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Glad you're back from hiatus! I recently finished the Poisonwood Bible and plan to check out Demon Copperhead as well. That's interesting about it being a retelling of David Copperfield - I hadn't realized that! I listened to a Tale of Two Cities recently and was a little underwhelmed, but I really loved Great Expectations and just picked up a beautiful copy of it for my bookshelf! Also, Shantaram was one of my personal favorites of the year. I listened to it on Audible and felt the narrator was fantastic. I highly recommend listening to it - especially if you're short on time due to the new job! I watched the show on Apple TV starring Charlie Hunnam after finishing the book and enjoyed that as well (though not as much as the book!).

Piranesi was a let down for me....i did just recently pick up Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell to give that one a try...so hopefully my second try of Susanna Clarke goes better.

The reason why Pillars of the Earth is NOT boring, is because it's NOT about building a cathedral. There are parts where they are building a cathedral but this book is Kings battling for the throne, earls battling for their Earldoms, Priors and Bishops battling and scheming for power. Lots of politicking, back stabbing and scheming going on. Great writing and great characters. So much going on, when people say it's about building a cathedral are really doing it a disservice.

I have got to finally get to A Gentleman in Moscow. I don't think I've heard a negative review yet! For whatever reason, I always remember that Helter Skelter was the last book I read before I became a Christian at 18. Why I was reading that book at such a young age, I cannot tell you. It messed me up. Ugh. I really would like to read The Wager, too.

I loved the first book of Stormlight way back in the day. I had no idea it was going to be a bazillion books long series. I didn't want to commit to that because I have seen the Game of Thrones fans suffer so long, with no resolution in sight. But if it's a natural break after Book 5, then I'm willing to start over. I have felt so left out!

I look forward to watching this! Glad to see you back. Wow, I can't imagine what it is to have a job that you really love. I've only had that once in my life, and that was for a short time, many years ago.

I AM HALF WAY THROUGH AND ALSO ENCHANTED WITH YJE BOOK. I ENJOYED YOUR REVIEW.

I read this book in 9 days! I finished last night. I couldn't put it down.

Difficult to read, with too many characters and storylines. I won't recommend this book, except perhaps for avid readers with plenty of time to waste. I won't read another book by this author

Having read the book I have to say that it was a nice read but I was not impressed very much. What I did like, however, were all Mitchell's references to the philosophy of Plato. I suppose that many readers of the novel did see that one particular story is a modern narration of the so-called "Allegory of the cave" from the beginning of the 7th book of Plato's 'Republic'. The very last page of the novel is also full of platonic references. And may I quote a favourite extract from the novel, which has to do with what I've just said?: «The Ghost of Sir Felix Finch whines, "But it's been done a hundred times before!" - as if there could be anything not done a hundred thousand times between Aristophanes and Andrew Void-Webber! As if Art is the What, not the How!»

Excellent review

I have read the entire series four times. I am currently on Golden Fool. On subsequent readings, I skip The Liveship Series only because I want to read about Fitz. However, I feel that they are necessary for the first read-through. Kind of like Farseer is the series and Liveship is the spin-off. Same universe, different characters. Have fun! I enjoyed your review!

I just filmed a review for this book and am editing it now!! Haha. Great video. You earned a sub!

This book is wild and crazy and in my opinion it’s a little spoilery for a little life

Do you have ANY idea what edition of Shogun that is? It is like a ghost on the internet. I know it is 2019 Blackstone publishing, and has seemingly been gaslit out of existence by the FX cover edition. I found two of these covers at a used bookstore, and they are going for around $160 on Ebay right now, but I can't find any further information about them.

I just finished this book. I agree the writing was excellent and so were the characterisations. The main narrator (and his collaborator) has a voice that smacks of the prejudices of intellectuals of that period. He's racist in the extreme, never describing any of the non white characters without disparaging or fetishizing their appearances. He's also misogynistic, and sees himself as intellectually superior to everyone and basically considers himself to be a god. So.... typical white colonist stuff. The tone of his narcissistic prose can make this book a difficult read and one where (like all of Yanagihara's books) you'd be advised to check trigger warnings prior to jumping in if you need to. However, it is precisely this quality which makes this book so impactful. Get ready to hate Norton Perina and ask yourself some tricky questions about science, colonialism, and humanity.

Thank you for your review. I finished today and I will go on to read A Little Life. I look forward to checking out your other videos.

