Just. Loved. This. So. Much. You've definitely got this vlogging video-recording down to a t.

What an interesting ramble to listen to - twice, Hannah. My thoughts on art being timely or timeless. Art can be timeless because it presents a question, a dilemma, or experience that recurs throughout history and humans. Art can also be personally timeless because it was encountered or experienced as personally timely and left a forever memory. Forty-eight years ago I saw the first painting (red tulips) I ever wanted to buy. There was no recurring aspect in this painting, no important event or place or person.. But I also can recall how it made me feel - joyful, wanting to sing and dance and laugh there and then in the art show, alive. For me, those red tulips are timeless art because I carry that painting with me in my memory and heart. What’s on my nightstand: For my church book group, Sarah Bessey’s Field Notes for the Wilderness, one or two chapters a week.. Next up is Peter Enns’ Curve Ball. For dipping in - A Bit of Earth: A Year in the Garden with God by Andrea Burke; Wild in the Streets: 20 Poems of City Animals by Marilyn Singer and Gordy Wright; and The Lost Words, acrostic poems for adults of plants and animals by Robert Macfarlane with luscious illustration by Jackie Morris Personal reading: John Dominic Crossan’s Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. Next up during Thanksgiving travel will be Louise Penny’s A Better Man

Hello Hannah, I was thoroughly entertained by your video. I wish we had a bookstore like “my dead Aunts’ or any used bookstore in Hawaii. Besides the Goodwill and book off(which sells more videos and records than books) we’re pretty much a desert in Honolulu. If it weren’t for library book sales, and My occasional foray Minnesota, where my daughter and son live and lately a yearly trip to Paris, I would be forced to use the Internet exclusively for books. I was trying to read all the titles of the books and I’m sure many other watchers were also doing the same. Wishing you health happiness and good reading. Shalom and Aloha

So many bookish outings for you this year, I’m happy I got to be part of one too! I had a friend from California who came back east for a visit and I met him in his former hometown where he had graduated from high school. It was Newton, Massachusetts. Of course I had read Looking for Mercy St. and other Sexton related stuff, but I was completely unprepared that his house was on the same street as hers had been! He would have been an infant when she lived there so no inside scoop. I think I’ve mentioned my hopes when next visiting Boston to go to what was the Ritz Hotel bar and have a drink, preferably at the same table that Sexton, Plath and Lowell did after their poetry workshop seminars. I’ll be waiting with bated breath for Clark’s biography on Sexton, it’s really time for a whole new examination of who she was and Clark is just the person to do her justice.

I wasn’t aware that Heather Clark was working on a biography of Anne Sexton. That is wonderful news! “Red Comet” is marvelous.

What a wonderful day, and I loved the bookstore/vintage store you all visited. Not much beats a good day with friends.

I loved Red Comet and I’m greatly interested in Walking in the Dark. The paper dolls bring back so many memories of playing with paper doll historical figures and dress as a child. 😊

You would have a difficult time getting me out of that store! Thank you for sharing that with us. I love those paper dolls! Een hele lekkere cocktail!

So many books to peruse - such a relaxing way to spend an afternoon! And I love how the beautiful vintage items are mixed throughout the place. ❤️ This is why I hesitate so much to discard any books. I always worry I'll regret it someday, if not immediately. 😣 We had dozens of those Dover paper doll booklets when my kids were young. Happy memories. 😊

Only 68 miles away. I’ll need to visit that bookstore when I done with my Read What You Own Challenge. Thanks for the Proust plug.

Hannah, this was such a fun video. That’s my kind of book+vintage resale store. I laughed out loud at the cockatiel story 😂 🍸 🦜 The Roosevelt family paper dolls were a hoot. However, they sparked sweet memories of hours spent with friends cutting out and playing with paper dolls . As with Barbie dolls, we would spend hours changing the outfits and making up scenarios accordingly. Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I had Kennedy family paper dolls. (Earlier today a short video popped up on my YT feed about a young man in Montreal or Quebec who inherited 40,000 books. It’s quite a sight. He’s trying to sell them from the house.

This was such a wonderful video! I would be in heaven ❤

How lovely that you have friends locally to have an amazing day trips with. All my bookish friends are online and far away from me. What a lovely shop and distillery :)

I had never heard of Sanora Babb until recently and now I want to read all of her works. I recently watched a great video about her on Zoe Bee's channel - worth a watch kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2jbp4yPj8mdY9Usi=j-A571VN-YZQnA6y 2025 may be a Sanora Babb year for me. I've been on the fence about Lonesome Dove. I've often thought of it as a "guy's book" but I know quite a few women who recently read it and adored it. I'm starting to plan my 2025 reading and want to mostly stick to what I've got on my shelves already, but I may add that in to 2025 TBR.

