I had hoped to read The Woman in White in 2024 but I didn't get to it. I loved Rebecca!

ahhhhhh, The Federalist Papers. wooohooo SO interesting.

I have never read that Dickens one. I don't think I've ever even heard of it!!

I love the idea of this title! Can't wait to watch :)

I hope you enjoy the Woman in White! 😊As much as I didn't care for that edition, it does have excellent end notes and "extras".

This movie was a pile of shit

I would love to join in on the Buddy read for A woman in White!

I've read Dombey and Son, The Woman in White, and Rebecca and really enjoyed all three. Hope you enjoy them! The Captain's Daughter and Waverley are both on my TBR for this year as well!

A great pile of great books! Of those, I've only read Rebecca, which I liked.. and the one I'd most like to read this year is The Woman in White. It has been on my TBR a long time already.

Lots of great books there! That edition of AndQuiet Flows the Don was the same edition I read back in college. I am trying not to plan ahead too much for 2025. I am going to be more of a free spirit but I am loving watching other people’s lists for inspiration!

Good morning ☀️ I love your list! I think you will really enjoy both Woman in White and Rebecca. Both full of suspense and such page turners! I haven’t ever reread Domby but I liked it when I did read it initially ♥️ We both have Pushkin on our lists ❣️

I look forward to your thoughts on all of these. I didn't love Rebecca, and I'm probably not going to pick up another one of her books. The White Guard is about the fight over Kyiv during the Ukranian War of Independence, and it focuses on the lives of one family. I love the symbols and stylistic choices in this novel, and it's one I want to reread soon. So far, I have Woe from Wit by Griboyedov on my January TBR. Not sure what other classics I want to get to yet.

There seems to be a bit of a theme. LOL What a great pile of books and so many I haven't heard of before. I love that you already have a bookmark in one of them, because of 'the intention of reading it' but didn't get to it. I do that too. =D

Sounds like a great list!! I've got several of those on my Want to Read at some point list. Kitty!!❤❤❤

Good Morning Courtney! I would be slowly reading all of those books. LOL They seem so daunting to me. I do need to read more classics though. One of these days I will jump into that. Have a blessed day!

I just finished this, it was my first time, and I thought it was great. Different style from his other big novels, and I had heard it referred to as Dostoevsky's weakest, but I was pleasantly surprised. First person and a bit chaotic, but I thought it had many of the hallmark Dostoevsky themes and prose style I enjoy. I read Versilov as fitting Dostoevsky's reactionary bent, responding to Turgenev's 1840s generation of liberal gentry. And I found the naive, illegitimate narrator Arkady almost as an origin story/cautionary tale for Smerdyakov. I was impressed with the MacAndrew translation; Next time I reread BK, I will try his version. Anyhow, thanks for your thoughtful video.

My thoughts on trigger warnings are probably not edifying, so I won't say them. 😂😂 But I definitely have thoughts. I would tend to agree with your sister - I like how she put it, "Life is triggering." I often think we would be better off embracing the things that trigger us and looking at them as opportunities for growth, rather than shunning and hoping to avoid them. As for content I just don't like in a book (whether sexual content or gory content), I can usually glean enough info from reviews to make an informed choice. And if I unexpectedly come across content I don't like, I just set the book aside. 🤷‍♀🤷‍♀

I think trigger warnings are necessary in 'specific cases'. If that makes sense. More like those obvious triggers like things that would cause trauma for someone. I appreciate them in books that are of a more dark nature. So I know what to expect. It is hard to pinpoint exact triggers these days because it seems people react to to so much more now. So i think it would be super hard to decipher which things exactly are triggers for people in today's world. Great discussion Courtney.

Good Morning Courtney! This sounds like a romance I would like to read. I am going to check into reading it. (P.S. Just ordered 2 of your books. I will be sure to review them! )Thanks for sharing! Have a blessed day!

I just watched this one last weekend! I also loved the interactions but especially liked all their “Aha!” moments and how they changed.

It looks gorgeous!

I’m so excited for this one! I love Angela Kinsey!

Looks good, Courtney! I would like to read it. Merry Christmas!

You are a rare author; inviting honest reviews is so refreshing! I still hope people love your new book.

I like the concept. ❤

I haven’t seen the first one yet. I’ll have to watch both.

They lose. Killed the vibe.

Hmm I think I lean slightly against trigger warnings. While in theory I think they are a helpful tool, in practice it seems like an author can't possibly convey how triggering it will or will not be. A fleeting "blink and you miss it" trigger may not be too problematic, whereas an extended scene might even warrant a mention on the back cover blurb. It could do more harm than good, depending on the reader and the surrounding context. One thing I feel sure about is I don't think reviews can be relied upon to convey such information. Not only might readers miss reading "the right review" (as I have done), but reviewers are not always the most accurate bunch and may misrepresent something.

Personally, just from a reader standpoint, I don't feel like trigger warnings are necessary to include by the author. If I want to know what kind of content is in a book (maybe because it's an unknown author or because something in the synopsis makes me concerned about certain content), I usually go to reader reviews. There are readers for pretty much every book who will go into what kind of content a book has, especially if it's something that can be triggering for other people or was for themselves. I know it's not a perfect way to do it because it still requires someone to be the guinea pig first, but it does help. If I don't see anything or pick up the book without checking and I come across something I don't want to read, I just put the book down. I don't get mad about it, I just say "Nope, not for me" and move on to something else. I also agree that it's impossible to cover every potential trigger, and it feels like if every author tries to, it's just going to get realy complicated. We don't get trigger warnings for movies or video games either (and they're visual), so why should we for books? That's my opinion anyway.

