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"My reaction to the Ghost of Christmas Past is blah." (?) This Spirit and its portrayal by Michael Dolan is superb. Dolan has all the characteristics described in Dickens' text. He's an older phantom, with childlike qualities. Thus, drawing the connection between our own memories of Christmas as children and our forgotten memories of days of long ago. This version tweaks Scrooge's personal history (which was later used in the Jim Carey version). Scrooge's now-older sister dies during childbirth, as did Scrooge's mother while giving birth to him, "...for which your father never forgave you, as if YOU were to blame." Scrooge sees the connection to his own maltreatment of his nephew Fred. I have been seeking an in depth analysis of this film for some time. I thought I had found it when I stumbled onto your channel, sadly I was disappointed. The 1951 version is far and away the best adaptation of A Christmas Carol. And Alastair Sim is the quintessential Scrooge. Give it another viewing.

I was taught to "write what you know"... that being said... I believe if you haven't experienced it, but researched , and learned a thing... then would that not be considered that now you know a thing?

So lovely!

Lots of award winners/hyped books on this list. I look forward to seeing what your favorites are!

Updike’s “In the Beauty of the Lillies” is one gorgeous novel. Great American author .

Beautiful!❤

Scenes from ground zero of the worlds doomsday

Oh my gosh, I clicked on this without seeing it was you! It's beautiful there in December!!!

Bonny indeed.

Lovely.❤

I’m never reading someone whose name is Ballsack dude.

When I was 14, young male, sitting at a busy bus station, an older man in a yellow 1960s Chevy pick up, sat on the bench next to where I was sitting. I didn't know him. He had a white beard and was probably 60. He asked me if I wanted a ride somewhere. I said, no. I'm taking the bus. He sat at the bench for a while. I stood up and walked to the curb. A police car was driving by and I waved him down. Cop looks at me and asked what's up? I told him the man on the bench is offering me a ride and won't leave me alone. Cop looks at the man. Says thanks. I'll look into it. The Cop had to drive around the block because of a one way street freeway off ramp. The old man stood up calmly walked to his yellow submarine pick up, started it, backed up and drove away. I have no idea if the cop found him. All I know is I have to survive and don't want my photo on a milk carton. There are child predators, disguised as friends and their brains are severely damaged. They want to hurt people. I witnessed a potential kidnapping, luckily the mother intervened but she was scared, voice trembling. The man escaped. I didn't leave the scene but was scared to call the police. Cormac was not a good person. His underaged girlfriend was also misguided. In Germany a 50 year old man had a relationship with a 14 year old. She ran away from home. Signs were posted at train stations, everywhere, with pretty young daughter" missing. Maybe seven years later, the young lady escaped from Hungary, she went to the police where they identified her and arrested the man. The girl is back home with family. Even married couples who cheat on each other are in my opinion terrible people.

Finally someone that agrees with me about Demon Copperhead! I got through it, but really didn't enjoy the experience. You are correct that it starts strong, but the further I got the more I wished I was rereading David Copperfield instead!

Beautiful images 👌

We Love this places because we didn't leave on this Era but if have we would happy to see it's ruins because of all the suffering n slavery by many slaves by the Rich n power hungry Army's.

When the Faulkner guy says your stream of consciousness is too long and unclear, you know you got a problem. Great video as always!

Thanks. I needed that!❤

Me thinks that first statue looks like it's a Titan trapped in stone, trying to get out.

I feel the prevailing cultural narrative is that men, especially white men, are bad. Women are good, especially women of color, etc. The modern publishing industry has embraced this philosophy fully, and it's completely common for agents to openly advertise that they will only work with women or specifically women of color (isn't that illegal?) Naturally these books focus on women's issues, minority issues, LGBTQ issues, etc. Or at a minimum it's used as a backdrop for the primary narrative. It makes perfect sense that the modern man simply wouldn't want to engage in this material at all (I don't!) As usual the answer from the left is to basically say that men are wrong, weak, ignorant, etc. When women prefer female authors it's celebrated (yass queen!), but when males prefer male authors they're dudebros, bookbros, MAGA, etc. Obviously if a male refuses to read a book simply because it was written by a woman that is ignorant, but that's not what is happening here. Men are looking at the landscape and refusing to engage with it. Look at the books you recommended - basically every single one involves racism, slavery, or indigenous issues. That's fine, everyone should be exposed to this material in some way, but I don't feel the need to read book after book about it in my sparse free time.

It takes me back

OMG GREAT!

I bought this book for maybe ten other people. Impressive.

