixed media
I really think you’d love Braiding Sweetgrass (informative memoir) and I Who Have Never Known Men (sort of non-urgent apocalyptic?). Also was going to recommend Even Though I Knew the End for women’s love, so now I’m just here to confirm it. Those are three of my favorite books of all time. LOVE this color green on you!
I sped to the comments to see if anyone had recommend Braiding Sweetgrass as soon as I saw the informative-memoir category ahaha I thoroughly second the recommendation^^^ ❤️
ALSO A STATS-VIDEO IDEA! Hi Kayla! Video idea: Did you know that on Goodreads you can compare your taste with your friends? If you go to their page (on a browser) and to their shelves, there is a hidden button called 'compare books'. This will actually tell you how many books you have in common ánd if you've rated the books similarly. A videa idea could be: 'Getting video recs from booktubers that have the most similair taste as me'. Or something more elaborate :). Even though we only have 4 books in common ;) (I mostly read library books & middle grade), I love watching your channel. You and the rest of the booktube community have hyped me back into reading, thank you for that! Greetings from the Netherlands ! In full disclosure, I have commented this before, I'm just superhyped ;).
Reading this sounds like when she does the can we trust booktubers video comparing their top 10s to her faves and then grabs another book from their 5 stars to see if it also becomes a new fave for her.
Halfway through this video and given your taste in apocalyptic fiction you HAVE to read Parable of the Sower and Parable of The Talents by Octavia E. Butler. It seems like exactly the kind of apocalyptic scenario you would like! (It is also told in journal entries so it feels like it would fit the mixed media category!)
I’m hyper fixated on your channel again after falling out of Booktube last year, and I was on a binge on all the videos I missed when this was posted. 😍 what a gift fr😊
Yeah… definitely a mixed media thing! I have one bought new here, but I saw someone selling it in a second hand shop and they thought it was actually an old library book. It was listed as an old book… but I'm afraid it did not come with the loose extra items that are essential to the book.
I love this video idea! I never look too deeply in the patterns within my 5 star reads but now I want to! I feel like it’s quite telling about a person. Loved this 😊
Love this video idea. I started adding content or trope labels to my reads a few months ago, so I’m excited to see my stats once I read more books. One common label I enjoy, or read more from, is what I call “wtf-factor”. The graphic novel series Saga is a perfect example of this. I love that series. It has so many bizarre and unique characters, planets, and plot points.
I think I also like non-urgent apocalypse stories a lot, even though I haven't read that many yet. Somehow I always feel drawn to synopses. Last year, I read Oryx and Crake, which I think definitely falls into this category, and it was great. Maybe you'd like it too! Highly recommend the audiobook
I think this might be one of my favorite videos of yours! I love the deep analysis and the way you pair books I might not otherwise relate to one another. I think the apocalypse category was the most revealing - that it's not about fighting or action but those discussions and moral dilemmas. Definitely makes me want to check out some of those!!
In your “informative memoir” category - you might enjoy “written in bone” by sue black. While it deals with, well, dead bodies, sue black’s witty writing and her incredible experience working in forensic anthropology is just an amazing mix of learning something new while learning about someone! It was one of my most surprising 5 star reads of 2023 ☺️
Came here for two things. 1. I loved that shade of green for you. 2. This was such an informative but fun video. Categorizing things is a favorite of mine and this gave me a new way to look at my favorite books.
I’m finally reading the rave cycle and realized you should have put that in more categories. Like obsession and playing with time. I now see why you love it so much. And I am falling in love with it, too.
The 22 Murders of Madison May definitely has a countdown vibe, as well as weird time/world dynamics. One of the main perspective characters is a journalist too, which isn’t strictly the same as authors and books, but she does go about solving the problem through the lens of her craft. Also, Braiding Sweetgrass has a good mix of memoir to ecology and Native American history/tradition.
I need to do this! I love books that play with senses or the mind...Bird Box, Song for the Void, Ocean's Echo, Dracul, Magic Steeped in Poison, and Stolen Tongues are just a few that come to mind. That's something that I have really figured out this past year. It'd be nice to figure out some other things, too.
