Hey guys, it's Abi from Autumn of
Pellinor and today I'm gonna be telling
you what I've read in June so I ended up
reading a lot more than I expected this
month I ended up reading 11 books in
total normally I read like three so this
turned out pretty well a lot of them are
eBooks so there's gonna be a lot of
stuff flashing up on screen and I'm
gonna try and go in chronological order
which I don't normally do and I don't
know why so the first book I read was
Pompeii by Alfonso de Francis this is
literally the least exciting book I
could start off with because you guys
don't care which is cool but I like
Pompeii and Vesuvius I want to be a
volcanologist I'm currently just a
geoscientist but yeah you guys don't
want to pick this up most likely it's
also quite old but I enjoyed it it was
informative, on to the interesting stuff!
next up I read Are Prisons Obsolete by
Angela Davis, I'm gonna forget all of the
names for the ebooks just FYI but yes I
read this she is a black panther in the
US for  black lives matter
and this was really interesting
I knew fuck all about the prison system
I knew like the basics but especially
because I'm not American didn't know
everything so this was really
interesting to learn a lot more about
how prisons even came to be and
obviously how they the police system
formed from the slave catching groups
and it was a very very interesting book
and I didn't really have an opinion on
it at the time going into it but now I
think that I am a prisoner mmm I can't
fucking speak I don't know what that word
is, abolitionist? Abolitionist! Aaayy, I
haven't had coffee yet I went into this
knowing that I knew
fuck all and I came out of it thinking
that we really need to change a lot of
things, sticking with the theme of racial
equality I then read Why I'm No Longer
Talking to white People About Race by
Reni Eddo-Lodge, this is a UK author
talking about race
in Britain so a lot of books on racism
and by black authors are set and by and
in the US so it was amazing to be able
to see a British point of view because
it obviously could actually hit home
with certain points that I resonate with
more than the US ones so we do have a
different culture so seeing someone
actually analyse the UK culture was
really important to me and this book is
amazing I recommend it to anyone no
matter where you're from because it does
cover the global topics that are you
know white privilege white supremacy it
also delves into specifics with
different sections for prisons but also
for feminism and the workplace it's a
really well-written well-researched book
that is the way it's written it's very
easy to get through it doesn't feel like
a textbook or anything like that it's
very much a fast read and will likely
have you coming out of it thinking a lot
more about your day to day life so 100%
recommend this one then I reread
Queendom of the Seven Lakes by AB
Endacott this was for the Small Press
Book Club that I co-host with Mad
Cheshire Rabbit I will leave the link
down below in the description and I
adore this book I give it five stars the
first time that I read it and I give it
five stars now this is a fantasy, a
YA fantasy which follows an assassin
who has been hired by the queen of the
country to protect the prince her son
because she believes he's going to be
assassinated and we just follow them
throughout this world as things develop
we did a live show on this, you can watch the
live show as well this is just so
amazing Alice's writing is fantastic
she's one of my favourite authors
I cannot recommend highly enough if you
like fantasy books
she's self-published which is why you
might not have heard of her she's
Australian and self-published so she's
not as well-known as she should be
but her work is absolutely fantastic
next up was Devil
Darling Spy by Matt Killeen I was gifted
this by the amazing Alex at Alex Black
Reads, I'll link her down below as well
and this is the duology the sequel to
devil, devil darling spy? What the fuck is
wrong with me
Orphan Monster Spy, so Orphan Monster Spy
follows a young Jewish girl
who is living in Nazi Germany and she is
found by a British spy and they start
plotting together and I won't go any
further this one I don't want to say too
much because I obviously don't want to spoil the
first one but this one is set in the
continent of Africa which I was not
expecting because I didn't read the
synopsis because I'm a fucking fool
seriously I just was like yep I want to
read it and didn't read the synopsis and
then was like they're in Africa? It says on the
back three brain cells this is amazing I
really love it it's very well written it
also talks about race and sexism in a
really good way I think especially
considering it as a white male author he
covers racism and sexism in a way that I
thought was really well done
pinch of salt for the racism but the
feminism I think was done very well and
this was one of my my tarot books my
tarot cards pick my TBR books I'll leave
that in the cards up there I'm not going
to go into details but I do think that
this suited the tarot cards then next I
read King of the Seven Lakes
also by AB Endacott so this is the
second book in the Queendom of the Seven
