I loved hearing about your plans for 2025 and all of your responses to this tag, Hannah. I also want to read Lonesome Dove. Maybe, as you say, we could form a group in June? I also loved hearing your reflection on Little Woman. I, too, had an abridged version that my mother bought for me during the summer when I was eight. I remember that I had wiped out badly on my bicycle, and my best friend walked my bike and me home because I had injured myself so badly and couldn't ride home. I remember that my mother bought me the abridged version of Little Women that day, and I read it that day and night. I, too, associate it with comfort that only my mother could provide. I still have the abridged edition with my mom's inscription in it. We will indeed all lean on one another this year. I'm so glad you are in my world. oxox
@@BookChatWithPat8668 What a wonderful story about your Little Women! I wonder how many American girls had a similar connection? And yes-a group in June would be lovely!
Put it on the calendar for June! As always, I am very much looking forward to Faulkner in August-and might pair Faulkner with some other southern writers of the era that month. We’ll see…
Lonesome Dove is fantastic!!! It's been a long time since I read it, but I told Hannah that it has some of the best characters in all of American fiction in it.
Anyone that can slip in a "good" pun is a friend of mine. 😁 I am hooked on puns of all kinds! Btw, lets not forget Framed in September! I have a few books on the deck for September. The Art Thief A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel and The Whole Picture The Colonial story of the art in our museums and why we need to talk about it by Alice Proctor. Looking forward to both of these. I, too, am reading Proust with Greg's group. I do feel intimidated as I am afraid I will miss the deeper meaning of the book but I am certainly enjoying the writing as you mentioned. And lastly because it is impossible for me to write a short comment, Lonesome Dove was a good read, it truly does go by fast for such a large book. Funny in parts, heartbreaking in others but truly a captivating story nonetheless. Great reading ahead in 2025. Thanks Hannah.
Absolutely! I have too many art books to read in September already lined up in the queue! I'm so glad you[re reading Proust! I am a bit behind but hope to catch up by tomorrow!
@@tealorturquoise Oh yes--Framed absolutely is part of the plan--and Shorty September I had completely forgotten about. There are SO many great booktube events!
Can’t wait to hear your responses to Swann’s Way. Nothing like it in literature, and the closing page of Overture will take your breath away. Best wishes with Proust! 💐💪☮️🌹✌️🌻🌷🥂🍷
I am so glad to hear that you've enjoyed Proust! I'm loving his writing so far--although I am slightly behind schedule. I hope I can catch up tomorrow.
I do the same thing with my "goals" for each year--not number of books or pages, but as you call them, "buckets." And Proust has been lurking as a possibility for me--a special challenge--for several years now, so I'm thrilled to find who else is reading him! You may see more of me... though I also learned of a group reading Paradise Lost, another longtime intention of mine. Happy new year, and happy reading!
Paradise Lost sounds like a fantastic project. Incidentally, there is a new book out about it that looks great from my peeks in it so far: Orlando Reade's What in Me is Dark: Tje Revolutionary Afterlife of Paradise Lost. I hope to talk about it on the channel at some point.
Hannah, I'm not sure if I learned about Sonora Babb on your channel but, if so, thank you. I recently finished her novel "Whose Names are Unknown" and became absolutely lost in the Dust Bowl and plight of migrant families. It made me realize as far as we've come, migrant farm workers still face the same challenges as the follow the harvesting seasons around the country. Her life and contributions to John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath should make her's a voice to remember, lest we forget.
Oh I am so glad to read Babb! Her novel is still sitting on the side of my bed, but it is near the very top of my tbr. Such a heartbreaking and important context.
I would love to participate in a Lonesome Dove read along in June. Little Women is also on my TBR for 2025 -- I've never read it. I would also like to read more of the Port William books by Wendell Berry (Hannah Coulter was one of my 2024 favorites).
Excellent! How exciting that you'll participate! Little Women definitely feels like it was written in a previous era--but at least for those who grew up with it, it seems wonderful. I'd love to hear what you think of it. David never quite understood why it meant so much to me. Berry's Hannah Coulter has been on my list for a while. Perhaps this is the year to pick it up! I have a think about literary Hannahs...
I enjoyed hearing all about your reading and reviewing plans for 2025. The tag is really fun, isn’t it? Thanks for mentioning my rendition. I’m flirting with reading Lonesome Dove this summer… if a group forms I’m interested! When I was about 7 or 8 my family went to a flea market one day and my parents bought me a desk and a copy of Little Women. I still have both!
