Jack, the cover of Tender is the Flesh is referencing one of the most famous Spanish paintings in the world, Guernica by Pablo Picasso with the bull’s horns. Obviously, there’s some connections between the themes of the painting and the novel. The painting used to be housed at The Museum of Modern Art, but was returned to Spain.
Picasso stipulated in life and in his will that the painting not be given to Spain until it became a democracy. Ruled by Franco, he died 2 years after Picasso and the government did change. The US was still reluctant but finally gave it to Spain in 1981. I was lucky enough to have seen it a few times (I’m a New Yorker) before it was given away. I didn’t really know that part of its history and I thought it would always be there for my viewing. I sure miss it.
@@megancurtis9502 Me too! The dust jacket felt so disgusting and the worst thing was that when I took it off the hardcover underneath was THE SAME TEXTURE! I then read it as an ebook, no joke 😂
Jack, if you like multi-storied novels where all the characters converge at the end, The Overstory by Richard Powers is a beautiful novel about how multiple characters from around America find themselves drawn to an environmental protest in the West, but all for very different reasons. It’s a stunning environmental fiction novel about how nature interconnects us all
Tender is the flesh was the best book I read in 2021 and I still think about at least every couple of weeks. It has made such an impact on how I see human behaviour, which, as a psychologist, is very relevant for my daily life.
Here's a summary of Delicatessen: "Post-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of an apartment building who occasionally prepares a delicacy for his odd tenants."
I live in Austria and there’s an amazing online store, where I can buy most in print editions for pretty much every book. With free shipping and severe discounts as well
@@julialijesen2546 they're also Amazon owned btw. Better order them from Thalia, they have 17-25% off of English books about once a month too and you can get most every edition from anywhere in the world
hi jack! i just wanted to say thank you for all of the videos you post and everything that you do :) i’ve been going through a pretty tough time recently and your videos always make me smile. have a great day :)
It is really nice to see you reading Mohsin Hamid. He is Pakistani author so seeing you read South Asian literature is simply heartwarming. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Hey! Thought you may be interested in "The Cemetery of Forgotten Books" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón since you mentioned books with different stories connected to one another and are generally interested in translated fiction and books about books. The first book ("The Shadow of the Wind", which I thought was really good, but definitely has some flaws, especially its misogyny) is about the young son of a bookseller who gets entangled in a mystery about forgotten stories and a missing writer whose books are being stolen and burnt, whilst, around him, the scars of the civil war are still hurting. It actually makes an appearance in the video, next to "The Secret History" (2:56). I don't know if I'm selling it, but maybe give it a try. I really enjoy your videos, by the way! Thanks for making them.
Both of your channels are why I put myself on a Book Buying Ban... I have so many books and not nearly enough time to read all of them 😆 Love what you do, keep up the great work!
Love these videos about the covers! As someone that works as a cover designer I would love to see you credit the cover designers. Also in the states it’s super common to have gritty or sandy matte effects. I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re feeling 👍🏻
How high we go in the dark WRECKED me. It was so good and it’s telling if a collection of short stories can move you in that way. They were so perfectly connected
Ooh! A great example of a book which has lots of individual stories that reveal the bigger picture to the reader as you go along is the Hair Carpet Weavers by Andreas Eschbach. It's technically sci-fi but a bit more like black mirror/speculative. Despite a slightly questionable men-writing-women moment at the end, it was my favourite book of 2022, so good!
How high we go in the dark destroyed me, I cried so hard... especially the theme park and the pig parts... but really all of them. I read it in April 2021, but I still think about it.
Honestly, thank goodness I live in Malaysia because we have both the UK and US versions of book covers here😂 (though the price range is so different here based from where they're published🥲)
already watched the video, but saw your insta story and just thought I would say we will always watch your videos when they come out regardless of the time :)
Jack if you havent already you HAVE to read 'And the Mountains Echoed' by Khaled Hosseini - it's multiple short stories that join up to make one big one, emotionally devastating and as good as Khaled Hosseini's other books
What's your opinion on fantasy? Just curious because that's almost all that I read. Also, apparently World Book Day is often on April 23rd because many prominent authors (including Shakespeare) have died on that date. Which is funny because it's my birthday.
