UNWRAPPING BOOKS PICKS WHAT I READ! 🎁wrapped up revamped - episode 9! august reading vlog

Hey cuties! How are you all doing? So hello, welcome back. It is time for another episode of Wrapped Up. The number of books that we have still wrapped up is rapidly dwindling. So if you don't know, it's a series I do where I wrapped up last Christmas all of the 2021 releases that I still have and in this vlog I unwrap one or two and I read it and do a reading vlog for it. So I'm just gonna let you know now, I have got builders in so if you hear banging that's why. They're here all week. Try the veal. Number two, Wrapped Up is gonna go on for two more months. So we're gonna have this one in August and one in September and then it will go off the boil. It'll disappear for October and November whilst I figure out what I want to do for it in December because I still want it to happen in December. These weekly, it's weekly in December but I want it to be fresh. I want it to be exciting and I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing yet for it. So I unwrap one and then if I'm not like 100% feeling it I can unwrap another one and then I have to pick between those two. So it's always like the most pressured situation trying to figure out what to unwrap. I'm feeling like this is what I've landed on and it just feels right. I'm feeling like a hardback at the moment but let's see what this is. Oh my god. No, this isn't a lie. This is one of the books I wanted most, guys. I saw the corner of it and I knew immediately, oh my god. It's my birthday. It's my birthday. This is The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman. A five-star prediction. Thursday Murder Club was my favourite book of last year. Second favourite. Both the first and second were tied, I would say, last year. I loved it. It's a murder mystery. It's a mainstream murder mystery and I loved it so much. We're following this old elderly group of friends who solve murder mysteries together every Thursday and then a murder happens on their front yard, essentially in the retirement home where they live and they decide to go and solve it. Oh my god. This is like one of the books I've been most excited to read. I'm so happy. Now the one little thing I just thought that is a little bit of a drawback is a little bit like is that this is obviously a sequel and this is just a one book vlog so it needs to fill the whole vlog. So obviously with mysteries it's a bit easier because like it's individual mysteries. The first book is a very individual enclosed mystery and I get the sense that this is going to be another mystery. The only thing I'm going to say is that isn't a spoiler that I'm going to go on as if we all know. The gang's all here. Do you know what I mean? Like I don't think you're ever really in danger of the friends splitting up. The gang's all here and we're going to be investigating another mystery. I don't really know what the plot of this one is. We'll find out as we go. I will give you a synopsis of the mystery. Like I'll give you probably the initial synopsis because like I said mystery series are a bit different to say a fantasy series where it's like an ongoing character arc. Yes these characters are developing in some way but it's not key to the story. It's going to be a new individual mystery. It's like when I would for example read different Akiparo books I can give you the synopsis of the book because they're all kind of separate. It's that kind of vibe. Oh my god I can't believe how happy I am. So I'm going to be reading this this week. I feel like I'll probably read it in like a day so this vlog will probably be quite quick. But yes I'm very happy. What a result. That's like probably one of the worst things I could have unwrapped. I'm live with my patrons right now and I'm about to start it. I'm not gonna lie I am a bit scared that I'm gonna finish it in like one sitting. Like I'm just gonna finish it tonight and just not vlog. But I'm very excited. I'm really excited. They've all predicted I'm gonna love it. I'm feeling good vibes so I want to get at least 100 pages into it tonight. Oh god it's I feel so anxious. I feel like more anxious reading this than anything I felt anxious in a while because yeah I just really want to love it. I really want to love it and because it's so hyped and so many people said they've preferred the second one I'm just very nervous. So let's go. So I am 100 pages in to The Man Who Died Twice and I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I was so nervous to pick this up. I felt so much pressure going into it because I loved the first one so much. But I'm loving it. It feels like coming home. You know I was so nervous to start off with. Like when I started reading it I'd kind of forgotten who all the different characters were and what their dynamics were. But within the first chapter Richard Osman does such a good job of like slowly you know easing you into remembering who everyone is and all the different kind of dynamics between everyone and the role they play in the story. And I just love the writing. I think it's so like comforting. It just feels like a hug. I love it. I love it. It's gonna be five stars. So in this one Elizabeth who's one of the four main characters receives a letter from a man that she believed to be dead saying I'm here at the retirement village and I need your help. And it's spiraling into this like big situation. I can't I can't I can't I can't keep