10 Books I Wish I Could Give 6 Stars | Literary Fiction, Summer Reads, & More

[00:00:07]Hey guys, long time no post. I ghosted the internet. For anyone who's new here, I used to make videos on book talk. Now, I loved book. However, Tik Tok itself was getting bad for my mental health.

[00:00:21]So, I just deleted the app and purged myself from the internet. I had some personal stuff going on. So, I decided to take a little break from making YouTube videos and literally privated everything on this account. But, I have been reading so much recently and I need someone to talk about these books with.

[00:00:36]So, I thought now is the time to finally get back on YouTube. I went through and unprivated some of my favorite videos that I've made, even though they're some of the ones with the least views. So, if you're looking for older stuff, some of my book content is back on my channel.

[00:00:48]And if not, I'm going to be so good about posting regularly now. I promise.

[00:00:52]I thought the perfect reintroduction to my YouTube would be going through some of the books that I wished I could give six stars to. This is the stack. She's falling over. There are honestly probably more books than this, but these are just the ones that I feel the most called to talk about. You can see these books are very well loved. They've been some of them used to sit in my window in my old apartment. You can see the spines on a lot of them are like super cracked.

[00:01:18]Some of them I have like a nice copy and like a broken in copy because that's how much I love these books. And there are some newer additions to this list that I don't think I've ever talked about on the internet. So, let's get into the video. Okay, the first book I want to talk about is my most recent addition to my list of six-star books, and that is Yester Year by Carol Claire Bird. It just got added to the list literally this week. This is about a trad wife influencer and sort of uncovers all the layers of all the dark things going on behind the scenes and really takes a look at why we in this current day and age feel the need to have influence over others and like exist in a way that can be perceived. It was so so so good.

[00:02:02]There's like this little sidebar part that I won't spoil, but the whole time you're reading, I'm like, how is she going to like resolve this? Like, how is she going to make this align with the story she's telling? And the way it ends is oh my god, it's perfect. It's literally It's perfect. It's perfect.

[00:02:22]I've already read this book twice and it came out a couple months ago. The first time I read it was actually as an audio book. I listened to it. It was not available on Libby to listen to. the the wait for it is like so long cuz everyone's reading this book right now.

[00:02:33]So I used my Spotify book to listen to it. And as soon as I finished it, I listened to it in under 24 hours. And as soon as I finished it, I went out and bought a hardcover copy and I immediately sat down and started reading it again because there were just so many little things that I was like, how did I miss that? How did I not catch that?

[00:02:51]Cannot recommend this book enough. Next up, we have Yellow Face by RF Kuang.

[00:02:56]This is the story of a author who is sort of like failing in her field. She's not getting where she wants to be getting and she has this old friend who is doing the exact opposite of everything she's doing. She is excelling. Now, it is important to the story that this friend is Asian and she is white. And this Asian friend is writing a manuscript that is a story that can only be told by someone with her heritage. Now, this happens in the first chapter or the first like couple chapters. This isn't a spoiler, but this friend dies and she is left alone with the manuscript and she has to decide is she going to take it and make it her own work. June, the main character of this book, is absolutely so hatable. And that's also what I loved about yester year. They're kind of similar in that way. Like, you're not supposed to like the main character. You're supposed to be like, "Bitch, why are we making the choice that WE'RE MAKING?" BUT AH, YOU LOVE to hate her. You love to hate her.

[00:03:45]You love to hate her so much. I read this book like 2 years ago, I think, when it first came out. I hadn't read RF Kong before this cuz I'm not much of a fantasy reader, but I read this and I was like, I need to know more about this lady. I have since read all of her books and they are all top-notch 10 out of 10 reads. I would recommend any of them, but this one personally is my favorite.

[00:04:05]I'm more of a literary fiction girly at heart as you'll see from this list.

[00:04:09]What can you say? Okay, next we're going to do like a twofer. Honestly, the six-star recommendation is just anything by Emily Austin. Emily Austin is the love of my life. Best book writer just ever. just I don't know why I said book writer. Best author ever. I love this woman with everything in me. She loves a little sappic, a little a little mystery, maybe a little depressed Oh, she does it so well. She does it so well. I actually used to be mutuals with her on TikTok and she sent me a signed arc of Everyone in this room will Someday be dead and it's like my most prized possession. So, she has four books out. I think you should read all of them, but for the purposes of this video, I have picked my favorite two, which happened to be her first two books. This is her first book. It's the first book I read by her. When I started reading Emily Austin, she only had one book out. Everyone in this room will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin is Chef's Kiss. It is about a super depressed woman and she thinks she is signing up for therapy, but she accidentally signs up to work at a Catholic church. And it's kind of a long story how it all happens, but I love this book so much. This is I have three copies of this book. I have the hard cover, I have the art that Emily signed for me, and then I have this paperback, which is my original copy of it. You can tell she's very loved. I have some little annotations in her. So, throughout the book, she uses this analogy of like everybody is just a big baby trapped in an adult body. And I don't know why, but that really like that really resonated with me. I am just a big baby trapped in an adult's body.

