2023: Best Dudes!

[@neilturner2368]

I’m just finishing The Shards and, like you, loving every page of it …the visceral LA 1980s world, the music and literature references, the believable characters and dialogues and a gripping story - brilliant!!

[@Rainierbooks]

It was my favorite book of the year!

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Wonderful to hear that!

[@booksaremysociallife]

I've had Silk Roads on my TBR for years now!

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

I think you will like it! I value his 'different' take on history very much.

[@EuphoricImpact]

I have been a subscriber of yours since 2021! I have learned a lot regarding women authors while viewing your channel. I know as a result I purchased eleven books. I then delved deeper into several of those authors catalogue. I wanted to thank you for the education and broadening of my human experience. Peace.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Oh, how lovely to hear you've been watching my channel for such a long time. And thank you very much for the wonderful compliment! ❤️

[@louisep1962]

The Secret of Life sounds like a good one to me. While I'm not a Bret Easton Ellis fan, I enjoyed your description and opinion. After watching you for a few years I am really concentrating on reading, and spending my money on, more female authors, so thanks for that.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Oh, that is so lovely of you to say, Louise, thank you very much! ❤️

[@lisag618]

Thanks Britta - I've added The Shards - sounds so good :)

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

I really hope you will enjoy it!

[@Rainierbooks]

Great to hear that you loved "The Shards" as much as I did. It was my favorite book of 2023. No other book immersed me that much and the atmosphere created is awesome although I did not grow up in a Sherman Oaks like suburb in the 1980s in Germany. Have you tried the Spotify playlist? It is an amazing soundtrack.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Yesss, another fan of The Shards! And I have listened to the WHOLE playlist... BEE is just 4 years younger than me, so it brought back so many (musical) memories.

[@MarilynMayaMendoza]

Hi Britta, diary of a murderer seems to go with the nonfiction about DNA. I’m a fan of mystery, crime, and true crime, so forensic science, DNA and biology are interesting to me. Here’s to a happy new year for all of us. Aloha.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Yes, those two books indeed go well together. And I'm fascinated with DNA and forensics as well! 👯

[@jay_poet]

I read American Psycho last year and loved it so I immediately purchased The Shards but have yet to read it. Great to see you enjoyed it! I really fancy The Silk Roads and the Sontag biography too.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Oh, that's great, I really hope you will enjoy The Shards as much as I did! And happy to hear you're interested in Silk Roads and the Sontag-bio.

[@Robert.Sheard]

Send in the Dudes. Let's see which Dudes we can have you read in this year's prize. The Exceptions was wonderful. Oh now I want to read The Shards. I've never read Ellis.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Yes, let's see which 800 page Dude-tome you will make me read this year. 😂 Not sure you'd like BEE but it's worth giving it a try. (Maybe not start with American Psycho which is most extreme book. He wrote e memoir called White a couple of years which is a good place to start.)

[@markhnk]

I was at that reading of "The Shards" in Cologne too! Don't be too hard on Bernhard Robben, the moderator. I've seen him at various readings in Cologne and Hamburg. I wish he wouldn't start every reading with a fifteen-minute monologue, but overall, I think he is a real asset at German literary festivals. I loved the book. And I got my first edition of "Less Than Zero" signed and got to talk to him a bit. That event was probably my literary highlight 2023.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Oh, what a fabulous coincidence! I will try to be more positive about Bernhard Robben, but I really hate it when moderators are so self-centered... But the event was one of my highlights as well. I got The Shards signed and talked to BEE for a little bit which was fantastic.

[@alldbooks9165]

I don’t even understand how I haven’t read Silk Roads yet. I even got it for G who has already read it, lol.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

I don't even understand that either. You are a mystery. 😂

[@LibroParadiso-ep4zt]

"Best Dudes!" Can't help it, but the title makes me think of Henry Miller, Ernest Hemingway, Jim Harrison, Charles Bukowsky, Victor Huge, Balzac, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, and other alpha male authors:)

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

This comment made me chuckle! ☺️

[@ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk]

Some interesting reads. Best wishes.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Thank you very much. And best wishes to you as well!

