books I'd rate 6-stars if goodreads made it possible

Okay, here's what I'm going to need you

to do. I'm going to need you to pull up

Goodreads or the story graph or a

notepad and pen if you're feeling

analog, I guess. Good for you. Fight the

system. I am going to need you to take

the day off of school or work. Phone and

sick. I will vouch for you. I will write

you a note. I need you to go to your

nearest bookstore. I need you to go to

your nearest library or audio book

provider. And I need you to read at

least one of these books, please. I'm

serious. You need these in your life. I

promise you, I'm going to pitch them to

you in this video. So, hopefully you can

find the one that interests you the

most. But of the 120 odd books that I

read last year, these are the best of

the best. Trust me on this one. This is

now your required reading. This is now

your syllabus. And I need you to know

that I am so dedicated to the cause of

telling you about these that I stopped

reading the new Hunger Games book to

tell you about them. Yeah, it's that

serious. It's that deep. So, in this

video, I will be talking about each of

these books. This is my public service

to you. If you would like to hear about

every single book that I read last year

reviewed in one sentence each, I made a

video about it. If you want to know

about the worst books that I read last

year, I also made a video about it.

You're a hater. I like you. I gave uh

Kendrick Lamar run for his money with

that video. So, just be prepared for

that one. But for now, we're here. I

adore these books. These are so

brilliant. And let's dive in. James,

this to me just immediately entered the

literary cannon. I know that sounds

crazy. I know that sounds ridiculous.

Trust me on this one. Like, I fully

appreciate that sounds like giving a

singer a star on the Hollywood Walk of

Fame for their debut single. It feels

like giving someone an Oscar for their

audition tape. But even though this book

just came out, I do believe that it

deserves its place in the literary

cannon. And here's why. There's kind of

a brand of books which are essentially

kind of like literary fanfiction. So you

have books like Whit Saraso that is a

retelling of Jane Air but from the

perspective of Bertha. Recently Sandra

Newman released a book called Julia

which is a retelling of 1984. Hell even

Milton's Paradise Lost is essentially

Bible fanfiction. So this book kind of

comes under that category. So 141 years

ago Mark Twain wrote a book called

Huckleberry Finn. If you don't know

Huckleberry Finn, I'm going to hold your

hand when I say this. I don't know how

you found my channel. Huckleberry Finn

is one of the most iconic kind of works

of American fiction. Actually, Mark

Twain claimed that he was the first

person to ever write a full book using a

typewriter. That's kind of a useless

fact. My literature degree is kind of a

long-term investment into being good at

pub quizzes, but I'm glad I could flex

that knowledge now. I actually wonder

what fragment of a childhood memory I

have forgotten in order to retain that

fact about Mark Twain. Anyway, all these

years on, the incredible writer Pul

Everett has written this book, which is

a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, but

from the perspective of Jim the Slave.

James, what was that? Why' I say that?

Like Wendy Williams. James is a book

about who gets a voice and who doesn't,

who is silenced, who has been

historically erased from the narrative.

In this book, the character of James is

articulate and he's astute, whereas Mark

Twain presents him as kind of gormless

and submissive. At one point, he even

asks the question, "Which would frighten

you more? A slave who is crazy or a

slave who is sane and sees you clearly?"

In Huckleberry Finn, Jim is kind of used

as a bit of a prop for the white

characters's journey of self-discovery.

In that book, everything is refracted

through the lens of Huckleberry Finn and

Tom Sawyer. Jim, on the other hand, is

silenced. But here, he at long last

becomes the focal point of his own

adventure. He is not just given a voice,

but a stage. This is a quote from the

book. I can tell you that I am a man who

is cognizant of his world. A man who has

a family, who loves a family, who has

been torn from his family, a man who can

read and write, a man who will not let

his story be self-related, but

self-written. This book is horrible at

times, but it's also hilarious. It's

dark, but it's also enlightening. And in

that sense, I think that Pival Everett

is faithful to the original tone of the

book of Huckleberry Finn. So, he pays

homage to the original whilst also

inventing something new. He says the

difficult things out loud and it isn't

patronizing. So, to me, this feels like

a modern classic that people will be

studying for a very long time and you

should get ahead of the curve. This is a

book that demands to be read, so you

should read it. Next up, we have All

Fours by Miranda July. Now, let me just

tell you, when I went to writing school

in New York City, there were two rules.