[00:05:38]And like she does that throughout the book. And it's just like she writes these quirky, weird characters that are also like sad, but you just have to love them. Now, I had to include two Emily Austin's on this list. This is like picking a favorite child. Okay, I know the other two I'm not putting on this list, but they were five star reads. I just wouldn't call them six-st star reads. My other Emily Austin six-star read is interesting facts about space. This is her second novel. Again, I have an arc. my very beaten up paperback and a hardcover copy. This is about this quirky girl named Edid. She's like deaf in one ear.

[00:06:18]She's scared of bald men. She's obsessed with outer space. She's obsessed with true crime podcasts. And this book follows her. It starts with her having an affair. And then some things happen with the person she was having an affair with, her wife. It is messy. It is so quirky and fun. I love Enid. I've read this book three or four times now since it came out. It's one of my comfort books. Like I will just circle back to my girl Enid any day of the week. She's just so weird in the way that like you just want to like give her a hug, but I don't think she wants a hug. I have such a soft spot in my heart for Miss Enid.

[00:06:55]Let me preface with this book is super sundamaged, but she is well loved. This is They're There by Tommy Orange. I don't know if you can see, but I randomly bought this book for $3.49 49 at Savers because it looked like a little interesting and I was like, I don't know, maybe it'll be like like a fun little in between read. Sat down and devoured her in one day. Basically, it's 12 different stories from 12 different people. It's all culminating in this one big event. It is this native trib's big pow-wow. All the characters are related, but you don't necessarily know how at the start of the book, and they also don't necessarily know how at the start of the book. They don't know how they're all related to each other. You don't know how they're all related to each other, but all the stories get so beautifully woven together by the end of the book, and you fall so in love with these 12 individual characters. It is just I love Tommy Orange. This next author is another author that I'm going to say I love almost everything he's ever written. Okay, it's really hard to pick a favorite, but this one will always stand out to me. Beartown by Frederick Bachman. It's the start of a trilogy, but it can definitely just be read as like a standalone book. It is so beautifully written. It is about a little town that just sort of revolves around ice hockey. And this is another story where you get a bunch of different people's perspectives and they all sort of start to like weave together. It's a really small town where everyone knows each other and their whole town is sort of united around hockey. There is a large event that I won't spoil that kind of shakes the town and traumatizes certain people and kind of throws certain people into the limelight and it really shakes up these people and this way of life that they're so used to.

[00:08:34]Frederick Bachmann is such a gorgeous writer. This book is another one that has a great audio book. I read this and then I listened to it later when I wanted to do a reread at one point and I really liked the audio book for this book. So, if you're looking for a good audio book, definitely check out Beartown. I've read all three of the books in the trilogy. I've only listened to the first one, so I don't know how the other two audio books stand up, but the first audio book was great. I just highly recommend consuming Beartown, however you choose to consume it. There are two books on this list that are recent editions. I've had such a good reading month. I cannot wait to do my reading wrap-up at the end of the month.

[00:09:07]The other one that we added to the list is Sunburn by Khloe Michelle Howorth.

[00:09:11]Now, this is set in a little town in Ireland. It is about a girl who is discovering her sexuality, learning to kind of come to terms with that, learning to grapple her first sappic relationship. She's kind of learning just about who she is as she grows up.

[00:09:27]It follows you through her last couple years of like the Irish equivalent of high school. You just kind of get to watch this transformation of her as she grows up. It is, again, I keep saying this, but such I love a book that's just like pretty in how it's written. This book is pretty in how it's written. Now, I'm a sucker for some Irish lit. Okay, I'm a sucker for some Irish lit. And this is just so good. There is a book um Heap Earth Upon Her that I believe is like not a sequel, but like somehow tied into the story. I honestly don't even know what it's about. I just bought it.

