Thank you for all your hard work and enthusiasm. It has been a year of disconnection, but your TH-cam channel has been a balm. Keep it up, stay safe and may 2021 be good and kind and gentle to you and yours. Much love from Cape Town x
What a great list! I haven't read all of them (thank you for the recommendations!), but I've loved almost all of the ones I've read aswell. I think Sisters and Hamnet were my favourites. Especially Sisters had that same effect on me as it had on you: I just KEEP THINKING ABOUT IT. Daisy Johnson is brilliant!
What a magnificent list. So many of these are still waiting on my shelf. Can't wait. From this list, Robbie Arnott The Rain Heron FTW. One of the most amazing books I have ever read and still think about it regularly.
He’s one of my absolute favourite authors is Robbie Arnott. Just brilliant. Actually you’ve reminded me he recommended me a book which I might have to read next.
I’m late to your channel and videos, but you’re right on time for me 💚. On my walk last night I was apologizing to the trees and such, thinking about what shit we are to the planet and how it may as well take us outttt.... and here you are recommending The Rain Heron. Added to TBR, thank you . 💚
I read much less in 2020, because of anxiety etc, but I'm looking forward to making up for that in 2021, so I've started the year watching this, thank you for all the brilliant videos. Some of these books on your list I've had for Christmas - or bought them for family members who I know will lend them to me! - so the reading year begins!
I read more BUT, and this is something I talk about in a video soon, I don’t think I loved my reading as much in 2020 and I think I’ve lost my sense of what sort of reader I am
How ironic. In my very first video, in which I happened to mention your channel, I also struggled with the plural form of octopus 😜. Will definitely try The Rain Heron. Love the channel, Simon!
Thank you so much for producing these videos, week in, week out during very difficult circumstances. You have opened my eyes to many books that I would have simply not given a second glance at in a book shop. Your choice of books has made these difficult times for me, much easier to bear.
Lovely lovely video. Our top book was the same this year. But have to admit a lot of these have flown under my radar. So have now reserved with my library. Particularly interested in Love after Love and The Rain Heron.
Oooh I hope you enjoy them when you get to them Sarah. It’s interesting as my top books were amazing but my reading year was really wobbly. So it’s good to end on such a high.
Thank you Simon for expanding my reading exponentially this year! I have loved all your recommendations! You and your videos ( I have watched most of your back log- some multiple times!)) have kept me company through this very emotional and lonely year. Thank you, thank you, thank you! love and hugs from NYC!
This is so lovely of you to say. I’m so pleased I could help even a little bit. I love NYC. We were there almost a year ago. In fact a year ago next week.
Simon your collection is ALWAYS the reason I continue to subscribe, what a bloody great 2020 you had and gave us. Have a legal adult year (21 get it) and see you on all your platforms, blessings to your hubby cats and all the teacups & mugs.
Amazing list!! I've read Real Life - it would've been number 14 on my list but I only went up to 12! I've got 6 of the others on my tbr - so was really excited to see them on your list. I must get the bass rock too. Lots of good wishes for 2021 💛
2020 is the year I discovered booktube and I’ve had a phenomenal reading year. I’ve read 7 of your top 15 and wholeheartedly agree with you on Love after Love. The Bass Rock is going on my TBR list! Happy New Year to you and Chris and happy reading in 2021.
Well there’s something fabulous to come out of 2020. I’ve been thinking about all the glimmers of good things as the old year ends and the new year starts.
Happy New Year Simon to you , Chris & your mum and all the best in 2021! Your videos are always entertaining and through the craziness of this year has provided a steadiness and comfort we all needed .
Seeing your videos picked me up during depressing days when I was stuck at home. Loved so much Australian fiction/nonfiction this year . The Erratics by Vicki Laveau Harvie Flames by Robbie Arnott The Weekend by Charolette Wood Lots of Aussie crime fiction by authors like Chris Hammer Sue Bailey Emma Viskic Jane Harper The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is also one of my top twenty this year. The Vanishing Half in on my kindle TBR for next year. As is The Rain Heron. Eagerly awaiting Attica Lockes next book. Went back into her previous books like The Cutting Season and Pleasantville. Love After Love was lovely on audio. Shuggie Bain was my book of the year. I lived through Thatcher in N.Ireland. Douglas Stuart brought that period to life. Conservative austerity policies since Thatcher have decimated health and social care. Addiction services have been cut so much that now Scotland has one of the highest drugs deaths in the world. Yes to The Bass Rock 🤩 I found the grief of Viveks mother really hard as I lost my mum in January. Hamnet 🦋🥰 Happy New Year to you and Chris 👋☘️🥳🎉📚☕️📖
I haven't chosen an official top 10 (or more) but I think Hamnet is my top 2020 fiction & The Death of Vivek Oji is surely top 5 for me... I would also include A Thousand Ships (which I know you didn't as you had another of Natalie's books on your top nonfiction)... and as always, thank you, your videos always bring me joy! Happy 2021 Simon!
Thank you so much. I adore you, your channel and all the books you have introduced me to. Your love of books makes me smile each and every time I watch one of your videos. It gives me hope in a world gone mad. Tabitha, a psychology professor in NY who should have done my doctorate in literature. 😊
Happy New Year! I also loved Hamnet, thought it was brilliant and picked it up because you and your mother discussed it and loved it. Some people felt it was dull but for me, it hooked me from the first couple of pages. I absolutely adore this book! I also had the same reasons for avoiding These Hills...book. But your loving it makes me think it maybe worth a go.
The vanishing half, love after love.....brilliant! Aiming to read Hamnet this year. Gonna catch up on “older” books as opposed to early copies all the time
I’m headed to more backlist books... as I’ll be discussing tomorrow. Which I’ve already filmed and scheduled. Hahaha. I’ve done all this weeks vids in advance so can have a break. Lol
@@SavidgeReads I certainly appreciate what you do. It’s gotta take up so much time, editing as well. I’ve loved my time in the book community, but as from today I’m closing my blog. Of course I’m still reading and reviewing etc, but time for me to slow down. I’m missing all my tv programs as I keep thinking “oh I should be reading this book, it’s published soon!” I may go back to it......but for now. I’ll watch you tube favourites like you🥳 I’m getting old!
