So glad you enjoyed Anne of Green Gables. I hope you continue the series. At least read up to the third book, Anne of the Island. It's where she goes to college. It's my favorite. Also, one of the best books I read this year was Miss Benson's Beetle, which I only discovered because of your channel, so thank you.
So happy that you loved Fresh Water for Flowers. It was one of my favorites a couple of years ago and I never hear anyone talk about it. Rebecca has always been my very favorite book. Btw, your shirt is fabulous!
You started off with 2 Canadian authors which was fun for me to see. "Rebecca" was one of my favourites this year and for the other two I'd choose "Normal People" by Sally Rooney and John William's "Stoner". You are sparkly today and look ready for New Year's festivities. All the best to you in 2025!
My #1 book of the year was: Days At The Morasaki Bookshop #2 Jane Eyre ( hard to decide each between 1&2); and #3 The Underground Library. You look beautiful Alice, your top is stunning!
Dear Alice , Thank you for your recommendations: i just purchased "The Color Purple" and cant wait to read it :) My top best reads to 2024: The God of the woods, Circe & number 1: Pride & prejudice.
My top three favourite books this year were: 1- Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart; 2- Mrs S. by K. Patrick; 3- The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins ✨ Thank you Alice for all your videos again this year. I enjoy drinking my coffee in your company every Sunday morning. Also, my cat and her whiskers say hi 😉🧡
The Color Purple is so powerful. Did you see either of the movie adaptations? Anne of Green Gables has been a fave since I was 7 years old. The whole series is divine and I also love The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery too. My favorites I read this year were The Cemetery of Untold Stories, The Eighth Detective and The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
Hi Alice, greetings again from Toronto 🇨🇦. I hope you are well. Your top is fantastic; you look gorgeous! I’m glad you’ve read Anne of Green Gables, it’s a Canadian classic. I will definitely check out some of the books on your list. Simone St. James is an author I’ve been meaning to read; now I will start with Broken Girls. So you finally got to Rebecca; congratulations! Have a great New Year’s and good reading to you in2025.
Alice, you mentioned so many great books!! Three of my top favorites I read this year were The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre, The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, and The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring. I also read God of the Woods and The Broken Girls this year and loved them both. Looking forward to finally picking up Fresh Water for Flowers in 2025.
I listened to The Broken Girls in November based on your recommendation and I am so glad I did. Anne of Green Gables is one of my absolute favorite books. I also read Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and would like to read the sequel. I really want to go to the Jimbōchō district now. Sadly, I read it after getting back from Japan and realized I was only about a mile from there several times and didn't know about it. Nettle and Bone is my favorite T. Kingfisher book. Every character is just so perfectly written. God of the Woods I had a love/hate relationship with. I absolutely loved the mystery of what happened to the daughter in the 70's. I absolutely hated everything about the mystery with the son in the 60's, especially the conclusion of that storyline. I gave it three stars. If it had just been the mystery in the 70's, it would have been a five star read for me. Some books I really loved this year: 1) The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst 2) The Elements of Cadence duology by Rebecca Ross 3) The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke 4) Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett 5) The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
It made me chuckle a bit when you got to Morisaki Bookshop because that's literally in my worst books of the year video😂 It's the last book I read this year that went into that list.
I don’t know if I can narrow it down more but a few of my favorites this year were Martyr!, The Goldfinch, An Illuminated Life, The Boys of Summer, and Never Let Me Go. I have to add I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday to take advantage of their sale and one book I picked up because of you was Fresh Water for Flowers. I’m looking forward to reading it very soon. I am loving your festive look too, Happy New Year🥳🎉❤️✨
Love the sparkly New Year’s Eve look on you in this video 🎉. Like you’re ready to head out to a party! Great book recommendations. Nettle and Bone is def my favorite TK book as well. This year I read The Witcher series which was very gritty and dark, as well as the Lady Trent memoir fantasy adventure series which begins with A Natural History of Dragons. Apparently I like to binge read completed series. Also read all 4 completed books in The Stranger Times series- fantasy with a lot of humor-specifically British humor. I enjoyed all of those very much. Wishing you a very happy and enjoyable 2025 ❤🎉❤
I love the variety of books you read. ☺ I think that top 3 this year for me would all be fantasy books: The Poppy War, The Night Circus, and Spells for Forgetting.
Night Circus is my all time favorite book! I looooooove it so much. I read it this past year too. In love! Maybe we have the same taste in books, I’ll check out the other ones you mentioned too.
@@bonnieleary1197 I'm pretty sure that you will like Spells for Forgetting. ☺ As for the Poppy War check for trigger warnings before reading it. It is a phenomenal read, but also very brutal.
My top 3 books this year were Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, If We Were Villains by M L Rio and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I also re-read The Color Purple this year and it’s still a favourite
I actually haven't read any of these but there are a handful on my TBR. Also, I think you might enjoy The Lantern of Lost Memories. It's another translated book from Japan. The story was very well crafted.
