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Disappointed I didn't get to see the spreadsheet. I love a good spreadsheet 😊

Thanks for articulating all my messy feelings on this book way better than I ever could myself. Such a powerful story, I have been toying with the idea of re-reading it (it's been a few years), but idk if I can handle it again lol

SoA is good but I'm not sure anything will ever top Circe for me

The Song of Achilles was a 5 star read for me. I loved it. I also agree with the general consensus that Circe is even better, though. For me, I connected more to the themes of loneliness and isolation in Circe, and it is much more magical since the main character is a witch, and the magic is a very earthy mysticism type of magic that really appeals to me. The way Miller wrote about witchcraft and loneliness just really spoke to me. And I think she leveled up her prose between books as well. She didn't even need to improve her prose from Song of Achilles because it was already great, but Circe is just really beautifully written and a marked step up, in my opinion.

The Silence of the Girls is definitly the better novel, plan to read the sequel Women of Troy next year! Cheers!

Tiktok recommendations - 👎 Yolanda's recommendations - 👍

I really like The Silence of the Girls. It makes to think about the way we view “heroic” figures.

Ha! The exhaustion is almost palpable here, haha. And the final rant was just a gem. It's funny how, most times, a DNF is more taxing than actually reading a long book/series; I usually question myself for a while before giving up on the book (unless it's real bad and my brain deletes its very existence) and even then I sometimes keep thinking "Should I go back to it? Was I too tough on it?" months after putting it down. I like crime stories although I've not read a lot of them. Do you have one or two you'd definitely recommend ? So far, my all time favorite --in any medium-- is the comic book 100 Bullets by Azzarello and Rossi; the premise was enough to seduce me, the art is just stunning, the writing and use of slang is top tier (although it was a bit tough to read and grasp the meaning of some sentences at the time), the twist solidified it all. I need to reread it, it's been too long.

Oh! I was already interested in picking that book --I like what I read from Mark Lawrence, even though he's not on the top of my list of authors-- but you had me at the comparison with Jonathan Hickman's work (him I'm obsessed with; love his indie stuff, and he made me fall in love with Fantastic Four during his amazing run on it). Great review, man!

I read this a few years ago when it first came out, and it has stayed with me. I thought it was brilliantly done.

I read this earlier this year, since I've heard it be compared to one of my favorite books Lolita. While it doesn't have Nabokov's mastery of language, I thought it was a deeply compelling book on its own merit. Also really sad as you say in regards to its content. Definitely one of my favorites of the year, though not one for the squeamish.

I'm in the mood for darkness. Reading this and Bakker at the same time will definitely get me there. 😂

Agreed! 💯❤️ I still think about this book all of the time

I'm curious if you've read Saga? Monstress is incredible. Another great one that's more recent is Feral.

Fredrik Backman is my favorite author and the Beartown Trilogy is one of my favorite trilogies. Happy to hear you enjoyed it!

Love foster. One of my best books of last year for me. I felt that I was missing something when everyone was going on about small things like these, which I thought was impressive and a great book but not wow. Foster was definitely a wow book for me. I love how Claire Keegan's style is stipped back but full of imagery and feeling, all show and no tell.

An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor is a light-hearted book and start of a series you may enjoy.

Small things like deez nutts

I read and enjoyed both of these books but rated Foster higher. I loved it! It is the kind of understated writing that I enjoy, plus I like when the good side of people is shown. Small Things I enjoyed, and now want to watch the movie that was made from it. Most of what I know about the Magdalene laundries is from a movie I watched years ago, and from the Joni Mitchell song. I appreciate your perspective on these books as a citizen of Ireland.

Read Small Things Like these a few months ago. Enjoyed it overall but Foster sounds a bit cozier. Have been wanting to get more into Irish Literature recently since moving to London lol I’ll look more at Roddy Doyle

Reading authors from my home country is always great. There are lots of authors from Texas 🤠😉 Great review!

Foster was the more personally affecting of the two. It leaned into more of a Flannery O'Connor sort of short story. It is cozy, but perhaps not uplifting like Small Things. I had a lot of bittersweet feelings.

Oh Carlos, is that yourself?

Gosh I wish I had loved this book as much as you did, but I read it in completely the wrong mood and with completely wrong expectations, so I didn't give it a fair shot... sounds like I might need to do a re-read someday, because I am allll about those complex interpersonal relationships. Plus, I loved Anxious People, so I know how good his writing is!! 🤩

I have some experience with the premise from the American football scene in my home town growing up. Great review, sounds interesting. Inevitability is a helluva word.

The Beartown trilogy is in my top 5 favorite books ever. Maybe even #1. I love his writing so much, especially in these books. The way he demonstrates the slow disintegration of a marriage, or the sudden budding of a friendship between two people who previously did not like each other, it just gives me chills. I am going to have to read these over again next year. So happy you have read and enjoyed Beartown. I've read nearly all his books and enjoyed them but Beartown and Ove are the best in this readers opinion. Anxious People was my next favorite after the trilogy and Ove.

So glad you are going to read the whole trilogy! They are all excellent. Almost all of Backman's work is so worthwhile ( although I found The Deal of a Lifetime too cheesy and not in the same league as his others).

Even though I've owned it for a while, you've sold me on this. I don't read about small town life often (maybe because I lived in one) even its well done, its great stuff. But if I don't like it, I'll blame you 😂

Thanks for this video, it‘s a good reminder for me. I read planetfall a year ago (thanks to a recommendation in a great sci-fi book shop) and really I liked it. Will now pick up the next one! Definitely agree that it should be talked about a lot more, there are really only a few videos about it!

Listening to The Boarder currently. Thoughts? I'm loving it so far.

Finally got to watch this update. I’ll have to check out the Planetfall series. Trying to broaden my sci-fi reading lol.

oh my gosh not liking 'book about writers' - I'm pretty sure I'm on the verge of loathing all books that are "about the power of reading" or "How meaningful stories are" or "This is why we read" or whatever flavor of that you might find. God they just turn into this immense circlejerk, the author congratulating themselves on having written something so meaningful that you the reader (congratulations!) will now find so much depth in (because get it, the power of stories). Just... no more writers in books ever please -_-

My two favorite character have to be Fidler and Karsa. Krasa is especially impressive, since I started out hating the guy. But the way Erikson develops that character and the way that the writing itself changes around that character to reflect that development just pushes him on to that whole other level. And I mean Fiddler is just the best. ^^ ps: "Witness" is just Teblor for "Hold my beer.". pps: Malazan has many great characters. I can easily list 50 characters that would be favorite characters in any different series. Kalam, Quick Ben, Hellian, Corabb, Duiker, Leoman,... the list is long.

I agree this challenges middle book syndrome. King of Thorns is easily the best.

I am looking forward to starting this series. Great review!

Been a while since I've read a quality SF series, I'll check this out. I've been slacking on SF but now that I've read the majority of the Fantasy I've any interest in reading I should get a move on.

Emma is on the TBR now!!! I love me some heavily thematic Sci-Fi. Awesome video my man.

Wow these sound very, very interesting and relatable/relevant to current society 😮 Adding to my list 😊 Thanks!

Sounds good

Brilliant! I’m so pleased you made this video since I also believe Newman’s Planetfall series is excellent and deserves more recognition. Those 4 books evoke strong reactions from me too (I do also battle anxiety). Before Mars is my top one, followed by After Atlas, then Planetfall, and finally Atlas Alone.

I've never heard of this series. Thanks for putting it on my radar.

I read all 4 books last year and loved them. They are not talked about much on booktube. I'm so pleased to hear that you enjoyed them too.