Hello :) I have discovered you after hearing you on 'A Good Read' and so am bingeing your videos. So good! Thank you for your recommendations, I have noted/bookmarked them and will endeavour to check them out this year. 'Hamnet' was my book of the year too. I love Maggie O'Farrell's work but like you said, this was another level. I read the last third through tears as it was so moving. the writing was sublime and Agnes will stay with me. Can I recommend 'Music and Silence' by Rose Tremain, in the spirit of fantastic reads. Look forward to watching the rest of your vids. Take care and thanks again X
What a lovely comment to get. Welcome to the channel. Hope you keep enjoying the content. You might like a live video that’s coming on April 5th... with Maggie O’Farrell chatting with me and my Mum and all of you!
I just finished Here is the Beehive -- just fabulous! I think you and Jen Campbell introduced it to me, and I had to order it from the UK, but so worth it. Another book that is similar in some ways and very different in others, but also about an unreliable narrator dealing with grief is Peace Talks by Tim Finch. They will both be on my Best of 2021 lists
I really, really do not like anything Western but you've sold me on How Much of These Hills is Gold. It's on my list. I've moved from 53 to 46 on the reserve list at my library for Hamnet so will hopefully get to read it sometime in 2021. I was going to try the audiobook but the narration doesn't seem to fit the time or mood of the book. I'm loving your cozy, looking jumper. Nice colour 😍
Narrator is sooooooo important for audiobooks. If it’s not right it just ruins the magic. Hopefully Hamnet will be yours soon and I loved How Much of These Hills is Gold so much that I want to read more westerns. Imagine!!!
Thought your choices were thought provoking. Thanks for keeping me sane during isolation and lockdown. Hope your New Year is full of positives and happiness.
Simon, finding your channel was definitely a favorite thing of 2020 for me. Of course I have Hamnet and The Death of Vivek Oji on top of my best fiction list as well as The Weekend and Vanishing Half. I really liked Here is the Beehive and Love After Love and would not have read either without first hearing about them from you. I also rank Summer quite high but I am a firm fan of the seasonal quartet. A very Happy New Year to you and to Chris.
Awwww that’s so kind of you to say Cindy. It’s been lovely chatting with you this year. Thrilled I introduced you to some corkers. Here’s to more in 2020.
The Bass Rock and Vivek Oji are on my list too, loved them. Thank you so much for all your recommendations this year, lots of these are already on my TBR because you've been going on about them so much!!
I was looking forward to this video! Hamnet, Here is the Beehive and The Mercies will all be in my favourites list too! I've picked up so many recommendations from you over this past year, had a whale of a time doing your Women's Prize challenge and loved watching your videos. Thank you for all of it and excited to see what you have in store for 2021 😊
Yours is an inspiring list! Shuggie Bain, of course. I am especially pleased to see your inclusion of How Much Of These Hills Is Gold. Several others of yours also made my top 15 (Hamnet, The Bass Rock, The Vanishing Half, Love After Love, Real Life). Although you have listed 3 I'd not have included, I won't tell which. I'd rather people read each of these fine books and choose for themselves! Thank you for encouraging both readers and writers. Onward to 2021!
You can tell which. We can’t all like the same books hahaha. People can still go and make a decision themselves. I like to think people who watch this channel don’t just go on my say so. They still pick up books I didn’t like but might work for them, or tell me about what didn’t work for them in books I liked.
I’ve just found your channel and have a good number of these recommendations now added to my reading list. I read Moonrise by Sarah Crossan in 2020 and it was so powerful. It has stayed with me ever since. I look forward to reading more by her. Thanks for these suggestions.
Welcome to the channel Pauline. Lovely to have you visit. Hope you’ll be back. I think I have Moonrise on my shelves. But if I don’t I might have to get it now.
@@SavidgeReads Oh, thank you so much. I’ve been enjoying your videos and have subscribed so I’ll defo be back. I cried at the end of Moonrise and I’m not a crier. It has stayed with me in the months since I read it. I had put off reading it before - I was deterred by the format but I quickly got into it and it’s absolutely perfect as a vehicle for the subject matter. So very moving!
I read a book about octopuses last year in which it said that "octopuses" is the plural. I don't know where "octopi" came from, but it transpires I spent a rather long time getting it wrong. I just acquired The Rain Heron after enjoying Flames earlier this year, so I'm pleased to see it mentioned here. However, this entire list is decidedly thrilling. I am really glad to see certain books mentioned here - Hamnet, Vivek Oji and the Mercies - and am also looking forward to those others that I have yet to read. I hope that 2021 brings a ton of new favourites your way, and that it is as marvellous as it possibly can be.
Robbie recommended me a book with octopuses, or octopi, in it which I am hoping to read early in the new year. I can’t remember what it’s call. It’s on my shelves but I’m naughtily replying to comments in the bath. Ha.
@@SavidgeReads Could it be The Octopus and I by Erin Hortle? At least Robbie recommened that in your instalive when asked about Tasmanian authors he would recommend. I ordered a copy from Readings bookstore, so I'm hoping to get to it soon.
I can not stop thinking about Here is the Beehive. Such an incredible book. I thought the whole structure really emphasised the depth of Anas distress. Absolutely amazing book. I did a review on it to :) I would really recommend Moonrise and I'm planning to read the rest of her books for this year :)
Thanks for sharing all your favourite reads. I'm new to booktube this year and I've loved watching your videos over the year and always look forward to watching a new one. I have read some amazing books this year thanks to your recommendations. My top book from 2020 is also Hamnet, then The Pull of The Stars, then Love After Love, then The Confession and finally The Bass Rock. Most of the others in this video are in my tbr for this year and Shuggie Bain I will get to in January. Happy New Year to you, wishing you health and happiness 🙂
Thank you so much for all the lovely content you create! I especially enjoyed your author interviews and will now go and watch the one with Douglas Stuart. From your list, I've only read Shuggie Bain and How Much of These Hills Is Gold, but both were highlights of my reading year. The Bass Rock and Hamnet are both already on my shelves waiting to be picked up, and now you've also got me interested in several others.
