I think my favourite thing about January is the sense of opportunity/ excitement about all the new books I am going to read 📚 I’m going to post them all here - just a wee list I can enjoy looking back on Here are some I’ve been gifted (lucky!) - can’t wait to dig in #Reading #Books #ReadingList - ThreadSky

gemabbott.bsky.social • 153 days ago

I think my favourite thing about January is the sense of opportunity/ excitement about all the new books I am going to read 📚

I’m going to post them all here - just a wee list I can enjoy looking back on

Here are some I’ve been gifted (lucky!) - can’t wait to dig in

#Reading #Books #ReadingList

Comments

andyjrichardson.bsky.social•145 days ago

Ooh will be following this thread for recommendations. 🙌

robdysonpr.uk•73 days ago

I'm halfway through Butter. It's great, albeit a slow burn. 🧈

gemabbott.bsky.social•73 days ago

I loved it! A miniature review here

Hope you enjoy the rest of it too!

https://bsky.app/profile/gemabbott.bsky.social/post/3levsdmijgc2m

robdysonpr.uk•73 days ago

Ah ace, thank you. I keep being distracted by non-fiction, and general tiredness, but will give it a good read more this week.

gemabbott.bsky.social•73 days ago

I sympathise - struggling to get through much beyond work this past week! But I’m the opposite on the fiction vs non-fiction - I can’t get past a page of non-fiction if I’m exhausted 😴

Hope you have an easier week!

robdysonpr.uk•73 days ago

😊 thanks, about this time, young son in bed, I pick up a book and then 💤

drstephfohring.bsky.social•153 days ago

I just finished Butter, loved the descriptions of food/eating. James and Blue sisters wonderful also, and Long Island one of my faves of 2024!

gemabbott.bsky.social•153 days ago

Oh thank you! They were all on my reading list for last year but have rolled into this one! I think I’d need to retire to live in a cave alone (with a torch) to be able to get through everything. My kids might not be too impressed however, so will continue to squeeze into the small hours 😆

drstephfohring.bsky.social•152 days ago

Free audiobooks with Spotify premium has been life changing for me!

gemabbott.bsky.social•152 days ago

Oh wow, I didn’t know that! I usually use Apple Music but had recently started a free Spotify premium trial, so I will check this out - thank you 🙏

I don’t find it very easy to concentrate on audiobooks but this sounds like it is worth trying a bit harder!

drstephfohring.bsky.social•151 days ago

Great if you have a commute!

gemabbott.bsky.social•151 days ago

Not yet but moving to Sussex in the summer so I will in the not too distant future 🫣

gaybaseballfanjer.bsky.social•150 days ago

Good movie up top namesake

millennialclassics.bsky.social•152 days ago

Oh, look at you, casually flexing on the rest of us with your perfectly curated stack of literary ambition. Bet you even have a matching bookmark for each one.

gemabbott.bsky.social•152 days ago

A matching bookmark would be nice! Maybe next year…

gemabbott.bsky.social•153 days ago

Book 1/? - Happy all the Time by Laurie Colwin

I wasn’t ready this soon into the NY for a book where I hated everyone and luckily here even the worst characters are somehow charming. I’ve a major soft spot for romantic comedies & this one is bone dry and whipsmart. I loved it.

#Books #Reading

gemabbott.bsky.social•151 days ago

Book 2/? - Butter by Asako Yuzuki

I devoured this (aptly). I’ve never felt so hungry reading a book!

It’s intriguing and evocative. Quite weird too - and all the better for it

I loved so many parts but here are some photos on the theme of finding your own ‘good amount’

#BookSky #Reading #Books

katiekempenvs.bsky.social•144 days ago

I loved this book. I did end up making buttered noodles with soy sauce, but - no. Not for me. The book definitely made them sound better.

gemabbott.bsky.social•144 days ago

Haha! I have been meaning to make rice with butter and soy sauce one lazy evening when I don’t have anyone else to think about. Will report back 😆

gemabbott.bsky.social•151 days ago

Book 3/? - James by Percival Everett

Incredible. It’s bleak & desperate, & somehow also hilarious. Percival Everett is extraordinary

(I hadn’t read Huck Finn beforehand but I did some research & read parts, which I think helped a bit in understanding this reclamation)

#BookSky #Reading #Books

gemabbott.bsky.social•150 days ago

Book 4/? - Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

Fervently recommended in Waterstones yesterday - “best book of 2024”

I found the brutality/ violence a bit grim. The dismal banality of the girls’ boxing competition wasn’t much easier to stomach. Still thinking about it though…

#BookSky #Reading #Books

cjmckeon.bsky.social•146 days ago

I read this last year - pretty brutal at times, but I thought the banality aspect was interesting, pouring so much into something that fundamentally does not matter (same with none of them actually carrying on with boxing)

gemabbott.bsky.social•146 days ago

I agree, it was interesting - but bleak! I think perhaps the combination of the brutality with the futility was too much for me (although I guess that sort of determined commitment to philately wouldn’t have had quite the same impact…)

gemabbott.bsky.social•146 days ago

Book 5/? - Weyward by Emilia Hart

Thanks to @drstephfohring.bsky.social, I listened to this for free on Spotify Premium

I’m interested in the themes - witchcraft, power, feminism - but I found the book a bit trite/ formulaic. Not on my ‘recommended’ list I’m afraid!

