Practice by Rosalind Brown sounds absolutely amazing! Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention, I'd not heard of it before. Luckily, the library I work in actually has a copy, so I'm going to borrow that soon!
lovely video as always and a great list!!! "mid-20th century female authors" and "an unexpected gentle delight" are probably the biggest wedges on the pie chart of my reading year. lots of Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Pym. i really need to read Leonard and Hungry Paul. everyone cries when they talk about it hahaha happy new year!
Ah how wonderful, Joseph! I have an Elizabeth Taylor coming from the library this wk. I can’t wait. I loved Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. Leonard and Hungry Paul…I know! So endearing. Happy New Year to you!
You've made me want to try Edith Wharton! I love the Viriginia Woolf I've read so far. I read Giovanni's Room last year too, did it as a buddy read, which was great. I've heard a bit about Leonard and Hungry Paul, but you've made me interested in that too 😊 Ive heard so many people rave about I who have never known men that I feel I should really hurry up and read it!! Happy New Year 🎉
Happy New Year, Renee! 🎉🎉 I always enjoy your videos and eclectic reading, and look forward to reading some of your recommendations in 2025. I read an Ivan Turgenev book that was something like your "reading outside my normal genre but wow" - it was just so different and unexpectedly delightful. Also inspired by your love of classics, I read and enjoyed a collection of Elizabeth Taylor's short stories. My favorite that I read back in January which I still think about now is Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal. Honorable mentions - Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad and Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (translated by Jeremy Tiang).
Sarah, thanks for sharing! Turgenev is an author I’d like to try. And now I’m even more intrigued. I think I have Fathers & Sons. Ahhhh Elizabeth Taylor. I’m actually picking up one of her books at the library this wk. I loved MRS Palfrey SO much. Happy happy New Year to you!
love hearing your experiences with rereading!! you’re making me want to revisit an apprenticeship, i’m so glad you loved it. i have a copy of the first volume of virginia woolf’s diaries that i think i’ll be starting soon!!
No? You do? Fantastic! I’ve peeked into one at the library. Maybe I’ll end up tracking down Volume One, used. I’ll look at it at the library again. And, one of my all-time favorite journal/diaries is Patricia Highsmith. The fact that she was such an underdog, very poor writer, and trying to have a hidden love life….incredible story. rereading, yeah, who knew? It always reveals something, doesn’t it? I’m definitely rereading 2 books I know of so far I’m 2025! Happy new year to you, Cass!
Oooh. Please share your experience trying her. It’s funny. I forgot to mention I had read Ethan Frome and it couldn’t be more opposite than high society city life . Such an emotional book!
Love that you are a fellow thrift store and library user! I finally read "The Nutcracker" this month and was shocked to find it was more of a horror story than a christmasy read! Right up there with Stephen King imo! How did they get a ballet out of that?! (Which I love btw) See you in 2025!
That’s crazy! Who knew! I had a similar experience, but in the opposite way, reading Frankenstein. It has so much more nuance and emotional depth to it than any movie adaptation, I felt. And oh yes, I’m mainly a used bookstore/thrift store shopper. And library sales. I have a few really good ones around me. Yes, I’ll see you in 2025!
Love to hear about the positive experiences of those new to reading Wharton. “ The House of Mirth” is my favorite of her novels. I think there’s a more dramatic story arc than in “Age of Innocence”. “Custom of the Country” is also very good where the very rich, spoiled and larger than life Undine Sprague introduces herself to European aristocracy much to their dismay. “Ethan Frome” and “Summer” are two very good short Wharton novels set among New England working class folks. “A Portrait of a Lady” and “The Wings of the Dove” are two Henry James novels I really enjoyed. His novel “Daisy Miller” is much shorter. I had read Custom of the Country years before Daisy Miller which follows a similar premise of rich American girl in Italy and I kept thinking Wharton covered similar ground and she did it infinitely better. “The Coast Road” by Alan Murrin is a debut novel I really enjoyed last month. It’s set in Donegal in the mid 1990’s when folks are just about to vote to legalize divorce in Ireland. The story revolves around three couples. Murrin does a great job developing the characters particularly by inhabiting the thoughts and dialogues of the women’s interactions. Happy New Year and happy reading.