I absolutely loved Tender is the Flesh and cannot wait to read her upcoming book The Unworthy. Bazterrica is pretty much an auto-buy for me now. And you got me wanting to check out Boy Parts, I really liked the book Penance by the same author! I need to read Rebecca, it's been on my TBR for like 10 years at this point ;) --- In a totally unrelated note: your hair color is AMAZING -- giving me Kim Novak in Vertigo and Elsa vibes! Happy reading to us in 2025.
my top 3 reads of this year were Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher and This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik (i think this one was one i picked up coz you talked about it in a video!) honorable mention goes to Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson which i also found because of this channel! it was such a fun adventure book and so underrated. I also loved Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor, i just overall loved getting back to reading adventure books this past year and hope to continue - they're just so hard to find! you talking about Tender is the Flesh made me nauseous just from the description so definitely not picking up that one 😂
Narrowing down to 3 would be hard, but i can try (or not) 1. The ten thousand doors of Janurary by Alix E. Harrow. 2. Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. 3. Strange and Beautiful sorrows of Ava Lavender. . . . 4. The wicked deep by Shea Ernshaw. 5. My husband by Maud Ventura. 6. A fire endless by rebecca ross. 7. Under the whispering door by T J Klune.
This has been a good reading year for me also. My favorite books were Brotherless Night (broke my heart), Winter Solstice, and The Bear and the Nightingale out of 40 books read this year. I also read Nadia Cohen's biography of Beatrice Potter and Kate Morton's The House at Riverton which I would recommend too. A lot of the books were very good. I also have Fresh Water for Flowers to read this spring.
Oh Nettle and Bone 🥰 absolutely adore that chicken!!!! Also Bone Dog. I recently finished Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries, definitely in my top books as well. Lastly, more in the Fantasy Romance realm, The Serpent and the Wing of Night duology, I ate them up! Oh… and maybe A Sorceress Comes to Call should be in the top ones as well.
This is an amazing list! I’m pretty sure I added Fresh Water for Flowers to my TBR earlier this year on your recommendation, and I just added the bookshop one. Anne and Rebecca are perfection. Three faves from this year: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell, and Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad.
Thank you for enduring Tender is the Flesh to review it. I know I could never read it.When I was in 6th grade I had a nightmare that I was packaged like chicken parts in a cannibalistic society ! Thanks to Emily Fox and your recs, I am currently enjoying Hamnet and am am looking forward to reading The Book of the Unnamed Midwife and Nettle and Bone next. Five favorite reads from 2024 are The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu,,Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol R. Blunt, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, and Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier.
Sparkles for new years! I love being sparkly lol I'd have a hard time making a video like this because most of what I read I gave five stars lol Maybe half of the 104 books I read this year I gave 5 stars, the rest 4 stars with a few 3 stars and two 2 stars. Thanks to reviewers like you I'm able to curate my own TBR a lot better, so thanks! :D Happy new year! Looking forward to another year of reading!
Great list! I have Fresh Water for Flowers and I Who Have Never Known Men on my 2025 priory list! I'm so glad you loved Rebecca! My top 3 reads this year were 1. Mansfield Park by Austen 2. Book Lovers by Henry 3. Far From the Madding Crowd by Hardy
My top books were: God of the Woods, All the Colors of the dark by Chris Whitaker, and Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny. Happy new year, Alice, thanks for all the wonderful content.
Hi Alice Some of these books sounds really good. My Birthday was on the 28th so I took some of my Christmas and Birthday Money and I bought a few Kindle Books. On this 29th of December - Sunday / it is pouring down rain like crazy - windy - chilly out. It’s a good day to stay in - and read my Kindle Book - Assistant to the Villain. I love this book. Take Care & Happy Reading ❤️🤗🔰📖📚☕️🏘️💦☔️❤️
I do agree with you for The God of the Woods! I loved it!!! I really want to read Broken Girls as well! Some of the books that stand out this year in my opinion ( hell, I very very rarely give a 5 star review also) were Death in the Spires by K.J. Charles , The headmaster’s wife by Thomas Christopher Green, The little friend, by Donna Tartt, The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis and A dowry of blood by S.T. Gibson. Have a great New Year and here’s hoping to a great reading year!!!
Alice! I found your channel a few months ago when I was looking for gothic and dark academia recommendations, and I’m so glad I did! I’ve added so many books to my ever growing TBR because of you 😂, and I’m so ready to see your content in 2025. 🎉
My favourites of 2024: 1) Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands, 2) The lost story by Meg Shaffer (Narnia- style adventure for grownups), 3) A dark and secret magic (small town/ darkish cottage core Halloween adventure)
My favourite books of the year were Eyes Guts Throat Bones by Moira Fowley, Roarings From Further Out by Algernon Blackwood (The Willows by him is part of this collection but it is also a favourite of mine separate from this collection), and Astronomy: Sky Country. It is also possible that A Botanical Daughter is also going to be a favourite, but I have not yet finish it and since I am working today I doubt I will finish it today
Happy new year, Alice! 🎊I plan to read Anne of Green Gables soon and am excited for the upcoming anime adaptation 🤗 I've also heard amazing things about Montgomery's The Blue Castle :) looking forward to your videos in 2025!
My top 3 books of the year were all extremely unexpected, and genres I don't usually read. #3 was the Gravekeeper series by Darcy Coates; I read the 4 available books (the fifth and final one comes out in 2025) and LOVED it. It's mostly thriller with a few horror and sci-fi elements. #2 was the Murderbot Diaries novellas 1-4, my first real step into scifi and I related so much to the titular character. #1 was Middlegame by Seanan McGuire; I'm STILL recovering from that one.
