RecentReads: Sunday 1 December 2024

Let’s chat about my recent and current reads.
#amreading #bookreviews #booktube

Books mentioned (in alphabetical order):
#nonfictionnovember #essays #buddyread

#nonfictionnovember #feminism #buddyread

#nonfictionnovember #memoir #GermanLit # buddyread

#nonfictionnovember #BooknaturalistBookclub

#1001Women #SandysBookclub

#nonfictionnovember #AI #buddyread #reread

#nonfictionnovember #memoir #feminism

00:00 Intro
01:20 Slouching Towards Bethlehem
04:40: Code Dependent
08:16: Fresh Banana Leaves
10:57: Farm in the Green Mountains
15:04: Stranger in the Mirror
17:06: For Her Own Good
17:39: Anagrams
18:53: Outro

People and channels mentioned:
PennyG. / subscriber & commenter
Terri @MsTerriB
Heidi @myreadinglife8816
Doris @alldbooks9165
Sandy @MsReadsAlot
Kathleen @KathleenAnnBooks

Read along with me!
1. Three classics I want to read in the second half of 2024

2. Sandy’s 1001 Books Bookclub
January – No book
February - The Princess of Cleves by Madame Lafayette (192 pages)
March - The Well Of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (448 pages)
April - Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud (192 pages)
May - The Waves by Virginia Woolf (304 pages)
June – Love’s Work by Gillian Rose (170 pages)
July - The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner (383 pages)
September - The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen (320 pages)
October - The Real Charlotte by Edith Somerville and Martin Ross (415 pages)
November - Anagrams by Lorrie Moore (240 Pages)
December - Life and Death of Harriett Frean by May Sinclair (86 pages)

Name of my YouTube channel:

Find me elsewhere:

I also wrote some books:
Fiction:
available in Dutch

also available in Dutch, French, Italian, Greek, Danish, Hebrew and Turkish

Non-fiction (available only in Dutch):

Crime novels under the pen name Britta Bolt (together with writer Rodney Bolt)
The Posthumus Mysteries:
- Lonely Graves (2014)
- Lives Lost (2015)
- Deadly Secrets (June 2016)

and for German readers:
- Das Büro der einsamen Toten (2015)
- Das Haus der verlorenen Seelen (2016)
- Der Tote im fremden Mantel (February 2017)

[louisep]

I've taken Banana Leaves off my TBR after you and Heidi reviewing it.
Also, "the book room"? Now I want to see that.

[WildHeartsandWildflowers]

Disappointing to hear about the lack of editing in Fresh Banana Leaves. I was very interested in that subject. For Her Own Good by Ehrenreich is on my list to read, so I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.
Thanks for the reminder about the Book Naturalist Book Club. I'll be sure to watch for the 2025 reading list. Looking forward to reading along with those books this coming year. 😊

[MsTerriB]

I agree with you about preferring The White Album over Slouching .... With Didion I have to keep reminding myself that the value (for me) of many of her essays is in their capture of a particular time and place, to allow me to see through the eyes of someone experiencing and/or observing in real time. It’s a bit of a time travel experience!

[davidnovakreadspoetry]

I’m glad you and Sandy will keep on with the book club. You both had hectic years, for good and bad reasons.

[booklover]

Yes. Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold. Enjoy!

[myreadinglife]

I thought The Farm in the Green Mountains was a delight! I also had a DNF in November. We are getting ruthless here at the end of the year!

[Ali-AvidReader]

I’ve noticed a few minor editorial mistakes in books I’ve read this year. Fresh Banana Leaves sounds something else though😮

[MarilynMayaMendoza]

Hi Britta, I really disliked the essay “ slouching taught Bethlehem“. I thought she seemed holier than thou toward the hippie women. But I really have not found Joan Didion to be for me.
I look forward to your review of for her own kid because it’s a subject that I’m interested in.
Aloha friend

[penelopegough]

I must read Code Dependent.I need to know more and understand what it’s all about and how it will affect us all. Every time I read an article in a newspaper/magazine I glaze over. Get a grip I think! Thanks Britta 😊

[heathereads]

Thank goodness YouTube lets us pre-record videos

[ameliareads]

I was very interested in The Stranger in the Mirror when you first talked about it. I got the same idea from the subtitle than you did. I hate when they or the blurbs are misleading in that way. I like memoirs, but I'm not sure I'm going to pick it up now.

[booklover]

I read all of Joan Didion’s books. I feel her essays are dated, but it’s interesting to read about issues from the 60s since I was born in 1965. Do you have Netflix? There’s a very good documentary on Joan, her husband and her adopted daughter. Joan is in the documentary and it’s just fascinating to watch. Happy reading!

[KCRReads]

I did read Slouching Toward Bethlehem but it has been many years now so I'm hazy on the stories now. I do like Didion and have read a few and, as you said, enjoy her writing. I am wondering if you have read Just Kids by Patti Smith? I think she is a good writer of the times she lived thru as well.

[josmith]

A mixed bag then Britta, sometimes DNF’s are just necessary. I think I might enjoy The Farm in the Green if it is more farm and less politics. What do you think?

[susprime]

Plus, Joan Didion was older than the hippies in 1969. "Don't trust anyone over 30, " Jack Weinberg, San Francisco.😂

[BookishTexan]

Editorial mistakes and neglect always reflect badly on the writer and the work. It’s a shame that it was so poor in that book that it ruined the reading experience.