Number one was everybody has to write

and everybody has to share their work.

And number two was no one is a better

writer than Miranda July. I became

obsessed with her work through reading

it in my writing school program. And

when I saw that she'd released her first

book in a decade, I was very excited

about that. I bought it without even

reading a plot summary and I think that

it felt like a complete fever dream and

I'm so glad I got to experience it in

that way. It just keeps surprising you.

You never know what's going to come

next. Every time you turn the page

there's something batshit insane. Like

it is whacka doodle time with this book.

It is whack a doodle time. But also it's

not outside of the scope of what humans

are capable of. It's not like a fantasy

wonderland. This is deeply deeply human.

We follow a sort of larger than-l life

anti-hero. I say anti-hero because she's

definitely not really the hero of the

book, but she's a complicated villain as

well. She's sort of both simultaneously.

And that is part of the beauty of this

thought experiment. I guess this book is

about confronting your life as you reach

middle age. It's about realizing that

you are harvesting resentments of the

life that has in some ways been taken

away from you when you no longer have

potential or you no longer perceive

yourself to have that potential. She's

kind of proving to herself that she

does. She says this, "All of the

hormones that made me want to seem

approachable so I could breed are gone

and replaced by hormones that are

fiercely protective of my autonomy and

freedom." This woman leaves her husband

and her child behind as she ostensibly

takes a road trip from her home in LA to

a work event in New York City. But the

second that she starts to drive and she

gets in that car, she can't bring

herself to drive to New York and she

takes a turn on the road. She

deliberately drives herself to a nearby

motel and camps out there instead just a

few miles from home. And I think that

the hotel room as a setting is really

fascinating cuz it's this kind of liinal

space, right? It's a holiday from your

normal life, but that is constantly

problematized by the inevitability that

you will have to return. It is not

permanent. It is a temporary space. And

that's kind of the tension of this book.

There's a relaxed attitude towards

morality and decision-m, let's just say,

but also an awareness of real life to

return back to at some point where there

are responsibilities and there are

repercussions. She decides to hire an

interior designer to decorate the hotel

room that she is staying in. They

renovate it in quite ostentatious and

frivolous ways. And then the designer's

partner comes over to help with some of

the renovations. And our main character

just begins lusting over him. She

becomes pretty obsessed with him. I

would say you know that one friend who

every time you FaceTime them, they have

been up to something absolutely insane.

That's this character. Every chapter is

a new predicament or mental anguish or

preoccupation and it is honestly just

rip roaring fun. Like make literature

fun again. This is such a riot. And one

of her favorite pastimes is just lying

for no reason. She says for me lying

created just the right amount of

problems. And what you saw was just one

of my four or five faces, each real,

each with different needs. The only

dangerous lie was one that asked me to

compress myself down into a single

convenient entity that one person could

understand. I was a kaleidoscope. Each

glittering piece of glass changing as I

turned. I have been googling black

markets to find out if there is a place

I can sell my soul to read this again

for the first time. Truly, it's my

motivation to set up a book club this

year just so I can discuss this with

people. You know, has anyone been

watching the show Severance? I wish I

could get severed just so that my innie

could experience this for the first time

without having read it before. That's

how much this means to me. It's serious.

Now, before I move on to talking about

the next book, I wanted to firstly share

my honorary mentions. So, I'm going to

put them on screen right now. These are

the books that I loved this year so

much, but they didn't make my top 10.

These are all brilliant books, five

stars. I love them all dearly, but if I

would talk about them as well, we would

be here literally all day. And the other

thing I wanted to tell you about is that

today's video is very kindly sponsored

by Millerote. This is the best way of

putting down all of your thoughts into

one place and brainstorming, planning

out projects. You can make a board and

then put all of your information that

you need in one place. And it's so

intuitive and userfriendly because you

basically just drag and drop everything

that you need into the board that you

are creating. So to give you an example,

I created this one right here, which

shows you all of my top books for 2024

and kind of how they're linked. So the

red lines are thematic links and the

black lines other types of associations.