"Rebecca" and "The broken Girls" are books I enjoyed as well."The God of the woods" went on my list 😀 I red a lot of good books in 2024, but my 4 Favoites are: "The whispering Muse" by Laua Purcell "The Colour of Milk" by Nell Leyshon "The Girls with no Names" by Serena Burdick "The Fort" by Gordon Korman I wish you a great reading year for 2025 and look forward to your recommendations!
I read a lot of good books this year, but I only gave three books 5 stars, so I guess I was planning all year for my response to this video. 🤭 1. Breaking and Mending: A Junior Doctor's Stories of Compassion and Burnout by Joanna Cannon. Each chapter is almost like a little short story or essay exploring a specific situation and you get the perspective of someone who became a doctor VERY late in life which I thought was so interesting and inspiring in the second half of my own personal centenarian journey. 2. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. (I may have mentioned this one previously. Perfect read for winter.) 3. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong. (This one even has some deep cut literature references for the "if you know you know" crowd that can catch them.
These are my favourite books of 2024: Nr. 3 - Dead Girls, Selva Almada Nr. 2 - Childhood, Youth, Dependency, by Tove Ditlevsen Nr. 1 - Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart
My top 3 books of 2024 were The Broken Girls, Flowers for Algernon, & (top) The Secret History ( you might be able to guess who inspired that one!!) Your 5stars are all books I have on my TBR for early this year.
My favorite 3 books of the year are « the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo » the 3-book series « Wayward Pines » and « The thirteenth tale ». Also, as a French person, I’m very (but pleasantly) surprised to see two French books in your favorites of the year ❤️
Love it! I have the Thirteenth Tale on my TBR for 2025 😃 And yeees, I clearly need to read more French authors now, there’s something there that works for me ❤️🥰
The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher, I hope you get to read it and let us know what you think! I'm currently reading Nettle and Bone based on your recommendation. ❤
Hi Alice, my top 3 were Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James and Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson. Honorable mentions are Cackle by Rachel Harrison, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross and The Nurse's Secret by Amanda Skenandore. Thank you for all the videos this year and Happy almost New Year! 🥳🎉
Tender is the Flesh is by far one of the most disturbing books I've read to a large extent because, as you said, it normalizes cannibalism. It isn't difficult to think "yeah, that could happen". Oh, and I am someone you could recommend the book to 😀 so I'm going to view more of your vlogs.
How nice it is to watch your next video and listen to reviews of such interesting books! Last year I had many literary discoveries, for example, these are Japanese authors: Sosuke Natsukawa "The Cat That Saved Books" and Kotaro Isaka "The Mantis". Clive Lewis' fantastic books "Beyond the Silent Planets" and "Perelander" were also a revelation for me. In the future, I want to read the book "Abominable Power" by this author. Also, the discovery of the year for me was the book of the philosopher René Guénon "The Crisis of the Modern World" - it was written almost 100 years ago, but it is very relevant. Among the non-fiction books, I liked: "Future Crimes" by Marg Goodman and "Economics on a Plate" by Ha-Joon Chang. I take this opportunity to congratulate you on the upcoming New Year and send greetings from unconquered Ukraine!
First of al, Thanks for all the recommendations and happy new year,🎉 You are right, Tender is the flesh is a great book but I'm not sure if I recommend it to someone Now my favourite books of this year were The familiar by Leigh Bardugo, Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson and The secret history by Donna Tartt
With the exception of no. 1, I have not read any of these. Will check out no. 2. though. There is the hype, but I also want to try and read my favorites' favorites this upcoming year. My top 3 books of 2024 are: Debt by David Graeber The Moomin comics by Tove Jansson Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh (I think you would like this one)
Alice I have read so many books I could maybe do top 20!!!🤣Last read of the year though is The city and its uncertain walls by Murakami and I am go to enjoy the world of wonder and the thoughtfulness it seems to evoke
Top three!!???? Alice I can't do it. I have a top four and some new-to-me authors. #1 book of the year, even the decade - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir This book blows everything else away and has one of the best characters ever, Rocky! Number 2 - Orbital by Samantha Harvey This follows one day in the life of astronauts in the ISS and reads not only like non-fiction but poetry. People seem to love it or hate it and I loved it! Number 3 - Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi I read this in February and announced at that time that it was my best read of the year. A bold statement to make in February! It was so unexpected and enjoyable. Number 4 - Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez I had to include this one because I Never read romance, never. All the hype made me give it a try and I enjoyed it so much. New to me authors I will continue to read - in no particular order - Tana French Benjamin Stevenson Hank Green Laura van den Berg Blake Crouch Kazuo Ishiguro Sarah Beth Durst Louise Penny Tashikazu Kawaguchi I enjoy seeing your videos and I'm glad I found you in the maze of RUclips! Not to be shallow, but your sparkling shirt is fabulous! 😊
I completely agree about Project Hail Mary. I read it close to two years ago and was blown away. Two hundred books later and none of them have come close.
