These conversations are amazing... I want to have people in my life to talk about books at this level

Love Joanne, so much❤

These are great recommendations. I love discovering new books and authors that are outside the mainstream (Saturn Run looks great!). I completely agree with Laura about Fahrenheit 451. It’s an important novel to read; many timeless (and scary) themes. My idea of a splendid afternoon is listening to the Tim Robbin’s audiobook narration while tucked in a blanket and warming my hands around a cup of hot tea. To add to the list, my two favorite standalone novels in the SFF genre are Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris and Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite.

8:05 Arachnophobe here. I somehow didn’t know the spider part of the premise in Children of time. I ended up really enjoying it. IRL spider relations remain tenuous.

I love how the "fast-paced engrossing thrillers" section have just 1 THRILLER.....😂😂

Hail Mary did the trick for me. Something happens, then another thing, then another thing etc.

Nice haircut Laura ! 🤩

These are also useful not just for slumps but to get some momentum. Like going into a vacation where you want to read a lot. A Psalm For the Wild Built is extremely different, and fun. Good vibes. Just read All Systems Red and it was so fun. Mistborn really did get me back into fantasy as an adult. And it still holds up. Hard to beat a heist setup!

I wish that you'd posted a list. I'm not up for the gabfest today although I'm ceratin many enjoy it. Already missed several titles and can't see the book when you're waving it around LOL.

I loved The Martian and was surprised how captivated I was by the science and math in the story. Hiughly recommend!

You've already read 12 books this year and you call yourself slow??? I feel inferior

❤❤❤ novellas! The best slump busters for me have been “quick wins” like Murderbot. Most recently the lovely dystopian sci-fi We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart. Authors seem so much more careful and artful with their language in novellas, every word has to count.

Upvote for the Children of Time 🙌 however, i tried to continue that series, but the second book the Children of Ruin put me on a reading slump 😂

I’ve read every book except Holly!

I’ve been meaning to read Of Mice and Men (and The Bell Jar) for a while now. You just sold it for me and I’ve added it to the little(ish) pile on my coffee table tbr! 😁 I also really enjoyed The Woman in Black x

Get well soon Laura x

I’m a new subscriber (only seen one video before this one and subbed immediately) So far, I don’t seem to read the same genre of books as you both do. However, you’re both so much fun I just want to keep watching! Plus, I love your book cases (obviously you must be my friends just because of that alone) 😊😊 Hi Fang!

Apparently it’s changing genre for me. I usually read classics but was totally stressed and couldn’t concentrate for a few reasons so I started reading Assassin’s Apprentice to get out of a slump. I’m absolutely smitten. My husband is on the last of the whole series now because I made him start reading them. And I’m on the last series myself. Or I read a book I’ve been seriously meaning to read for a long time. I now have to read Children of Time and Mistborn. And Sword of Kaigen. Etc etc etc. 😂 my tbr is sooo long!! ✌🏻🥰 And your hair is gorgeous!! Update- Ahhh!! Laura!!! Assassin’s Apprentice!!! Yesss!! 16 novels and 1 novella. Worth every single page! ❤️❤️❤️

I haven’t read Children of Time, but your description reminded me immediately of A Deepness in the Sky (Vernor Vinge, 1999), a long novel which also features a race of intelligent spider-like creatures-described mostly from their own point of view, and thus rather sympathetically. There are also two distinct groups of humans, one of which contains the baddies of the story; the spiders are good by comparison. It’s a standalone novel-set in the same universe as A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), but in a completely different time and place. Won the Hugo Award, nominated for the Nebula.

Nice haircut Laura 😊

Thank you

Guards Guards!

Holly by Stephen King has been on the TBR for awhile. I just want to read The Outsiders first and then reread If It Bleeds and also finish the book I'm reading...and maybe also a few other books, I don't know.

Get well soon Laura’s haircut and looking good Rossi! Wait, that’s not right is it?! 😀 For reading slumps I like to pick up books I’ve already read. They don’t challenge too much and I know I’ll enjoy them. My favourites to re-read are The Culture novels by the late, great Iain M Banks. Proper feel good, optimistic sci-fi with cool space stuff 😎

DCC! I second Murderbot too

I also watched Columbo as a kid with my mum. Columbo and Murder She Wrote and the piece de resistance Diagnosis Murder with Dick Van Dyke

Legends and Lattes was meeeeee!

