Reading Wrap Up for January and February Reading Plans

2023 got off to a very good start for Joel and me, so let's recap the month in reading for both of us and talk about what we have coming up in February. Expand for more information. 👇

Links 💻

Further Viewing 🎥

Books Mentioned 📚
Enter a Murderer, Ngaio Marsh
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
The Inland Island, Josephine Johnson
The New Life, Tom Crewe
All This Could Be Different, Sarah Thankam Mathews
The Island, Adrian McKinty
The Seven Crystal Balls, Hergé
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
The Geek Who Saved Christmas, Annabeth Albert
Dr. Maxwell Thornton Murder Mysteries (Strange Medicine, Scalpels & Psychopaths, Arsenic and Old Lies), S.C. Wynne
Where Angels Fear to Tread, E.M. Forster
The Call of the Wild - Jack London
We Are Not Broken, George M. Johnson
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Kate Beaton
Trust, Hernan Diaz
Summer, Edith Wharton

My husband made a cookbook! Check it out here:

But wait, there's more!

[loriroemer]

Joel: I'm allowed in here! You guys are total relationship goals.

[DuncanMcCurdie]

My 90 something year old neighbour recommended The Guncle to me, I’m happy to hear it is worth reading!

[loriwald]

You 2 are so stinking sweet! Keep love alive!

[lonesomedovecall]

"The Greatest Love Story Ever Told" by Megan Mullally & Nick Offerman was SOOOO cute! I enjoyed it a lot. And the photos are lots of fun too!

[debranielsen]

I follow a lot of booktubers 😊 but I listen to you guys because you have different tastes from me and I like a challenge. I am going to take a look at a few of these books. Also, your library is great.

[dtmonstage]

I would highly suggest Huckleberry Finn to both of you (but especially Joel, since he just read Tom Sawyer)! It is a much better book and (problematic language of the time period aside, which is a big aside) really an insight into how progressive Twain’s thinking was for a man of his time. (And I will admit I’m probably biased because my American Lit professor in college was one of the premiere Twain scholars in the country and studying that novel with him was *chef’s kiss*)
Also, I just finished teaching Call of the Wild to my kiddos last semester and I’m thrilled Joel finally read it. Greg, it’s definitely worth a revisit as an adult. I never get tired of it. (Aside from a few of the problematic things towards the end that create a great discussion in a classroom but may otherwise leave you feeling ick…your mileage may vary!)
I always love these videos with you two! Happy February!!!!

[PhillipOliver]

Glad your channel popped up. I've just started "The New Life" and think his writing is amazing.

[maxallaire]

Ah yes The Adventures of Tom Of Finland by Mark Twain

[spexi]

You two are too cute. I read Grapes of Wrath about 15 years ago & still occasionally think about it, partly bc its themes remain relevant. It’s one of my favorite classics right up there with Frankenstein. Not sure what my deal was, but I actually put down 7 moons about 50 pages in & have yet to pick it back up. I think perhaps my expectations were so high I became unable to read it without overly assessing it or something. Blahdiggityblah, ty for another awesome video!

[lauratesta]

Joel - on the arctic theme, check out WINTERLUST by Brunner (nonfiction). I loved it! Learned a lot 🙏📚😘 Thank you both for a great video 🤩😘😘

[michelacarletti]

I always look forward to your wrap-ups 🤩

[bookishbedlam]

Thanks boys. I always enjoy your wrap ups.
I absolutely loved "Seven Moons." It was the first book I read in 2023 and it set a very high bar for the remainder of the year.
I've read some of Jack London's novels and short stories and I've liked everything I've read.
In general I like Mark Twain's short stories more than his novels.
"Trust" is on my Pile of Possibilities.

And I'm reading "Fingersmith" now.

[samleblanc]

Greg, I took your recommendation for the Inward Island book. The problem was I accidentally purchased "The Island" (not the one your husband read) on my kindle and I was so confused. This book didn't seem at all what you were talking about. It was such a strange read and I kept waiting for it to get good but it didn't. Now I realized I left a word out and I can't stop laughing.

[sweeteliz]

What a wonderful library! Great work, guys!

[jackwalter]

I'm reading The New Life now. It's very good.

[lizh]

Joel may like Cold Coast by Robyn Mundy. It’s set in arctic Norway.

[readandre-read]

VEEP really is wonderfully horrible. Everyone was so nasty but it was so funny. My favorites from January were Demon Copperhead and How High We Go in the Dark. Honorable mention to Agatha of Little Neon.

[trudyjohns]

Another great video with you two!!! I adding Duck to my to-read list. Thank you!!!

[mradcaqbdb]

Joel, I would recommend The Chain by Adrian McKinty. It’s violent like The Island, but I didn’t find it objectionable like I did The Island. I’m going to give away that the main character, the wife, in The Island shoots and kills multiple dogs. (I think that requires a heads up for potential readers.) I already didn’t like the book before that happened, but that, and the subsequent reveal of how fruitless all her actions were, really really made me mad. But I can definitely recommend The Chain.

I loved The Geek Who Saved Christmas, but I have to confess to fast-forwarding through the racy stuff. 😳 It was such a fun book. Can’t wait to get The Guncle from the library. You are becoming such an influencer, Joel!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ video. You guys are the best. Off to check out shopqueer!

[bookofdust]

I don’t know Greg, in the past our literary tastes aligned quite closely, but while I think Trust was a little too smart for its own good, overall I liked it and was impressed, but I’m a big historical fiction fan. Unfortunately, the Guncle for me needed a strong editorial hand to cut about a third of the book and some ghost writing help from Gary Janetti to punch up the camp, snark and zingers. I do think it has great potential as a movie, especially if Janetti is involved.

And then there’s me seemingly liking Where Angels Fear to Tread, much more then most of the participants, which is unheard of, I’m the one usually who’s the most hypercritical and calls out flaws. I can only guess that it hit some sentimental chords in me that glossed over it’s limitations.

I will highly recommend if you ever have the chance to go visit the Jack London State Historical Park in Glen Ellen near the Sonoma Valley in California, it’s perfect to fit in with wine tasting vineyard hopping. His three homes are in the park, the cottage where he wrote many famous works, the ruins of his magnificent home he built for himself that burned to the ground before they could move in and the house museum with his collection of amazing art and ethnographic objects from his world travels that thankfully had not been moved into the other house before the fire. It was believed at the time the fire must have been arson, which was a severe blow to his already fragile health and speed him on to his death. The last house was completed posthumously, and present day forensics has an interesting theory about what really caused the fire. But it’s just a beautiful classic Northern California landscape and and an opportunity for light hiking and enjoying nature all with a literary connection.