ALICE! I'm sooooo disappointed! My order (from your recommendation) Yours From The Tower, just arrived AND DOES NOT HAVE SPRAYED EDGES!!! Maybe I shld. have ordered it from Blackwells. Mine is the U.S. copy 😑😑 Still looking forward to the story though.
I kinda wanna recommend a reaallly unpopular Japanese translated fiction called Red Girls: Legend of Akakuchibas(or something) by Kazuki Sakuraba (mangaka behind GOSICK) . The eng translation is not top notch but kinda ok to push by. But the story feels like it'll fit your vibe... I'm not sure if you'll definitely be blown away though...
My job this year is to bring some attention to my best book of the year. I apologize if I already did this under some of your videos. My top 3 is: 1. Confessions of a prairie bitch by Alison Arngrim. If you watched Little House on the Prairie, you have to get this memoir. If you are interested in child stars, you have to read this. If you want know what it was like to play a villain in a time where people couldn't differentiate between character and actor, you have to read this. Trigger warning tho, it contains really heavy topics like death and c sa. Alison somehow still managed to make the book funny as fuck. It's such a good read. 2. Blood over bright haven. Finally a dark academia book that worked for me. 3. Were you come from by saša stanišic
This year at the age of 66 I read Anne of Green Gables and also enjoyed it!
😍❤️
I’m 65 and hope to read it soon!
So glad you enjoyed Anne of Green Gables. I hope you continue the series. At least read up to the third book, Anne of the Island. It's where she goes to college. It's my favorite. Also, one of the best books I read this year was Miss Benson's Beetle, which I only discovered because of your channel, so thank you.
I’m so glad you liked Miss Benson’s Beetle, yay!! 🥰
Same about Miss Benson’s Beetle (it was in my top 10)
I have read 7 of your list. I did absolutely love Fresh Water for Flowers
It’s so good!! 😍
So happy that you loved Fresh Water for Flowers. It was one of my favorites a couple of years ago and I never hear anyone talk about it. Rebecca has always been my very favorite book. Btw, your shirt is fabulous!
It was soooo good!! And thank you 🥰
You started off with 2 Canadian authors which was fun for me to see.
"Rebecca" was one of my favourites this year and for the other two I'd choose "Normal People" by Sally Rooney and John William's "Stoner".
You are sparkly today and look ready for New Year's festivities. All the best to you in 2025!
Normal People and Stoner are some of my faves too 😍 so good!!
Nettle and Bone is so good! Great list of books here.
My favourites were: Gideon the Ninth, Spellshop and The Marlow Murder Club
Yes!! 😃♥️
I love your descriptions of the books- you make me want to read all the books.
🥰❤️
My #1 book of the year was: Days At The Morasaki Bookshop #2 Jane Eyre ( hard to decide each between 1&2); and #3 The Underground Library. You look beautiful Alice, your top is stunning!
😃❤️🥰
Dear Alice , Thank you for your recommendations: i just purchased "The Color Purple" and cant wait to read it :) My top best reads to 2024: The God of the woods, Circe & number 1: Pride & prejudice.
Really hope you like The Color Purple!! It’s such a great book ❤️
Yes. Nettle and Bone was the best!!
So good!! 🥰❤️
My top three favourite books this year were: 1- Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart; 2- Mrs S. by K. Patrick; 3- The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins ✨ Thank you Alice for all your videos again this year. I enjoy drinking my coffee in your company every Sunday morning. Also, my cat and her whiskers say hi 😉🧡
The whiskers!!! 😭❤️ This makes me so happy!!
I'm so glad you loved Rebecca! It's my all-time favorite book. This year, I'd say my top two reads were Nettle & Bone and We Used to Live Here.
🥰❤️
I’ve heard such good things about The Broken Girls. If I ever see it at a book store, I’ll probably pick it up. Great video
It’s so good! 🥰
The Color Purple is so powerful. Did you see either of the movie adaptations? Anne of Green Gables has been a fave since I was 7 years old. The whole series is divine and I also love The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery too. My favorites I read this year were The Cemetery of Untold Stories, The Eighth Detective and The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
I haven’t seen any adaptations yet! But I really want to 🥰
Hi Alice, greetings again from Toronto 🇨🇦. I hope you are well. Your top is fantastic; you look gorgeous! I’m glad you’ve read Anne of Green Gables, it’s a Canadian classic. I will definitely check out some of the books on your list. Simone St. James is an author I’ve been meaning to read; now I will start with Broken Girls. So you finally got to Rebecca; congratulations!
Have a great New Year’s and good reading to you in2025.
I truly enjoyed your presentation of books. Now I'm curious about the Dystopian genre. Thanks for the new option presented.
Alice, you mentioned so many great books!! Three of my top favorites I read this year were The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre, The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, and The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring. I also read God of the Woods and The Broken Girls this year and loved them both. Looking forward to finally picking up Fresh Water for Flowers in 2025.
Love it! 😍😍
As a Canadian, I love that you read, and enjoyed, Anne of Green Gables 🙂 Happy New Years! I love your shirt too!