[00:09:57]My plan is to read it this month. It it's it's going to be happening soon. Oh I forgot my favorite book of all time for the stack. Please hold. I keep this book in a very special spot because she's very special to me and so I forgot to add her to my pile. So, we're going to talk about her right now while I'm thinking about her. This book is what I would consider a classic. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. If you haven't read this book, first of all, what are you doing? Second of all, you need to pick this up immediately. If there's any book in this list that I could tell you to read right now next, I would say read this book right now. Next, I'm going to cry. I don't know if the camera is going to pick this up, but right next to my apartment, the AC, like the cooling unit for the whole building is right out there and it just turned on and it's going to be so loud, but I have to film this now cuz I have to work later. If that's really annoying and there's like a dull noise in the background, I'm really sorry. But anyway, this book is very like topical to our current political climate. It's a really good call to action for people who are maybe struggling to feel like their voice and their opinions matter and have power.

[00:11:00]It's a really good reminder that we all need to be using our voices at really critical turning points in our country.

[00:11:04]It is about a woman who lives in a sort of dystopian society, a faroff version of the United States that feels less and less far off every day. She is resigned to the position of handmade, which is essentially like she's being bred because there's been a decline in their population. This is the story of her kind of finding her voice when she feels like it's been taken from her. And it is just such a good book. There is a sequel to it called The Testaments that is also really really good. It doesn't follow the same character. It does kind of give you some hints as to what maybe has become of the character, but it is also very good. If I had to tell you to read one book out of this whole list first, I would say read the main. Now, we have Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Vanpelt. This book is one that really surprised me. This story is told from the perspective of an octopus living in an aquarium and elderly woman who works as a night janitor there. They develop this like weird friendship almost and she is sort of unraveling some things about her past as new people come into the small town where the aquarium is and the octopus is an unlikely friend in a time when she feels like she doesn't really have anyone. I did not expect to love this when this book was really doing its rounds. I was still working at Barnes & Noble and one of the book sellers I work with who like doesn't like fiction or literary fiction. I don't know if I would call this literary fiction but like doesn't like fiction like fantasy and romance reader to her core. She read it and she was like you don't understand I loved it. And I was like if you loved it not leaking about it but just like if this is something that you enjoyed like I'm surely I'll enjoy it. So I borrowed her copy and I was like oh Marcelus and Tova have my heart. Marcellis is the octopus and Tova is the night janitor. I actually just did a reread of this book. It was only out in hardcover for a long time. So, I had the hard cover because I loved it so much. But then I realized that at the like during the summer, I like to do rereads of this when I'm like at the beach cuz it's I know like what's going to happen so I I don't have to be like totally focused on it. So, I bought a paperback when it came out in paperback because of course you need a paperback for the beach. Okay, last but not least, we have the messiest book I've ever read, The Rachel Incident by Carolyn O'Donno.

[00:13:10]Odonahghue. Not Odono. Odonahue.

[00:13:13]Caroline Odonahghue. This is another um Irish book. It is about this girl. She's in college. Well, okay. So, she it starts like she's reflecting back on her life. The story is about her in college and her roommate James and her professor and her professor's wife. All of them get very intermingled in a very messy fashion. I keep saying this with all the books, but it just kind of explores like who she is and why she acts the way she acts and why she makes the decisions she makes and like she does some things that you're like, "Girl, are we really going to do that?" I was at like a lake house and I bought this book randomly at a little bookstore in like the town and I like ended up curled up on like the back of a boat reading this like tubing behind the boat and I'm just sitting there like, "What happens next?" If you're looking for something to grab your attention and like pull you right in, check this one out. It starts strong and you kind of are constantly trying to figure out like, oh, what's she going to do next? What's she going to do next?

[00:14:08]What's she going to do next? I just I love this book. Honestly, I love all of these books a lot. Oh they're spilling everywhere. I thought reintroducing you guys some of my favorite books would be like a good way to get back into making videos.

[00:14:21]Hopefully, this gives you some inspo for the start of your summer reading. I feel like all of these make really good summer reading. They're like good, engaging books. This is your summer reading list from me to you. If you check out any of those books, definitely let me know. If you want to see more of my book recommendations, reading vlogs, all that stuff, subscribe down below. If you have any books that are like these books that you want to recommend to me, drop them in the comments. I am always open to recommendations. Oh, if you want to keep up to date with what I'm reading as I'm reading it, you can check out my Instagram. I post like what I'm currently reading, books that I really like, when I finish them, all that stuff. I will be back soon. Bye guys.