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The trade-off for Jane Austen trying her hand at a more mature novel such as “Mansfield Park” was that her characters are more true-to-life and therefore on the dull side. In our own lives, we’re far more likely to meet people who resemble the four Bertram siblings-Tom, Edmund, Maria, and Julia-than we are a group like the Bennet family with their five sisters, each one so brilliantly described and so lively on the page, and so unlike the dishwater Bertrams. At the same time, the more adult tone of “Mansfield Park” entailed the creation of adversaries, Henry and Mary Crawford, who come across--to me, at least-as far more menacing to Fanny Price than Mr. Willoughby or Mr. Wickham ever were to the Dashwood or Bennet sisters. For the first time that I can recall in the novels we’ve discussed this year, Jane Austen applies the word “evil” to her heroine’s enemies, in this case, the Crawford siblings. I also noticed that the word “evil” occurs far more frequently as the novel heads to its conclusion. I’ll reserve my other comments on “Mansfield Park” until your dedicated video on the novel. I’m in the home stretch of “Eve” and have found it a highly informative and entertaining science book. A couple of quotes that struck me were on the subject of reading. “Reading is simply not something the human species has done much of, anywhere, ever,” writes author Cat Bohannon. Elsewhere she notes that, “Men make up only 20 percent of the people who buy and read novels. The numbers improve for history and other nonfiction, but overall book publishers throughout the Americas and western Europe are selling books to women.” So, we guys here in Booktuber Land are really a minority of a minority. I also liked how Bohannon paused a moment to discuss how reading itself is “a deeply strange activity.” Mere marks on a page have the ability to conjure up sights, sounds, smells, and emotions in our brains, to the point that we can be reduced to laughter or tears by something that doesn’t even exist in the physical world, that’s only a product of our own imagination. I wish she had said a little more on this subject, but maybe there’s not much more to say. I also found it intriguing that we share certain genes with songbirds that may have something to do with language development. Maybe that’s why, when the local blue jays start squawking around my front door in a certain way, I know it’s time to refill the water bowls placed in a couple shady locations outside on my front lawn. Cat Bohannon also described something that I had never thought of before-the moment when a young girl or a young woman realizes that boys or men are looking at her. As the father of two daughters, I was certainly aware of the moment when you take your girls out in public, and see that they have become the objects of appraising glances from the opposite sex. But I’m embarrassed to confess that I never put myself in my daughters’ place and thought of how they might see this as a watershed moment in their lives. Which reminds me of an Instagram post I came across a few months ago where some guys were moaning and griping about how women have taken over and ruined everything, and that men no longer had a place in the modern world. I replied by stating that men with daughters will automatically understand that it is still very much a man’s world, and that they will have concerns for their daughters throughout their life that they will never have for their sons. I received a lot of Likes for that. I’ve given my views on “Held” on previous videos, yours and Kiran’s, and I’ll only add that Anne Michaels’ novel put me in mind of Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2014 book, “Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever’s Search for the Truth About Everything”. As for Clarice Lispector, I decided that the next book of hers that I’d read would be whatever was on the shelves of my local independent bookstore, which turned out to be, “The Apple in the Dark”. But I’ve got too many other books on the go to start it right now. In your place, I wouldn’t have any hesitation in setting aside “Lies and Sorcery” indefinitely. It’s not as if you’d be destroying every copy of the book in existence, and you could always pick it up or start over again entirely at some point in the future. Or maybe never. Life is too short to waste any of it on dull books.

Your prediction for winner My Prediction - "Creation Lake"

Firstly, beyond the subjectivity of the claim for "perfect," it's a great (!) book in many ways. I suppose "perfect" is the closest readers may describe it because of its emotional impact. For me, the writing is spellbinding: not ornate, but crafty, precise, and rhythmic. I believe the book is the writer’s meditation on the human condition, the complexity of the choices we make and how we are shaped by internal desires and uncontrollable external circumstances across the passage of time. And I completely agree with you that his wife's point of view is needed. That would make for another book, so we can understand her life as she negotiates her unmet desires. I remember her innocence and awkwardness before she said - I will be your wife and make the bed, or something in that vein. I have sympathy for her and their daughter, especially as the mother, with her unlived dreams, unconsciously hoped to live through the young girl. Projection, as psychology might call it. We deserve to know more about Edith. Stoner is a deep psychological book. A story about an ordinary guy and is told with extraordinary prose.

Great review. I loved this novel too. What you said about what you want from a Booker book resonates with me. I want something that expands the form and is filled with memorable and beautiful writing. There are so many poetic like passages and paragraphs that drift into the realm of ideas of permanence/impermanence and the connection between the living and the departed and the power of memory. This novel floats to the top of the list for me.