So like they were nominated for the same

award or they won the same prize because

I wanted to give you some kind of visual

representation of where you should

begin, where you could start, like which

book might peique your interest, and if

you like this kind of book, what else

you might like as well. It's kind of a

road map to the books that I loved this

year just to give you a better starting

point, I guess, a more helpful entrance

point. So, using Millanote, you can

create project plans. You can create

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to see things visually in order for me

to be able to process them. So for me, I

need this kind of a platform which is

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Milano. We love you, Milano. And on with

the next book. Boulder by Eva Baltazar

ponders similar questions. This asks the

question, what is more important, love

or freedom? So, we follow a woman who

works for a boat and when the boat docks

in Barcelona, she gets off and has this

crazy one night stand and she kind of

falls in love with the lady that she had

the one night stand with. And so, the

boat goes away again for a while. 3

months of lusting over this lady pass

and then when she comes back to

Barcelona, she's ready to like confess

her love to her and the lady tells her

she's moving to Iceland. So, our

protagonist does the only rational thing

that you do in this situation and moves

to Iceland with her. I will say usually

I write notes at poetry about my

situationships, but to each their own.

Move to Iceland. Sure, Rekuik sounds

nice. The trouble is once they arrive in

Iceland, the lady says to her, "I want

to have a baby and I want to have it

right now." And as someone who has

always imagined her life without

children, this is not just a curveball

for our main character, but like a

football to the face. A football to the

face with glasses on. You know how that

hurts? They go through with IVF

treatment and it's successful first time

and suddenly there's a baby and we face

a moral dilemma. If our character wants

to be free, then she has to lose the

person that she loves. If she wants to

be loved, then she has to sacrifice her

freedom. And realizing that something

has to be compromised here sends her

spiraling. All this tunneling has opened

rifts through which the captive parts of

me have started to emerge. I realize

that I am smoke, that the things that

define me rise as they would up a

chimney, probing every crack, searching

for a wellspring of light or cold, a

cupul of sky to sprawl into. I love that

imagery. these fundamental parts of you

that are desperate to emerge and they'll

start to manifest in any way they

possibly can. Eva Baltazar's writing

just drips liquid poetry off the page.

It is sharp. It's also lyrical and packs

such an emotional punch. In fact, I'm

glad that it's short because then it

won't hurt as much when I get every line

from this book tattooed onto my body.

Seriously though, this book I kind of

experienced a sort of book hangover

after finishing it because I was like, I

don't know how I'm going to find

something as good as that. Thankfully,

there are two other books in this sort

of series. It's a trilogy written by Eva

Basar, translated by Julia Sanchez from

the Catalan. This is actually the middle

book, but you don't need to have read

any of the others to understand it. So,

the one before is called Perafrost, and

the one after is called Mammoth. I've

read all three, and I will say I think

this is the best one. And the books

aren't linked in terms of plot. That's

why I say you don't need to have read

the other ones in order to understand.

There's kind of more of a thematic link

between them. There's no crossover, but

I think the point of this project was to

study the grievances and the conundrums

and the frustrations of women. So, we

follow three similar women in different

scenarios. This is a must readad and

it's also, I will say, dare I say, proof

that sex scenes and smart can be

literary. This is smoking hot. And if

you needed further evidence of that

fact, this is another book which does

the same thing. This makes sex scenes

feel so literary. This is The Safekeep,

which follows a very house proud woman.

One day, her brother turns up to her

house and he's like, "Hey, my

girlfriend's going to live with you for

a bit. Hope that's okay, Rita. It was It

was not okay. It was so far from okay.

She is fuming. She hates this woman. She

makes Drake and Kendrick Lamar look like

puppies playf fighting. That's how

violent and aggressive her hatred is.

