I’m back from vacation with my June 2023 Reading Wrap Up Genre Wars Book Battle (Lit Show 078)

June 2023 Reading Wrap Up Genre Wars Book Battle (Lit Show 078)
It’s been a HOT summer in Texas. I don’t think anyone has ever gone to Arizona to escape the heat, but I thought it was very nice there compared to weather at home. But anyway, on with the show...
In this video, Jeremy Fee discusses his reading for the month by pitting the books against one another in a bracket-style tournament, leading up to a “Best Read of the Month” being declared, as well as a continued count for which genre is winning each month as part of Genre Wars. Ultimately, this will lead to an end-of-the-year super book battle to determine the “Best Read of the Year” and, some day, the “Best Read of the Decade.”
*BookTubers mentioned or visible on the screen include:
June on the Range & Roger’s Cheap Old Book Club ‪@michaelk.vaughan8617‬
P.L. Stuart ‪@thedrownedkingdomsaga7847‬
Steve Talks Books ‪@SteveTalksBooks‬
Philip Chase ‪@PhilipChaseTheBestofFantasy‬
E.L. Summers
John at Hey Y’all Listen Up ‪@HeyYallListenUp‬
Johanna Reads ‪@Johanna_reads‬
Allen at Big Hard Books and Classics ‪@bighardbooks770‬
Greg ‪@anotherbibliophilereads‬
Sam from ‪@GreenerSideOfSam‬
The Book Buds! ‪@BookBuds‬
Everyone Who Reads It Must Converse ‪@EveryoneWhoReadsitMustConverse‬
Holly Rhiannon ‪@StygianSociety‬ ‪@HollyRhiannonWrites‬
M-J Reading this Life ‪@M-J‬
Jolene from Bookworm Adventure Girl ‪@BookwormAdventureGirl‬
Kris Reviews ‪@krisreviews‬
R. Saint Claire ‪@ReginasHauntedLibrary‬
R.K. Stumblingbear ‪@RKStumblingbear‬
Dane Cobain ‪@danecobain‬
Mindy’s Book Journey ‪@mindysbookjourney‬
Jess the Book Freak ‪@JesstheBookFreak‬
S.D. Huston ‪@SDHuston‬
KRYB4BY Films ‪@PatchyTheFox‬
Liam’s Lyceum ‪@LiamsLyceum‬
David Wiley ‪@DavidWiley7‬
Pae from Attention! ‪@attention5638‬
Tony from ‪@AnEruditeAdventure‬
Running2Write ‪@Running2Write‬
Margaret Pinard ‪@MargaretPinard‬
Nicole’s Bookish Nook ‪@NicolesBookishNook‬
#booktube #authortube #reading #juneontherange #bookbattle #genrewars
----(Social Media)----
*Read my work: www.amazon.com/Jeremy-Fee/e/B...
*Leave reviews of my work: / 21895990.jeremy_fee
*Connect on social media via LinkTree: linktr.ee/jeremyfee
----(Technical Info)----
Intro music from KZbin audio library: Retro by Wayne Jones.
This video was made on a MacBook using iMovie, with a Blue Yeti microphone.
The thumbnail graphics were created in Comic Life (often with Bitmoji graphics).

[@PhilipChaseTheBestofFantasy]

Congratulations on the publication of The Stygian Collection, Jeremy! By a very cool coincidence, I just read both A Drowned Kingdom and Stoner and loved them both.

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you. If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably our mutual friendship with Johanna that got us both reading Stoner around the same time. :)

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

Good to see John Williams get some attention. Both those novels are great

[@jeremyfee]

I agree. Even though I loved Stoner, there were times I wish the author would have revealed more of the thoughts/intentions of the main character. Sometimes great literary works leaves you with questions like that.

[@thedrownedkingdomsaga7847]

What an amazing video Jeremy! I am so incredibly humbled that you chose A Drowned Kingdom as one of your top books of the month!! Thank you so much! So happy you enjoyed it! So many of your reads this month sound awesome, and you've given me a lot more fuel for my already out-of-control TBR! Once again, I am honoured, and I truly appreciate it!

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you. I'm looking forward to finishing reading the series as the books are published. You've really done something amazing with these characters.

[@thedrownedkingdomsaga7847]

@@jeremyfee thank you! And apologies, I was remiss in congratulating you for publishing The Stygian Collection!

[@GreenerSideOfSam]

I would also make the Stygian Collection the winner 🤓

[@jeremyfee]

It's such a great anthology! I'm so impressed by what everyone wrote for it.

[@BookBuds]

Love watching these videos ! They are so satisfying!

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you so much! I hope you saw your appearance in the last 2 minutes. :)

[@BookBuds]

@@jeremyfee I did!! Great choice!! 😂😂

[@bighardbooks770]

Good one, Fee 😂🎉😊

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you. I'm glad you liked the video.