I’m really glad to know about Customer in the Country! I’m looking for it at the library. Thanks SO much for the recommendations! Don’t you love it when a debut novel really hits? I’m glad to know about The Coast Road 🥰🥰🥰
Great categories Renee! Great books too. One I haven’t read is Lispector’s Apprenticeship. I also read her for the first time this year-Agua Viva by the same translator-and have been wondering where to go next, so I have added that to my tbr. Earlier this year I chose something from your 2023 best list, btw: Death Valley. I loved it. I’m still working on my best of 2024 list, and I won’t finalize it until after the 31st.
Always, enjoy your library trips and catch ups with reads. “I who have never know man” was my first unknown - and it was and still thought provoking. - Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf - always, favorites and being in a London book club , Anthony Trollope one that I am trying to decide where to begin - thank you for all your research and reading choices. My local book club is more Current reads although, in March we are going back to an oldie “Pope Joan” great book. Happy 2025🎉
A London book club. How fun!! I loved starting with the Barsetshire series, and The Warden. What an entree into that world! I’m so glad we’ve connected here, Virginia. A Joyous New Year to you!
loved all of this!!! it was such an honor to have read the Cusk with you! and OOF! i need to get to the Harpman!!! can’t wait to see what you’ll read in 2025 and all of your thoughts :)))
Nathan, I feel the same way. And I’d love your take on the Harpman!! Happiest of New Years to you. Or let’s say a Joyous New Year because , let’s face it, thats a better experience anyway. 🥰🥰🥰
Renee, thank you so much for your wonderful recommendations, your thoughts about the books you've read. I do enjoy them all. I enjoyed Leonard and hungry Paul and also bought Ghost Mountain (Ronan Hession), also highly recommended. I just bought an apprenticeship... I will start in March, maybe April/May😮I think. My pile of BTR has increased enormously. But this isn't bad, is it? I'm looking forward to your recommendations in 2025. I wish you and your family a happy new year. With regards from the Netherlands, Lily
Ah Lily, thank you so much, my friend. Oh a Hession fan! I ran to my library website and looked up Ghost Mtn. It hasn’t been released yet here or it’s on order, one of the two. Either way, I’m on the list! A Joyous New Year to you!
Happy New Year and thank you for all the fabulous content throughout 2024. I've just ordered Leonard and Hungry Paul. My favourite fiction was I Who Have Never Known Men - I too think about it from time to time and it was the first book I read back in January. My favourite non fiction was Revenge by Michael Cohen - certainly an eye-opener.
Gail, ah I’m so glad you’re here. Hat reminds me to search out another Harpman that my library doesn’t have and the new Ronan Hession! Happy New Year to you!
Happy new year! I don't have any categories, but my discovery of the year was probably Iris Murdoch. I read The Bell, which is a perfectly formed novel, and The Sea, the Sea, which really isn't haha, but they're both great in their own way. The final 100 pages of The Sea, the Sea are utterly bizarre and maybe the most memorable ending I've encountered in a book. My other favourites were Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man (poignant and absolutely full of passion for life) and Rumer Godden's A Fugue in Time. The story of a family in three generations, years apart but told simultaneously - which is a lot easier to follow than it sounds and gorgeously, fluidly written. A beautiful book of yearning and a sort of aching incompleteness. I don't know why I never see anyone reading Godden! Can't wait to read more from her, and I suspect she's going to be another big discovery for me like Murdoch has been.
Ah man, thanks for the reminder about Murdoch! I read her a long time ago and loved the writing so much. I meant to get back to it and I ever did! You’ve restored the fires! Golden sounds fascinating!
Renee, happy new year, thanks so much for your enthusiasm and poise. My main category for 2024 would be "Thought Provoking". and I would include The Three Body Problem and Judgement at Tokyo (Bass). War and Peace also obviously great.
Thank you and same to you! Oooh The Three Body Problem. That’s sci-fi or dystopian? I wonder if I’ll give it a try….and War and Peace! I love the Thought Provoking category! Thanks for being here.
@@thelefthandedreader6632 It's sci-fi so perhaps a different milieu than some favor, but interesting. Kind of a mystery, and rooted in culture and modern China.
Knife, my first Salman Rushdie book as well. The way he laid out that memoir and the “conversation” he had with his attacker was really such an interesting way to do that. A 5 star read for me. I just got Committed by Scanlon for Christmas. I’m looking forward to reading it even more now after hearing your thoughts about it. I got I Who Have Never Known Men by Harpman for my birthday in November which definitely fits “A genre I think isn’t for me” category. I’m looking forward to finding out in 2025! I’ll have to try to pick up some of your other recommendations as well. Someone at a distance by Whipple, Age of Innocence by Wharton, An Apprenticeship by Lispector all sound so interesting! Thank you for your recommendations and wishing you a Happy New Year!