You see the way her brother's girlfriend

just infuriates her. Like there are

seven trillion nerves in the human body

and this woman manages to get on every

single one. But eventually this book

becomes more than just rivalry and

etiquette. It's a story really of

ownership and of heritage and desire and

ultimately war. It's an often untold

story of the Second World War where, you

know, the war doesn't end just when the

final bullet is fired. The repercussions

echo and reverberate for decades, for

centuries even. And that's where we're

at, where these two characters lives

collide. I absolutely flew through this

book. Quite literally, I was flying. I

opened the first page of this book as I

boarded a flight as I sat down in my

seat and then I closed the final page as

we landed. I could not you could not pry

me away from this even with a very good

selection of films. I will say I I

didn't even look at them because I was

just absolutely hooked on this. You

would have to pry this book out of my

white knuckled hands like Jack we've

landed. You have to get off. I was like

no I'm I'm reading this until the end.

phenomenal, but also insane that this is

a debut piece of fiction. It's just that

good. I love this quote. You kind of get

an idea of the infatuation. The canals

had frozen over. Isabelle tested one

with her foot and found it solid and

then stood on it in wonder. A miracle,

she thought, to stand so solidly on what

could also engulf you. Because really,

it's not about frozen canals. It's about

people. And I think that is reflected in

the fact that this book is not just

about people. It's actually an allegory

for so much more. There's also this

great quote about longing for someone

after they've gone. She had held a pair

in her hand and she had eaten it skin

and all. She had eaten the stem and she

had eaten its seeds and she had eaten

its core and the hunger still sat in her

like an open moore. She thought, "I can

hold you and find that I still miss your

body." She thought, "I can listen to you

speak and still miss the sound of your

voice." It was nominated for the Booker

Prize this year, as was my next pick,

which actually won the prize. This

precious little book is the perfect

antidote to the world that we are seeing

around us right now. It feels like a

really tough time to exist within

culture and society and to try and

navigate that. But this book I feel is

the bomb that we all need. It's so

soothing and generous and pure. Orbital

is a book about six astronauts and

cosmonauts in space who with the vantage

point of distance staring at the Earth

all day become weirdly protective over

our little planet. They're all from

different countries. And I think it's a

necessary reminder that national borders

are something we created. Passports are

something of human invention. Visas are

a human creation. These things are

implemented to say we are different.

Different countries have different visa

rules for different people because they

essentially divide us up into

categories. In this book, you have two

Russians, an American, someone from

Italy, someone from the UK, someone from

Japan. So you have there such an

interesting little microcosm with

countries and people who may have

considered each other enemies, people

who may have considered each other foes.

And yet this setting, this space,

literally space, is a great equalizer.

In orbital, Samantha Harvey says, "Think

a new thought, they sometimes tell

themselves. The thoughts you have in

orbit are so grandiose and old. Think a

new one, a completely fresh, unthought

one. But there are no new thoughts.

They're just old thoughts born into new

moments. And in these moments is the

thought. Without that earth, we are all

finished. We can't survive a second

without its grace. We are sailors on a

ship on a deep, dark, unswimable sea.

It's contemplative and deeply deeply

moving. And in turn, it makes you feel

kind of proud of the planet and of being

an inhabitant of planet Earth. And in

equal measure, I think this book made me

kind of angry. Angry at the people who

have made this earth a divided place and

who seek to divide us further. People in

power right now who seek to point out

our differences rather than our

similarities. You know, the similarities

at the core of our beings. So to me,

although this was small and subtle, it

was also galvanizing. It's a rallying

call that we don't need to be so

divided. Like that isn't the logical

way. We have a natural tendency as

humans towards compassion and kindness

and yet we focus on who is allowed to

travel across which imaginary boundary.

And so when you think about the booker

prize the question is not just which are

the books that are the best written

although that is a component that's an

ingredient to the formula. I think it's

also you have to ask yourself the

question what is the book that will

define this year? What is the book that

speaks to some sort of universal truth

that we need to acknowledge? I think

that's what this book does. It speaks to

our contemporary predicament. It speaks

to and for the present moment. Orbital

was without a doubt the winner of last

year's book of prize. I love this book.

