MAY PILE OF POSSIBILITIES (Clean and Christian Reads)

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:01]Hi, my name's Claire and welcome back to my channel.

[00:00:08]Oh my goodness, you guys. I cannot believe how kind y'all have been.

[00:00:17]I mean I can because everyone told me that Christian book is a very kind and welcoming place but it was like more than I could have imagined on Friday. Today's Monday. I posted my first video on Friday and that video sat on YouTube for like a week because I was just trying to decide if I like actually posted it. So, I was like, I'm just going to like have it upload on Friday and if I get scared before then, I'll just take it down before it's like premiere or whatever. I woke up on Friday morning and I was just kind of like going about my morning. I was like, "Wait, wait, my video posted." And so, I got on there and y'all had already been showing it so much love and I could not believe it.

[00:01:15]It's really scary to do something new just to try and see like what happens and just kind of take a chance on it.

[00:01:26]And then y'all were so kind and I just I really felt so encouraged by God through you all. Um, it was just kind of a little boost that I needed.

[00:01:39]And I just keep laughing and crying and crying and laughing and just switching back and forth between them. Um, I'm just in disbelief and it truly like encouraged me more than I can ever tell y'all. And people in my day-to-day life were being so kind about it. And y'all probably saw my mom's comment. Hi, mom.

[00:02:05]um [clears throat] she's so sweet and she called me and she said, you know, I'm so proud. And there's just something that feels good about that. I feel like you reach an age like when you're out of school, you don't like get like kudos from your teacher anymore. So, it's nice to get them from somewhere and it just I'm just so thankful to God and I just had so much fun and yeah, I'm just I'm having such a good time and I'm I'm the most proud of myself that I've been in a long time. I just feel so much like sense of purpose and joy to have this to do every week now. And I'm just I'm so excited. And thank you all for being so kind and welcoming to me and leaving me helpful tips and things like that. So yeah, just thank you so much. I'm so excited. And we'll see how this goes and where it goes and we'll just have fun.

[00:03:03]Just you and I. We're just having fun.

[00:03:05]Um, okay. So, this video is going to be kind of like May possibilities or um like May pile of possibilities is the best thing to call it because I can't really do a TBR. I'm a mood reader. Um usually I stay in kind of the same mood for a while. So, this stack of books that I have to talk with you about is probably what I will be reading in May.

[00:03:36]um a couple things might change or I might read more books than I thought or things like that happen. And so we'll just see how it goes. But this stack is kind of what I'm in the mood for. So we'll see how many I get through.

[00:03:50]Usually I read like five or six books a month on like a slow month. So we'll see how it goes. Okay, first one.

[00:04:03]Also, I messaged book lover Amanda.

[00:04:08]Well, she messaged me first, but then I was like, "Hey, can I ask you a question?" Um, I saw the comments that were saying my books were backwards. Um, and I just had a wrong setting, so she helped me with that.

[00:04:22]Thank you to book lover Amanda. Um, hopefully it worked. It looks backwards to me, so I think it might be right. But we're going to start off with the first book and we'll see if it's still backwards. Let me know. Um and I'll keep working on it. But the first book I have here is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. Um I love these. These are this is a signate classic edition. You can find them easily because they have this little icon.

[00:04:52]Is it focusing? There it is. Um in like the thrift store and stuff. I love these editions. They're from the '60s and they're just so very retro.

[00:05:04]They're usually really cheap because they're just mass market paperbacks.

[00:05:07]Which did y'all know they're going to stop making these? The supplier or the manufacturer, whoever makes them, is stopping because they don't think it's worth it at this point anymore. which is so sad because I love that like old beat up mass market paperbacks and like cozy mysteries in those like little pocketbook sizes, they're going to go away. So, cherish the ones you have and look through them at the Goodwills because they're not going to make them anymore.

[00:05:43]There's like a New York Times video about that if you're more interested.

[00:05:46]It's like a little short, but um I have almost all of Jane Austin's books in this edition. I'm still looking for Mansfield Park. I'm on the hunt. So um but they're so cool. I'll show you all the covers of them at some point.

