My Books of the Year So Far | 2021
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- Опубліковано 5 сер 2024
- It’s that time of the year, ok this should have been about a month ago, where I chat through my favourite books of the first six months of the year. So which books have been the top of my bookish pops so far in 2021… watch the video to find out. #BooksOfTheYearSoFar #FavouriteBooks #BooksOf2021SoFar
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Melanie and I discuss Grown Ups by Marian Keyes • The Frank Book Club | ...
My TBR is Picked by Becca’s Bookopoly • My August TBR (Is A Ga...
Summer Book HiBearNation Prompts
Basic Prompts
Get lost in translation - a book for women in translation month.
Getting along swimmingly - a book with a swimming pool in the title or on the cover.
A Holiday Romance - a book from an author you already love’s backlist.
Dream destination - a book set in the place you’ve always wanted to go to.
Bonus Prompts
Blast from the past - pick a book set in a summer from another period of history.
Summer fling - a short book you know you’re going to love.
If you wannabe EXTRA…
A summer adventure - head to a book set on the equator.
Sun, sea and sandcastles - a book with any of these things in the title or on the cover.
Read the group read. (Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola)
Share a picture from your favourite summer holiday using #BookHiBearNation
Take a picture in your favourite summery reading spot using #BookHiBearnation
Books Mentioned
Some Body To Love by Alexandra Heminsley uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781784...
Grown Ups by Marian Keyes uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781405...
What’s The T? by Juno Dawson uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781526...
The Manningtree Witches by A. K. Blakemore uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781783...
Things I Don’t Want To Know by Deborah Levy uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780241...
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780241...
Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781838...
The Madness of Grief by Reverend Richard Coles uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781474...
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780571...
Gay Bar by Jeremy Atherton Lin uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781783...
Still Life by Sarah Winman uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780008...
In The End It Was All About Love by Musa Okwonga roughtradebooks.com/products/...
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781529...
Me Elsewhere…
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I loved The Prophets (it was your review that got me to read it)! I’m currently reading This One Sky Day, and I can already tell I’m gonna love it. And yes, a lot of these are going on my tbr 📚.
So glad to hear you loved The Prophets. It’s one of my favourite books of all time. Hope you carry on enjoying This One Sky Day.
My tbr list has just got even longer 👍🏻 I read Grown Ups last month for the book club and really enjoyed, it actually has made me think about how I want to choose more books for pure enjoyment and I’m going to go back and read some of Marian’s other books 📚
Thank you for recommending Grown Ups by Marian Keyes. I have had a really bad week and this fabulous book has helped take my mind off it x
In love with your shirt and you as wellllll
Loved Grown Ups! I also really like the idea of listening to a book on audio after you have read it.
Have heard of almost none of these books but have added 3 to my wish list and went ahead and purchased Gay Bar. As a nurse I also am captivated with the books on death. Thanks for always broadening my reading horizons Simon!
Ahhh I have added so many of these to my tbr!! My favourite books of the year so far are Piranesi (one of the most unique books I have ever read) and Unsettled Ground - heartbreaking and brilliant.
Two fab books from the fab women’s prize shortlist.
What an exercise to choose. The best book I have read is without a doubt The Prophets and I too was disappointed to see it wasn't on the Booker longlist. My favourites (which I consider slightly different from the 'best' book although I did love The Prophets, don't get me wrong) are Detransition baby by Torrey Peters, The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohery, and This One Sky Day by Leone Ross. I have the Sarah Winman sitting in my TBR so looking forward to that.
Did you hear that? Listen closely, I am way far away in the Pacific NW…that was my TBR exploding!!! Good golly, some of these books had already been added per your reviews and now more have been added!! Thank you for such thoughtfully curated and reviewed books! I so look forward to all you share with us!! 🙏🏻📚💫
I’ve only read three books from this list but the rest are definitely on my tbr! I think my favorite book of the year so far is Evicted by Matthew Desmond - it’s an excellent nonfiction audiobook too!
Thanks for your enthusiasm sharing your reviews of your best books. My reading list is getting longer! Great recommendations for This One Sky Day, The Prophets and Still Water.
