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Hi Jackson, nice to meet you here. I love that you don’t give all your books 5 stars and I also thank you for another book about Brooklyn my hometown, the book worry. I definitely will try to get that book. Aloha friend.

I loooove winter... because I live in Hawaii LOL. Thank you for the amazing video! I never really read based on seasons (cuz we have none here) but I'm interested in trying bc of this video.

Hi there! New sub via Shelly Swearingen's channel. Looking forward to more videos and good reads. TFS!

ooooof I feel you. So many of us are in the same boat. Sounds like we graduated and entered the market around the same time. The Bay Area isn’t any better than the east coast, so I’m sure you’ve heard this before: hang in there. It took me years to land a job I could actually grow in and turn into a long-term career. Patience is key, but for our generation, it’s really just about throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. It sounds like you’re already doing that

Lol privileged women having a hard time is an amazing description. Definitely checking out Worry!

Okay, you've gotta do You Dreamed of Empires on audiobook. The narrator is phenomenal and really brings the story to life. This books was actually in my top books of the year largely because of the listening experience.

My Friends is so high on my list. I haven't seen a negative review of it yet haha. I was a big fan of Martyr! and I thought that the ending actually made a decent amount of sense given how the book as a whole hinged on a decent amount of absurdity. It was beautifully written, for sure!

Yay! Very much appreciate your review of Martr! I loved The Sentence as well! ❤ love the cover of Worry. Privileged women having a hard time - I like that.

Totally agree about Martyr! I read it and thought of creating a long form review, but all I could really think of saying was, "Yeah, this is a book." 😂 BUT Zaher's The Coin -- absolutely fab! Loved it

That's a great list of books! Thanks for talking me into picking up The Coin again (soft dnf it a while ago). Ooh Worry is in my priority pile, you made it sound fabulous 👌 Happy New Year 🥳

Happy new year 🥳 I felt the same about Martyr and My friends. The coin looks so interesting, I’ve put it immediately on my TBR!

You are the first person I’ve seen review both Mighty Red and The Coin, which I’ve had my eye on. From what you said I don’t think I’ll bother with the Erdrich 😂

This was fun! I’m loving the covers of grandmas books! 😂

So great though that you’re curious about your grandmothers books. I feel like it’s the same as when I went to clean out my grandmothers house and found all those old National Enquirer magazines with Elizabeth Taylor’s marriages.🤣 You can’t get better than those times as far as their entertainment. Scarlett St. Clair is really one that is super spicy, dark fantasy with her Hades and Persephone saga.

I cannot wait to hear how you feel about "Verity" after you read it. After reading Verity, I swore off Colleen Hoover as a writer, only to be talked into reading her books "The End of Us" and "It Starts With Us." They were redeemers, but I still don't seek out her books.

I read The Bee Sting. Unfortunately, I didn't love it. Since you enjoyed "The Road" let me suggest "No Country For Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy. I loved it.

You better get it, grandma! 😜😜😜

I’m currently reading The Bee Sting. So I was late to the game. It’s fantastic! I almost picked up Long Island Compromise. So I may do that after this one. You have a great voice👏Happy New Year🎉

Glad to see you back!

Great list! Plenty here that I also liked. Very pleased to see The Guest getting some love, and more excited than ever to read Long Island Compromise and Stoner!

also, a “small town, mundane life” book I just read and loved is Zorrie!

loved this! I think you might like @supposedlyfun if you haven’t already found his channel. seems like you have similar taste

I loved The Goldfinch, too, when I first read it years ago, but I tried to listen to the audiobook recently and for some reason couldn’t get through it. But I remember when I read it in print I was so engrossed in the story!

Loved this!

I love reading the classics too! Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favorites. Curious how you chose these particular classics? You should read Travels with Charley - I see you mention Steinbeck on more than one video

Wow i’m impressed by how much you read! 😍 James was amazing, book club choice last month

The road was amazing. I read it in a day - movie not as good as the book. I picked March for my bookclub and some of the readers hadn’t read little women. You can enjoy March without having read little women but it definitely enhances it when you catch all the references. You should go back and read little women at some point. It’s a classic and young adult fiction can be fun!