#BookSky #Reading #Books

gemabbott.bsky.social•145 days ago

Book 6/? - Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

My favourite of her books so far (I didn’t finish the third!) - I found the style quite hard-going (broken sentences, muddling of inner/ outer voice) but it all felt quite real, especially on the ravages of grief

#Booksky #Intermezzo #Reading #Books

chennighan.bsky.social•102 days ago

That's three of the same books that we've read this year! 📚💙

barrowcliffe.bsky.social•146 days ago

Just starting this on audiobook. It seems a bit caught between two worlds - some nice descriptions and observations but characters a bit wooden, along with dialogue. I'll ser how it develops!

chennighan.bsky.social•102 days ago

Such a great book!

https://clairehennighan.wordpress.com/2025/02/11/audiobook-review-of-james-by-percival-everett-narrated-by-dominic-hoffman/

willbearsmom.bsky.social•10 days ago

I hadn’t read Huck Finn since I was a freshman in college, and I remember very little about it. I loved James as its own thing as a result. Totally deserving of the Pulitzer

eebileg.bsky.social•151 days ago

This one had me snacking on rice 🍚 with butter and soy sauce for days

chennighan.bsky.social•102 days ago

Have you tried buttered rice yet? She's right, you know!

gemabbott.bsky.social•102 days ago

Yes, delicious!

stephenstroud.bsky.social•128 days ago

Save a space for my wife’s next novel, due out in the autumn with Bloomsbury.

gemabbott.bsky.social•128 days ago

Oooh! Let us know when we can pre-order!

jon-chamberlain.bsky.social•133 days ago

Please don’t tell me you’ve read this many since Christmas. I’ve started 3 of mine, not including “Butter” which is one of them and which I’m now very much looking forward to

gemabbott.bsky.social•133 days ago

I haven’t read this whole pile (yet)! But I’ve kept a wee list under the original post and I think I’ve finished 15 since 1 January. I always get really into reading in the new year (especially before I return to work) - it tails off a bit as the months pass!

gemabbott.bsky.social•133 days ago

I have also listened to a few on audiobook, instead of my usual podcasts, and I’m enjoying that very much. It means I can have a few on the go at the same time!

I hope you enjoy Butter - I really loved it

jon-chamberlain.bsky.social•133 days ago

I am in awe

suerubenstein.bsky.social•93 days ago

Not sure if you’re an Anne Tyler fan Gemma but I thought Three Days in June was just vintage Tyler. A small perfectly formed portrait of ordinary flawed people trying to navigate the stuff of family life.

gemabbott.bsky.social•93 days ago

That is so funny - I just finished it on audiobook this evening! I loved it! Your description is perfect 👌 Thank you ❤️

tina-reads.bsky.social•153 days ago

You have a stack of books I like, many are planned for January & February 👍

narcon-jd.bsky.social•153 days ago

James is excellent and now I’m binging every Everett book I can get my hands on.

gemabbott.bsky.social•153 days ago

I read The Trees last year and ooooft it was good. Really excited to read James next!

narcon-jd.bsky.social•153 days ago

Nice! I haven’t read that one yet. I loved Dr. No and I’m currently reading Glyph.

filosofical-140.bsky.social•153 days ago

yes

gemabbott.bsky.social•153 days ago

Lovely!! I haven’t read many of those but I adored the Whalebone Theatre - beautifully written and a brilliant story to boot. Many people left my house last year with this book pressed into their hands 😆

(A tiny disclaimer that I distantly know the author - a splendid human as well as writer ❤️)

owenashby.bsky.social•152 days ago

It appears I am a victim of my own addiction. No books for me as presents for the first time in 56 years! It seems people are finding I’ve already read everything they buy me…I miss that big pile to wade through…

gemabbott.bsky.social•152 days ago

Oh no!! Not even a book voucher? 😭🤦‍♀️

owenashby.bsky.social•152 days ago

No. Totally tragic. It is better than having be thank people and look surprised even though you’ve read what they got me. I guess I just need to point them at some better sources!

gemabbott.bsky.social•152 days ago

Gutted for you! I don’t think there is a nicer present than a book voucher. The gift of a book - and of a trip to the book shop! Perfection 👌

What would have been on your Christmas list?

owenashby.bsky.social•152 days ago

Thanks. I agree. I don’t know. I’d like a surprise…but there you go. What would you recommend?

gemabbott.bsky.social•152 days ago

Some of my favourite books last year were:

📕 In Memoriam by Alice Winn
📖 Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
📚 The Fetishist by Katherine Min
📕 Real Americans by Rachel Khong
📖 Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
📚 The Trees by Percival Everett

Any there you’ve not read yet? #BookSky

paulmaddock.bsky.social•151 days ago

I’m reading Long Island too. I’ll keep an eye out for your review 🙂

gemabbott.bsky.social•151 days ago

I was wondering whether to re-read Brooklyn first, as it’s been years since I read it - what do you think? 🤔

paulmaddock.bsky.social•151 days ago

I’ve only ever seen the film (don’t judge!) and I’m coping okay - I think 😬

gemabbott.bsky.social•151 days ago

No judgment here!! Maybe I’ll just read a synopsis somewhere and get stuck in

Would love to know how you get on too!

paulmaddock.bsky.social•151 days ago

Also, I have Butter.

But given your review, I might wait until I’ve shifted the Christmas weigh haha

gemabbott.bsky.social•151 days ago

It was so so good - I’m envious for you that you still have it to come! Enjoy when you do get to it

paulmaddock.bsky.social•151 days ago

I’ll let you know how I get on!

gemabbott.bsky.social•135 days ago

I got there in the end - decided to revisit Brooklyn first (which I did on audiobook with Saoirse Ronan - a delight!)

What did you think?

https://bsky.app/profile/gemabbott.bsky.social/post/3lg7faeyvyk2d

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