I love the hair cut and hope you feel better soon! Once again I am adding more books to my TBR 😂📚

I’ve just realized that I bought Leviathan Wakes in 2017, but the beginning failed to appeal and I put it aside. I suppose I should give it another try sometime.

Nice haircut rossy!

It may be significant that I’ve already read all the books in your Cosy category, except for This Is How You Lose the Time War, which perhaps I should try… As for the others, I first read LOTR when I was 14, and I reread it periodically, although I’m not one of its most devoted fans. Not long ago I tried Mistborn and Assassin’s Apprentice, and finished both, but didn't really take to them and don’t plan to continue those series. Not cosy enough for me. I want books that make me more rather than less cheerful. Happy endings! Depressing books are masochism, like taking a holiday in a place that’s cold and wet. Sorry, Laura, I’m not a hair critic: your hair looks fine to me before and after. (Yes, I still have hair myself, but it gets a little greyer every year.)

Laura, you are looking stunning! Ross(ie?), get better soon 😉Great video! Love the diversity of all the books! That copy of time war also looks very interesting. Is it just split in two or is each book dedicated to one of the two agents?

So I’m an arachnophobic and I read a smut book with a spider creature and I wasn’t scared. I was terrified when I read cirque de freak though 😂

Aw you guys ❤

Reread! Always my top choice.

I noticed those elegant layers instantly !!! What a lift!!!

Looking stunning Laura !

0:00 wow lovely hair

Get well soon, Laura! Some of my favourite standalone books: • Babel-17 (Samuel R. Delany, 1966) • The Mind Readers (Margery Allingham, 1965) • The Peshawar Lancers (S. M. Stirling, 2002) • Time is the Simplest Thing (Clifford D. Simak, 1961) • Tiger! Tiger! (Alfred Bester, 1956; also known as The Stars My Destination) • Doorways in the Sand (Roger Zelazny, 1976) • Mission of Gravity (Hal Clement, 1954) • Puck of Pook’s Hill (Rudyard Kipling, 1906) [fantasy/historical] • Perchance (Michael Kurland, 1988) • Worlds Apart (Richard Cowper, 1974) All are sf except for Puck of Pook’s Hill. I think The Mind Readers was Allingham’s only attempt at sf, and it was the last book she completed (she died at the age of 62). Come to think of it, there was a sequel to Puck of Pook’s Hill, but it wasn’t as good, and can be ignored. The Mind Readers isn’t really standalone either: it comes at the end of a long series about Albert Campion. But the rest of the series is not sf, and this one can be read as standalone.

Of the books you mention, the ones I’ve read are The Day of the Triffids and Fahrenheit 451; I wouldn’t give them more than 3 stars myself, but both used to be very well known, and both were filmed. I think I’ve seen the films, too, although a long time ago. Yes, both of them are quite interesting conceptually, although as far as I remember The Day of the Triffids feels quite dated. John Wyndham was born in 1903, Ray Bradbury in 1920. Wyndham wrote a number of novels and short stories; his short stories are variable, but some are pretty good. I remember thinking that The Chrysalids was his best novel, but I haven’t read it for a really long time, it’s well overdue for a reread.

I think that, in the 20th century, sf mostly consisted of standalone books. Some authors had future histories into which multiple books fitted, but the links between the books could be quite loose. I’m not sure about fantasy, because in the 20th century I read mostly sf rather than fantasy.

I think I prefer stencils which are colour related to the cover or continue the cover art as you said. I hate those bright coloured edges. I like the Broken Binding Green Bone saga cover art, but yeah the edges don't fit. I have a hard time picturing how they look together in the end. Illumicrate did a special edition of the Green Bone Saga which was really beautiful. They just modernised the original covers, but kept the original theme of "green", "blue", "red". I didn't care for the edges there either but it wasn't distracting. A lot of people love the special edition of Illumicrate A Song of Silver Flame like night and Dark Star Burning - The cover art continues in the edges and is very well made. I don't know if the book is any good though

I am enjoying Kafka On The Shore!! Get well soon Laura <3

I’ve read these all!!!🎉❤

Something Wicked would still count. It's connected to a couple of his other books by place, and a couple of characters mentioned, but they're not a series as such. It's still a standalone novel. Oh, and there's no G in McCammon. 😉

Love seeing some stand alone recommendations. I enjoy a series as much as any, but there is some delightful knowing that this romp will be done when you are. Look forward to seeing more of your videos.😊