I loved The Appeal SO much, it was in my top two favorites of 2022. I've seen other people say it was too slow, but oddly I didn't think it was even though I'm suuuper sensitive to slow books because I'm very easily bored. It's definitely got that aspect you mentioned of like, things are included that you don't know why or how they're going to be relevant so you just have to sort of go with it.
Hi! I have to say, we have similar tastes w so many topics you mention aka this video title, journals, book about books, random books (like the one you showed us w the gifts in envelopes w reading prompt styles Etc. Love how you venture out into other interests and hobbies that relate to books. Perhaps it is because you are French Canadian and so am I (only living in the US) - LOL! You are so relatable - Love your channel XO
I don't feel like I recall you reading A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (if you have, you can disregard this) but it checks so many boxes for you. It's told through alternating perspectives with one of them being in the format of diary entries; one of the main characters is a writer working on a book; and there's weird stuff happening with time through the whole book. It's a five star for me and given the trends in this video it could be for you, too :)
Best Friends Exorcism was the first thing I thought of when you said female friendship at all costs. The monologue at the end… I have Last Night at the Telegraph club and havnt read yet but I listened to an interview with the author on History is Gay podcast and definitely sounds like it fits the category If you count sisters, Yolk is a good one too And One Last Stop 😍
There was a book I loved years ago called Consider by Kristy Acevedo which is a portal sci-fi about the world ending, and these portals appear all around the world with holograms that tell everyone they MUST jump through the portals to survive an astroid that is going to destroy earth... but no one knows what happens when you do jump through or if these holograms are even telling the truth... so its a decision everyone has to make on their own. I thought it was really good.. but she is re-publishing it this year with a new title and cover and it's called The Warning. I think you would like it based on these categories.
For informative memoir, Why Fish Don’t Exist! Science makes my eyes absolutely glaze over, but this book is one of my faves of all time. Queerness, eugenics, taxonomy, depression, murder mystery?! It’s perfect.
For organized lists I adored _The Girls I've Been:_ 3 teens go to the bank to drop off their charity fundraising money and end up as hostages in a robbery. It's told in such a fun way, very queer, and each chapter starts with a list of their assets/plan/etc (crossing things out as they're used or completed or no longer an option) as they try to get out alive. For portal world/time I cannot recommend _The Space Between Worlds_ enough. And I also think you would like _The Lighthouse Witches_ (which is getting a TV adaptation too).
I loved The Appeal (not court documents, but email correspondence) and I think you’ll like it, but I’d actually recommend her latest book, The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, more. I literally just finished it this afternoon! It’s a lot like the Appeal, in that both are collections of evidence used to solve a mystery, but The Appeal is 95% emails while Alperton Angels is a big mix of different media: emails, texts, interviews, voice recording transcripts, book and script excerpts. For a mixed media aficionado, it has a lot more to offer. I also HIGHLY recommend her second book, The Twyford Code, which is almost entirely voice recording transcripts (except for letters at the beginning and end). It has THE best twist ending I’ve ever read, it absolutely blew my mind. If you do try this one out, do it in print, not audio-it might seem logical to listen to voice recording transcripts, but you’d miss all of the clues scattered throughout the book that need to be seen to pick up (not that I did, hence my mind being so blown).
my favorite type of nonfiction is informative memoir too! usually with science/nature themes juxtaposing with someone's personal struggles/growth. a few that come to mind: Why Fish Don't Exist, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. i definitely want to read more!
The organized/countdown category made me think of Lute by Jennifer Marie Thorne. On the island of Lute, every seventh summer, seven people die. No more, no less. And the locals refer to it as The Day. We follow the main character who's arrived and is experiencing The Day for the first time. She arrives early and we read along as she and the rest of the island people prepare for The Day.
IM CONVINCED OONA WOULD BE A 5 STAR FOR YOU! Doesn’t fall in the organize/lists category BUT time travel and unfamiliar circumstance categories FOR SURE
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING would fit into a couple of these categories: the book about books (it’s about an audio book narrator) and the organizes/lists, although a bit loosely (the chapters are titled after romance tropes). It isn’t the steamiest romance but the author is Emily Henry’s audiobook narrator and it was delightful.
Your videos are always so thoughtful, and I truly appreciate the time and thought you take in your reading. It's just so nice and gives me inspiration as well!