I read Mansfield Park in July and I agree it's not my least favorite either. It's still Austen like you said so it's amazing, but when you compare it to her other books even the writing is not as good. The amount of times 'she cried' is used as a tag is way higher than usual, and I couldn't connect to Edward as a romantic interest.

I need to get to Monstrilio-that’s good to know it’s not as horror-based as it seems.

I still can’t get my head around My Friends wasn’t shortlisted. It was my favourite of the books I read. I might try Held now if you liked it. ( You May already know this? The incident in My Friends at the Libyan embassy was a real thing)

"Science!" [Points at screen] was a highlight for me. Meet the Georgians sounds great. I'm just reading a couple of books about the Georgians/18th century Britain (and going backwards towards the Civil War). I like Held and I might re-read it. O, I'd really like to read 'Eve'.

Meet The Georgians sounds good. Brain on Fire is a good woman dealing with her brain book.

i'm so excited to read eve!!

Not only do u read all those books u chart them statically in addition to your real (full-time?) job! You’re such a workaholic I feel guilty and shamed when I’m just SITTING here watching. All I have to do is be sure a 91-year old with dementia doesn’t fall on her way to the bathroom haha!⚛️❤️

If you loved Held. The prose of Lawrence Durrell would appeal to you, I love his writing. Love and peace to you 😊

It’s the same passage everyone else focused on but not the parts about him pulling her mouth like he wanted to rip her face apart. It’s like everything is out of context to make her look like she didn’t write a book about abuse, miscarriage, and toxicity in relationships with men with big egos who love the pretty girls desperate to feel loved to the point they take mistreatment as romantic adversity

Not refilming a whole video...how bad was it? lol yay for someone agreeing with me about the end of Ship of Destiny

Hi, I like your take. I too thought of Lolita not just for the power imbalance but for the weird psychosexual travelogue. Here is how I am “groping” on this story. In my mind, I have created a monster out of the young beautiful boy. He is no passive room candy, it is he that is the stalker pursuer of our hapless goooosestavv. Anyway, poor man just can’t get out of his clutches . And beauty boy ends up ravishing him on the beach. And boom there is the consummation. Alas, None of that shall be. Just an old dude gets rouged up with a shave a haircut and a dye job. And we get to watch how another pandemic plays out and politicians lip-fiddle it. And he died. Poor nasty man.

Read it. I really liked it. Not quite as much as you, but I liked it.

I will let u know when I get the poem book I think for Christmas my sis might order it for me I will let u know I am a big fan of Megan fox she is my favorite actress in confession of a teenage drama queen u should read that book too

Ursula Parrott and her 1929 novel, “Ex-Wife”, receive a brief mention in a book I picked up at a local thrift store a few years ago, “The Technique of the Love Affair”, published anonymously in 1928. The author was given as, “by a Gentlewoman”, who turned out to be Doris Langley Moore, a novelist and nonfiction writer, who was also in demand as a costume designer for stage and screen throughout her lifetime, which lasted from 1902 to 1989. The edition of “The Technique of the Love Affair” that I have was published in 1999, and might almost be called an annotated edition because of all the sidebar comments and quotes from other authors that the book’s editor, Norrie Epstein, has included to accompany the original text. Moore’s intent was to write a partly satirical but partly sincere step-by-step guide for young women seeking to attract a desirable husband. One thing Moore cautions her readers to avoid is “the bad boy” type. Not even feelings of charity should ever persuade a young woman to squander any of her time on “the reclamation of wastrels and degenerates”. To judge by the amount of underlining and stars in the borders of the pages, the previous owner of my book was most interested in the chapters on flattery and maintaining a husband’s interest after marriage. With regard to flattery, Moore advises young women to let their male suitors feel they are their best versions of themselves, “strong, courageous, [and] generous”. For, “if you show him that you expect him to be a cad, then a cad he will be. Men will give you whatever you seem to ask of them. Ask much.” As for married women, Moore encourages them to cultivate a small circle of male admirers. “They are desirable if only as a means of keeping her husband alert and herself fresh and youthful … the effort is very salutary.” I’m reading Edith Wharton’s “The House of Mirth” at present, and I can’t help but think that the novel’s young heroine, Lily Bart, might have benefited from Moore’s book in her own quest to land a rich husband.

I stopped reading agua viva because I was afraid to lose my mind lmaoo.

I love Fernanda Trias, her other book ‘the rooftop’ is even more eerie I think. Very much recommend it!

Your wrap ups give me too many books to read!!!

