As a translator/translation studies scholar, I'm so happy and impressed to see you mention the names of translators with such effortless grace as if it was the most natural thing in the world - it so often isn't!
This is my FAVORITE video on the whole of TH-cam every year! Love it! I always spend the next year slowly reading a bunch of your favorites. It’s always so fun for me, because 99% of the time your favorites become my favorites. It’s my birthday on Saturday so I will be treating myself to a few of these for sure! Thanks for your work 🎉🥰
Throughout this video I was either nodding along as I'd read and loved the book you mentioned, or scribbling the names down as I need to read them! xxx
I am an American who loves Waterstones. For my birthdays and at Christmas my husband gives me a gift certificate for Waterstones. I am constantly looking for books by British authors to try. After your review I am going to buy “Bass Rock.” Thanks for all you do to get the word out about books and authors. Very much appreciated by this American.
I've only read two of these: The Other Bennet Sister, which I loved, and Hamnet, which was my favorite book of the year. I loved Hamnet so much that in spite of already owning the British edition when it was first published, I also bought the special Waterstones edition while recently visiting Edinburgh! I already own The Bass Rock and think I will make that the first book I read this year.
I am pretty sure A Kind Of Spark saved my life last year. I had built up a horrendous emotional block due to -- well -- everything. I had such a rib splitting joyful sob at the end of the book and was able to start living as a human being again. My poor cats were horrified by the sobbing wildebeest I'd become! I read (and reread) Autumn and Winter this year and have Spring and Summer in the wings for when Massachusetts becomes green again. Girl, Woman, Other was a Saturday read that has been sitting with me for months. I think my favorite reads from 2020 would have to be (in no order) A Kind Of Spark - Elle McNicoll, Lanny - Max Porter, Follow Me To Ground - Sue Rainsford and Watch Over Me - Nina LaCour. Otherness seems to be the theme. Thank you for this stunning list and HAPPY NEW BOOK YEAR!
I want that jumper!!! It looks gorgeous on you! People from My Neighbourhood, Summerwater, The Bass Rock, and Hamnet were all in my top 10 for 2020. I loved them all, but Hamnet stood far above everything else for me. Leave the World Behind still freaks me out months after listening to it. I cannot begin to decide whether it was actually a good book because it freaked me out so much. I have several others from your list, Pew, Mr Loverman, and Sitting Pretty, waiting to be read. I am partway through The Vanishing Half and need to get back to it soon. I’ve had a lot of trouble getting going with GWO (book and audio), but I am determined to get it read this year. You have recommended so many fantastic books to me over the past couple of years. I am very grateful. ❤️
I loved the audiobook of The Other Bennet Sister as well! I listened to most of it while sitting and working in the garden, it was a perfect reading experience. Very inspiring list of books!
A thank you for all your brilliant content in the last year. I discovered you in first lockdown and your book chat and vlogs brought some loveliness to the gloom. Best not mention the impact on my bank balance from the excellent recommendations x
The vanishing half was fantastic, I have hamnet waiting on my tbr which I seem to have been savouring for the last 6 months before reading. I just want it to be the perfect time to read it or so it seems!
Carmen Maria Machado is one of my favorite authors. I love how experimental she is with her writing. I have quite a few of the books on your best of list already on my TBR and I just added the rest of them!
The Other Bennett Sister has been on my audiobook list for soooo long and this has definitely just pushed it right up the ranking! ♡ Some of these also made it to my favourites too so I'll have to check out the others. I love coming here and finding a great mix of books I love, books I'm already interested in and books I've never heard of!
After seeing your past video singing the praise of Sitting Pretty I decided to get the audiobook. I'm almost at the end and it is so fantastic, so quote-able! I feel I will be recommending it, and sharing tidbits of knowledge from it, for a long time.
Quite a few of these were in my top 20. My favourite book was Hamnet and I also had The Bass Rock on my list. I listened to The Other Bennet Sister and Mr Loverman on audio and loved them both. I also listened to Small Island by Andrea Levy while decorating my girls bedroom so will have fond memories of that book. Pew is on my tbr for this year. A great selection of books. Happy New Year.
I also read Sitting Pretty in December. I read it on audio and thought it was fantastic. And I just finished This Green and Pleasant Land on audio, too. A really incredible story. This is an amazing list, many to add to my TBR!