It's kind of cleansing in a way. It

feels kind of cathartic to read. So, I

will say if you are feeling a little

worldw weary and you want to just slow

down and linger, pick this one up. It is

deceptively short, but it is worth

taking your time over and really

embracing each page and the ideas that

it presents. There are lots of big ideas

for such a small volume. And Samantha

Harvey is really committed to dissecting

things, pulling them apart, ruminating

on them, considering them deeply, I

loved this. And when I name my firstborn

child orbital, mind your own business.

Okay, next. Martr. Oh my god, please can

we talk about Martyr? There is a reason.

There is an exclamation mark in the

title of this book because you will want

to talk about it at full volume. You

will want to shout martyr at everyone

you see telling them they have to pick

up this book. They have to read this

book. And that's what I'm going to do

for you right now. Oh my god. Oh, she

passed away. I just threw that into my

lap where there are some tender areas

you do not want to throw a hardback book

into like that. Oh my god. Okay, moving

on. This is not just one of my best

books of the year. This is one of the

best books I have ever read. Ironically,

I would die on that hill. I will be the

martyr for this cause. This book covers

a lot of philosophical ground, but

plot-wise, we follow a an Iranian

American man who is a poet and his mom

was killed in a US sort of military air

disaster. So, her plane was shot down by

the US military and she died. So he's

always had a fragile relationship with

death and the concept of a martyr. And

then he sees that a terminally ill

artist is hosting an exhibition in a

museum in Brooklyn where basically she

will talk to anyone who comes and sits

across from her. It's kind of like you

know that exhibition or project that

Marina Abramovich did. I think it was

called the artist is present where she

would like sit and people could come and

sit across from her and they would sit

in silence. This is that but for

yappers. This artist in this book, the

fictional one, will talk to the person

who comes and sits across from her. And

so our narrator has this total

preoccupation with death and so the

opportunity to go and speak to someone

who knows they are about to die is

exciting for him. And so he flies to

Brooklyn and he sits and he has a series

of conversations with this artist and

those conversations are revoly. So I

loved that. But one of the other things

I really liked about this book was how

thoughtfully it considered goodness and

grace. He says it's hard not to envy the

monsters when you see how good they have

it and how unbothered they are at being

monsters. You know goodness every day

becomes a choice. Living with this

belief that humans are fundamentally

good is a choice that you have to make

every single day because it will be

constantly challenged. That ideology

will be corrupted every time you go out

and see human beings acting appallingly.

But there is a belief that humans have a

natural propensity towards goodness. I

suppose this book invokes a lot of

historical figures and philosophers and

thinkers and so you actually learn a lot

while reading it as well. like a whistle

stop tour through philosophy, I guess.

And it provides you with beautiful new

ways to articulate the things that you

see around you and human behavior to an

extent. There was a section I wanted to

read to you. I mean, I underlined almost

the entire book because the writing is

that good, but um this page

specifically. When asked about the

difficulties of sculpture, Michelangelo

said, "It is easy. You just chip away

all the stone that isn't David. It's

simple to cut things out of a life. You

break up with a shitty partner, quit

eating bread, delete the Twitter app,

you cut it out. And the shape of what's

actually killing you clarifies a little.

The whole Abrahamic world invests itself

in this promise. Don't lie, don't cheat.

Don't [ __ ] or steal or kill, and you'll

be a good person. Eight of the Ten

Commandments are about what thou shalt

not do. But you can live a whole life

not doing any of that stuff and still

avoid doing any good. That's the whole

crisis. The rot at the root of

everything. The belief that goodness is

built on a constructed absence. Not

doing that belief corrupts everything.

Has everyone with any power sitting on

their hands. A rich man goes a whole day

without killing a single homeless person

and so goes to sleep content in his

goodness. In another world, he's buying

crates of socks and cliff bars and

tents, distributing them in city

centers. But for him, abstinence reigns.

I want to be the chisel, not the David.