Really disappointed in The Vaster Wild and North Woods this year. Enjoyed this very much!

Love short books. Love, love, love. Sigrid Nunez does a good job.

The Passenger and Stella Maris are atrocious in my humble.

i read about half the books you mentioned and agreed with your take on each one. I love literature. It's one of my primary passions and my goal in 2025 is to read more books that I really love.

I think an important theme in this book, among others, is that overly enthusiastic idealism often jars uncomfortably with sordid reality. It should be mandatory reading for younger people who are prone to idealistic thinking without having experienced the world's reality.

I finished the first Broken Earth book. Made it half way through the second and got tired of it. Someone called it Misery Porn and I did not know what they meant. Now I do. I read the entire Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold more than once. There is some misery but not just that.

I didn't know anything about her until she died. I think I'd heard you mention her. Maybe I should try to read a little poetry next year since I don't know anything about poetry.

I always recommend Tar Baby as the first one because that was my first one. It’s the most straightforward to me.

Interesting. My main book with big books is that the longer I need to finish them the less engaged I am and thus get annoyed at the book. I tend to forget things in big books if they happen to far apart and I get distanced from the book. It's a reason I often say it's unfair to the book when I take too long to read it as I will enjoy it less.

She absolutely held her own with James Baldwin, they both had deeply insightful things to say, and it is one of the best things I have ever seen.

Thank goodness it's not just me. I agree with you on all of these except Kairos. I loved it but I am European. Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow was good but wasn't her best in my opinion

She is one of my favorites, too. A huge influence. I remember picking up her Love Poems, a little red book, and being impressed at how grounded and real the poems felt. A more mature and realistic kind of love that was still passionate. Two of my favorites of hers are A Poem of Friendship and kidnap poem. And oof, that conversation. I don't remember when I first encountered it but it's so amazing to hear these two talk to each other.

I didn’t know of her before this video, thanks for sharing 🙏

Beautiful tribute ❤

Thank you for sharing, and wonderful poem.

James Baldwin ( 1924- 1987 ) he was African American writer, civil rights activist, who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels , plays , poems . His novel go tell it on mountain has been ranked by time magazine as one of top 100 English language novels. His essays collection notes of native son helped establish his reputation as voice for human quality. He was influential public figure and orator especially during civil rights movement. I hope you like my synopsis. Thank you for giving us chance to read learn new information improve our English as well. Merry Christmas happy new year. Best wishes for you your dearest ones.

Thank you for your wonderful cultural literary mr Brian . Actually there are Nigerian author , poet , spiritual philosopher have channel English literature . His name Peter okonowo , he hosts authors from different countries around the world, discussing with them their notable works . I send comments to him sometimes it’s great idea . I learned Toni Morrison have Nobel prize in literature and read main idea of her novel mercy . Nikki Giovanni ( 1943- 2024 ) she was American poet , writer , commentator , activist, educator. One of world known African American poets . Her works include poetry anthologies, poetry recording, nonfiction essays, covers topics ranging from race , social issues to children literature. She won numerous awards including longston Hughes medal and n aa cp image award. She was nominated for 200 4 Grammy award for her poetry album Nikki Giovanni poetry collection. Additionally she was named as one of Oprah Winfrey 25 living legends . She was member of winter green women writer collective . Her most essential works ego tripping and other poems for young people. Those who ride night winds , Knoxville, Tennessee. Love poems collected poetry. Rosa , bicycle love poems , make me rain . Her famous quotes ( we’ve got to live in real world. If we don’t like world we living in , change it to and if we can’t change it , we change ourselves, we can do something). ( All mistakes teach us something, so we are in reality, no mistake). Nikki Giovanni is important because , she considered as world renowned poet , one of foremost authors of black arts movement. Her notable books of poetry are black judgment, those who are ride night winds , which influenced by her participation in black arts movement and black power movement in 1960s . Her famous poem Nikki Rosa taps on number of important themes such as , childhood experiences, poverty, racism, alcoholism. The main theme of poem is white representation of black lives or black experiences.

Giovanni is one of the greats.

I haven’t heard of her before or if I have I can’t remember. Thank you for being her work to my attention and for talking about a poet that you loved.

Such a great poetic voice for the marginalized and the ignored we’ve lost⚛❤

OMG I can’t watch this interview now, but it’s on my To Be Watched list. People had a conversation that lasted more than an hour? On tv? What kind of a world was that? (I guess some of today’s podcasts do follow suit.) Thanks for the link, Brian.

The Bee Sting was definitely too long. Murray used all the words lol. It kind of reminded me of White Teeth with all the different stories going on.