I agree completely with your reviews. They could have developed the characters more and elaborated on the mental health treatment of the era. I also just read March and loved that one (more than this).😊

I watched it, and I loved it. Having said that, I really enjoyed your perspective and found myself nodding along and agreeing with lots of your commentary.

Yes if you talk about the books while you’re walking? I listen to booktube on my walks so it would be double booked walking

Agree - feel like James has Pulitzer stamped all over it and rightfully so …. Was happy Orbital won Booker & James sooo American timely timeless :::: JAMES FOR THE PULITZER

Great Video! Hope you loved Wicked.

please share your thoughts on wicked💫

Love Garp and Wally Lamb. And Christodora (spell)

Totally agree on Nigh Watch and Kairos. I read them both this year and was so disappointed. I’ll just say on a couple of these- like The Netanyahus- I did them in audio and actively found that enhanced my enjoyment of the book. I’m not sure I’d have liked it at all as a plain read.

Great Gatsby is fantastic. The writing has style, and the pages are loaded with lush imagery which gives us a direct window into what the 20s was like. I never tire of Gatsby referring to people as "old sport." Catcher In the Rye? I may have appreciated it if I had read it as a kid, since it's about how much being a kid sucks, but having read it as an adult...I didn't love it. I've read Pride and P, Sense and Sensibility, plus Emma, and all are great. Challenging writing is good for you! One classic I personally disliked, which you don't have listed here, is On the Road by Jack Kerouac. That was a tough one. 😆

so happy to have stumbled upon this video after hearing the news! both All Fours and Martyr! hold a special place in my heart as i feel they deal with the human condition on such vast fields in interesting ways. thank you for your thoughts on these!

Saul is pronounced like ‘wall’ with an s instead of a w. :)

Recommend 1.25 speed

Great to hear all your thoughts on these! It'd be great to see Martyr! win though (given the Pulitzer winner this year) I wouldn't take it as a given James will win that. So I'd also be very happy to James win the NBA.

i think martyr! is a great debut but i agree that akbar sort of overshot the plot elements, especially by the end. ghostroots had some tales that really stuck with me. the one about the community fund was really striking. i'm thinking either james or my friends for the win? all fours is my fav of the group, hands down. july's audio narration also unlocks both the rhythm of the humor as well as the sense of desperation that develops midway

The Second Mrs Tanquery is just fantastic and an insight into social issues of the time. I'd go Far From The Madding Crowd - it's more a love web than a triangle

this was a GREAT video!

Reading a short story collection. I think I read it somewhat like a poetry collection where I stop when finishing one, letting it sink in, before reading the next. And that pause may be substantial. Side note: with poetry, you also read it day slower than prose, almost like you are chewing a really good savory morsel. Otherwise, you run the risk of not experiencing it like you should. Anyway. My two cents.

all fours is my favorite of the ones i've read. i've read all of her work and she finally added the perfect amount of taboo instead of going overboard. her short story collection was genius but relied too much on shock value, it put a bad taste in my mouth. her first novel was too disgusting for me to get through. all fours pushed the envelope while still being fun to read. martyr! is kind of impossible to dislike, as you said it has so much heart. definitely deserves the nomination but i don't really love it like others seem to. i think ghostroots is a bit overhyped. it's a good collection. but nothing groundbreaking.

I would laugh if All Fours won…if you changed out the female main character with a male it would be a cliche mid-life crisis story about a man who didn’t care about his wife and was an obsessive narcissist. Ok probably there may have been a sports car thrown instead of “redecorating a hotel room” (lending to female stereotypes). All Fours is a novel about a narcissistic woman who wanted out of her marriage and did outrageous, hurtful things, instead of simply asking for a divorce. Yep, women act like that too 😂. Is this woman empowerment? Shoot, I hope not. I thought it was an entertaining fluff read and was surprised to see it on the list. If it wins, I will be amused to the hilt 😊 I agree, I think Martyr! Might take this one but is My Friends, the dark horse? Not sure, still pondering.