Rumor Godden wrote a 'nunnish' book called 'In this house of Brede' which I loved when I read it. You might like to find a copy of it, I believe it was also made into a film with Diana Rigg and Judi Bowker in the 70s, 1976 maybe! Also 'The Nun's Story' by Kathryn Hulme written in 1959 I think. This was also a film which starred Audrey Hepburn. Again I loved this and really enjoyed the film.
Oooh I love Diana Rig. She was my generations Mrs Hardbroom and brilliant at it. She was also very good as Mrs Danvers, in fact she carried that whole adaptation. Sadly Black Narcissus, also with nuns, put me right off Rumor Godden.
Simon you read my mind: I was just lamenting yesterday that I didn’t have a whole lot of 2024 releases on my radar that I was REALLY excited for, hoping one of my favourite booktubers would do a video mentioning some. Lo and behold… this video 😍
Hahaha. I’m not sure that’s a nickname I should have put out into the ether. People will think I mean it. Glad to share some books you’ve not heard of but like the sound of. I think I would like to try and do lots more of that next year. I think 2023 was a year where I was less aware of what was coming out until it was out.
Thanks for another brillo pad video Simon 😄 i too am guilty of buying lots of books by authors I haven't yet read but am convinced I'll love 😅🙈 the optimistic reader is by far the happiest 😌 also, that light at the end of the video! 😍✨️✨️ practically biblical! 😂
Hahaha. Brillo pad video. That’s tickled me. I love the term optimistic reader. I definitely need to be more of one of those. I admitted the other day that sometimes I look for reasons not to like a book, imagine.
Ooooh I’m so excited for The Martyr. It came unsolicited and I wasn’t too fussed until I saw it on your channel. Defo give The Orange a go, doesn’t have all her best poems in but it does have some.
Another great video Simon! Thank you so much for sharing all of these treasures. I haven’t heard of any of these books. *Immediately adds to TBR* 🙈 Btw, LOVE the jumper! The colour is gorgeous. 🧡
Well coming from you, who always picks the most fabulous jumpers that is a compliment indeed! Also I owe you thanks for leading me to WOB. I meant to say that in this video. Apologies. Loving your channel, you’ve a big fanboy here!
So many wonderful sounding 2024 upcoming releases!!! A new Sarah Perry! Be still my heart. And the envy is real for the new Charlotte Wood! A Bookish Jesus had me falling off my chair. The light was really something! Am pining not to be able to be at Harris and Harris next weekend and eager to learn what you make of Mistletoe Malice!
Who knows. Maybe we will do a Harris and Harris weekend next year if this one goes well. Ha. I’m very excited for the new Sarah Perry. Hoping it’s more Essex Serpent than Melmoth.
I am doing the opposite journey to you this weekend - from Clare to Liverpool for a funeral. Hope it all goes well being a bookseller. Wish I could pop in to say hello, but not to be this weekend. I like to imagine I read loads on the train, but I also just spend the time looking out of the window (and at Christmas, I look through windows to check out people's trees!)
Wow, you’ve good eyes I can never focus on nosying through windows on the train, it’s too fast… and I love a good nose through a window hahaha. Sorry to hear about your loss. Hope it goes as well as can be.
i hear you on prioritizing that 'return-to-self' type of reading in the coming year. ive definitely been taking some time to set some intentions around my 2024 reading as well. here's to being a teeny bit more self-directed in 2024! 🥂
Yes here’s to that Kat! I looked through the shelves of books I’ve read this year… and it didn’t set me alight. Though I’ve just read two absolute corkers. The amount of corkers vs the amount of okays is huge. Sadly.
Hello, Bookish Jesus! Haven’t read many books about nuns. But I read The Scorched Grace in 2023, and it was fine. Also remembered reading books about a sleuth-nun from the Russian Empire - a series about Sister Pelagia by Akunin. It was published by Penguin Random House.