What can I make of being here and what

can I make of not? In that way, I feel

like it's wise, but the book is also

curious because we're going on the

journey with the narrator. He

contemplates and ruminates on his ideas

and he also changes his mind. And on top

of all of that, I think it's also a book

about heartbreak and despair and

alcoholism and suicide. And it's not

only one of my favorite books I read

last year, but a new favorite of all

time. And so for that matter is this

one. This is evenings and weekends and

this is just a love story to London.

It's set over the course of a

swelteringly hot weekend. And I think

that the weather in this book makes it

feel all the more claustrophobic. It

feels like all of the characters are

just on top of each other and too close

for comfort and closing in. Everyone is

in each other's business. We have a big

ensemble cast of characters, so it kind

of feels like a soap opera or a Richard

Curtis film. like you know a modern day

love actually. This is the real

housewives of northeast London and I

devoured it. The city of London almost

appears like a character in this book in

its own right. Oshin McKenna points out

that the city can just act as a backdrop

but in this book it becomes a playground

for exploration and each character is

fighting their own battle. You know we

have a couple who are engaged to be

married. We have a couple who are

expecting a baby but aren't sure if

they're ready to settle their lives down

and pin themselves to one place. There's

a mother who has been diagnosed with

cancer and needs to tell her son. A

character navigating an open

relationship, people discovering their

sexuality early on but also later in

life. And it kind of made me think of

the concept of s. S is the idea that or

the realization that everyone around you

is living as complex a life as you are.

Everyone has as much going on in their

brain as you do. And I like that the

title is pluralized evenings and

weekends because it sort of suggests

that this is just one weekend in a very

long and complicated life. Each of these

characters has had many weekends and

will have many afterwards. This is just

one of them. What makes this weekend

unique is that there is a whale stuck in

the river temps. So basically this whale

has got itself in a bit of a jam and all

of the media outlets are covering it,

but there's one lady in particular who

is reporting on the whale and she

happens to look a lot like Princess

Diana. And so everyone refers to her as

the princess of whales. Get it? So the

book is funny, but what I love most

about it is that there are no villains.

You know, there are characters who make

mistakes and betray themselves and

betray others. They have flaws. They're

fallible, but each one is written with

empathy and compassion. We understand to

an extent how they come to the decisions

that they do. And in that way, Oshene

McKenna writes each one with fairness, I

think, and they feel so real. It feels

like each one of these characters could

just jump off the page into the room

that you're sitting in and you could

have a conversation with them. They feel

so three-dimensional. We see that in our

lives. We see the way that people expand

and change over time. And this is what

Oshin McKenna says. There is too much to

say and no way to say it. It's

impossible for anyone to describe the

detail of their life, the

minute-to-minute transition from one

thought to the next. And unless you

speak to a person on a regular basis,

how can you know what their life is

like? You can't. The book discusses how

money and social class permeate

everything. It's about the city and sex

and intimacy and partying, but also

aging and coming to terms with the

development of your life and how at

first everything is fun and potential

and silly and chaotic, but eventually

you have to start making decisions that

have long-term effects. And to be quite

frank, I think this is the perfect book.

So that's evenings and weekends.

Sticking with the hot and sweaty summer

vibes, this is Last Summer in the City.

This one was originally published a

while back, but it's so existential and

the troubles that the character faces

are so real and raw that it kind of

feels eternal. First published in 1973,

Last Summer in the City is about a man

frittering around Rome in this alcoholic

haze. Sometimes experiencing the city to

be sweet and sublime, but at other

times, sometimes at the same time

finding Rome to be a cruel landscape.

Here's a quote. Rome by her very nature

has a particular intoxication that wipes

out memory. She's not so much a city as

a wild beast hidden in some secret part

of you. There can be no half measures

with her. Either she's the love of your

life or you have to leave her because

that's what the tender beast demands to

be loved. If she's loved, she'll give

herself to you whichever way you want

her. All you need to do is go with the

flow and you'll be within reach of the

happiness that you deserve. You will

have summer evenings glittering with

lights, vibrant spring mornings, cafe

tablecloths ruffled by the wind like

girls skirts, keen winters, and endless

autumns. Every now and again, someone

did get the hell out. Our central

character, Leo, is told by friends, you

cannot go on like this. But I suppose

his curse is that he knows that he

actually kind of can. And so he prevails

and he keeps wandering on this

destructive and disaffected path. On his

journey, he considers love and lust,

suicidal ideiations, the sea, the city,

books, but maybe because of the alcohol,

there is a certain numbness sort of

instilled in his perception of things.

