Today I am watching Kyra Thompson. She's talking about some authors who have birthdays in April. Hi guys, Dan here and today I want to share with you my top 10 books of winter slash Q1 of 2018. I don't really know what to call it. But basically these are my pick of the 10 best books that I read between January 1st and March 31st. That's how many days March has, right? I read 67 books in that period because I read a lot of books I'm insane. And so I thought I'd try and filter down those 67 books into the 10 best books. And I appreciate I'm a little bit late in doing this. Basically I was inspired to do this by all the other people who've been doing this. And obviously they released it at an appropriate time. And then I just fast around and left it a little bit late. But it's fine. We'll kind of catch up with Q2 when we do the summer ones. So we'll be all right. And then I'll figure at the end of the year when I do my Q4 books. I will then have these four videos and I'll have my 10 top books from each of the four quarters. And then I can do a 10 top books overall video as well. So yeah, let me know if you want to see that. But anyway, without further ado, let's take a look at some of these books. I'm going to hold it like this for the thumbnail. I'm going to start at number 10 and count away down to number 1. So in at number 10 we have Midworld by Alondine Foster. And this is a sci-fi book, but I would say it's also a little bit fantasy in the way that it's written. This is also Todd the Librarians favorite book. Todd has a YouTube channel, a booktube channel, should I say. And this follows a chuckle-born as he basically goes through this sort of jungle world. I'm explaining it really badly. I don't know how you would describe it. I'm going to read you this part of the blurb. So a world with no name, a stratified rainforest, three quarters of a mile high, a delicate balance between plant and animal, between beauty and danger, mankind and the furcuts, threatened by the sinister menace of the upper and lower hills, prefer the third of the seven levels, Midworld. Born dwells here must defend the home against the flesh-eating horrors of the jungle, but even he, most fearless of hunters, cannot bargain for the terrible destruction planned by the forces of the Commonwealth. I would recommend this one if you, like a bit of sort of classic sci-fi. Okay, in at number nine we have Soviet milk by Nora Xtainer. And I picked this up while I was in Latvia. I actually know I didn't, I ordered it online because I was running out of money at the time. But this is a Latvian literature book. It basically follows the story of this kind of unnamed mother and daughter during Soviet occupation. And milk itself plays like an important role in it, both in terms of mother's milk, which is the original title in Latvian, but also like milk from sheep and cows and all that kind of stuff as well. And it's just, it's just a very fascinating read. It's somewhere between literary fiction and historical fiction. It's also got very contemporary feel as well, which I really like. I think it really adds to it and I would recommend this one for sure. Okay, in at number eight we have, please hear what I'm not saying. And this is a poetry collection compiled and edited by Isabel Kenyon. These are all kind of contemporary poets and they're all writing on the theme of mental health. It's also just really nicely laid out as well. A huge selection of poets are in here. I actually got sent this for review. And then when I was reading it, I discovered that a poet, a friend of mine is also in here, which I didn't realize. It's just a great selection of poetry and the fact that it is all about mental health and all profits from this go to mind, which is a mental health charity. I just think that makes it hard on to be. In at number seven we have Girl with a Perleur in by Chacie Chivalier. And basically I got this because Hannah Tay here on BookTube. She has an Etsy store and in that store you can buy her favorite book. And it's kind of, you know, a mystery book. So I ordered that. This is what arrived, read it, loved it. And this is historical fiction about, well, it's based on Girl with a Perleur in which is a painting by Vermeer. And basically the story follows this girl who goes to work for, like, work for him as kind of like a servant girl and then he ends up painting her predictably. And this is that story. And what I liked as well is it wasn't like cringy, like romance between her and Vermeer and stuff. No, it was, she was just a bit of a muse. Like, he wasn't trying to have sex with her. He just wanted to paint the woman. In at number six we have The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. And, well, what can I say about this that hasn't already been said really? A lot of these by the way I have reviewed. So I will link below. So all of the reviews that I've mentioned, including the other people reviews as well. So I read this as a buddy read with Todd Delibrarian and Beth Chats books. I guess we were kind of late to the party. But all three of us actually really enjoyed it. I read it in about two days. I think Todd did as well. I mean, considering the fact that it's YA, I guess. I mean, I hate categorizing books anyway. But I think it really was quite a grown up book. You know, it's one that I think there's no age limit on. You could be any age and you would