I loved Agatha of Little Neon! I have a thing about nun books. Here are some I loved: The Rabbit Hutch, Gunty; Marietta in Ecstacy, Hanson; Matrix, Groff; Angeline, Quinn; The Magdalen, Conlon-McKenna; and The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun, Alcoforado. I haven't read the Groff yet, but I absolutely love the rest of them. 💚
Oooh thanks for those nun top tips. I have The Rabbit Hutch and Matrix on the TBR. Actually I’ve some more you’ve not mentioned on the TBR thinking about it. That is so a project for next year.
Thanks for that jam packed vid. Could I request a favourite Australian author's fiction books video? (I realized I have a big hole in my reading). That cover for the revenge book is very atmospheric makes me imagine a Victorian apothecary. ⚗⚖🧫😮
I think I’ve done an Australian books and authors video before but it hasn’t been for ages so let me see what I can do in the new year. I will also try and say where authors are from when I’m doing wrap ups. They’re slightly less chaotic than hauls. Ha.
Those are lovely illustrations in The Story of Persephone. I am enjoying A History of France by John Julius Norwich, not heavy and a nice chatty style.
As it’s got colder , I turned to Australian crime fiction. If I’m going to be cold I might as well read something set somewhere warm. I read Happiness Falls in December. It was a 4 star for me. My 5 stars were The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride March by Geraldine Brooks Good Morning Monster ( nonfiction) The best Aussie Crime fic so far Cover The Bones The Way It Is Now Wake Paradise Voices of the Dead ☘️👋🍀📕☕️📚🇮🇪📖 Oisin is Osh-sheen, It means little deer. It’s a beautiful Irish name from Irish mythology.
Little deer... oh that is so lovely. I wish my name had a cute meaning like that. 4 stars is good for Happiness Falls am looking forward to reading it, actually I may be able to use that for my Savidge prompt this month, maybe. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is on its way to me from the publishers. Very excited about it, have recently been hearing amazing things.
Adore the autumn-y jumper! 🍂 And thank you for teasing some 2024 new releases - I’ve not been keeping up so love that I can always trust you to help me out 😎 - A November purchase I’m currently reading is Jo Browning Wroe’s A Terrible Kindness which has started off really strong. Hope you have a lovely rest of the year 🎄❄️
Autumn seems to have left the building, so I am trying to keep its spirit here before the festive spirit fully takes over. I thought A Terrible Kindness was quite something, so hope you enjoy it... if that is the right term with the subject matter.
@@SavidgeReads I know, I never know what else to say than “enjoy” but it really just doesn’t always fit. The book I read before this one was Minor Detail by Adania Shibli which is another one that’s not “enjoyable” but a powerful read nonetheless
Aussie here: I loved Peter Polites' Down the Hume. Simon, have you read any Rick Morton? I can highly recommend his stunning memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt (but I love everything he writes)
I don't keep up with new releases because I'm almost always reading backlist stuff with a couple new releases here and there. All my purchases in November were Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, Ordinary Monsters by JM Miro, The Revolution of Marina M. by Janet Fitch Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor, English Passengers Matthew Kneale, The Visitors by Sally Beauman, The Forbidden, The Daughter of Ninmah both by Lori Holmes, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and Tales from the Perilous Realm by Tolkien. I think I got all these in November.
Sounds like you got quite the mixture of books. How lovely. English Passengers was one of my grans favourite books. I think it’s one that my mum really loves too.
no not at all! I was over-elated to hear someone sum up precisely how I feel about blurbs is all. Replace "rant" with master class? lol. @@SavidgeReads
I’ve never been on a 🚂, but that’s definitely what I do on an ✈️. I really liked Happiness Falls- it was different than anything I can recall reading in a good way 📖🪱❄️💚
You also mentioned wanting to read more nun-ish books in 2024. I suggest “And Then There Were Nuns” by Jane Christmas; a true story in which Jane embarks on a year-long adventure to see if she’s really cut out to be a nun.
Sorry if you’ve already talked about it - but Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy is a mystery novel where the protagonist is a nun and might be fun for Crime Time!
I did mention it a while back but I’ve not read it yet so that’s one that’s most definitely for the nun pile. As for Crime Time, it’s gone on an accidental hiatus again. Oops.
The funniest book I read in November was Ten Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall It’s set around Christmas and especially on audio… it’s a giggle.