You are so welcome! Omg the chapter in Knife which is his imaginary conversation with his attacker. Wow. I can’t wait for you to try the Harpman. Please leave a comment in any of my videos in the future to tell me what you think. I’m glad you’re here. 🥰🥰
John Williams , Stoner and Butchers Crossing were my two favorite reads this year. New author ( for me) and I cannot stop thinking about both books. Recommending to anyone who will listen to me.😂
I do like Anthony Trollope, I'm working through the Barsetshire Chronicles. My favourite debut novel and indeed the favourite novel was 'Glorious Exploits' by Ferdia Lennon.
Oh yay, Clare! I look up Glorious Exploits and oh that cover! I never took a look at that one. I’m going to take a peek at it when I’m at the library. Thanks for sharing with all of us, Clare! Happy New Year to you, my friend.
For your back-pocket category of Russian novels, I would recommend my favourite of them all (and surprisingly from the 20th century rather than the classic 19th century canon) and that is Petersburg by Andrei Bely. I don't know how much you like to dissociate the private views of an author from their fictional output, but delving too far into the diaries, letters etc. of Woolf might be the precursor to disappointment.
Dorothee Whipple? I am sorry, but some of the author names are not too clear in the audio, and the book covers you show are not crisp enough to recognize. For someone not familiar with your introductions, it is tedious to figure out the books you are talking about. I hope you take this as constructive feedback. Thank you for the Virginia Wolf recommendation.
Practice by Rosalind Brown sounds absolutely amazing! Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention, I'd not heard of it before. Luckily, the library I work in actually has a copy, so I'm going to borrow that soon!
Jen, happy new year to you! Oooh yes. I’ll be interested in your take!
Found your channel just a few weeks ago. Love your insights and hearing about books I've never even heard of - which were quite a few in this list!
Ah, I’m so glad you’re here!!
lovely video as always and a great list!!! "mid-20th century female authors" and "an unexpected gentle delight" are probably the biggest wedges on the pie chart of my reading year. lots of Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Pym.
i really need to read Leonard and Hungry Paul. everyone cries when they talk about it hahaha
happy new year!
Ah how wonderful, Joseph! I have an Elizabeth Taylor coming from the library this wk. I can’t wait. I loved Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. Leonard and Hungry Paul…I know! So endearing. Happy New Year to you!
You've made me want to try Edith Wharton! I love the Viriginia Woolf I've read so far.
I read Giovanni's Room last year too, did it as a buddy read, which was great.
I've heard a bit about Leonard and Hungry Paul, but you've made me interested in that too 😊
Ive heard so many people rave about I who have never known men that I feel I should really hurry up and read it!!
Happy New Year 🎉
I would love to hear your take on the Harpman! Especially after watching your faves from 2024…there’s at least one dystopian genre book in there!
Happy New Year, Renee! 🎉🎉
I always enjoy your videos and eclectic reading, and look forward to reading some of your recommendations in 2025.
I read an Ivan Turgenev book that was something like your "reading outside my normal genre but wow" - it was just so different and unexpectedly delightful. Also inspired by your love of classics, I read and enjoyed a collection of Elizabeth Taylor's short stories.
My favorite that I read back in January which I still think about now is Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal. Honorable mentions - Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad and Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (translated by Jeremy Tiang).
Sarah // Just found a collection of Elizabeth Taylor short stories on Kindle for cheap - thanks for the recommendation! 🥸
Sarah, thanks for sharing! Turgenev is an author I’d like to try. And now I’m even more intrigued. I think I have Fathers & Sons. Ahhhh Elizabeth Taylor. I’m actually picking up one of her books at the library this wk. I loved MRS Palfrey SO much. Happy happy New Year to you!
love hearing your experiences with rereading!! you’re making me want to revisit an apprenticeship, i’m so glad you loved it. i have a copy of the first volume of virginia woolf’s diaries that i think i’ll be starting soon!!
No? You do? Fantastic! I’ve peeked into one at the library. Maybe I’ll end up tracking down Volume One, used. I’ll look at it at the library again. And, one of my all-time favorite journal/diaries is Patricia Highsmith. The fact that she was such an underdog, very poor writer, and trying to have a hidden love life….incredible story. rereading, yeah, who knew? It always reveals something, doesn’t it? I’m definitely rereading 2 books I know of so far I’m 2025! Happy new year to you, Cass!
