3 Books I Unexpectedly ADORED

[00:00:01]I am generally not someone who reads outside of their own prescribed reading taste. I generally know what I like and tend to stick to books that have similar themes or values to ones I have read previously and have enjoyed thoroughly.

[00:00:15]Well, today I'm talking about three books that definitely rocked the boat and are amongst some of my favorites that I have read this year. Hello everyone, welcome or welcome back to the channel. My name is Sam. I read books and here are three books I unexpectedly adore. We're going to jump right into it with a romance book. I am not one that reads romance books, you know, on a week-to-week basis, but there are a fair few that I have thoroughly enjoyed, namely Heaven Has No Favorites. It's a rather tragic love story, but not enough about that book.

[00:00:48]We're talking Good Material by Dolly Alderton. Now, this one came completely out of left field to me. What was initially interesting and enticing to me about this book was we follow a male main character. I know that is rare in the literary landscape, especially in the romance genre, to have a male protagonist in a romance book, and I think that sort of sang to me. So, the gist of this book, without too many spoilers, we follow our main character Andy, who is in his 30s. He's a aspiring comedian in London, and he has just recently gotten broken up with, frankly, dumped by his previous girlfriend Jen, and he is sort of spiraling down this very dark path. He has friends along the way that sort of prop him back up, interesting people he meets, he tries to go for flings, date other people, anything to get Jen out of his head, and seemingly nothing works. It's his story is how he recuperates after a messy breakup. Maybe it's an anti-romance book in that regard, how there isn't really a love throughout, but there is in a sense. You definitely need to read this to sort of get the gist of what I'm saying. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really enjoyed how funny it was. It's a It has a sort of dry British humor to it that I found to love. It's very funny, very sort of self-deprecating, and at times it had some profound moments. Elements like learning to love yourself before being able to open up to being loved by other people was something that Andy had to navigate and find himself in in it amongst just trying to survive. He's a comedian. He doesn't you know, make the most money in the world. And after being kicked out of his apartment essentially by Jen, you know, they they they go their separate ways.

[00:02:44]Jen was sort of the breadwinner in this relationship, and he's having to do all these interesting things to try and make ends meet. It's very funny, very comedic, a little bit light-hearted, a little bit serious at times as well. And it does wrap up rather beautifully.

[00:03:02]Um especially the last chapter. It's sort of framed as like an afterword of the story. Uh no spoilers, but the last chapter was a nice full circle moment, put a beautiful bow on this beautiful story. Check this one out. Uh one of my favorites, probably top three romance books I have ever read. Now that being said, I haven't read too many, but put this one on your radar. A recently new release as well.

[00:03:30]Good Material by Dolly Alderton.

[00:03:34]Now, next up on this list, this book I read in one day. Scratch that. Probably one afternoon.

[00:03:42]Uh maybe in amongst two sittings. My first Mm maybe not first, but at least one of my first three thriller books I have ever read, mystery thrillers, whatever you call it, classic as well, and that is And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I took this with me on a recent sort of vacation for Memorial Day, and exactly. I read it in one day, and it was so, so good. I typically don't read thriller books. That usually just doesn't I don't know. I have I have, like I said at the beginning of this video, this I've put myself in this box so that I don't, for whatever reason, tend to like thriller books, even though I haven't read too, too many of them. For whatever reason, I'm not too sure. I don't gravitate towards them. But, for whatever reason it may be, this one found its way with me on that trip, and I adored it. The premise of this book, 10 people are invited to this sort of sketchy island. They seemingly have no connection with one another. Um, and they're there as just sort of to have a party for the weekend and have a good time.

[00:04:57]Lo and behold, um, people start dying off one by one in rather brutal fashions, and it's a mystery who done it thriller. There's some plot There's a lot of plot twists.

[00:05:10]And it's just a fun, light-hearted, good time. You never really know what's going to happen when you turn the page, and I found it to just be wildly entertaining.

