Reading The Most Popular Books in My State [CC] | Pucksandpaperbacks

00:04 - There has been a rise in Asian hate [crimes] since the start of COVID.

00:08 - Six Asian women were murdered in Atlanta on March 18th and it was a hate crime.

00:15 - Please check my description for links to donate and educate yourself on Asian hate.

00:19 - I’m also going to leave a documentary made by Eugene Lee Yang who is one of The Try Guys on YouTube.

00:25 - It is an hour and some minutes long. Take an hour and some minutes to watch it.

00:30 - It is really good and educational. And I’ll also leave a podcast that he moderated with Asian women.

00:37 - It was fantastic. I thought it was really good and I suggest to go and watch it and or listen to it.

00:44 - I’ll see if there’s a transcript as well. I’m also going to leave down below a fantastic video made by a Japanese creator Anna Akana, I love her channel and she did a great video and I suggest to go and watch it and check it out before this video starts. So, pause my video.

01:02 - I didn’t want to post this video without talking about this because it’s a very important topic.

01:06 - So, please go down to my description add these resources to your bookmarks or add them to your watch later.

01:13 - They’re very important and we need to stop Asian hate.

01:16 - That was a hate crime and this needs to stop.

01:19 - What’s up, friends? Welcome back to another video.

01:22 - Today, I’m going to be reading the most popular books in my state.

01:25 - [Ding] I’ve had this idea since last year around this time.

01:28 - I was waiting for the train in the city and I randomly got this idea and started looking up what the most popular books in my state were.

01:37 - So, I have been holding off on this video for quite a while.

01:40 - There are many articles that list the most popular books in each state.

01:43 - I’m not sure how accurate they are? Most of the lists that I found just have the books that are set in each state.

01:50 - So, I’m not sure how accurate the lists are.

01:54 - With the exception of a few articles that have a map graphic which I assume was a survey? So, I’m going to tell you the three books I’ll be reading and I’m also going to be taking some Instagram pictures to have my followers guess what the theme is.

02:09 - So, if you do want to be involved in these kind of videos.

02:12 - Follow me on Instagram if you haven’t. So, the three books I’ll be reading are The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid.

02:23 - The Lovely Bones, I read a lot in my high school years.

02:26 - It was a very popular Pennsylvania book. I think it’s set in Pittsburgh? And it is a gruesome book.

02:34 - It is about a young girl who was murdered and it is her being in the afterlife and following the events of her death.

02:43 - So, the last time I read it was probably like 2010 so it has been a while since I’ve read it and I’m interested to see how I feel about it now um there’s also a movie.

02:56 - I just remember it being really popular. Pretty sure I did read it for a required read.

03:01 - In 10th grade, we had sustained silent reading where you just read for like the beginning of class and my teacher would let us pick books from the library that’s where I found John Green and I did read The Lovely Bones because it was there.

03:14 - I don’t think I ever finished it? I was very much a reader that just didn’t finish things um I was really not a big reader in high school.

03:23 - I really didn’t become a big reader until college.

03:26 - It is on so many lists like the majority of lists that I found had The Lovely Bones on it including this map.

03:34 - It is the most popular book in Pennsylvania from 2018 and an article from 2020 also listed it so it’s still popular um and I’m interested to read it to see how I think of it now.

03:47 - As for Fun Home, I actually read a part of it for an LGBTQ+ history class that I took in college and we just read LGBT like poems and like excerpts from novels and it was one of my favorite classes in college.

04:04 - So I never got to read the full thing. This was recommended on Book Riot and I will be starting out the video with this book.

04:10 - I have it available on Hoopla and Such a Fun Age was recommended on one list and I got this for Christmas and have been waiting to read it for this video.

04:21 - So, I’m going to start off the video with Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.

04:25 - This was recommended by Book Riot in 2018 and the author of the article is Susie Dumond.

04:31 - Dumond says, “This graphic memoir by cartoonist Alison Bechdel tells of her growing up in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, her struggle coming out and the events leading up to and following her father’s suicide.

04:45 - It’s a haunting and emotional tale told in a memorable format later turned into a Tony winning musical”.

04:52 - I didn’t know it was a musical! I feel like maybe I did know? But totally forgot that information and if I could watch it that would be amazing.