Happy new years! 🥰❤️
I listened to The Broken Girls in November based on your recommendation and I am so glad I did. Anne of Green Gables is one of my absolute favorite books. I also read Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and would like to read the sequel. I really want to go to the Jimbōchō district now. Sadly, I read it after getting back from Japan and realized I was only about a mile from there several times and didn't know about it. Nettle and Bone is my favorite T. Kingfisher book. Every character is just so perfectly written. God of the Woods I had a love/hate relationship with. I absolutely loved the mystery of what happened to the daughter in the 70's. I absolutely hated everything about the mystery with the son in the 60's, especially the conclusion of that storyline. I gave it three stars. If it had just been the mystery in the 70's, it would have been a five star read for me.
Some books I really loved this year:
1) The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
2) The Elements of Cadence duology by Rebecca Ross
3) The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke
4) Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
5) The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
😍❤️🥰
Hi Alice. Anna here. Love your videos. I’d have to say my favorite book this year was East of Eden. Wishing you a very happy New Year❤
Happy new year!! ❤️❤️
I was gifted The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I would never have chosen to read this book, but wow, I am halfway through and really enjoying.
I love that one!! 😍
It made me chuckle a bit when you got to Morisaki Bookshop because that's literally in my worst books of the year video😂 It's the last book I read this year that went into that list.
Ahahaha this made me laugh!! 😂😂😂
i agree
I don’t know if I can narrow it down more but a few of my favorites this year were Martyr!, The Goldfinch, An Illuminated Life, The Boys of Summer, and Never Let Me Go. I have to add I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday to take advantage of their sale and one book I picked up because of you was Fresh Water for Flowers. I’m looking forward to reading it very soon. I am loving your festive look too, Happy New Year🥳🎉❤️✨
Ooooh amazing!! I really hope you like Fresh Water for Flowers, it’s so good! 🥰❤️
Love the sparkly New Year’s Eve look on you in this video 🎉. Like you’re ready to head out to a party! Great book recommendations. Nettle and Bone is def my favorite TK book as well. This year I read The Witcher series which was very gritty and dark, as well as the Lady Trent memoir fantasy adventure series which begins with A Natural History of Dragons. Apparently I like to binge read completed series. Also read all 4 completed books in The Stranger Times series- fantasy with a lot of humor-specifically British humor. I enjoyed all of those very much. Wishing you a very happy and enjoyable 2025 ❤🎉❤
Thank you! ✨❤️
I love the variety of books you read. ☺ I think that top 3 this year for me would all be fantasy books: The Poppy War, The Night Circus, and Spells for Forgetting.
Love it! 😍❤️
Night Circus is my all time favorite book! I looooooove it so much. I read it this past year too. In love! Maybe we have the same taste in books, I’ll check out the other ones you mentioned too.
@@bonnieleary1197 I'm pretty sure that you will like Spells for Forgetting. ☺ As for the Poppy War check for trigger warnings before reading it. It is a phenomenal read, but also very brutal.
@ awesome! Thank you for responding 🤩🤩🤩🫶🏻
@@bonnieleary1197 😘
My top 3 books this year were Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, If We Were Villains by M L Rio and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I also re-read The Color Purple this year and it’s still a favourite
Love it! 😍❤️
My partner gifted me Days at the Morisaki Bookshop for Christmas so I'm incredibly excited to dive into that one soon!
I really hope you like it! 🥰❤️
I actually haven't read any of these but there are a handful on my TBR. Also, I think you might enjoy The Lantern of Lost Memories. It's another translated book from Japan. The story was very well crafted.
Oooh thank you for the rec! I’ll check it out 🥰
I absolutely loved Tender is the Flesh and cannot wait to read her upcoming book The Unworthy. Bazterrica is pretty much an auto-buy for me now. And you got me wanting to check out Boy Parts, I really liked the book Penance by the same author! I need to read Rebecca, it's been on my TBR for like 10 years at this point ;) --- In a totally unrelated note: your hair color is AMAZING -- giving me Kim Novak in Vertigo and Elsa vibes! Happy reading to us in 2025.
Thank you! 🥰 I’m super excited about her new book as well, it looks so good! 😍 And I definitely want to read Penance as well.
my top 3 reads of this year were Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher and This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik (i think this one was one i picked up coz you talked about it in a video!)
honorable mention goes to Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson which i also found because of this channel! it was such a fun adventure book and so underrated. I also loved Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor, i just overall loved getting back to reading adventure books this past year and hope to continue - they're just so hard to find!
you talking about Tender is the Flesh made me nauseous just from the description so definitely not picking up that one 😂
Love it!! So glad you read and loved This Green and Pleasant Land, it’s so underrated ❤️❤️
I also love This Green and Pleasant Land and never would have found it without this site!
Nettle and Bone was my favorite of the year!!
Narrowing down to 3 would be hard, but i can try (or not)
1. The ten thousand doors of Janurary by Alix E. Harrow.
2. Starling House by Alix E. Harrow.
3. Strange and Beautiful sorrows of Ava Lavender.
.
.
.
4. The wicked deep by Shea Ernshaw.
5. My husband by Maud Ventura.
6. A fire endless by rebecca ross.
7. Under the whispering door by T J Klune.
Love it, thank you for sharing! Starling House is high on my TBR for 2025 👀
T. Kingfisher is SO SILLY in her writing, and i am also a huge fan! 🎉
Totally agree!! ❤️
I love The Color Purple it is one of my all time favorites👍.
