I just finished My Name is Barbra on eAudiobook today. Even listening at 2.35x speed it took a very long time to complete. At normal speed it would be 48 hours long. It was very good and I was reminded of a lot of her music and movies during my lifetime. It was enjoyable. The book might have pictures, but the audio and music.
I’d recommend buying North Woods also, but the audio is fabulous! So just listen now and get the book next year or ask for it for Xmas! I did a combo-I usually read but my mom was in the hospital so I also listened some in the car driving back and forth to the hospital and her house. I don’t usually listen but it was fabulous!
Another great video! Being a real estate agent, I've always been fascinated about the living history of people & animals that have lived in homes, so Northwoods is right in my wheelhouse. The Encyclopedia of Faeries sound fascinating as well! Btw, so the National Dog Show & while watching the Terrier grouping, I saw what you meant about the Welsh Terriers, they are a medium sized dog in comparison to the Airedale or even the Irish Terriers. So cute!
Yes, Greg ❤ it makes me very happy that Deluge is on the list. My siblings & siblings in law are taking me out for my birthday tonight. I tried to have a disco nap but it didn’t work. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving 😍
We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian is by FAR one of the most fun romance m/m novels I've ever read. It feels like a warm hug in a book in a lot of ways and I'd definitely implore you to check it out if you need one of those "shut your brain off" reads. It's set in the 50's in a NYC newsroom and follows a working class journalist and his interest in the rich son of the newspaper he works for. It has so much fun pre-stonewall historical reference, plus the characters are genuinely likable. I usually don't enjoy romance novels at all, but Cat Sebastian is the exception. I'd read stereo instructions if she published them.
Wow I am overwhelmed! I haven’t read hardly any of these books on the list & it makes me as though I would need to read 100 books a year! My number 1 book this year DEMON COPPERHEAD my other book I liked HELLO BEAUTIFUL, HOLLY,ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, MY STUIPD INTENTIONS, POVERTY BY AMERICA, THE QUIET TENANT, THE COVENAT OF WATER but I liked CUTTING FOR STONE better. That’s it I better start reading 😂
Have some of these books on my TBR already and am adding others now! And, don’t worry, I am more of a nonfiction reader and I hadn’t heard of many of the nonfiction selections. 😜
Thanks, Greg!🌷I’m also more of a fiction than a non-fiction person😊I’ve read Isabella Hammad’s Enter Ghost. It’s about a production of Hamlet in Arabic in the West Bank. I didn’t love it but found it quite illuminating on how complicated the lives of Palestinians in Israel are. I bought it before the conflict, just because I’m interested in all things Shakespeare, but ended up prioritizing it because of the recent events. And I’m glad I did. Of The Most Secret Memory of Men I know it won the prestgious Prix Goncourt in France and, if I’m not mistaken, also a bunch of international prizes. It’s one of those books I would like to read, but have no idea when… After Sappho is patiently waiting on my shelves to be read in 2024😊📚Love the Snoopy Santa behind you!!!🎄🎅🏻🎄
Hi Greg. Really like how you did this video and showing the list so helpful. Also for the omissions here’s a quote from The NY Times “ By Early October, they stop adding new books to the list.” I’m not sure how that squares with advance copies but that may explain some of it. Also Ann Patchette pushed to get Tom Lake Published in September instead of October. According to her to avoid the big books coming out. Some who doesn’t like a little controversy. Also moving up in the top ten Supposedly Fun quote of the year….. “I’m excited for those who are excited for this book.”
I would definitely recommend Liliana's Invincible Summer - it is one of my top five books of the year. It sounds depressing but it is so good. Looking forward to your thoughts on The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and North Woods, which are also 2023 favorites for me.
I don't know how, but this is the first of your videos ever. The way you went through the NYT 2023 top 100 was wonderful. Going through it cold was probably a bit frustrating for you, but gave us an honest opinion. The non-fiction on this list sound really interesting. As a fiction lover, it is WAY out of my comfort zone, but they sound amazing and educational. I've always been fond of saying that even in the most inane fiction, there is a nugget of truth or wisdom to take to heart. I must be listening to the wrong podcasts, because there are few on this list I've heard of from more than one list.