05:02 - Um I remember really enjoying the part that I read.

05:06 - I remember having a great discussion about it in class and I had to do a presentation and I actually picked her, and I really enjoyed what I read of it and it was a heartbreaking story but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it and I’m going to get right into it and I will update you once I have some thoughts.

05:31 - Hello, I finished Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and here are my thoughts.

05:37 - I’m giving it a 4 out of 5 stars I thought it was good.

05:41 - I like graphic memoirs and I like learning about her life this is about her figuring out her sexuality but it’s also about her finding out that her dad was gay or of some of that nature.

05:54 - I personally don’t think he was gay? I think that this was very much a trans realization.

06:01 - She was born in the 60s so I think she just didn’t have the language there are so many instances where she talks about her dad being gay and him trying on women’s clothes about her feeling uncomfortable in her body and especially about puberty and every time she talked about being gay I was so confuse? Because I was like you’re trans!!! Like, I don’t understand? and I hope that maybe one day she gets that realization.

06:31 - There’s a lot of older afar people from that time that feel like they shouldn’t transition and it is pointless? So I wonder if that’s how she’s feeling.

06:42 - So, it just feels like she erases transness in general so I don’t know what that’s about but it just felt more like a trans realization than her realizing she’s a lesbian because I had saw so many signs um so not sure what’s happening there but I did enjoy it.

07:02 - The other problem was just that since she was born in the 60s, there’s some language that could have been edited she uses the word “Colored” to refer to Black people when she could just say Black.

07:12 - So, that was another thing that I was just kind of like but I think it was good I enjoyed it she does tie in her dad’s love of classic literature I really like how she compared Odysseus to her own coming of age story.

07:27 - But I don’t know if I’m going to watch the musical.

07:30 - It just feels too personal. He did have relationships with men while he was married to her mother so there is a possibility of him being gay but he’s never outright said it just that he can’t consent to it and that she has a musical about it feels a little weird to me but I like the memoir it was good and I would recommend it but just look out for a couple things and I will have the trigger warnings down below.

07:56 - Now, I’m reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

07:59 - I started it at midnight and I remember some of what I’ve read of it as I’m remembering.

08:06 - I watched the movie a lot and it was talked about a lot in high school because it’s set in PA.

08:13 - It is about a 14 year old girl Susie who is r-ped and she is also murdered by a neighbor and it’s about the investigation.

08:24 - It just screams white privilege. It is set in the 70s and then you see her perspective of her in her heaven so it does talk about that.

08:33 - I went to a Catholic school for first to ninth grade so I read it in ninth grade.

08:40 - Everybody was talking about it and it’s still relevant.

08:44 - Women are not safe anywhere throughout the world and it just shows that even from a young age they are not safe at all and how we need to be doing better um so I’m interested to read more of it.

08:58 - So I’m going to spend the rest of the day reading the lovely bones and I’m going to hop onto my laptop because I want to take some BuzzFeed quizzes that guess your state based on your answers.

09:08 - So, let’s go and do that! So would not be my video if I didn’t turn off the audio.

09:17 - So I’m going to walk you through me taking BuzzFeed quizzes to see if I actually know my state.

09:22 - This is called “Take this quiz and We’ll Tell You What State You Actually Belong In”.

09:27 - The first question is, “Which of these is your favorite fast food chain?” Out of these I haven’t had a lot.

09:33 - Chick-fil-a, I don’t think I’ve had for like three years because they donate to anti-lgbt organizations and we don’t like them um so this one I know I picked Dunkin Donuts because that is like a PA staple um and that is the only one I could really think of and the one that I’ve had the most of.

09:54 - The next question is, “Which of these shows appeals to you the most?” and I ended up It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia - mainly just to pick {hilly but I also love Gilmore girls but I have seen Always Sunny.

10:07 - It’s kind of like a rite of passage to be a Philadelphian.

10:12 - Um next is choose a baby and that is so weird? What does that have to do with my state? I don’t know.

10:17 - But I just ended up picking the baby that was reading because this is a reading channel.

10:23 - Next is which animal best represents you and I had a hard time with this because I was like what? But I do end up picking the bear um no I wanted to pick the bear and I think I actually end up going with the squirrel just because squirrels are seen in Pennsylvania like I don’t really know what my logic was but I was just trying to get my state.