Hi Hannah! First off, Proust. I so badly want to read his works, but I have tried several times over the years to read the first volume and I lost interest and put it down. I think if I just allowed myself several months to dip in and out of it instead of just trying to read through, I'd have better luck. In my last attempt, I ended up donating the first three volumes I owned because I decided it just wasn't for me. However, it keeps haunting me. Someday, I will finish at least the first volume, but 2025 won't be the year. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on it. Now, the bookstore - what a fabulous name for a store! I wish I had something like that here. South Florida (Miami Dade specifically) is a cultural wasteland. There are NO used bookstores around me. There is a goodwill that has some books but very small collection (and mostly my donations lol) So funny you should mention Anne Sexton. I am not a fan of her poetry but have always been drawn to her. I love author biographies and am especially drawn to tragic figures. I am currently reading "Three Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton". It's ok, but I think I would enjoy the Anne Sexton Biography better for a more in-depth look into her life. Also, those paper dolls...how fabulous!

Since you're talking about presidential paper doll books, I feel comfortable talking about a different kind of book as well; since our last exchange in your aforementioned video's comments where we went on about coping with Copeland and whatnot, I have found sheet music containing Satie's "Gymnopodies" and "Gnossienes" (I also found some Gershwin and Chopin: I know, I'm completely indiscriminate with piano stuff). I also found a pair of books I have long desired to dive deep into: the Library of America's reprints of Dawn Powell. Have you read her? She's hysterical. It's like of Dorothy Parker had written novels instead of stories. I am very, very much looking forward to Heather Clark's new books, which you mentioned. I loved "Red Comet." It's the best biography of Plath around. Much like Clark, I have often been disappointed with Plath biographies. For years I had a hard time pinpointing what it was about most of them that rubbed me the wrong way, and then I opened up "Red Comet" the day it was published and came across a passage at the beginning about Plath's fine-tuned ear for poetic influence among her fellow poetry students and it clicked with me: the biographies do this weird thing where they avoid talking about Plath as a writer, even though that is ostensibly the reason anyone would be reading their biography of her. And then Clark sights the great Hermione Lee on this weird thing that biographers do with female poets whose lives were bombarded with misfortune: they prioritize that, and subordinate the writing career to it. A metamisfortune on behalf of the literary reader. I loved Clark's book because it is aware of that bizarre phenomenon and avoids it. I especially loved the stuff about her connection to Lowell and the writing programs in its early stages. I love that sort of stuff: what writers were like when they were in school and whatnot. I cannot find anything online about the upcoming Clark book, "Walking in the Dark," which you mention looking forward to. Do you have a source I can learn more about the book from? It sounds right up my alley, since I love all the writers included in the subject: Plath, Sexton, Kingston, Rich? What a quartet. I'm constantly pushing "Woman Warrior" and "Tripmaster Monkey" on people. As for the other three: poetry is tricky to recommend. People are so shy around it. But I espouse my love for the three whenever I can. Speaking of which: you really don't like Anne Sexton's poetry all that much? She's incredible. I will agree that "Transformations" is among my favorites by her, but have you read "The Book of Folly" all the way through? It's just as good. In fact, it is equally as good but has more variety in it, which is a plus for me. I also don't think there is anything in "45 Mercy Street" that I don't like. Not that you're shy around poetry or anything. But I must espouse upon thee!

I love that bookstore name! I remember having some paper doll books from that publisher. I favored Victorian and Edwardian fashions. What a fun day with your friends; thanks for sharing the store, the distillery and your haul.

Speaking of regrets, I am sorry to have donated my Dover paper doll book of Princess Diana when I was clearing my bookshelves before our big move last year. Ah well. Thanks for sharing your fun day with us. 🌻

The cockatiels 😂😂 Seems like your friend had happy hour on her mind already

Oh, to visit a used bookstore with you, Hannah, followed by afternoon tea. You are in a class by yourself. Love your videos and wishing you all the best as November wraps up! 🌻🌹💪💐✌️☮️🎭☯️🥂🌷🍾

I added Whose Names are Unknown to my TBR

_Walking in the Dark_ sounds real interesting. For a while we had a store in the neighborhood that sold exclusively Dover books. I remember those!

What a unique name for the bookstore and what seems so much more! It was a lovely glimpse into your day with friends. Someone mentioned it being wonderful to have bookish friends and it seems like a nice way to spend time together. Although it is way over my head I will be reading Proust come January with the group. I got my copy of In Search Of Lost Time Volume 1 yesterday. I will see how it goes! I am reading Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald and the writing is beautiful. Aaron Facer said it was one of his favorites this year. There are no chapters per say, which I am not used to. I am juggling a few other books which I won't get into to keep my comment shorter than usual! Glad to see you had posted a video! Bye now. 😊

Oh my goodness, the cocktail/cockatiel story!!!! 😆 It looks like it was an amazing outing. Community is so important during these times!! Thanks for taking us along, and I look forward to your next trip to that wonderful bookstore.

