Reads and Rambles: 3 February 2024
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- Join me as I talk about some of the great reading I did during my “no good, very bad” past couple of weeks. Only while filming this video did I realize that all four books are about how the experiences of marriage, illness and disability, various kinds of grief, and the process of writing are intimately linked.
Booktubers mentioned:
Ann Novella @AnnNovella
Bob the Bookerer @BobTheBookerer
Their interview with Fleur Pierets: • When an author writes ...
Micah Cummins @MicahCummins
Classics & Company @ClassicsAndCompany
00:00 What’s Been Happening at My House
03:49 JULIAN by Fleur Pierets
09:22 SEX WITH A BRAIN INJURY: Concussion and Recovery by Annie Liontas
13:27 “A Novel”
14:00 BAUMGARTNER: A Novel by Paul Auster
16:28 DAYSWORK: A Novel by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel
MOBY DICK by Herman Melville (only briefly mentioned)
Essay about how Bachelder and Habel wrote Dayswork together: observer.com/2023/09/dayswork...
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![Philip Roth and Blake Bailey [CC]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-dd-N_FVUKE/mqdefault.jpg)
Sending you much gratitude for sharing your thoughtful and always compelling thoughts on books and reading, and much admiration for the grace with which you continue to process your profound grief.
Wishing you peace. And a warm house!
xo
Thank you so much, Nina, for your lovely words and your kindness.
Thank you for sharing so much from your life, Hannah. Navigating a big home repair solo; that's a tough one. I think Julian sounds very compelling.
It has been healing for me to be able to be open here rather than trying to hide stuff. I am so grateful to all of you for being here and helping bring me joy every day.
So sorry about the passing of your husband, Hannah. It makes so much sense that the house would also have a kind of breakdown at the loss of his presence and his energy. Sending light and loving energy.
What a lovely comment: the house having its own struggles. Thank you ♥️
Love that music that opens your post.
Thanks! Just free music from RUclips audio!
This is a beautiful vblog. My empathy is with you.
Thank you so much. 💜
You do such a beautiful job sharing your grief as well as weaving that into books and your reading experience. Julian sounds like a moving book indeed. Sorry about the house- hope it all works and stays fixed now!
Thank you for your kind words. Julian really is a special memoir!
I feel your pain, Hannah. Many years ago, when my grown-up children, Olly of criminolly and his sister Harriet were teenagers. It was Christmas day 14 to feed, including the housebound lady next door. I’ll cooler blew up! Then about two months later our boiler broke and it was freezing. We borrowed so many heaters from different friends. A very expensive time.
Oh my goodness! Now that would be really stressful! It is clearly important to have a little house-crisis money saved, isn’t it?!
The Year of Magical Thinking.
Yup. I read Didion’s book before David got sick and then again afterwards, but my understanding has changed so much since he died that I am sure I would get new things from reading it again.
Your review of Julian was really beautiful. 📚❤️
Thanks, Doris. The book is really wonderful-just astonishing.
Sorry about the house problems. I wish I could make this time easier for you. These books all sound really wonderful in a very intense beautiful way. I will put them on my list. Good luck with your book prize reading- hope you find some good reads ❤
Thank you so much. All of these books felt like such meaningful reads!
Hannah - good to see you again and hear your book recommends. Julian is now on my round-to-it list. Looking forward to the reading. I've begun a focused reading around the world challenge - now I unexpectedly have a Dutch book on my list. Your recommend are almost winners for me.
What a wonderful project! I am looking forward to hearing more about what you read! (By the way, Pierets is Belgian, I think, rather than Dutch.)
I’ve never read Auster either, but Baumgartner has been recommended to me a few times. Thanks for sharing the books and your thoughts cousin.
Thanks, Brian. And I would love to hear what you think of Daybreak, too, if you give it a try. It was by far my fiction highlight of the month.
Oh I bet your home is so pretty if it's so old! OMG! That's so much money! How exciting to read for a literary prize!
Haven't stopped thinking of you!
I have Julian and need to read it!
Thank you so much! The house was built between WW1 and WW2 in an area a little higher and therefore cooler than the center of Washington, DC. Most of the houses in my neighborhood are on the small side-including mine. I love the neighborhood so much! My house is in need of a really good clean-up and some more basic maintenance (like paint), I’m afraid…
I thought of William Blake, “I cannot consider death as any thing but a removing from one room to another.”
You know, when I first learned that line I thought it was silly. And now I understand.
You got a lot of years out of your old furnace. Doesn’t make it any easier to live through the repairs though. Glad you have heat back. Thanks for this lovely video.
Thanks! I’m still wobbling a bit in my attempts to be back regularly, but I’m getting there.
Ooooooo, yes, we heard about that D.C. strom on National news. My father just paind 10K on a new heat pump system in AZ, old o e lasted 20+ years.
20+ is the norm, I think-and ours lived nearly 50!
This is a deep video. I've never been married but I wonder what will happen once my parents are gone and I won't have their advice about home repairs and so many other things.
It is really hard to lose the people we share our lives with. I was glad to be able to turn to friends and neighbors-and also to the internet-to learn more about boilers and plumbing this week. 💜💜💜
Hannah, I love your book reviews and your soothing gentleness. Sending you much love as you grieve your dear David. The mundane need for home repairs is the world's way of reminding us that it all keeps on spinning. Thank goodness for the comfort of books, and of course, knitting.
The world’s way of reminding us that it all keeps spinning! What a wonderful way of framing it! Thank you.