Wow what a fantastic list & I have read around 10 of them thanks to watching your channel , not bad for someone that hadn’t read for many years & must admit loved them all so thank you . Wishing you a very Happy New Year! 🎉
Thank you for keeping me going through the year. I have loved being in your company during this awful year. Let’s hope 2021 is a better year love from Cape Town
Thank you Simon for this delightful end of the year wrap up! I have read all but 6 of your top reads. Some are not available here yet and some I’m having hard time finding. I agree with all your choices especially Hamnet which is my book of the year, I’ve been talking about it to anyone who will listen. I wish you a Very Happy New Year and the best of health for 2021. I have enjoyed so much your blogs, book reviews any of the book club sections also! I watched all the Skye episodes!
What an incredible video! It brought me joy as all your videos do. I always look forward to your next video. You are such a gift to us book addicts. Thank you!
I have really enjoyed watching your videos this year! You have inspired me to start a book blog (I’m too shy to do videos!) and I have been really enjoying that so thank you :) Hamnet, The Vanishing Half and The Mercies (I *love* KMH) are on my favourites list too.
Thank you for all the great videos this year, particularly loved all your women’s prize vids featuring your mam so lovely, hope you can think a way of continuing women’s prize vids with Louise! Happy New Year
So happy to see Heaven, My Home on this list. I read it on the early days of the pandemic (seems so long ago) and was so caught up in the story that when I finished it I looked up and it was dark out and I’d missed dinner. Attica Locke is one of my auto-read authors. If you’re interested in reading more by her, I recommend Black Water Rising and Pleasantville. They’re a duo similar to how the two Highway 59 books are a duo- in that they follow one protagonist and there is a continuing character arc from one book to the next.
Thanks for a great list. I enjoy how you get at the tone of a book when you describe it. Will definitely be adding some of these to my list. Happy New Year.
@@SavidgeReads I find that I sometimes have a hard time getting my personality to translate on my channel. I’m hoping to show more of it in 2021 as well! Here’s to a great 2021!
Happy New Year, Simon! Best wishes to you, Chris, and your mum. Thanks for all the great videos and recommendations this year. Books were such great company this year. I’ve read many on your top list and am adding the others to my wish list. My favourite of 2020 was also Hamnet (called Hamnet & Judith in Canada). I love all of Maggie O’Farrell’s books, but this one was a masterpiece.
Oooh I didn’t know about the name change in Canada. That’s interesting. Agree love all Maggie’s books. This is probably my favourite of a lot of favourites. Loved it.
I wish you a very happy new Year! May 2021 be easier to handle for all of us! And for now Let‘s celebrate the new year coming! Best wishes from Germany 🥳
So, so many great books in your list! It has been quite a brilliant year for reading, when I could concentrate on it. My list: Hamnet is so far and away the best book I read this year and possibly ever. It is a marvel. I can still FEEL it. In any other year, Red At The Bone would have been #1. It is a perfect work of fiction in every way. But this year, it is #2. The next two could go in either order: How Much of These Hills is Gold and The Bass Rock. I think I am giving a slight nod to How Much simply because I read it more recently, but The Bass Rock was just beautiful and brilliant. I cannot believe it wasn’t nominated for any of the major prizes. The Women’s Prize, at a bare minimum, should feel rather ashamed at omitting it. How We Disappeared is next. Such a haunting, difficult, and yet beautiful book. The rest of my top 10: Tokyo Euno Station, Summerwater, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, People From My Neighbourhood, and finally Three Hours. All women authors, and not by design. I’m looking forward to getting to a lot of the books in your list that I haven’t read yet. Happy New Year, Simon! Your videos have brought me much joy this year. ❤️
Happy New Year Simon and Chris. Thank you so much for keeping me sane during 2020 (and for helping me to spend my money!!) Looking forward to seeing more of your videos in 2021
I bet you're talking about The Prophets in the last book that could have been the top but not out yet😉 Can't wait for that one !! The Death Of Vivek Oji was one of my faves too XX Happy New Year 🎉❤️
You might be interested in The Hotel, a series on iplayer radio written by Daisy Johnson. It is excellent. My favourite episode is The Conference; I must have listened to it a dozen times. Highly recommend 😀
Hi Simon! Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! (Almost)... Secondly, I seem to literally be addicted to your channel. Yes, I mean, addicted! I absolutely adore all your videos, especially your vlogs, and I feel that in lockdown your channel has just made all my days! Hope you and all your family have the most wonderful New Year and 2021, and I can't wait to watch more of your videos! Finally, do you have any book recommendations which are perfect for both adults and children? (Apart from Charles Dickens)...
I liked them till I was about 13/14 and then school put me off, I didn’t read a book between 16, when I left school which I don’t advise, until I was 22/23 and then look what happened. Ha.
oh boy I had read Vivek and Hamnet back to back so i had gotten out alot of crying in december. Then I read Shuggie as my first book in January and it took me beyond grief into this bleak depression that i could not see the hope in and It just was so real to me. I was enthralled by it but i hated that i read it after the other two devastatingly heartbreaking books and then Shug was just so bleak in a different way. I couldnt hack it. I have to stay away from the bleak for a while especially since spring is coming. I feel some lighthearted contemporary silliness coming my way and with my mood being so down lately, I really think they might spruce me up a bit. Do you ever feel like you have to balance the heaviness of the books you read or the genres?
This is a really interesting question. I’ve never thought about balancing the heaviness. But I guess I do, more subconsciously just because I tend to switch up one read for the next in terms of style and story.
Wait until you get to Living Sea of The Waking Dream by Australian author Richard Flanagan! It's a bloody Masterpiece! I sobbed buckets! Streets above anything else I read this year. Hamnet, Shuggie Bain, Girl, Woman Other, Red at the Bone, The Rain Heron all were among my top 2020 fiction reads. Real Life was excellent and brilliantly written just didn't make my favourites. How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang was great but Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe I think is better. I couldn't focus on The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld, it was probably me not the book. Happy New Year for 2021!