I read The Forbidden Notebook earlier this year and really enjoyed it. However, it is a little strange to be on this list because it was originally released in 1952 (in Italian...it was translated into English this year). I think just the Italian aspect alone might make it a good candidate for you. It's about a woman who is living the sort of "acceptable" life, but uses her diary to explore how unhappy she is with her current circumstances. I think the fact that it was written in 1952 and not 2023 looking back makes it even more interesting.
I listened to the audiobook from Barbra Streisand, I’m a fan, but honestly after 48 hours of her talking about herself I don’t think I can listen to her for awhile, Love the Charlie Brown Christmas tree!
See, this is hilarious because it reminded me of a podcast episode where Streisand was talking to Alec Baldwin and it was like a fever dream of oblivious entitlement. So maybe I’ll pass after all. Thanks for saving me a lot of time!
Lots here that I'm interested in and adding to my list. I read Land of Milk and Honey and it was good but not great for me. Interesting themes. I already loved Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and I'm trying to get to North Woods ASAP. Tom Lake was one of favorites this year, too.
Enjoyable, as always. I agree that James McBride's novel will (and should) make the NYT's Top 5. I suspect Hector Tobar's book Our Migrant Souls will be on non-fiction top 5. Tobar writes both non-fiction and fiction (highly acclaimed Barbarian Nurseries, 2011). I haven't yet read Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos, but I did enjoy her earlier novel Go, Went, Gone, set in today's Berlin. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Thank you! If you celebrate, I hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving as well. For some reason, I didn’t think of the Tobar for the top five, but you could be right.
Your predictions sound pretty solid. Based on the little I know I'd be happy if they were on the final list. If I get to any of these soon it will probably be Biography of X or North Woods.
Okay…we need to have a Book Gossip/Tea session because Lauren and Jessymn have been getting *snubbed* quite a bit lately and it’s not sitting right with me. Tbh, Chain Gang All-Stars is aggressively fine. SA Cosby deserves all the awards even though he is genre fic too. His writing is chef’s kiss
Even without having read one of his books (yet), I would be very okay with SA Cosby finding his way onto a top ten. The way Groff and Ward are getting bypassed does feel odd, to say the least.
For The Wager I recommend reading the printed version. I had been looking forward to reading The Wager since I enjoyed The Mutiny on the Bounty years ago. I downloaded the audio version from Libby and was so surprised and disappointed that the narrator’s American voice sounded young and overly cheerful. Since it was about British sailing ships hundreds of years ago was definitely expecting a British accent. Interestingly, when I later read reviews on Goodreads most of the reviews with lower ratings were given by those that listened to the audio.
All the sinners bleed was such a fast read. Very tough but excellent. Too many books, absolutely! I am in spot 562 on my library hold list for the heaven and earth grocery store!
You should check out Forbidden Notebook. It is listed as 'historical fiction' but it's actually a classic from 1952, newly translated from Italian after being championed by Jhumpa Lahiri (the forward is by her as well). It is an incredible book, I just read it and it is a family novel about a 43 year old wife and mother who uses a notebook to keep a journal of her thoughts which she feels is liberating. It is feminist. It is compelling. I read it on audiobook and it became an immediate favourite.
Thanks Greg, I really enjoyed this video. I am currently finishing Liliana's Invincible Summer and would encourage you to research it a bit more as I am finding it really interesting and I think it is up your alley, it's about gender violence in Mexico, family tragedy and its lingering impact and sisters dynamics.
I think Encyclopedia of Faeries is the big cozy fantasy book this year, so it doesn't surprise me too much as it's had some cross genre appeal to non-fantasy readers. Definitely surprised the Emily Carroll book is on the list because I've barely heard about it, but she is well loved and highly talented. Pretty sure you'd recognize some of her backlist, and those might be more your sort than this one I'd bet. Feels like the Booker this year has been too long running, I saw someone post their winner predictions and was like "wait, that's still going on for this year" so very much feeling you with having a hazy Booker year.
I have been hearing insanely good things about "The Most Secret Memory of Men". At least three people have told me it's their favourite book of the year...by a very large margin. Unfortunately, we have to wait until the end of FEB to get it in uk. I've been searching to see if I can find somewhere in the US to import (that's how badly I want to read it) but no luck so far.
