In addition to how interesting your reviews are... I could listen to your voice all day!! Its just so lovely!!

The cover trends idea is really interesting! What a haul - love the excitement, and I cannot in any way fault the desire to add to your collection and just keeping the thrill alive 🤩 Good for you, Simon. Hope you’re doing well and enjoying your travels

I love all Sarah Crossans books. Happy to hear there’ll be a new one

Simon, I hope you have an extra room for all these wonderful books. Such a diverse selection, enjoy!

You are so lucky receiving all those interesting books📚👌I found your reading prompts so fun that I will try to follow them by reading books I own. It will be a reading challenge to read books from my shelves. 🤗

Would love to see a video on cover trends!

I hope you read the comments. You won't believe this but the The Other Princess sounds like the history of one of my ancestors who was given as a gift to Victoria. Her name was Sarah.

"I used to be a tour guide in Highgate Cemetery"...yes Simon, just casually throw that in like it's not the coolest job in the world! 😲I loved Andrew Miller's 'Pure', about the man sent to organise the clearing of Les Innocents cemetery in Paris in the 18th Century. I remember being totally transported to the setting, and almost being able to smell the things he describes.

Love love love Catherine Chidgey! As always my never ending TBR has grown significantly watching this book haul 😂😭

Sometimes I'm So Happy I'm Not Safe on the Streets is a very interesting title. My first thought was that it was about BPD and related to having manic episodes. But when you elaborated on the context, that makes sense as well. I love interesting titles like that!

"Oxford could be trouble" 😆Thanks for all the great recommendations! I have added 13 to my TBR. I have read Hot Springs Drive and enjoyed it!

“These Silent Mansions: A Life in Graveyards” has my name all over it. I love cemeteries. I don’t know how I missed it when it was published so thanks for bringing it to my attention. Wishing you a good train journey.🚆

These Silent Mansions is good. Would also recommend A Tomb With a View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards by Peter Ross

I'd love it if you would do a video recommending books set in the North of England, I'm from Greater Manchester originally, and I get homesick but find it hard to find books set there that aren't crime fiction 😅 You've already got me interested in Pleasure Beach (good ol' Blackpool!), but I'm on a book buying ban at the moment, let's see how long that lasts!

So many of these sound great. Mr. Chartwell sounds interesting. Thanks for putting that on my radar. Some interesting poetry books too. Yay for Vanishing Monuments. I still need to read it. Just finished Killers of The Flower Moon and would like to read The Wager now. 😊💙

❤❤❤. I love blackwells because the are well priced and post to New Zealand. I read 6 books in January, so proud of myself. Hugs from Colleen.😊

Oh my I loved The Wager! It’s absolutely wild that it’s a true story! Enjoy ☺️

I’m so excited that you have The Good Lord Bird! The limited series was fantastic, so I highly recommend you watch that after reading the book.

Absolutely loved The Good Lord Bird and I will eventually read The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. Placed Pet on my list, I too make a list to take to bookstores but they often do not stock what I wish to have and I have to turn to you know who (but they were a lifesaver in recent history), to have it delivered to me.

I checked my Goodreads and I have read The Monsters of Templeton in 2011! I can't remember what it was about now, but I remember I liked it 😊. My cover was black & white, yours looks so pretty with the added colour.

Books mentioned: Clear by Carys Davies Ours by Phillip B. Williams The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor The In-Between by Christos Tsiolkas The Diaries of Mr. Lucas by Hugo Greenhalgh Hey, Zoey by Sarah Crossan The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin Vladivostok Circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin Pet by Catherine Chidgey The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey Blood Red by Gabriela Ponce The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things by Naomi Wood Top Doll by Karen McCarthy Woolf Hot Springs Drive by Lindsay Hunter Shanghailanders by Juli Min Love Me Tender by Constance Debré Play Boy by Constance Debré Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh Asa: The Girl Who Turned Into a Pair of Chopsticks by Natsuko Imamura Lightborne by Hesse Phillips The Other Princess by Denny S. Bryce The Good Lord Bird by James McBride The Antique Hunters Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff Girlfriends by Emily Zhou Nothing Left to Fear From Hell by Alan Warner The Things We Do To Our Friends by Heather Darwent Dat’s Love by Leonora Brito House Woman by Adorah Nworah The House Next to the Factory by Sonal Kohli Mother’s Instinct by Barbara Abel One Hundred Days by Alice Pung Lori & Joe by Amy Arnold Pleasure Beach by Helen Palmer Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt Everland by Rebecca Hunt These Silent Mansions by Jean Sprackland Take Me Up the Lighthouse by Dean Wilson Sometimes I’m So Happy I’m Not Safe on the Streets by Dean Wilson Vanishing Monuments by John Elizabeth Stinzi Rapture’s Road by Seán Hewitt Unutterable Visions, Perishable Breath by Otamere Guobadia Greekling by Kostya Tsolakis All the Violet Tiaras by Jean Menzies The Wager by David Grann Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann Local Fires by Joshua Jones Confrontations by Simone Atangana Bekono One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen

I had the same trepidation about the magpie narrator in The Axeman's Carnival but it won the NZ National book awards for a reason last year, it's excellent. Much like Pet, so many NZ vibes but also universal themes.

I’m impressed with the number and scope of the books hauled in January. Just think only 11 more books-hauls this year.

Just read Pet and holy HECK it is so good. You’re in for a treat! Definitely read Killers of the Flower Moon before seeing the film. The book has tension… the film basically tells you what’s going on in the first 15 minutes. Reaaaaally want to read Local Fires.

Yowsa what a haul! I was delighted to see the McBride on your wishlist and to send it along (and I could not stop laughing when you couldn’t remember The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store because I know how much you loved it). The Night Swimmers and Mr. Chartwell really sound right up my street. And the click to order Blackwells obsession is real. I have a wish list on my account there and I have to resist ordering all the books on it!!! Not sure how you’ll manage when you are in Oxford and can’t wait to find out!

Axemans Carnival won New Zealand's book prize last year. The cover was stunning - although it looks like a different cover for the UK edition.

A third of the way through Pet. Intriguing.

Hear No Evil by Sarah Smith is an excellent book set in 1817 Scotland by a Scottish writer with a deaf main character. It was very interesting and Sarah Smith researched extensively to write it. Would recommend!

I’ve read The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff and really liked it. It was her first published novel and takes place in her hometown of Cooperstown, NY. (Now I’m in the mood for a reread, but I always have so many things on hand I haven’t read . . . The eternal conundrum.) I feel like her books are all quite different from one another, except for the underlying brilliance of her talent.

I've only just come across your channel, so apologies if you've already read/discussed these books written by poets, but I would recommend 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' by Ocean Vuong, 'Nightcrawling' by Leila Mottley, and 'When I Sing, Mountains Dance' by Irene Solà. ^_^

I really want to read Night Swimmers. I’ve been listening to The Wager on bbc Radio4 ( book of the week)

RIP my bank account after watching your videos. Good and bad because I know I can 100% trust what you like...but bad because poverty 😂