I have Stone Sky Gold Mountain to read. The wonderful Jaclyn of Six Minutes for Me got me onto it. She’s brill with her Aussie recommendations. I loved The Narrow To The Deep North but weirdly have not read any other Flanagan since.
@@SavidgeReads He's a favourite author of mine but this one is even better than Narrow road. I've rarely been as affected by a book, I think I'll read it again soon. It's so deeply affecting. An ode to our existence and our planet's existence. Sounds a bit wanky when I say it but I really cant recommend it highly enough and I loved Hamnet but Waking dreams.. is really something else. It will be interesting to hear what Jac says about it. Once she's had a chance to settle down back in Aus.
it's octopuses all the way down! somehow we got the idea it was a latin word and the plural should be octopi..but it's not a latin word at all anymore than bus or puss is...buses and pusses and octopusses too!
Thank you for being one of the brightest spots of this year🌈❤️
A pleasure. Let’s hope I can keep it up in 2021. Which my phone just typed as 2032. Hahaha.
Here in India it's now 12 .20 a.m.so wish you and all savidge reads members a grand ,happy and cherishable new year
Happy new year to you and yours too!
'What the fooker' should definitely be an end of year video about the best books missed off prize shortlists! 😆
Maybe that’s an idea for the end of 2021. Hahaha.
Thank you for all your hard work and enthusiasm. It has been a year of disconnection, but your TH-cam channel has been a balm. Keep it up, stay safe and may 2021 be good and kind and gentle to you and yours. Much love from Cape Town x
Weirdly, and thanks to this channel and this community, I’ve felt ridiculously connected. In a lovely way. It’s been such a treat.
What a great list! I haven't read all of them (thank you for the recommendations!), but I've loved almost all of the ones I've read aswell. I think Sisters and Hamnet were my favourites. Especially Sisters had that same effect on me as it had on you: I just KEEP THINKING ABOUT IT. Daisy Johnson is brilliant!
What a magnificent list. So many of these are still waiting on my shelf. Can't wait.
From this list, Robbie Arnott The Rain Heron FTW. One of the most amazing books I have ever read and still think about it regularly.
He’s one of my absolute favourite authors is Robbie Arnott. Just brilliant. Actually you’ve reminded me he recommended me a book which I might have to read next.
@@SavidgeReads Do tell. Would love a second hand Robbie Arnott recommendation
I’m late to your channel and videos, but you’re right on time for me 💚. On my walk last night I was apologizing to the trees and such, thinking about what shit we are to the planet and how it may as well take us outttt.... and here you are recommending The Rain Heron. Added to TBR, thank you . 💚
Hope you enjoy it when you get to it. Never fool late to a channel or video. They’re here on the internet forever.
OMG you’re killing my library hold list! 😂
Thanks for bringing some joy to 2020 - looking forward to being bookish again with you in 2021 😊
Good as libraries need all the hold lists and borrowing they can get! Here’s to more brilliant books and adventure’s in 2021.
What a fab list, Simon! 😍 Couldn't agree more about Shuggie and Hamnet. Amazing novels. I'm excited to read Love After Love and Real Life! X
Hope you enjoy them both when you get to them Jasmine.
I read much less in 2020, because of anxiety etc, but I'm looking forward to making up for that in 2021, so I've started the year watching this, thank you for all the brilliant videos. Some of these books on your list I've had for Christmas - or bought them for family members who I know will lend them to me! - so the reading year begins!
I read more BUT, and this is something I talk about in a video soon, I don’t think I loved my reading as much in 2020 and I think I’ve lost my sense of what sort of reader I am
@@SavidgeReads That's a good way of putting it. I found it hard to 'lose myself' in literature, and that is slowly returning as my optimism increases.
How ironic. In my very first video, in which I happened to mention your channel, I also struggled with the plural form of octopus 😜. Will definitely try The Rain Heron. Love the channel, Simon!
Oooooh I shall have to go and check that video out. Ha.
Thank you so much for producing these videos, week in, week out during very difficult circumstances. You have opened my eyes to many books that I would have simply not given a second glance at in a book shop. Your choice of books has made these difficult times for me, much easier to bear.
Thank you Mick. So kind of you to say. Thanks for watching and I’m delighted I have sent you in the directions of some unexpected books.
Lovely lovely video. Our top book was the same this year. But have to admit a lot of these have flown under my radar. So have now reserved with my library. Particularly interested in Love after Love and The Rain Heron.
Oooh I hope you enjoy them when you get to them Sarah. It’s interesting as my top books were amazing but my reading year was really wobbly. So it’s good to end on such a high.
Thank you Simon for expanding my reading exponentially this year! I have loved all your recommendations! You and your videos ( I have watched most of your back log- some multiple times!)) have kept me company through this very emotional and lonely year. Thank you, thank you, thank you! love and hugs from NYC!
This is so lovely of you to say. I’m so pleased I could help even a little bit. I love NYC. We were there almost a year ago. In fact a year ago next week.
Simon your collection is ALWAYS the reason I continue to subscribe, what a bloody great 2020 you had and gave us. Have a legal adult year (21 get it) and see you on all your platforms, blessings to your hubby cats and all the teacups & mugs.
Ha. Thank you Leonie. Here’s to more great books and chats and all the things in 2021.
Amazing list!! I've read Real Life - it would've been number 14 on my list but I only went up to 12!
I've got 6 of the others on my tbr - so was really excited to see them on your list. I must get the bass rock too.
Lots of good wishes for 2021 💛
I need to watch your list. It’s saved for just the right moment!
@@SavidgeReads 💛 I reckon there's a few on there you haven't read 🙂
Thank you Simon. Have loved watching your videos as always!
Awww thank you!