Wonderful! I would love to have you join in for Lonesome Dove! I love that you still have not only your Little Women but the desk. I think a lot of bookish girls were utterly molded by that book!
ooh ty for the tag ! i will excitedly wait to see how your projects shape out & good luck w proust ! i definitely also wouldnt commit to the full ~book but i might also pick up the first volume this yr bc im trying to read french lit as one of my goals for 2025..... but idk i also might be too intimidated to begin yet… i hope you have a lovely 2025 !
I would love for you to join us for at least the first part of Proust! Greg at Another Bibliophile Reads is hosting a Discord discussion that is laid back and encouraging--open to all.
Love your reading plans for 2025. I've noticed this year that many of the booktubers I follow don't have goals per se but have themes or parameters they're following. Much more flexible, realistic and fun I think.
Good luck with your reading plans in 2025. For the Dust Bowl, a book you could look at is 'Dust Bowl Orphans' by Suzette D Harrison about two African American children, who are separated from their family in a dust cloud whilst they are heading from Oklahoma to California. Thanks for the shout-out. Happy New Year.
Your version might have been the first one I saw, Jim--and you totally sold it on me! The Orphans book sounds really fascinating. Thanks for the recommendation!
What wonderful plans! I have the same goal to spend more time being part of the booktube community. I love the idea of experiencing your American Lit journey based on wherever your whims take you. I think that's a wonderful way to unlock interesting connections between works. Yay for Lonesome Dove. I'm hoping to read it again with the group. Happy reading in 2025, Hannah!
I loved hearing your reading plans and I think we're on the same page because I want to read much more great American literature this year--I have so many great ones on my shelf just waiting--and I also want to connect more with others in our booktube community. I look forward to all of your upcoming posts.
My only reading goal this year is not to set a goal. In the past, I did exactly what you said - chose lots of short reads and inhaled them, retaining very little. (Although I did discover a love for the form; I never thought novellas or short story collections were my thing, but discovered otherwise. As long as I slowed down and savored them.) This year I am going to mood and/or comfort read my time away. Who knows? This could be the year I finally get to Lonesome Dove, too! 🤠
I too love novellas as a form, especially when savored. At least the best novellas often fill my plate at least as much as many novels. I'd love to have you join in for what looks like it might be a group read of Lonesome Dove, if you decide to pick it up this year!
You mentioned a writer I really like named Molly Keane! She's great. Her novel "Good Behaviour" is how I found her. NYRB reissued it. But I have read other books of hers through the heroic Virago Classics. The late Clive James was a great critic and a fairly good poet, and I think he would have evaluated his own strengths as such. I remember discovering James through a big essay collection of hist tiled "Cultural Amnesia," and I continued to come across his books after that, but I really liked many of his pieces in "Cultural Amnesia" on various Jazz artists and his piece on Erik Satie. I think there was a piece on Thomas Mann in there as well, but it's been so long since I read it "Cultural Amnesia". But I recently found a volume of poetry by Clive James, and there's plenty of redeeming qualities in it, but I prefer his prose, I think. The poems aren't bad at all; I just think James was more at home in prose. The thing I have loved about Clifton Fadiman since I was a teenager is how down-to-earth his criticism is. When you talked about reading slowly with Proust because you like to hear the language in your inner ear, all I could think is, "Of course!" Because that is exactly what sets the literary reading experience apart from other kinds of reading such as reading for entertainment or for practical reasons. I've just begin reading "Lies and Sorcery" by Elsa Morante, and I am the sort of reader who tends to read very quickly, but I couldn't help indulging myself in the narrator's voice! It begs to be understood at a slower pace. Morante besides: the quality of the writing is an enormous part of an experience and a great deal of the burden of the quality of the writing is on the sound, rhythm, diction, flow, and overall coherence of voice. That very last element, I think, is what classifies an otherwise haphazard category labeled "Good writing" because it is a category which brings together brilliant fiction writers, poets, dramatists, critics, theorists, reviewers, textbook writers, etc. into an identifiably coherent group, on the basis of sheer confidence, practice, and conclusive unity of individual works. As for non-book-related goals: I'm a competitive runner and have been my whole life, so that's always a big part of my schedule. I've also become involved in volunteer work in my new city and I really like it; I call out of my paid work for for the volunteer work. I'm also big on hiking, and I just moved to a new state that a good friend of mine moved to a few months ahead of me, and a third member of our trio. by closest friend, is joining us later this month, and the three of us are going to hike snowy mountains some time soon. Other non-bookish things come to mind: I would like a full set of 88 weighted keys to fully appreciate my favorite composers (Prokofiev, Scriabin, Satie, Ravel, Chopin, etc.) , but I don't know that's a priority. Same thing goes for finally replacing my childhood microscope and telescope, which are both long gone. I've also enrolled in the local university and I got in, and I would really like to reduce my job to part-time while I pursue my literary ambitions, but that's a bookish goal, isn't it? Once I do that, I have been working on multiple potential master's theses for literary studies, and I would really like, at some point, to seriously pursue mathematics because it is my 2nd brain-love after literature. In my closing statements, I would also like to capture a close-up photograph of a snowflake, because I finally like somewhere where such magic occurs.
