I'm almost done the master and margarita. It's my first Bulgakov and i'm in love with it. It isn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Can't recommend enough.
I read the Master and Margarita last year, my first Bugakov as well. I also loved it. I was very confused most of the time, but thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
It is a terrific read and how he managed to avoid the gulag still amazes me. 'A Country Doctor's Notebook' is also well worth seeking out. Enjoy your reading.
omg props to you for almost finishing jane austen's books! i only read pride and prejudice and persuasion, and i'm reading emma right now, thanks to you!
I saw on goodreads that you were reading The Blue Castle so I decided to pick it up from my shelves and omg I'm so glad I did. Truly some of the most beautiful descriptions of nature that I've ever read. Finished it in a day.
This is a fantastic list! I love A Gentleman in Moscow and the Neapolitan Quartet is INCREDIBLE! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts! My must-read books this year are War & Peace and A Tale of Two Cities
Finishing an author’s oeuvre presents a wonderful opportunity to reread and many classical authors bloom more upon rereading. So I say go forth and read all of Tolstoy’s works because rereading is such a joy.
I saw the movie quite a long time ago and it made such an impression on me. Although I don’t know if I can handle going through the story again, I might need to read the book after all…
So excited for you to read A pale view of hills! I read it last year and it quickly became my favorite of Ishiguros books. The fact that it's his debut novel is really impressive! I loved it.
YES My Brilliant Friend is an amazing book series. You will love it! The master and margherita is the craziest book I've ever read, it was an adventure.
Omg The Blue Castle is one of my favourite classics of all time! ❤ I'm so glad you're enjoying it 😊 I read it twice already and would love to re-read it at some point hahahah. The Night Flight is also on my 2025 TBR and inspired by your recommendation I finally decided to read Anna Karenina! Wish me luck 😅
À tip for reading "the master and Margherita " : if u have any notes in the book, read them before reading the novel. It'll help you understand the book better. 😊❤
My tbr is finish the books on my bookshelf: East of Eden Don Quixote Tess of d'ubervilles Works of Edgar Allen Poe Little women The illustrated Man The Brothers Karmathov Tale of Two Cities The Phantom of the Opera God Emperor of Dune Lord of the Flies
I loved A Gentleman In Moscow, it was my number one book of the year the year I read it! Fredrick Backman is always a Yes for me! I Who Have Never Known Men is a book I still think about! Very unique. I think I had to read Flowers For Algernon for high school English class. It's probably time for me to read it again. Good luck with your Must Read list, I believe you'll be successful without luck. 😊
@@tayabel1103 Yes! I've read To the Bridge Edge of the World and just recently had an advanced copy of her new book Black Woods, Blue Sky. It's a Beauty and the Beast retelling. It was haunting and I loved it.
@@maddy-zzz Which was your favourite of hers? I've only read the Snow Child. I love Beauty and the Beast retellings, so you've made me very excited to read her new novel. Hopefully my library will bring it onto the Libby app!
I read The Blue Castle for this past year's Spinster September. I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, I had a very similar relationship with my mother. I cheered for Valancy every step of the way as she asserted herself and lived her life authentically. I just bought The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes at a thrift store. I don't read detective stories or mysteries, but I used to adore Nancy Drew as a child. So when I saw a decent edition in fine condition, I decided to try it. But I have a lot of other reading that I want to get to first.
Carolyn, if you don't fall in love with My Brilliant Friend I'll be shocked...it's so good, you're emotions will be all over the map...as soon as I finished I ordered the other three...so good! Side note: if you like MBF I highly recommend, When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman ...if you haven't read it yet 😉 Happy Reading! &
I've already ticked off and absolutely adored The Sun Also Rises. Next up in no particular order The Idiot, The Aeneid, Call of the Wild, East of Eden and I want to start reading P G Wodehouse. Read The Death of Ivan Ilyich over Christmas and found it to be a masterful observation of how people deal with death, marriage and a whole lot more.
A Passage To India is fantastic, the friendship between Dr Aziz and Fielding is so moving and is based on the friendship EM Forster made when he was in India.
I'm hoping to get back to reading "Don Quixote" sometime this year, easily one of my favourite books of all time, hands down. However, I am currently reading "How Economics Can Save the World" by Erik Angner, a deliberate choice considering the political sea-change. I admire its prescriptive approach, the accessibility of the language (economics is infamous for being laden with technical jargon) and its optimism amid the doom and gloom literature. I suspect I'll be spending considerable time reading non-fiction titles to keep my critical faculties sharp, engaged and discerning, more so attuned with the latest insights and groundbreaking research underway across a variety of disciplines. I'm sure I'll continue writing poems like I usually and find them a suitable home among literary magazines🙏🌱
Hi Carolyn! Thanks for the video 😊 I read A Study in Scarlet last November for similar reasons as you! It took a turn I was not expecting in storytelling so it’ll be interesting to hear your thoughts! I like the idea of accountability so here are a few of my TBR: The Book of Disquiet The Count of Monte Cristo The Brothers Karamazov By Night in Chile I Who Have Never Known Men Jane Eyre Pedro Paramo Human Acts Diary of a Void I’ve started a few already! Best of luck to us with our reading goals 🎉
Such a great list! There are several of these books that I also wish to read (I'm almost ashamed I haven't read them yet...). Don't forget the tissues for Flowers for Algernon - it is great but devastating. As for 'The Lottery', I can't tell you how amazing it is that you don't know much about it. It'll make it even better :)
I don’t read many classics, but I am attempting The Count of Monte Christo for the first time and am enjoying it. As for other books I have dubbed the year ‘The Year of Big Books and Series’. Big Books = 700+ page count. I adore Backman and want to finally get through the Beartown trilogy, you’ve reminded me of The Bear and the Nightingale trilogy which will go on my TBR and to finally mention a genre that you didn’t mention (don’t know if you read them as well) I want to continue Dungeon Crawler Carl and The Wandering Inn LitRPG’s.