I read a lot of nonfiction, and I had not heard of most of those books either. How to Say Babylon and Doppelgänger should move to the top of your NF list IMO. Liliana's Invincible Summer was also very good. Ordinary Notes and Poverty, By America are on my TBR.
It would take several lifetimes for me to read or catch up with all the books that I find worthy. This doesn't even include anything interesting coming up in the future! I have read The Wager by David Grann and I'm happy to see The Undertow by Jeff Sharlet on the list it is quite fascinating. The first chapter is about Harry Belafonte and his role in the civil rights movement. I'm learning so much reading this book. It moves right along, easy to read, but a little frightening to say the least. Like you I read mostly fiction but I am interested in Matthew Desmond's book Poverty, by America and the rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk. I'm not even going to mention the books of fiction that I'm interested in.😂😂😂. If I'm not careful and get interested in the current offerings I could read for the rest of my life without touching a single book on my shelf! Thanks for the fun video.❤😊
Wow, The Undertow sounds fascinating. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! It is amazing that there are so many books to try to cram in-and they just keep right on coming!
Well, boogers! You have to have a subscription to NYT to get to the list at the link. I kept my WP subscription but dropped NYT last year as two subs were getting too expensive and I was angry at a lot of crap political stuff the Times was doing, so it lost. I will go back through your video to pick out the ones that I hadn’t heard of that sounded interesting. I just bought The Wager yesterday when I went in to my local to buy books for their Christmas giving tree for local school kids. I also had The Heaven and Earth Grocery in my hand, but decided to go with The Wager. It’s a beautiful book with maps on the end pages and great illustrations. I’ll definitely pick up Grocery soon. I was surprised you went past We Could Be So Good when you were reviewing the list. I was like, Greg, it’s a gay romance! It’s your jam! But, of course, editing Greg called it out. I will look for that one too. Edit: Just picked up the audiobook. Not completely sure about the narrator, but it sounds like a fun book for the flight to London on Friday night!
I'm near the end of the audiobook of Chain-Gang All-Stars. The audiobook is very well done. I don't understand why it is considered a genre book. It doesn't fit into any genre category that I know about. It is very violent - not surprising considering what it's about. I read Enter Ghost, after watching an interview of the author by Brad Listi on the Otherppl podcast/youtube. I liked it and rated it highly. I would recommend. I listened to and mostly liked Hello Beautiful. Not gushingly so though. I reject any comparison to Demon Copperhead. On the non-fiction side I want to read Fire Weather. I've read and heard good things about it. I just heard an interview of the author on the Read Smart podcast. And it won this year's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction..
On the nonfiction list, I would suggest considering The Best Minds. It is my favorite nonfiction read so far this year. (I may get to Judgment in Tokyo next month, and from everything I've heard, I'm likely to love it.) I agree with you on the Oscar Wars--interesting, but not a top read. .
I enjoyed The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, but I liked Deacon King Kong much more. I read forty to fifty percent nonfiction, and I have only heard of a handful of those listed. I'd love to see The Wager in the top five.
Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride is my number one for the year. I am about 60% done with North Woods by Daniel Mason and pretty sure it’s going to sneak onto my top five.
I very much liked Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, but found the number of characters in the first half of the book off-putting. The last half was much quicker and more enjoyable. Apparently that’s just me. North woods was more my style of book. The prose was beautiful and it read smoothly. I’d never read an Ann Patchett book, but also really enjoyed Tom Lake. Looking forward to a few of these non-fiction books as well.
Current mystery/thrillers rely a bit too heavily on unreliable narrators/alcoholism to play with your mind, and they try so hard to have a lot of twists and turns. It drives me batty!
I've read Our Share of Night and could not finish it. I'd say definitely check the trigger warnings before you read this. The interactions that could be construed as child abuse killed this one for me.
You have to read the bill thieves trilogy,if it bleeds and the outsider first to understand why holly is where holly is in this book. Holly gibney is by far kings !most well rounded main character.
Forbidden Notebook is really good. It’s a fictional notebook written with a feminist twist, set in the 1950’s. I think it was very popular in Italy, but only recently released here.