I too love the down-to-earth and often humorous style of Fadiman's criticism. I first discovered him after falling in love with his daughter's writing--something that probably had not happened to them back then, but might be common now! Good Behaviour is on my shelf, along with a little free library copy of the recent biography of Keane. I have read in and out of Clive James's Cultural Cohesion--and I recently sprung for Cultural Amnesia mostly because I loved its cover. I'm not sure why i appealed to me so much. And, as I think you know, anything about Satie will pull me in! Your plans for the coming year sound amazing. I'm excited to see how university goes for you--both literary and mathematic. All my good wishes! (Incidentally, have you see the children's book Snowflake Bentley? If not, it might be right up your alley.
Happy New Year and Happy Reading Hannah!❤ You have some fantastic reading goals for this year. I’m sure you’ll approach your reading goals with a combination of consistency and pleasure. I recommend This is Confusion by Jessie Redmon Fauset, The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman, and Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay.
Lovely to see you here! I love McKay and Thurman, but I've never read Jessie Redmon Fauset. Thank you so much for the recommendation! I'm off to find a copy of her work!
I learned about The Time of Man (1926) by the Kentuckian author Elizabeth Madox Roberts from my Faulkner seminar professor. The novel follows Ellen - the daughter of migrant farmers - as she comes of age and becomes conscious of her connection to the natural world. The rhythmic prose is the most striking feature of the novel.
Hannah! Wow, so glad you did this! Group reading Lonesome Dove right now. What a great video, looping tour plans and the tag together. Very smart! Thanks again for doing the tag. I could listen to you tall books all day.
Hannah so glad you are hoping on reading Dreiser. My favorite of his is Jennie Gerhardt. Let me know if you read it and enjoy it. So enjoy your channel!
This was great, Hannah! The word I picked for 2025 is ‘interpersonal’ because I too want to strengthen family and community ties this year. I am afraid of Proust! Nor because if the length, though that’s daunting! But for some reason I think I’ll find him depressing. Anyway, thanks for the tag!
I share your angst about big books. I would like to read Lonesome Dove, June sounds good. I am currently reading The Heaven And Earth Grocery Store by James McBride on my Libby app and I like it a lot , a chunkster at 749 pages. Your plans sound wonderful. Happy New Year!
Ooh, I can't wait to hear what you think about Miss MacIntosh. I picked up a copy that looks brand new at a little free library the other day--and had been thinking about putting it back, given that it is long and I know I won't be getting to it for a while. But maybe I'll wait just a little longer...
Happy New Year! 😀 re the dust bowl, The Grapes of Wrath followed by Out of the Dust was a wonderful reading experience for me in my early years of teaching.
Hi Hannah, A 20th C American author you may want check out is Dawn Powell. She wrote most of her work in the 20’s and 30’s. I haven’t read her work yet but I did track down an American Library bind up of her later novels because I saw an interview where Fran Lebowitz described her as “America’s greatest writer that you’ve never heard of”. I’ll be looking forward to actually reading her work. Another Pulitzer winner whose work I look forward to reading will be Edna Ferber. “Now in November” by Josephine Johnson is my book club’s choice for February or March. (Last year I read “The Sea of Grass” by Conrad Richter for Home on the range. It’s a lot shorter than Lonesome Dove.)
