The Books of Jacob Tips and Review | International Booker 2022 

BOJ FROG

Thank you. This was sooo helpful. I have this on order . I finally decided to read the intl Booker shortlist.

as i'm about to start reading boj hopefully next week this is so helpful :) will def be checking out the two videos you recommended before i dive into the text, ty

This was super helpful. I’m at about the halfway point and needed some motivation, and this video came through! I’ve had a hard time with the sheer number of characters, and I’m not always sure which plot threads are most significant, but the stories are fun and, like you said, I feel like I’m learning about a new time period. Thank you for this video!

Your videos are so good and I'm kinda mad how You're so underrated!😭❤️

Just finished the book this morning and really appreciated your review and wish I had had watched this before starting!

I enjoyed this book, any recs for something similar ?

Ah! My intervention! 😆 This is incredibly helpful! THANK YOU SARAH!!!! I do plan to read BOJ this summer, regardless of it’s placement on the shortlist. 💙

This is invaluable!! I sought out an article about the Sabbatai dude at about 10% as well 😅 approaching 20% now and this was very inspiring.

I am veeeeery interested in this but I must wait! Until I get some of the other long beasts off my TBR

Do you have to read chronologically or can you pick out parts but finish somehow?

Great video! I bought this book when it came out translated into German as I was really intrigued by the premise (I usually love historical fiction - especially with a literary element to it). I read the first 200 pages or so and then gave up because I was overwhelmed and eventually bored by the huge amount of details regarding Jewish mysticism. In the beginning I was like you, looking up loads of things and at first that was quite fun. But then it continued with even more arcane old traditions and I got bored (even though I am doing a PhD in German history, haha). But now I want to restart it. I still find the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its successor "states" very interesting. I do wish the book would make the historical context easier to understand sometimes. I'm keen to check out the videos you linked. Thank you!

Yente who sees all knows that I have read this book and watched this video and was satiated by their nutritious milk. I found BOJ to be a richly rewarding experience (despite there being few concessions to the innocent reader). Great job with this video. I'm not sure how I'll wean myself off it, but I've sent for the pretty young daughters of the Komehereskis in Warsaw. They should arrive any day now. (Narrator's scraps: They never did in fact arrive, or even set out in the first place).

Your video was very helpful as I have just started my journey into it. I was disappointed that you didn't seem to devote any time to her writing style. Even if you get lost with all the characters, her descriptive writing sometimes leaves me 'breathless'.

Great format ! Neat idea. I already read it, and really enjoyed it. I also typically avoid historically fiction. We must be thankful we didn’t have to read the UK edition for once though, which looked like it would have murdered my eyes and Fitz covers are boring.

I’m reading it now. I’ve just started Book of Sand. Im enjoying Nahman’s sections, but I’m def gonna check out the videos you suggest. Also the pictures and line breaks are nice reliefs.

I have just under 300 pages to go. Will I make it? I don't know. OMG it's so dense and slow to read.

I was considering buying this book. However, from a more structure based view, judging from this video and from your review, it seems that the book needs an appendix for the political, cultural, religious background of the setting, as well as a glossary of terms and people, and maps. This is set in a time and place that not many people outside of Poland know well. I know that it might add another 100 pages to an already thick book, but I feel it's useful to understand the story fully. Anyway this is a good video, I might check it out sometime regardless of the challenges. I am quite interested in early-modern Central Europe anyway (1500s-1800s)

Somewhat thankful that this isn’t on my 1001 list 🤣☺️

The book is also quite expensive .

So boring