In your review it feels a bit cowardly to say "he molested one of his children" when in reality that child was raped night after night as a form of punishment, and Perina also confesses to having raped others of his sons, along with other boys.

Sorry it wasn't for you! I haven't read it yet. I really don't understand this thing of being nasty to people for not liking a book. Disagree, fine. But no need to get all personal about it. People are dumb.

Dumas keeps the mystery about how the Count found Haydée. Monte Cristo himself says that she became his slave “simply from the circumstance of my having bought her one day, as I was passing through the market at Constantinople” (ch.77). However, considering his desire to punish his enemies, there is no doubt that chance had nothing to do with this. On the contrary, he must have looked for her, as he saw in the daughter of Ali Pasha an instrument of his vengeance. But the similarity of their sufferings (captivity, loss of the loved ones), inflicted on them by the same man, brings them near. The Count makes her his daughter, “having no one else to love in the world” (ch.70) and sheds over her a paternal love (“I love you as [my] child”, ch.49; “the Count of Monte Cristo surrounds me with every paternal care”, ch.86; “I have brought [her] up with the love of a father”, ch.90). For her part, Haydée calls him her “noble protector” (ch.86) and likens him to her father, as the only two men whom she ever loved: “My father said I was his joy-you style me your love,-and both of you have called me [your] child” (ch.49). Haydée has towards Monte Cristo the attitude of a slave towards her master (“Are you no longer my master, or have I ceased to be your slave?”, ch.49; “He is my master, and I am his slave; he has the right to notice nothing”, ch. 117), of a daughter towards her father, but also of a woman in love towards her lover (she “kissed [his hand] with a mixture of love and respect”, ch.45; she greets him after the duel with “[all the enthousiasme of a daughter seeing a dear father], all the delight of a mistress seeing an adored lover”, ch.92). Several times she makes quite clear that she feels for him a different love than that of a daughter for her father (“‘He is here, and here’, said she, touching her eyes and her heart. [...] ‘You? [...] you are everywhere!’”; “In the morning, I shall rejoice in the prospect of your coming, and in the evening dwell with delight on the happiness I have enjoyed in your presence”; “The love I have for you is very different from the love I had for my father” ch.49). Still, she is not coquettish or yet, her artlessness is her coquetry: “Monte Cristo took the delicate hand of the young girl in his, and was about to raise it to his lips, when the [naive] child hastily withdrew it, and presented her cheek” (ch.49). The extent of her love is described in the last chapter (Dumas, 1998, vol. 6, pp. 426-427): “I love you as one loves her father, her brother, her husband! I love you as one loves her life, her God, for you are for me the most beautiful, the best and the greatest of created beings!”. She loves him to the point of dying if he were to die: “I never will leave you, for I am sure I could not exist without you”; “My father died, but I did not die. [Whereas] If you were to die, I should die too” (ch.49); “Well, if you die, [...] bequeath your fortune to others, for if you die I shall require nothing” (ch.90); or if he were to leave her: “‘You mean, then, that if I leave you, Haidee’ - ‘I should die; yes, my lord’" (ch.117). In this, maybe even more than in her appearance, she resembles Medora (“she is just my idea of what Medora must have been”, ch.34), the beautiful fair from Lord Byron’s Corsair, who kills herself as she believes her lover to be dead (Canto III, 19-21). Haidee from the Byronian Don Juan, who inspired Dumas in the choice of name for his character, also dies of grief at losing her lover (Canto IV). Haydée would also make the sacrifice of her life for him (“[...] me, who would yield my life for his”, ch.117), hence she is able to feel when he is in danger (“She had been standing at the door, to prevent his going out without seeing her [...] ‘she wished to see me, to speak to me; she has feared or guessed something’”; “Do you think of dying, my lord?”, ch.90). This thought makes her suffer (“And what I have suffered [...] you shall never know, my lord”), but her subsequent relief couldn’t be greater (“radiant with joy at seeing the count return safely”, ch.92). The fear of losing him (“Are you going to leave me?”, ch.90) turns her usual gentleness into authority (“an authoritative tone the count had never observed before, and which startled him”, ch.90; “this energy so unusual for a slave”, Dumas, 1998, vol. 5, p. 287). Then again, the obedience she owes him as sign of her gratitude and love is much stronger than her own suffering: “It is well,[...] your order shall be executed, my lord; I will forget even your name, and be happy” (ch.117).

