Mid-Year Wrap Up | Best & Worst Books (so far!) of 2020

Booktubers mentioned:

(Some) Books Mentioned:

The Traitor Baru Cormorant
The Unspoken Name
Parable of the Sower
House of Earth and Blood
The Girl with All the Gifts

LET'S BE FRIENDS:

Instagram: @torithatnerd

[BeautifullyBookishBethany]

I had heard mixed things about Baru Cormorant, but now I'm thinking I should give it a try... So happy to see The Unspoken Name! It doesn't get enough love.

[iLiviesimone]

Okay your answer for worst book made me so happy because I just unhauled a bunch of books including that one, but was a little hesitant because you know what if it was good? But now I have no regrets XD
Love watching this!

[kimesch]

Finally found someone who feels the same way about Outlander. Thank you.

[wendymaresca]

I have had The Girl with all The Gifts on my bookshelves for years it seems. You have made me want to pick it up.

[yennyboyle]

Hi Tori! I started to follow you recently because I saw you a couple years back and I could not remember your name. I love your smile and passion about books. Just like me I love books as well. Keep it up. Thank you ☺️

[hecatesson]

Yay Tori welcome back! You have been missed. I hope you are doing good. Some of the top books I gave five stars too and have read recently have been The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer (make sure you have tissues handy), Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, The Toll by Neal Shusterman, The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black, and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz. I am currently working on The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah right now which I am enjoying. I think the worse book I read so far lately has been Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. For PRIDE month I have been trying to read more LGBTQ books and was interested in this book. I struggled with it and gave it two stars at the end. I definitely put most of these books you mentioned on my TBR list. I have a goal of 52 books to to read this year and I am currently at 30 books read. I know we can meet our goals! We got this!

[RaspberryDevil]

I'm probably not going to pick up any of her previous book series, but hearing you actually liking 'crescent city' makes me want to give it a try :D
It's nice to hear that you have found books you enjoyed, some of them sound interesting and I might look into them furter!
Good luck with the big books, I hope that you reach your goal! I have a few of longer ones on my shelf as well, we need all the luck we can get to finish them :'D

[JessieMaeBooks]

The Girl with all the Gifts sounds amazing! You’ve totally sold me on it 😄 and I’d never heard of The Traitor Cormorant but that’s one also sounds sooo good! I always get such great recommendations from you! 😊 Yesss the ending for Crescent City blew me away!

[booksandcats]

Girl with all the Gifts was so good! I picked up Scythe based on your enjoyment and really enjoyed, looking forward to reading the next two books in the series. I also really like The Reckless Oath We Made, Recursion, and The One.

[ExLibris-Alys]

It’s nice to have you back Tori. I totally agree about Outlander! Best for me so far has been the Scythe trilogy 👍🏻😊💛🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[ThatsSoPoe]

Yay for Babel-17!!💜💜💜 That was one of my favorites last year, although I know not everyone loves it. I really want to read more Delany as well. I also want to pick up The Unspoken Name!

[tennilledenton]

Co-sign Girl with all the Gifts!! It has one of the most disturbing scenes ever, that I still think about.

[leah]

Hi Tori, I am a newer subscriber (I found your channel from The Shades of Orange recommendation video)
The Parable of the Sower sounds so good! And I've never read anything by China Meiville but I did not know that Perdido Street Station was so long! Wow. I will be looking forward to hearing what you think of that if you do get to it!
My favorite so far was The Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang and my least favorite was The Diabolic by SJ Kincaid.

[bookphilos]

I've just stumbled on your channel and instantly subscribed! A few months back, I read my first Octavia E. Butler and fully agree with you. I'm currently making my way through the Xenogenisis trilogy, but the Parable duology will be next. I've read all novels by Mieville except for Railsea and let me tell you that it is very ambitious to start with Perdido Street Station. I absolutely love the Bas Lag novels, but I'd recommend everyone new to Mieville to start with The City & The City. It is much shorter and you'll know sooner whether you like his writing style and world building ir not.

[jenk]

Thank you for your honest reviews!! I ordered Leviathan Wakes after I saw your review of it in a previous video, and it just arrived a few days ago! Can't wait to start it :)

[BookZealots]

I've added The Girl with All the Gifts. I've not heard of it before. And amazingly, Overdrive had it. Hopefully I can get it listened to this weekend. Have you read the author's other book The Boy on the Bridge?

[mindysbookjourney]

I really enjoyed hearing about the best and worst reads so far in 2020. I really liked The Girl with All the Gifts as well.

[classicsed]

I started Parable of the Sower this week and feel what you're saying about knowing you're in good hands from page one. There's a steadiness and strength in the narrative voice that feels very grounding. I feel that way with Zadie Smith too. I trust her vision of the world. I read On Beauty this month and could cry just thinking about it...so unflinching and beautiful and compassionate. That is def a favorite this year, as well as Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis and The King Must Die by Mary Renault.

[joreneereads]

OK, you've convinced me to give Earthseed another try lol. I read the Parable of the Talents for a course at college and although her ideas are brilliant, I'm ngl I didn't like it... but I keep seeing everyone rave about the series so I'm going to start at the beginning and give it another try. I'm interested in what you think if you continue the series, though, because my opinion of Lauren from Talents was nothing like what I hear people's opinion of her from the first book.

[SarahAsYouWish]

Adding The Girl With All the Gifts and The Parable of the Sower to my Cart. Thanks for the recommendations. One of the best books I read this year was Know My Name by Chanel Miller. It is an incredibly powerful and beautifully written memoir. I highly recommend it.