Book Chat with Yinka Boudreaux

What happens with Sid? Now I would like to join with another fellow book lover, Yinka. Yinka, how are you? I'm great. How are you? I'm good. So welcome to the show. So you are very big, which I think everybody is big in the book community because we're so close knit and tight together. And you do great when it comes to, you know, different books and recommendations and reviews. So tell us a little bit about who you are, where you're from, and what really sparked your interest into becoming an avid reader awesome so my name is Yinka I am a how old am I now I'm 39 um live in Houston I'm a mom um but I think what really kind of sparked my interest in reading my parents were very big on like literature um I have immigrant parents they're amazing but it was always like we have to like make sure that we are reading doing what we need to do so that was something that was ingrained in us um my mom always says I started reading at two I don't know how true it is, but I'm taking it. So that's my claim to fame. But no, I've always loved reading. I am or can tend to be very kind of like withdrawn. So I enjoy reading. So I'm constantly carrying a book somewhere. But no, I've loved reading my entire life, so much so that I went to school for it. I have a degree in English literature. I taught ninth grade English for nine years where I harassed my students. um and they'll tell you the same but making sure that they found a book I was very big on building my classroom library so it's just something that's always been ingrained my kids read um they know that in the Boudreaux house we read books so that's the thing so I'm just constantly trying to engage people because I truly do believe that there's a book for every single person now do you have like a go-to genre or are you kind of a mood reader oh yeah so I'm a thriller girly through and through um I do I will dabble in other areas so like I'll read like maybe four romance a year um and that's like my cap um I do like a good lit fic um coming of age is always fun sci-fi dystopian but I'm always reading a thriller always yeah thriller horror is like my go-to I can never get tired of it and then I'm like okay when I kind of want to like switch things up I'll do romance or like YA which nowadays YA is so good that you don't even realize it's really like a young adult book like you think it's an adult book like i just read actually a middle school grade book really and i learned so much it's called Andromeda Diaz and the Reasonable Doubt and it's by Emily um Galvin Amanda and she's like a former prosecutor so what she did was she took everything that she learned during that time and put it into a book for middle school kids that don't know their rights and so it's like you know when sometimes kids might get in trouble or something at school and maybe they call an officer in they don't realize that they can say you know hey like I want to remain silent I want a lawyer they don't realize that like they give up their rights because they think oh well it's a cop so he's you know the authority here they don't realize it so that book was so good that is so cool i think i love i love YA i taught high school um so i love these so i've always loved YA thrillers are really good like you just talked about like learning something i think i read one thriller and it was i was learning all about like the DNA process and all of that and i was like i literally learned something in this book so i think that's amazing i don't think YA gets as much attention as it should because people just assume that it's like for younger people um but I love a good YA thriller for sure my first YA was That's Not My Name by Megan Lally, yeah and I got through like the first couple chapters and I just happened to turn it over and I saw it was YA and I was like this is YA like a girl gets kidnapped that was so good I was like okay YA is gonna be like top notch on my list now, no, it like YA is fantastic, there are so many Tiffany Jackson, Holly Mill, like there are so many amazing YA authors that you're just reading and it's like oh wait this is actually really good so I definitely if you like a good thriller, I've got some YA thriller authors for you, okay perfect perfect and so I had you send over a couple of your favorite books which I know can be a very difficult task for a lot of people when it comes to narrowing down and one of them was Their Vicious Games and now this is one that I had never heard of before so tell us a little bit about what's included in this story and what you loved about it, yeah so speaking of YA, Their Vicious Games is a YA thriller so like think Hunger Games meet Squid Games meet um Ace of Spades which is another YA thriller but it was so freaking good so we have a girl who's kind of lost her place um and um she's trying to get her place back so she can have like a better life when she graduates so she goes to this compound of sorts um and she has to compete for her spot um it is mass chaos I had it playing in the car and there's a character named Gale and my son every now and then he'll be like Gale but it's just really really good um whenever i'm giving like suggestions recommendations that's one that i go for because it's just extremely entertaining audiobook was fantastic the physical book was really good so if you're someone who likes like that Hunger Games ish in a dark academia setting then you'll like that one for sure now your next one is um bat eater and other names for Corvus this one to my TBR after i read the synopsis and i was like excuse me so tell me a little bit about for anybody that hasn't read yet what's