I wouldn’t put them generally out there. I can’t even imagine your books being trigger warnings. I do think it would not be a bad idea if you ever have an author web site to have a specific tab for that info.

GAC may be a good place for Ryan Paevey to move to as so many Hallmark Stars have done.

I learned about "trigger warnings" from youtube a few years ago. I thought it had to do with gun safety. After watching videos i found out I was wrong. After watching them I thought about middle school when we read Romeo and Juliet in class. I remember given the part of Romeo and a girl I happened to like at the time that of Juliet. It was embarrassing confessing my "love" to her since some in my class knew about my infatuation. Most of us didn't know about the tragic end. It was wonderfully shocking. We wouldn't have appreciated, in fact we'd been angry, if the teacher had told us before reading the play about the suicides. "So the kids, die at the end?" would've been our response. Fortunately, she didn't tell us (nor another teacher who showed us "Old Yeller" about what transpired in that film). That's part of the magic of storytelling. So my answer is, of course, no to trigger warnings, especially now that I'm an adult.

I will add this.... I can imagine it would be so annoying as an author to have to do this extra stuff. Also, I absolutely research content/triggers when I'm interested in a book that isn't by a trusted author.

I'm SO very private but I'm so passionate about this [the reason I started my channel💙], so here goes: I agree with the sentiment that life is triggering. I also don't believe in "coddling" people. 😊 Since childhood, I never had any other recourse when finding unwanted content in books than to quit reading. My imagination is off the charts and very visual, so things stick in my mind forever though! 😉I know that everyone is not this way and I don't expect the industry and authors to placate me. However, after experiencing the worst trauma for a parent, I turn to books as a comfort and escape [in a healthy way] more than ever. Most things I can read without bad results, even mentions of death, or domestic abuse as a former victim, as long as it's mentioned and not "played out" on the page. BUT, after our experience in losing our boy, there are several things I just do not want to read about. And when I unknowingly read it in the pages of a book, [violence - certain causes of harm or death, traumatic ways] it does affect me terribly. Terribly. Especially when the topic is "played out" on the page or used flippantly in conversation. I am learning what to avoid but sometimes it ends up in the most unexpected plots. I wholeheartedly know that authors that insert it into pages don't realize because they just don't know. Haven't experienced, and don't mean anything. However, the effects are still there. As a side note, I don't want to read profanity or spice either. Or "alternative" romance. And, as Em commented, books are expensive - even secondhand. SOOO, it would be nice to know somehow. I'm not sure what the solution is. A universal "secret society" color coding image. 😁🙃Just kidding. A way that's easy for authors without giving away too much would be greatly appreciated. Not sure this was helpful whatsoever, but just want to help you. Another side note: Can you tell me the name of your first book in the series?! 💙

IMO, if I ever picked up a book that included a list of trigger warnings, I'm putting it back. Not only will I not buy it, I won't read it. One/an author can never include all "triggers" for every reader. It's impossible and a dangerous rabbit trail to try to adhere to. Once upon a time, writers wrote their book(s) and readers dealt with their feelings. 🤷‍♀ I had a bad childhood experience with lima beans and milk. do I get triggered if I happen to read about either of those in a book or mention of them? Of course not. Which brings me to a question I had (in one of my videos), about authors writing at a fifth or 8th grade level instead of a more challenging level for their readers? Or are they only capable of writing at a lower grade level?

I agree with your take on trigger warnings, you can't anticipate them all. I don't look for them, if a book is problematic in some way for me at a particular time in my life, I figure I can always just stop reading it. If you do decide to include them, I guess there is a way to be vague where readers can anticipate any major themes or events in the book that may trigger them while not giving spoilers as to what the event or characters involved for a particular heavy thing in the book is.

I have so many thoughts on this! I agree with all you said. Will return when I’m at my desk to be able to type easier my response 💙

But I don’t want spoilers!!! 😂

YES for trigger warnings! Absolutely.

👋🏻

Catching up! Yay. New video!

I would like to know before buying a book if there is strong language, violence, open door sexual content. If I’m borrowing a book or reading for free and come across those things to a level I’m not comfortable with, I just stop reading. However, if I’m purchasing a book, I want to know before I spend my money. A couple of things that I do want to know about beforehand even for borrowed books is harm to children and sexual assault. I know those topics can be handled in many ways and some ways are easier for me to read but mostly I would rather avoid them. I’ve seen books with trigger warnings that have a long list of items then reading the book most of those things are alluded to but not on the page in a significant way. I think that kind of trigger warning is not as helpful and can even be spoilery.

It didn't have a warm comforting feeling.

I agree with you

An incomplete translation, of course, and one without contextual notes, which may help the reader with limited knowledge of literary, musical, European, and Russian/Soviet…This is not a “realist’ or “naturalist” text, and thankfully does not have to be any more than Gogol. The book is what we, as you grasp, might call today magical realism (though some who think magical realism is a monopoly of Latin America and Spain under authoritarians) and critiques a number of things including utopian ideologies. Pity that so many think that films, TV, and books have to be realist. Pity that so many lack artistic imaginations. Potter, which I find mediocre, has many historical sources including Oxbridge and Le Guin...

Such a good book!

I’ll have to give this one a try! 😊

I look forward to watching it!

I liked this one, too!

I set this one to record to watch later!