unwrapping books picks what i read 🎁 wrapped up risk - episode nine

Hello cuties! It is time for June's episode of Wrapped Up and listen guys this is our penultimate episode of Wrapped Up Risk before I unwrap all of these and like we give it a break until December and we come up with another version of Wrapped Up. We do 10 episodes and this is episode nine so this is our penultimate episode before we do a really fun episode next month which I'm so excited for but also very nervous for so that's coming next month but this is the last one where we're that's all I'm gonna say. I don't worry I'm not gonna be reading all of them or at least I hope not. I don't know yet but in terms of what we have left for Wrapped Up we have these three shelves and this stack here that wouldn't fit there. The vibe we're going for today is I want a short book this will probably be a pretty short vlog because I'm gonna pick a short book because I just feel like I've been reading so many long books lately and all the books that I have to read this month like on TBRs for videos and stuff are long books and I'm just surrounded by long books and I want a short book. I've had it enough you know what I just I love the feeling of a short book so that's what we're going for I'm gonna be honest I can't remember like any of these books now that I wrapped up like I couldn't tell you any of them um so let's find some short ones that one door outside that's a short one or this one that one's short maybe we'll go for that one I don't know or this one that one's short these are three short books okay um I'm not even gonna look we're going for this one we're going for this one I don't even know which one that was okay I just gotta make my decision quick like that you know with this otherwise I doubt myself okay okay okay okay let's find out what she is I'm actually really excited for this I've never been happier okay so this is a murder mystery this is one of the books I was most excited for okay but can we just talk about how I've unwrapped I've been lucky throughout wrapped up if you don't remember this is half books that I was least excited for half books I was most excited for I did 25 of each when we first unwrapped and I've unwrapped a lot of books I was most excited for just out of sheer luck right but that doesn't bode well for the last video we're gonna do I'm just gonna say that it doesn't give me good vibes for the last video that we're gonna do but anyways I'm excited to read this now so this is the Inugami Curse by Shoshi Yokamizo this is like a classic mystery Japanese murder mystery author he's got so many books that have been published in Japanese and they're slowly being translated into English and I've only read one but I own a lot of them like there's one right here Death on Gokuman Island I'm pretty sure I own another one somewhere I own a lot of them oh yeah Village the Village of Eight Graves so I own a lot of them these are the next two to read but this is the one I've got to read next and I'm so happy because that means I can make progress in a series I can read a book I'm really excited to read I can read a fun murder mystery I don't know what's the plot of this one in 1940s Japan the wealthy head of an Inugami clan dies and his family eagerly await the reading of the will but no sooner are its strange details revealed than a series of bizarre gruesome murders begins oh fun so yeah this is the next one and it's about 300 pages so we'll have like three check-ins I'll check in like every hundred pages or so but I really enjoyed the Honjin Murders which was the first one I thought it was a very unique murder mystery it's got a bonkers twist at the end absolutely insane like bonkers bonkers twist but I really enjoy reading murder mysteries from different cultures from different authors from different languages that have been translated because I think they all kind of have slightly different styles and kind of like house codes I guess I mean that's me my hotlamode watching coming out he talks about like fashion houses house codes but they've all got different tropes you know and I'm I'm so excited that is such a good one okay we're reading the Inugami Curse next I cannot wait to see what I think of this one let's get going okay hey friends um it's been a couple days they spent not really reading and watching a lot of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills I've become obsessed I've watched basically the two most recent seasons of Salt Lake City which I just I'm obsessed with Lisa Barlow I think she's so funny I just think when Jennifer was arrested and Lisa Barlow like starts calling up her six lawyers I'm shaking I'm physically shaking it's my birthday it's my birthday it's my birthday a birthday to me and then I was watching the most recent season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills I've been watching that over quite a while and at first I found the first half the season really boring I found I didn't have a housewife that I loved like I love Lisa Barlow but then Kathy Hilton turned up as a friend of and I'm upset I know she's not going to be in the next season and I'm upset but I'm now watching I asked you guys on Instagram and you were incredibly unhelpful I was like what should I watch next should I start at lunch from the first start should I start is it Potomac I don't know how to say the place I don't I'm not American should I watch that from the start and like you all said a ******* different show so anyways that's besides the point but yeah I'm now watching Beverly Hills from the start and I'm kind of obsessed anyways I have read the first 100 pages of the Inugami Curse also look at this bookmark that my parents got me they went to Spain or just Portugal I can't remember they were on a cruise around both and it has this like miniature little book on it how cute is that I've read the first 100 pages of Inugami Curse and I am enjoying it there's so many names in this let me give you the plot but the amount of names in this is taking me a moment to get used to who everyone is and like who's who and what the relation is between everyone so essentially we've got the story of