Yayy I've been waiting for this!! Happy New Year to you, hope you have a much much better year this year - reading-wise and also mental health-wise 🫂

Very neat that you completed the project and figured out the decades approach was what you enjoyed. 2024 was a rough year for me too, and my reading has just crumbled, so I've also been mainly just going for comfort reads. The diversity of my reading has been abysmal too. I've basically been trying to be kind to myself and acknowledge that this just hasn't been a growth year for me, it's been a hunker down one, so it's okay that my reading has been focused on just bringing comfort. I'm hopeful that in 2025 things will be better and I'll read more broadly again. I hope 2025 goes well for you! Your decades reading project sounds like a lot of fun.

I remember watching the TV series of Five Children and It in the early 90s!

I too like Muriel Spark and have just re read A Far Cry from Kensington I like her short stories too - a favourite being ‘Needle’ You’ve nudged me to read more of her work and I’ll scour the internet for some ‘pre loved’ titles

Having a long hard patch (whether because of chronic illness, depression, or the general crap state of the world) makes meeting any sort of reading goal very hard. And you met your goal all while progressing through your PhD program. That’s kinda amazing. I may try your read-a-book-from-each-decade strategy to balance out more recent releases (which have been a bit off this year for me.)

Beautiful videos 😊

these were such unique recommendations and I loved them! Thank you for sharing!

I love these categories!

I now have to go back with a pen and write some of these down but Natalia Ginzburg definitely has to go on the list ! Love your categories and hope 2025 brings you health and happiness!

Siren Queen is lovely! I definitely want to read both House of Rust and Bintel Brief. My reading has been rough the past half year due to depression too. Here's hoping things pick up a bit in 2025!

Always love your books of the year video!! 🎉🎉

Lots of goodies here, but what I'm taking away are Ginsburg and Carroll are consistently bangers and should just be read post haste!

baba yaga’s assistant as best book about spinsters, i LOVE THAT. and lmaoo vampires as an MLM

Ugh I love your best books of the year videos so much! The categories and the way you waste absolutely no time always make me smile. I finished Menewood a couple days ago and...I am changed. What a book. Definitely my clear favorite of the year. Is there anything else you've read that is even semi Hild/Menewood-esque?? Would love to know! And sounds like I need to get to some Natalia Ginzburg in 2025!

I’ve only read The Portrait of a Lady, which I liked and found interesting. I had thought of Daisy Miller as my next James to read.

I think I know more people who don’t like James than do, but I’m a fan of the stuff I’ve read so far even if I didn’t love it all. One friend dislikes him because he rewrote and revised most of his major novels and in the process made them more difficult to read 😬. Perhaps I feel more warmly towards him because I read and loved Colm Tóibín’s novel about him The Master 🤷‍♀️🤔, also he was friends with Vernon Lee and some of her Italian short stories remind me of him. I hope the project works out but if it doesn’t you won’t be alone in disliking him 😉. Glad the green dye worked this time, my favorite color!

Oh my goodness I LOVE your shirt !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Holidays to you

Hope you feel better soon, and get to some of these at least 😅

the way i thought i could hit my 100 books storygraph goal by reading all these graphic novels…. relatable 😆 i hope you love whatever you end up reading for the rest of the month, and excited for ur sapling cage thoughts whenever you get to it!

I can never bring myself to do a shocked face thumbnail, it's very much not me 🙈 I read and enjoyed Desperate Remedies last year. The Mayor of Casterbridge is on my tbr for next year.

I recently realised how few days there are until the end of the year 🥺 so I've narrowed down the books I 'have' to read. I still want to read everything though! It's so true what you said, if only we could read for 24 hours every day. Probably still couldn't fit everything in 😅

I’m glad I’m not the only one with unrealistic reading plans 😍 I just counted up my currently reading - although lots of those are definitely not being read right now - and it’s 18 😬. That’s so hard picking what to take away when you are limited on room but I’m assuming there will be some book shaped parcels for your birthday! 🤞

I've never read any Angela Carter, but I really really want to.

As they say "Shoot for the stars so you land on the moon!" ✨

it strikes me as such a cool way to learn about history, in the very "ordinary people and their lives” sense, to hear you share so many books I don’t know about and that mostly aren’t famous classics. It feels like a glimpse into what people similar to us might have been reading in any given other decade! <3 (and, yay for the photo credits!!!)

love the image of you squirrelling away plays from the English department X] christa wolf is one of those that makes me go "ahhh it's you! i have to read you!" and then forget all about. didn't know about the East German angle, v curious to see how she explores that ~

I really really want to read the Series of Unfortunate Events next year, Vile Village I think was one of the strongest parts of the adaptation too! Tho I want Moira from Schitts Creeks to be there 😄

Love this!! I feel like novels translated from Italian always feel particularly summer-y for me. :) So I hear what you are saying about translated lit feeling like summer reads!

this was so sweet to watch after chatting so much earlier today! also excellent shirt haha

Trying to balance pleasure reading and work reading-that sounds very familiar. I think you’ll probably enjoy the Inseparables. Some of the other Beauvoir novels can be frustrating (she internalized a lot of crud.) And if Inseparables works for you, you might enjoy Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter - the first volume of her memoirs.

wow i literally just read baba yaga’s assistant this week, after the guest in the house 😂 the children’s book sounds really good i’m gonna see if i can find it on audio👀

this is so surreal to see everything with you AWW 💖💖💌

What a lovely thoughtful gift, I hope it eased the pain a little.

how lovely!! i love love love getting mail from friends, especially on a low day <3

What a sweet gift!

I was thining about your ablest critique the first time I heard about the book. Well done, very astute

your singing😭😭those were such lovely unexpected moments. the map drawing is very cool omg?! and i wish PM press did a $5 friday thing in the states LOL and also this marge piercy book is set in michigan?! i must read this

These all sound interesting, I look forward to your reviews 📚✨️

I love this! I've wanted to try making zones for a while now and watching your collection is inspiring me to actually go and DO it!! 😍

A great idea!

e. nesbit wrote horror??!! this is so fascinating….

When I was looking at Victorian women playwrights I turned up some Edwardian plays that are very tempting. But then I have a bunch of other stuff to catch up with as October is all Victorian for me.

I must say, I know next to nothing about the Edwardian period, so any books about that time would be great.

I’m pretty clueless about The Edwardian period and the books published at that time, I probably read The Railway Children but that’s about it so yes, any videos about it would be appreciated.

Way to go on your Victober reads! Interesting discussion on feminism in the South African novel. I've read a short story collection by Emily Carroll and quite enjoyed it - such cool artwork.

Whenever I watch your videos, I feel like I can feel myself becoming more intelligent lol

“…because heterosexuality is pretty rough…” put that on a pin 😂

Fascinating as ever! I am curious to read The Story of an African Farm - not expecting to like it but expecting to find it very historically interesting.

I’m definitely interested in Ella Hepworth Dixon, this one and My Flirtations. It’s weird the Broadview edition didn’t list the dates of serialization, it looks like it was weekly from 6 Jan 1894 to 24 March 1894. I already have Aimee Furniss down from your socialist video and have never wanted to pick up African Farm before but you’ve increased my interest. I loved Shirley and yes, my friend and I were wondering when reading it, where she was for about the first 100 pages?! I thought it would focus more on the industrial side from how it started out but essentially it’s still a love story. I loved the character of Shirley, her strength, which of course is aided by her financial independence but still- that bit where she throws out one of the curates I was cheering her on! Finishing any monthly TBR is an achievement Anne Marie!

I enjoyed Desperate Remedies! It's my kind of thing. I actually enjoyed Jude more but it's pretty miserable to say the least!