Lakes duology, I won't say too much about
it because obviously that would spoil a
lot of first book but it's absolutely
amazing I love this series so much as of
the 1st of July she's just released it
as a duology as a bind up and you can
get that from her directly so I will
leave her Instagram link down below so
that you can message her and get it
directly if you do want to buy it all of
the single books are on Amazon if you
want to get them from that then I
finished King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard
this is the third book in the Red Queen
series
it's a YA fantasy that follows a young
girl called Mare there are people with
red blood and people with silver blood
the Silver's are seen as better than the
Reds and they control and subjugate them
and they have magical powers but Mare is
revealed to have magical powers even
though she has red blood and the series
progresses from there I obviously again
won't say too much because this is the
third book in the series but I do really
enjoy this I ended up giving it four
stars I think
I'm really enjoying this series I know
it's kind of a... controversial is not the
right word because it's fine but lots of
people either love it or hate it it's
very much a Marmite sort book and I
enjoyed it and again I think that the
tarot cards match because this is one of
my tarot cards next is another book by
AB Endacott I read a lot from Alice this
month and that is The Ruthless Land this
is set in a different country to the
other books so all of Alice's published
books so far are set in the same world
there are four different countries, First, Second, Third and Fourth country and they, she's
written about all of them this book is
set in the third country, third? Fourth? Fourth!
I'm sorry Alice so the ruthless land is set
in the Fourth country and it links in a
little bit to the first two books in the
duology which I really really enjoyed
and I loved learning more about a
different part of this world, it follows a
young girl who is sent off to live with
some monks as its traditional for the
next descendant of the family it's a
matriarchal system so it's all the girls
and they're sent off to learn in this
mountain top place and then she finds
out that her family has had all their
power taken from them and she has to go
find them and the story follows her
through that a lot of fun just I adore
her writing and then the last book I
read from Alice is Dark Intent this
is the first book in a different trilogy
but it's set within the same world so
this one is in the Third country we
actually follow counsellors that were
visiting as ambassadors to the second
country from the first duology I'm just
confusing you all now I'm so articulate
that's why you guys watch me, right? It's
a really good series it follows a woman
who is, there are two different main
religions in this country and she is of
the one that is not really allowed and
they're not actually allowed to pray to
them but they're still it's a bit like
Judaism in that even if they say that
they don't pray to them people will
still subjugate them for being Jews
which is a lot of bullshit but that's
kind of what's happening here and she is
a healer and she's been working for the
country just trying to kind of get by
and help people when she can and the
story follows her kind of developing
along, amazing I loved it I'm really
excited to it the next two I just need
to find the money to buy them but I will
[singing] what did I read next? What did I read next? I read a quick little ebook which was The Women
Who Made Me A Feminist by Matt Killeen this
is maybe 45 pages long just a short
little book but it's a really
interesting set of small essays talking
about, this author here, Matt Killeen, and all
the different women that made him a
feminist made him as a man brought up in
Britain and surrounded by a lot of
patriarchy realised that women are
strong and awesome too so this is actually
really great it goes into a lot of
different feminist icons in literature
and it's a free audio audio book, no it's
not it's a free eBook that you can
download it's a quick read and I'm
really glad that it did read it second
last is The Deep by Rivers Solomon
I loved this so much oh my god okay so
this is a fantasy book where the slaves
that were stolen and transported across
the Atlantic they would often this is
the reality part be thrown overboard
they were sick or they were inconvenient
to whoever was on the boat uh the
white people obviously that is the
disgusting truth of it but this book
takes the fantasy and says that some of
them were pregnant and these women that
were thrown overboard and when you're in
the womb you're in water and so it's a
fantasy where mermaids come essentially
from these these murdered people are
thrown overboard and the babies in the
womb of the pregnant woman survive and
create this entire race in my head it's
the Wajinru [wah-jin-roo] whether that's correct
should probably find the audio book
at some point but this is an amazing
tale for these people these mermaids
only one of them holds their history one
individual out of the entire population
because it is seen as too harsh and too
heartbreaking for all of the population