this family who's kind of got this patriarch at the top of it who's made success and it's got then his children and his grandchildren and he's dying and his will is going to spawn a lot of murders is basically what the synopsis says and the detective character that is in all of these books Kandaichi Kandaichi I think is how you say the detective's name he's in all of the Sesshi Yokomizo books yeah he's like asked to come because someone like has a premonition that the will is going to cause problems but then that guy is murdered in the detective's hotel the drama this is my second Sesshi Yokomizo and obviously the last one I read quite a while ago but they have kind of like a slow setup like they really let you know who all the players are what the kind of local location and like the people standing within the community is like they have quite a slow setup so the first murder has only just happened literally the last chapter it just happened and it was pretty good it was quite a dramatic murder I like drama drama drives me at times can I tell you it's the first 100 pages no actually I don't think you should know I think it's a gag it's a gag it's a gag moment like the murder is presented in a way that's a gag the whoever it is has a flair for the dramatics because they didn't just murder someone they like set it up in a way that is wow so the detective character is really fun I've been enjoying being with him again I think the family relationships and dynamics and kind of this cutthroat business because it's all like they all want the guy's money and the business or whatever and the will is like a but they all want to like the will is set up in a very interesting way where like there's multiple people on the will that say the main core family don't want to get it but in order for like the only the main family to get it and not any other people they don't want to get it murders have to be committed in a strategic way there's a lot of people playing a game and like the way he set up the will it's like if this person dies it goes money goes to this person if this person dies money goes to this person it's a very complex web so I'm enjoying it so far it took me a while to read it I'd say I was only reading like a page a minute just at the start of this which is pretty slow for me like sometimes I can average to a minute if it's like a book that I'm really excited for and enjoying but this one does just take a little bit longer but yeah I don't know what to expect I'm enjoying it and I know that it could get I think it's gonna get crazy because the murders is this day is one of the craziest like murder murder mystery resolutions I've ever heard like how the murder happened um it's one of the craziest ones I've ever heard so I'm excited for where this is gonna go I'm gonna pop out for a walk now I feel like I want to get out in nature it's a lovely day so I'm gonna have like a quick 25 minute walk come back do some stuff for the maybe edit a bit of this video and then I'm gonna read some more tonight okay hello friends I'm chilling here with Laura can you see her oh yeah little eyes she's annoyed I've come to sit here she's like this is my space I have reached 200 pages into the inugami curse by the way I have some fun books to show you in a sec that I was gonna I opened the package and then I realized it was books and I was like no I have to wait to look am I joking with you guys I'm 200 pages in I'm not enjoying it as much as I enjoyed the 100 murders and as I enjoyed the first section okay I have some thoughts I'm not unenjoying it like I'd say at the moment it's like a 3.5 which isn't bad but I thought the 100 murders was so cool that was kind of expecting this to just even go above and beyond that she's moved away from me when she's unhappy she goes she like breathes heavenly when she's annoyed at you I remember thinking I'm about to beat this bitch up my problem with this is that there is no center to our story and what I mean by that is usually in a murder mystery when you have a detective like we do in this one I'd say once they introduce the story the story kind of revolves around them I feel like I don't know if this is perhaps a western convention of the books we read we write here but I feel like any book any genre will have a center to your story a main character or a main couple of characters main group character that your story kind of revolves around right and in this I expect to either be the detective or the family itself right we kind of use the family as the center of the story the detective kind of flips in and out I feel like neither of those are true and it's kind of swapping between them sometimes the detective for a little bit is like the core of the story and sometimes it's the family and perhaps that is more of like a Japanese convention I don't know but I kind of remember feeling like that with the 100 murders as well I didn't know who our center was and I find it a bit unmooring I find it a bit like oh there'll be like like 40 pages when the detective it just isn't there you know and I find that switching of center a bit like jolt like what's the word like jostling like uh jolting I don't know I find it yeah I'm not sure if I love that aspect of it and I've just been a little bit bored I haven't been as like into the story as I was with the 100 murders or as intrigued to find out what's gonna happen but I am still enjoying it I still like the writing I still like the plot like that you know I'm enjoying it but I don't feel like a deep urge to read it I could happily do other stuff but I'm gonna finish it today I've decided we're gonna just sit here and read it today because it's literally 100 pages okay let me show you my package I think I know what's in it in fact I do know what's in it because it's from book break and I requested some books so first okay yeah first we've got before we say goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi this is the fourth in the uh before the coffee gets cold series I haven't read the second and third one yet but I own them so I thought I'd request this one and then I could maybe like get through the series quite quickly I loved the