Im currently reading the dangerous kingdom of love by neill Blackmore which is a fictionalised version of the geroge Villiers story and really enjoying it
You mentioned that you’d like to read more queer nonfiction historical books in 2024. Have you tried “Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England” by Neil McKenna?
I haven't read it, but I do have it on the TBR so that is probably one to dust off in the new year... a shelf sort is due between now and January, so will make sure that is visible when I have a switch around.
Rumor Godden wrote a 'nunnish' book called 'In this house of Brede' which I loved when I read it. You might like to find a copy of it, I believe it was also made into a film with Diana Rigg and Judi Bowker in the 70s, 1976 maybe! Also 'The Nun's Story' by Kathryn Hulme written in 1959 I think. This was also a film which starred Audrey Hepburn. Again I loved this and really enjoyed the film.
Oooh I love Diana Rig. She was my generations Mrs Hardbroom and brilliant at it. She was also very good as Mrs Danvers, in fact she carried that whole adaptation. Sadly Black Narcissus, also with nuns, put me right off Rumor Godden.
Simon you read my mind: I was just lamenting yesterday that I didn’t have a whole lot of 2024 releases on my radar that I was REALLY excited for, hoping one of my favourite booktubers would do a video mentioning some. Lo and behold… this video 😍
Hahaha, well I am thrilled that I read your mind, now I just have to read these books hahaha.
Added 9 books to my wishlist from this video! Lots of ones I hadn’t heard of before, thank you bookish Jesus 😂
Hahaha. I’m not sure that’s a nickname I should have put out into the ether. People will think I mean it. Glad to share some books you’ve not heard of but like the sound of. I think I would like to try and do lots more of that next year. I think 2023 was a year where I was less aware of what was coming out until it was out.
Thanks for another brillo pad video Simon 😄 i too am guilty of buying lots of books by authors I haven't yet read but am convinced I'll love 😅🙈 the optimistic reader is by far the happiest 😌 also, that light at the end of the video! 😍✨️✨️ practically biblical! 😂
Hahaha. Brillo pad video. That’s tickled me. I love the term optimistic reader. I definitely need to be more of one of those. I admitted the other day that sometimes I look for reasons not to like a book, imagine.
Your videos always make my day! Bookish Jesus - LOL I can see that on a t-shirt. 👕
Oh blimey. It might be a bit too much of a bookish slogan that one. Haha.
eep hope you have a highlighter at the ready for Martyr! lots of wonderful lines
Ooooh I’m so excited for The Martyr. It came unsolicited and I wasn’t too fussed until I saw it on your channel. Defo give The Orange a go, doesn’t have all her best poems in but it does have some.
Another great video Simon! Thank you so much for sharing all of these treasures. I haven’t heard of any of these books. *Immediately adds to TBR* 🙈
Btw, LOVE the jumper! The colour is gorgeous. 🧡
Well coming from you, who always picks the most fabulous jumpers that is a compliment indeed! Also I owe you thanks for leading me to WOB. I meant to say that in this video. Apologies. Loving your channel, you’ve a big fanboy here!
So many wonderful sounding 2024 upcoming releases!!! A new Sarah Perry! Be still my heart. And the envy is real for the new Charlotte Wood! A Bookish Jesus had me falling off my chair. The light was really something! Am pining not to be able to be at Harris and Harris next weekend and eager to learn what you make of Mistletoe Malice!
Who knows. Maybe we will do a Harris and Harris weekend next year if this one goes well. Ha. I’m very excited for the new Sarah Perry. Hoping it’s more Essex Serpent than Melmoth.
@@SavidgeReads An annual Harris and Harris weekend!!!!
I am doing the opposite journey to you this weekend - from Clare to Liverpool for a funeral. Hope it all goes well being a bookseller. Wish I could pop in to say hello, but not to be this weekend.
I like to imagine I read loads on the train, but I also just spend the time looking out of the window (and at Christmas, I look through windows to check out people's trees!)