@@SupposedlyFun yes! The reviewer was Jennifer Wilson one of the literary fiction reviewers of the NYTRB, and the interesting thing is that is a POC reviewer so the points she made in the review are very interesting
@@KikeNavarrete68 I looked up the review, and I do think it made some excellent critiques of the book. Things that didn't bother me as much as they did the reviewer, but all very valid.
I guess there are some that have romantic elements, but definitely no out-and-out romances. If I had to guess, there's probably a bit of genre snobery afoot.
Judgement at Tokyo is boring! Super long, slightly sexist, and very boring. I suspect it is listed because the material is historically significant and deserves to be publicly accessible.
I work 2.5th shift ( in between 2nd & 3rd basically) and get so hype when there’s a new video from you to listen to while I do my get ready for bed routine . Aka: like right now !!! Blahdiggityblah 📖🪱💚
@@SupposedlyFun 🤣 True. And I don't mean anything bad about it or about anybody. For sure many of them are good despite that. "100 years of solitude" is a good example. I like it, but not because of the family element. It's a pet peeve, which I also have with "coming of age" books or movies.
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I just finished My Name is Barbra on eAudiobook today. Even listening at 2.35x speed it took a very long time to complete. At normal speed it would be 48 hours long. It was very good and I was reminded of a lot of her music and movies during my lifetime. It was enjoyable. The book might have pictures, but the audio and music.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! If I can brace myself for the length I may dive in.
I’d recommend buying North Woods also, but the audio is fabulous! So just listen now and get the book next year or ask for it for Xmas! I did a combo-I usually read but my mom was in the hospital so I also listened some in the car driving back and forth to the hospital and her house. I don’t usually listen but it was fabulous!
Another great video! Being a real estate agent, I've always been fascinated about the living history of people & animals that have lived in homes, so Northwoods is right in my wheelhouse. The Encyclopedia of Faeries sound fascinating as well! Btw, so the National Dog Show & while watching the Terrier grouping, I saw what you meant about the Welsh Terriers, they are a medium sized dog in comparison to the Airedale or even the Irish Terriers. So cute!
Yes, Greg ❤ it makes me very happy that Deluge is on the list. My siblings & siblings in law are taking me out for my birthday tonight. I tried to have a disco nap but it didn’t work.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving 😍
I did have a great Thanksgiving, thank you-and I hope your birthday has been great! 🥂
We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian is by FAR one of the most fun romance m/m novels I've ever read. It feels like a warm hug in a book in a lot of ways and I'd definitely implore you to check it out if you need one of those "shut your brain off" reads. It's set in the 50's in a NYC newsroom and follows a working class journalist and his interest in the rich son of the newspaper he works for. It has so much fun pre-stonewall historical reference, plus the characters are genuinely likable. I usually don't enjoy romance novels at all, but Cat Sebastian is the exception. I'd read stereo instructions if she published them.
edited to add, I wrote this before I got to the end of the video. I'm SO glad you're interested in reading it!
Wow I am overwhelmed! I haven’t read hardly any of these books on the list & it makes me as though I would need to read 100 books a year! My number 1 book this year DEMON COPPERHEAD my other book I liked HELLO BEAUTIFUL, HOLLY,ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, MY STUIPD INTENTIONS, POVERTY BY AMERICA, THE QUIET TENANT, THE COVENAT OF WATER but I liked CUTTING FOR STONE better. That’s it I better start reading 😂
I'm really looking forward to Hello Beautiful. Thanks for sharing your list!
Have some of these books on my TBR already and am adding others now! And, don’t worry, I am more of a nonfiction reader and I hadn’t heard of many of the nonfiction selections. 😜
Okay, that really does make me feel a lot better! Thanks.
Thanks, Greg!🌷I’m also more of a fiction than a non-fiction person😊I’ve read Isabella Hammad’s Enter Ghost. It’s about a production of Hamlet in Arabic in the West Bank. I didn’t love it but found it quite illuminating on how complicated the lives of Palestinians in Israel are. I bought it before the conflict, just because I’m interested in all things Shakespeare, but ended up prioritizing it because of the recent events. And I’m glad I did. Of The Most Secret Memory of Men I know it won the prestgious Prix Goncourt in France and, if I’m not mistaken, also a bunch of international prizes. It’s one of those books I would like to read, but have no idea when… After Sappho is patiently waiting on my shelves to be read in 2024😊📚Love the Snoopy Santa behind you!!!🎄🎅🏻🎄
Very interesting-sounding books-thanks for mentioning them.
