Hi everyone! It's Clarisse, this is ClarisseReads,
and today I'm going to talk
about all the books I read last December
2016. The first thing I read last December
was the entirety of The Vision, so that
includes volumes 1 & 2, and this is a
comic following the Marvel avenger,
The Vision, which you probably know from
the movies, but here, while The Vision
continues to work as an Avenger, he also
wants to have a "normal" life. To do this,
he decides to move into the suburbs with
an entire vision family that he created -
meeting neighbors, going to school,
playing sports, fighting angry villains,
hiding murders - you know, normal stuff. I
enjoyed this so much that if you've
watched one of my previous videos you've
already heard me talk about this because
this ended up being one of my favorite
books of the year. It's not your usual
superhero comic - in fact it's nothing
like anything I'd ever read before. It's
so dark and twisted and creepy, seemingly
without even trying to be, which makes it
even more dark, twisted and creepy.
It's also one of those comics that I
find really smart and well written which
I think you'll get if you actually read
the comic.
Obviously it's something I highly
recommend that you read. It's something
I'm still obsessed with, but something
that I was especially obsessed with
while I was reading it; I feel like while
I was reading it I was trying to talk
about it with every single person that I
could - even my friends who don't have any
interest in comics or reading at all. I
just could not shut up about this book while I
was reading it. It's definitely something
you should read if you're looking for
something a little bit different because
it's definitely one of the most unique
things I've ever read. The next thing I
read in December was The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy, which is the first
book in the Hitchhiker's Guide series.
Don't worry; it's not this big of a book.
This book actually contains the entire
series. This series features a lot of
crazy adventures in space.
It's just so random that I don't really
want to say more than that about it, and
I don't think I properly could explain
more about this book than that. This is
actually a reread for me because I
read the entire series for the first
time back in I think 2015. I just felt
like reading something fun and random
and I knew this was something fun and
random so I read it. What I like about
this book is that it's weirdly smart
while also being complete nonsense at
the same time. I enjoyed this book, like
it's the first time. It's not my favorite
sci-fi book ever,
but it's great for when you're in the
mood to read something really random.
The next thing I read was another reread -
I guess I was just in the mood to reread
books - and that was Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan.
I actually read this for the first time in
2016 so I ended up reading
it twice in 2016 which I don't mind at all
because it ended up being one of my
favorites, so I'm not going to talk about
it too much since I just talked about it
in my favorites of 2016 video, and I also
have a full review of it up if you're
really interested in hearing my thoughts
on it, but basically this is a comic
about a world wherein chickens have
suddenly become an intelligent species
alongside humans. It's a really
fascinating book because of the world
that it introduces us to but it's also a
really emotional one because of the way
that the story is told. I love this comic
and it definitely recommended to you if
it sounds interesting to you at all,
also if you're interested in reading
Philippine literature because this was
published in the Philippines and written by
Filipino, and it's also great to
support Filipino authors because I don't
think they get as much support as they
deserve. The next book I read was another
reread though I promise it's the last
thing I reread in December and I guess
in 2016 in general, and that was
Reality Boy by A.S. King. It's about a boy
named Gerald who spent his childhood as
a reality TV star, specifically as a boy
who often got angry and ended up pooping
in really inappropriate locations and
unfortunately on camera, but this book
also shows us how he's dealing with that
as a high schooler - how he's dealing with
his past, with his family,
among other things. I reread this because i
remembered disliking it a lot
the first time that I read it. I disliked
this mainly because the actions of
a lot of the characters came off just as
unrealistic angst to me, and I ended up
just getting really annoyed by it.
I had a feeling that I would understand
this better now that I'm older, and I was
right.
I understood it better the second time
around because the main character Gerald
reminded me of some of the people that I
was close to, in terms of his actions,
personality, and situation, and because of
that I was able to read this book and
not just see unrealistic angst, but see
situations that people actually do go
through in real life, problems other
people have to struggle with. So this
time, I got it, I felt it, and I
understood -
not completely, but enough. Something I
remember enjoying about this book both
times is that I feel like it dealt with some
really heavy stuff, but it was really
easy to read. Even though was annoyed with it the
first time, I still found it really easy
to read.