I read this like is he being sarcastic ? 😂 I’m always jello of 🇬🇧 covers to the extent I’ve started ordering from Blackwell’s. That’s super cool though you’re able to get some off that list 📖🪱💚
I prefer the US edition for The Last White Man and Real Life. I like both for Tender is the Flesh, don't really have a preference. For How High We Go in the Dark, I prefer the US cover but find the UK cover gives me 'virus' vibes somehow.
uk got done so dirty with the cloud cuckoo land cover compared to the US. you can get their edition in hardback but it’s £20 and i can never justify buying it when i’m in my town centre
For tender is the flesh I absolutely adore the Czech cover. Translation for the name is “znamenitá mrtvola” which is somewhat okay but the cover looks really cool imo
im curious to see how you feel about real life... i had very high expectations too and then it fell completely flat for me, but i've heard no one else say they didn't like it
This is the best birthday gift~~ Thank you, Jack~ I know it's not for me,😂 but I was contemplating having fun or preparing some notes for next week's classes. And you kind of gave me my answer.
The UK/EU cover for Tender is the Flesh reminds me of vulva art and idk if that's intentional or not. I haven't read it (yet), so I can't say if that association makes sense for the story or if that's just my brain being weird. But I also prefer the US cover, maybe because it's more obviously fitting with the story, idk.
I had such a hard time suspending my disbelief with Tender is the Flesh that it just didn't hit for me. But it is definitely thought provoking and I'm so curious to hear what you think of it
Very interested to hear what you thought of Tender Is The Flesh. I think I am in the minority of people of who gave a very low rating, but I'm curious to see what you think
Ahhh loved this video!😇🥰 Also, are you planning on doing a celeb video of Ben Barnes fav books? He's such a babe, great actor and also studied English lit aka the best combo ever! Bonus: his mum is a relationship psychotherapist (I believe) so he's literally a gem written by a woman in my opinion lol
When I saw the book "Tender is the flesh" I couldn't remember where I had seen or read about it before and when I did recall the first things I said were "Oh no. Oh no no no". My suggestion? Don't read it. Now maybe you shouldn't take it from me because I haven't really read it BUT I have seen its review by the booktuber withcindy where she basically explains the whole story. I, for one, think it's incredibly dumb. But maybe it is because I'm not a fan of dubious consent and books with no point what-so-ever and just being like "Oh all humans are bad and world is cruel and nothing can be done about it because that's just how things are." *SPOILER:* Basically humans eat other humans because... stuff. There is like a social hierarchy where the ones that eat other humans live like everyday humans and the ones that are eaten are not even treated as humans. They are treated like animals. They can't even speak and know nothing of the "human world". So the main character is someone who slaughters those humans. somebody dropped off a female specimen to the guy's place and he can't manage himself to kill her so instead he tries to keep her and do something that you're not supposed to do, which is to treat a livestock like a human being. Now the female specimen is very scared, she doesn't know what's going on, she can't even speak She was literally made as livestock. For a while the guy's taking care of her but then at the halfway point of the book, and this is where I started hating it, he decides to have sex with her. Now, SHE CAN'T CONSENT. That's basically raping her. And how are you having sex with someone whom you are raising like a child? Wouldn't it make more sense to develop a father-child kind of relationship? Later on, she becomes pregnant and towards the end of the story she's giving birth. The main guy finally sits next to the livestock who's still reaching out for the baby but he's like "everything's gonna be just fine, take it easy" and then it says: "When she calms down a little, he stands up and grabs her by the hair. Jasmine, now only able to move her hands, is trying to reach her. She wants to speak, to scream, but there are no sounds. He picks up the club he brought from the kitchen and hits her on the forehead right where she's been branded. Jasmine falls to the floor, stunned, unconscious. Cecilia (his ex-wife) jumps when she hears the thud, and looks at him without understanding. "Why?" she yells. "She could have given us more children." As he directs the body of the female to the barn to slaughter it, he says to Cecilia, "She had the human look of a domesticated animal." And that's so stupid. Like what was the fucking point? If he did kill her at the end, why couldn't he do so at the beginning? It doesn't help AT ALL that he treated her like a child, earned her trust, raped her, she gave birth and doesn't even get to hold her child, and then killed her. The ending does nothing other than shock value. Quoting withcindy's channel, "I think it's more courageous and more difficult to see that something is wrong or like, disagree with how society is run and then change your position on something and then like, stick through it. I think that would have been a greater message than like, oh humans are the same. It is much harder to write actual character development than to just write a twist of being like, oh look, he's still the same person." And this is the end of the longest comment I ever wrote.
I think for the first book I actually prefer the UK cover, just resonates with me more for some reason, not exactly sure why. The last one… got to be the US cover although I see what the UK cover does
Mohsin Hamid - the surname is pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable, i.e. Ha-MID, not HA-mid, and the 'i' is a subtle 'ee' sound, i.e. 'Ha-MEED'.