I’ve read most of the books on your list!! I loved most, but a few were disappointing, but I won’t say which ones, so you can judge for yourself. I love Russian literature and Murakami so I want to try some of the Japanese writers you mentioned. ❤ You will love Wide Sargasso Sea❤️ and Master and Margarita Murakami wacky and crazy too!!
Wonderful video! Thank you for sharing!! Definitely added many on my list! Master and Margarita is my all time favorite book. It's one of those books you can reread many many times and you'd keep finding hidden meanings and details you haven't noticed before. And the whole story around the writing of the book...it's just my Roman empire as they say... There's also an amazing miniseries from 2005 that portrays this atmosphere in such wonderful way. Also, there's a movie released in 2024 (that i absolutely loved!) It gives a slightly different perspective, but also so very well-done and I would definitely recommend watching those after you read the book. Hopefully there's a decent translation/interpretation of those.
_Flowers For Algernon_ is indeed a science fiction story. I first read it in a college English course I took long ago that was all about science fiction. We read _The City and the Stars_ by Arthur C. Clarke and The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin. We also had a big paperback book titled something like _The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time_ and "Flowers For Algernon" was in it. It started out as a short story, then was expanded into a novel. It was also adapted into a 1968 movie I saw on TV in the '70s called _Charly_ starring Cliff Robertson and Claire Bloom. It was very good. And expect the book to be very sad and depressing. The short story was.
I plan to read Memory Police this year also. I read Housekeeper a couple years ago❤ and this last year I read Mina's Matchbox 💕 So now I'm curious and hopeful for Memory.
Britt Marie was Here was my introduction to Backman and I absolutely loved it! I was nervous to read him because I was pretty certain he would make me cry. He did. :)
Shirley Jackson is my favorite author. I read that copy of the lottery and its a bunch of short stories and I LOVED IT. The haunting of hill house is also absolutely amazing. I highly recommend!
I really hope we vote for "Flowers for Algernon" for the book club. I'd love to read it all together! Also, IMO, we have very similar reading taste in books (especially in middle grade lit), so if you're ever looking for a new middle grade to read, I think you'd love Natalie Babbitt's works! Tuck Everlasting is her most popular, but "The Search for Delicious" is so sweet and witty too. Anything by her is amazing. She's my favourite middle grade author along with Kate DiCamillo and EB White.
I who have never known men was the first book I picked up this year and it was not what I was expecting but I know it’s already going to be one of my favorite books of 2025
We are on the same wavelength. 😅 I read A Pale View of Hills last week and I'm in the middle of the audiobook of Flowers For Algernon. Both are wonderful.
Sherlock Holmes is wonderful. I picked up a compilation of all of the stories many years ago and read all of them straight through, and the entire time I was riveted. Every story was interesting and engaging and made me want to read the next one, and before I knew it I had read them all. I hope you enjoy The Study In Scarlet!
I have Madame Bovary on my TBR for a few years from now because you have convinced me to read Anna Karenina. The Death of Ivan Ilyich was great - it was my first foray into Tolstoy and I I think you'll really enjoy it. I need to get my hands on Wide Sargasso Sea in hard copy because I can't seem to find it digitally in my region. Thanks for reminding me about that book! I'm going to be reading the Master and Margarita in March! I feel the same way you do about it.... a little intimidated but also excited. I started reading Flowers for Algernon last year but reshelved it and will pick it back up in .... the future. Not sure when. Books I'm extremely excited to read this year are: The Gael Song Trilogy by Lawless, The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyōng, Snow Crash by Stephensen, Moonbound by Sloan, 11/22/63 by King, Life on Svalbard by Blomdahl, There Are Rivers in the Sky by Rum, Small Things Like These by Keegan, Love in the Big City by Park, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Orczy, The Gentlemen Bastard series by Lynch, Lies & Weddings by Kwan, The Sicilian Inheritance by Piazza, finishing up the Murderbot Series by Wells, and finally the book I'm looking forward to most is Queen Demon by Wells. I also have a metric ton of non fiction on my list for this year but since you're a big fiction fan I stuck to that for this list. :D Love your choices and I love the idea of rewarding yourself for doing what you want instead of punishing yourself for NOT doing something - we respond better to positive reinforcement anyway. Happy Reading!
Death of Ivan Iliych is great. I'm going to read Master and Margarita this year and I hope you love A Gentlemen in Moscow. This year I want to get back to reading Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Books that got me into classics were actually stoic philosophy books (if you count them lol), but if not, I read The pictures of Dorian Gray, and it snowballed from there. Ngl, I was surprised that you didn't read the Death of Ivan Ilyich, it was sad but interesting read. For me, my goal is to finish Les Miserables and start reading one hundred years of solitude before watching the netflix show.
I hope you love _A Pale View of Hills_ as much as I did last year. The ending really affected me, though I'm pretty sure the usual theory for what happened isn't right. It's still so powerful.
I read The Memory Police a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. That could be another good option for Sci Fi for the book club. I also recently purchased I Who Have Never Known Men and am highly anticipating it! I also read Little Women for the first time ever last year. I hope to fit in even more classics this year.
Great books Carolyn. I am reading dickens for the first time this year. I’ve started with David copperfield and I’m loving it. Can you believe I found a hard back copy of the memory police in a charity shop last week for 50p❤
I who have never known men was the best book I read last year. I could not put it down and finished it at 4 am. So gripping and thought provoking. Interested to hear what you think about it after reading it!
I have read Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and absolutely LOVED it! I was completely floored and it remains one of my favorite novels. . . in fact, I read it just at the tail end of Covid lockdown and it was the perfect way to read it. . . Just dive in and do NOT be intimidated! Just immerse yourself in it! Can't wait to hear what you think of it. AND READ THE MEMORY POLICE ASAP!!! I inhaled it. . . terrific dystopian-science fiction novel and moves quickly. Highly engrossing.