How funny! I just acquired some Dawn Powell after a commenter left a note in a different video! I have Ferber's So Big on my shelf--and Now in November is on my bedside table waiting to be picked up! Thank you for your encouragement to actually get to them all!
We had very little snow but a lot of rain. This has caused widespread flooding, thankfully I'm not living close to the river but the evacuations in the county are not great.
Every video you make is such a lovely experience to view. I hadn't thought about it until watching this, but maybe I'll reread Lonesome Dove this year. I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
We are currently reading Imgard Keun for the Author Spotlight. It has been a delightful surprise for an author I did not know anything about. I am also focusing on American literature this year. I would be game for a buddy read if you would be interested.
I'm so glad to hear that you're reading American too, and interested in a buddy read. If you have a book or two in mind--or if you have a long list you want to throw at me--I'd love to find something that works for both of us. Yay!
@@HannahsBooks Last year I read East of Eden by Steinbeck. It was a buddy read with Kim from Middle of the Book March and a great experience. I had only read Of Mice and Men a long time ago. I plan to read all of Steinbeck now. I am also planning on Edith Wharton who is a favorite, Carson McCullers, Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove, Dorothy West, and whatever I come across. I am open to anything.
Poetry by Arendt sounds wonderful. I’ll keep an eye out for that. Looking forward to when all these loosie-goosie ideas begin to bubble out into videos. Let ’em rip, Hannah. 🙂
You might be one of the people Arendt's book is most meant for! I am still going through it carefully and doing some background reading as well, but I think I'm going to write a review. If so, I'll try to link to it a some point.
Proust is a subvocalization author for sure. You have to slow down for him. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Leguin. She's also a new author to me
Interesting question. So much of the literature of the period are political pamphlets or almanacs and the like. Maybe the dramatic satires of Mercy Otis Warren? And definitely the poetry of Phillis Wheatley. Maybe this is too broad a claim, but I would argue that American literature really starts getting underway after the passage of the Constitution--when writers became interested in building a truly national identity.
For your American reads I would suggest a Theodore Dreiser. He doesn’t seem to get much attention. He had a big influence on writers who came after him. Also Hawthorne. The House of Seven Gables. Sinclair Lewis. True Grit is a western with a female protagonist who isn’t exactly a pussyfoot.
@@CionMohler I know and love most of your suggestions, but I’ve never read Dreiser. Sounds like I need to read something of his! Which one would you recommend?
I loved hearing about your plans for 2025 and all of your responses to this tag, Hannah. I also want to read Lonesome Dove. Maybe, as you say, we could form a group in June? I also loved hearing your reflection on Little Woman. I, too, had an abridged version that my mother bought for me during the summer when I was eight. I remember that I had wiped out badly on my bicycle, and my best friend walked my bike and me home because I had injured myself so badly and couldn't ride home. I remember that my mother bought me the abridged version of Little Women that day, and I read it that day and night. I, too, associate it with comfort that only my mother could provide. I still have the abridged edition with my mom's inscription in it. We will indeed all lean on one another this year. I'm so glad you are in my world. oxox
@@BookChatWithPat8668 What a wonderful story about your Little Women! I wonder how many American girls had a similar connection? And yes-a group in June would be lovely!
@@BookChatWithPat8668 I'm in for _Dove_ Group Read in June 🤠
Yeehaw! 😂😂😂 dusting off my chaps. 😊 Go well Hannah.
Ha! What a pleasure it will be to have you along for the ride!
Loved hearing your plans. Can’t wait for the coming year! ❤
Thanks for the #FaulknerInAugust Shout Out (so glad youre a part of it)! I love _Lonesome Dove_ and would enjoy rereading it. 😊
Put it on the calendar for June! As always, I am very much looking forward to Faulkner in August-and might pair Faulkner with some other southern writers of the era that month. We’ll see…
@HannahsBooks Done deal!
Good luck with Lonesome Dove Hannah. I’ve got it planned for my vacation read sometime this summer.
Lonesome Dove is fantastic!!! It's been a long time since I read it, but I told Hannah that it has some of the best characters in all of American fiction in it.
@@TheBookedEscapePlan Awesome, thank you!
Want to join in during June on the Range? It looks like a lot of us may give it a try then!
Thanks. Always enjoy the conversation. All the best
In 2025.
Thank you so much, Art. Happy 2025 to you, too!