[@StephanieJCohen]

I am going to have to check out The Secret of Life. Susan Sontag is also one of my intellectual stalwarts and I’ve had Moser’s biography of her since it was published. I definitely need to get to it this year! I say that every year, but really mean it. 😊.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Let 2024 be the year you read the Sontag-bio! 🍀

[@readingbytheriver5752]

The Silk Road and the history, art, food etc around it has been an interest of mine since I was young. Read the Frankopan book and enjoyed it very much - it is on the reread stack. My first two reads 2024 were Of Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery and The Curious World of Seahorses by Till Hein both very good reads. Light of Truth, The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl and The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth [this is for our neighborhood book club]- Good reading in 2024.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Oh, I loved The Plot Against America, and Sy Montgomery. Excellent start of your reading year, it sounds like. Have a good reading year!

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

_Diary of a Murderer_ sounds interesting. (Incidentally the Rosalind Franklin story was turned into a play _Photograph 51_ which I saw and makes me like to see that book.)

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Oh, I have to check out that Play, thank you for the tip!

[@bookofdust]

I’m so happy to see The Shards accoladed on your channel. I think this is the book he’s been trying to write his whole life and has finally achieved his masterpiece. So far I’ve only found other Gay men who speak glowingly of it and I was beginning to think it only works for a niche audience, but you have disproved that. I really had thought that it would show up on some best of year lists, but it seems outside of a handful of people the literary world has already moved on and forgotten it. I think there will be a huge revival and rediscovery and very much in the near future and it will be more widely embraced and become a cult classic. If TikTok is good for anything, I’m hoping it finally filter down there and explodes in popularity.

[@Rainierbooks]

The atmosphere is so feverish with all these rich kids roaming around in their Mercedes' and BMW's in Panorama City. Awesome book. My favorite in 2023.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Yep!

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Yes, it's true The Shards was a long time in the making, so to speak, he said as much during the reading in Cologne. And I hope you're right that there will be a 'rediscovery' of BEE in the near future!

[@robertelder5770]

I love Ellis but I also love Franzen!

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

I really liked The Corrections but after that, his books just didn't work for me...

[@myreadinglife8816]

I tried American Psycho but couldn’t get into it. I have to add the book about Rosalind Franklin to my wishlist so I will stop forgetting it! 😂

[@myreadinglife8816]

Whoops it’s already on my wishlist! 🤣

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

LoL. I think you need a 'I REALLY shouldn't forget about these-books'-reading list... 🤣

[@myreadinglife8816]

@@brittabohlerthesecondshelf I do need that!

[@dqan7372]

I suspect I keep confusing BEE with other authors, not his works so much as his personality. Was a little surprised to see him here. Boosting him in my TBR and adding Diary of a Murder.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Great that you boosted BEE up your tbr-pile! And I hope you will enjoy Diary of a Murderer.

[@elfieausten3709]

Food for thought! The Korean author sounds good. And Frankopan is on my shelf somewhere, but I never got around to reading it. I did work my way through American Psycho once, but it gave me horrendous nightmares 😱, even years after reading it, so BEE is not for me.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

I hope you will get to the Frankopan at some point, it's really worth it! And American Psycho is a controversial book, so I can understand that it put you off BEE...

[@susprime7018]

Oh my, I'll stick with Franzen, ego does not bother me very much and while Franzen pushed the disgust envelope in one of his books, for which I blame Pynchon for being on a syllabus, not to the same extent.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Yes, I agree, BEE is definitely more 'extreme' than Franzen. I just really appreciate his sense of humor, I dont think he takes any of it seriously.

[@ArtStoriesWithKris]

I must try BEE. EVERY TIME I HEAR A BOOK OF HIS REVIEWED I THINK THAT SOUNDS GOOD. MAYBE I'LL START WITH THE SHARDS.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

The Shards is a good place to start. I wouldn't recommend American Psycho as a first BEE-book... And Bee is fabulous!

[@ArtStoriesWithKris]

@@brittabohlerthesecondshelf I got a notice today that the Shards is in for me at my local library. Looking forward to getting started with it. Thx.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

@@ArtStoriesWithKris Fabulous! I hope you will enjoy it! Let me know what you think.

[@StephaniePatterson-jb5it]

I suspect that any woman trying to make a career in science has to have "edges." (And rather sharp ones). I, too, am a Sontag devotee and loved Moser's book.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

That is probably very true! And very happy to hear you've enjoyed the Sontag-bio.

[@Butterscotch-be7es]

Interesting choices. Sorry, I would take Franzen over Ellis any day! His psychopath book I literally threw in the garbage as it disturbed me so much. Couldn’t stand seeing it in the house.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Yes, I can definitely understand your issue with American Psycho! I thought the book was more satire than anything and I didn't think the violence was 'real' which made it more bearable.