Based on what you were saying about the organized category and the book Six Stories. I recommend watching the movie Wild Tales. It’s an Argentinian dark comedy and when you were talking about this part, that movie popped up in my mind.
This made me realize how narrow my taste usually is. I read a fairly narrow variety of types of books and then even narrower for the kinds I love. Basically if you give me found family… I’m sold
Books that sprang to mind for you: 1) in the 'women's love prevails' category, Devotion by Hannah Kent. Even though it is historical fiction, it also has magical-realism and a really interesting engagement with dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Also possibly fits obsession. 2) In the portal category, related to death, book related books, and unfamiliar circumstances category, The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa. It fits too many categories not to mention it. It reads a bit like a parable, but there's a lot to ponder beyond a simple description of the plot.
I wanna do this now! Also, I love whenever you talk about your reading (especially ways like this) and j walk us through your thoughts. I find it really interesting and often gets me thinking about how I think about my own reading tastes.
Hi Lala, regarding "women's love prevails" and "non urgent apocalypse" i'd recommend The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan. It's a story about a world that is mainly made up of water, and features a floating circus. Whilst not definitively an apocalyptic story, it definitely can be read that way, and has a wlw main storyline :)
For Books about books as well as organized you might like The eighth Detective/ Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi. It's more or less a short story collection with a framing narrative. And for playing with time Duckett & Dyer by G.M. Nair is quite fun. Both are detective stories but both play with concepts
Idk if it’s just because I finished it recently but based on what you said about informative memoirs I have a recommendation (I also Have read some of the other books in that section so I think we’d have similar nonfiction taste) The Hare with Amber Eye: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal is part memior, part family history and part art history. I think you’d like it!
For non-urgent apocalypse (one of my favs as well), I highly recommend "The Last" by Hanna Jameson if you haven't checked it out already! Lots of not knowing what's going on....I read it a few years ago and haven't stopped thinking about it despite reading hundreds of books in between!
I feel as though you might enjoy the Aurora Cycle trilogy by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman, particularly the third book which involves time loops and “playing with time”. It also involves an apocalyptic storyline and lots of other plots that you’ve mentioned you like such as being thrown into a situation and learning to cope. It is a YA series so it may not be to your taste anymore but there’s definitely potential 😅 it also has a found family dynamic and is set in space 😊
Ooo a mixed media nonfiction I highly recommend and I think you would like is They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers! The audiobook narration by Allyson Johnson is really good too. It also includes a mix of firsthand accounts of people, court proceedings, newspapers etc Okay another rec for u familiar circumstance: The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosley. It’s a thriller and a character study and is very stream of consciousness and just about a man dealing with an incredibly bizarre experience-the man in his basement.
I have to recommend the anthology Someone In Time as something you might like. 1: its a short story collection 2:it's all time travel stories also I think time travel in general leads to exploration of themes around death to - going back in time and meeting people who have died, dying before you were even born, what it means to be remembered etc
For a non urgent apocalypse book there’s one called the Temps where people are stuck but safe at their workplace and diving into what the company actually does
Oooh, I think you would love Electric Kingdom ! It's that kind of book where you have information that you don't understand in the beginning but starts to make sense later. Plus it has other elements that you've cited in here! But not telling what because of spoils ^^
I would highly recommend Lonely Castle in the Mirror, by Mizuki Tsujimura. It falls into the “Unfamiliar Circumstances” category and also another category that I can’t say without spoiling! In a recently vlog you also wanted something that would make you cry, and I was hard core sobbing through the entire last 50 pages, and then for the next 24 hours after finishing I would just spontaneously burst into tears any time I thought about it. A slow burn with a great payoff in my opinion!
I think you'd love Life of Pi! Extremely well-organized, the author is part of the story, a survival story, it plays with death and talks about religion (not in a preachy/conversion way). It's absolutely my favorite book of all time, and this video confirms for me that you might like it!