I have a couple Edith Whartons on my shelf so your thoughts on her made me want to prioritize her in the new year. Thanks for sharing :)
Oooh. Please share your experience trying her. It’s funny. I forgot to mention I had read Ethan Frome and it couldn’t be more opposite than high society city life . Such an emotional book!
Love that you are a fellow thrift store and library user! I finally read "The Nutcracker" this month and was shocked to find it was more of a horror story than a christmasy read! Right up there with Stephen King imo! How did they get a ballet out of that?! (Which I love btw) See you in 2025!
That’s crazy! Who knew! I had a similar experience, but in the opposite way, reading Frankenstein. It has so much more nuance and emotional depth to it than any movie adaptation, I felt. And oh yes, I’m mainly a used bookstore/thrift store shopper. And library sales. I have a few really good ones around me. Yes, I’ll see you in 2025!
Love to hear about the positive experiences of those new to reading Wharton. “ The House of Mirth” is my favorite of her novels. I think there’s a more dramatic story arc than in “Age of Innocence”.
“Custom of the Country” is also very good where the very rich, spoiled and larger than life Undine Sprague introduces herself to European aristocracy much to their dismay.
“Ethan Frome” and “Summer” are two very good short Wharton novels set among New England working class folks.
“A Portrait of a Lady” and “The
Wings of the Dove” are two Henry James novels I really enjoyed. His novel “Daisy Miller” is much shorter. I had read Custom of the Country years before Daisy Miller which follows a similar premise of rich American girl in Italy and I kept thinking Wharton covered similar ground and she did it infinitely better.
“The Coast Road” by Alan Murrin is a debut novel I really enjoyed last month. It’s set in Donegal in the mid 1990’s when folks are just about to vote to legalize divorce in Ireland. The story revolves around three couples. Murrin does a great job developing the characters particularly by inhabiting the thoughts and dialogues of the women’s interactions.
Happy New Year and happy reading.
I’m really glad to know about Customer in the Country! I’m looking for it at the library. Thanks SO much for the recommendations! Don’t you love it when a debut novel really hits? I’m glad to know about The Coast Road 🥰🥰🥰
Great categories Renee! Great books too. One I haven’t read is Lispector’s Apprenticeship. I also read her for the first time this year-Agua Viva by the same translator-and have been wondering where to go next, so I have added that to my tbr. Earlier this year I chose something from your 2023 best list, btw: Death Valley. I loved it. I’m still working on my best of 2024 list, and I won’t finalize it until after the 31st.
I’m so glad you enjoyed Death Valley. What a unique voice Melissa Broder has. I’ll be on the look out for your best of! Happy New Year, Lindy!
@ 🥂
Always, enjoy your library trips and catch ups with reads. “I who have never know man” was my first unknown - and it was and still thought provoking. - Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf - always, favorites and being in a London book club , Anthony Trollope one that I am trying to decide where to begin - thank you for all your research and reading choices. My local book club is more Current reads although, in March we are going back to an oldie “Pope Joan” great book. Happy 2025🎉
A London book club. How fun!! I loved starting with the Barsetshire series, and The Warden. What an entree into that world! I’m so glad we’ve connected here, Virginia. A Joyous New Year to you!
loved all of this!!! it was such an honor to have read the Cusk with you! and OOF! i need to get to the Harpman!!!
can’t wait to see what you’ll read in 2025 and all of your thoughts :)))
Nathan, I feel the same way. And I’d love your take on the Harpman!! Happiest of New Years to you. Or let’s say a Joyous New Year because , let’s face it, thats a better experience anyway. 🥰🥰🥰
Thank you for your insights and for great reading recommendations. Happy New Year! 📚🎉
It’s my great pleasure! Happy New Year, Carol!
Renee, thank you so much for your wonderful recommendations, your thoughts about the books you've read. I do enjoy them all. I enjoyed Leonard and hungry Paul and also bought Ghost Mountain (Ronan Hession), also highly recommended. I just bought an apprenticeship... I will start in March, maybe April/May😮I think. My pile of BTR has increased enormously. But this isn't bad, is it?
I'm looking forward to your recommendations in 2025. I wish you and your family a happy new year.
With regards from the Netherlands, Lily
Ah Lily, thank you so much, my friend. Oh a Hession fan! I ran to my library website and looked up Ghost Mtn. It hasn’t been released yet here or it’s on order, one of the two. Either way, I’m on the list! A Joyous New Year to you!