This has been a good reading year for me also. My favorite books were Brotherless Night (broke my heart), Winter Solstice, and The Bear and the Nightingale out of 40 books read this year. I also read Nadia Cohen's biography of Beatrice Potter and Kate Morton's The House at Riverton which I would recommend too. A lot of the books were very good. I also have Fresh Water for Flowers to read this spring.
Fantastic! 😍
Oh Nettle and Bone 🥰 absolutely adore that chicken!!!! Also Bone Dog.
I recently finished Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries, definitely in my top books as well. Lastly, more in the Fantasy Romance realm, The Serpent and the Wing of Night duology, I ate them up! Oh… and maybe A Sorceress Comes to Call should be in the top ones as well.
Yesss, the chicken and the bone dog!! ❤️ I can’t wait to read A Sorceress Comes to Call 😃
This is an amazing list! I’m pretty sure I added Fresh Water for Flowers to my TBR earlier this year on your recommendation, and I just added the bookshop one. Anne and Rebecca are perfection. Three faves from this year: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell, and Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad.
Love it! One day I will tackle The Count of Monte Cristo… 😅❤️
Thank you for enduring Tender is the Flesh to review it. I know I could never read it.When I was in 6th grade I had a nightmare that I was packaged like chicken parts in a cannibalistic society ! Thanks to Emily Fox and your recs, I am currently enjoying Hamnet and am am looking forward to reading The Book of the Unnamed Midwife and Nettle and Bone next. Five favorite reads from 2024 are The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu,,Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol R. Blunt, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, and Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier.
Oooh I’m so glad you’re reading Hamnet!! 😍 And your TBR looks fantastic!
Sparkles for new years! I love being sparkly lol I'd have a hard time making a video like this because most of what I read I gave five stars lol Maybe half of the 104 books I read this year I gave 5 stars, the rest 4 stars with a few 3 stars and two 2 stars. Thanks to reviewers like you I'm able to curate my own TBR a lot better, so thanks! :D
Happy new year! Looking forward to another year of reading!
Wow, you had a great reading year, how fun! 😍 Happy new year to you too! ❤️
Great list! I have Fresh Water for Flowers and I Who Have Never Known Men on my 2025 priory list! I'm so glad you loved Rebecca! My top 3 reads this year were 1. Mansfield Park by Austen 2. Book Lovers by Henry 3. Far From the Madding Crowd by Hardy
Love it! 😍❤️
My top books were: God of the Woods, All the Colors of the dark by Chris Whitaker, and Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny. Happy new year, Alice, thanks for all the wonderful content.
😍🥰❤️
Hi Alice
Some of these books sounds really good.
My Birthday was on the 28th so I took some of my Christmas and Birthday Money and I bought a few Kindle Books.
On this 29th of December - Sunday / it is pouring down rain like crazy - windy - chilly out. It’s a good day to stay in - and read my Kindle Book - Assistant to the Villain. I love this book.
Take Care & Happy Reading
❤️🤗🔰📖📚☕️🏘️💦☔️❤️
Happy belated birthday!! 🎉
@ - Thank You Alice ❤️🤗
Such great book reviews!
#1 Once Upon a Wardrobe Patti Callhan
#2 Divine Rivals Rebecca Rodd
#3 A Discovery of Witches Doborah Harkness
Thank you! 🥰❤️
I do agree with you for The God of the Woods! I loved it!!! I really want to read Broken Girls as well!
Some of the books that stand out this year in my opinion ( hell, I very very rarely give a 5 star review also) were Death in the Spires by K.J. Charles , The headmaster’s wife by Thomas Christopher Green, The little friend, by Donna Tartt, The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis and A dowry of blood by S.T. Gibson.
Have a great New Year and here’s hoping to a great reading year!!!
Oooh thank you for sharing your list! 😍❤️ Happy new year! (Almost) ❤️
You look very festive today Alice. 🎉. The Netflix series about Anne of Green Gables is very well done. Happy New Year to you!
Thank you! Happy new year 🥰❤️
Alice! I found your channel a few months ago when I was looking for gothic and dark academia recommendations, and I’m so glad I did! I’ve added so many books to my ever growing TBR because of you 😂, and I’m so ready to see your content in 2025. 🎉
Thank you for being here!! 🥰❤️
My favourites of 2024: 1) Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands, 2) The lost story by Meg Shaffer (Narnia- style adventure for grownups), 3) A dark and secret magic (small town/ darkish cottage core Halloween adventure)
So glad to hear that you enjoyed Rebecca, been waiting for you to tackle that one! I love your reviews, even if we disagree on some. Happy New Year!!
Happy new year! 🥰
I have God of the Woods on my shelf. 😊. Thanks for all your recommendations and reviews ❤
Hope you like it when you get to it!! 🥰❤️
Me too!!!
@ I think I’ll save it For summer
My favourite books of the year were Eyes Guts Throat Bones by Moira Fowley, Roarings From Further Out by Algernon Blackwood (The Willows by him is part of this collection but it is also a favourite of mine separate from this collection), and Astronomy: Sky Country. It is also possible that A Botanical Daughter is also going to be a favourite, but I have not yet finish it and since I am working today I doubt I will finish it today
I just added Days at the Morisaki Bookshop because of this video. I've seen the cover everywhere but I hadn't heard anyone talk about it yet.