I’m so happy to hear that you loved it! Thank you for the much needed encouragement 😊📖 Can’t wait to read it and share what I think! Ooo okay, I’ll definitely prioritize reading it (hopefully soon)
I read The Memory Police a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. That could be another good option for Sci Fi for the book club. I also recently purchased I Who Have Never Known Men and am highly anticipating it!
I saw Flowers for Algernon as a play a few years ago and it was brilliant and definitely heartbreaking. I read Night Flight for school when I was 14 (it was a loooong time ago 😄) and the only thing I remember about it was that I thought it was really boring. I probably should read it again and see if I feel differently about it. As for Madame Bovary, I started it a few years ago and DNFd it after 100 pages because I thought the main character was really annoying. 😄I plan on trying again someday.
A Gentleman in Moscow is on my must read list this year too. I also want to get to Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway before the end of the year. I have a feeling I will love his work.
Aww can't wait for you to read "My Brilliant Friend" (it's amazing!) and "The Master and Margarita"! 😍I also haven't read "A Passage to India" yet, even though E.M. Forster is one of my favourite writers too - so maybe I should add it to my tbr this year🤞I'm also really curious to read "The Secret History" (can't believe I haven't read it yet) 😝
I hadn't read any Sherlokck Holmes until last year when I stumbled upon the complete collection omnibus at a used book store. I've only read A Study In Scarlet. It's good, I think you'll like it well enough. It's not a hardcore detective story, but it's very story driven.
I read the Death of Ivan Ilyich this month and Family Happiness (or Happy Ever After) by Tolstoy and LOVED them so now I know I need to read Anna Karenina. My FAVORITE book of 2024 was Wind, Sand and Stars by Saint Exupery, but I have not yet read Night Flight!
Ah I LOVE the blue castle!!! I just read it last month and it was so fun!! 💗💗💗 Very curious to see how you’ll feel about Wide Sargasso Sea. I was too excited to read that novel, especially because of my love of Jane Eyre. But I think this novel is rubbish. I loathed it and especially don’t like how Rochester was portrayed.
I was very underwhelmed by Never Let Me Go but I'll give the movie a shot and will try some of his other books. Can't wait to hear what you think of A Study In Scarlet!
I love reading "Mozart's Letters: Mozart's Life" by Robert Spaethling. Really entertaining and interesting look at his personality. Mentioning it because today is Mozart's birthday!
I really loved The Snow Child! I hope you enjoy it too. Edit: I typed this comment too early, there were so many books that you are planning on reading this year that I actually have read already and my favorites were definitely flowers for algernon and the snow child. The memory police is also very good and i am actually in the middle of reading masters and margarita. I can't wait to see what you think of all of them (good or bad)!!
I’m also hoping to read My Brilliant Friend, I Who Have Never Known Men, and Britt Marie Was Here this year! I’m working through all of Backman’s backlist as well and only have a couple left 😭 Some other priority books for me this year include The Count of Monte Cristo, 100 Years of Solitude, Jane Eyre, Demon Copperhead, Hello Beautiful, Where the Dark Stands Still, The Fifth Season, Recursion, The Kite Runner, and Long Bright River! ❤️
The Master and Margarita is the best novel ever written, IMO, but you don't have to be scared of it. It's very easy to read and very, very funny! And a little sad as well, but mostly a funny, dark satire of the Soviet Union (and the worst and best sides of humanity). You'll love it!
My 2025 TBR keeps changing because I have the "ideal" list than I have a more Eclectic list at the same time I write and am wanting to dive into a ertain genre so wanting to binge that...haha I'm also a mood reader so we're all over the place.
Oh, the snow child is based off such a classic russian tale called "Snegurochka". I remember my mother reading it too me when I was little. I really want to read Lonesome Dove, Les Miserables, Our Mutual Friend and the Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I also have to read My Brilliant Friend and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
Unpopular opinion. I read My Brilliant Friend last summer and I was disappointed. I recently read Hello Beautiful, about an Italian American family, and that was amazing. Highly recommend if you haven’t read it. A Gentleman in Moscow is one of my favorites. I have Master and the Margarita on my shelf and need to read it this year !
I like the idea of quarterly updates. I like madame bovary, but it’s really quite different than Anna, as there is no Levin in the novel. This year I just finished Magic Mountain, for the rest of the year I want to read fewer tomes and more Murakami 😊
I laughed so hard when you put up Madame Bovary because I really didn't like that book, and I also didn't like Anna Karenina! So i guess it's true that if you like one, you'll like the other (and vice versa). 😂
'Supposed' to be reading Proust and Dante this year but woefully behind on the readalong. Enjoying them on my own when I do pick them up, so I don't know why I don't do it more often.
Thank You For This Most Awesome Video , This Will Gelp me Curate my Own List for This Year as Well😊👍👍📚 I Have Read Madame Bovary and Mansfield Park( I am ReReading This One, Little by Little😊) , Both Are Soo goodl My TBR for 2025 is Classics:Les Miserables ( currently Reading)And The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. and Speculative Fiction Tress of The Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson( LOVED Yumi and The Nightmare Painter😊📚)😊📚
I know you love Anna Karenina, so you might like Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane, a German school classic. It was published in 1894. There’s a Penguin classic edition as well.
