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Vegans and Peta like to use shock horror to push their animal cruelty messages.

I will pass on all the ones except How to Say Babylon. I don’t think I can stomach the one about adoption. Thanks for reading these and giving us your views.

Hi. I was so glad to see a video from you pop up! James is on my wait list from the library. Not sure I’ll read Huck Finn prior. I’m not even sure I read it in school. I did read Tom Sawyer and liked it but didn’t love it. I absolutely loved Remains of the Day. I loved the adaptation also. Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson brought the book to life admirably. Nice to see you.

I am kind of enjoying A Dirty Job, a guilty pleasure. I agree, it's sexist, homophobic and misogynistic.

Personally I enjoyed this book and found it entertaining but I do agree with majority your points. The storylines lacked depth, sometimes it felt like the author was putting in gruesome scenes just for the shock factor and the ending was very disappointing and honestly quite illogical. Can’t bring myself to give this book a bad rating but I don’t think i’ll ever come back to it again

I do have a science background, although not specific to evolution, and I thought Eve was fabulous. I understand your criticism but I felt the author was pretty explicit that much of the stuff she was talking about was theory not fact. But great point that she did not get into that evolution occurs in ways other than adaptation.

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I am genuinely interested in every book in this group! I have The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and need to prioritize picking that up soon because she sounds like a great thinker. Thanks so much for your thoughts on Eve. I have some science background, but not a lot of recent knowledge on evolution, so I appreciated the context you described. I find that a lot of popular science writing can get oversimplified in a way that makes it seem like fact, and I really appreciate it when books are more overt about what makes science science 😅

I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts. This was such a strong group. Your thoughts on Eve were very interesting. I placed it at number one in my group in the first round. I don’t have a background in science, so the flaws you mention escaped me completely. Our opinions also differ on Wifedom. I placed it second to last in the first round. I saw major flaws that were not redeemed by its readability. However, we agree on Doppelganger. It’s a great book. I am disappointed it didn’t make it to the final round.

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I look forward to hearing if you like What Kitty Did Next. I enjoyed it.

Some possibilities for your pop culture series: Frankenstein, Rebecca, Beauty and the Beast, 1984, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 😊

Loved your video and your thoughtful comments. I, too, judged the quarter finals (group C) and now the semi-finals for non-fiction. I love that I am reading books I never would have chosen to read on my own and learning so much about our history and world. Making these videos is such hard work! I gave up trying. Thank you for what you do!!!

Lovely plans! Good luck - it's quite a lot to fit in. :)

The Lucy Worsley book is actually pretty good - here's hoping it doesn't get cut from the roster!

Here's to a great reading summer. Best wishes.

I am one of those that loved The Underworld. I am fascinated (read terrified) by the depths of the ocean and all its creatures. I could NEVER go in a submersible - heck I can barely snorkel without freaking out. But I love reading about it! 😂 I’m sorry it didn’t work for you.

I’m on the fence about The Underworld. I thought Casey’s earlier book about dolphins was meh,so I wasn’t interested in Underworld. Then I heard a positive review of it by Heidi (My Reading Life) and thought I would give it a go. Now I’m on the fence. I might sample it. As to the Red Tent, it’s been years since I read it and I still remember disliking it but can’t remember why.

The Wager isn’t my typical book either but I loved it. So tremendously readable!

Wifedom sounds so good, and I love that bold cover choice 😍

Those trolling letters in Flee North sound so satisfying!

I really enjoyed your reviews! I’ve never heard of We Were a Family but remember the tragedy. I think I’ll check that one out.

Melissa, I was a judge for this section too! So happy to see your video and rankings. I was very close to your list, some in different orders. I found that my last place book, The Dictionary People was the easiest to place. Your points for all of these were excellent. Dictionary People was ultimately somewhat interesting in the moment but largely forgettable. I appreciated the effort the author took in researching it but it was mostly a miss for me. Also in my bottom half were The Lumumba Plot and The Wager. I agree with your assessment of both though, and honestly it was tough to decide between the number 4 and number 3 spots. My top three were We Were Once A Family, Flee North, and Wifedom. Wifedom is the book that surprised me the most as far as content and achieving its goal. I agree that I hadn’t really ever thought about it so it was incredible to realize the Orwell wasn’t the best husband anyway and then even the idea for 1984 came from a poem she had written earlier. It makes you wonder how much of some of the classic authors married women who were instrumental in their success. Thanks for the video! Are you judging the semifinal round? I did rounds 1 and 2, so taking a break.