Some recs based off these categories for me: - Apocalypse as we know it: Harrow by Joy Williams - Organised like The Hunger Games: Battle Royale (the Japanese novel not the 007) - Plays with time / books talking about authors and books; my absolute favourite: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (which I think I recommend to everybody but also want to keep all for myself)
You need to read The Dark Tower series by Stephen King (portal fantasy and weird, unfamiliar circumstances for book 2 characters). For your audience I'll say read the first two 2 books before you decide to dnf or not. For you, I think you'll love it from book 1.
This made me look at my 5 stars and to create my own categories! It was such an enriching experience. 💙 I've noticed that I love books that : - feature a narrator that sees the world in a simpler way than I do (Piranesi, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Wonder) - are over-the-top whimsical and illogical (Furthermore, Alice in Wonderland) - are about women discovering unforgivable issues in their relationships (A Dowry of Blood, My Dark Vanessa).
The time travel reminded me George R. R. Martin's short story Unsound Variations - actually I would recommend a lot of his sci-fi short stories (all pre-A Song of Ice and Fire). His most famous work is good, but his older stuff shouldn't be forgotten.
omg I love the stats on goodreads 😍 my favourite part is the chart where it shows you the Publishing year of the books you read 😍 also I kinda forgot you gave Evelyn hardcastle 5 stars I read it recently and only gave it 2 but like it was so disappointing because I loved it so much for like 400 pages but then I really hated the main reveal (about Anna and the time loop) and then the ending was just so dampened by that that I didn't enjoy it and it didn't live up to how great the rest of it was.. it really could've been 5 stars and I definitely love well written time loops and that last category you did so I should probably read those then heh
Book that plays with the concept of death/time: Mort by Terry Pratchett (pretty silly vibe compared to ones currently in the categories) Book about death & unfamiliar circumstances & books: Library of the unwritten Edit: these were 4/3 stars for me but you never know with recommendations because Severance was a 3 but Middlegame a 5
The organised/list idea is one of my faves too and when it’s not anthology, the thing I call it is that the structure acts as a key part of the story. Similar to like “the setting as a character”, it’s like “the structure as a character”
'why we broke up' by daniel handler would be one for the organised category, it's a list of items (illustrated! Multimedia elements!) that the narrator is returning to their ex with a story from their relationship for each one. also for that category maybe 'as you wish' by chelsea sedoti which is a YA book where kids get a wish granted when they turn 18 and the protag is trying to decide what to wish for, so he interviews everyone in town and every other chapter is like a vignette showing how each wish Didn't make that person happy basically (this book also has accidentally and completely unintentionally some of the most striking aroace rep I've ever seen for one of the wishes) also I know the time travel one is one of the easiest to fill but i think you'd like 'all our wrong todays' by elan mastai which is a 'fix the butterfly effect' type book
I'm not sure if this is what youre going for with the last category, but it might. The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll is structured as a series of episodes like your podcast book! I personally haven't read it yet, but I have heard good things.
Wrong Place Wrong Time was my favorite book last year, and I just read Oona Out of Order and absolutely loved it!! “Plays with time” is probably my favorite thing in books!! Personally, I think you’d love both of those! I’d be super interested to hear your thoughts on them when/if you get around to them❤❤
For informational memoir, you might like In Pain: A Bioethicist's Personal Struggle with Opioids. It follows a bioethicist who gets into a bike + MVA crash that severely mangles his leg. The opioid crisis had yet to be declared and he was placed on opioids for his recovery care without a clear plan for how to wean him off of it. It really explores the white spaces in medicine and this crisis.
For your plays with time/portal fantasy, you should get out the Strangeworlds Travel Agency which is a middle grade series about portal that are kept in suitcases.
I think you would love Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov! It's very in line with House of Leaves in both the obsession & mixed media departments, and it's one of those something's-not-right-here mystery-adjacent books that is so, so satisfying to watch come together. If you're ever in the mood for a classic, I cannot recommend it enough!
I only have 23 five stars but this still seems really beneficial thank you so much for giving me this idea. Hopefully knowing my taste more will help me find more books I like.
A fake dating romance with a bit of a wedding situation is Terms and conditions, I don’t remember if you read it in your romance vlog for the Goodreads awards, but it’s one of my favourites
You have to read princess floralinda and the forty flight tower by tamsyn muir for the organised category! It's a countdown from flight 40 to 0 and its so satisfying to read!