Thanks for the reviews. I'll add Dayswork to my list for sure.
I loved it and hope you will too!
When I said wobbly, I meant it! I had a fall the second week in September and my right foot was trapped under my left foot for four hours until the ambulance turned up. They checked me over and said I was fine which I was in myself except I was very shocked. The next day I took myself to the emergency hospital which is open nearly all the time and had an x-ray and I hadn’t broken anything, but I have done something worse of course! I had torn a tendon and bruised a bone and I am doing exercises every single day and I still can’t stand so I have I am wobbly and I am now wheelchair-bound. I have to have carers night in the morning which are very expensive in the UK so it’s costing us thousands per week. Our daughter is coming over in the Easter holidays when she has got a spare room sorted as they have only just moved into their new house and she will sleep here for one night to give my husband an uninterrupted night sleep. My main reason for telling you all of this is that I can no longer read as I have arthritis everywhere and also dry macular and I am gradually losing my sight. So if when you review a book, you could tell me, it’s available on Audible, that will be a huge help. Thanks with love. Carole
Oh I am so sorry, Carole! How hard this must be! I will try to remember to check about audible options regularly!
Thank you for these very personal book recommendations, Hannah, in particular under very challenging conditions. Both, the loss of a partner and a broken boiler are definitely hard to endure in these cold and dark days. All my best wishes are with you
Thank you for your compassion. These books felt like kismet-quiet books about relationships in their joys and sadnesses.
I really appreciate you posting your book reviews and thoughts. You are an inspiration to me, and I’m sure, many others.
You are so kind! I’m very grateful to the support and generosity of spirit I see here on booktube.
Fleur was really happy with your review ❤
I’m just floored that she watched it! What an astonishing book. Thank you for sharing it with me.
@@HannahsBooks Why wouldn’t she? She posted it on Instagram ❤️
@@AnnNovella ♥️
Best wishes to you.
💜
Hannah, thank you for this video. I have great respect for your intellect and always appreciate your thoughtful reviews. I also admire your heart. I’m once again profoundly moved by the deeply personal nature of what you are able to share about the loss of David, your grief, your own health, your son’s struggle. Your courage inspires me. Thank you again for this video and for all that you have shared.
Oh Patricia! What a beautiful comment. I am so glad you are part of this booktube community.
Polley was very conflicted about abandoning Canadian socialized medicine and coming to the states, but a person from her concussion support group had such a transformative experience and recovery she decided it was worth a try since she had three kids under seven and she basically had to be in a dark room 20 hours a day.
The treatment was practically the exact opposite of what she had been following, her doctor told her she had to “run towards the danger” in terms of facing it head on regardless of the pain and not sequester her self away and avoid everything. Diet, exercise and extensive physical therapy were also part of the treatment. It miraculously restored and returned her life to her.
Most of the essays are trauma based, but she confronts them, works through them and finds away out the other side.
I will say if you are not familiar with her, I highly recommend watching her award winning documentary Stories We Tell, which reveals an important family secret alluded to, but not covered in the memoir. It’s usually free on RUclips.
I had tears in my eyes when you were talking about your dear husband. I am in owe of the strength you have right now, I can't even imagine how I could manage in the similar situation! My husband is my best friend. Lot's of love.
Thank you, Nastya. I too felt that my husband was my best friend-and I am so glad we got roughly thirty years together. I wanted it to be a lot longer than that… but I still feel lucky to have had him in my life.
Will pick up Baumgartner! Thank you! I hold you in my heart with your grief ❤
Thank you so much, TK. I am eager to hear what you think of the book if you read it. ♥️
Wow these books sound so powerful, I'll read Julian for sure. I'm glad you showed us the narrative style of Sex with a Brain Injury - it doesn't work for me.
Not much of the book is like that-and I felt much more at home with some of the other parts-but absolutely, spend your reading time with Julian instead!
Given your comment about sometimes having a sense that David’s just around the corner, you might enjoy Anne Michael’s new novel Held. It’s on the short side and explores four generations of a group of interconnected people all of whom are touched by that sense of a person being both gone and yet very much present. It works more by accumulation of imagery and suggestion rather than by straightforward narrative.
Ooh, this sounds perfect. I will be on the hunt for it. Thank you so much for the recommendation!
Hannah I am so sorry when I made my rather flippant remark about the cooker blowing up on Christmas day as I have only been recently following you on RUclips on Oliver’s recommendation. I had no idea that your husband had died and I am so very sorry. I have been married with all its ups and downs for 51 years, and I don’t know what I would do if David predeceased me. So so very much love.to a lovely beautiful RUclips friend. I am also now a wobbly survivor of bilateral breast cancer.
Oh, Carole-this is so kind of you to say. I took no offense at your earlier comment; struggles are struggles, no matter how intense. While I miss my own David terribly, I was lucky to have him in my life for almost thirty years. Thank you, wobbly sister, for your love.
Being a waman and prone to certain desease is, just like many other things, what we have no power to disagree with. Every person is destined to be alone; therefore, to have regular meetings with people in the community is important.
Yes indeed; my local in-real-life community has meant so much to me-and so has the booktube community!
Did you read Sarah Polley’s memoir in essays Run Towards the Danger? The eponymous essay is about her experiences with a brutal concussion that robbed her of the opportunity to write and film her Little Women that then got co-opted by Greta Gerwig. The University of Pittsburgh Concussion Center allowed her to reclaim her life.
Putting it on my list right now! Thanks! (My son has been seeing a team of concussion specialists this month and it has been really helpful for him.)
Cooker