still get a lot from this book. And I just think that Angie Thomas actually wrote it really well as well. I like to use the dialect, all of this stuff, all in all just a very good book. And very worthy of all the hype, which is rare because you will notice that not many of these books are booktubey books. Okay, number five, yeah. Number five, we have John Steinbeck of Mice and Men. And I read this as a buddy read with Katalyst reads actually, read it in about a day or so. It has a very sad ending, but it was the perfect ending. I think I said in my review of it. I was like, it couldn't have had any other ending. And a lot of people don't like it because of the ending. And I'm like, that was so good. I mean, it was deeply depressing, but it was very moving as well. Just very well written. I mean, it's a classic for a reason. And because it's quite short as well, I mean, there's just no excuse not to read it really. I would definitely recommend picking this up if you've never read any Steinbeck before. You can pick this up, get a feel for a style and then maybe move on to something like East of Eden. Okay, in a number four, we have The Purgs of Being a Warflower by Stephen Chibosky. And I guess this is another YA book. So I read this in one go on the plane back from Latvia. I also watched the movie as well. The book was a lot better, but still, I think both the movie was fine. The book was great though. And it's pretty cool because it's kind of written in an episodic way. It's Charlie writes these letters basically. And Charlie is kind of, well, he's the titular warflower, you know. And that's why I think the book works so much better is that you really get inside his head and you get to see things from his point of view. And I think from this point onwards, all of these books are five out of five stars for me. So, yeah. In a number three, we have Essie Hinton, the outsiders. And what's amazing about this book is that she wrote it when she was 17 as well. So I had already seen the movie of this. And basically, I was inspired to pick up the actual book because Catalyst Read's kept talking about it as well. I know a lot of Americans study this one in school, but we don't hear in the UK. So this is really the last few years have been the first time I've actually been exposed to it. And I absolutely loved it. I thought it was great, very powerful, very moving book. I did find a few problems with it. I think I actually maybe gave this one a 4.5 out of 5. So maybe I need to downgrade perks of being a wallflower. And, you know, I'm not doing this list based on ratings on. I'm doing this based on looking back over those three months, which of the books stood out the most to me. So, this was one of them. Then number two, we have Stephen King on writing a memoir of the craft. This is one of those books that I'd been meaning to read for years. And the fact that I left it late made me think maybe I've left it too late and I just shouldn't read it now, but I did eventually pick it up. And I actually really enjoyed it. I think every Stephen King fan should read this at some point. I think every writer should read this at some point. I like the fact that it's a mixture between a memoir and a how to guide. I also like that you get to see some of the behind the scenes of his own writing. And all in all, it's just a phenomenal read. And I'm already thinking about when I'm going to reread this. It's just a matter of time. And that number one, it is the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, which I picked up as a buddy read with sophisticated books. I said at the time that I read this, I was like, this is going to be a tough one to beat. It was my book of the year so far at that point. It has not been beat yet. I still, I have nothing on my TBR shelves that I think can beat it. But maybe I'll be surprised, I don't know. And while like one of the things that I will say is a lot of people kind of find it weird almost that I enjoyed this book. They're like, no, you can't enjoy a book like this. It's so dark and so depressing. But no, I did enjoy it. I think it was masterfully done. I enjoyed it from the perspective of a writer. Like I enjoyed it from the perspective of a guy who makes tables when he sees a really good table. You'll be like, whoa, that's such a good table. What I like about it as well is that everyone is miserable in this regime. Although it's kind of a feminist book, the dudes in it also are not having the best time. So it just shows how, you know, how... I don't know what the word is here. But it shows how not treating and not giving women equality. It shows how that is bad for everybody, you know. It shows how an equal society is important for all of us. So yeah, Handnaid's Tale, best book of the year so far. And it's going to take some beating. So there we have it. Those are my top 10 books of 2018 so far from January to March. Narrowed it down from the 67 books to those 10. So that means there were 57 potentially pretty good books that just did not quite make the cut. Anyway, on that note, let me know in the comments what you think, whether you've read any of these books. Also, let me know what your top books of the year so far have been. Hit that like button if you've enjoyed this video, hit subscribe for more, and I will see you soon for another bookish video. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye.