Piranesi is such a beautiful book, and I agree that the setting is unique and beautifully described! I've not read anything from Hillary Mantel, but I hope to read the Thomas Cromwell series someday. I've not heard of M: Son of the Century, and that sounds amazing!
I can’t believe I’m JUST finding this channel! I love the broadness of this list and the books you choose to talk about on your channel. You have definitely inspired me to reach into other genres this upcoming year - and to subscribe!
Shelly, what a diverse grouping of books for a rich literary year! Young Mungo was for me my number one book, and like you and your number one I have this indelible cinematic image in my mind of the end of the book that haunts me, including a pull back crane shot of all of them that brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Here’s looking forward to a new exciting and bookish year ahead!
Hello Shelly! Lillian included you on her Booktube shoutout video and I'm so happy to have found you. You have such a lovely warm presence. I can't wait to watch more of your videos! I couldn't pick an all around favorite so I made a video of my six favorites! Loved Piranesi and My Brilliant Friend is a top favorite of all time!
Thank you for sharing, Shelly. 🧡 My faves this year were: Fiction: “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus, (Published 2022) “The Measure” by Nikki Erlick (2022), “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir (2021), “A World of Curiosities” by Louise Penny (2022), “The Bullet That Missed” by Richard Osman (2022), (Book #3 in the series.) Non-Fiction: “An Immense World” by Ed Yong (2022), “The Song of the Cell” by Siddhartha Mukherjee (2022), “The Revolutionary-Samuel Adams” by Stacy Schiff (2022), “River of the Gods” by Candice Millard (2022), “Path Lit by Lightning” by David Maraniss (2022). P.S. I appreciated Percival Everett’s book, “Trees”, as well. (He is excellent.) ☮️🧡📚
That’s a great selection! My top three were The Trees, Elena Knows and the Gallows Pole by Ben Myers. I loved the Luminaries and the Wolf Hall trilogy when I read them a few years ago. And thanks for selling M so convincingly - I will get a copy ordered!
Great list! Glad to hear your thoughts on The Luminaries, I’ve had that one on my shelf for a bit but it’s so long so I keep procrastinating on it. Really want to get to The Trees and Young Mungo.
I absolutely love your enthusiasm. The way you are able to articulate not only the premise of each book, but also why you found it to be worthy of your top reads only adds to the enthusiasm I have for some of your highlights. I look forward to each of your videos!
Reading Piranesi in a quiet room was meditation. The words, language and writing somehow changed my sense of being. It was almost like a trance. Very few novels have captured my attention and affected my mood like that one. Trees was fascinating also, in a frightening way. Excellent video as usual. Happy New Year.
What a fantastic list! The Wolf Hall trilogy is so underrated. I loved the Luminaries as well, although I feel as though I would’ve appreciated it a lot more had I known about astrology. I didn’t know until after finishing the book that the 12 men that meet in the hotel are all meant to be archetypal representations of the 12 zodiac signs, and that the 7 non-POV characters (Anna, Sheppherd, Crosby, Lydia etc) were meant to represent the planets and the sun and moon, and how each interaction between all the characters was meant to mimic how astrological signs are predicted to behave when under the influence of celestial bodies. All of that went over my head completely when I read it.
I need to read The Treessss!!! I am so happy that Percival Everett is getting so much attention finally, he is a wonderful author and has been publishing for literal DECADES (first published book was 1983), and I had never read people talking about him on book tube before this book. Oh I am so happy you are reading The Neapolitan Quartet! Ferrante is one of my all time fav authors, not sure if you have read anything else, but The Days of Abandonment is KILLER. So so good. But obviously finish that series first, lol. Ok, your top book is 100% going on my list, thank you, that sounds incredible. I still haven't done my tops list yet, I am so behind on Booktube/Book life/Home life/everything?? Two that I can think of off the top of my head are Virgin with a Memory and A Little Devil in America.
I completely agree! Percival Everett deserves all the attention he's received from the Booker. EEEEH! I adore Ferrante and am glad that I have excellent books to look forward to! I've heard amazing things about A Little Devil in America. :)
You did a fine job selling Son of the Century, Shelly. Between your impassioned pitch and the fact that I’ve given 5 stars to every other book on your list except one other that I’ve not yet read (Young Mungo)-I’ve add Scurati’s novel to my TBR.
