I loveeeeeeee This is Happiness so! much!! It also made me laugh and cry and feel the beauty of life, and I think it's so so underrated.

I'm feeling drained by a book right now too. But I don't want to DNF because it's for a book club and I didn't finish the last book either.

Beautiful, and congrats to your sister!

I had to DNF the golden notebook. I couldn’t do it.

Haven't read the Mad Ship in years. I must dig it out again. Lovely video. Thanks!

I think it's finally time for me to pick up Annihilation! You've raved about it for so long that I feel like I'm missing out! One of the books I really want to get to by the end of the year is Long Island Compromise. I think it's supposed to be about complex family dynamics and intergenerational trauma so it'll probably be sad but those types of stories always hit so hard for me.

ooh! i'm discovering the fourth southern reach book thru you (fittingly)! i'll check it out ha ha ha the golden notebook is kind of a slog, so i feel you... good to see a book video from you! 🖤

i love your voice

Great video and a great shot from The Spinc in Glendalough and a beautiful rainbow. A nice little rain shower thrown in every ten or fifteen minutes to make the walks more fun.

I've recently gone back and watched nearly all your old vlogs and reading wrap-ups because there's just something so soothing and engaging about the way you yourself engage with reading, which has been such a joy for me as a viewer. Needless to say, seeing this video come through my subscription box was such a delight!! I loved hearing about where you are with your reading so far this year and completely related to what you were saying about feeling in some ways like you read "less" than maybe you'd intended, but yet you'd been having wonderful reading experiences. That's so exactly how I've felt this year as well. Thanks for this! It brightened up my afternoon.

I recently read Our Mutual Friend and loved it as well! I have wanted to read it since watching the amazing BBC miniseries as a teen but I was super intimidated for years

I ordered This is Happiness from my library after you talked about it in your last vlog. It arrived yesterday, and I’m looking forward to reading it even more now!

this was very comforting to watch

💚💚💚💚

You look like a proper Irish Colleen

what a beautiful video!! the rainbow brought so much joy ❤

Y did the goat have color spray on him?

Ireland looks stunning! Thank you for bringing us along :) every time I watch your videos I want to read some more Robin Hobb 😊

Madame Bovary is a brilliant read! Hope you love it too when you get round to it :) Excited to see a library room update!

love the little snippets of life u capture ❤

This is exactly the same favorites list as Sunbeamsjess, descriptions and everything 😅

do you have a goodreads or storygraph? our tastes are so similar, i’d love to get recs through there! happy to have found your channel!!

I've had The Golden Notebook on my shelf for maybe a decade now and I'm embarrassed to say I haven't got round to it yet (you beat me to it). Last month I decided that this shall be the year, I suspect my reaction might be a bit similar to yours, which is why I've been putting me off, and that's curious because I REALLY enjoyed two of her earlier books The Grass Is Singing and Martha Quest, I'd absolutely recommend those. Also that Giant O'Brien book sounds great, I must put that on my list.

annnd shes back!! <3

Thanks so much for your reviews! I just finished the trilogy and I loved them too. I'm working on processing them. Probably will break my brain. 😅

'Promo SM' 🤗

Love the vibes of this vlog Carolyn! loved the music and all the little bits into your days and reading hours. big love and big hugs.

😍!!!!

Love the decor!

Looks great!! Glad you're able to paint and make this place your own. Looking forward to your January and February reviews. 💛

Just found you and I'm in awe! You are so well spoken and I literally have not heard a single thing about any of the books you talked about! Ah no I lied 😅 Robin hobb I heard of. So stoked to look into your other videos to see if I will pick up some of your recommendations 🥰

Ive found your channel today and subscribed. I almost certain that your calm energy is going to put you among my top booktubers.

Vandermeer is also one of my favorite authors. My favorite book of his is Finch. I like to think of it as a stand alone novel, although I know its part of the Ambergris series.