Anyone that can slip in a "good" pun is a friend of mine. 😁 I am hooked on puns of all kinds! Btw, lets not forget Framed in September! I have a few books on the deck for September. The Art Thief A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel and The Whole Picture The Colonial story of the art in our museums and why we need to talk about it by Alice Proctor. Looking forward to both of these. I, too, am reading Proust with Greg's group. I do feel intimidated as I am afraid I will miss the deeper meaning of the book but I am certainly enjoying the writing as you mentioned. And lastly because it is impossible for me to write a short comment, Lonesome Dove was a good read, it truly does go by fast for such a large book. Funny in parts, heartbreaking in others but truly a captivating story nonetheless. Great reading ahead in 2025. Thanks Hannah.
Yes! Framed in September! I have two books lined up for it and one doubles as a Shorty September book as well.
Absolutely! I have too many art books to read in September already lined up in the queue! I'm so glad you[re reading Proust! I am a bit behind but hope to catch up by tomorrow!
@@tealorturquoise Oh yes--Framed absolutely is part of the plan--and Shorty September I had completely forgotten about. There are SO many great booktube events!
Can’t wait to hear your responses to Swann’s Way. Nothing like it in literature, and the closing page of Overture will take your breath away. Best wishes with Proust! 💐💪☮️🌹✌️🌻🌷🥂🍷
I am so glad to hear that you've enjoyed Proust! I'm loving his writing so far--although I am slightly behind schedule. I hope I can catch up tomorrow.
I do the same thing with my "goals" for each year--not number of books or pages, but as you call them, "buckets." And Proust has been lurking as a possibility for me--a special challenge--for several years now, so I'm thrilled to find who else is reading him! You may see more of me... though I also learned of a group reading Paradise Lost, another longtime intention of mine. Happy new year, and happy reading!
Paradise Lost sounds like a fantastic project. Incidentally, there is a new book out about it that looks great from my peeks in it so far: Orlando Reade's What in Me is Dark: Tje Revolutionary Afterlife of Paradise Lost. I hope to talk about it on the channel at some point.
@@HannahsBooks Thanks for the tip! I'll check that out, and if you think to tag me when you talk about it, I'd love to see your video.
@BetterBookClubs I will try to do that!
Hannah, I'm not sure if I learned about Sonora Babb on your channel but, if so, thank you. I recently finished her novel "Whose Names are Unknown" and became absolutely lost in the Dust Bowl and plight of migrant families. It made me realize as far as we've come, migrant farm workers still face the same challenges as the follow the harvesting seasons around the country.
Her life and contributions to John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath should make her's a voice to remember, lest we forget.
Oh I am so glad to read Babb! Her novel is still sitting on the side of my bed, but it is near the very top of my tbr. Such a heartbreaking and important context.
I would love to participate in a Lonesome Dove read along in June. Little Women is also on my TBR for 2025 -- I've never read it. I would also like to read more of the Port William books by Wendell Berry (Hannah Coulter was one of my 2024 favorites).
Excellent! How exciting that you'll participate! Little Women definitely feels like it was written in a previous era--but at least for those who grew up with it, it seems wonderful. I'd love to hear what you think of it. David never quite understood why it meant so much to me. Berry's Hannah Coulter has been on my list for a while. Perhaps this is the year to pick it up! I have a think about literary Hannahs...
I enjoyed hearing all about your reading and reviewing plans for 2025. The tag is really fun, isn’t it? Thanks for mentioning my rendition. I’m flirting with reading Lonesome Dove this summer… if a group forms I’m interested!
When I was about 7 or 8 my family went to a flea market one day and my parents bought me a desk and a copy of Little Women. I still have both!
Wonderful! I would love to have you join in for Lonesome Dove! I love that you still have not only your Little Women but the desk. I think a lot of bookish girls were utterly molded by that book!
ooh ty for the tag ! i will excitedly wait to see how your projects shape out & good luck w proust ! i definitely also wouldnt commit to the full ~book but i might also pick up the first volume this yr bc im trying to read french lit as one of my goals for 2025..... but idk i also might be too intimidated to begin yet… i hope you have a lovely 2025 !
I would love for you to join us for at least the first part of Proust! Greg at Another Bibliophile Reads is hosting a Discord discussion that is laid back and encouraging--open to all.
Love your reading plans for 2025. I've noticed this year that many of the booktubers I follow don't have goals per se but have themes or parameters they're following. Much more flexible, realistic and fun I think.