It was fun to hear your thoughts. I skipped this round, but it happens that I’ve read three books from this group. I agree that The Dictionary People is a good book, but not extraordinary. I also agree that The Wager is super interesting even for someone who doesn’t care about ship wrecks or naval stories. Where we differ is on Wifedom. I read it for the first round. It reads super well, the author makes good points, but there were things that really got on my nerves, enough to supersede the good points. I ranked it second to last in my group, but I am not surprised it is moving on.

I enjoyed your thoughts on all of these but particularly on Lumumba and the Wager.

Too many of the character names are alien-sounding. I thought it made them difficult to read, say, or be memorable

I so enjoyed watching this 😊

Sometimes it is very refreshing to DNF 😉 Birds Without Wings is a book in my Turkish Shelf books list but I am really scared to read it because none of my friends liked it 😏

I think a big flaw of your critique is that the character “has to,” the characters “would not act this way.” In this world the author created these things are how they played out and this is how these characters were & developed. Doesn’t seem to be valid or productive to call these things out

Wow, the Electric State looks so suggestive and evocative--intriguing!

Wow, that was an eclipse!!

It was interesting to hear your take on Nevermoor 😊 I remember the same hype a couple years back and wondering if it was kind of filling a nostalgic need at the time for something like HP

I’ve never read Heidi. Ho-hum. I’m not sure I missed anything!😂

Im only on chapter 6 so far. But what ill say is. Rhe book is doing a good job showing how humans are easily controlled by words. The main character is also aware of that fact and it sickins him.. Real life is messed up and im willing to bet that a lot of americans dont give there world real thought. A lot of our items comes from slave labor. The meat we eat comes from places we dont think about. As i type this im probably being watched by a camera. And my government is bombing a village with a missile made by my tax payer money....these are kind of dystopean things. And like the main character im fully aware of this stuff. And i dont care 🤷‍♂️ does it bother me. Yea. Then i get over it. Sucks to be them..should have been born im America. And im sure a LOT of people dont give it thought to begin with. I only think about that because i like military history and politics. Things most people say that hate lol. This book is a good representation of what i just talked about. But took to the extreme. Iv only read 5 books before this one and countless graphic novels sooo maybe im not experienced enough to notice the problems. But this book is doing a good job showing a meesed up world from the point of view of a slightly SLIGHTLY woke individual. I dont need him to fight the powers that be or have a deep character study or anything like that. This feels like a remake of 1984. And if that ending is like this books ending i feel sorry for the girl😅 sorry for the rant. Hope i made sense. If there is another dark dystopia book you think is better tell me. Because i love horror and id like to read it.

Behold the Dreamers sounds so good. Thanks. I’m putting it on my list.

I have to agree with your Dirty Job review. Some of the places the book took you had no value. I laughed to myself when I got to the end. I thought, what?!!!.

I liked A Room with a View a bit more but do prefer his A Passage to India. Klara and the Sun was a good book club read. I didn't find it groundbreaking, but it had the sort of themes that make for a good discussion. Behold the Dreamers is on my TBR. And James Baldwin's book(s). You read a good range of topics in Feb 🤩

Aw, thank you - I’m pleased to have given you a nice Booktube memory ☺️ I am often very bad at commenting, but I still love your channel. I definitely agree about the wealth of content on Booktube - there is so much that it is hard to keep up!

Happy Booktube Bday!!

This video is great, Melissa! Not enough time to watch all the booktubers that I subscribe to; definitely a frustration for me too. I started my channel a little over two years ago and don’t feel like I’ve reached oldie status yet (even though I’m 63 in Earth years). I get a grateful thrill anytime someone mentions me on their channel, so I could really relate to your anecdote about Katie.

I always enjoy your wrap ups. I put Cold People on my TBR

Hi Melissa! I am just now finishing up a different book by Patrick DeWitt - French Exit. Interesting to hear that you found The Sisters Brothers to be mainly dark with some comic tones. French Exit is very different. It's clearly meant to be funny and all the characters are quite eccentric and get into bizarre situations. I think I will have to skip The Sisters Brothers because of the animal violence, though 🙁

That sounds like a doable plan. Best of luck. I have SO many ebooks unread.

Holy Moly, I think it would take me a month just to count up the books on my shelves that I've never read. I never thought of actually getting them all together in one spot, but you've inspired me. (Fingers crossed the imspiration lasts long enough for me to actually tackle the job).

Hope you have some great reads in 2024. Best wishes.

I really don't like the art in most of the Sandman series, which is why I can't read it. With comics, it's always art before anything else for me. I love the two Death standalones, tho! SO I suggest checking those out!

Great review! I’m excited to read this book. Thank you sincerely.

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Such great goals! Congrats on getting your TBR down!