The Trees and The Luminaries are both on my long term TBR and I am excited to get to them eventually 😅 My favorite contemporary fiction book of this year was Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez and I would definitely recommend it
Oh I don’t really know anything about Mussolini life or even much about that history so I will put that on my wishlist. Great list and so well rounded!
Top 4 - Contemporary fiction Here Goes Nothing by Steve Toltz Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Lucy by The Sea by Elizabeth Strout (I also read and reread all the Amgash Series before reading this one- it's amazing!) Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes .....tempted to keep on going but that's enough for now. It really was the year of the audiobook for me, the last 3 I listened to from my local library app. Here Goes Nothing was a library book too.
Happy New Year! I read the Trees in April for a book discussion, and we loved it. Have you noticed that chapters 74 and 104 were missing in the book by chance? People in the discussion noticed it. I'm looking forward to reading My Brilliant Friend and would like to know if it can be my nightstand read.
Hi! Happy New Year! Definitely my favourite is Robin Hobb's saga. I also enjoyed Willa Cather and Anthony Trollope and of course my favourites of all time Terry Pratchett and Thomas Hardy
Love your sweater. Piranesi is in my top three for setting for the year. Young Mungo 💙 I really want to read The Trees. Lenu and Lila 💙💙 Great top ten. 😊
Super list, Shelly! I didn’t get to Piranesi after all in 2022, but I must try it in 2023. I know it has had very mixed reactions, but I would like to see what I think. I will remember what you said: setting, not characters, so that will help me adjust my expectations. Happy new year! 🥳🥳🥳
The contemporary standouts of my reading year are: Betty- Tiffany McDaniel, Tender Is the Flesh- Augustina Bazterrica, The Trees- Percival Everett, The Death of Vivek Oji- Akwaeke Emezi, Comfort Me With Apples- Catherynne M. Valente, The Secret History- Donna Tartt, Brokeback Mountain- Annie Proulx, and A Tale for the Time Being- Ruth Ozeki. Honourable mentions to Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and Love & Virtue by Diana Reid
Piranesi also makes my top 10, but maybe not my top 3 (since you're asking us to winnow it down that far! 😱) I have had The Luminaries on my shelf for... years. Must get to it next year. Have also been meaning to get to Elena Ferrante! Top 3 fiction (so hard!) ... I think I pick A Suitable Boy (a behemoth of a book, but enjoyed it immensely), To the Lighthouse, and Elena Knows.
The River of Doubt by Candace Millard was my favorite non fiction book of the year. I don’t have a fiction book this year. I enjoyed Piranesi also. I loved this video. I may pick up the Mussolini book!
I so wanted The Trees to win too. Since reading I have purchased 3 more Everett books. Really looking forward to those. And YES I got my husband and friends to read it and they liked it too. Loved the chili order dialog. Haha. Like Ferrante too. And the tv series is great! Will look for ion of the century thx!
I LOVED my top 3! Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter is #1. #2 is Catedrales by Claudia Piñero ((this one hasn't yet been translated to English, but she's got others that have been, like Elena Knows)) and #3 was Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
M Son of the Century sounds fascinating. Unfortunately for Italy, the fascist party won the national election this year ; exactly 100 years after Mussolini came to power 1922. The lesson is, if people are ignorant of history, they don’t learn from history, and then it repeats itself.
Italy takes in the most immigrants. Other European countries need to take in immigrates not just Italy. That’s the hypocrisy of it all. Georgia Meloni and most Italians don’t like that. Other countries in Europe needs to take in the “ immigrates” who are mainly men and not families.
You convinced me, I just ordered your favorite book of the year. I am going on a #nobuy2023, so it may be the last book I buy (I own lots to choose from). Thank you for the convincing argument!
Well, it appears that I'm the only one who was disappointed with 'The Trees.' True, it was fast-moving and hilarious, but the end was a total, confusing mishmash that made no sense (to me). Top three books for 2022: 'The Priory,' Dorothy Whipple; 'Foster,' Claire Keegan; and, 'Molly of the Mall,' Heidi L.M.Jacobs. Thanks, Shelly, for a year of terrific book recommendations and delightful videos!
I didn’t read any contemporary books (1990 and later) in 2022, except for a couple graphic novels that were comic book collections - _Marvels_ (1994) and _Avengers Forever_ (2018). Both were excellent (for readers who are familiar with Marvel lore). I read and loved _Piranesi_ in 2021.
My two top books were The Colony by Audrey McGee and The Love Songs of W. E. B. Dubois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. I agree with you that M is a great book.