Very excited to get my hands on ‘Still Life’ when it comes out in the U.S. I just looked back at what I’ve read so far this year and ‘Tin Man’ was definitely in the top along with ‘Mr. Loverman’ for fiction. A favorite I just finished that was a surprise for me was ‘Early Morning Riser’ by Katherine Heiny… your reflection on Marian Keyes’ book made me think you might want to give this novel a try. Also, I remember your reading vlog from the winter that included you reading ‘Mrs Death Misses Death’ in the bath and it’s so cool to see now that it ended up being a favorite 🤩
Oy! I have The Manningtree Witches, Mrs Death, Still Life, Popisho, and The Prophets all waiting to be read! I’m aiming to have them all read before the end of the year. Just ordered Musa’s book from Rough Trade. I still have his One of Them to read as well! Great list. I hope I love all these as much as you do. I just received The Fortune Men from the Booker longlist today. Looking forward to that one too. I’ve just been reading a lot of non-fiction recently.
I have Musa’s One of Them to read too. I’m excited for a parcel coming from the folk at Booker early next week.
I completely agree with The Prophets. So so good!
There are a lot here I’m interested in. Thanks!
I think The Prophets is just such an incredible book. It’s like I’m on a mission to make every single person who follows this channel read it.
SavidgeReads yes!!
Thank you for the wonderful books, I read The Prophets in January and loved it and want to read again to see how it reads a second time. I am also meant to be reading A Madness of Grief for work, and it is sitting there waiting to be opened, might try and start it next week, but after all you said about crying with it, wanting to read in private rather than out in public.
I was particular emotional post second vaccine so it could have been that. Ha.
Manningtree Witches, Mrs. Death Misses Death and The Madness of Grief are all FINALLY being published in the US this autumn. Whew. The Prophets didn’t make the Booker, Still Life didn’t make the Booker, Popisho didn’t make the Booker. What’s up with that??? Definitely some of my favorites of the year are on your list Simon. And yes, it would be very difficult to say whether I loved Still Life or Tin Man more. Winman is an absolutely treasure.
i bought tin man a while ago but i havent read it yet, keep hearing rave reviews of her books, nice vid Simon :-)
Thanks very much Larry.
I got Mrs Death Misses Death from the library following your review earlier this year and loved it, also really want to reread it too, I think I will try the audiobook as Godden reads it herself. I can't wait to read Still Life and The Prophets!
The audiobook is fantastic, gives even more grit to the story.
The Prophets is my favourite of the year so far too. What a powerful read.
Just an incredible read.
At school, my child was known as Gabe R. (say it out loud) as there were two Gabes in the class. It brought me endless joy. All of these books sound fantastic, and I can't believe I haven't read any of them yet. I'm currently reading (and loving) Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford (Booker longlisted, as you'll know!) and Crime and Punishment, because I fancy a few nefarious doings!
I loved Mrs Death Misses Death. I first heard about it here on one of your review videos and i wrote it down as a book i would definitely want to purchase. Fast forward to the following week, my lovely mother-in-law shows up at my house with a copy she has just bought for me because it looked "Just my thing!" She knows me so well!
So glad you enjoyed it as much as I did. How cool your mother in law did that.
I loved Mrs Death Misses Death and am just chuffed you adored it, as my local virtual book club didn't get on with it and I was a lone voice....🥰
Shuggie Bain was another of my favourites this year.
I am here for “extra amazing” 😻
Ok Honcho shirt! 😍
Still Life bought me equal amounts of Joy!!!!
Such a great bunch of books…definitely want to read as many as I can. I’ve read some stunners the last few weeks, Ghost Wall and Sorrow and Bliss among them. Lots to reflect on there. Oh, and Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead (which makes me want to reread Death in Her Hands)! Currently stretched out on the bed with Plain, Bad Heroines for Lauren’s book club.
Of course, those aren’t all books from this year, but are getting honorable mention. 🏆
Really enjoyed Piranesi....not my ‘thing’ at all but, was fab.
Green Hands by Barbara Whitton- published by Imperial War Museum and looks at a period of time in the life of a Land Army Girl in WW2...parts of it made me hoot.
Talking of hooting with laughter and feeling sad at the same time, I listened to Tom Allen No Shame on Audible...probs best book of the year so far.