included and even though you liked it what would you say would be a pro and a con if there is a con okay good question so bat eater another name for Corvus by Kylie Lee Baker that was my favorite book of 2020 what year is it 2025 of last year um i will not shut up about that book so pretty much what you have is you have a character set in like the pandemic and normally i'm not a pandemic reads girl because those years we're never gonna get them back and it's still a little it's still a little odd um But we have a crime scene, detritus killer, excuse me, detritus cleaner, and she's going through. But not only are we having to like kind of deal with what she's dealing with, we also have like the Chinese customs. We have the conversations around like racism and what that looks like, because, you know, what 2020 was like, especially when it came to those that are in power and different things like that. So it was just a really, really great read. um i cried um i was scared there like numerous times so it's not a thriller it is a horror and it is definitely horrifying so i think a pro is if you are someone who um enjoys kind of that aspect of other cultures being pulled in having relatable characters that are kind of you don't know if you should like them but you do and then kind of having that emotional connection you'll really like it if you are someone who does not do like blood and gore and things like that maybe stay away but i have convinced so many people um to read that book so much so that like i made it our um thriller book club pick um for last year and people who did not originally think that they would like it really liked it's a very well done book um so yes pick it up but be prepared for for blood yeah which I love when I added it to my TBR because you know like now with Kindle it's not Kindle Unlimited it's Kindle Plus right it just changed I was like okay but it's nice because a lot of times now the audiobooks are kind of included you don't have to like buy it separate and so this book actually has like the book free on Kindle and the audiobook combined oh perfect oh that's amazing so I didn't listen to the audiobook for that one um but I feel like it would be really really good and I just kind of like listening to the storytelling of it but yeah yeah that's a good one I let me know when you read it because I will forever sing the praises of Bat Eater and other names for Cora Zhang for as long as long as I live so I definitely want to hear back from you when you do read it oh for sure and then if you like the gore like the thriller horror i recommend author Octavia Grant that is my girl she knows i call her the queen of unhinged and anything she's coming out with a new one oh really it's called the Narcissist and it comes out i think the 30th or 31st or something yeah like it's coming out and oh my god i can't wait okay definitely gonna add it to my TBR i love a good unhinged um thriller horror so yeah definitely i recommend that and then another one by her is the naughty list which is kind of like a twist on santa okay in a way and so i'll leave you with this santa is really satan wait you're with that information what you go wait yeah when i tell you your mouth is gonna and it's a short read i think it's gonna be like 80 90 something pages so it's really quick okay but mouth drop okay so that's about to be like a christmas novella for me so i'm about to go ahead and add it to my december list yes like you really have this you really have me stuck on that santa is satan because now i'm like wait and when she said that i was like wait a second like it really makes you think and then if you really if you look at the word santa but you can you can move it around for sure yeah exactly so when you get into the story you're gonna be like oh my god okay you'll thank me later okay I'm definitely gonna add it it's gonna be on my December list for sure so Yinka before I let you go is there anything else that you would like to say to fellow book lovers out there um I guess my main thing is I truly do believe that there is a book for everyone um whenever I encounter people who are like I don't read I'm like that's because haven't found the right book yet. Um, so I feel like finding the right book is like trying on clothes. Not, it's not always going to fit your style. It's not going to fit you. You're not going to enjoy it necessarily. Um, but there is something for everyone. So it's really encouraged people to try different things. If you don't like it, get rid of it, DNF it, move on, find something else. Um, I think in the last couple of years, I've been more inclined to DNF. I was a hate reader before um to where like i started it i have to finish it and that just makes you miserable you're in a slump so if i don't like it i'm gonna go ahead and move on i dnf real quick i dnf'd one book because it was an audiobook and there was like a lion in it it was a thriller there was a lion but then the lion started talking i was like i'm out i cannot i don't know what parallel universe um this is and maybe it was really good but i had to tap out so i am a firm believer of dnfing i'll do a soft dnf too like maybe i'm just not in the mood for it but if it's right you come back to it yeah but if it's been sitting and i haven't felt the need to pick it back up in months yeah and obviously it's not something that is for me but yeah there's a book for everyone you just got to find the right fit well yinka thank you so much for taking the time to come and chat with me and fellow book lovers out there we greatly appreciate it no problem thank you so much for having me i really appreciate it