Hope you like it! 🥰❤️
Such a good list! Rebecca was in my top 10 as well ☺️
Top 3 favourites. I who have never known men, song of achilles, hermann hesse,s Gertrude. ❤😊
Happy new year, Alice! 🎊I plan to read Anne of Green Gables soon and am excited for the upcoming anime adaptation 🤗 I've also heard amazing things about Montgomery's The Blue Castle :) looking forward to your videos in 2025!
Happy new year! 🥰 I hope you love Anne ❤️ I’ve also heard The Blue Castle is really good, I definitely need a copy!
My top 3 books of the year were all extremely unexpected, and genres I don't usually read. #3 was the Gravekeeper series by Darcy Coates; I read the 4 available books (the fifth and final one comes out in 2025) and LOVED it. It's mostly thriller with a few horror and sci-fi elements. #2 was the Murderbot Diaries novellas 1-4, my first real step into scifi and I related so much to the titular character. #1 was Middlegame by Seanan McGuire; I'm STILL recovering from that one.
Ooooh interesting! I really need to read Middlegame 👀
"Rebecca" and "The broken Girls" are books I enjoyed as well."The God of the woods" went on my list 😀
I red a lot of good books in 2024, but my 4 Favoites are:
"The whispering Muse" by Laua Purcell
"The Colour of Milk" by Nell Leyshon
"The Girls with no Names" by Serena Burdick
"The Fort" by Gordon Korman
I wish you a great reading year for 2025 and look forward to your recommendations!
I read a lot of good books this year, but I only gave three books 5 stars, so I guess I was planning all year for my response to this video. 🤭
1. Breaking and Mending: A Junior Doctor's Stories of Compassion and Burnout by Joanna Cannon. Each chapter is almost like a little short story or essay exploring a specific situation and you get the perspective of someone who became a doctor VERY late in life which I thought was so interesting and inspiring in the second half of my own personal centenarian journey.
2. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. (I may have mentioned this one previously. Perfect read for winter.)
3. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong. (This one even has some deep cut literature references for the "if you know you know" crowd that can catch them.
Amazing! I have the last one on my TBR, really need to try and get to it in 2025 😍❤️
These are my favourite books of 2024:
Nr. 3 - Dead Girls, Selva Almada
Nr. 2 - Childhood, Youth, Dependency, by Tove Ditlevsen
Nr. 1 - Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart
I gave 3 books 5 stars in 2024. The Short story Galatea, the novella Foster by Clair Keegan and the novel We spread by Iain Reid.
My Top 3 Favorites
Touch Me Not by Jose Rizal
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan
I love your shirt!!!! Happy New Year!!!
❤ love from Thailand. Love your sweater 😊
My top 3 books of 2024 were The Broken Girls, Flowers for Algernon, & (top) The Secret History ( you might be able to guess who inspired that one!!) Your 5stars are all books I have on my TBR for early this year.
I love all those!! And yay for you reading The Secret Historyyyy 🥰🥰🥰
My favorite 3 books of the year are « the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo » the 3-book series « Wayward Pines » and « The thirteenth tale ».
Also, as a French person, I’m very (but pleasantly) surprised to see two French books in your favorites of the year ❤️
Love it! I have the Thirteenth Tale on my TBR for 2025 😃 And yeees, I clearly need to read more French authors now, there’s something there that works for me ❤️🥰
You should see the movie Color Purple! Whoopie Goldberg is such a good actress and Oprah plays in it too!
The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher, I hope you get to read it and let us know what you think! I'm currently reading Nettle and Bone based on your recommendation. ❤
Oooh yes! I want to read everything by Kingfisher so I’m sure I’ll get to it at some point 😃❤️
❤📚📚❤️
Some of my favorites! I also have a few on my tbr shelves because of your recommendations. I'll pass on Boy Parts, and Tender is the Flesh. 😂😅
Fair 😅❤️
@TheBookCastle 😁👍
Hi Alice, my top 3 were Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James and Bloom by
Delilah S. Dawson. Honorable mentions are Cackle by Rachel Harrison, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross and The Nurse's Secret by Amanda Skenandore. Thank you for all the videos this year and Happy almost New Year! 🥳🎉
Oooh thank you for sharing! 😍 Happy almost new year to you too! ❤️
Tender is the Flesh is by far one of the most disturbing books I've read to a large extent because, as you said, it normalizes cannibalism. It isn't difficult to think "yeah, that could happen". Oh, and I am someone you could recommend the book to 😀 so I'm going to view more of your vlogs.
Exactly!! Soooo disturbing (but so good!) 😅
How nice it is to watch your next video and listen to reviews of such interesting books!
Last year I had many literary discoveries, for example, these are Japanese authors: Sosuke Natsukawa "The Cat That Saved Books" and Kotaro Isaka "The Mantis".
Clive Lewis' fantastic books "Beyond the Silent Planets" and "Perelander" were also a revelation for me. In the future, I want to read the book "Abominable Power" by this author.
Also, the discovery of the year for me was the book of the philosopher René Guénon "The Crisis of the Modern World" - it was written almost 100 years ago, but it is very relevant.