Wow, you’ve good eyes I can never focus on nosying through windows on the train, it’s too fast… and I love a good nose through a window hahaha. Sorry to hear about your loss. Hope it goes as well as can be.
i hear you on prioritizing that 'return-to-self' type of reading in the coming year. ive definitely been taking some time to set some intentions around my 2024 reading as well. here's to being a teeny bit more self-directed in 2024! 🥂
Yes here’s to that Kat! I looked through the shelves of books I’ve read this year… and it didn’t set me alight. Though I’ve just read two absolute corkers. The amount of corkers vs the amount of okays is huge. Sadly.
Hello, Bookish Jesus! Haven’t read many books about nuns. But I read The Scorched Grace in 2023, and it was fine. Also remembered reading books about a sleuth-nun from the Russian Empire - a series about Sister Pelagia by Akunin. It was published by Penguin Random House.
I loved Agatha of Little Neon! I have a thing about nun books. Here are some I loved: The Rabbit Hutch, Gunty; Marietta in Ecstacy, Hanson; Matrix, Groff; Angeline, Quinn; The Magdalen, Conlon-McKenna; and The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun, Alcoforado. I haven't read the Groff yet, but I absolutely love the rest of them. 💚
Oooh thanks for those nun top tips. I have The Rabbit Hutch and Matrix on the TBR. Actually I’ve some more you’ve not mentioned on the TBR thinking about it. That is so a project for next year.
@SavidgeReads yay, I'm excited for that video!
Thanks for that jam packed vid. Could I request a favourite Australian author's fiction books video? (I realized I have a big hole in my reading). That cover for the revenge book is very atmospheric makes me imagine a Victorian apothecary. ⚗⚖🧫😮
I think I’ve done an Australian books and authors video before but it hasn’t been for ages so let me see what I can do in the new year. I will also try and say where authors are from when I’m doing wrap ups. They’re slightly less chaotic than hauls. Ha.
Really looking forward to Enlightenment by Sarah Perry, loved The Essex Serpent! And yes please to nunnish books / a themed blog!
I’ve already been thinking of titles for that vlog. Nunnish Nonsense. And Then There Were Nuns. Bad Books… There Were Nun. I could go on. Hahaha.
Those are lovely illustrations in The Story of Persephone. I am enjoying A History of France by John Julius Norwich, not heavy and a nice chatty style.
The illustrations from The Story of Persephone have imprinted on my brain since childhood, I would love to get big prints of some of them.
Hi Simon Anna Smaill= Kiwi. As probably don't know how many others have said. Really enjoyed this video, as usual.
Oooh I didn’t know that, no one else has said it, so thank you. Makes sense she’s published by Scribe as well!
As it’s got colder , I turned to Australian crime fiction. If I’m going to be cold I might as well read something set somewhere warm.
I read Happiness Falls in December. It was a 4 star for me. My 5 stars were
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
March by Geraldine Brooks
Good Morning Monster ( nonfiction)
The best Aussie Crime fic so far
Cover The Bones
The Way It Is Now
Wake
Paradise
Voices of the Dead
☘️👋🍀📕☕️📚🇮🇪📖
Oisin is Osh-sheen, It means little deer. It’s a beautiful Irish name from Irish mythology.
Little deer... oh that is so lovely. I wish my name had a cute meaning like that. 4 stars is good for Happiness Falls am looking forward to reading it, actually I may be able to use that for my Savidge prompt this month, maybe. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is on its way to me from the publishers. Very excited about it, have recently been hearing amazing things.
@@SavidgeReads well I should have said “ little fawn” . Baby deer… I shouldn’t be trusted to translate accurately
Adore the autumn-y jumper! 🍂 And thank you for teasing some 2024 new releases - I’ve not been keeping up so love that I can always trust you to help me out 😎
- A November purchase I’m currently reading is Jo Browning Wroe’s A Terrible Kindness which has started off really strong. Hope you have a lovely rest of the year 🎄❄️
Autumn seems to have left the building, so I am trying to keep its spirit here before the festive spirit fully takes over. I thought A Terrible Kindness was quite something, so hope you enjoy it... if that is the right term with the subject matter.
@@SavidgeReads I know, I never know what else to say than “enjoy” but it really just doesn’t always fit. The book I read before this one was Minor Detail by Adania Shibli which is another one that’s not “enjoyable” but a powerful read nonetheless
Aussie here: I loved Peter Polites' Down the Hume. Simon, have you read any Rick Morton? I can highly recommend his stunning memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt (but I love everything he writes)
I haven’t read Rick’s book yet but I do have it on my shelves. Thank you for the reminder.
