My Top Backlisted Books of the Year!

Hi, I'm Bob, and here are my favourite backlisted books from the year!

00:00 Introduction
01:10 Doireann Ní Ghríofa- A Ghost in the Throat
02:37 Annie Ernaux- The Years (tr. Alison Strayer)
03:56 Claire Keegan- Foster
05:18 Richard Scott- Soho
06:26 Isabel Waidner- We Are Made of Diamond Stuff
07:58 José Saramago- Blindness (tr. Giovanni Pontiero)
10:49 Eimear McBride- A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing
12:54 Helene Tursten- An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good (tr. Marlaine Delargy)
14:31 Percival Everett- Erasure
16:53 Carmen Maria Machado- In The Dream House

--

Thank you for watching! You can also support my channel by buying your books through the following links (please note, these are affiliate links, so I will get a small percentage of the cost, but it will not affect the price of the book!)

You can also find me on Twitter at @wordbib and on the below:

[GunpowderFictionPlot]

The Dream House, what a wonderful concept! Thank you for bringing that to my attention.

Whata great list!

[steveberns]

Thank you Bob— I just ordered Blindness and Seeing, Soho, The Years, and An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good— your recommendations so often are books that I truly, truly enjoy, or at least expand my consciousness!

[curioushmm]

i love hearing someone who's not me who's life is so enriched by reading stories. have erasure which i hope to read next year and putting in the dream house and an elderly lady on my wish list..

[BookishTexan]

I have enjoyed several of these books or authors and now have some new books to read, and one to reread.

[anaovejero]

Claire Keegan is a supreme writer! Totally agree with you! Great video, thanks for the recs! Hi from Ana, from Argentina

[scallydandlingaboutthebook]

A Ghost In The Throat is one of my backlist books of the year too. I assumed when reading it that it would particularly speak to mothers so I am interested it was a stellar read for you too. Some inspiration for me here.

[SpringboardThought]

Yeah loved in the dream house and the years. I really gotta get into more from her tbh

[BookwormAdventureGirl]

Yes! Love lists. A few of these are on my TBR. A Ghost in the Throat and Blindness are nearing the top. Looking forward to more of your lists. 💙😊

[CestKevvie]

I loved Elderly Lady, and I liked the sequel even better!!

[TutankhamunReads]

Great List! I really like your idea of making a best books of the year seperated by backlist and new releases 🎉

[kiranreader]

love this! need to check out An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good lol

[janethansen]

So many backlisted books to get to. I have The Years by my bedside which will be my first Annie Ernaux. It amazes me how difficult it is to get any Percival Everett titles locally, I will need to order from the online company which is annoying. Also I would like to read some Saramago in the near future. My favourite backlist read this year was probably Drive your plow over the bones of the dead by Olga Tokarczuk. I very much enjoyed the main character in that novel.

[StephanieJCohen]

I really need to read Blindness and A Girl is a Half Formed Thing, but it sounds like adding in An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good between them would add the needed levity break. :)

[LouiseReader]

Fabulous list this one Bob. I read Blindness quite a few years ago, 15-20 I think, and loved it, it's a book I feel I should try and reread sometime soonish. I do have a copy around here somewhere.

I listened to The Years on audio recently. I didn't love it, but wonder if that was partly the audio. There were certain moments and lines that I really loved, but I would like to get hold of a print version and try it that way. I liked the later parts of the book quite a bit, but nearly DNF'd early on, I felt becalmed in it for quite a while.

I really, really want to read Foster. I haven't found it in a shop here yet. I liked Small Things Like These well enough, but everyone raves about Foster. Oh, I just checked Aoife McMahon reads the audio, I might need to get that I just love her voice. But one credit for 1.5 hours seems steep!

[kimswhims]

Great idea! I read a lot of new releases and I was wondering if the backlisted RubyFruit Jungle, Foster, A Room of Ones Own and the Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett should go up against them. All fabulous books/novellas, Rubyfruit Jungle was the most surprising, it's a terrific book.
Completely agree about In The Dream House, it's excellent.

[rudy]

Thanks for this. The way you described 'A Girl is a Half-formed Thing' sounds very interesting to me. Bought a copy before the video ended. Can you make a video about books most readers loved but you really disliked please?