My tbr for 2025 is to finally finish all the books I started before but for some reason put to the side 😅 (Not because I didn‘t enjoy them) - Jane Eyre - The Castle - War and Peace - Little Women - A Brief History of Time - All Quiet on the Western Front - A Game of Thrones - A Study in Scarlet - None of This is True - wordslut (already finished in 2025) - Almond (already finished in 2025) - Tom Lake (already finished in 2025)
Hey Carolyn, I like how you have shared your appreciating for children literature in the past, and I completely agree with the assertion that they can be for anyone. And it is on that note that I was curious if you would consider checking out comic books as well. For me, I see the comic book medium as this very interesting middle ground between children literature and adult fiction, as there is this present dichotomy and balance of child-like awe and playfulness with a more "adult" perspective of the world. Too frequently I see the "child-like" and the "adult" as being seen as mutually exclusive; and I've come to think that that shouldn't be the case. An "adult" outlook shouldn't automatically be equated with cynicism, and neither should "realism" be seen as a stand in word for pessimism. Superhero comics have taught me that we already experience the world in hyperbole, and all the stories captured in the pages are simply there to bring the thunderbolt of meaning to the blank page (that everything is real, especially our fictions). For fear of rambling on too long, if you are taking recommendations, here are some of the most sublime works I have encountered from this medium: - Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (Grant Morrison's psychological horror story subverts expectations of what a superhero story "should be," with brilliant multimedia artwork from Dave McKean) - Kingdom Come (Mark Waid's commentary on the cynical undertaking of comic books from the mid 80's, revitalizes a lost sense of hope, and captures heroism from tragedy, and vice versa--not to mention the beautiful artwork of Alex Ross) - DC: The New Frontier (Dawyne Cooke's anthology series, explores DC's characters through the decades since their inception, until we are brought to the then present of the Cold War and how each character remains staunch in their heroism) - The World's Greatest Superheroes by Alex Ross and Paul Dini (this title's synopsis captures this collection of short stories perfectly)
This is the year I will finally read _War & Peace._ I tried when I was younger, and couldn't get into it. But, I'm looking forward to trying again. Other classics I intend to read: _The Stranger_ _The Tenant of Wildfell Hall_ I'm finally giving Dickens a chance again, after many years, but I can't decide if it'll be _Bleak House_ or _Our Mutual Friend._ I'll finally read _Anne of Green Gables,_ for sure, and maybe re-read _Wuthering Heights._ And I've been slow reading _Don Quixote_ in the background for months, so I should finish it this year. For non-classics: Either _The Buried Giant_ or _The Remains of the Day_ will be my Ishiguro this year. _Too Like the Lightning,_ by Ada Palmer _Annihilation,_ by Jeff Vandermeer And, if I have time, I'd love to finally get back to a series I adore: the Aubrey/Maturin books, by Patrick O'Brian. My next one would be _The Surgeon's Mate._
Congratulations on reaching over 80,000 subscribers. Can I ask why you don’t seem to do subscriber unboxings anymore. I used to love watching you be surprised about what your followers had sent you. Good luck with your TBR this year, not that you need it 😊. Claire B
Speaking of Kazuo Ishiguro and The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Carolyn have you seen the movie Living? It came out two or three years ago, it stars Bill Nighy and it's maybe my all time favourite movie right now. Anyway it's a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Ivan Ilyich adaptation "Ikiru," and the screenplay is by Ishiguro. I have a hunch you'd really like it if you haven't seen it already.
I'm almost done the master and margarita. It's my first Bulgakov and i'm in love with it. It isn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Can't recommend enough.
I’m so happy to hear this (and that you’re enjoying it)!! Thank you for the encouragement ☺️
I read the Master and Margarita last year, my first Bugakov as well. I also loved it. I was very confused most of the time, but thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
It is a terrific read and how he managed to avoid the gulag still amazes me. 'A Country Doctor's Notebook' is also well worth seeking out. Enjoy your reading.
@@user-zi9hg Unfortunately, my first Bulgakov was Heart of a Dog. 😵💫 I haven't been inspired to pick up another after... That.
@@kacie-jobradford2632 that will be my next bulgakov, though I don't know much about it.
omg props to you for almost finishing jane austen's books! i only read pride and prejudice and persuasion, and i'm reading emma right now, thanks to you!
I saw on goodreads that you were reading The Blue Castle so I decided to pick it up from my shelves and omg I'm so glad I did. Truly some of the most beautiful descriptions of nature that I've ever read. Finished it in a day.
I looooovvvvveeee that book!!
The Lottery is my favorite short story of all time!
Love your videos so much-they are so cozy and perfect!
A Gentleman in Moscow was my favorite book from last year, followed by Anxious People. You're going to love it! Happy reading.
This is a fantastic list! I love A Gentleman in Moscow and the Neapolitan Quartet is INCREDIBLE! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
My must-read books this year are War & Peace and A Tale of Two Cities
Finishing an author’s oeuvre presents a wonderful opportunity to reread and many classical authors bloom more upon rereading. So I say go forth and read all of Tolstoy’s works because rereading is such a joy.
Never Let Me Go is one of my favourite books! I even wrote a thesis on it!
I saw the movie quite a long time ago and it made such an impression on me. Although I don’t know if I can handle going through the story again, I might need to read the book after all…
So excited for you to read A pale view of hills! I read it last year and it quickly became my favorite of Ishiguros books. The fact that it's his debut novel is really impressive! I loved it.
YES My Brilliant Friend is an amazing book series. You will love it! The master and margherita is the craziest book I've ever read, it was an adventure.
The Snow Child! I so enjoyed that book!!!
Anne of Green Gables is actually a book I really want to read this year! Also Sherlock Holmes is so fun. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for the video
I have just finished Flowers For Algernon yesterday. So deep, thought provoking and heartbreaking. Amazing work!
Omg The Blue Castle is one of my favourite classics of all time! ❤ I'm so glad you're enjoying it 😊 I read it twice already and would love to re-read it at some point hahahah. The Night Flight is also on my 2025 TBR and inspired by your recommendation I finally decided to read Anna Karenina! Wish me luck 😅
I finished The Blue Castle last night 🥹📖💕 It’s now a new all time favorite classic for me too!!! AHHHHH GOOD LUCK! I truly hope you enjoy it! ☺️
@CarolynMarieReads Ooooh I love to hear it! 😍😊 Thanks for the motivation 🫶
The Master and Margarita is a banger. A Gentleman in Moscow too. You're going to have a great time with both of those books!