He's kind of disillusioned and the tone

is truly unforgettable. If you are

wanting to read a character's

perspective where you just feel every

single line, every single letter in your

soul, this is the book to read. I feel

like it really stands up to be as iconic

as books like The Catcher in the Rye and

The Great Gatsby. Like, let me just read

from page one to give you a sense of the

tone because straight out the gate, it

is kind of iconic, I think. So, it

starts like this. Anyway, it's always

like that. You do your best to keep to

yourself and then one fine day, without

knowing how, you find you're caught up

in something that sweeps you along with

it to the bitter end. Personally, I

would have happily stayed out of the

race. I'd known all kinds of people,

some who'd reached the finishing post

and others who hadn't even gotten off

the starting block. And sooner or later,

they all ended up equally dissatisfied,

which is why I'd come to the conclusion

that it was better to stay on the

sidelines and just observe life. But I

hadn't reckoned with being desperately

short of money one rainy day at the

beginning of spring last year. All the

rest followed naturally, as these things

do. Let me make it clear from the start

that I don't blame anyone. I was dealt

my cards and I played them. That's all.

But also, what I would say is that the

cards he's being dealt are constantly

being reshuffled. The people he meets

are as meaningful as those he's left

behind. And we eventually build up a

sort of mosaic of this man through the

pros on his meandering route through the

city. This feels like an outof body

experience. I adore this book. Okay,

we're nearly there. This is the

penultimate book. This is Chyros written

by Jenny Urinbeck and translated by

Michael Hoffman. This actually won last

year's International Booker Prize, which

I had the honor of hosting. It's so

funny because as the host and as someone

who is interviewing all the different

authors, you have to kind of remain a

little impartial, but I was secretly

hoping for this one to win. It's set in

East Berlin before and after the fall of

the Berlin Wall. So, it's a very

fascinating historical setting, but also

this is a book on a personal level about

love and betrayal about two characters

who meet each other on the bus by

complete chance and their chemistry is

just completely electric and so intimate

almost immediately. You know, when you

just you just have a spark with someone,

you just have that immediate click and

it's like, "Oh, it's you." You know? Oh,

how could it have ever been anyone else?

That's how it feels. this love affair

just becomes allconsuming. It is so

special to read and it just sort of

bubbles up inside them. If you've ever

had an incredibly intense crush or a

situationship, you will eat this one up.

And the language that they use to

describe one another and the way that

they converse and the dialogue, it just

dances on the page. Truly, I need this

to be made into a movie. I need to see

two people bring this to life as well.

The book actually gets its title from

the god Kyros in reference to the

fleeting nature of this love affair.

Chyros, the god of fortunate moments, is

supposed to have a lock of hair on his

forehead, which is the only way of

grasping hold of him. Because once the

god has slipped past on his winged feet,

the back of his head is sleek and

hairless, nowhere to grab hold of. And

it's sort of about how like once a

relationship has ended, sweetness really

leaves no souvenir, you know? It's like

I swear I had these feelings and I swear

I was part of momentary bliss, but I

have nothing tangible to hold on to

anymore and to say look here it is. I've

experienced this joy. You know, if you

get hurt, if you get injured, you have a

scar to prove it. But this bliss doesn't

leave anything. And so that's where our

character is left sort of grasping at

that piece of hair that they can no

longer see. And really too, this book is

an allegory about a nation that has

ceased to exist. the ending I will never

recover from. So, Jenny Urban, you are

single-handedly responsible for my

therapy bills because what the hell,

Jenny, you tore my heart in two. Again,

it's definitely cathartic and it feels

like such a purge of the emotions

because you feel every single particle

of that tangible connection these two

characters seem to have. And then you

two are left sort of clutching to be

like, "Wait, I swear it was here

somewhere." You know, it's a really

moving experience. I love books written

with a free indirect discourse style.