10:46 - Next is, “What quality are you most attracted to in a partner?” and I was so confused about this too because why does this have to do with my state? But I end up picking thoughtful because I’m a thoughtful person, I would like for the other person to also be thoughtful.

11:02 - Next is which of these negative adjectives best applies to you? Still does not make any sense with this quiz but I think I end up picking distracted because I am a very distracted person.

11:14 - Next is to choose a musician another question I had a hard time with because there wasn’t anyone that I knew of from Pennsylvania um but I think I ended up picking Bon Iver.

11:26 - Don’t really know why but I just did. Names would you choose for a baby? and end up picking Jacob but also confused why that’s a question but I guess I just shouldn’t really test the logic of BuzzFeed quizzes.

11:37 - Like this whole time in my face you can just tell like well I’m like what the hell? Um this is to choose a movie quote I ended up picking The Goonies, my second favorite movie.

11:48 - The first being The Sandlot. I don’t know if The Goonies is set in Pennsylvania but it is pretty popular in Pennsylvania maybe it maybe it’s not? I don’t know? I just know people that like it.

12:04 - Next is to choose an actor I actually ended up picking Will Smith.

12:08 - He’s the closest I can think of to Pennsylvania because he was in Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

12:14 - Next is What’s your party anthem? and here I say what are parties? Have not been to one in a very long time um I think I ended up picking Don’t Stop Believing by Journey.

12:25 - That’s like a classic party song what which of these pictures is the most appealing none of these really screamed PA for me.

12:35 - So I think I just ended up picking the waterfall because that was the most appealing to me.

12:43 - PA is pretty grassy there we go. I won! I win! I ended up getting Pennsylvania and the description is so wrong it says you’re the most extroverted of your friends which is completely false.

12:59 - Next is, “I know it seems impossible but we can accurately guess which state you live in with just three questions” It was wrong because it only gives me four options that are not even a fruit! The one is not even a fruit so I end up going with The Big Apple because that’s the closest to PA, and I think that this might be the only one that I did not actually get my state for because it was impossible to get and here I am saying that barbecue is not a fruit.

13:28 - It is not a fruit at all so why even put it? Next is What’s your favorite kind of hot weather? I was saying that I don’t really like hot weather so I just ended up going with hot because they didn’t give me any other options or any good options lastly which of the following is your favorite bird and I went with pigeon just because that is closest to PA and I say that my favorite band, The Wonder Years, their mascot is Hank The Pigeon and they’re from Philly.

13:55 - I ended up getting New York which is pretty close like I mean it’s not too far from Pennsylvania and it would be impossible for me to have gotten Pennsylvania on this quiz.

14:10 - Next is “Can we guess the state you live in based on your restaurant choices?” First is to pick a pre-meal snack um remember going out to dinner and eating? Like um I chose On The Border just because that is the closest to me and that is what I associate with Pennsylvania.

14:33 - The other ones I really haven’t been to but I also say that I love The Cheesecake Factory.

14:38 - Their bread is so good but so is Outback’s.

14:41 - I just miss like going out to places. Um pick an image that’s most familiar to you.

14:48 - This one I was thinking more about Pennsylvania.

14:51 - I live in the suburbs um but none of these are really like shout Pennsylvania to me.

14:58 - o I don’t know which one I pick? I think I actually end up picking the house’s one but that one felt more like California so maybe I actually end up picking the road.

15:07 - So pick an appetizer I absolutely went with the blooming onion and it just makes me miss going out to dinner.

15:15 - I love the blooming onion it’s definitely something I would like to be able to make myself.

15:24 - Fast food restaurant. None of these were really ones that are in PA.

15:27 - So I end up going with Shake Shack because that’s the only one that I know of and we do not go to Chick-fil-a because I don’t like them.

15:36 - Next is a pick an all-you-can-eat deal and I think I end up going with Fridays just because that’s just the one that I know most of.

15:46 - We had a Steak n Shake, but it ended up closing so the only one was Fridays that I could think of which restaurant is your least favorite I have been just like the majority of these except Cheddars and Red Lobster.

16:01 - So, I end up picking Red Lobster because I’ve really just never been there.

