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I love the way you talk about books! You and I seem to have a lot of similar tastes, too. I decided to pick up Beautyland after seeing one of your recent videos. I actually am really liking it so far! Hope you're doing well and staying safe! : )

Love this video! I am adding Cantoras and My Brilliant Friend to my TBR right now. I already have a few of the others on my list. You have had some excellent reads so far this year! I also loved As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow.

I believe Carolina has changed pronouns to they, their and is going by Caro these days.

Excellent video. I either want to read or added so many of these to my TBR. Happy to see As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow on here.

Wow as always you have significantly affected my tbr list but tysm for your input on James which is a book i struggled with (i felt its cynical tone and comically bad villains incongruous with the story) and im very very grateful to you and your presence on booktube ❤

Yay! Sounds like Cantoras might speak to me a fair bit. I’ve had an e-copy of it for years. So many (all of them) I’ve already read and loved as much as you did, or want desperately to read. I’d read anything on your recommendation. Great video, Friend.

Love The Book of night Women!!!! Definitely one of my favourites. Love the Neapolitan quartet and it just gets better and better with each book. A Trace of Sun is very good and I'm disappointed that it wasn't talked about more. Whew! Boys Singh! Have been listening to the audio and reading the physical simultaneously. I'm in the middle of reading it now. So damn good! Annie Bot and As Long as the Lemon Tree Grows are both on my TBR along with James of course.

Great group of books. So many about women and woman's place in the world. Have read Ordinary Human Failings and loved it. A novel that can not be forgotten.

Have you read Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardoashvili? Curious about your opinion😊

Greta and Valdin sounds fascinating. Great discussion of James, too!

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Your review of I Who Have Never Known Men is bang on. We also read it for a book club and had a brilliant discussion.

Great picks. Love MBF and James, like OHF and really need to get to Anita.

And Then She Fell I Who Have Never Known Men The Coast Road Are on my TBR Books I’ve read and loved Cantoras Ordinary Human Failings Greta & Valdin Lots I want to read. ☘️👋🍀📖📕📚☕️

I've read six of these, and four of them were five star reads for me. (And Then She Fell, Ordinary Human Failings, Greta & Valdin, James) Eight more are on my tbr (well, it was seven but I have now added As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow), and I'm now even more excited about them. Sadly we diverge on Boy Parts. That one really didn't work for me, but after listening to you talk about it I wonder if it was because I listened to the audio. It's read by the author, but she manages to make her main character so utterly unlikable. And not unlikable in a way that I enjoy. I wonder if I would have had a more nuanced view of her if I didn't have the text filtered through the audio performance. Maybe I'll try it again once enough time has passed.

I loved Loop Tracks. Interestingly, Sue Orr is the wife of the Governor of the Reserve Bank here in New Zealand.

Lean your loneliness slowly against mine is such a good title. I really loved the film poor things! Emma Stone is one of my favourite actors and she did phenomenal in it. While a bit long it did a good job with the acting, the narrative, the characterisation and having humour in it too. I was wondering about whether or not to read the book, but I think I am complete and happy with having seen the film 😅 I liked the themes in how beautiful we were and I think it did a great job with the collective pov. And you speak a lot of truth on colonialisation and economic colonialisation. But I also struggled with the book overall because it is incredibly slow paced and therefore dragged a bit for me. Going to look into dominoes more. I have been having a love hate experience with Black literary books at the moment that are more commercial, but I think seeing some Black reviews of it will help me make up my mind. Thanks for introducing it to me!

This is a great overview, but I could personally do with only a few sentences about what the book is about and if it peaks your personal interest or not. But of course you do you. I will definitely watch.

Flamin’ heck Ailsa. I got to the second chapter of Bodies of Light and gave up. Pedestrian writing and I felt like I’d read childhood memories and descriptions many times before. In another note…it’s my turn for book group pick. Do you think Imbi Neeme’s book? These are literary lovers but they might cope with a “cosy” read.