this a secret. Where kind of Elizabeth's past is kind of catching up with her and it's affecting all of them. I just love all the characters. I've almost cried already once. I love the the dry like British sense of humor in it. I'm just loving it. I really really am. I'm just so excited to see what route is going to go down and how the mystery is going to develop because we're kind of like on the precipice I feel like of a mystery actually happening. Anyways I'm gonna go around now and hopefully I'll read some more today but I am just loving it. Good evening. I'm really hot. Somebody lied to her several times and it's not even hot in here anymore. I feel like my body temperature today has been off. Anyways I feel like when I check in with you my first check into this book let me just remove the uh the wire obscuring my view of myself. I feel like when I spoke to you I was in a rush. I feel like I did a ---- job. Like a ---- first check-in. Like really let you down. Like really I was thinking about it all day. I was really pissed at myself but I was in a rush to leave and I finished filming and I was like well gotta go. I am now halfway through The Man Who Died Twice. I'm gonna put her down here because she's not in her dust jacket anyway and um I'm hot so I don't wanna hold her. This is such an interesting reading experience. I'm loving it. It's still a five star but I've been struggling at moments to get into it on purpose. When did I last check in with you? Yesterday. Yesterday morning I think and I had times yesterday when I could read it. I went around Tom's house and um I had times yesterday when I could read it but I didn't because I was like this isn't the perfect moment. I was like I need to wait to read it in the perfect moment. Like everything has to be perfect. The conditions have to be perfect. But that's quite dramatic. Like I was outside in Tom's Garden where I've read many times. If you were an OG of the channel here back in the day in like the pandemic 2020 when I lived there for a couple months that garden was one of my favorite places to read. It's still one of my favorite places to read but because I could hear people talking like in a garden over and I personally find it difficult to focus when I'm near speech. Like I find it difficult to read speech and hear it because my brain wants to just like pay attention to what I'm hearing. That's why I can't listen to music that has speech in it when I'm reading. Like it was far away enough that I could have zoned it out but I was like not perfect. Close the book. I was like how dare you. Ah no. It's one of those books that I feel uh tricky to talk about because I love it so much you know. Like when I really love a book I like don't want to talk about it. I just want to like enjoy it and be protective and just like secretive you know. Coming back to these characters it's just a treat. It really is just a treat. Like when I was saying I was to get into it every time I then restarted it trying to find the perfect moment I did struggle with the writing isn't the right word. It just took me a moment to get into it because I think this made me realize why some people don't love it is the writing is very like matter of fact. There's almost no description and I think I spoke about this how there's almost no description last time I read it. How it's literally just what people say. Literally just what people say and you kind of fill in the blanks. So I can understand why people don't love it um if that's not the kind of thing you enjoy but I I really do love it. I it just feels like a treat and I'm so excited for the third one to come out. God books eh? I ******* love reading. I love reading from a more elderly perspective. You know in this book they're all elderly people living in this retirement village but like there'll be when you're following their perspectives or whatever there'll be little nuggets of wisdom that are so simple and yet so striking that only come from characters that have like lived a life. You know what I mean? That they've been through it and as much as I love YA I think there's something so special about reading from characters of this age that like I feel like we all need to do more and have more characters that are elderly. I think it's really really important. You know this this book is such a great mystery. Where the mystery is going I do have a prediction and I will be disappointed if that's like the big end reveal but like if the thing that I'm thinking of because I think it's fairly obvious if the thing that I'm thinking of does turn out to be true but it's like the first reveal in a series of reveals I won't be annoyed. If it's not a reveal if it's not true then it's fine also. Also I will say I think I'm a little bit of a fan, a stan if you will, for the sub-genre of characters who have lived bonkers lives in the past but like now are kind of living a more sedate calm life. If you can call what they're going through calm. I mean literally they're like with MI5 agents like drug dealing like around dead bodies all day like it's not that calm. I love it I love it and it gives me that buzz. But I have this with uh the Lady Hardcastle mysteries as well which you know is another character who's not elderly I think Lady Hardcastle's supposed to be like maybe 40s but especially like a little bit longer ago it's set like in the early 1900s I suppose that is a bit older in terms of society standards but um her and her maid Flo