New author alert I have found is Gwendoline Riley- read My Phantoms and now devouring her back catalogue....ooo think I have achieved a prompt on Summer Book Hibearnation 🐻
I need to read all of these. I
Yes, the manningtree witches is a great read
Wonderful isn’t it!
My favourite books from the first half of 2021 are, The Silent Stars Go By by Sally Nicholls, Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson, The Survivors by Jane Harper, The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson and Remember Me This Way by Sabine Durrant.
Still Life has become my favourite book EVER. It just made me happy. Just… happy. Simple as that. 🥰
And Deborah Levy is next on my TBR, right after I finish The Vanishing Half, which I’m really enjoying. So glad the women’s prize has been postponed. I might get through the whole shortlist for the first time ever! Any updated thoughts or predictions now that you’ve had so long to sit with the shortlist?
My favourite books of the year include get a life Chloe brown and the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo.. I predicted some of the books that would be on this list especially the prophets 😊
My library has a reading group set of Mrs Death Misses Death so I am holding off reading it until we can read it as a group. I also really want to read What's The T.
Ooooh it’ll be a great group read!
So many of these on my TBR..just read another stunning debut-Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia-highly recommend:)
Oooh I have that on the shelves.
I‘m really looking forward to reading In The End It Was All About Love!
My favourite book so far was Piranesi, it just felt like Susanna Clarke looked into my mind and wrote a book just for me, if that makes sense 😁
Oooh I have some more thoughts on Piranesi coming on the channel when mum and I discuss the Women’s Prize shortlist to winner prediction.
Reading Piranesi just now and I didn't expect to enjoy it going by premise of book but it's actually excellent. Really well written and a blend of different styles of fiction. I need to get her first book once finished
I also loved Piranesi. Didn’t know what to expect but was just drawn in from page one.
@@janedolman6691 Have you read any other books recently as good or better than Piranesi? I'm just wanting to add to my tbr pile!
@@irena7777777 that’s difficult as Piranesi is such a different book. I read a lot of different genres but some I’ve enjoyed recently include The Devil and the Dark Water, American Dirt, Mrs Death misses Death, Midnight Library and anything by Jess Kidd including her latest children’s book..who doesn’t love a bit of magic and fantasy
I’ve been listening to the abridged version of Still Life on bbc Radio4 ( book of the week) It’s making me want to read the whole book.
📖☘️👋☕️📚🍀📕
I’m going to listen to it at some point to bring back the joy once again.
I’m hoping your going to tell us about your T-shirt. If Still Life was made into a film/ tv series? How would you cast it?
Tshirt. It’s just an old cover of an old queer magazine. From the tshirt master Philip Normal. As for Still Life, I wouldn’t want to be the casting manager for that. Lol. Absolute cop out.
This One Sky Day is going to happen for me in 2024. Thanks
Hope you enjoy it when you get to it.
At the moment I am reading Squeeze Me by Carl Hiassen, a new crazy Florida book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog and the Institute by Stephen King, bought the new one Billy Summers but will not get to it for a long while.
I need to get to Stephen King at some point. I’ve only read one non fiction from him.
The Institute is anyway a more interesting read than Billy Summers, IMO 🙂
" Mrs death Misses death" I am sure to have a "you've been served" notice anyday now, but i cant stop talking about the book, and its all your glorious fault. #Pon de replay #Pampers #Pour again #Panarama #PirriPerri #Porkies
I’m struggling with This One Sky Day ☹️I want to love it but I just don’t get it 😂 it’s making me feel really thick. Please give it its own video, it might help me 😂
I got half way through it and then DNF’d it. Couldn’t get my head around it at all!
It’s not going to be for everyone I just completely fell in love with it. I want to reread it and vlog it so maybe that’s how I’ll do a whole video for it.
@@SavidgeReads I’m wondering if I listen to it as an audio book it might work. It’s certainly a beautiful book to look at 😍
I was really disappointed with Still Life. Wanted to like it so much after hearing good things from you and your mum and others about. I just didn't care for any of the chatacters and the setting didn't live up to its' promise.
Sorry to hear that. I don’t think I could have loved it more. Two amazing characters and just pages and pages of joy.