So glad to hear this!
À tip for reading "the master and Margherita " : if u have any notes in the book, read them before reading the novel. It'll help you understand the book better. 😊❤
My tbr is finish the books on my bookshelf:
East of Eden
Don Quixote
Tess of d'ubervilles
Works of Edgar Allen Poe
Little women
The illustrated Man
The Brothers Karmathov
Tale of Two Cities
The Phantom of the Opera
God Emperor of Dune
Lord of the Flies
That is an elite TBR 🤩📖✨
@@dogood8750 Planning to start Brothers Karamazov soon!
wow on my list are:
Don Quixote, Tess, Little Women aaaaand Phantom too! :-)
I loved A Gentleman In Moscow, it was my number one book of the year the year I read it! Fredrick Backman is always a Yes for me! I Who Have Never Known Men is a book I still think about! Very unique. I think I had to read Flowers For Algernon for high school English class. It's probably time for me to read it again.
Good luck with your Must Read list, I believe you'll be successful without luck. 😊
The Snow Child is one of my favorite books. It's probably one of the most common books I recommend. So stunning, as are her other books.
I loved that book too! Have you read anything else by that author?
@@tayabel1103 Yes! I've read To the Bridge Edge of the World and just recently had an advanced copy of her new book Black Woods, Blue Sky. It's a Beauty and the Beast retelling. It was haunting and I loved it.
@@maddy-zzz Which was your favourite of hers? I've only read the Snow Child. I love Beauty and the Beast retellings, so you've made me very excited to read her new novel. Hopefully my library will bring it onto the Libby app!
@@tayabel1103 Only Anne of Green Gables which I also loved. What about you?
I got the arc for Backman's new book! Can't wait to dive into it. Love your list and have added several.
I JUST finished Flowers For Algernon today. It’s my first 5 star of the year. I hope you enjoy it!
I read Flowers for Algernon about two years ago, and I still think about this quote:
"But with the freedom came a sadness."
My Brilliant Friend was my favorite book last year! I'm sooo excited to hear your review :)
I read The Blue Castle for this past year's Spinster September. I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, I had a very similar relationship with my mother. I cheered for Valancy every step of the way as she asserted herself and lived her life authentically.
I just bought The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes at a thrift store. I don't read detective stories or mysteries, but I used to adore Nancy Drew as a child. So when I saw a decent edition in fine condition, I decided to try it. But I have a lot of other reading that I want to get to first.
I am so elated when you chose Madam Bovery. OMG, you would absolutely love it.
Carolyn, if you don't fall in love with My Brilliant Friend I'll be shocked...it's so good, you're emotions will be all over the map...as soon as I finished I ordered the other three...so good! Side note: if you like MBF I highly recommend, When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman ...if you haven't read it yet 😉 Happy Reading! &
I've already ticked off and absolutely adored The Sun Also Rises. Next up in no particular order The Idiot, The Aeneid, Call of the Wild, East of Eden and I want to start reading P G Wodehouse.
Read The Death of Ivan Ilyich over Christmas and found it to be a masterful observation of how people deal with death, marriage and a whole lot more.
A Passage To India is fantastic, the friendship between Dr Aziz and Fielding is so moving and is based on the friendship EM Forster made when he was in India.
Can’t wait to read about them and experience the whole story ☺️
I'm hoping to get back to reading "Don Quixote" sometime this year, easily one of my favourite books of all time, hands down. However, I am currently reading "How Economics Can Save the World" by Erik Angner, a deliberate choice considering the political sea-change. I admire its prescriptive approach, the accessibility of the language (economics is infamous for being laden with technical jargon) and its optimism amid the doom and gloom literature. I suspect I'll be spending considerable time reading non-fiction titles to keep my critical faculties sharp, engaged and discerning, more so attuned with the latest insights and groundbreaking research underway across a variety of disciplines. I'm sure I'll continue writing poems like I usually and find them a suitable home among literary magazines🙏🌱
Hi Carolyn! Thanks for the video 😊 I read A Study in Scarlet last November for similar reasons as you! It took a turn I was not expecting in storytelling so it’ll be interesting to hear your thoughts!
I like the idea of accountability so here are a few of my TBR:
The Book of Disquiet
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Brothers Karamazov
By Night in Chile
I Who Have Never Known Men
Jane Eyre
Pedro Paramo
Human Acts
Diary of a Void
I’ve started a few already! Best of luck to us with our reading goals 🎉
I hope you like Human Acts, I read it 4 years ago and it still lingers in my mind 💗
Such a great list! There are several of these books that I also wish to read (I'm almost ashamed I haven't read them yet...).
Don't forget the tissues for Flowers for Algernon - it is great but devastating. As for 'The Lottery', I can't tell you how amazing it is that you don't know much about it. It'll make it even better :)
Very glad you think so 😊 Ooo okay, I won’t forget and now I’m even more intrigued 👀
I don’t read many classics, but I am attempting The Count of Monte Christo for the first time and am enjoying it. As for other books I have dubbed the year ‘The Year of Big Books and Series’. Big Books = 700+ page count. I adore Backman and want to finally get through the Beartown trilogy, you’ve reminded me of The Bear and the Nightingale trilogy which will go on my TBR and to finally mention a genre that you didn’t mention (don’t know if you read them as well) I want to continue Dungeon Crawler Carl and The Wandering Inn LitRPG’s.
Glad that you picked up A study of Scarlet. I swear, you would love it.