What that means is that you can see both

characters perspectives simultaneously.

They don't know each other's

perspectives, but we as the reader have

the kind of vantage point of being able

to see inside both of their heads. Sort

of like normal people in a way. If you

like that book, I think you will really

love this one, too. It's about loyalty.

It's about cruelty. It's about how two

people navigate the ruins of a

relationship and also its intensity.

Come, darling May, and put the buds back

on the trees. The piano wishes at the

end, but it's July now. The summer

evening outside has turned into a summer

night. The bottle of wine is empty. Do

you feel hungry? Sure. Then let's go

eat. Sure. It feels good to be walking

beside him, she thinks. It feels good to

be walking beside her, he thinks. And

just to round us off, here is another

book about a fleeting love affair.

There's a bit of a trend this year. The

final book I wanted to recommend to you

in this video is Madonna in a fur coat.

This is a Turkish classic by Sabahhatin

Ali, but again reading it, it just feels

completely brand new. Like it feels

modern. The emotions are contemporary

just as they probably were so moving

when it was first written as well. So at

first when they first meet, he says,

"Suddenly I felt light-hearted, even

brave. As I watched the waiter standing

there tottsing up the figures, I had the

overwhelming urge to smile and say,

"Just look how happy I am, you fools." I

wanted to salute every customer in the

room, throw my arms around them all,

even the musicians, and embrace them

like longlost friends. It's about how

love, especially in its early days of

being like freshly flowering and

blossoming, is so allconsuming. It seems

to give you those kind of rose tinted

glasses where everything feels

incredible. But this bliss in this book

at least is momentary and it becomes so

harrowing. I want to say this man is

dramatic but aren't we all? But later

once this woman is gone his whole life

feels kind of hollow. It's almost like

because he's had it because he's felt it

now it's absence is so painful. You

know, she had swept me away from my dark

and silent world, delivering me to the

land of truth and light. And now she had

vanished, offering no reasons and as

suddenly as she'd come. But for me,

there was no hope of sinking back into

my old torpour. For as long as I lived,

I would travel far and wide, meeting

with people whose languages I did or did

not know. And everywhere I went, I would

be looking for a Maria Puda. In every

pair of eyes, I would be searching for

the Madonna in a fur coat. I knew from

the outset that I would never find her.

Yet, it was not in my power to give up

searching. She had condemned me to a

lifelong quest for a cipher, for someone

that did not exist. She should never

have done this to me. So, a lot of

emotional intensity going on in this

one, too. It's moving. It's memorable.

It's full of yearning and melancholy,

and it will make you want to weep, which

is basically all I'm looking for in a

book. If a book makes me cry, I

basically am like, well, I'm yours for

life. I will tell everyone about this. I

will shout about it from the rooftops.

Thank you so much for that experience.

So, that's how I feel about this book.

It's not just a book. It's not just a

story, but it's also an experience and

it took me for a ride, trust me. So,

those are the books that I wanted to

tell you about. Let me know which one

you are thinking of reading in the

comments section or what your best books

of 2024 were that you read. I thoroughly

recommend each and every one of these

books that I spoke about today. I hope

that you enjoy them. Let me know if you

read them, what you think. I think that

they each present a lot of food for

thought. I think they each present a

real intensity of emotions, as I've

said, but also gorgeous pros, lyrical

writing, just such a treat. So special.

I'm very jealous that you get to read

them for the first time. Thank you so

much for being here. Thank you for

watching this video. You can follow me

on Tik Tok and Instagram to see what I'm

reading now, what I'm getting up to. My

second channel, of course, where I share

my monthly reading. So, I share like

what I'm planning to read each month.

And then this channel is more for like

my reviews. And that's everything. I

hope that I can find books as good as

these ones this year. All the best. Have

a wonderful day and I'll catch you very,

very soon. Bye-bye.