Hi Greg. Really like how you did this video and showing the list so helpful. Also for the omissions here’s a quote from The NY Times “ By Early October, they stop adding new books to the list.” I’m not sure how that squares with advance copies but that may explain some of it. Also Ann Patchette pushed to get Tom Lake Published in September instead of October. According to her to avoid the big books coming out. Some who doesn’t like a little controversy. Also moving up in the top ten Supposedly Fun quote of the year….. “I’m excited for those who are excited for this book.”
this was so fun and tbh a 2024 with no reading goals sounds blissful.
I would definitely recommend Liliana's Invincible Summer - it is one of my top five books of the year. It sounds depressing but it is so good. Looking forward to your thoughts on The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and North Woods, which are also 2023 favorites for me.
That's good to know--thank you!
I don't know how, but this is the first of your videos ever. The way you went through the NYT 2023 top 100 was wonderful. Going through it cold was probably a bit frustrating for you, but gave us an honest opinion. The non-fiction on this list sound really interesting. As a fiction lover, it is WAY out of my comfort zone, but they sound amazing and educational. I've always been fond of saying that even in the most inane fiction, there is a nugget of truth or wisdom to take to heart. I must be listening to the wrong podcasts, because there are few on this list I've heard of from more than one list.
I read The Forbidden Notebook earlier this year and really enjoyed it. However, it is a little strange to be on this list because it was originally released in 1952 (in Italian...it was translated into English this year). I think just the Italian aspect alone might make it a good candidate for you. It's about a woman who is living the sort of "acceptable" life, but uses her diary to explore how unhappy she is with her current circumstances. I think the fact that it was written in 1952 and not 2023 looking back makes it even more interesting.
There's been a lot fo good feedback for Forbidden Notebook. I requested it at muy library, so we'll see if they get it!
I listened to the audiobook from Barbra Streisand, I’m a fan, but honestly after 48 hours of her talking about herself I don’t think I can listen to her for awhile,
Love the Charlie Brown Christmas tree!
See, this is hilarious because it reminded me of a podcast episode where Streisand was talking to Alec Baldwin and it was like a fever dream of oblivious entitlement. So maybe I’ll pass after all. Thanks for saving me a lot of time!
Lots here that I'm interested in and adding to my list. I read Land of Milk and Honey and it was good but not great for me. Interesting themes. I already loved Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and I'm trying to get to North Woods ASAP. Tom Lake was one of favorites this year, too.
I spoke to someone at Montana Book Co, and they got me even more excited to get to Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and North Woods.
Enjoyable, as always. I agree that James McBride's novel will (and should) make the NYT's Top 5. I suspect Hector Tobar's book Our Migrant Souls will be on non-fiction top 5. Tobar writes both non-fiction and fiction (highly acclaimed Barbarian Nurseries, 2011). I haven't yet read Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos, but I did enjoy her earlier novel Go, Went, Gone, set in today's Berlin. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Thank you! If you celebrate, I hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving as well. For some reason, I didn’t think of the Tobar for the top five, but you could be right.
Your predictions sound pretty solid. Based on the little I know I'd be happy if they were on the final list. If I get to any of these soon it will probably be Biography of X or North Woods.
I spoke to an employee at Montana Book Company who has very similar taste in books to me, and she got me very excited to read North Woods.
Okay…we need to have a Book Gossip/Tea session because Lauren and Jessymn have been getting *snubbed* quite a bit lately and it’s not sitting right with me.
Tbh, Chain Gang All-Stars is aggressively fine. SA Cosby deserves all the awards even though he is genre fic too. His writing is chef’s kiss
Even without having read one of his books (yet), I would be very okay with SA Cosby finding his way onto a top ten. The way Groff and Ward are getting bypassed does feel odd, to say the least.