[00:06:04]A lot of you said that if I'm going to start my first Jane Austin, I need to start with a book that I've seen the adaption of because that will kind of help a little bit with the understanding and just the story going on and things like that. So, I'm going to start with Pride and Prejudice. I have seen the 2005 adaption. I have not seen the other adaption. I don't know what year that one's from. I do have it on DVD, though, and I haven't watched it yet. So, that's going to be my little treat for finishing this book. Um, and I don't know. I just I know enough about Pride and Prejudice that I'm excited to get started with this one and I'm excited to see how the story goes. I think everybody knows the story of Pride and Prejudice, so I don't really need to go into it very much, but very excited to start her. And y'all have been so encouraging that I can do it and believe in myself. So, I'm going to try this one and we'll see how it goes. But I know y'all will help me through it. So, I'm not scared anymore. [laughter] Okay, we're going to do another classic this month as well. This is The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Bernett, which is a mouthful. Um, this edition is absolutely beautiful. It's like a It's smaller than a picture book, but it's a little bit wider. And look, it has a cutie little bird on that. There's candle wax on the back, but has a cutie little bird. And then it has all these beautiful illustrations throughout. And I'm not going to flip through them because I'm afraid that they will be spoilers. And I have a really bad habit of flipping through books and accidentally ruining the ending for myself. So, I'm going to try not to do that with this one. This one without the dust jacket on is so beautiful as well.

[00:08:09]It's got like pears and snails and birds. It's so cute. I have another book in this like edition, uh, The Little Princess. And it's kind of the same thing except it's royal blue and the icons change for each book. So, if you ever see these, I don't know exactly what these are called. Here's the spine.

[00:08:35]But they're just really beautiful and I get excited when I find one. I only have two so far, but we'll see. I might find some other classics in this this edition. I don't know anything about The Secret Garden, so I I'm kind of excited to go into this one a little bit blind and just see what the story is like. But um this just feels like a spring read and just something kind of nice and wholesome and yeah, it just feels like a good spring read to get started for the year and just a beautiful book to just hold.

[00:09:12]Don't you just love when you have a beautiful book? I I spend a lot of my time reading just like closing the book and just looking at the cover. Does anyone else do that?

[00:09:25]Like I just think there's something so like wonderful about a beautiful cover.

[00:09:31]And sometimes if a cover is beautiful, I tend to read the book slower because I just want to like savor my time with it and just enjoy looking at it. And I don't know, that might be weird, but this one is so beautiful and I'm really excited to read this one as well. Okay, next book is The Princess by Lorie Wick. This is my first Lori Wick. Um, I see her books all the time, but I saw um a post about this one and it just intrigued me. I love The Princess Diaries. That's probably like my number one favorite movie. My um Bachelorette Party, if you can call it that, was um Princess Diaries themed.

[00:10:18]And so all my bridesmaids gave me like little gifts and little film canisters.

[00:10:22]If you know, you know. Um, and it was just so fun. And I just love The Princess Diaries. That just has the best like vibe. And the premise of this book really reminds me in a way of The Princess Diaries. I mean, it's called The Princess, but this story is about Sophie and Nikolai. Hi.

[00:10:44]It's editing me to say her name's Shelby, not Sophie. So, disregard.

[00:10:54]Carry on. And Nikolai is a young widowerower. He's the prince and his wife [snorts] died unexpectedly and very young. And for his kingdom, he needs to marry again. But he is still mourning his first wife. and he's still in love with her and he cannot imagine getting married again. But he knows that that's what he needs to do for his kingdom. So he asks his parents, the king and queen, to look for a bride for him. He said, "I trust you. I trust your judgment. If you can find someone for me to marry, I'll marry them." And so his parents go on a search to find a young woman for the prince to marry. and they find a girl named Sophie. And after a little bit of time and conversation about, you know, what she's getting into, Sophie agrees to marry Prince Nikolai. And so that is a very short section of the very beginning of this this book. So, um, I'm about 70 pages in and they're already married. And so now we're just kind of seeing them like get used to each other.

[00:12:07]There have already been things that happened in this book. I was reading and I was like, it's really good. It's a little bit cheesy, but I like that sometimes. And I'm really enjoying this so far. And the other thing that I really appreciate is this is definitely a marriage of convenience story. This is contemporary also. So, we're not talking like prince and princess, like medieval prince and princess. This is very much contemporary, like Princess Diaries kind of princess. Um, and I really enjoy that it's a marriage of convenience, but both the characters, because this is a Christian book, have talked about the marriage covenant being for life and they're going to give it their all. Even if it takes a minute, they're going to respect each other and work through whatever they're going through because they know their marriage is to honor God. And um there's a a good amount of reverence for marriage in this book even though it is just like a marriage of convenience story which I really appreciate. And I also just think this cover is gorgeous.

