May Book Haul | 2024 

my eyes *immediately* going to the new Sally Rooney not you singing my praises whilst being an ICON yourself 💗you're too kind! -- also you referring to reading multiple books as being a bookslut is my new fave thing 🤣(i do wish i could be a book slut myself, but sadly she's a one on one girl lolll)

I buy multiple copies too! Mine is Jane Austen books 😂 I have so many copies of Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion etc all because I thought the covers were so beautiful

I do that with books, too. I'll pre-order a book and then not read it for forever. I also will put off watching the last episodes of TV shows I love because I don't want them to be over. Sometimes for years.

It’s true that “The Coast Road” is stonkingly good. Stonkingly!😄

Splendid pile o’books! I love love loved Coast Road. One of my books of the year so far. Also, I’ve not read James by Percival Everett but I have read The Trees - bloomin’ brilliant! I didn’t read David Copperfield before reading Demon Copperknob and didn’t feel I’d missed out, so go ahead and read James (and let me know how you get on) xx

“Australia should be so lucky!” Yes yes we should! 🤣 I saw Alexis Wright at the Melbourne Writers Festival - absolutely fab- picked up Praisewortthy and I’m determined to read it in July. 😊

I'm half way through James on audio, I've never read Huck Finn, and as an Australian know almost nothing about it, and I'm loving James. I'm sure I'd get more out of it if I did know the story of Huck Finn, but James definitely stands alone. It's my first Percival Everett, but will not be my last. It has actually made me curious about HF, when I never have been before, and I may come to it after. I'm firmly convinced that reading a book never actually decreases your TBR, it only ever increases it! And yes short stories should have their own section, I recently built a library and have a short story section, and love it. I never read enough of them of course. I did just finish Jan Carson's Quickly While They Still Have Horses and absolutely loved it. She''s a master.

In my opinion, you don’t have to have read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in order to enjoy and understand “James.” Reading a summary of the plot of Huck Finn will suffice.

I keep my short story collections separate on my bookshelves and I find it helpful. I wish more bookstores did the same. The ones near me (I live in Ohio) shelve them in with the novels. I suppose that makes sense for collections that fall solidly into a genre such as mystery or speculative but when I’m looking for a sort of straightforward literary story collection I am usually in a different mindset than when I want to read a long novel so to me their uses are different if not their genres. The only bookstore I’ve been in that shelves short stories separatly is Greedy Reads, in Baltimore.

Tsiolkas has been a literary inspiration of mine for like a quarter of a century now. ❤ so amazing you got to hang out! Jelly of him too. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall

I’ve got Monstrillo on my shelf to read too! The cover you have for this is lush! Also love your shelves 😍

I had an ARC of Monstrilio when it first came out and although it wasn’t a full five star read, that book still haunts me and I catch myself thinking of it on random occasions. I really recommend it! Also, please be sensitive to us booksluts, we prefer the term “book polyamorist”. 😉

I read James without knowing Huck Finn and it was a quick, witty and heartbreaking story, that I liked a lot. I only watched some summaries of Huck Finn and found that really helpful going in. Maybe you want to try that as well as a kind of compromise.

of course, deeply jelly of your copy of Intermezzo. 😭😭😭 looove seeing your name on the back of the book though! honestly, feels so much more personalized i wish more publishers did this !!!

Hi Simon At long last just read My Name is Lucy Barton which u spoke about yonks ago. Great book. Thanks!

i love the cover of coexistence ! i didn't know of this collection, thank you! have really loved his writing, so i'll this out as well (although i generally don't get on well with short stories...)

Sooooo many amazing books in this haul! Monstrilio sounds incredible! Burial Plot and Saltblood on my tbr too. Going to keep an eye out for Fruit of the Dead. Hoping to see Amy Brown talk about My Brilliant Sister at an event at a local indie next week. Would love to hear more about the library redecorate as you go or when you’re done. I think I’ll pick up Praiseworthy on a long weekend too 🤔 Hope you’ve had a lovely week!

Oh my! A new Eley Williams with an amazing title. I had no idea. Wow! I have heard incredibly things about Praiseworthy (Australia should be so lucky!! 😂😂). And the envy over your having the new Strout this early is real (a summer of Strout. Be still my heart). Super excited for The Coast Road. On James (which is worthy), I think you should know the plot of Huck Finn, especially the parts that Jim is in. Do you “need” more than that? No. Everett said he reread Huck Finn 15 times before he wrote James and will never read it again! I put short story collections on a separate shelf from novels, for whatever that’s worth. And you and font sizes!! 😂😂

You don’t need to have read Huck Finn to enjoy James! If you’d like to get some of the references and bits he changes, it’s worth reading a plot summary. I actually watched an animated video summary, which helped a lot! But it stands alone so absolutely fine to go in blind. Cuddy is so, so good. And I also got the Small Joys paperback because the new cover won me over. Boy With a Black Rooster is going to be my Savidge Prompts pick for this month!

Praiseworthy is outstanding, it's an effort to read but if you can do it with the audiobook too, it can help. Thanks for the Anything is Possible heads-up, I was able to borrow the audiobook from the library, they must have just added it. My Brilliant Sister! Thunderhead! Poor Things! So many great books! Happy Reading 😀

I, too, am spending my summer re-reading Elizabeth Strout. I've recently started My Name is Lucy Barton and I'm loving it just as much as I did the first time. Excited to see your summer of Strout project.

Your room looks adorable.

Thanks for another great video, Simon. 👏 I've reserved both The Coast Road and Saltblood from my local library. As I'd purchased James I decided to read HF first and was delighted to find a free audio version read by Elijah Wood on Audible (for Amazon Prime members only, I think), and am really enjoying it, more than I expected to (once I got used to the repeated use of the N word). Have just finished - and would highly recommend - the first two of John Boyne's Elements novellas, Water and Earth ❤️📖. Fire is due out in the Autumn sometime.