I adore your channel and I adored this video. Love from Egypt 🇪🇬❤❤
I’ve read most of the books on your list!! I loved most, but a few were disappointing, but I won’t say which ones, so you can judge for yourself.
I love Russian literature and Murakami so I want to try some of the Japanese writers you mentioned. ❤
You will love Wide Sargasso Sea❤️ and Master and Margarita
Murakami wacky and crazy too!!
I just finished Flowers for Algernon and am in the final stretch of The Memory Police. I think they both give the reader a lot to think about.
Wonderful video! Thank you for sharing!! Definitely added many on my list! Master and Margarita is my all time favorite book. It's one of those books you can reread many many times and you'd keep finding hidden meanings and details you haven't noticed before. And the whole story around the writing of the book...it's just my Roman empire as they say... There's also an amazing miniseries from 2005 that portrays this atmosphere in such wonderful way. Also, there's a movie released in 2024 (that i absolutely loved!) It gives a slightly different perspective, but also so very well-done and I would definitely recommend watching those after you read the book. Hopefully there's a decent translation/interpretation of those.
A 4 month check-in would be nice. I think you'll have a wonderful reading year. These books sound amazing! Have a great reading week! ❤📚
_Flowers For Algernon_ is indeed a science fiction story. I first read it in a college English course I took long ago that was all about science fiction. We read _The City and the Stars_ by Arthur C. Clarke and The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin. We also had a big paperback book titled something like _The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time_ and "Flowers For Algernon" was in it. It started out as a short story, then was expanded into a novel. It was also adapted into a 1968 movie I saw on TV in the '70s called _Charly_ starring Cliff Robertson and Claire Bloom. It was very good. And expect the book to be very sad and depressing. The short story was.
A Passage to India is my favourite book by Forster! So well written 💛
So glad to hear this 🥹📖
Great sellection, Carolyn. Hope you love Madame Bovary. I also want to read The Blue Castle and The Master and Margarita. Happy readings! ☺️💖
I plan to read Memory Police this year also. I read Housekeeper a couple years ago❤ and this last year I read Mina's Matchbox 💕 So now I'm curious and hopeful for Memory.
Britt Marie was Here was my introduction to Backman and I absolutely loved it! I was nervous to read him because I was pretty certain he would make me cry. He did. :)
I Who Have Never Know Men and Gentleman in Moscow are way up on my favorite book list. I am planning on rereading both this year.
Shirley Jackson is my favorite author. I read that copy of the lottery and its a bunch of short stories and I LOVED IT. The haunting of hill house is also absolutely amazing. I highly recommend!
I want to read “Crime and Punishment” this year. I’ve heard so many good things! You’ve also inspired me to read “Anxious People.”
Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov are life changing reads.
I really hope we vote for "Flowers for Algernon" for the book club. I'd love to read it all together!
Also, IMO, we have very similar reading taste in books (especially in middle grade lit), so if you're ever looking for a new middle grade to read, I think you'd love Natalie Babbitt's works! Tuck Everlasting is her most popular, but "The Search for Delicious" is so sweet and witty too. Anything by her is amazing. She's my favourite middle grade author along with Kate DiCamillo and EB White.
I who have never known men was the first book I picked up this year and it was not what I was expecting but I know it’s already going to be one of my favorite books of 2025
That’s so great!
We are on the same wavelength. 😅 I read A Pale View of Hills last week and I'm in the middle of the audiobook of Flowers For Algernon. Both are wonderful.
Sherlock Holmes is wonderful. I picked up a compilation of all of the stories many years ago and read all of them straight through, and the entire time I was riveted. Every story was interesting and engaging and made me want to read the next one, and before I knew it I had read them all. I hope you enjoy The Study In Scarlet!
I have Madame Bovary on my TBR for a few years from now because you have convinced me to read Anna Karenina. The Death of Ivan Ilyich was great - it was my first foray into Tolstoy and I I think you'll really enjoy it. I need to get my hands on Wide Sargasso Sea in hard copy because I can't seem to find it digitally in my region. Thanks for reminding me about that book! I'm going to be reading the Master and Margarita in March! I feel the same way you do about it.... a little intimidated but also excited. I started reading Flowers for Algernon last year but reshelved it and will pick it back up in .... the future. Not sure when. Books I'm extremely excited to read this year are: The Gael Song Trilogy by Lawless, The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyōng, Snow Crash by Stephensen, Moonbound by Sloan, 11/22/63 by King, Life on Svalbard by Blomdahl, There Are Rivers in the Sky by Rum, Small Things Like These by Keegan, Love in the Big City by Park, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Orczy, The Gentlemen Bastard series by Lynch, Lies & Weddings by Kwan, The Sicilian Inheritance by Piazza, finishing up the Murderbot Series by Wells, and finally the book I'm looking forward to most is Queen Demon by Wells. I also have a metric ton of non fiction on my list for this year but since you're a big fiction fan I stuck to that for this list. :D Love your choices and I love the idea of rewarding yourself for doing what you want instead of punishing yourself for NOT doing something - we respond better to positive reinforcement anyway. Happy Reading!
Death of Ivan Iliych is great. I'm going to read Master and Margarita this year and I hope you love A Gentlemen in Moscow. This year I want to get back to reading Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Books that got me into classics were actually stoic philosophy books (if you count them lol), but if not, I read The pictures of Dorian Gray, and it snowballed from there. Ngl, I was surprised that you didn't read the Death of Ivan Ilyich, it was sad but interesting read.
For me, my goal is to finish Les Miserables and start reading one hundred years of solitude before watching the netflix show.
My MUST reads for this year are : " Don Quixote" & " Gentleman in Moscow" . High expectations. 😍
I hope you love _A Pale View of Hills_ as much as I did last year. The ending really affected me, though I'm pretty sure the usual theory for what happened isn't right. It's still so powerful.