Thanks, Kari! Before booktube, I never thought about making yearly tbrs--or montly tbrs. I'm definitely a loosey-goosey reader!
Good luck with your reading plans in 2025. For the Dust Bowl, a book you could look at is 'Dust Bowl Orphans' by Suzette D Harrison about two African American children, who are separated from their family in a dust cloud whilst they are heading from Oklahoma to California. Thanks for the shout-out. Happy New Year.
Your version might have been the first one I saw, Jim--and you totally sold it on me! The Orphans book sounds really fascinating. Thanks for the recommendation!
What wonderful plans! I have the same goal to spend more time being part of the booktube community. I love the idea of experiencing your American Lit journey based on wherever your whims take you. I think that's a wonderful way to unlock interesting connections between works. Yay for Lonesome Dove. I'm hoping to read it again with the group. Happy reading in 2025, Hannah!
Oh wonderful! It will be great to have you part of the reading group!
Your year goal for community is super sweet especially with past year or two- I agree! Happy New Year- (thanks for the tag)
♥️ This is definitely a special group of people! Happy 2025.
I look forward to your discussion of "Left Hand of Darkness."
Thanks! I'll try to film something soon!
I loved hearing your reading plans and I think we're on the same page because I want to read much more great American literature this year--I have so many great ones on my shelf just waiting--and I also want to connect more with others in our booktube community. I look forward to all of your upcoming posts.
I hope we can compare notes on some of our reading!
My only reading goal this year is not to set a goal. In the past, I did exactly what you said - chose lots of short reads and inhaled them, retaining very little. (Although I did discover a love for the form; I never thought novellas or short story collections were my thing, but discovered otherwise. As long as I slowed down and savored them.) This year I am going to mood and/or comfort read my time away. Who knows? This could be the year I finally get to Lonesome Dove, too! 🤠
I too love novellas as a form, especially when savored. At least the best novellas often fill my plate at least as much as many novels. I'd love to have you join in for what looks like it might be a group read of Lonesome Dove, if you decide to pick it up this year!
Gosh, I keep forgetting that I want you to know that I love you without the scarf.... You look so lovely! Happy New Year my friend
Thank you so much, Lee. I'm adjusting to it myself--and love to feel the breeze through my hair. Best wishes for 2025.
A great little tag.
I really enjoyed it--and James's Eeyore-style edit of it!
I simply love your basket plans for 2025 and yes, give yourself the gift of ease. ☺️ Looking forward to see your journey play out.
Thank you so much, MJ. "Ease" is just the perfect word for it.
You mentioned a writer I really like named Molly Keane! She's great. Her novel "Good Behaviour" is how I found her. NYRB reissued it. But I have read other books of hers through the heroic Virago Classics.
The late Clive James was a great critic and a fairly good poet, and I think he would have evaluated his own strengths as such. I remember discovering James through a big essay collection of hist tiled "Cultural Amnesia," and I continued to come across his books after that, but I really liked many of his pieces in "Cultural Amnesia" on various Jazz artists and his piece on Erik Satie. I think there was a piece on Thomas Mann in there as well, but it's been so long since I read it "Cultural Amnesia". But I recently found a volume of poetry by Clive James, and there's plenty of redeeming qualities in it, but I prefer his prose, I think. The poems aren't bad at all; I just think James was more at home in prose.
The thing I have loved about Clifton Fadiman since I was a teenager is how down-to-earth his criticism is.
When you talked about reading slowly with Proust because you like to hear the language in your inner ear, all I could think is, "Of course!" Because that is exactly what sets the literary reading experience apart from other kinds of reading such as reading for entertainment or for practical reasons. I've just begin reading "Lies and Sorcery" by Elsa Morante, and I am the sort of reader who tends to read very quickly, but I couldn't help indulging myself in the narrator's voice! It begs to be understood at a slower pace. Morante besides: the quality of the writing is an enormous part of an experience and a great deal of the burden of the quality of the writing is on the sound, rhythm, diction, flow, and overall coherence of voice. That very last element, I think, is what classifies an otherwise haphazard category labeled "Good writing" because it is a category which brings together brilliant fiction writers, poets, dramatists, critics, theorists, reviewers, textbook writers, etc. into an identifiably coherent group, on the basis of sheer confidence, practice, and conclusive unity of individual works.