I hang out for this video every year! Thank you Jen. Last year I read more books, and more great books, than usual, but I think Apeirogon by Colum McCann was the cream that rose to the very top.
I was initially turned off by Pet- it was too weird for me. After discussing it with a “Reading the K-8 Rainbow” group for educators, I saw even more of what it was doing and loved it. We even discussed how if the over the top weird aspects were designed to show that the book itself couldn’t be put in a box. Great recs!
If you have already spoken of this and I missed it, I apologize. Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dana McAnulty is fabulous book on nature and autism; Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake is charming for any age on friendship and kindness.
I’ve read 6 books on your list. I’m currently reading Summer Water and The Vanishing Half is on my TBR. Agree with you about The Bass Rock Mr Loverman The Other Bennet Sister Hamnet My book of the year was Shuggie Bain. Maybe because I’ve worked in addiction. Maybe because my mum died in January 2020. It made me laugh and weep. Especially recommend audio for the Glaswegian accent.
I'm eager to read People From My Neighborhood, Pew, Mr. Loverman, The Other Bennet Sister and Bass Rock this year. I have read Pet and The Tea Dragon Society. My favorite books of 2020 were The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke (NF and the audiobook is read by the author), and I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Conde.
I am currently listening to the audiobook of This Green and Pleasant Land and it is absolutely incredible thank you so much for the recommendation! Haven’t even finished it yet and it’s definitely become a firm favourite. Absolutely adored The Vanishing Half too, and have just bought The Other Bennet Sister! Loved this video ❤️❤️❤️
Lovely list! I was literally reading Hamnet when the notification of this video went up. Glad to see my book of 2020 placed somewhere on yours, which was In the Dreamhouse by Carmen Maria Machado. I adored it. It's so visceral and innovative while also being so easy to be entirely immersed into. And it also really made me revisit some things that happened in my own childhood with a different light. I also feel like I've been seeing Machado's name everywhere ever since I read it...not entirely unwelcome though. The only book on your list that I've read I feel funny about is Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam...I think it's a brilliantly written book with extremely apt and applicable themes, and I think it does bookend (ha ha?) 2020 very well with Bong Jun Ho's Parasite on the beginning side of the year (which I LOVED LOVED LOVED). But I didn't like it. And it sort of frustrates me that I didn't, because I can see why people love it and I do think it deserves all of its praise. But I finished the book just sort of...done with it. The characters irritated me across the board (which surprised me), like, maybe I've just run into too many people like them and I just did not have any sympathy left for people like that, or...something. I actually felt too much was revealed about what was happening in the world, I would've preferred it to have either remained entirely a mystery or if it dared to be creepier. And I just...did not find it unsettling or creepy at all. Maybe 2020 numbed me, I don't know. I guess I was expecting something far more disturbing, but instead I was just "well, yeah, things happen. And all of you kind of deserve it." *shrug* It's a very good book, I highly recommend it, I wish I could love it. But instead, I'm just apathetically annoyed with it. Is that weird? Probably... I blame 2020...
Thank you for the recommendation of a kind of spark! I’m autistic and have seen it floating round, but was scared of jumping in because there’s so much ableist trash floating round
I have read quite a few of these and am currently reading The Bass Rock. I didn't really get along with Girl, Woman, Other on first reading but am planning to read it again this year and perhaps some of Evaristo's back catalogue as well.
Pet was my last read of 2020 but definitely one of my faves!! I had The Vanishing Half, Girl Woman Other and Sitting Pretty on my TBR, and I'm also interested in People from my Neighbourhood and Leave the World Behind :)
I just put SITTING PRETTY on hold at my library! My 2020 favorites were CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN by Sayaka Murata, THE COLLECTED SCHIZOPHRENIAS by Esme Weijun Wang, and LITTLE WEIRDS by Jenny Slate.
Wow, so many books just added to my tbr pile! I loved Ali Smith's seasonal quartet but accidentally read them out of order and do regret it a little. I'm looking forward to going back to them maybe in a year and reading them in order. :)
Here in Canada they published Hamnet with a different title, calling it "Hamnet & Judith"... it's kind of a weird move, do you know why they would do that? I checked and it seems they only did it for the Canadian market, and it's weird because most of the time Canadian and US editions are the same, in fact you find the double price on them.