‘Hagstone’ sounds amazing. 📚
I think it will be one of my books of 2024!
I don't keep up with new releases because I'm almost always reading backlist stuff with a couple new releases here and there. All my purchases in November were Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, Ordinary Monsters by JM Miro, The Revolution of Marina M. by Janet Fitch Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor, English Passengers Matthew Kneale, The Visitors by Sally Beauman, The Forbidden, The Daughter of Ninmah both by Lori Holmes, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and Tales from the Perilous Realm by Tolkien. I think I got all these in November.
Sounds like you got quite the mixture of books. How lovely. English Passengers was one of my grans favourite books. I think it’s one that my mum really loves too.
@@SavidgeReads Then I'll have to bump that one up.
A book haul that doubles as a blurb rant advent calendar? Yes, Please!!
Oh blimey, I hope I wasn't too ranty lol. How unbecoming! Hahaha.
no not at all! I was over-elated to hear someone sum up precisely how I feel about blurbs is all. Replace "rant" with master class? lol. @@SavidgeReads
I’ve never been on a 🚂, but that’s definitely what I do on an ✈️. I really liked Happiness Falls- it was different than anything I can recall reading in a good way 📖🪱❄️💚
You have never been on a train!!! My jaw just hit the floor.
JEEZUS! Look at the size of that stack.
It's bigger than my sofa.
And it was only half of it, I couldn't hold it all up!
You also mentioned wanting to read more nun-ish books in 2024. I suggest “And Then There Were Nuns” by Jane Christmas; a true story in which Jane embarks on a year-long adventure to see if she’s really cut out to be a nun.
That title is genius!
And she's Canadian so that ticks off the wanting-to-read-Canadian-authors box, too.😊@@SavidgeReads
I do love me some Australian literature ❤
Saaaaame. I’ve sadly not read enough this year.
Sorry if you’ve already talked about it - but Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy is a mystery novel where the protagonist is a nun and might be fun for Crime Time!
I did mention it a while back but I’ve not read it yet so that’s one that’s most definitely for the nun pile. As for Crime Time, it’s gone on an accidental hiatus again. Oops.
Loved A Quiet Tide as have several friends who it’s been passed onto
Oooh that’s fab to hear!
The funniest book I read in November was
Ten Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall
It’s set around Christmas and especially on audio… it’s a giggle.
Ooh I am on a slight book buying ban, I shall look it up though.
Holding the Man is potentially my favourite book of all time. I can't wait to hear what you think of it!
Oh wow. Thats quite the accolade. Makes me all the more excited to read it.
@@SavidgeReads I also meant to say, make sure you have plenty of tissues to hand!
I just needed to give a shout out to Bookish Jesus 🤣
Hahahaha. I was really worried I would offend people, or people might think I was being serious. Haha.
Im currently reading the dangerous kingdom of love by neill Blackmore which is a fictionalised version of the geroge Villiers story and really enjoying it
Oooh I have that so maybe I’ll read that after the non fiction. Could be an interesting experiment.
I do the same thing when I get on a train. 😅😊
🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂
That Alison Rumfitt looks delightful 😮
Bookish Jesus 🤣
I think it’ll be anything but delightful but revel in its undelightful glory. Hahaha.
@@SavidgeReads 🤣
Holding The Man was adapted into a film. Have you seen it?
I haven't, I hadn't heard of the book or the film. Maybe if I like the book I will watch the movie.
You mentioned that you’d like to read more queer nonfiction historical books in 2024. Have you tried “Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England” by Neil McKenna?
I haven't read it, but I do have it on the TBR so that is probably one to dust off in the new year... a shelf sort is due between now and January, so will make sure that is visible when I have a switch around.
I may re-read it as I quite enjoyed it.@@SavidgeReads
also wao not u tagging the hottest boiz of booktube everrr shocked that u didn't tag urself ;)))
Hahaha. I am not a hot boy of BookTube. Hahahaha. The very idea makes me laugh.
😂
🙂