As for non-book-related goals: I'm a competitive runner and have been my whole life, so that's always a big part of my schedule. I've also become involved in volunteer work in my new city and I really like it; I call out of my paid work for for the volunteer work. I'm also big on hiking, and I just moved to a new state that a good friend of mine moved to a few months ahead of me, and a third member of our trio. by closest friend, is joining us later this month, and the three of us are going to hike snowy mountains some time soon. Other non-bookish things come to mind: I would like a full set of 88 weighted keys to fully appreciate my favorite composers (Prokofiev, Scriabin, Satie, Ravel, Chopin, etc.) , but I don't know that's a priority. Same thing goes for finally replacing my childhood microscope and telescope, which are both long gone. I've also enrolled in the local university and I got in, and I would really like to reduce my job to part-time while I pursue my literary ambitions, but that's a bookish goal, isn't it? Once I do that, I have been working on multiple potential master's theses for literary studies, and I would really like, at some point, to seriously pursue mathematics because it is my 2nd brain-love after literature. In my closing statements, I would also like to capture a close-up photograph of a snowflake, because I finally like somewhere where such magic occurs.
I too love the down-to-earth and often humorous style of Fadiman's criticism. I first discovered him after falling in love with his daughter's writing--something that probably had not happened to them back then, but might be common now! Good Behaviour is on my shelf, along with a little free library copy of the recent biography of Keane. I have read in and out of Clive James's Cultural Cohesion--and I recently sprung for Cultural Amnesia mostly because I loved its cover. I'm not sure why i appealed to me so much. And, as I think you know, anything about Satie will pull me in!
Your plans for the coming year sound amazing. I'm excited to see how university goes for you--both literary and mathematic. All my good wishes! (Incidentally, have you see the children's book Snowflake Bentley? If not, it might be right up your alley.
Really enjoyed this video! 💛🎉
Thanks, Kelly! 💜
Happy New Year and Happy Reading Hannah!❤ You have some fantastic reading goals for this year. I’m sure you’ll approach your reading goals with a combination of consistency and pleasure. I recommend This is Confusion by Jessie Redmon Fauset, The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman, and Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay.
Lovely to see you here! I love McKay and Thurman, but I've never read Jessie Redmon Fauset. Thank you so much for the recommendation! I'm off to find a copy of her work!
I learned about The Time of Man (1926) by the Kentuckian author Elizabeth Madox Roberts from my Faulkner seminar professor. The novel follows Ellen - the daughter of migrant farmers - as she comes of age and becomes conscious of her connection to the natural world. The rhythmic prose is the most striking feature of the novel.
Thank you so much!! I am going to try to track down a copy. It sounds like something I would love to read!
@ the university press of Kentucky has an edition but I’m sure you can track it down elsewhere if you’d prefer a used copy. Happy reading!
I am a big fan of Lonesome Dove but it did take me two tries to get into it. Good luck with your reading plans.
Great plans and great job with the tag! I won’t be reading Proust , probably the only one on Booktube whose not😂
Ha! There ARE a lot of Proust readers, aren't there??
Hannah! Wow, so glad you did this! Group reading Lonesome Dove right now. What a great video, looping tour plans and the tag together. Very smart! Thanks again for doing the tag. I could listen to you tall books all day.
You’re so kind-and what a wonderful tag! I saw that you’re reading Lonesome Dove and can’t wait to hear more from you all!
Hannah so glad you are hoping on reading Dreiser. My favorite of his is Jennie Gerhardt. Let me know if you read it and enjoy it. So enjoy your channel!
This was great, Hannah! The word I picked for 2025 is ‘interpersonal’ because I too want to strengthen family and community ties this year. I am afraid of Proust! Nor because if the length, though that’s daunting! But for some reason I think I’ll find him depressing. Anyway, thanks for the tag!
@@faithbooks7906 Interpersonal is lovely for a word of the year!
I share your angst about big books. I would like to read Lonesome Dove, June sounds good.
I am currently reading The Heaven And Earth Grocery Store by James McBride on my Libby app and I like it a lot , a chunkster at 749 pages. Your plans sound wonderful. Happy New Year!
I haven’t yet read McBride’s book, but I’m excited to pick it up at some point-possibly on audio. I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying it so far!
I’m reading In Search of Lost Time and the very long Indiana novel Miss MacIntosh, My Darling this year. I’m lost in memories not my own.