16:06 - And next is to pick a dessert and I ended up going with the brownie because the Friday’s brownie is so good look.

16:12 - There I am just saying it’s so good. Um definitely miss it the Fridays near me closed.

16:18 - I think that they might have went bankrupt? Um what’s your breakfast meal of choice when you eat out I really do not go out to breakfast at all.

16:29 - So I just ended up going with McDonald’s because they have a pretty good breakfast.

16:34 - Choose a restaurant’s frozen product out of these the one that I recently tried was Red Robin, and they’re onion rings I thought they were pretty good so I choose that one and next is select the restaurant you’re most familiar with and I think this is the last question and I end up going with Five Guys, that’s my favorite.

17:06 - I love it there. Select a food item to share I think this is the last one? I ended up- I ended up going with pizza because that’s the only one that I would share.

17:11 - They didn’t really give many options that I could think of or ones that really resonated with me so I chose pizza.

17:17 - Nope, it’s literally still not the last one.

17:21 - A post meal activity um I’m like I don’t remember things? (laughing) like look at my facial expressions so funny.

17:33 - Um going home and going to bed is my first option um I’m like I can’t remember a time when I have been out and look at that I indeed live in Pennsylvania and there we go! I am just the king.

17:52 - Okay that’s it, goodbye. Hello, it is March 24th and I have made the decision to DNF The Lovely Bones at 20%.

18:03 - I’m really not having a fun reading experience.

18:06 - I don’t feel like I need to finish it it is a very gruesome book about a girl who is and murdered there’s a lot of racist undertones while I’m reading the book.

18:16 - It is set in the 70s, it is also a very Christian based book and I did read it when I went to Catholic school, I went to Catholic school from first to ninth grade um and it just doesn’t feel like a productive decision to just continue reading the book because I would rather read Such a Fun Age.

18:36 - So I am just going to talk a little bit about what I don’t like about the book and then get it out of my mind and not read it ever again! There are so many instances that just make me uncomfortable when she’s talking about the race and ethnicity of the characters.

18:52 - They’re trying to gather suspects to figure out who murdered Susie they go first with this [south east Asian] boy from school and he has had a crush on her and that does not go very well.

19:05 - So they immediately target a person of color and then the author describes his mother as beautiful and exotic [crickets] and to bring it home she creates a fake Indigenous tribe [boing sound].

19:19 - During a scene with a murderer she creates a fake Indigenous tribe as he is putting up tents for that tribe and that really rubbed me the wrong way.

19:29 - I was so angry about that so I am just gonna DNF it.

19:33 - Like I don’t think that I’m getting anything out of this book it is not productive and I would rather read Such a Fun Age, so that’s what I’m going to do.

19:41 - Here is Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid. This was recommended on a blog and the author lives in Philadelphia.

19:47 - I actually put up an Instagram picture and I put all of the books that I have that have authors from Pennsylvania or are living in Pennsylvania or the book is set in Pennsylvania and I said what do these books all have in common? No one has guessed anything yet.

20:04 - I was surprised how many books I had I did a Photoshop job with In The Dream House because I don’t own it so I just put the cover over my copy of Mexican Gothic and I think it turned out really good.

20:16 - I was surprised how many authors I actually had from Pennsylvania, but I am so excited to read this it has been all of the hype on BookTube lately and it is about a Black woman and her living in a predominantly white area and dealing with performative activism.

20:35 - I’m so excited to read this. So I’m going to spend the day reading I have a little clip that I need to film for the Patreon video that I am filming currently that is going to go up in a couple parts of my Patreon become a Paperback pal for only one dollar if you would like to see more exclusive content you can become a Paperback pal for only one dollar on my Patreon I give exclusive videos and I post my monthly wrap ups there we also have a Discord so if you would like to become a Paperback Pal, the link is always down below and I can also put it in the cards above um and that’s it let me go and do all of that and then get started with Such a Fun Age.

21:27 - [Music playing] One week later. Hello it is April 2nd and I have finished this vlog, sort of? [Beeping] Hello it is April 2nd I have finished Such a Fun Age.

22:57 - I’m giving it a 4 out of 5 stars. I really enjoyed it and what I loved most about it was that it was set in Philadelphia.