For The Wager I recommend reading the printed version. I had been looking forward to reading The Wager since I enjoyed The Mutiny on the Bounty years ago. I downloaded the audio version from Libby and was so surprised and disappointed that the narrator’s American voice sounded young and overly cheerful. Since it was about British sailing ships hundreds of years ago was definitely expecting a British accent. Interestingly, when I later read reviews on Goodreads most of the reviews with lower ratings were given by those that listened to the audio.
I read and LOVED the print book. It definitely lends itself to a dry, ironic British accent though.
All the sinners bleed was such a fast read. Very tough but excellent. Too many books, absolutely! I am in spot 562 on my library hold list for the heaven and earth grocery store!
Wow, that’s a long hold list! 😱
@@SupposedlyFun it is wild. I have plenty to read on my shelves though to keep me busy 🤣
Same!
You should check out Forbidden Notebook. It is listed as 'historical fiction' but it's actually a classic from 1952, newly translated from Italian after being championed by Jhumpa Lahiri (the forward is by her as well). It is an incredible book, I just read it and it is a family novel about a 43 year old wife and mother who uses a notebook to keep a journal of her thoughts which she feels is liberating. It is feminist. It is compelling. I read it on audiobook and it became an immediate favourite.
Thanks Greg, I really enjoyed this video. I am currently finishing Liliana's Invincible Summer and would encourage you to research it a bit more as I am finding it really interesting and I think it is up your alley, it's about gender violence in Mexico, family tragedy and its lingering impact and sisters dynamics.
Thanks for the feedback on it!
I think Encyclopedia of Faeries is the big cozy fantasy book this year, so it doesn't surprise me too much as it's had some cross genre appeal to non-fantasy readers.
Definitely surprised the Emily Carroll book is on the list because I've barely heard about it, but she is well loved and highly talented. Pretty sure you'd recognize some of her backlist, and those might be more your sort than this one I'd bet.
Feels like the Booker this year has been too long running, I saw someone post their winner predictions and was like "wait, that's still going on for this year" so very much feeling you with having a hazy Booker year.
I have been hearing insanely good things about "The Most Secret Memory of Men". At least three people have told me it's their favourite book of the year...by a very large margin. Unfortunately, we have to wait until the end of FEB to get it in uk. I've been searching to see if I can find somewhere in the US to import (that's how badly I want to read it) but no luck so far.
I read a lot of nonfiction, and I had not heard of most of those books either. How to Say Babylon and Doppelgänger should move to the top of your NF list IMO. Liliana's Invincible Summer was also very good. Ordinary Notes and Poverty, By America are on my TBR.
It would take several lifetimes for me to read or catch up with all the books that I find worthy. This doesn't even include anything interesting coming up in the future! I have read The Wager by David Grann and I'm happy to see The Undertow by Jeff Sharlet on the list it is quite fascinating. The first chapter is about Harry Belafonte and his role in the civil rights movement. I'm learning so much reading this book. It moves right along, easy to read, but a little frightening to say the least. Like you I read mostly fiction but I am interested in Matthew Desmond's book Poverty, by America and the rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk. I'm not even going to mention the books of fiction that I'm interested in.😂😂😂. If I'm not careful and get interested in the current offerings I could read for the rest of my life without touching a single book on my shelf! Thanks for the fun video.❤😊
Wow, The Undertow sounds fascinating. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! It is amazing that there are so many books to try to cram in-and they just keep right on coming!
@@SupposedlyFun I just finished the Undertow and thought it was a extraordinary book. An eye-opening read for sure. I highly recommend it.
Well, boogers! You have to have a subscription to NYT to get to the list at the link. I kept my WP subscription but dropped NYT last year as two subs were getting too expensive and I was angry at a lot of crap political stuff the Times was doing, so it lost. I will go back through your video to pick out the ones that I hadn’t heard of that sounded interesting. I just bought The Wager yesterday when I went in to my local to buy books for their Christmas giving tree for local school kids. I also had The Heaven and Earth Grocery in my hand, but decided to go with The Wager. It’s a beautiful book with maps on the end pages and great illustrations. I’ll definitely pick up Grocery soon. I was surprised you went past We Could Be So Good when you were reviewing the list. I was like, Greg, it’s a gay romance! It’s your jam! But, of course, editing Greg called it out. I will look for that one too. Edit: Just picked up the audiobook. Not completely sure about the narrator, but it sounds like a fun book for the flight to London on Friday night!