Oh......happier new year to You and Chris
And to you and yours Sue
2020 is the year I discovered booktube and I’ve had a phenomenal reading year. I’ve read 7 of your top 15 and wholeheartedly agree with you on Love after Love. The Bass Rock is going on my TBR list! Happy New Year to you and Chris and happy reading in 2021.
Well there’s something fabulous to come out of 2020. I’ve been thinking about all the glimmers of good things as the old year ends and the new year starts.
Happy New Year Simon to you , Chris & your mum and all the best in 2021! Your videos are always entertaining and through the craziness of this year has provided a steadiness and comfort we all needed .
Awwww thank you. I’m pleased to have done just a little something, it’s been reciprocal though.
Seeing your videos picked me up during depressing days when I was stuck at home.
Loved so much Australian fiction/nonfiction this year .
The Erratics by Vicki Laveau Harvie
Flames by Robbie Arnott
The Weekend by Charolette Wood
Lots of Aussie crime fiction by authors like
Chris Hammer
Sue Bailey
Emma Viskic
Jane Harper
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is also one of my top twenty this year.
The Vanishing Half in on my kindle TBR for next year. As is The Rain Heron.
Eagerly awaiting Attica Lockes next book. Went back into her previous books like The Cutting Season and Pleasantville.
Love After Love was lovely on audio.
Shuggie Bain was my book of the year. I lived through Thatcher in N.Ireland. Douglas Stuart brought that period to life. Conservative austerity policies since Thatcher have decimated health and social care. Addiction services have been cut so much that now Scotland has one of the highest drugs deaths in the world.
Yes to The Bass Rock 🤩
I found the grief of Viveks mother really hard as I lost my mum in January.
Hamnet 🦋🥰
Happy New Year to you and Chris 👋☘️🥳🎉📚☕️📖
Wow. That’s a fab selection of books. Happy new year!
I haven't chosen an official top 10 (or more) but I think Hamnet is my top 2020 fiction & The Death of Vivek Oji is surely top 5 for me... I would also include A Thousand Ships (which I know you didn't as you had another of Natalie's books on your top nonfiction)... and as always, thank you, your videos always bring me joy! Happy 2021 Simon!
Well I thought if I couldn’t include books from 2021 I couldn’t include more than one author once. Ha.
Thank you so much. I adore you, your channel and all the books you have introduced me to. Your love of books makes me smile each and every time I watch one of your videos. It gives me hope in a world gone mad.
Tabitha, a psychology professor in NY who should have done my doctorate in literature. 😊
Awwww Tabitha, that’s such a lovely comment. Thank you so much. Delighted to bring smiles. Here’s to more in 2021.
Happy New Year! I also loved Hamnet, thought it was brilliant and picked it up because you and your mother discussed it and loved it. Some people felt it was dull but for me, it hooked me from the first couple of pages. I absolutely adore this book! I also had the same reasons for avoiding These Hills...book. But your loving it makes me think it maybe worth a go.
See how you feel not every book I love can be loved by all but I didn’t think I would love How Much of These Hills is Gold and I really really did.
The vanishing half, love after love.....brilliant! Aiming to read Hamnet this year. Gonna catch up on “older” books as opposed to early copies all the time
I’m headed to more backlist books... as I’ll be discussing tomorrow. Which I’ve already filmed and scheduled. Hahaha. I’ve done all this weeks vids in advance so can have a break. Lol
@@SavidgeReads I certainly appreciate what you do. It’s gotta take up so much time, editing as well. I’ve loved my time in the book community, but as from today I’m closing my blog. Of course I’m still reading and reviewing etc, but time for me to slow down. I’m missing all my tv programs as I keep thinking “oh I should be reading this book, it’s published soon!”
I may go back to it......but for now. I’ll watch you tube favourites like you🥳 I’m getting old!
Hello :) I have discovered you after hearing you on 'A Good Read' and so am bingeing your videos. So good! Thank you for your recommendations, I have noted/bookmarked them and will endeavour to check them out this year. 'Hamnet' was my book of the year too. I love Maggie O'Farrell's work but like you said, this was another level. I read the last third through tears as it was so moving. the writing was sublime and Agnes will stay with me. Can I recommend 'Music and Silence' by Rose Tremain, in the spirit of fantastic reads. Look forward to watching the rest of your vids. Take care and thanks again X
What a lovely comment to get. Welcome to the channel. Hope you keep enjoying the content. You might like a live video that’s coming on April 5th... with Maggie O’Farrell chatting with me and my Mum and all of you!
@@SavidgeReads I look forward to it. Have calendared it in anticipation :) Your warmth and kindness are palpable. Take good care X
I just finished Here is the Beehive -- just fabulous! I think you and Jen Campbell introduced it to me, and I had to order it from the UK, but so worth it. Another book that is similar in some ways and very different in others, but also about an unreliable narrator dealing with grief is Peace Talks by Tim Finch. They will both be on my Best of 2021 lists
So glad that you enjoyed it. One of my favourites of last year. Well as the title of this video suggests. Haha.
I really, really do not like anything Western but you've sold me on How Much of These Hills is Gold. It's on my list. I've moved from 53 to 46 on the reserve list at my library for Hamnet so will hopefully get to read it sometime in 2021. I was going to try the audiobook but the narration doesn't seem to fit the time or mood of the book. I'm loving your cozy, looking jumper. Nice colour 😍
Narrator is sooooooo important for audiobooks. If it’s not right it just ruins the magic. Hopefully Hamnet will be yours soon and I loved How Much of These Hills is Gold so much that I want to read more westerns. Imagine!!!
It’s an excellent book. 👍
Thought your choices were thought provoking. Thanks for keeping me sane during isolation and lockdown. Hope your New Year is full of positives and happiness.
That’s very kind of you. Let’s hope New Year is like that for all of us.
You've sorted my 2021 TBR. Thank you for making 2020 a bit more wonderful 💖
Ooooooh you’ll have to let me know how you get on. And thank you.
I am so, so grateful to have found you and your videos this year! You’ve got such a lovely personality- thank you!
Awwww thank you Summer. Here’s to 2021.