Thanks Simon. Away to start Small Joys looking forward to it. Just finished Brother & Sister Enter the Forest. Also picked up Turnglass which will be an interesting read as it’s two books which you can either read separately or read 1 chapter alternately which I am planning on doing, but I am the same you monogamous with my books. 📚

Just started reading the happy couple 😉

i love your info and the videos with you mom too. Just on fyi...you videos are harder to hear than in the past...just letting you know in case something is different with recording...but still watching and enjoying you!!

Got The Coast Road from the library yesterday, hope it lives up to the hype. I can't wait to read Blue Sisters, loved Cleopatra & Frankenstein!

I went to see coco mellors in Edinburgh and I’m now officially a fan girl ❤ LOVED Blue Sisters and C&F

Perceval Everett James is amazing. No need to read Huck Finn. Hope you like it.

I bought my dad James. He couldn’t remember much of Huck Finn from decades ago and was fine. Same really as Demon Copperhead and David Copperfield.

I’ve really enjoyed Kaveh Akbar’s poetry.

Hi Simon! I'll be interested in hearing your thoughts on Monstrilio because another BookTuber has really raved about it, but she likes reading horror books and I don't, so I'd like to hear your take on it and if we need to be horror fans to pick this one up. You mentioned wanting to read more Australian authors. I just finished reading Everyone on this Train is a Suspect from Benjamin Stevenson. It's the sequel to Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone, which was my favorite book last year, and I think I might have enjoyed the sequel even more, if that's possible. I was totally drawn to the cover of the first book at the store, which is what piqued my interest, and then the title and the blurb on the back just sealed the deal. So I relate to getting drawn to a good cover 😁

I did read Huck Finn before James, and I enjoyed seeing echoes of the story, but I think you could just read the Wiki explanation of the plot and get almost as much from it. I read Monstrillio last year and really liked it. FYI, it’s not just a little queer, it’s very queer! I think you’ll like it. 😊

Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are great books! I read them as an adult and don't regret. But I've not read James.

Sooooo jealous I want to get Saltblood!!! Did you know that it is shortlisted for an adventure award!?????

I don't think you need to read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before reading James, and I suspect you'd not get on with it if you did. It's challenging to modern sensibilities and, frankly, falls apart in the second half as Twain could not figure out how to finish it. After sitting on a partial manuscript for years, he finally completed it only because he needed the money. It's something of a 'sequel' to Tom Sawyer, which was a financial hit for Twain. So he finished Huck Finn by bringing Tom Sawyer back into the story and turning it into a boy's adventure novel...not at all like how it began. I reread it before reading James, and it only made me admire Everett's story even more. Simply put, James exists so you don't have to read Huck Finn. Yet Twain is a big influence on Everett's sense of satire and humor, and it is interesting to experience this 'dialogue' between the two authors. However, my recommendation would be to jump right into James and don't look back! (And thanks for the video given the time crunch.)

Oooh off to seek out Hey Zoe

I ordered Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse and placed the new Elizabeth Stout and Saltblood on the radar, the Stout is not dropped here until September and Saltblood is apparently only available in Britain and Australia so far.

Small Joys is lovely. It was one of the best books I read in 2023. I started listening to The In-Between by Christos Tsiolkas Have a listen to the narrator on a sound sample and tell me what you think. I’m also reading for #pride Enlightenment by Sarah Perry Henry Henry ( which maybe should come with a trigger warning) How We Named The Stars 🍀👋☘️📖📕📚☕️

The video has ended, but my mind is still hearing Le Freak.

Kind of Sort of Maybe sounds like something I need to read. I'm known for having to leave the dinner table because people are chewing. I get utterly enraged.

I’m trying to talk about books please 😂😂😂

Yes, read Huckleberry Finn, I'm tired of the canceling of dead people, which is just another form of censorship. His book uses sad words (sad, hateful words were used at the time of the novel), but it was really an attack on the recent past slave culture. Jim comes off as the best character in both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Twain was the first successful author to write in a truly American style, not just copying the Europeans. Disclosure, I grew up in Missouri, emersed in Twain, had an entire college class just on Twain in the sixties. I'm currently reading Bret Harte's Gabriel Conroy and looking into Harte's falling out with Twain, partly because Twain gave him bad financial advice regarding the publishing of Gabriel Conroy. However, I'm sure you could read James, without reading Huckleberry Finn, I enjoyed Jon Clinch's book, Finn,the Secret History of the Father of Huckleberry Finn. Both Twain and Harte were poor businessmen. After the falling out, Twain criticized Harte's dialogue in Gabriel Conroy as untrue, but he was saying several hateful things about Harte by that time, which were reciprocated. Twain was a better family man than Harte, who left his family behind and moved to England, where he was buried. I am enjoying Gabriel Conroy, bad vernacular accent choices or not. It was an untruth that Twain told that he did not financially support the family he left behind. People say lots of things when they are angry.

Just preordered Monstrilio when I saw it in your video. UK cover is much better!

I added "Private Revolutions" to my TBR! My son told me NOT to read "Poor Things"!--he saw the movie and said it was nothing but gratuitous sex, women empowerment ( a topic I'm tired of), and a woman finding empowerment through prostitution. I think this last subject sends a dangerous message--there is NO empowerment to be found in prostitution. I highly recommend "Huckleberry Finn" on its own account--I originally wasn't too motivated to read it, but found it was a gem. I don't know if you should read it first before "James" necessarily, but you probably would enjoy "Finn"--dry humor throughout and not racist. It shows the institution of slavery as not a good thing by the way of humor and ridiculous situations and people--as Mark Twain was so expert at doing!