[00:13:16]Just really is. Also I have to show you this has a price tag on it from the family Christian store in 1999 for $10.99.

[00:13:27][laughter] books are like double that now, which is really sad.

[00:13:32]But anyway, this one's really great so far. So, is that cheating that it's on my pile of possibilities, but I started I started it last night. I feel like maybe it's not really cheating, but I'm really loving this so far and I'm excited to get done filming so I can read some more. Okay, this is another one that might be cheating. This is Emma M. Lion volume 7 by Beth Brower.

[00:13:56]This will get read. I can tell you that.

[00:13:59]There's no way that this is not gonna get read this month. I love Emma and Lion. Like I said in my first video, these are like my Big Bear series that I just love so much. Um, so these will get finished. I'm halfway through volume six now. Um, and it's like the first few days of the month. So I'll finish that one and then I'll just immediately start this one after, probably the same night before I go to sleep. So, yep. Emma M.

[00:14:27]Lion volume 7. I don't know what happens in here because I'm not going to read the back because I don't want to spoil anything for myself. But the Emma M Lion series are just journals. The journals of Emma M Lion and all her quirky little escapades and they're just they're so fun. They're just a big hug in a book series. So, if you haven't tried these, try these. The first two you have to get through to really like get into it, but I think it's just because they're so short. They're risk- free because they're so short. You can read them in an afternoon. So, try them. They're on Kindle Unlimited. So, if you have Kindle Unlimited, do it. All right. This is another one that I don't know that much about. This is a fantasy book. This is Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Roger.

[00:15:16]I like to go into fantasy books a little bit blind. Um, and I saw this book on a list of books to read if you like How's Moving Castle from Studio Gibli, and I do love that movie. So, I thought maybe I would give this book a try. It the cover just kind of screams spring to me in a way. All I know about this book is it's recommended if you like House Moving Castle and it deals with a magic library.

[00:15:47]So, sounds like one I'll like. I'm going to go into it blind. I really enjoy just not even knowing what I'm getting into from a fantasy book, knowing enough that it's I just found this at a thrift store and I was like, "Oh, cool cover." And I brought it home. So, a lot of times if I find something at a thrift store, I like it really is just kind of like a coin toss whether I'm going to like it or not. But then I saw that on that list about house moving castle and I was like, "Oh yeah, we're going to read this one in the spring." So I'm really excited about this one. Magic Library. Can't really ask for more. Um, this is YA, so I'm assuming it's going to be clean. I've heard that it's clean, but you know, I'll see for myself, but I'll let you know. Um, and I'll keep track of content and things like that. So, The Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Roger. I just think that's like the coolest cover.

[00:16:48]Okay, the last book in my pile is Courting Miss Lancaster by Sarah M.

[00:16:54]Eden. This is the second book in the Lancaster family series by Sarah M.

[00:17:00]Eden. The first book is Seeking Pphanie and that book is wonderful. Um, it is kind of like a Beauty and the Beast retelling. um like a dark and stormy male main character and the girl's like sweetie and she has to like thaw his frozen heart and all that awful stuff. So, um I really enjoyed that one and there's a great adaption of the book on Amazon that you can watch. It's like a 4 episode miniseries and I highly recommend that as well.

[00:17:38]They're all very clean. No language, just kissing. I don't know if I can tell you what this book is about because I'm afraid it's going to spoil the the first book in the series. But this is Pphanie is the girl in the first book and this is her sister who is just like a couple years younger than her and like her love story. So, I'm really excited to finish um this series. I think there's, let's see, I think there's five books in the series and they're all following a child from the same family. Um, but Sarah M. Eden's writing is really quirky and funny and quick and so you can easily fly through these books and they're just so much fun. Highly recommend the first book.

[00:18:26]Excited to read the second book and eventually the rest of the series as well. Okay y'all, that is it. That's my May Pops. Um, I'm really excited about all the books that I have to choose from. Um, I'm gonna finish The Princess first and then we'll see what comes after that. But thank you so much for being here. Let me know if you've read any of these books in the comments or if there are any that you're hoping to read soon or any that you hadn't heard of before, just say hi or something. Just I'm just glad you're here. Um, so yeah, thank you for being here and thank you for [music] watching and I'll see you next week. Bye.

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