Happy New Year and thank you for all the fabulous content throughout 2024. I've just ordered Leonard and Hungry Paul. My favourite fiction was I Who Have Never Known Men - I too think about it from time to time and it was the first book I read back in January. My favourite non fiction was Revenge by Michael Cohen - certainly an eye-opener.
Gail, ah I’m so glad you’re here. Hat reminds me to search out another Harpman that my library doesn’t have and the new Ronan Hession! Happy New Year to you!
Happy new year too Reenee 🤗
Thank you. Thanks for being here. 🥰
Happy new year! I don't have any categories, but my discovery of the year was probably Iris Murdoch. I read The Bell, which is a perfectly formed novel, and The Sea, the Sea, which really isn't haha, but they're both great in their own way. The final 100 pages of The Sea, the Sea are utterly bizarre and maybe the most memorable ending I've encountered in a book. My other favourites were Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man (poignant and absolutely full of passion for life) and Rumer Godden's A Fugue in Time. The story of a family in three generations, years apart but told simultaneously - which is a lot easier to follow than it sounds and gorgeously, fluidly written. A beautiful book of yearning and a sort of aching incompleteness. I don't know why I never see anyone reading Godden! Can't wait to read more from her, and I suspect she's going to be another big discovery for me like Murdoch has been.
Ah man, thanks for the reminder about Murdoch! I read her a long time ago and loved the writing so much. I meant to get back to it and I ever did! You’ve restored the fires! Golden sounds fascinating!
Renee, happy new year, thanks so much for your enthusiasm and poise. My main category for 2024 would be "Thought Provoking". and I would include The Three Body Problem and Judgement at Tokyo (Bass). War and Peace also obviously great.
Thank you and same to you! Oooh The Three Body Problem. That’s sci-fi or dystopian? I wonder if I’ll give it a try….and War and Peace! I love the Thought Provoking category! Thanks for being here.
@@thelefthandedreader6632 It's sci-fi so perhaps a different milieu than some favor, but interesting. Kind of a mystery, and rooted in culture and modern China.
Knife, my first Salman Rushdie book as well. The way he laid out that memoir and the “conversation” he had with his attacker was really such an interesting way to do that. A 5 star read for me. I just got Committed by Scanlon for Christmas. I’m looking forward to reading it even more now after hearing your thoughts about it. I got I Who Have Never Known Men by Harpman for my birthday in November which definitely fits “A genre I think isn’t for me” category. I’m looking forward to finding out in 2025! I’ll have to try to pick up some of your other recommendations as well. Someone at a distance by Whipple, Age of Innocence by Wharton, An Apprenticeship by Lispector all sound so interesting! Thank you for your recommendations and wishing you a Happy New Year!
You are so welcome! Omg the chapter in Knife which is his imaginary conversation with his attacker. Wow. I can’t wait for you to try the Harpman. Please leave a comment in any of my videos in the future to tell me what you think. I’m glad you’re here. 🥰🥰
@ Thank you! I will!😊
John Williams , Stoner and Butchers Crossing were my two favorite reads this year. New author ( for me) and I cannot stop thinking about both books. Recommending to anyone who will listen to me.😂
Peter, I don’t blame you! I’ve just not stopped thinking about Stoner. 🥰. That writing, the way that book makes me feel. Thanks for sharing.
I do like Anthony Trollope, I'm working through the Barsetshire Chronicles. My favourite debut novel and indeed the favourite novel was 'Glorious Exploits' by Ferdia Lennon.
Oh yay, Clare! I look up Glorious Exploits and oh that cover! I never took a look at that one. I’m going to take a peek at it when I’m at the library. Thanks for sharing with all of us, Clare! Happy New Year to you, my friend.
For your back-pocket category of Russian novels, I would recommend my favourite of them all (and surprisingly from the 20th century rather than the classic 19th century canon) and that is Petersburg by Andrei Bely. I don't know how much you like to dissociate the private views of an author from their fictional output, but delving too far into the diaries, letters etc. of Woolf might be the precursor to disappointment.
Thanks so much for the recommendation. And believe me, I’ve read enough about Woolf that I totally get what you’re saying! 🤓🧐
Dorothee Whipple? I am sorry, but some of the author names are not too clear in the audio, and the book covers you show are not crisp enough to recognize. For someone not familiar with your introductions, it is tedious to figure out the books you are talking about. I hope you take this as constructive feedback. Thank you for the Virginia Wolf recommendation.
Ah, I’m sorry about that and appreciate the feedback. Yes! Dorothy Whipple!