[00:05:18]Says world's best-selling mystery. I know Agatha Christie is a giant in the thriller who done it scene, and And Then There Were None is probably one of her most famous books. So, undoubtedly, this was a good place to start in my thriller journey, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Just the back flap of this book alone sort of sets the tale, sets the scene, and, um, really sort of drew me in. Let me read it here.

[00:05:44]It It "10 strangers are lure are into an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious U.N.

[00:05:54]Owen a.k.a. unknown.

[00:05:58]At dinner, a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night, one of the guests is dead. Stranded by a violent storm and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one by one, they begin to die. Who among them is the killer and will any of them survive?"

[00:06:18]There you go. There's the little backdrop for you. Um it was a rather quick read. This one is coming in just under 300 pages, actually just at 300 pages. Mass market margins are on your side, and yes, I read this in one day, one afternoon essentially. Started it around noon, uh read it, and finished it before dinner. I thought it was fantastic.

[00:06:44]Check this one out. It's got to be on your radar, uh if it isn't already. It's wildly popular, and now I know for good reason. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

[00:06:53]>> [snorts] >> And last on this list, this one might be my favorite of the three I have read. I am not one that reads correspondent books, books that are told in letters or little motifs, things of that nature, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I've been eyeing it. It's been on my shelf for years now, and I have finally read it, and very glad I have. That is Love and Saffron by Kim Fay. This book I thought was excellent. Like I said, it's a correspondence book told between two very strong, independent women at at different stages in their career. We follow a woman who is a successful >> [snorts] >> sort of home blogger uh that lives in the Pacific Northwest, and another one who is an aspiring food writer who lives in Los Angeles.

[00:07:48]The food writer in LA writes as a admiration post to the woman who is sort of hunkering down and living her best life in the Pacific Northwest, saying how much [snorts] of a fan she is of her work. She inspired her to do her own thing in LA, and from there they blossom into this friendship through correspondence. They console each other through all that life has to throw at them, through rather tragic moments.

[00:08:15]They celebrate together with rather happy moments, and it is just a very good book. They seek each other for advice. They heed each other's advice.

[00:08:25]Interesting things happen between the two of them. They have boy troubles.

[00:08:29]They have family issues. They have the happy elements of whatever there is in life.

[00:08:35]No spoilers here. One thing that really jumped out to me with this book that I think is why it is on this list and so far high so high up on my list of favorites for this year is while there is rather tragic things, rather sad, depressing moments in this book, it never felt sad for what it's worth. It has this air of joviality, if that's a word. This air of just happiness and plotting along and and and being content with the moment and and having enough and being okay with having enough. And I think that is very interesting for a book to pull something off just like that. Like I said, a lot of tragic elements in this book, moments so to speak, but it never felt bogged down um and got hung up by those moments, and that is why it is one of my favorites. Just the blurb here. Two strangers, one recipe, a friendship for the ages. It's got some elements of cooking into it. I love to cook. I'm a self What is that called? It's a a self designated home cook. Rather awful at it, but I try my best. It's got some fun recipes in here that correspond over the love of good food and good family. And it's just a great book. There's a second book in the series as well that continues through some of the characters mentioned throughout. We'll definitely be checking that one out, but this one's got to be on your radar. 11 Sapphires from by Kim Fay.

[00:10:07]And those are three books that wildly blew my expectations out of the water from this year. All three on my favorites list so far, although we are only about halfway through the year.

[00:10:18]That is due to change, but that will do it. These three books. Let me know down below, have you read any of these? And what are some books that you know, exceeded your expectations when you went into them blind. Sometimes that just happens to be the best books out there. But we'll leave it at that. I appreciate you watching up until this point. If you are new here, consider subscribing. I love this community that we are growing here. We've just surpassed 4,000 subscribers, which is utterly insane.

[00:10:47]Um So, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Every single one of y'all. If you're new here, consider joining the community. Love it that we're building it um so steadily here. And if you like the video, consider leaving a like for other you for other people around the world to stumble upon this video, much like yourself. We'll wrap it up here. Have a great rest of your day.

[00:11:12]Hope you're reading a great book, and take care.