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Great cover but I’ve never heard of her

Btw, reading BS Johnson's Home Mother Normal at the moment (Bloodaxe edition). Very much enjoying it.

Just finished Mammoth and thought, “I’ll open my review of Mammoth by talking about the writing and just pick a page at random to read from.”

fabulous....i too love Baltasar--ive read Boulder and Permafrost...she is a poet (i mean she also writes poetry)--thus her prose :)...nice to hear of Butor...i read it, as you know, when i was like 23 or 24 (30+ years ago)...at the time, i was obsessed with Nouveau Romain, and i adore the book--maybve because then form and ideas meant the most to me, now as a published writer, not as much=---meaning, i need ideas and prose/form...so, i may not like it as much as i did when young...3 stars seems fair--still think you should read Simon, especially Grass...btw, SCREW the booker, its becoming meaningless (to me as a writer ): Hernan Diaz Trust (2022) short list, brilliant, Patricia Lockwood No one is talking about this (2021), brilliant, Mantel, Mirror & Light (2020) lovely...b out the last winner i found interesting was Anna burns ike 6 or 7 years ago and saunders, james, beatty before...anyway....great to hear you mention Lara's book, still one of my fave prose books of 2024, MORE SHOULD READ SPENT LIGHT....excited to hear about Before the Feast, cause i loved The Soldier repairs the Gramaphone....ok, well done...stay safe....bb

Good to hear you cover that Butor, brings up some nice memories. I couldn’t get along with Degrees, stuck in that one. Have you tried some Marie NDiaye? (Rosie Carpe, My Heart Hemmed In, Self Portrait in Green) very nicely disorienting

Hi Marc 👋The best books I’ve read so far this month The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes The Coast Road by Alan Murrin My Friends by Hisham Matar Wild Houses by Colin Barrett ☘️👋🍀📕📖📚☕️

Crikey, that Wild Houses comes over as unreadable.

Sold me on Baltasar with that passage, Marc.

Passing Time sounds interesting, too bad it wasn't very satisfying. I came away interested in Mammoth and Samarkand. Great reviews!

I just started Mammoth today so I skipped ahead. I agree with you in part about Wild Houses but thought the girlfriend and Dev were good characters.

Not as stellar as some of your reading weeks Marc but at least you had the Maso. Rachel Cusk has never appealed to me and apparently I’m not alone.

i just got minor detail it’s my next read i’m so excited to read it

👍👍👍👍

great video! :D also, you have a really soothing voice, i like it!

The best apocalyptic novel I’ve read is Deluge by Stephen Markley

great vid Marc...as I mentioned, i can't sweep out the thoughts of Solenoid since finishing...extraordinary impactful and endless and excited to see what you'll do with its beauty and complexity in your next vid....and fantastic to hear about Maso, have AVA on my nightstand and is part of sept reading...btw, i can't remember if i've told you before, you should do audio book voiceover for extra book $$, you're a fabulous reader...not all writers can read aloud to understand others' voice & cadence....as for Cusk, i did "enjoy" (respect?) her book on motherhood and Outline, and the trilogy, but with diminishing returns....definitely will now avoid Parade...it feels like she is riffing on Kundera, whos magnificent masterpieces (The book of laughter and forgetting & unbearable lightness of being) work similar long parts of 'essay/analysis/discourse unattached to the 'life of the characters'...yet, they seem themselves another disembodied character....and speaking of dinner party scenes (loathe them too), there is ONE masterful one: watch Buñuel 's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie...but i love when you riff on what is wrong with a book hahaha, lovely....too bad about Napalm book...ok, off my list....off to montreal and finalizing a manuscript.!!!...looking forward to the Solenoidvid !....bb

I've been curious to try Cusk but so many people have raved about her and it has made me skeptical rather than more excited, so I was interested to hear your thoughts on her. I think I'd still like to check her out but I feel better going in with some opposing views to consider. The American Lady in a Chinese Hat and The Longcut sound interesting to me. Especially the latter since I'm always debating with myself about art and art-making.

I read one Rachel Cusk Second Place I hated it so much I’ve never read another of her books. I don’t respond well to privileged people acting terribly without consequences.

That Cusk sounds really poor. Thanks for the tip-off.