You already know I loved Mantel’s trilogy. There is nothing else quite like it and her writing was so evocative. I want to try Luminaries. I don’t know if it will be for me, but I’d like to try it. 😊 All your tops videos had something I want to pick up. I have a recommendation for a graphic novel. I don’t think the art is anything incredible but it fits the story well and the story is so gripping. The Shadows by Zabus & Hippolyte 🥹
The fact that a book inspired you to reach out to an old friend is pretty powerful!
Indeed. ☺️☺️
Piranesi is such a beautiful book, and I agree that the setting is unique and beautifully described! I've not read anything from Hillary Mantel, but I hope to read the Thomas Cromwell series someday. I've not heard of M: Son of the Century, and that sounds amazing!
The Cromwell series is truly brilliant! :) I hope you enjoy it when you get it to it.
Thanks for all your enthusiasm for books and reading over the past year. You are a blast of fresh air. 😊
Thank you, Tess! ❤️
I can’t believe I’m JUST finding this channel! I love the broadness of this list and the books you choose to talk about on your channel. You have definitely inspired me to reach into other genres this upcoming year - and to subscribe!
Awe! I’m so glad you are here!!!
Shelly, what a diverse grouping of books for a rich literary year! Young Mungo was for me my number one book, and like you and your number one I have this indelible cinematic image in my mind of the end of the book that haunts me, including a pull back crane shot of all of them that brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Here’s looking forward to a new exciting and bookish year ahead!
Young Mungo was so stinking lovely! Thanks for being here, Michael. I always appreciate your thoughtful comments.
Hello Shelly! Lillian included you on her Booktube shoutout video and I'm so happy to have found you. You have such a lovely warm presence. I can't wait to watch more of your videos! I couldn't pick an all around favorite so I made a video of my six favorites! Loved Piranesi and My Brilliant Friend is a top favorite of all time!
I'm so glad you're here! Lillian is fantastic and I was honored to be a part of her shout-out series.
Thank you for sharing, Shelly. 🧡
My faves this year were:
Fiction:
“Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus, (Published 2022)
“The Measure” by Nikki Erlick (2022),
“Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir (2021),
“A World of Curiosities” by Louise Penny (2022),
“The Bullet That Missed” by Richard Osman (2022),
(Book #3 in the series.)
Non-Fiction:
“An Immense World” by Ed Yong (2022),
“The Song of the Cell” by Siddhartha Mukherjee (2022),
“The Revolutionary-Samuel Adams” by Stacy Schiff (2022),
“River of the Gods” by Candice Millard (2022),
“Path Lit by Lightning” by David Maraniss (2022).
P.S.
I appreciated Percival Everett’s book, “Trees”, as well.
(He is excellent.)
☮️🧡📚
Laura, thank you for sharing! :)
That’s a great selection! My top three were The Trees, Elena Knows and the Gallows Pole by Ben Myers. I loved the Luminaries and the Wolf Hall trilogy when I read them a few years ago. And thanks for selling M so convincingly - I will get a copy ordered!
Thanks for sharing!! I hope you love M! :)
Great list! Glad to hear your thoughts on The Luminaries, I’ve had that one on my shelf for a bit but it’s so long so I keep procrastinating on it. Really want to get to The Trees and Young Mungo.
The Luminaries is fantastic! ☺️☺️ Enjoy!
I absolutely love your enthusiasm. The way you are able to articulate not only the premise of each book, but also why you found it to be worthy of your top reads only adds to the enthusiasm I have for some of your highlights. I look forward to each of your videos!
Dawn, this is the kindest comment ever. Thank you!
Reading Piranesi in a quiet room was meditation. The words, language and writing somehow changed my sense of being. It was almost like a trance. Very few novels have captured my attention and affected my mood like that one. Trees was fascinating also, in a frightening way.
Excellent video as usual. Happy New Year.
Thank you, Jo! I just loved Piranesi. I must reread it in a quiet room. Sounds like a special moment, certainly.
I’m literally falling for all your recommendations 💚
What a nice thing to say!
What a fantastic list! The Wolf Hall trilogy is so underrated. I loved the Luminaries as well, although I feel as though I would’ve appreciated it a lot more had I known about astrology. I didn’t know until after finishing the book that the 12 men that meet in the hotel are all meant to be archetypal representations of the 12 zodiac signs, and that the 7 non-POV characters (Anna, Sheppherd, Crosby, Lydia etc) were meant to represent the planets and the sun and moon, and how each interaction between all the characters was meant to mimic how astrological signs are predicted to behave when under the influence of celestial bodies. All of that went over my head completely when I read it.
