Louise, I met you and Simon with my friend at the Women's Prize live event and just wanted to say thank you for being so kind and lovely to us both. It was so great to see you're both just as lovely as you come across on here! Also, glad you enjoyed some of my favourite shops here in London, I'm happy you enjoyed Libreria, it's my favourite.

Thank you for sharing your trip to the Women's Prize awards event. I love Lucia Berlin! So glad you have that book in your hand.

Hi Louise, once again you've given me a few more reads for my TBR and can't wait to get into reading them. I also have not read a Monica Ali and when I searched under her name I found four novels that I decided to add to the TBR. Thank you so much. I love hearing from you each week and from Simon who is a joy to watch. Your both a treat for me to watch.

Lovely haul and video as always. I’m less wary of non-fiction since I’ve been doing a MA in Modern History and been forced to read texts I might not otherwise have chosen! However, there’s a real skill involved in taking scholarly research and producing really readable non-fiction - as opposed to a purely academic text. It’s wonderful to see the Women’s Prize now including non-fiction - thank you and Simon for promoting it. How lucky you are getting to meet Mary Beard! I’m going to see her at Warwick Arts Centre next week. She is such an engaging person, a brilliant historian - and she has that skill of making her work compelling and readable without compromising scholarly integrity. Enjoy your time with her and I hope you’ll be able to share some of that. Happy Reading!

Oh, have so much fun with your Mary Beard interview!

Really lovely to see you at the ceremony. I think reading the nonfiction books has really whetted a lot of readers appetites for more nonfiction. I’m looking forward to Emma Healey’s new novel. Coincidentally I just watched the heartbreaking film version of Emma is Missing recently.

So excited about your interview with Mary Beard. I recently read her Pompeii after I was introduced to her on your channel!

I've enjoyed you for over a year now. Thanks for adding to my TBR. Today you just nudge me the right way and I ordered Devotions by Mary Oliver. Byeeee!

I'm glad you had a great time at the women's prize! And you have a great stack of books home with you! That Palestinian memoir is something I'd like to read...it sounds fascinating. I can't believe you're going to be meeting Mary Beard...that's so exciting!! I'm thrilled for you!

Reading “ How to say Babylon” which you recommended. I’m loving it

Did I hear you correctly that you and Simon will be in conversation with Mary Beard? How exciting!

Lucia Berlin is excellent. Think you will enjoy them a lot. There is a great Oxfam book shop in central Cambridge if you get the chance. Many years ago I was a library assistant in the Faculty of Classics- sure you will throughly enjoy yourselves doing the event.

Hi Louise Like you, really enjoyed Love Marriage.

How exciting - if I were able to be in Cambridge for your talk with Mary Beard I'd be there with bells on! I have read a couple of Monica Ali's novels, including Brick Lane, but have not got around to Love Marriage yet. It just got bumped up my TBR list from what you said about the character arcs. It sounds like a great read 💛

Hi Louise 👋🏻 First, in case I forget - wishing you a most enjoyable time in Pembrokeshire & also when you & Simon are in discussion with Mary Beard 🤗 I made it to the evening event of the Women’s Prize LIVE on 12/6 👏🏻 I didn’t spot you or Simon 🥹 but it was so good to see all the authors & hear their readings. Afterwards, I got Brotherless Night signed by V.V. Ganeshananthan (yay it won 👍) & also River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure (both authors were lovely). As I had a train to catch, sadly couldn’t wait in the queues for the others!! I really enjoyed both Thunderclap & A Flat Place; currently reading/liking How to say Babylon & will get to the others at some point 🙏🏻 I read Brick Lane in 2004 & shockingly haven’t read another title by Monica Ali (esp as I really liked it - must rectify that!!) I’ve library-loaned Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Lin (short story collection) following a recommendation - not read anything by her before. TTFN 😌 x

Loved this Louise xx

You are right, the media interest in these awards is low, unfortunately, as is the interest of readers from countries outside the UK. The Romanian press agency always publishes news about the long list, the short list and the winners, and let's hope that the readers' interest will increase. Good job!

Great video! Your enthusiasm for the long list was contagious and got me to read a couple of the books so far, and I’m on hold for others. If you want a nonfiction recommendation for your to read list I absolutely loved “Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel” by Shahnaz Habib.

have a wonderful next couple of weeks...

Just found your channel and been binge watching some of your episodes. My favorite book this year has been Propert Song. Reflecting on your thoughts on reading non fiction I have noticed my sixteen year old son definitely gravitates towards non fiction where as my now adult daughters were avid readers of fiction. I read both but predominately fiction. Two non fiction books which I found very powerful and have stuck in my mind are King Leopolds Ghost amd Hirishima

Regarding your adventures with the Women’s Prize I am pea green with envy; however, I get to live vicariously through you. Yay!! I am currently reading Iain’s Pears’s “An Instance of the Fingerpost.” If you have not read it yet, I think you would like it. Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us.

Thank you for another great video. You explain the books so well. More to add to the ver growing tbr pile. 👍😃😊📚

Oh yes please do report back on your chat with Mary Beard!!

As always, great video. I'm finally reading Brotherless Night, beautiful writing; I've been to Sri Lanka and this brings back memories of an incredible place and people. I was there in 1991 and there was still problems, couldn't enter Jaffina. Can't wait to see Mary Beard interview, so excited for you!❤🎉

Happy to have discovered your vlog. I love non-fiction it's my favourite I have always been an information gatherer since I was a child and well before Google. I always headed to to the nonfiction section in the library. It is lovely to escape in fiction too. Recommend reading nonfiction to everyone, read what you are interested in and it's good with nonfiction to read outside the box to discover something new. Look forward to seeing more of your vlog.

What a wonderful time you and Simon had last week!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your excellent book haul! So excited for your upcoming interview with Mary Beard!!! Any chance it might be live-streamed for us poor souls across the Pond?

I've always preferred nonfiction, so I've been more intentional about reading fiction in the last couple of years. I LOVE that there is a Nonfiction Prize. I do hope it gains more traction because every book was wonderful. So much of the nonfiction today is compelling and worth the read. I'm excited to see how the WP has lit a fire in so many of my bookish friends to read more nonfiction this year. We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I was a wonderful book-a very emotional and powerful read. I hope you enjoy it.

I have Elizabeth is missing and Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey

Hello Louise 🎉 Elizabeth is Missing was a fabulous read so I am really interested in Sweat when it comes out. Hang on …… did I hear , Mary Beard now she is someone who has greatly influenced my studies and especially my travels over the years so enjoy that interview as I know you will and I am dead envious. 🎉

Always loved biography and history as far as non-fiction, bought the fiction winner as soon as it was announced, and was exciting. Agree about 2nd novels often being disappointing, but I'm reading In the Distance by Hernan Diaz, his first novel and I have his 2nd in the stack, Trust, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Also, the second in Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe novels won the Pulitzer, I read Sportswriter and the 2nd, Independence Day and have the third and fourth in the stack and have read some of his other novels, he's terrific and also beat the second novel curse.😅

It is crazy isn’t it. I love historical fiction based on true stories so why have I rarely thought to pick up non-fiction 🤷‍♀️

Totally off topic, but could you recommend a good non- fiction on Hypatia? Thanks in advance. Enjoy your book talk