first one it made me sob like it was incredibly emotional and this one's quite short it's only like 170 pages and I did guys I keep feeling like I want to read some more short books I feel like I keep reading longer books like the whole point of this I mean this is 300 but I'd love to read some like 200 page novellas at the moment I feel like I haven't been reading a lot of that then we have got the Kamigawa food detectives what was this that as well what's the one dish you would do anything to taste just one more time I think I just saw a cat on the cover I'm not gonna lie and I'll take it father daughter duo who own a restaurant known as food detectives capable of recreate recreating a dish from their customers past that may well unlock their forgotten memories and inspire ongoing happiness oh fun okay so yeah I mean it's a cat and it's food so I was intrigued by this and you know I'm trying to read more translated works oh I'm excited this and this one's short and it's got big font that will be one I reckon I'll get to soon and then the last book that I requested was bright young women this is by the author of luckiest girl alive which I feel like was just made into a film was it with Mila Kunis I'm not sure I haven't read that but this one sounded good it's set in the 70s it's inspired by real life women targeted by one of America's most famous serial killers so it's that kind of situation we've got a serial killer going around killing women we're following women kind of caught up in the orbit of it so yeah thank you so much book break for these I'm super intrigued by all them also I love the cover of this one how cool is that cover I love it so yeah hopefully I will get to all of these soon but I mean this one it'll be a while because I haven't read the second and third one but I love the pink on the cover isn't that so pretty so yes anyways I am going to now go finish the inigami curse um and hopefully I'll love this last section and it'll all come together and I'll just be like so into it that's the vibe we're hoping for guys um I gotta be honest with you three stars I'm giving it a three what I really hated the ending I found it so boring like I rarely have read a whole book and like 40 pages from the end I'm generally thinking to myself I could just dnf this a I never dnf b this is like a one book vlog and like c if you've made it the whole way through like 40 pages what is that but apparently I was like **** this this is so boring I finished it but like did that add anything to my life no no I just didn't like the resolution to this mystery I thought it was fairly obvious it was pretty obvious I thought something along these lines was happening right from the start it wasn't a big reveal I just like I was so bored you guys I was skimming by the end I didn't dnf but I skimmed the page I was like car noises I'm trying to speak through it it's too hot by the way guys to keep my windows shut nowadays we're gonna have car noises occasionally now extreme yeah my eyes were like I remember seeing taylor do a video once where like you can kind of just like look at the middle of the of the paragraph and like your brain will kind of take in everything that's happening to some degree that was kind of what it was I never do that I always pretty much read like properly until the end of a book it just wasn't doing it for me I was really bored but here's the thing I'm not gonna hold it against this author I'm not gonna be like oh I didn't love this one so now I'm not gonna love this awful stuff because I think of this like I think of Agatha Christie I think it's like Japan's Agatha Christie well no this is published I think this was originally published in the 70s but you know this is an author who has written so many books with a detective right and with Agatha I've given her five stars I've given her one star right you and that's okay I feel like with these kind of detective mysteries that like the author writes again and again again some are just gonna work for you some are not this one didn't personally I will say there's some aspects of this that I just like you know I'm not entirely sure like how politically correct aspects are like there's a lot of cousin marrying there's not the and there's a character called monkey who is described as like a character with lower than average intelligence with some sort of disability and they nickname him monkey and I that just made me be uncomfortable throughout some of those aspects so there's that and also some of the translation I wasn't sure about the translation elements of this because I kid you not every time there was like a tense scene where characters are finding out something difficult everyone's shoulders are shaking in excitement everyone's shaking left right and center and I'm like if you're a translator I'm not sure if that's like there's multiple words in Japanese that could that have been used in the original text and the translator is translating them all to shaking or like even if that is like even if it's a one word you could like use other we have synonyms trembling like it was just a lot of shaking and just things like that I wasn't sure about how the translation had been done but yeah so that's the end of this vlog the final vlog of wrapped up well the penultimate vlog of wrapped up but the final vlog before we get into the final vlog I'm really excited for what is going to come with this final episode of wrapped up risk for those of you that don't know I bring wrapped up back every December for Christmas but then I continue on into the next year until we do about 10 episodes and then I give it a break so that we're not like fed up with it and then I bring it back every December in a slightly new iteration basically a slightly new way of deciding which books are wrapped up so yeah that's what's going to happen we'll have our final episode next month let me know if you have any guesses down below for what the vlog is going to be because it's a bit more high concept than what the usual wrapped up vlogs are so thank you guys so much for watching I love you so much I hope you have a good rest of your day and I'll see you soon in another video bye