I've still got Summer by Ali Smith I couldn't finish it it's still on my read list I was blaming my inability to finish on covid fatigue reading slump. I think it may actually be I don't want the series to end. It's most frustrating. I waited for this book with profound want. Having enjoyed the other three.
Hi - I don't seem to have a 'Show More' button on this post so wasn't able to listen to your author interviews. Is there a different way to access these?
It’s in the description box, there should either be a show more button below the video, or a small arrow next to the title of the video which you can click. If you can’t locate that, let me know,
@@jenvcampbell Hi thanks for this - the "show more" button was initially missing but has come up after a reboot. It may be because I'm on a Mac. All well now - and thankyou for responding.
As a translator/translation studies scholar, I'm so happy and impressed to see you mention the names of translators with such effortless grace as if it was the most natural thing in the world - it so often isn't!
Thanks for reminding us of this, Eva! I’ll be more conscious of this now.
This is my FAVORITE video on the whole of TH-cam every year! Love it! I always spend the next year slowly reading a bunch of your favorites. It’s always so fun for me, because 99% of the time your favorites become my favorites. It’s my birthday on Saturday so I will be treating myself to a few of these for sure! Thanks for your work 🎉🥰
Happy birthday!
@@jenvcampbell Thank you! ☺️
Same!
Throughout this video I was either nodding along as I'd read and loved the book you mentioned, or scribbling the names down as I need to read them! xxx
I can count on getting high quality reads every time I see a recommendations video of yours ❤️
This is great, Jen. I love the scarf collection in the background.
One of the perks of alopecia; I am now a scarf queen 👸 x
@@jenvcampbell they look amazing
I am an American who loves Waterstones. For my birthdays and at Christmas my husband gives me a gift certificate for Waterstones. I am constantly looking for books by British authors to try. After your review I am going to buy “Bass Rock.” Thanks for all you do to get the word out about books and authors. Very much appreciated by this American.
At least half of the mentioned books went on my TBR.
I really love your channel, it's full of high quality recommendations. Thanks so much!
I'm glad you loved Mr. Loverman - me too! Bernardine Evaristo was a new discovery for me in 2020 and I can't wait to devour her entire back catalogue!
Must now read ‘Leave the World Behind’. I love dystopian novels and Parasite.... What an intriguing review. Thanks for the recommendation.
I've only read two of these: The Other Bennet Sister, which I loved, and Hamnet, which was my favorite book of the year. I loved Hamnet so much that in spite of already owning the British edition when it was first published, I also bought the special Waterstones edition while recently visiting Edinburgh! I already own The Bass Rock and think I will make that the first book I read this year.
I am pretty sure A Kind Of Spark saved my life last year. I had built up a horrendous emotional block due to -- well -- everything. I had such a rib splitting joyful sob at the end of the book and was able to start living as a human being again. My poor cats were horrified by the sobbing wildebeest I'd become!
I read (and reread) Autumn and Winter this year and have Spring and Summer in the wings for when Massachusetts becomes green again. Girl, Woman, Other was a Saturday read that has been sitting with me for months.
I think my favorite reads from 2020 would have to be (in no order) A Kind Of Spark - Elle McNicoll, Lanny - Max Porter, Follow Me To Ground - Sue Rainsford and Watch Over Me - Nina LaCour. Otherness seems to be the theme.
Thank you for this stunning list and HAPPY NEW BOOK YEAR!
I want that jumper!!! It looks gorgeous on you!
People from My Neighbourhood, Summerwater, The Bass Rock, and Hamnet were all in my top 10 for 2020. I loved them all, but Hamnet stood far above everything else for me.
Leave the World Behind still freaks me out months after listening to it. I cannot begin to decide whether it was actually a good book because it freaked me out so much.
I have several others from your list, Pew, Mr Loverman, and Sitting Pretty, waiting to be read. I am partway through The Vanishing Half and need to get back to it soon. I’ve had a lot of trouble getting going with GWO (book and audio), but I am determined to get it read this year. You have recommended so many fantastic books to me over the past couple of years. I am very grateful. ❤️
Love your favourites videos! Some of my favourite books this year were Bluebird, Bluebird and A Kind of Spark.