What an interesting selection of books! I bought the audio for Foster Dade after seeing Roro's review, then read reviews that suggested I'd probably have to look up words on every page, so audio probably wasn't the best way to go! I also just finished reading All Yours, and really enjoyed it. Ines was such a fascinating character, I'm really looking forward to Time of the Flies. I have a JCO story...She lives in my home town, and I went to a talk she gave at a B&N years ago when I was in my early 20's, in a job I hated. My dream was to be able to quit and write for a living, but I'd just gotten a string of rejections from agents. I needed some kind of encouragement, so when I brough books up for her to sign I told her (in the way a 20 year old will) that I'd written two novels and was giving up hope. She signed one of the books saying, "Never forget you ARE a writer, and if it's truly your passion you should never, ever give up." A few years later my first book was published and became a national bestseller. And after my 3rd book, she was giving a talk at my local library...I brought that same book up to her, showed her what she'd written and told her I'd been able to quit my job and write for a living, and that she'd been such an inspiration. You should have seen her smile! And under her original note she wrote, "You see!!!!" So I'll always be a huge fan. 😊

Your discussion of “84, Charing Cross Road”-which I haven’t read-stirred memories of my long-ago preschool years. My family was then living in the country north of Hamilton, Ontario, and for a period of time, we had a young English couple living in our semi-finished basement. I can still remember the names of this young man and woman, but have no idea of how they came to be staying with us, though it’s a safe bet it had something to do with the war. The couple eventually returned to England, and I can remember my mother sending them packages occasionally in the years thereafter. I imagine she sent them various food items and other semi-luxury goods that were still in short supply in the UK, for even though the British government officially ended rationing in July 1954, shortages persisted for years afterwards. We would exchange Christmas cards every year, and I remember how odd the British Father Christmas appeared in comparison to our North American Santa Claus. Best of all, my younger sister and I periodically received packages from our former houseguests. These included various types of sweets, such as Blackpool candy, wine gums, and jelly babies, as well as politically incorrect golliwog dolls, and once a little stuffed hedgehog, that became my favourite stuffie. We also received books, and these were how my sister and I were introduced to Noddy and Big Ears, and Rupert Bear and his friends. Once, we received a big English encyclopedia. These books always had a particular smell which, for some reason, I found comforting. As I grew older, I found this smell was common among other books printed in the UK, and I always interpreted its presence as a sign of quality. It was through reading the Rupert Bear Annuals and the other children’s books my sister and I received from the UK, that I developed a nostalgic fondness for the idealized realm of the English village and the English countryside, aspects of English tradition that I still find present in the novels of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, the Bronte sisters, and numerous others.

I've been meaning to read this

You need to get into Tawny Man!!! It's CRAZY (but also has a very trauma-heavy last book with a somewhat unsatisfying ending)

My first time here! Subscribed! ❤

Have seen some really positive reviews of this one and the author’s previous book from some of my other fave book tubers unfortunately only have time to read one or two of the nominees⚛️

It almost seems as if Death in Venice might be typical of prewar European Modernist literature. I feel as if reading about early Modernist literature could be helpful in understanding this novelette. And there is now a book out about Thomas Mann called The Magician where his intents and inner life are explained.

Thank you for this beautiful review!

I love how shes not afraid to be “too much” following her passion for what she finds beautiful and showcasing it to the world to the fullest. An inspiring woman,

That’s a very cogent position Steinbeck articulates about the nature of human existence and the moral underpinnings of society, but he completely misses the larger question of what snack choices one should make at the end of a long day or night’s work. With you, it is obviously French fries. With me, it was usually Doritos, or a bag of Yum-Yum brand plain ripple potato chips. In any case, combined with Steinbeck, they are all food for body and soul.

Can I choose to have my book on Kindle without being on kindle Unlimited. To have it for purchase only. Because this is insane!

A poet and philosopher? We have been fed

Yay, a new historical fiction to add to my wishlist!

Loved this! Beautiful and reflective, but that is my vibe.

😂 i Hate those!

Wow, kitaplarına biraz bakayım dedim Orhan Pamuk gördüm bu inanılmaz Türkiye müzisyenlerinden birinin hayatını okuman çok güzel gurur duydum🙂🇹🇷 Türkiyeden sevgiler 💌

Just finished this. Amazing. Mind blown by the twist. Thanks for your video!

Hi Alyssa 👋. I just came across your channel! I have been interested in the booker list enjoying reviews. I found Enlightenment audiobook on my Libby library app so thought I’d try it out. I have listened to James in the early summer and really enjoyed it!

My copy of Creation Lake is on it's way... 🫣😬

You’re freeeeeeee Really interesting to your perspectives on this one! Yes, I thought the commentary on ‘nativeness’ and being ‘native enough’ was so well done in the book.

I really need to red There There.

Pardon if you’re familiar with such, but there’s a specific Woody Allen joke in one of his films which satirizes your subject. If I can remember a fragment of it properly, goes something like … “Yeah, one of those personal ads in the back of NY Review of Books where he wants someone who appreciates Nietzsche, Wagner and sadomasochism.” Might be from opening of ‘Annie Hall’ where he’s walking with Tony Robert’s? Enjoyed your post. Keep it up.