Among the non-fiction books, I liked: "Future Crimes" by Marg Goodman and "Economics on a Plate" by Ha-Joon Chang.
I take this opportunity to congratulate you on the upcoming New Year and send greetings from unconquered Ukraine!
Happy upcoming new year to you as well, sending you my thoughts as always!! ❤️❤️❤️
First of al, Thanks for all the recommendations and happy new year,🎉
You are right, Tender is the flesh is a great book but I'm not sure if I recommend it to someone
Now my favourite books of this year were The familiar by Leigh Bardugo, Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson and The secret history by Donna Tartt
Happy new year! 🥰 And yeeeees I’m so happy you liked The Secret History!
3 books shar emy number1 spot: Beartown, In Memoriam and Notes From a Crocodile
With the exception of no. 1, I have not read any of these. Will check out no. 2. though. There is the hype, but I also want to try and read my favorites' favorites this upcoming year.
My top 3 books of 2024 are:
Debt by David Graeber
The Moomin comics by Tove Jansson
Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh (I think you would like this one)
Oooh fantastic!! I’ll look into that last one, thank you for sharing 🥰❤️
Alice I have read so many books I could maybe do top 20!!!🤣Last read of the year though is The city and its uncertain walls by Murakami and I am go to enjoy the world of wonder and the thoughtfulness it seems to evoke
Amazing!! 😍
Happy New Year!
Happy new year! 🥰❤️
I love all of Simone St. James' books! She is the Queen of Ghost stories/mysteries! Have you read her new book Murder Road! It was her best yet!
I really want to read more by her next year! 😍
I had a lot of great reads this year, but my favorite is probably To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
😍❤️
Hii, what edition is Rebecca? It's so pretty!!
It’s the Virago Modern Classics edition! 🥰
I have unrelated question - what lipstick do you wear in this video? It looks stunning on you!
It’s a liquid lipstick from Fenty in the shade Riri! 🥰❤️
Top three!!???? Alice I can't do it.
I have a top four and some new-to-me authors.
#1 book of the year, even the decade -
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
This book blows everything else away and has one of the best characters ever, Rocky!
Number 2 -
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
This follows one day in the life of astronauts in the ISS and reads not only like non-fiction but poetry. People seem to love it or hate it and I loved it!
Number 3 -
Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
I read this in February and announced at that time that it was my best read of the year. A bold statement to make in February! It was so unexpected and enjoyable.
Number 4 -
Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez
I had to include this one because I Never read romance, never. All the hype made me give it a try and I enjoyed it so much.
New to me authors I will continue to read - in no particular order -
Tana French
Benjamin Stevenson
Hank Green
Laura van den Berg
Blake Crouch
Kazuo Ishiguro
Sarah Beth Durst
Louise Penny
Tashikazu Kawaguchi
I enjoy seeing your videos and I'm glad I found you in the maze of RUclips!
Not to be shallow, but your sparkling shirt is fabulous! 😊
I completely agree about Project Hail Mary. I read it close to two years ago and was blown away. Two hundred books later and none of them have come close.
Love it! 😍
Where did you find that copy of Rebecca?! It’s so pretty 😍
I got it years ago! It’s from VMC 🥰
@ Oh ok 😄 I wanted to pick it up after you talked about it and all the copies aren’t cute lol I’m having some bookcase vanity 😂
Night Circus
Vita Nostra
Rogue
My top 3 of the year.. 1. Nettle and Bone 2. The Hail Mary Project and 3. Is a cheat.. It's the whole Red Rising series.
Love it! 🥰❤️
ALICE! I'm sooooo disappointed! My order (from your recommendation) Yours From The Tower, just arrived AND DOES NOT HAVE SPRAYED EDGES!!! Maybe I shld. have ordered it from Blackwells. Mine is the U.S. copy 😑😑 Still looking forward to the story though.
I kinda wanna recommend a reaallly unpopular Japanese translated fiction called Red Girls: Legend of Akakuchibas(or something) by Kazuki Sakuraba (mangaka behind GOSICK) . The eng translation is not top notch but kinda ok to push by. But the story feels like it'll fit your vibe... I'm not sure if you'll definitely be blown away though...
Ooooh interesting! I’ll look into it! 😃 Thank you!
My job this year is to bring some attention to my best book of the year. I apologize if I already did this under some of your videos.
My top 3 is:
1. Confessions of a prairie bitch by Alison Arngrim.
If you watched Little House on the Prairie, you have to get this memoir. If you are interested in child stars, you have to read this. If you want know what it was like to play a villain in a time where people couldn't differentiate between character and actor, you have to read this. Trigger warning tho, it contains really heavy topics like death and c sa. Alison somehow still managed to make the book funny as fuck. It's such a good read.
2. Blood over bright haven. Finally a dark academia book that worked for me.
3. Were you come from by saša stanišic
Thank you for sharing! 🥰❤️
Have you seen The Color Purple movie directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Whoopie Goldberg and Oprah? So great!
Not yet but it’s on my watchlist!! ❤️
Did you catch the Rebecca Easter egg in God of the woods?
I read Rebecca months after reading The God of the Woods, so I didn’t 😅
3 of my favorites in 2024 were definitely Diavola, The other significant others, and Guillotine 🔪
😍❤️