in that book were like secret agents back in the day and they lived this crazy life and then they go to this country house to retire and yet it's the murder capital of the world. So you're constantly getting sprinkled little bits of information about their past escapades and the same thing is happening in this especially with Elizabeth. I'm tentative to say what Elizabeth's past is because I don't think it's revealed in the first one I think it was revealed twice in the second one but it was like said in such a matter-of-fact way that I wasn't sure if it was teased in the first one so anyway I'm not gonna say but she lived a bonkers life she was a very exciting woman she got to a lot of exciting things so um I really love that I really love when you're meeting this character who's like almost got this secret double life that is only mentioned in fits and spurts so I'm loving it it just feels like a treat to read but I do feel like whoa this is I don't it's a lot of pressure I don't know if I'm loving it more than the first one at the moment but it's an unfair comparison until we finish it because you know I'm sure there's going to be some very emotionally impactful stuff towards the latter half of this book like there was in the first one so I'm gonna go have a quick bath and then excuse me doggies and then I will hopefully get to page 300 tonight and then I'll only have 100 pages of three tomorrow when this video is supposed to be going up so better get better get oh I sounded like a bad Jesse Nelson rest in peace no um I sounded like that then I went to say better get my skates on but the moment has gone so see you tomorrow morning hey sorry good morning how rude of me how rude of me I am 300 pages into man who dies twice it just feels like a treat reading it I'm reading it really really fast I mean the font in these is pretty pretty big I don't know if you I've just made a massive mistake and now I'm really annoyed yeah the font is pretty big so it's quite a quick read I've got 100 pages left to the end there's certain things they're gonna say I'm really hoping don't happen when like people have told me that this made them cry a lot there's certain things now that I could see happening that I'm like ---- ---- I really I just don't want to happen um I'm just still really enjoying it I love the way this book this series looks at human nature and aging and the fragility of time and life and I think it's a very like inspiring motivating book to read that reminds you like we don't have forever you know and to be grateful for what we do have and to like really be motivated to live the life that you want to live and not wait for tomorrow or next week or next year you know which is I think something I've fell into a bit this year so far which I've spoken a bit about my family kind of feel like we've been cursed this year and I've been struggling to find myself back in the best headspace and I woke up this morning and I really felt amazing and felt like you know everything was going how I wanted it to and I felt very motivated and I felt very happy with what I was doing for probably the first time in a couple months you know and really felt like a bit of a fog had cleared I don't know reading something like this that I love reading so much that I'm having a great time reading but also makes me reflect on life it's just like a win-win situation and I feel like from reading this I have felt motivated to go to connect to other things that I know helped me mentally with that kind of idea of now is now you know there's a phrase I love we're getting a philosophical we're not actually talking about the book now we'll talk about the book when I when I end but I guess we are talking about the book because it's you know it's spurred me on to go particularly to sources of inspiration for me like I've been watching some stuff from yoga with Adrienne on her membership and how she talks philosophically about life you know there's a phrase that I loved for many years that everything you want is on the other side of fear right that you always have to cross that barrier of fear and it's so easy to let yourself stay behind that barrier and that's almost what I feel like I've been doing so far this year is doing everything half way but not not wanting to find a way to cross that barrier but not being able to find a way to and living in a certain kind of fear and living in a certain kind of safety that isn't the life that I want to live living in a certain kind of like yeah safeness bubble that I know is fine but doesn't push me beyond anything and I don't know I feel like reading this book and the perspective on life it just makes you want to live life to the fullest so I'm feeling very positive this morning and I'm ready to get my heart broken for the last 100 pages which I'm gonna go read now which I just put makeup on I just realized I always do this I always go put makeup on and I'm like ---- oh dear that's not good I feel the need to say the f-word now I'm about to cry better better go film all the things I need to film today that you know I don't aren't related to this vlog but I need to do today better go do that now before I finish the last 100 pages I'm still really really enjoying it and I am scared for where this is going to go in the last 100 pages but I feel like the way that everything has been set up I'm just so excited for this last 100 pages and then get back to you Take a train ride just to see you Ride