Simon, finding your channel was definitely a favorite thing of 2020 for me. Of course I have Hamnet and The Death of Vivek Oji on top of my best fiction list as well as The Weekend and Vanishing Half. I really liked Here is the Beehive and Love After Love and would not have read either without first hearing about them from you. I also rank Summer quite high but I am a firm fan of the seasonal quartet. A very Happy New Year to you and to Chris.
Awwww that’s so kind of you to say Cindy. It’s been lovely chatting with you this year. Thrilled I introduced you to some corkers. Here’s to more in 2020.
The Bass Rock and Vivek Oji are on my list too, loved them. Thank you so much for all your recommendations this year, lots of these are already on my TBR because you've been going on about them so much!!
A pleasure. Hopefully I don’t wang on about them all too much though. Hahaha.
Am really happy that I found your channel 😊
I am really happy you did too. Welcome
I was looking forward to this video! Hamnet, Here is the Beehive and The Mercies will all be in my favourites list too! I've picked up so many recommendations from you over this past year, had a whale of a time doing your Women's Prize challenge and loved watching your videos. Thank you for all of it and excited to see what you have in store for 2021 😊
So pleased you have got some reading gems from this channel. That is sooooo lovely to hear.
Love your hair! Such a fresh look! Happy New Year to you and yours!
Hahaha. I’ve been rocking it since mid pandemic. I’ve never dared grow it so long before. Happy new year to you and yours too.
Yours is an inspiring list! Shuggie Bain, of course. I am especially pleased to see your inclusion of How Much Of These Hills Is Gold. Several others of yours also made my top 15 (Hamnet, The Bass Rock, The Vanishing Half, Love After Love, Real Life). Although you have listed 3 I'd not have included, I won't tell which. I'd rather people read each of these fine books and choose for themselves! Thank you for encouraging both readers and writers. Onward to 2021!
You can tell which. We can’t all like the same books hahaha. People can still go and make a decision themselves. I like to think people who watch this channel don’t just go on my say so. They still pick up books I didn’t like but might work for them, or tell me about what didn’t work for them in books I liked.
I’ve just found your channel and have a good number of these recommendations now added to my reading list. I read Moonrise by Sarah Crossan in 2020 and it was so powerful. It has stayed with me ever since. I look forward to reading more by her. Thanks for these suggestions.
Welcome to the channel Pauline. Lovely to have you visit. Hope you’ll be back. I think I have Moonrise on my shelves. But if I don’t I might have to get it now.
@@SavidgeReads Oh, thank you so much. I’ve been enjoying your videos and have subscribed so I’ll defo be back. I cried at the end of Moonrise and I’m not a crier. It has stayed with me in the months since I read it. I had put off reading it before - I was deterred by the format but I quickly got into it and it’s absolutely perfect as a vehicle for the subject matter. So very moving!
Wishing you a happy and healthy 2021, Simon! Thank you for keeping me entertained and informed this year.
A pleasure Scout. Hopefully I can do more of the same in 2021.
I read a book about octopuses last year in which it said that "octopuses" is the plural. I don't know where "octopi" came from, but it transpires I spent a rather long time getting it wrong. I just acquired The Rain Heron after enjoying Flames earlier this year, so I'm pleased to see it mentioned here. However, this entire list is decidedly thrilling. I am really glad to see certain books mentioned here - Hamnet, Vivek Oji and the Mercies - and am also looking forward to those others that I have yet to read.
I hope that 2021 brings a ton of new favourites your way, and that it is as marvellous as it possibly can be.
Robbie recommended me a book with octopuses, or octopi, in it which I am hoping to read early in the new year. I can’t remember what it’s call. It’s on my shelves but I’m naughtily replying to comments in the bath. Ha.
@@SavidgeReads Could it be The Octopus and I by Erin Hortle? At least Robbie recommened that in your instalive when asked about Tasmanian authors he would recommend. I ordered a copy from Readings bookstore, so I'm hoping to get to it soon.
I can not stop thinking about Here is the Beehive. Such an incredible book. I thought the whole structure really emphasised the depth of Anas distress. Absolutely amazing book. I did a review on it to :) I would really recommend Moonrise and I'm planning to read the rest of her books for this year :)
I will definitely, definitely be reading much more Sarah Crossan in the years to come.
Thanks for sharing all your favourite reads. I'm new to booktube this year and I've loved watching your videos over the year and always look forward to watching a new one. I have read some amazing books this year thanks to your recommendations. My top book from 2020 is also Hamnet, then The Pull of The Stars, then Love After Love, then The Confession and finally The Bass Rock. Most of the others in this video are in my tbr for this year and Shuggie Bain I will get to in January. Happy New Year to you, wishing you health and happiness 🙂
This comment fills me with joy Helen. I really can’t express how much this community meant to me in 2020. It was a gift that keeps on giving.
Thank you so much for all the lovely content you create! I especially enjoyed your author interviews and will now go and watch the one with Douglas Stuart.
From your list, I've only read Shuggie Bain and How Much of These Hills Is Gold, but both were highlights of my reading year. The Bass Rock and Hamnet are both already on my shelves waiting to be picked up, and now you've also got me interested in several others.
You have such treats ahead with Hamnet and The Bass Rock, I am slightly jealous you’ve that first reading experience of them both ahead.
Happy New Year! Hoping we all have a better 2021! Thanks for keeping us entertained and up to date on all of the best reads of 2020! :)
Yes. Here’s to a better 2021 and more brilliant reads.
I'm doing the drinking game with caramel flavoured rooibos tea. Delicious, perfect for watching your videos.
Oooooh that does sound perfect. Chris loves that tea.
Wow what a fantastic list & I have read around 10 of them thanks to watching your channel , not bad for someone that hadn’t read for many years & must admit loved them all so thank you . Wishing you a very Happy New Year! 🎉
I’m so pleased you’ve read so many of them. That’s ace. If I can ever help make someone read more then that is my day/week/month made. Ha.
Love this! Adding to my growing booklist.
Ha. Happy to help!