Happy I just found you! I've been looking for book lovers who don't read just new releases. I love your recs and have added many to my TBR. You also made me want to try Robin Hobb one more time 👀

Of all the fiction I read in 2023, Claire Keegan’s “Foster” is the book that has lingered in my mind the longest and with the deepest emotional effect since I first came across it last March. And I wouldn’t have heard of Keegan’s story had it not been for the Irish language film adaptation-“An Cailín Ciúin”-“The Quiet Girl”-which I also first saw last March at my local independent cinema. All I knew of “The Quiet Girl” beforehand was what I had seen in a trailer a few weeks earlier, so the film’s story and its overpowering final scene caught me entirely off-guard and left me emotionally wrung out. After I got home from the movie theatre that day, I began rummaging around online and was able to find a PDF copy of “Foster”, which I read in one spellbound sitting. I’m a retired child protection/family services worker, so the story of Keegan’s nameless little girl, her dire family situation, and her restorative summer months with John and Edna (Seán and Eibhlín in the movie) struck a sensitive chord with me. One of the foster couples I used to work with even ran a dairy farm, just like the Kinsellas. The screenwriter/director, Colm Bairéad, did a wonderful job of bringing Keegan’s long short story to the screen, and I highly recommend “The Quiet Girl” to anyone who hasn’t seen it. The film was released in Canada and the US last March, but I don’t think it received the theatre distribution it deserved, as I still meet people who have read “Foster” but have no idea it was made into an Oscar-nominated film. “Foster” is part of the curriculum for Irish schoolchildren, and you can find a copy of the study guide they use by doing an online search for “Study Notes on ‘Foster’ by Claire Keegan - Reviews Rants and Rambles”.

just found your youtube channel and I’m so excited to watch more of your videos! i have barely heard of any of these books, so I hope that your videos will expose me to some new reads that I wouldn’t have found outherwise :)

Watching this on a cold& gloomy day is perfect. Love hearing u discuss books 🩵

So glad you're enjoying Ship of Magic! The Liveship Traders is my favourite trilogy by Robin Hobb, it is incredible ❤

your makeup looks so so good <3

Assassin of reality was great, but too short😢

I’ve had a lot of the same experiences with you on the acne front. Tried doxycycline and topical treatments forever and my dermatologist literally just put me on accutane. It’s so tough to have acne cause it’s something I’m like always always conscious about so I am glad that finally it could go away (hopefully!!) My side effects have been dry lips and that’s it so far (if you’re wondering)

Roaccutane really takes it out of you. It is absolutely worth the end result if you can manage it - unfortunately my prescription was unexpectedly stopped before I had a chance to finish it so I've never quite gotten rid of my acne, but I hope that you're able to stamp it out. For what it's worth, you look wonderful 24/7 and nothing can change that. China Mieville and Mervyn Peake are soooo good - I can't think of any other writers I've read that are quite like them.

The Word for World is Forest is a punch of a book, I stayed up late because I HAD to know how it would end.

What a cozy vlog! The gloomy lighting ❤ but omg carolyn your highlighter ✨ and your overall style you look like a contemporary irl american girl! I would totally read your american girl series, starring you! ❤ can’t wait for your upcoming vlogs as you settle into your new apt

I feel you on the acne struggle….I really hope you’re able to get it cleared up 🤞🏼 Also, have to ask where in the WORLD you got that wonderfully floppy edition of Ship of Magic that has the beautiful cover???

Thank you for the recommendation of Foster!! Wow! I loved it!

The covenant of water sounds right up my alley! Omg Foster is my fav claire keegan and you cannot miss the forester’s daughter. Whale-cheon myung kwan really hit me hard and it’s also a multigen saga! And just an absolutely crazy ride that I was gleefully chuckling throughout and had me painfully sobbing at the end. Happy 2024 Carolyn! Hope you have a great reading year ahead! ❤

loved it! i started my robin hobb journey in 2023 and will keep going with her work later this year :)

Oh man, if you are looking for another Louise Erdrich to read I would love to see you read The Round House. It is harrowing, rage-inducing, desperately sad; so so many layers. I'd read some trigger warnings before diving into this one if that is something you're sensitive to in books, but LE never makes it gratuitous. So many ways in which violence perpetuates violence, esp in acts of vengeance -- as "justified" as it may seem. Lots of interesting things to say about penalization vs. rehabilitation, esp where it concerns the feelings of victims too.

I love we are all completely beside ourselves it’s so good. A must read