I absolutely love Murakami’s work but I would agree with you that 1Q84 wasn’t the most entertaining/enjoyable? I am not sure how to express maybe my thoughts about this book, but what I can advise you is to not give up, heard that A wild sheep chase is a great one. So far Kafka on the shore is my favorite as well, but I also really enjoyed his books that don’t have magic realism as Norvegian Wood and South of Border, West of the sun.

I have read this twice, the first time was 40 years ago, loved it then and loved it after a second recent reread.

Thanks for your review. I enjoyed The Visitation because I could identify with the main character as he faced real life tragedy and loss and the resulting questioning of his faith. Is God really good, what’s the plan, why am I in this dark place, etc. I like how Peretti is willing to take on the tough questions and debate them through his characters. It helps me to think through the issues and see the bigger picture. By the way…I read Monster. It’s a good read. It’s an interesting take on the whole BigFoot debate.

I just finished reading The People in the trees, at maybe 5-6 years after reading A little life, and came on YT to hear some opinions, because I have lots of them. While I agree with you that A little life is more painfully written, I would say that this book has a different, more collective trauma( referring to the complete destruction of a tribe, beautiful flora and fauna). Also it talks just a bit about bioethics in research, even though it just scratches the surface but I found it to be extremely interesting. Reading this one, I found myself being annoyed by Perina because of his infatuation of itself and opinions and gradually came to hate him with a burning passion. I also wanted to destroy the book by the time I finished reading it, but would also agree that is an absolute amazing read. So, looking forward to read her other book, and wish you amazing reads in the future 📚

I was interested in this book until I learned there was homosexuality promoted in it. Christians cannot have any part of that. I'm glad I learned it ahead of time, instead of getting into the story and then having to stop.

This was my first McCarthy novel as well. I was left thinking that the Judge is the most complex character, but I think that John Joel Glanton took the prize, for me, as the most purely evil character. There should at least be a discussion of who is more evil. Which is hard to do in a review without revealing spoilers. But after reading, I don't think the Judge is the clear favorite. There's lots of evil in this book. I also think it gets missed in a lot of BM reviews, but, as a black person reading the novel, I want to say that the N word is used profusely throughout the text. I'm not saying it made the book any better or worse, I think it's a realistic portrayal of the dialogue happening during the 19th century. Nonetheless, it was hard to stomach at times, reading that word over and over by many characters. There's also one black character in the novel, with whom the Judge seems to have an interest in keeping alive, even though the Judge is racist. It's also helpful to have some minimal understanding of Spanish before reading. Great review, great read!

Fine! I’ll read it.

Red Rising is fantastic...and gets quite grimdark. I loved them all, but they do get better and better as they go, for the most part. Buckle up.

I listened to this on Audible after seeing it on your Top 10 list video and just finished it a few days ago. I completely agree with your comments about the immersive world-building. My only complaint was that I felt a bit disappointed that the book didn't really encompass the war itself after so much build up (I realized about 52 hours in that there was no way they were going to squeeze the war into the final 2 hours of the book). That said, I really, really enjoyed the book as a whole and will probably check out Tai-Pan at some point. I've started watching the first few episodes of the show on Hulu and have been enjoying that as well - though the story feels a bit rushed at times and they've definitely taken some artistic liberties!

I started using Audible while recovering from LASIK surgery a few years ago and love it. Of the roughly 80 books I've listened to the ONLY one I've started and haven't been able to finish is Gravity's Rainbow. I'm a completionist by nature so it's really bothered me but I just can't bring myself to listen to 30 more hours of it! Glad to see you picked up a copy of The Wager, though!

That accent. Ga? Takes one to know one. If I’m wrong then shame on me. Also, love how varied your book selection is. 👍🏻

I'm currently reading the Count of Monte Cristo. About 350 pages in. Great so far but I maybe some time! In Hemingway I love Fiesta and his book of short stories, A moveable Feast about his early days struggling to be a writer in Paris with his first wife and first born son surrounded by other artists. Best wishes to you.

I’m 35% of the book and it’s a very hard read for me.

I can personally vouch for Peretti being the "horror" Christian Fiction author. I'd say Ted Dekker is the "fantasy" side of that coin, albeit approaching the "saccharine" as you said. Wholeheartedly agree that Peretti's flawed characters are what makes them feel realistic and not one-dimensional tropes.