Thanks for once again convincing me that it’s ok to skip the latest Rachel Cusk novel.

Can mute people have character? I guess "inner voice" in those cases?

lovely....ok, THIS topic is supremely important to me, as a poet especially....for some idiotic reason, people assume when they write or read poetry, that a poem (or collection) must be based on 'real life'---especially the ubiquitous 'I' OR "YOU"....which is nonsensical...maybe because we live in a world, or I live in a world, surrounded by writers and poets who write about their life and experiences endlessly...their suffering...instead of also writing poems that are 'imaginative' or 'works of fiction'...often the 'characters' in my poems are NOT me or people I now, but personae and characters i have created or imagined....or often i will write a poem about an idea, or idea of form, or word, and try to focus on the 'voice' of the character...and i do love playing with the 'voice' and ideas and metaphor and moments of a 'person' im creating...now, of course, my life enters a poem or story, in otherwords, my life in full: what i have see/experienced AND IMAGINED, what i've dreamed up...the books i ve read and films ive seen: all lead to characters and ideas...and when i do right about 'real-life people' (me, my partner, my family, people i know, or people i see around me who i dod not know personally), i try to re-imagine then...to metamorphize them...like Ovid, to sound pretentious...which is why i loathe the term 'auto-fiction' cause all fiction is and is not auto, just as all our life is and is NOT us....we CONSTRUCT memory, we CONSTRUCT experience...we are constructions of everything....anyway, Octopus Man sounds interesting...if you recommend, i will read....i think this is important vid for your readers so that they understand writers or books when they are reading if they are NOT writers...btw, I LOVED the damned Utd, and his other football book (im forgetting the name now)...anyway, for me, what is most important in a book LANGUAGE & CHARCTER....lovely, ttyl, bb

Hi Marc. Loving the videos, as always. Wondering if you've gotten round to Ducle Maria Cardoso's 'new' (in English) book, Eliete: A Normal Life. Hachette have spat it out without an ounce of effort. Yet to see a single review, or display. For me, it doesn't reach the dizzying heights of Violeta Among The Stars, but not sure it was ever going to. Some say it's one of her best books and I certainly couldn't put it down. Would love to hear your take.

I loved this book and was surprised at how effectively it engaged me. I expected it to be more didactic, and although the point is made how incredibly difficult life was as a gay man at that time, it was the plot that fully engaged me. It was a total page turner because the impact of decisions made by the characters could have disastrous results. I recommended it to my book club and look forward to our discussion.

The new Houellebecq is absolutely brilliant.

My enjoyment of Enter Ghost was a step up from yours, but yes one of the elements in that was better understanding the different groups within the Palestinian community. I'd add to your list the Palestinians who have been living as refugees in countries like Jordan for decades and are now second and third generations. And as a British Palestinian, Hammad could convey the tensions between these groups and the sense in which no one of Palestinian origins can ignore questions of history and identity.

Carole Maso in a thumbnail! My God! I read and loved her novel Ghost Dance in college, bought Ava for my mother. Talk about a writer who isn’t discussed as much she deserves to be. Hey, my friend, I’m reading your recent collection of stories just now and thought you’d like to know. I hope you’re well.

I have to say as soon as you said Ava features a 90 year old woman I was sold! But the rest of your review cemented the desire to read it. Good luck with Solenoid Mark!

fabulous....I've sent the link to your review of The Trees Witness Everything to Victoria...Im certain she will be thrilled: you've done again a lovely and sensitive read of her book and the collection,,,victoria is one of my fave american contemp poets writing in english as she has a restless mind and insatiable need to try on and conquer form while out-of-the-black chirping extraordinary beautiful and heartbreaking lines...just wait until you read the other i sent, With My Back to the World...masterpiece.....and i am so so hungry do read Ava...damn it Solenoid...ok, begin tonight...btw, lovely to hear O'Brien book is still lovely...one of the finest NARRATIVE novelists and most un-pigeon-holable in America..and The Things They Carry is easily top 3 of the best books on vietam from an American perspective....anyway, will touch base later when I begin solenoid....GO ENGLAND!

Sounds Great

Enter Ghost is the best book I read in the first 6months of this year.

That Krasznahorkai sounds fun. Who is publishing it?