to remember at once so one person
is burdened with this and then
periodically every few years they share
the information with all of the others
and then take it back so a not to
burden them but our main character is
struggling with the burden of all of the
history and it develops from that this
is a quite short book I think it's 166
pages but it hits a punch it's SO good
it's so fucking good guys I one hundred
percent recommend I'm really looking
forward to reading more from Rivers
Solomon they are an amazing writer the
prose in this is beautiful and I wanted
it to be longer but at the same time it
was wrapped up so beautifully and so
perfect I just wanted more of their
writing definitely an amazing book five
stars and then the last book that I read
this month was The Testaments by
Margaret Atwood I was kind of struggling
to read a little bit after a week long
slump and I saw this and I was like I kinda
want to pick up so I did thankfully I
got through and enjoyed it I have mixed
feelings about this so up until about
yae far through I'm giving this a solid
four stars maybe even like four and a
half I really enjoyed it I really
enjoyed learning more about the running
of Gilead and learning more about the
different factions within it but then
the end part I understand why she did it
I don't want to spoil it I don't wanna
fuck it up for anyone who's not read it but
the end part was just shit I didn't
enjoy it how to describe this is a
slight spoiler but like not really I
didn't want it wrapped up in a bow I
didn't want it all tied up neatly with a
neat answer at the end and I get why she
did it because she had so many people
kind of contacting her over the years
for The Handmaid's Tale asking for it to
be tied up in a bow but I didn't need
that, I think a lot of the power of
the book was that it wasn't tied up
neatly and so that's why I really
enjoyed the centre of this book I just
liked learning more about how the world
functioned about how this kind of came
to be and the different aspects of it
and how different people were living
in this kind of world and also the
little glimpse at Canada I wasn't so
keen on that bit it was fine but those
weren't my favourite sections my favourite
sections were definitely from an aunt's
point of view and from a young girl
growing up in a commander's household
point of view yeah it would have been a
four and a half if she hadn't done the
ending like she did but she did so it's
like a three and a half I'm giving it
four stars like on Goodreads I
might pop it down to three at some point
it just yeah I kind of wish I'd stopped
at the point where I was like oh it feels
like the story's done now I should have
stopped so that is a real pity I am glad
I read it I do think that if you enjoyed
the Handmaid's Tale you will enjoy the
main 80% of this book it does tell you
more about the world but it also doesn't
really ruin the Handmaid's Tale too much in
that it just kind of expands on the
world without expanding on details and
then the ending is what is just like
mm-hmm
now thought the statistics for all the
books that I read so I read 12 books
this month which was a total of 3121
pages according to a little stats
spreadsheet I have that is 96 pages per
day reading one book on average every
three days usually I hold the books up
but so many of these were ebooks and
editing does not want to put them all in
let's be fucking real I'm lazy I'm so
bloody lazy so instead you're just gonna
get spoken statistics this time there
were four nonfiction books seven fantasy
books and one historical fiction book I
am really rediscovering my love of
fantasy but then also I did read four
books in the same fantasy series so
then there were three male authors seven
female authors and one non-binary author
five standalone books five books from a
series and two books from duologies five
of the books were adult books and seven
of them were YA, I didn't read any
kids aimed books this month, one was in a
hardback which was the Testaments three
were in paperback and eight were in
ebook which is a lot more than I was
expecting and one author was from Italy
three were from the US three were from
the UK four of the books were from an
Australian author that's Alice and one
was from Canada and those are the stats
for this month I read a lot more than I
expected I mean last month if I go back
and check I only read five books and yes
sure one of them was massive but the
amount of pages that I read as well
significantly jumped this month so I'm
really happy with that and I hope I can
keep it up because oh my god I have so
many books on my TBR thank you for
watching if you've reached the end of
this I'm surprised because this is a
very long fucking video because I read
too many damn books let me know down
below if you've read any of these or if
you're going to pick any of them up
please pick up Queendom it's so good
it's so good
she needs to be known by more people I
will shout her from the rooftops until
she's more well-known because omg I love them so 
much, like I said thank you so much for watching guys
and I'll see you in my next video, bye!
[OUTRO MUSIC, TRIUMPHANT]
[SINGING] what the fuck am I saaayyiiiing