What a nice day out. I love that they don't put stickers on their books! Those candle names are hilarious.

How wonderful to have bookish friends! Red Comet is my favorite biography and I, too, look forward to her future books. I think Clark also has a novel in the works.

i love they way you structured your video and you also have such a relaxing voice to listen to😊

Sounds like an amazing days with friends and fellowship

I think my sister had some of those paper doll books. I love gin. That martini looked great.

Looks like a good time. I want to read that Proust book

What a lovely day with friends. The martini you ordered sounds amazing.

Recently a young man and his uncle opened a bookstore here in Montreal, all of the books were inherited from his father, more than 20, 000. I have tried to read Proust many times both in French and in English without much success, maybe I will give it a go with you and your group. Do you have books of writers letters /correspondence that you would suggest?

Paper dolls books, that takes me back.

Thank you Hannah, I have been procrastinating proust as well and you motivated me to try next year. Another I procrastinated long time was Lonesome Dove, which I finally read this year. I LOVED it. Hope you enjoy it. Happy winter!

She has a wicked sense of humour which makes me laugh out loud. 'Denying a moments rest to her inexhustible organs of speech' said of the notorious Mrs Wilson.

Hi Hannah, I always am intimidated by big books. And I also don’t like Charles Dickens for many reasons. I read Oliver Twist when I was a preteen and it scared me. I read some of David Copperfield before I gave up. Maybe one day. Aloha friend.

'Now in November' sounds like a book I absolutely would love! I'm so glad you discussed it! I have Sanora Babb's memoir and am planning to read it soon, but I just added 'Unknown No More,' as well as Dunkle's biography, to my Christmas Wish List. 😊 Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for another great video. You are brave planning on dipping into the dust bowl reading so much, I read Kristin Hannah’s “The Four Winds” in 2022 and some of the scenes describing the level of starvation still haunt me.

Hello Hannah, nice to meet you. I'm somewhat at odds with Katie Lumsden in a friendly way when it comes to Dickens in general, but wholeheartedly agree with her about Our Mutual Friend. A book that fits your first three categories for me is Dos Passos' U.S.A., and that will be keeping me out of mischief this winter.

I'll CERTAINLY be reading Edith Wharton very soon indeed! Thank you for tagging me. I'll have a video flying free from the chute in a day or so 😜

Our Mutual Fruend is wonderful. Lonesome Dove is very good but not great. I'm interested in the Wharton bio as well.

I'd love for you to talk about American literature and its connection to various ideologies. I don't have the knowledge to even begin to study that, but I'm curious about it. Wonderful video as always.

I do not read westerns either however 5 stars for Lonsome Dove (and James McBride). I am excited and eager to hear your reviews and commentary related to American literature 😉👍

I read 'Our Mutual Friend' a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It might be nice to read it during the Christmas season. Somehow, a Christmas without a Charles Dickens book or story does not seem a real Christmas to me. At the moment I'm reading 'The Dollmaker' by the American author Harriette Arnow. I found this book in a charity bookshop. Are you familiar with this author? I had never heard of her. The story takes place during the 2nd World War and is about a young mother who has to leave her beloved Hill farm in Kentucky and together with her children follows her husband to industrial Detroit. She feels completely displaced by this horrendous experience. I am two thirds through the book and am totally absorbed in it.😊

I'm the queen of "I'll get around to it later!" Put it this way, I finally took Swan's Way off my tbr because it was probably on my tbr for over a decade. 😐

Hi Hannah. Another terrific video. Like you, I have yet to read Our Mutual Friend. Yet. Thanks for the recommendation of Now In November. Can’t wait to explore. Wishing you restful, happy holidays. 🌹💐🥂🌷✌️🌻

Lonesome Dove is an exceptional book! (My husband said “you can almost taste the dirt in your mouth”.” I enjoyed it so much that I continued on with the whole series. And Now is November is well worth your time. Happy reading!

I think your plan for 2025 sounds good. Unfortunately, I have nothing to offer in the way of books

Now in November is such a beautiful book. In a weird bit of synchronicity, an Instagram friend posted about an event she went to last night for the woman who wrote that biography about Sanora Babb, and now here you are mentioning her again...hello, Universe! I hear you! I loved The Grapes of Wrath and counted it as a favorite for many years, and then about a decade ago I read Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time. The Dust Bowl is a period that fascinates me. I love the idea of your plan to focus on American lit in 2025. Also, I'll join the chorus of voices encouraging you to read Lonesome Dove. If it helps, McMurtry wrote it to be an anti-Western and break down a lot of the myths about cowboys and the West. Be well, Hannah!

Thanks Hannah. Lonesome Dove is indeed a great novel. When this was a book club selection ten or so years ago, I anticipated four weeks to finish. I did it in 10 days.