for hours just to please you You don't know which I need you Cause you're my home away from home away from home Right I finished it here she is and I'm gonna give it five stars I made it five stars and I do want to preface this by saying I didn't love it as much as I loved the first book this doesn't feel disappointing to me but like so many people online were like oh it's so much better than the first one it's even better I'm like I don't know about that so I think my expectations were just really high for where this was gonna go in the ending and I thoroughly enjoyed it it was an amazing time you know it probably at the rate that I'm going this year will be in my top 10 of the year but I think it might be more towards the bottom bottom half of it yeah I really enjoyed it I really loved all the reveals what happened was what I was hoping would happen is my theory was the start of something new no it was it was like the start of many reveals you know it wasn't the big reveal which it kind of got revealed while I had been theorizing at the 300 ish just after 300 page mark just after I last checked in with you and I'm glad that it didn't go down that route I can't believe I didn't cry everyone's out here crying and I cry at everything I literally cry everything I don't really know what people would have been crying at I don't know if you've seen that clip I did get close to crying towards the end basically I'll spoil anything Ibrahim one of the four main friends on the four main characters his storyline in this book is very much to do with trauma and PTSD and loneliness and you know depression and all these different things I wish we'd have seen a bit more of that I really wish that feels to me like the most emotionally impactful bit of the book I just never felt we sat in that long enough because the chapters are quite short I never felt like we sat in that long enough for me to cry I got close they'd be like the last couple lines of a chapter would start setting me off and then we'd be gone on to the next escapade so I wish we had there wasn't that moment towards the end when I almost cried we like sat in it for probably the longest that we had um so far but I just wanted you know there were like three uh minimum sections that made me cry in the first one and I didn't feel like there was a super emotionally impactful scene that made me love the first one where you had this joy and this light-heartedness and this chuckles you know you chuckle to yourself reading it but you also have those really emotional moments and I didn't feel like this had that but I still loved it like it's still amazing for me it's still what I want you know a wonderful mystery with so many interesting topics like I said covered through the kind of psychology of these characters I'm very excited because the third one is coming out in about a month and it's like tricky with series right because I'm like oh I think I should read the third one straight away like when it comes out I should try and read it pretty soon at least before the end of the year but then when you read the next one you're a little bit like oh I've forgotten stuff so it's difficult to pace yourself with series that are ongoing because I think these are pretty much coming out every year on the dot this one came out I think on like the 15th of September last year and the next one's coming out on the 16th of September so it's literally like you know it's clockwork they're like better get the coin you know while we're rolling in it bling bling bling bitches is mad so I don't know if I'll read the next one straight away or if I'll try and wait a bit because if I need to read the next one straight away it will make that a better reading experience but it's even longer into the next one so it's very tricky yeah this is just absolutely a favourite series for me now that I've read the second one I can say it's up there but I do not agree this as good as the first one I feel like in my disappoint not disappointment it's not the right word but with such high expectations part of me is like oh this is a 4.75 but it's not it's better than some five stars I've read this year I was just hoping for so much especially because the last one was you know my top read of last year I think this is the best celebrity series out there I mean he's like a very very British niche celebrity and he's a celebrity known because he's clever do you know what I mean he's known for being clever if you're not from the UK he um presents lots of kind of like trivia shows where he's like the expert on there basically that's kind of like distill it down very simply but so he's known for his intelligence and for his breadth of knowledge and I really feel like you can see that come out through this book so yeah five stars I don't think there's ever going to be anything less I think I'll give the next one five stars because I just love setting the mystery the coziness but also the the the interesting topics that are discussed so yeah absolutely loved it I hope you guys have enjoyed this edition of Wrapped Up it's the penultimate one until December we only have gonna have one more in September but I hope you enjoyed the vlog if you got into the end comment the uh diamond emoji because there's diamonds in this book as you can see on the back so comment that kind of like diamond shape emoji if you got into the end thank you guys so much for watching as always and I'll see you very soon in another video bye