It's not my favorite book ever, but I
definitely got a newfound appreciation
for it now. Just a warning, there is a
bit of violence here, especially in their
family. If that's something that you're
sensitive to, I don't think you should
read this, but otherwise if it sounds
interesting to you, I definitely think
that you should check it out. The next
book I read in December was The Last
Colony which is the third book in the
Old Man's War series by John Scalzi. The
Old Man's War series in
general is a military science fiction
story, and I don't want to say more
about the whole plot because I don't want
to spoil you, and I enjoy going into
these types of series not knowing anything,
figuring it out as I read it, and I think
you'll enjoy it better that way too. But
the first two books dealt more with the
military itself, even though dealt with
different sections of it, and also dealt
with the technology quite a bit, but this
book, while it still continued to deal
with that intergalactic war, is focused
less on the battles and more on the
politics. So if you watched my favorites of
2016 video, you know that this book
series is one of my favorites of 2016.
I loved the first two books so much, so when I
picked up this third one I knew that I
was really going to enjoy it, and I did. I
love how I can feel the universe in this
series growing with every single book,
and similarly with the first two books I
really enjoyed the humor in this book as
well as learning about the world,
including their cultures, technologies
and even their histories. That being said,
I significantly enjoyed the first two
books more than I did this one. Again,
it's really, really good;
I just prefer the first two books and I
think it's mainly because John Scalzi, at
least based on what I've read is so far,
especially in this series, has the tendency
to wrap things up
possibly too perfectly, it didn't really
annoy me much in the first two books,
because even though it ended up kind of
perfectly, it made sense, you know - the
story flowed in such a way that it would
lead to that conclusion, and it seemed
natural. But for this third book there
were a lot of things that seemed too
convenient that they did not seem
realistic anymore to me, and because of
that I don't think I was able to
properly immerse myself in this book and
in this story as much as I would have
liked to. While I wasn't as impressed by this
book as I was with the first two, I still love
this series. I still highly recommended
reading it, and I really
look forward to continuing it in 2017.
And the last book I read in December, which
makes it also the last book that I read
in 2016, was Red Seas Under Red Skies by
Scott Lynch which is the second book in
the Gentleman Bastard series.
This follows the gentlemen bastards on a
whole new massive heist,
similarly with the first book. I don't
want to say much more than that because
this is the second book in the series,
and also because it's just fun to go
into this book not knowing anything.
Again, if you watched my favorite books of
2016 video you'll probably know that
the first book in the series was one of
my favorites of 2016, and that's why I
was so excited to get this book. It was
actually gifted to me by my friend, Alds,
so thank you Alds for giving this to me, and I
was adamant in trying to finish it
before the year ended. I did end up
finishing it right at
December 31st, but it wasn't difficult
because I was so engrossed in this book.
As with the first book I still love the characters,
I still loved reading about how
this entire massive plot unraveled, I
love how we're dealing with newer
complications now in this book that are
related to the first book, I love how
this book involved pirates,
I also really love the bromance in this
book, and another thing that I really
enjoy about the series as a whole that didn't
really notice is the first book
but noticed it while I was reading the
second book is that I enjoy how Locke isn't
your typical main character in a
fantasy series in the sense that he's
basically useless as a fighter - it's just
kind of refreshing. All that being said,
I didn't love this quite as much
as I did the first book. Because of small
things I guess, but overall it just left
me not feeling satisfied as I did with
the first book, even though again I
really, really, really enjoyed it.
One thing is I feel that Jean as a
character came off a little bit too
perfect here, to the point that it seemed
unrealistic. Like I don't know where all
this flaws went; they were in the first
book, and then they kind of went away in
the second book. And other thing is I
don't feel like the plot here was as
surprising for me
as the plot of the first book was. There
were definitely parts that I predicted,
definitely parts that should have been
shocking to me that I don't think
shocked me. I still love how the plot
went. It just wasn't as surprising. This
is still a fantastic book, and this is
still a fantastic series, and I
definitely look forward to moving on to
the third book and hopefully after that
the fourth book if it comes out this
year please. Please fourth book will come out
this year. So those are all the books I
read last December. There were a lot of rereads.
There were a couple of slightly
disappointing but still really good
reads. And there was a new favorite. And
overall I think it was a great reading
month to end the year with. So what were some of the books
you read last December? Were there any
really good ones? I'd love to hear about
it in the comment section down below.
Anyway, thank you so much for watching,
and hope to see you next time. Bye!
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