Ooh, I can't wait to hear what you think about Miss MacIntosh. I picked up a copy that looks brand new at a little free library the other day--and had been thinking about putting it back, given that it is long and I know I won't be getting to it for a while. But maybe I'll wait just a little longer...
Happy New Year! 😀 re the dust bowl, The Grapes of Wrath followed by Out of the Dust was a wonderful reading experience for me in my early years of teaching.
Ooh, yes! I love Grapes of Wrath and plan to reread it. Out of the Dust is on my shelf-still unread, but on my list!
Hi Hannah, A 20th C American author you may want check out is Dawn Powell. She wrote most of her work in the 20’s and 30’s. I haven’t read her work yet but I did track down an American Library bind up of her later novels because I saw an interview where Fran Lebowitz described her as “America’s greatest writer that you’ve never heard of”. I’ll be looking forward to actually reading her work. Another Pulitzer winner whose work I look forward to reading will be Edna Ferber. “Now in November” by Josephine Johnson is my book club’s choice for February or March.
(Last year I read “The Sea of Grass” by Conrad Richter for Home on the range. It’s a lot shorter than Lonesome Dove.)
How funny! I just acquired some Dawn Powell after a commenter left a note in a different video! I have Ferber's So Big on my shelf--and Now in November is on my bedside table waiting to be picked up! Thank you for your encouragement to actually get to them all!
We had very little snow but a lot of rain. This has caused widespread flooding, thankfully I'm not living close to the river but the evacuations in the county are not great.
Oh no…. That sounds so worrisome!
I love your 2025 plans and the answers to the tag
Thanks so much, Stuart. As you might see in the coming year, sticking to plans is not always my strongest suit...
Every video you make is such a lovely experience to view. I hadn't thought about it until watching this, but maybe I'll reread Lonesome Dove this year. I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
Thank you so much, Randy, for your very kind words. I'd LOVE to have you join in for a Lonesome Dove group read!
We are currently reading Imgard Keun for the Author Spotlight. It has been a delightful surprise for an author I did not know anything about. I am also focusing on American literature this year. I would be game for a buddy read if you would be interested.
I'm so glad to hear that you're reading American too, and interested in a buddy read. If you have a book or two in mind--or if you have a long list you want to throw at me--I'd love to find something that works for both of us. Yay!
@@HannahsBooks Last year I read East of Eden by Steinbeck. It was a buddy read with Kim from Middle of the Book March and a great experience. I had only read Of Mice and Men a long time ago. I plan to read all of Steinbeck now. I am also planning on Edith Wharton who is a favorite, Carson McCullers, Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove, Dorothy West, and whatever I come across. I am open to anything.
Ooh! How about Dorothy West’s The Wedding?
Welcome to booktube 📚☕
I've been here a while--but have been posting far less regularly for the last two years than I would like. So glad to see you here!
Poetry by Arendt sounds wonderful. I’ll keep an eye out for that.
Looking forward to when all these loosie-goosie ideas begin to bubble out into videos. Let ’em rip, Hannah. 🙂
You might be one of the people Arendt's book is most meant for! I am still going through it carefully and doing some background reading as well, but I think I'm going to write a review. If so, I'll try to link to it a some point.
Proust is a subvocalization author for sure. You have to slow down for him. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Leguin. She's also a new author to me
@@JamesRuchala Did you read Left Hand or something else?
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I'm curious if you know about any literature from the revolutionary period besides Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Payne.
Interesting question. So much of the literature of the period are political pamphlets or almanacs and the like. Maybe the dramatic satires of Mercy Otis Warren? And definitely the poetry of Phillis Wheatley. Maybe this is too broad a claim, but I would argue that American literature really starts getting underway after the passage of the Constitution--when writers became interested in building a truly national identity.
For your American reads I would suggest a Theodore Dreiser. He doesn’t seem to get much attention. He had a big influence on writers who came after him. Also Hawthorne. The House of Seven Gables. Sinclair Lewis. True Grit is a western with a female protagonist who isn’t exactly a pussyfoot.
@@CionMohler I know and love most of your suggestions, but I’ve never read Dreiser. Sounds like I need to read something of his! Which one would you recommend?
@@HannahsBooksSister Carrie is my favorite
@ an American Tragedy and Sister Carrie are his best known books. American Tragedy is a bit better.
@ Excellent!
@ Thanks, Cion.