I loved the audiobook of The Other Bennet Sister as well! I listened to most of it while sitting and working in the garden, it was a perfect reading experience. Very inspiring list of books!
Thank you for a wonderful Booktube year, Jen! Your videos helped me so much to get through quarantine. Also I want to buy all of your top books ☺️
My book wish list has just doubled...!
A thank you for all your brilliant content in the last year. I discovered you in first lockdown and your book chat and vlogs brought some loveliness to the gloom. Best not mention the impact on my bank balance from the excellent recommendations x
Summerwater, Girl Woman Other and The Bass Rock were all top books of the year for me too! Thank you for all your amazing recommendations as ever
The vanishing half was fantastic, I have hamnet waiting on my tbr which I seem to have been savouring for the last 6 months before reading. I just want it to be the perfect time to read it or so it seems!
Carmen Maria Machado is one of my favorite authors. I love how experimental she is with her writing. I have quite a few of the books on your best of list already on my TBR and I just added the rest of them!
I read Hamnet last week and finished it in a day, I loved it :-) Girl, Woman, Other is next on my list!
The Other Bennett Sister has been on my audiobook list for soooo long and this has definitely just pushed it right up the ranking! ♡ Some of these also made it to my favourites too so I'll have to check out the others. I love coming here and finding a great mix of books I love, books I'm already interested in and books I've never heard of!
After seeing your past video singing the praise of Sitting Pretty I decided to get the audiobook. I'm almost at the end and it is so fantastic, so quote-able! I feel I will be recommending it, and sharing tidbits of knowledge from it, for a long time.
Definitely interested in reading The Vanishing Half this year. The Other Bennet Sister sounds wonderful too. What an interesting premise.
Quite a few of these were in my top 20. My favourite book was Hamnet and I also had The Bass Rock on my list. I listened to The Other Bennet Sister and Mr Loverman on audio and loved them both. I also listened to Small Island by Andrea Levy while decorating my girls bedroom so will have fond memories of that book. Pew is on my tbr for this year. A great selection of books. Happy New Year.
I also read Sitting Pretty in December. I read it on audio and thought it was fantastic. And I just finished This Green and Pleasant Land on audio, too. A really incredible story. This is an amazing list, many to add to my TBR!
I hang out for this video every year! Thank you Jen.
Last year I read more books, and more great books, than usual, but I think Apeirogon by Colum McCann was the cream that rose to the very top.
Such a great list of books as always. Looking forward to reading some of these.
I've read 'The Bass Rock' on your recommendation. It's great and thank you for mentioning it (and for the interview with Evie Wyld).
Well now I need to immediately take The Bass Rock off my shelf! 😊
I was initially turned off by Pet- it was too weird for me. After discussing it with a “Reading the K-8 Rainbow” group for educators, I saw even more of what it was doing and loved it. We even discussed how if the over the top weird aspects were designed to show that the book itself couldn’t be put in a box. Great recs!
If you have already spoken of this and I missed it, I apologize. Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dana McAnulty is fabulous book on nature and autism; Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake is charming for any age on friendship and kindness.
I’ve read 6 books on your list. I’m currently reading Summer Water and The Vanishing Half is on my TBR.
Agree with you about
The Bass Rock
Mr Loverman
The Other Bennet Sister
Hamnet
My book of the year was Shuggie Bain. Maybe because I’ve worked in addiction. Maybe because my mum died in January 2020. It made me laugh and weep. Especially recommend audio for the Glaswegian accent.
I'm eager to read People From My Neighborhood, Pew, Mr. Loverman, The Other Bennet Sister and Bass Rock this year. I have read Pet and The Tea Dragon Society. My favorite books of 2020 were The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke (NF and the audiobook is read by the author), and I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Conde.
I am currently listening to the audiobook of This Green and Pleasant Land and it is absolutely incredible thank you so much for the recommendation! Haven’t even finished it yet and it’s definitely become a firm favourite. Absolutely adored The Vanishing Half too, and have just bought The Other Bennet Sister! Loved this video ❤️❤️❤️
Oooooo this makes me so excited. I just bought The Dream House and now I can't wait for it to come in!!