Halfway through your year's goal, and working 2 jobs? That's fantastic! Glad things are going well for you on the work front. I've heard only raves about Count of Monte Cristo so I may have to give in someday. I've never read any Hemingway. Yeah, I hear he's mainly a downer. I've heard good things about The Wager. The weird thing about me is I can't swim and am terrified of open water... yet I am drawn to books and movies about ships. And there can never be too many sea paintings! I love them.

This book has many similarities, in terms of prose, to books by Faulkner and Melville and the style of the King James Bible, even Shakespeare from what I hear, and Beowulf. If you havent already, watch the video by Benjamin McEvoy in which he introduces things before you read it. I think he does a great job at explaining what to do before reading Blood Meridian.

Read Suttree next by Cormac McCarthy. His most poetic work above all, before Blood Meridian was published.

Grab your crucifixion & Holy water because this one's a duzzy. Well, as I read this book I held my patience with every page- because I thought that the religious order was going to come crashing in by means of demonize behavior. Instead, it was nice religion upbringing. The result, the end was a hold-up which God brought them back to his order....This book is elegant....17-961 Frank v. Gaos (03/20/2019)

Wow, apparently I should have bought a physical copy years ago when they were all over the place. I'm checking Thriftbooks and Alibris and everything is either "temporarily unavailable" or ridiculously expensive. $58.93 for a mass market paperback - WHAT?! Ha ha, from Abebooks. This is crazy! Shogun - SIGNED, INSCRIBED and DATED in the year of publication with Australian Launch Event Ticket Clavell, James 1 Used from US $ 4,563.92

Thanks for the review. I actually got this on Kindle a while back. I figured it would be easier to take with me and read anywhere. But I'm rethinking that. I forgot that I do find it harder to concentrate when I read digitally. That's why usually use it for rereads, like I'm doing now with Little Women. While I would hate any historical inaccuracies, especially because I likely wouldn't know, as I am not familiar with this period, I wouldn't put much stock in the, "white savior", nonsense. This book has been around as long as I can remember. Nobody had a problem with it until 5 minutes ago, when the woke mind virus made everybody insane. I look forward to diving into this one, hopefully soon. I need something sprawling and immersive!

The book is really hard to read. Very boring

Thanks for this. I think this is one I may have started but wasn't in the place for it at the time. Definitely willing to try it another time.

The ending of this book was so heart breaking, but I loved it.

Do you have a Goodreads account? I enjoyed your review of Covenant of Water - probably my favorite book from last year as well. We seem to have similar tastes and a lot of overlap in books I plan to read as well.

Cutting for stone is 5 stars imo 🌟

👏

Man, so happy I found someone covering this. The Visitation is personally my favorite book, ever. Now, I was going through a fairly rough patch, and the Romance Plot actually got to me (Which usually I despise Romance Plots.), so I'm definitely bias. But, it's still my favorite. I love the thriller aspects, the "I am [Jesus]" line by Brandon got under my skin, and the "Salvation by grace. Christianity by performance." line got to me too. One aspect that I don't think was mentioned in the video that I loved was its focus on other denominations. I'm actually surprised on how good of a light it puts Catholics in. Even when they're deceived, it feels more like genuine faith then the "bought into" like others. I'd actually say the worst part of the book was when the town goes insane, especially when other antichrists just appeared. But, still possibly my favorite book, and love the review.

Oh! I have heard Flowers for Algernon is so good. But I think it's also sad? Not sure. But I've wanted to read it. And darnit, I need to get into Robin Hobb. Everyone raves about her books. I feel like I am missing out.

Frank Peretti, now there's a name from the past! I remember devouring This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness back in the day. I should reread them. I don't remember the details. I just remember loving them. I lost track of him after that, and I've not read anything else. I had not heard of this one at all. I totally agree on the Christian fiction thing. It's the same with movies. A lot of it these days seems to be sappy "romance." At least, that's what I used to see at my local Christian bookstore. (Sadly now closed.) The few times I've looked up Christian Booktubers, it's the same thing. How we went from C.S. Lewis and Tolkien (whatever nitpicking there may be about his Catholicism), to the sappy stuff of today, I don't know. It's actually embarrassing. Christians should be making THE best art!

great video, I finished last it month and was blown away. Best book ive read. I quickly read The Road next and enjoyed it very much especially the last 10 or so pages. sublime ending. im now halfway through All the Pretty Horses and it's wonderful. so happy to discover McCarthy who is now my favorite writer.