The only problem with watching other RUclipsrs channels is that it only increases the tbr. So many books and so little time! Happy reading to you.

I have watched you for years and I am infinitely grateful for the reviews you post. The books you recommend are the ones I am most excited to get to. Carson’s Nox, Brand’s Blue clerk and Griffith’s Tomb Guardians.

Lgbtq+lmnop books are worth 2, POC books 2.5. Don't sell yourself short, my man!

Preciso reler "Memórias póstumas...." Reler pra ver se passo a gostar.

I’d love to go through that TBR pile. My best books in first half Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad Brotherless Night by VV Ganeshananthan Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Haworth ☘️ Service by Sarah Gilmartin ☘️ Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan ☘️ How To Build A Boat by Elaine Feeney ☘️ Solider Sailor by Claire Kilroy ☘️ The Caretaker by Ron Rash North Woods by Daniel Mason Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff Stone Yard Devotional by Charolette Wood Strong Female Character by Fern Brady Fayne by AnnMarie MacDonald Tom Lake by Ann Pachett Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano ☘️👋🍀📖📚📕☕️

Hi, You mentioned obtaining certain titles from the US thru Thrift, can I ask a couple of questions please? Do you pay import duties (if so, how much roughly) & the Thrift website doesn't declare the postage fee to the UK, do you know how much a book it is? Does it work out better to order several books together? Much appreciated.

Interstate by Stephen Dixon is worth your time if you haven't read it. I did it because of the paperbird review and the Bookworm interview Dixon did with Micheal Silverblatt. Very powerful book quite prosaic thudding language but puts you through the wringer

Enjoy the second half of your reading year.

Agree. Couldn't stand the characters. Would have thrown it across the room but it was a Kindle download.

Your review is nice and big.

I just wanted all the characters to die. Interesting that your new book is a play on the title of this.

ok, finally finished hahahaha....in between teaching breaks....i left an earlier comment, but it disappeared: weird, my comments disappeared, you tube doesnt like me...anyway, agree completely...i found the book not only pretentious and a bore (i couldnt make it past 2/3 way), but abominable in its the writing ...for all the reasons you site...my belief is this: i read it immediately after i had finished Normal People (her first) and i believe that after that book won so many rave reviews (and a few awards), the publisher asked Rooney: any other manuscripts around...i feel Conversations may have a book she tried to write in uni...and let it go...wrote normal people and went back and the publisher and editor dropped the ball...and they just published it immediately..1 yr between the novels...and 3 years between Conversation and Beautiful World...has to be the explanation, because it is soooo sloppy in language and execution...and pretentious as hell...anyway...as you know, i love your 1-star reviews...and i wish there would be more of them...i think Rooney is better as a YA writer, honestly....i do feel bad: she is quite bright, rights a beautiful essay (on chess)...but anyway...can't wait to watch your next wrap up....well done...made my friday, and now Germany lost, though it was an absolutely brilliant match...double good day!...cheers, bb

Really enjoyed your rant/critique Marc. I’ve come to think of these kinds of books as a type of YA for 20 year olds, which I suppose is why it’s so appealing to them. It seems to me the purpose is to identify with and find catharsis in the characters and their interactions and outer/inner worlds. Not so much about growth and greater commentary or impact on things. I’m a millennial and millennials are now 30+ so it might be interesting to see if Rooney continues to write for her age group or expands in some way but I’m not interested enough to keep up with her work myself.

The only other one star book I’ve seen from you was for Hangman by Maya Binyam. I’d rather read Hangman ten more times (at least it was funny) than read one chapter of this insipid trash. You put enormous effort into this one!

This was the winner when I sat on the shadow panel for the Young Writer of the Year Award and I absolutely hated it. She said she'd based a lot of it on conversations with her own friends and so I think she needs to get some new friends.

Your review made me want to read this book

I have ardently avoided this book, so your thorough take-down vindicates my instincts. Quite enjoyed your rant. I don't understand how Rooney could even have enjoyed writing the book, given that you can see she has writing ability beyond what's typically on the page. My vague guess was that the book was calling out certain pretensions and hypocrisies, but in an unsatisfying, superficial way I didn't want to sample. Sounds like I might not have been far off.

Everything I had hoped for and more.