I read The Memory Police a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. That could be another good option for Sci Fi for the book club.
I also recently purchased I Who Have Never Known Men and am highly anticipating it!
I also read Little Women for the first time ever last year. I hope to fit in even more classics this year.
Great books Carolyn. I am reading dickens for the first time this year. I’ve started with David copperfield and I’m loving it. Can you believe I found a hard back copy of the memory police in a charity shop last week for 50p❤
I Who Have Never Known Men... Gosh, you're gonna love it. 🙌
I who have never known men was the best book I read last year. I could not put it down and finished it at 4 am. So gripping and thought provoking. Interested to hear what you think about it after reading it!
I have read Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and absolutely LOVED it! I was completely floored and it remains one of my favorite novels. . . in fact, I read it just at the tail end of Covid lockdown and it was the perfect way to read it. . . Just dive in and do NOT be intimidated! Just immerse yourself in it! Can't wait to hear what you think of it.
AND READ THE MEMORY POLICE ASAP!!! I inhaled it. . . terrific dystopian-science fiction novel and moves quickly. Highly engrossing.
I’m so happy to hear that you loved it! Thank you for the much needed encouragement 😊📖 Can’t wait to read it and share what I think!
Ooo okay, I’ll definitely prioritize reading it (hopefully soon)
I'm hoping to read Wide Sargasso Sea this year (in the same edition as you) - hope we both enjoy it!
Amazing! It’s such a beautiful edition 😍
The Snow child! 🥹 My favorite book!
Yay!
I read The Memory Police a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. That could be another good option for Sci Fi for the book club.
I also recently purchased I Who Have Never Known Men and am highly anticipating it!
I saw Flowers for Algernon as a play a few years ago and it was brilliant and definitely heartbreaking.
I read Night Flight for school when I was 14 (it was a loooong time ago 😄) and the only thing I remember about it was that I thought it was really boring. I probably should read it again and see if I feel differently about it. As for Madame Bovary, I started it a few years ago and DNFd it after 100 pages because I thought the main character was really annoying. 😄I plan on trying again someday.
A Gentleman in Moscow is on my must read list this year too. I also want to get to Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway before the end of the year. I have a feeling I will love his work.
Ooo very exciting!
Aww can't wait for you to read "My Brilliant Friend" (it's amazing!) and "The Master and Margarita"! 😍I also haven't read "A Passage to India" yet, even though E.M. Forster is one of my favourite writers too - so maybe I should add it to my tbr this year🤞I'm also really curious to read "The Secret History" (can't believe I haven't read it yet) 😝
I hadn't read any Sherlokck Holmes until last year when I stumbled upon the complete collection omnibus at a used book store. I've only read A Study In Scarlet. It's good, I think you'll like it well enough. It's not a hardcore detective story, but it's very story driven.
I read the Death of Ivan Ilyich this month and Family Happiness (or Happy Ever After) by Tolstoy and LOVED them so now I know I need to read Anna Karenina.
My FAVORITE book of 2024 was Wind, Sand and Stars by Saint Exupery, but I have not yet read Night Flight!
Ah I LOVE the blue castle!!! I just read it last month and it was so fun!! 💗💗💗
Very curious to see how you’ll feel about Wide Sargasso Sea. I was too excited to read that novel, especially because of my love of Jane Eyre. But I think this novel is rubbish. I loathed it and especially don’t like how Rochester was portrayed.
I was very underwhelmed by Never Let Me Go but I'll give the movie a shot and will try some of his other books. Can't wait to hear what you think of A Study In Scarlet!
I love reading "Mozart's Letters: Mozart's Life" by Robert Spaethling. Really entertaining and interesting look at his personality. Mentioning it because today is Mozart's birthday!
Carolyn I am b e g g i n g you to read The Snow Child, it was my first five star of the year, I hugged the book to sleep like a kid when I finished it
I really loved The Snow Child! I hope you enjoy it too.
Edit:
I typed this comment too early, there were so many books that you are planning on reading this year that I actually have read already and my favorites were definitely flowers for algernon and the snow child. The memory police is also very good and i am actually in the middle of reading masters and margarita.
I can't wait to see what you think of all of them (good or bad)!!
I who have never known men is one of my favorite books! Its beautiful!
So happy to hear this!!
I’m also hoping to read My Brilliant Friend, I Who Have Never Known Men, and Britt Marie Was Here this year! I’m working through all of Backman’s backlist as well and only have a couple left 😭 Some other priority books for me this year include The Count of Monte Cristo, 100 Years of Solitude, Jane Eyre, Demon Copperhead, Hello Beautiful, Where the Dark Stands Still, The Fifth Season, Recursion, The Kite Runner, and Long Bright River! ❤️
The Master and Margarita is the best novel ever written, IMO, but you don't have to be scared of it. It's very easy to read and very, very funny! And a little sad as well, but mostly a funny, dark satire of the Soviet Union (and the worst and best sides of humanity). You'll love it!
Amor Towles is amazing. I've read all his books.
I definitely look forward to My Friends by Backman.
My 2025 TBR keeps changing because I have the "ideal" list than I have a more Eclectic list at the same time I write and am wanting to dive into a ertain genre so wanting to binge that...haha I'm also a mood reader so we're all over the place.
Oh, the snow child is based off such a classic russian tale called "Snegurochka". I remember my mother reading it too me when I was little.
I really want to read Lonesome Dove, Les Miserables, Our Mutual Friend and the Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I also have to read My Brilliant Friend and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
Love that! Such a special memory 😊📖
Oooo so many wonderful books! Best of luck with your 2025 reading ✨
Hope you like Goethe! I would read Faust at first. Then everything else from him.
Hi! I will be joining you for A Passage to India and East of Eden. I am very excited.
We have many of the same books on our list for this year, so I'm looking forward to your thoughts regarding them as the year continues.