23:05 - It is really rare for me to read a book that is set in Philly.

23:09 - She did such a good job just putting the setting together there were so many references of Philly that I felt like I was walking around with Emira and I just loved this so much! And it made me think about why I’m not writing a story in Philly? Most of my books are set in like a suburban area of Pennsylvania so maybe my college book that I’m going to write will be set there.

23:37 - Emira also is a graduate from the school that I graduated from I graduated from Temple University and Amira also was a graduate from Temple.

23:47 - This book is set in 2015 and 2016 and it was just so cool to see a character that graduated from Temple and just her talking about the experience and just having this setting that I am so familiar with represented was awesome Kiley is from Philly this was her debut novel.

24:06 - It was an excellent debut novel her world building and imagery are very strong and I felt like I was walking around Philly with Emira and it did help that I know most of the places she was talking about if we weren’t in a pandemic, I would have been able to go to the places she went to and this vlog would have been a little bit better but I am just working with what I have I’ll link down below to black owned bookstores that i really enjoy so if you do want to buy this book or any other books definitely go to their bookshop links down below and support them it is Harriet’s Bookshop and Uncle Bobbies Bookstore.

24:41 - I have not been able to go there in person yet but I can’t wait to I was too far away from them when I lived in the city so once the pandemic’s over I’ll go in person and see them but for now you can order online, I really enjoy them! It’s a great service and I love supporting black owned bookstores.

25:01 - This book is about a girl named Emira who is in her 20s.

25:06 - She is 25 and she turns 26 and I love that I’m 26 and I don’t read a lot of characters that are my age.

25:14 - I really enjoyed her character because she talks about being in her 20s.

25:18 - She is struggling with being off her parents health insurance and talks about how hard it is to get a job out of college and especially being a black woman how it makes it a lot harder this book heavily focuses on racism performative activism and a white woman centering herself in a Black woman’s life.

25:37 - I enjoyed this book it was a great debut. I really enjoy the character of Briar.

25:41 - She is the three-year-old who Emira is babysitting and she gets infatuated with her and really loves her and shows her the care that her mother’s not giving her her mother is very um let’s see her character made me so angry and she was very well written.

26:02 - I was so angry reading her character because she was still hung up on a boyfriend she had when she was a senior in high school who “ruined her life” she says and I was so angry because I was just like, “Lady, you’re 30 years old”.

26:16 - Fr the purpose of the story those characters need to have this story arc but I was so angry because I was like why do you care about something that happened when you were a senior in high school? I am very much out of high school and I could not even think about what happened when I was a senior in high school, I don’t think about it at all I hope that when I’m 30 I’m not thinking about that.

26:39 - But her character really infuriated me because she was ableist toward her child and she just wanted to have like a “perfect quiet baby” and it was so annoying and I felt for Briar so much but this was a fantastic debut.

26:54 - I will be linking some reviews down below by Black creators.

26:58 - The Unfriendly Black Hotties Book Club has a live stream which I’ll link down below.

27:02 - As well as all their reviews, I loved this it was great and it just had such a good depiction of Philly.

27:09 - Every time she just added some things for instance a woman in the grocery store was wearing a Penn State shirt and I was just like of course! Like of course this is the type of person that is going to start this dialogue and be worried that a Black woman is with a white child and this is something that happens a lot for biracial families and interracial families and it was a heartbreaking story, but I really enjoyed it.

27:39 - It was very well written very well done she did a great job with creating her characters.

27:44 - It was really crucial for the book of where they were from.

27:48 - The man who fetishizes black women is from Allentown and it made me laugh because I was like of course he is? That doesn’t surprise me.

27:56 - Even though it’s sad that that was what was happening to her.

27:59 - It just shows how much detail she put into this book and I thought it was a really great debut! I’m hoping to see more from her.

28:06 - So let’s do a quick wrap-up and then I’ll end this video first I read Fun Home by Alison Bechdel which I gave a 4 out of 5 stars.

28:14 - I dnfed The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold at 20% and I gave a 4 out of 5 stars to Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid.

28:21 - So, that’s it for me today if you enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up and hit subscribe if you haven’t! Thank you all for watching, I hope you’re having a great day and staying safe and I will see you next time, bye.

28:37 - [Music playing].