Thank you! The Luminaries! Truly an amazing read! :)
I need to read The Treessss!!! I am so happy that Percival Everett is getting so much attention finally, he is a wonderful author and has been publishing for literal DECADES (first published book was 1983), and I had never read people talking about him on book tube before this book. Oh I am so happy you are reading The Neapolitan Quartet! Ferrante is one of my all time fav authors, not sure if you have read anything else, but The Days of Abandonment is KILLER. So so good. But obviously finish that series first, lol. Ok, your top book is 100% going on my list, thank you, that sounds incredible. I still haven't done my tops list yet, I am so behind on Booktube/Book life/Home life/everything?? Two that I can think of off the top of my head are Virgin with a Memory and A Little Devil in America.
I completely agree! Percival Everett deserves all the attention he's received from the Booker.
EEEEH! I adore Ferrante and am glad that I have excellent books to look forward to!
I've heard amazing things about A Little Devil in America. :)
You did a fine job selling Son of the Century, Shelly. Between your impassioned pitch and the fact that I’ve given 5 stars to every other book on your list except one other that I’ve not yet read (Young Mungo)-I’ve add Scurati’s novel to my TBR.
I hope you love it, Lindy!
Ooo love this list!!! Cool to see how each sorted out on the list. What made the cut and what didn’t. Happy to see a few on hereee.
What were you happy to see? Hm? Hm? Hm?
Beautiful video!! Blessings for 2023 🎉cheers 🎉
Thaaank you!!!!
The Trees and The Luminaries are both on my long term TBR and I am excited to get to them eventually 😅 My favorite contemporary fiction book of this year was Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez and I would definitely recommend it
Thanks for the recommendation! ☺️
Oooohhhh The Luminaries has been sitting on my shelf!!! Might have to pick it up sooner rather than later
Let me know how you get along with it! :)
But, but, I was hoping to read The Luminaries this year... I will just have to hope it's another Young Mungo.
The Luminaries is great! Definitely doesn’t have that twinge of hopelessness.
Oh I don’t really know anything about Mussolini life or even much about that history so I will put that on my wishlist. Great list and so well rounded!
Thanks, Kristin! :)
Top 4 - Contemporary fiction
Here Goes Nothing by Steve Toltz
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Lucy by The Sea by Elizabeth Strout (I also read and reread all the Amgash Series before reading this one- it's amazing!)
Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes
.....tempted to keep on going but that's enough for now. It really was the year of the audiobook for me, the last 3 I listened to from my local library app. Here Goes Nothing was a library book too.
I loved the Strout series as well! She nearly made my top 10, but missed it by a hair.
Happy New Year! I read the Trees in April for a book discussion, and we loved it. Have you noticed that chapters 74 and 104 were missing in the book by chance? People in the discussion noticed it.
I'm looking forward to reading My Brilliant Friend and would like to know if it can be my nightstand read.
Happy new year! The Trees is really brilliant!!
Hi! Happy New Year! Definitely my favourite is Robin Hobb's saga. I also enjoyed Willa Cather and Anthony Trollope and of course my favourites of all time Terry Pratchett and Thomas Hardy
Happy New Year, Paolo! Thanks for sharing! :)
Love your sweater. Piranesi is in my top three for setting for the year. Young Mungo 💙 I really want to read The Trees. Lenu and Lila 💙💙 Great top ten. 😊
Thank you, Jolene!
Super list, Shelly! I didn’t get to Piranesi after all in 2022, but I must try it in 2023. I know it has had very mixed reactions, but I would like to see what I think. I will remember what you said: setting, not characters, so that will help me adjust my expectations. Happy new year! 🥳🥳🥳
Thank you, Nicky!!
Haven't heard of M but sounds super interesting!
It's so good!
The contemporary standouts of my reading year are: Betty- Tiffany McDaniel, Tender Is the Flesh- Augustina Bazterrica, The Trees- Percival Everett, The Death of Vivek Oji- Akwaeke Emezi, Comfort Me With Apples- Catherynne M. Valente, The Secret History- Donna Tartt, Brokeback Mountain- Annie Proulx, and A Tale for the Time Being- Ruth Ozeki. Honourable mentions to Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and Love & Virtue by Diana Reid
Brokeback Mountain is so lovely!!! ❤️
@@Shellyish it’s quite incredible what Proulx did with so few pages.