[@Johanna_reads]

Yay!!! I’m thrilled you read and loved Stoner! 🎉 I also need to read A Drowned Kingdom and loved hearing your praise for that book as well! 😊

[@jeremyfee]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on A Drowned Kingdom since you manage to read much more contemporary fantasy than I do, and I bet you'll do a much better job than I did saying the title of the book, LOL. When I was editing, I just shook my head at myself for continuing to call it THE Drowned Kingdom by mistake. :)

[@MargaretPinard]

Can't pigeon-dole Jeremy! #EclecticReader club unite!

[@jeremyfee]

I was very lucky in high school to have a speech and debate coach/teacher who encouraged us to be "Renaissance" scholars and explore many different topics. I'm thinking #Eclectic4Life :)

[@sterlingreads547]

I’m hoping to read The Naked Sun soon. There’s a new book in the Kingsbridge series coming. Always enjoy your battles Jeremy!

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you so much! And yes, it's no coincidence that I happened to get caught up with Ken Follett's series this summer. I think that new one will be out in September? I'm hoping they'll have the audio book available upon release of the physical book.

[@krisreviews]

Yea!!! Love seeing you back Jeremy 🤗 Can't wait to find out what you're reading next!

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you. It's such a weird time situation, being behind in videos like this. I know what I read in July and most of August, and it's in the past for me, but for viewers, it'll be in your future. :)

[@peteyeets]

yeet yeet ya gotta get outta the summer heat

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you Pete! I hope it's not too devastatingly hot in NYC this time of year.

[@peteyeets]

@@jeremyfee you know it

[@HeyYallListenUp]

Welcome back. I also enjoyed The Naked Sun better than The Caves of Steel. I'm glad you're enjoying your Asimov reading. Thanks for the mention. I'm also glad you enjoyed A Drowned Kingdom. I hope to get around to reading it soon. I enjoyed Half-Human Heroes and your story was one of my favorites. My next planned video is a review & tag video. I've just got to make the time to film and edit it.

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you for your kind words about "Home of the Gnome." In my mind, it's not my best work thus far, but it was a ton of fun to finally get down on the page. I'm hopeful to someday deliver the complete story that follows in that fantasy world. BTW, there's more discussion of Asimov's books coming in future videos. :)

[@angelaholmes8888]

I need to read a column of fire it's been on my tbr list for a long time

[@BookZealots]

Good to see you back. Sorry your summer disappeared in the blink of an eye. You only get one month of vacation? The weather in AZ is dryer than TX. That's been my experience. Even along the Colorado River the humidity is nothing campared to TX.

[@jeremyfee]

Your encouragement helped me get my video editing back as a priority on my to do list. I should clarify; I get June and July for summer vacation, but as a speech and debate coach I spend about a week and a half traveling to nationals for competition and dealing with the paperwork after. And the video's audio was recorded back in July, so some of my phrasing fits better if you imagine I said it around July 20th-ish.

[@BookZealots]

@@jeremyfee I hope debate went well and now I can understand how the vacation went quickly. You weren't truly on full vacation mode. But the time sounds well spent for the debate team. 👍👍

[@jeremyfee]

Yes, I have amazing students and we had a wonderful time. Thank you. :)

[@SDHuston]

Column of Fire sounds interesting! Yay, A Drowned Kingdom advanced 🥳🥳🥳🥳

[@jeremyfee]

Ken Follett just can't do wrong with the Kingsbridge series, even though after four books now, it's starting to feel repetitive at times, it's still fun.

[@BookwormAdventureGirl]

Happy to see Stoner and A Column of FIre go so far since those are two that I really want to read. All those Stygian Collections!!! 💙😊

[@jeremyfee]

I hope you get to read them soon. Stoner is bleak, but amazing literature. If you've read the rest of the Kingsbridge series, A Column of Fire does start to feel a little repetitive, but the new characters are really interesting.

[@danecobain]

Lovin' the Asimov!

[@jeremyfee]

Me too! I wish the books were doing better in the battles, but I do enjoy reading them. :)

[@danecobain]

@@jeremyfee One day they'll come out on top :D

[@DavidWiley7]

It is great to see you back again, my friend! Sounds like you had quite a good reading month for June!

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you! You too! Sometimes it's nice to just step away for awhile. :)

[@SDHuston]

Okay, now I really need to find time to read A Drowned Kingdom. You make it sound so interesting! Thanks for the Genre Wars!

[@jeremyfee]

I appreciate all your comments and hope you're doing awesome!