Thank you for keeping me going through the year. I have loved being in your company during this awful year. Let’s hope 2021 is a better year love from Cape Town
Let us hope it is. Couldn’t agree more. We all need it.
Octopuses - great video! :-)
Thank you 🐙
Thank you Simon for this delightful end of the year wrap up! I have read all but 6 of your top reads. Some are not available here yet and some I’m having hard time finding. I agree with all your choices especially Hamnet which is my book of the year, I’ve been talking about it to anyone who will listen. I wish you a Very Happy New Year and the best of health for 2021. I have enjoyed so much your blogs, book reviews any of the book club sections also! I watched all the Skye episodes!
Awwwww thank you so much for such a lovely comment. Here’s to 2021 and more brilliant books and maybe even more book shows.
What an incredible video! It brought me joy as all your videos do. I always look forward to your next video. You are such a gift to us book addicts. Thank you!
Awww that’s such a lovely thing to say Mark. Happy New Year!!!
I have really enjoyed watching your videos this year! You have inspired me to start a book blog (I’m too shy to do videos!) and I have been really enjoying that so thank you :) Hamnet, The Vanishing Half and The Mercies (I *love* KMH) are on my favourites list too.
I started with a blog Jane so you NEVER know what might happen. Never say never. Lol. Glad you’re enjoying doing it.
Such a great list :)
Thank you Liz.
I knew you would say hamnet.. I loved the vanishing half too 😊
Hamnet was a given for everyone I am sure. Ha.
Thank you for all the great videos this year, particularly loved all your women’s prize vids featuring your mam so lovely, hope you can think a way of continuing women’s prize vids with Louise! Happy New Year
Ooooh they will come back next year with the next longlist have no fear James. We’re already looking forward to it.
SavidgeReads amazing I can’t wait! (The vanishing half for the win already sorry!!!) 😂
So happy to see Heaven, My Home on this list. I read it on the early days of the pandemic (seems so long ago) and was so caught up in the story that when I finished it I looked up and it was dark out and I’d missed dinner. Attica Locke is one of my auto-read authors. If you’re interested in reading more by her, I recommend Black Water Rising and Pleasantville. They’re a duo similar to how the two Highway 59 books are a duo- in that they follow one protagonist and there is a continuing character arc from one book to the next.
I’ve read Pleasantville so Black Water Rising might be the ideal one to head to next. I’m looking forward to the third in the Highway 59 books.
Thanks for a great list. I enjoy how you get at the tone of a book when you describe it. Will definitely be adding some of these to my list. Happy New Year.
That’s a really lovely thing to say Jane thank you so much. So kind of you to say.
so many beauties in these wrap up! real life made it into mine as well.
It’s such a good book. That first chapter flawed me. I think that’s why it took me so long to get to the rest of it.
Thank you for your content creation this year Simon! Happy New Year to you and your family
Thank you for watching Nicole. Here’s to a brilliant and much better year for all of us.
You are a true delight! Thank you for being you. Happy New Year! 🎆🎇🎆
Ha. I plan on being more me this year so hope that doesn’t put everyone off. Ha.
@@SavidgeReads I find that I sometimes have a hard time getting my personality to translate on my channel. I’m hoping to show more of it in 2021 as well! Here’s to a great 2021!
Happy New Year, Simon! Best wishes to you, Chris, and your mum. Thanks for all the great videos and recommendations this year. Books were such great company this year. I’ve read many on your top list and am adding the others to my wish list. My favourite of 2020 was also Hamnet (called Hamnet & Judith in Canada). I love all of Maggie O’Farrell’s books, but this one was a masterpiece.
Oooh I didn’t know about the name change in Canada. That’s interesting. Agree love all Maggie’s books. This is probably my favourite of a lot of favourites. Loved it.
Happy New Year! Hope you have a wonderful 2021 with great reads!
And you too Ann!
Here's to you Simon, I raise my champagne flute of cranberry and seltzer water to you. All the best for 2021.
Hahahaha. What a concoction that sounds. Here’s to us all!
I wish you a very happy new Year! May 2021 be easier to handle for all of us! And for now Let‘s celebrate the new year coming! Best wishes from Germany 🥳
Yes. And celebrate some of the good things 2020 brought for us as we head into it.
We are doing excatly that!!🥳👍🏻🎊🍀
So, so many great books in your list! It has been quite a brilliant year for reading, when I could concentrate on it.
My list: Hamnet is so far and away the best book I read this year and possibly ever. It is a marvel. I can still FEEL it.
In any other year, Red At The Bone would have been #1. It is a perfect work of fiction in every way. But this year, it is #2.
The next two could go in either order: How Much of These Hills is Gold and The Bass Rock. I think I am giving a slight nod to How Much simply because I read it more recently, but The Bass Rock was just beautiful and brilliant. I cannot believe it wasn’t nominated for any of the major prizes. The Women’s Prize, at a bare minimum, should feel rather ashamed at omitting it.
How We Disappeared is next. Such a haunting, difficult, and yet beautiful book.
The rest of my top 10: Tokyo Euno Station, Summerwater, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, People From My Neighbourhood, and finally Three Hours.
All women authors, and not by design.
I’m looking forward to getting to a lot of the books in your list that I haven’t read yet.
Happy New Year, Simon! Your videos have brought me much joy this year. ❤️
How We Disappeared was brilliant. It was one of the books on one of the prizes I judged so couldn’t single it out sadly. Well I am doing here now.
Happy new year to you! 🎉
And to you too!
I just subscribed! Have an awesome new year!!
Well thank you very much. And welcome. Here’s to 2021.
Happy new year! I have most of these on my TBR and need to get to them! University reading first and then, reading for fun again
The brilliant thing about books is that they don’t go anywhere. Ha.
Happy New Year Simon and Chris. Thank you so much for keeping me sane during 2020 (and for helping me to spend my money!!) Looking forward to seeing more of your videos in 2021
I’m looking forward to making more and having lots of lovely chats around them too!