@@justines9233 I completely agree. Completely gut wrenching.
Piranesi is wonderful! Such a magnificent world!!
PIRANESI is excellent! :)
Piranesi also makes my top 10, but maybe not my top 3 (since you're asking us to winnow it down that far! 😱) I have had The Luminaries on my shelf for... years. Must get to it next year. Have also been meaning to get to Elena Ferrante!
Top 3 fiction (so hard!) ... I think I pick A Suitable Boy (a behemoth of a book, but enjoyed it immensely), To the Lighthouse, and Elena Knows.
I really really want to read A Suitable Boy! I may pick it up next after I finish Middlemarch. :)
@@Shellyish One behemoth at a time! 😅
@@erinh7450 Exactly!
The River of Doubt by Candace Millard was my favorite non fiction book of the year. I don’t have a fiction book this year. I enjoyed Piranesi also. I loved this video. I may pick up the Mussolini book!
I'll have to check out The River of Doubt. Thanks, Deb! :)
I so wanted The Trees to win too. Since reading I have purchased 3 more Everett books. Really looking forward to those. And YES I got my husband and friends to read it and they liked it too. Loved the chili order dialog. Haha. Like Ferrante too. And the tv series is great! Will look for ion of the century thx!
The Trees is truly incredible!!! Loved every single page! ☺️
I LOVED my top 3! Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter is #1. #2 is Catedrales by Claudia Piñero ((this one hasn't yet been translated to English, but she's got others that have been, like Elena Knows)) and #3 was Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Thank you for sharing!!!! ☺️☺️
Looks good and the books sounds better.
M Son of the Century sounds fascinating. Unfortunately for Italy, the fascist party won the national election this year ; exactly 100 years after Mussolini came to power 1922. The lesson is, if people are ignorant of history, they don’t learn from history, and then it repeats itself.
Adrienne, great point!
Italy takes in the most immigrants. Other European countries need to take in immigrates not just Italy. That’s the hypocrisy of it all. Georgia Meloni and most Italians don’t like that. Other countries in Europe needs to take in the “ immigrates” who are mainly men and not families.
You convinced me, I just ordered your favorite book of the year. I am going on a #nobuy2023, so it may be the last book I buy (I own lots to choose from). Thank you for the convincing argument!
Awe, thank you! I hope you love it!
Well, it appears that I'm the only one who was disappointed with 'The Trees.' True, it was fast-moving and hilarious, but the end was a total, confusing mishmash that made no sense (to me). Top three books for 2022: 'The Priory,' Dorothy Whipple; 'Foster,' Claire Keegan; and, 'Molly of the Mall,' Heidi L.M.Jacobs. Thanks, Shelly, for a year of terrific book recommendations and delightful videos!
You're not the only person to dislike The Trees.
Thank you for the lovely comments, Bonnie! :)
I didn’t read any contemporary books (1990 and later) in 2022, except for a couple graphic novels that were comic book collections - _Marvels_ (1994) and _Avengers Forever_ (2018). Both were excellent (for readers who are familiar with Marvel lore).
I read and loved _Piranesi_ in 2021.
I’ll keep those in mind for my Marvel loving family members. Thanks, John!
My two top books were The Colony by Audrey McGee and The Love Songs of W. E. B. Dubois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. I agree with you that M is a great book.
The Colony was lovely! Long Songs continues to tempt me. I really ought to get to it. Thanks for sharing, Jorge.
I have M on my shelf for years (in the German translation), I really have to get to it. 😳
I really loved it, clearly! ;)
I find it hard to pick the best. _Romola_ remains a high point.
I started reading Middlemarch and I’m LOVING it! I want to read everything Eliot has ever written.
It was a toss up between The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak and The Trees by Perceival Everett.
You should try Anywhere You Run by Wanda M Morris since you enjoyed The Trees.
Thank you for the recommendation. I’ll check it out!
You already know I loved Mantel’s trilogy. There is nothing else quite like it and her writing was so evocative.
I want to try Luminaries. I don’t know if it will be for me, but I’d like to try it. 😊
All your tops videos had something I want to pick up. I have a recommendation for a graphic novel. I don’t think the art is anything incredible but it fits the story well and the story is so gripping. The Shadows by Zabus & Hippolyte 🥹
The Luminaries is really great! I think you may really like it, Deea! Thank you for the recommendation!