[@JesstheBookFreak]

It's good to see you're back! Even though I didn't read any of these books, I'm still rooting for my pick (Summer Rental) as the winner, LOL. 😆

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you! One of the neat things about Netgalley, before Twitter became more political, is they used to have it setup so I could click a button and it would auto-generate a Twitter post that I reviewed the book online. The author of Summer Rental, Rektok Ross, saw my text this summer and was positively interacting with me, so if you do read it, know you can tweet at the author and you'll probably get a thank you for reading and reviewing. :)

[@JesstheBookFreak]

@@jeremyfee That's good to know!

[@NicolesBookishNook]

Welcome back! I was wondering where you went 😂

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you. I really should have had this video out a month ago, but hopefully I will stay caught up now. :)

[@bighardbooks770]

I _still_ haven't read your stories in the Stygian Anthology, yet (I know I know) things being due etc ... I want to get to em!

[@jeremyfee]

Oh man, of all the stories I've had published, "The Education of Henry James" is my favorite. I worked hard to make that one funny and interesting. I hope you get to it soon.

[@bighardbooks770]

@@jeremyfee I shall. Promise ☺

[@Priscilla_Bettis]

I loved The Lone Star Ranger, but I totally understand why you'd choose an Elmore Leonard book. P.L. Stuart seems like a nice guy, too, as well as a talented author. Fun battle! (This is Priscilla, BTW, if my pen name Vera Day is showing up.)

[@jeremyfee]

I agree The Lone Star Ranger was interesting, much better than I expected with the character work. I recognized the photo. Vera Day is a great name, but now I want to search to see if anything is published under that name yet... :)

[@Priscilla_Bettis]

@@jeremyfee Just a girly cozy mystery. It's book 1 in a trilogy. Kinda the opposite of horror and thus the pen name!

[@NicolesBookishNook]

I was wondering where I was tagged and it was me giving you a compliment 😂 I love to see it!

[@jeremyfee]

I saved the best for last. Thank you! :)

[@NicolesBookishNook]

@@jeremyfee hahaaa, I like how you think.

[@amy_harboredinpages8272]

I plan on reading A Drowned Kingdom. I already have a downloaded copy on my kindle app. 😃 I also have a paperback copy of Tge Pillars of the Earth. So many great books, so little time! Awesome Book Battle btw. 📖😃📚📚📚

[@jeremyfee]

Yes! So many HUGE GIGANTIC THICK books, so little time. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did when you get to them. :)

[@SDHuston]

I'm so sorry to have taken this long to get to your video. Seems like I can't catch up in my own life 😆✍ I haven't had a chance to read the Stygian collection yet, but it seems amazing! GENRE WARS!! Love the idea as it goes right along with your normal book battles.

[@jeremyfee]

No worries. I feel like, with the genre wars, when I was a kid it was mystery as my favorite, then in middle school/junior high years it was sci-fi, then in high school I read a lot of philosophy and nonfiction, more fantasy in college years, and now I just can't decide. :)

[@SDHuston]

Like A Drowed Kingdom so far....but well, it's fantasy 😆

[@jeremyfee]

The character work in A Drowned Kingdom is well worth the read of a long series.

[@SDHuston]

Oh yes....Eclectic Nightmares is on my TBR too! I find that I really only have time to read in my niched down genre of Epic Fantasy Romance now. Okay, wait, let me read one poem....."Kidnapped Souls" It was the random page I fell on! I really like this one. It starts broad with all the noise in our lives that influence what we do, sometimes without realizing how all of it shapes our decisions, and ends with the noise in our own minds. This poem is so relatable, but it also sparks emotion, at least for me, because I'd like to say that I don't allow outside noise to distract me or influence me, so my first response is: This is not me....but then I think about the noise I willingly take on...and well, there it is. And the noise in my mind -- it never stops 😆

[@jeremyfee]

This comment made my day/week! If you want to just copy and paste that into a Goodreads and/or Amazon review at some point... that would be fire. Seriously though, that was one of my favorite poems I wrote that year because I was "teaching" in the sense that my students were working, and I was watching them, and those words just came into my head, which is my favorite type of "writing" - when the words just appear in my brain without me even trying. :)

[@SDHuston]

@@jeremyfee Posted on Goodreads!

[@SDHuston]

@@jeremyfee And.....now on Amazon but you know it can take a minute to show up.....also, you've reviewed my book on Amazon so we'll see what happens...I've lost reviews from other authors when I reviewed their books.

[@jeremyfee]

Thank you. I never would have thought of that, but I guess they might have an AI programmed to discourage people reviewing each other's works.

[@MargaretPinard]

I get final shot of the collage! Honored, honored. Great wrap-up/battle in one, Jeremy! And did you ever get my email? Or is it in spam forever? :DDD

[@jeremyfee]

Yes! I was even thinking of telling people to use Discount Code "Margaret Pinard" to buy the book, but I wasn't entirely sure if that was a thing. :)

[@MargaretPinard]

@@jeremyfee 🤣 🤣 🤣 I am working on some sales promotions this fall for ebooks so stay tuned?? ;D