I read my fair share of smut but the first few pages of The Work just really turned me off this book immediately - sounds if I had continued I would have been disappointed with the execution of this book - great review though! 😊

Finally catching up with other people's longlist predictions. I really like this list! And we have a few in common. I *adored* Blackouts and felt very emotional (and validated) when it won the NBA, but couldn't squeeze it into my list in the end. Great sleuthing on the Nicholls! He's been longlisted before but feels like the Booker has moved away from 'contemporary' and much closer to 'literary', but it will be really interesting to see if they swing back (and how much sway Collins might have on the panel!)

Your number one novel went straight to my library list. Thanks for sharing the background story, never heard about this artist before.

I really enjoyed Glorious Exploits. I am holding off on the new Rumfitt despite appreciating Tell Me I'm Worthless. Thanks for finding all these to amuse us.

I read The Book of Mother two years ago and it was one of my books of the year. Listening to you talking about it, made me want to re-read it.

Wonderful overview! I was a bit worried about your oxygen supply though.

Thanks for making a video of books to avoid! 😂 Seriously though, hope you're feeling better. Are you still going to do a prediction video?

she jj abrams'd 1984, i dont think eric arthur blair would approve

These all sound very fun! Thanks for the list

I'm really interested in your comment at the end that says that Mary and the Rabbit Dream could be perhaps a nod to tate or peterson. Could you elaborate on this in another video? Or, perhaps, elaborate in a reply? This book isn't available yet in the US so I'm not able to make the connection at the moment (or, there might be something really obvious I'm not connecting because I'm a weirdie : P). Love your videos!

🤣The Pod of this year’s Booker🤣This is a weird list indeed! Thanks, Scott!🌷

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Hooray for more Booker content while we wait for the longlist!

We should start our own prize. Some of these books deserve award stickers on the jacket just for getting published.

Great video! I have Beautyland and Glorious Exploits. Hoping I enjoy both. Brainwyrms…I’m not sure if I want to read it in or not.i just read Tell Me I’m Worthless last month and while I found it clever, it was also a tough read for me. I can’t imagine what Rumfitt’s writing is like when they’re actually trying to disgust you. 😅

So excited that my local library has Beautyland. Sounds fascinating.

re use of fax machines: I think that means that almost all of Germanys city governments are actually aliens.... would explain a lot 🤣

I want to read Beautyland! Every Booker list needs one oddball title so maybe one of these will sneak in.

"Glorious Exploits.' absolutely brilliant, my favourite book this year.

Say Hello To My Little Friend is fantastic. I almost didn't read it because it sounded a little too self-consciously quirky, but I'm so happy that I did.

fax machines enabling alien communication? count me in 🤣 The BrainWyrms cover has such a retro feel, but I don't like the taste of my own vom in... I think I'm too much of a wimp for it. fab spotlight of some truly weird sounding books 👍

Oh how good would it be if Alison Rumfitt got the accolades she deserved. Haven't read Brainwyrms yet but loved Tell Me I'm Worthless.

You have a knack for finding some really wacky-sounding books!

Good review. But Kunle is in search of his brother, not his mother.

So many moments when I laughed out loud! You’ve reminded me I want to read How Beautiful We Were

I want to read brotherless night after having seen it win now! Night bloom and soldier sailor are ones I got from the longlist this time around and I need to read them now. And enter ghost is on my wishlist still and I do really want to read at some point (of the titles mentioned, it is the one I want to read the most). While not my favourite selection, it sounds like it was a good one.

Parts 1 and 2 of the book are a masterpiece on par with the original. Part 3 left me like WTF is this shit?

Love A Five Year Sentence. So original. It should be so much better known.

A shame that the Bri Lee fiction wasn't very good in the end. I'm so glad you liked death note! I have read six volumes of it so far, and really enjoy the game between L and Light, and while it does discuss good and bad to some extent, it's not the entirety of the plot as a whole. I really like how it focuses on the cat and mouse game, and how well it does that.

No Praiseworthy? No My Friends? Those two are on my possibles list. There's a few on your list that I can't wait to get to! Shafak's is one of them, James is another. A couple I hadn't heard of but boy is there a long waiting list at the library for them- The Coast Road and You are Here, are two that I've added my name to those very long lists.