I bet you're talking about The Prophets in the last book that could have been the top but not out yet😉 Can't wait for that one !! The Death Of Vivek Oji was one of my faves too XX Happy New Year 🎉❤️
You might just be right!
Thanks 😊 great to connect with you.
“What the fucker” 😂😂. One of my fave vids of the year ❤️
I never said f*cker. Hahahaha. I would never. It was fooker 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hello. I’m wishing you a memorable and wonderful and happy new year 🎊
Thank you Monae. And to you too.
@@SavidgeReads Thank you 🙏
You might be interested in The Hotel, a series on iplayer radio written by Daisy Johnson. It is excellent. My favourite episode is The Conference; I must have listened to it a dozen times. Highly recommend 😀
Ooooh thank you so much for the recommendation.
Happy new year, Simon! :)
And to you and yours!
Great glasses these ones too. Where do you find them........
Well if you can hold fire a few weeks I’ve a video with an amazing glasses company coming.
@@SavidgeReads Yes!!!!
Proust's novel in the original French is absolutely beautiful.
Alas I don’t speak or read in French. I also don’t remember talking about Proust in this video? Did I?
wow I thought I was responding to Eric K Anderson. Obviously I'm inept when it comes to computers.
Hi Simon! Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! (Almost)... Secondly, I seem to literally be addicted to your channel. Yes, I mean, addicted! I absolutely adore all your videos, especially your vlogs, and I feel that in lockdown your channel has just made all my days! Hope you and all your family have the most wonderful New Year and 2021, and I can't wait to watch more of your videos! Finally, do you have any book recommendations which are perfect for both adults and children? (Apart from Charles Dickens)...
Hahaha. Be careful of addictions. Happy New Year to you and your family. Here’s to a much better and brighter 2021.
@@SavidgeReads Defo! Although sometimes addictions can be good... what are your plans for tonight?
I liked them till I was about 13/14 and then school put me off, I didn’t read a book between 16, when I left school which I don’t advise, until I was 22/23 and then look what happened. Ha.
Happy New year Simon. Onwards and upwards for 2021. Thank you for all the great content this year lovely man. 😘
Awwww thanks Tracey. Hope it’s a better and brighter one for us all!
The most awaited video in 2020n
Hahahaha. Hardly. But thank you!
I’m so happy I found your channel in 2020 🤍 Love your recommendations
I’m so thrilled you watched. Thank you Jackie.
Here is the Beehive has the most magical cover! Wow! It sounds wonderful too.
It’s as good as it looks.
Cheers to you in the new year. Happy Wishes for a better 2021!
Btw, it’s octopuses 😉
Hahahaha. Thank you 🐙
oh boy I had read Vivek and Hamnet back to back so i had gotten out alot of crying in december. Then I read Shuggie as my first book in January and it took me beyond grief into this bleak depression that i could not see the hope in and It just was so real to me. I was enthralled by it but i hated that i read it after the other two devastatingly heartbreaking books and then Shug was just so bleak in a different way. I couldnt hack it. I have to stay away from the bleak for a while especially since spring is coming. I feel some lighthearted contemporary silliness coming my way and with my mood being so down lately, I really think they might spruce me up a bit. Do you ever feel like you have to balance the heaviness of the books you read or the genres?
This is a really interesting question. I’ve never thought about balancing the heaviness. But I guess I do, more subconsciously just because I tend to switch up one read for the next in terms of style and story.
Just read HAMNET this September and 👩🍳 💋!!!!!!!!
Isn’t it just!
30:44 - Yes, actually I do want to hide under my duvet. I have a lot of books to read and I'll take them with me
Hahahaha. Hide away. Lol.
Really enjoying Kristin Hannah ‘wild’
The new wilderness, hot milk and the memory police.
I’ve seen quite a few mentions of Kristin Hannah this year already. I’ve not read any of hers and should try her it seems.
Wait until you get to Living Sea of The Waking Dream by Australian author Richard Flanagan! It's a bloody Masterpiece!
I sobbed buckets!
Streets above anything else I read this year. Hamnet, Shuggie Bain, Girl, Woman Other, Red at the Bone, The Rain Heron all were among my top 2020 fiction reads. Real Life was excellent and brilliantly written just didn't make my favourites. How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang was great but Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe I think is better. I couldn't focus on The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld, it was probably me not the book.
Happy New Year for 2021!
I have Stone Sky Gold Mountain to read. The wonderful Jaclyn of Six Minutes for Me got me onto it. She’s brill with her Aussie recommendations. I loved The Narrow To The Deep North but weirdly have not read any other Flanagan since.
@@SavidgeReads He's a favourite author of mine but this one is even better than Narrow road. I've rarely been as affected by a book, I think I'll read it again soon. It's so deeply affecting. An ode to our existence and our planet's existence. Sounds a bit wanky when I say it but I really cant recommend it highly enough and I loved Hamnet but Waking dreams.. is really something else. It will be interesting to hear what Jac says about it. Once she's had a chance to settle down back in Aus.
Loved The Mercies, think it may be my number 1! I still have Hamnet sitting on my tbr and will definitely dive into it asap ❤
Ooh let me know what you think of Hamnet. I am going to go on a Kiran binge this year I think.
it's octopuses all the way down! somehow we got the idea it was a latin word and the plural should be octopi..but it's not a latin word at all anymore than bus or puss is...buses and pusses and octopusses too!
See I should have asked my mother. She’s fluent in Latin. Imagine.
The Bass Rock is also one of my faves of the year!!!! And can I say, the Canadian cover of Hamnet is not as pretty and it makes me upset 😂
Have you seen the new Waterstones edition. Also beautiful. Naked hardback, saucy.
Agreed! Also, why is the Canadian edition called Hamnet and Judith?
Octopi.
🐙
Octopuses! Octopi is not correct.
I’m going to keep saying both forever. Lol.
You're 38?!? Darling you don't look a day over 27
Well you’re now my new best friend. I was thinking the other day, should I carry on with BookTube when I’m in my 40’s?
@@SavidgeReads I think you definitely should as you're easily one of the best on BookTube!