Hi Carolyn. Bristol is next to Wales and so I’d really recommend both ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ and’Under Milk Wood’ by Dylan Thomas
I’ve heard great things about Dylan Thomas’ works! Thank you for the recommendations 😊
Ivan Ilyich is a powerful little work. I think it is my favorite of the Tolstoy I have read.
That’s amazing!
Unpopular opinion. I read My Brilliant Friend last summer and I was disappointed. I recently read Hello Beautiful, about an Italian American family, and that was amazing. Highly recommend if you haven’t read it. A Gentleman in Moscow is one of my favorites. I have Master and the Margarita on my shelf and need to read it this year !
I like the idea of quarterly updates. I like madame bovary, but it’s really quite different than Anna, as there is no Levin in the novel. This year I just finished Magic Mountain, for the rest of the year I want to read fewer tomes and more Murakami 😊
I laughed so hard when you put up Madame Bovary because I really didn't like that book, and I also didn't like Anna Karenina! So i guess it's true that if you like one, you'll like the other (and vice versa). 😂
Oh no hahahaha
I’ve read dozens of books, but Forbidden Gateway to Money Mastery gave me the tools to think and act differently
Goethe's Werther. Thank you for reminding me.
'Supposed' to be reading Proust and Dante this year but woefully behind on the readalong. Enjoying them on my own when I do pick them up, so I don't know why I don't do it more often.
I read Don Quixote last year and this year I plan on reading Anna Karenina, A Little Life, It and Lonesome Dove. Also a lot of nonfiction and fiction!
Thank You For This Most Awesome Video , This Will Gelp me Curate my Own List for This Year as Well😊👍👍📚 I Have Read Madame Bovary and Mansfield Park( I am ReReading This One, Little by Little😊) , Both Are Soo goodl My TBR for 2025 is Classics:Les Miserables ( currently Reading)And The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. and Speculative Fiction Tress of The Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson( LOVED Yumi and The Nightmare Painter😊📚)😊📚
I know you love Anna Karenina, so you might like Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane, a German school classic. It was published in 1894. There’s a Penguin classic edition as well.
My tbr for 2025 is to finally finish all the books I started before but for some reason put to the side 😅 (Not because I didn‘t enjoy them)
- Jane Eyre
- The Castle
- War and Peace
- Little Women
- A Brief History of Time
- All Quiet on the Western Front
- A Game of Thrones
- A Study in Scarlet
- None of This is True
- wordslut (already finished in 2025)
- Almond (already finished in 2025)
- Tom Lake (already finished in 2025)
This is a fantastic list of books!!! 📖✨ Best of luck with your reading 😊
Im currently reading This side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Liking it so far.
Hey Carolyn, I like how you have shared your appreciating for children literature in the past, and I completely agree with the assertion that they can be for anyone. And it is on that note that I was curious if you would consider checking out comic books as well. For me, I see the comic book medium as this very interesting middle ground between children literature and adult fiction, as there is this present dichotomy and balance of child-like awe and playfulness with a more "adult" perspective of the world. Too frequently I see the "child-like" and the "adult" as being seen as mutually exclusive; and I've come to think that that shouldn't be the case. An "adult" outlook shouldn't automatically be equated with cynicism, and neither should "realism" be seen as a stand in word for pessimism. Superhero comics have taught me that we already experience the world in hyperbole, and all the stories captured in the pages are simply there to bring the thunderbolt of meaning to the blank page (that everything is real, especially our fictions).
For fear of rambling on too long, if you are taking recommendations, here are some of the most sublime works I have encountered from this medium:
- Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (Grant Morrison's psychological horror story subverts expectations of what a superhero story "should be," with brilliant multimedia artwork from Dave McKean)
- Kingdom Come (Mark Waid's commentary on the cynical undertaking of comic books from the mid 80's, revitalizes a lost sense of hope, and captures heroism from tragedy, and vice versa--not to mention the beautiful artwork of Alex Ross)
- DC: The New Frontier (Dawyne Cooke's anthology series, explores DC's characters through the decades since their inception, until we are brought to the then present of the Cold War and how each character remains staunch in their heroism)
- The World's Greatest Superheroes by Alex Ross and Paul Dini (this title's synopsis captures this collection of short stories perfectly)
Oh dear.. Be careful! Conan Doyle was born in Scotland to parents of Irish descent! 😅
This is the year I will finally read _War & Peace._ I tried when I was younger, and couldn't get into it. But, I'm looking forward to trying again.
Other classics I intend to read:
_The Stranger_
_The Tenant of Wildfell Hall_
I'm finally giving Dickens a chance again, after many years, but I can't decide if it'll be _Bleak House_ or _Our Mutual Friend._
I'll finally read _Anne of Green Gables,_ for sure, and maybe re-read _Wuthering Heights._
And I've been slow reading _Don Quixote_ in the background for months, so I should finish it this year.
For non-classics:
Either _The Buried Giant_ or _The Remains of the Day_ will be my Ishiguro this year.
_Too Like the Lightning,_ by Ada Palmer
_Annihilation,_ by Jeff Vandermeer
And, if I have time, I'd love to finally get back to a series I adore: the Aubrey/Maturin books, by Patrick O'Brian. My next one would be _The Surgeon's Mate._
Congratulations on reaching over 80,000 subscribers. Can I ask why you don’t seem to do subscriber unboxings anymore. I used to love watching you be surprised about what your followers had sent you. Good luck with your TBR this year, not that you need it 😊. Claire B
I am joining you in May.
Speaking of Kazuo Ishiguro and The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Carolyn have you seen the movie Living? It came out two or three years ago, it stars Bill Nighy and it's maybe my all time favourite movie right now. Anyway it's a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Ivan Ilyich adaptation "Ikiru," and the screenplay is by Ishiguro. I have a hunch you'd really like it if you haven't seen it already.