Lovely list! I was literally reading Hamnet when the notification of this video went up. Glad to see my book of 2020 placed somewhere on yours, which was In the Dreamhouse by Carmen Maria Machado. I adored it. It's so visceral and innovative while also being so easy to be entirely immersed into. And it also really made me revisit some things that happened in my own childhood with a different light. I also feel like I've been seeing Machado's name everywhere ever since I read it...not entirely unwelcome though. The only book on your list that I've read I feel funny about is Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam...I think it's a brilliantly written book with extremely apt and applicable themes, and I think it does bookend (ha ha?) 2020 very well with Bong Jun Ho's Parasite on the beginning side of the year (which I LOVED LOVED LOVED). But I didn't like it. And it sort of frustrates me that I didn't, because I can see why people love it and I do think it deserves all of its praise. But I finished the book just sort of...done with it. The characters irritated me across the board (which surprised me), like, maybe I've just run into too many people like them and I just did not have any sympathy left for people like that, or...something. I actually felt too much was revealed about what was happening in the world, I would've preferred it to have either remained entirely a mystery or if it dared to be creepier. And I just...did not find it unsettling or creepy at all. Maybe 2020 numbed me, I don't know. I guess I was expecting something far more disturbing, but instead I was just "well, yeah, things happen. And all of you kind of deserve it." *shrug* It's a very good book, I highly recommend it, I wish I could love it. But instead, I'm just apathetically annoyed with it. Is that weird? Probably... I blame 2020...
Thank you for the recommendation of a kind of spark! I’m autistic and have seen it floating round, but was scared of jumping in because there’s so much ableist trash floating round
Indeed there is. Happy reading! x
I have read quite a few of these and am currently reading The Bass Rock. I didn't really get along with Girl, Woman, Other on first reading but am planning to read it again this year and perhaps some of Evaristo's back catalogue as well.
So many of these sound so interesting!!! Adding most of them to my TBR!
I had to add most of these to my tbr list. I'm currently reading Summerwater and now can't wait to finish it 😊
Pet was my last read of 2020 but definitely one of my faves!! I had The Vanishing Half, Girl Woman Other and Sitting Pretty on my TBR, and I'm also interested in People from my Neighbourhood and Leave the World Behind :)
I just put SITTING PRETTY on hold at my library! My 2020 favorites were CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN by Sayaka Murata, THE COLLECTED SCHIZOPHRENIAS by Esme Weijun Wang, and LITTLE WEIRDS by Jenny Slate.
I’m currently reading A Breath of Snow & Ashes, Again But Better, Carry On, and Heartless‼️
Wow, so many books just added to my tbr pile! I loved Ali Smith's seasonal quartet but accidentally read them out of order and do regret it a little. I'm looking forward to going back to them maybe in a year and reading them in order. :)
Thank you Jen! x
I also want to reread The Bass Rock. I'll be reading How to Do Nothing for a book club soon. I was dreading it, but now I'm not!
I want to read each and every book you have presented!!
Here in Canada they published Hamnet with a different title, calling it "Hamnet & Judith"... it's kind of a weird move, do you know why they would do that? I checked and it seems they only did it for the Canadian market, and it's weird because most of the time Canadian and US editions are the same, in fact you find the double price on them.
We discussed that in interview I did with Maggie, linked in the description box. It’s right near the end when we were doing audience questions x
I've still got Summer by Ali Smith I couldn't finish it it's still on my read list I was blaming my inability to finish on covid fatigue reading slump. I think it may actually be I don't want the series to end. It's most frustrating. I waited for this book with profound want. Having enjoyed the other three.
Hi - I don't seem to have a 'Show More' button on this post so wasn't able to listen to your author interviews. Is there a different way to access these?
It’s in the description box, there should either be a show more button below the video, or a small arrow next to the title of the video which you can click. If you can’t locate that, let me know,
@@jenvcampbell Hi thanks for this - the "show more" button was initially missing but has come up after a reboot. It may be because I'm on a Mac. All well now - and thankyou for responding.
What is the dumpling cookbook mentioned?
Dumplings and Noodles by Pippa Middlehurst
Well, you've had me add three books I've been deliberately choosing not to add to my Goodreads tbr-pile. Uhm, thanks? :/
Thank you for using the correct pronouns for kay o’neill 💖 it means a lot
Least I can do x
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️