I'm near the end of the audiobook of Chain-Gang All-Stars. The audiobook is very well done. I don't understand why it is considered a genre book. It doesn't fit into any genre category that I know about. It is very violent - not surprising considering what it's about.
I read Enter Ghost, after watching an interview of the author by Brad Listi on the Otherppl podcast/youtube. I liked it and rated it highly. I would recommend.
I listened to and mostly liked Hello Beautiful. Not gushingly so though. I reject any comparison to Demon Copperhead.
On the non-fiction side I want to read Fire Weather. I've read and heard good things about it. I just heard an interview of the author on the Read Smart podcast. And it won this year's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction..
On the nonfiction list, I would suggest considering The Best Minds. It is my favorite nonfiction read so far this year. (I may get to Judgment in Tokyo next month, and from everything I've heard, I'm likely to love it.) I agree with you on the Oscar Wars--interesting, but not a top read.
.
I enjoyed The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, but I liked Deacon King Kong much more. I read forty to fifty percent nonfiction, and I have only heard of a handful of those listed. I'd love to see The Wager in the top five.
Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride is my number one for the year. I am about 60% done with North Woods by Daniel Mason and pretty sure it’s going to sneak onto my top five.
Our Share of Night was really mixed bag. I overall enjoyed it but it's just way too long
I've heard a lot of comments like that.
I very much liked Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, but found the number of characters in the first half of the book off-putting. The last half was much quicker and more enjoyable. Apparently that’s just me. North woods was more my style of book. The prose was beautiful and it read smoothly. I’d never read an Ann Patchett book, but also really enjoyed Tom Lake. Looking forward to a few of these non-fiction books as well.
I liked Tom Lake,but liked Bel Canto and Commonwealth more.
I'm curious what about mystery thrillers get on your nerves. I also don't like thrillers, but I'm not sure why myself.
Current mystery/thrillers rely a bit too heavily on unreliable narrators/alcoholism to play with your mind, and they try so hard to have a lot of twists and turns. It drives me batty!
The Wager and Poverty By America are both excellent nonfiction!
I've read Our Share of Night and could not finish it. I'd say definitely check the trigger warnings before you read this. The interactions that could be construed as child abuse killed this one for me.
You have to read the bill thieves trilogy,if it bleeds and the outsider first to understand why holly is where holly is in this book. Holly gibney is by far kings !most well rounded main character.
Sometimes people get burned out on dystopia 😂
Forbidden Notebook is really good. It’s a fictional notebook written with a feminist twist, set in the 1950’s. I think it was very popular in Italy, but only recently released here.
“Let us descend” was panned by The New York Times Book Review
Interesting! They've spoken about it on their podcast without criticizing it at all.
@@SupposedlyFun yes! The reviewer was Jennifer Wilson one of the literary fiction reviewers of the NYTRB, and the interesting thing is that is a POC reviewer so the points she made in the review are very interesting
@@KikeNavarrete68 I looked up the review, and I do think it made some excellent critiques of the book. Things that didn't bother me as much as they did the reviewer, but all very valid.
There were no romance books mentioned on the list why is that ?
I guess there are some that have romantic elements, but definitely no out-and-out romances. If I had to guess, there's probably a bit of genre snobery afoot.
So many BOOKS! So little TIME! 😂
So true!
Judgement at Tokyo is boring! Super long, slightly sexist, and very boring. I suspect it is listed because the material is historically significant and deserves to be publicly accessible.
I work 2.5th shift ( in between 2nd & 3rd basically) and get so hype when there’s a new video from you to listen to while I do my get ready for bed routine . Aka: like right now !!! Blahdiggityblah 📖🪱💚
I love it when timing works out! 🤗
I can't stand books about family. The words "this book is about a family" put me to sleep. 🥱
That eliminates a lot of books you could read!
@@SupposedlyFun 🤣 True. And I don't mean anything bad about it or about anybody. For sure many of them are good despite that. "100 years of solitude" is a good example. I like it, but not because of the family element.
It's a pet peeve, which I also have with "coming of age" books or movies.
I agree, plus no boarding school stories, please!