I WAS A BRITISH BOOK AWARDS JUDGE!! Someone pinch me!! Join me for the whole behind the scenes process from reading the shortlist, deciding which ones I liked (and… didn’t like), to the Book Awards event itself ahhhh. Are any of these books on your tbr??

Sorted Food Sidekick: https://www.sortedfood.com/sidekick
What Sarah Read Next: https://www.instagram.com/whatsarahreadnext/
Arifa Akbar: https://www.instagram.com/arifa.akbar/

SHORTLIST BOOKS
What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9780241683132
A Better Second Half by Liz Earle*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9781399723671
Drawn to the Garden by Caroline Quentin*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9780711290556
Greekish by Caroline Hayden*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9781526630667
So Good by Emily English*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9781399620055
Spud Man’s Spudtacular Baked Potato Cookbook by Spud Man*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9780008728151

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
James by Percivel Everett*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9781035031238
Butter by Asako Yuzuki*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9780008511715
Jonty Gentoo by Julia Donaldson*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9780702329432
Patriot by Alexei Navalny*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9781847927033
Disability Intimacy edited by Alice Wong*: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/689/9780593469736

SIMILAR VIDEOS
does this reading quiz know my taste better than me?: https://youtu.be/KuEgRIULLps
My Very Unrealistic Reading Goals: https://youtu.be/JOUhUYhp2U4
My 2024 Reading in Numbers! (data, charts & graphs!): https://youtu.be/PapQvwR1X7o

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– Hello. So this year I am a judge for the British Book Awards. What on Earth? Honestly, when I got the email I was like, ah, so giddy with excitement. So the British Book Awards
is also known as the Nibbies and it’s run by the bookseller, which is in the UK
publishing industry magazine and general organisation. I have the books I’m going to be judging. So there’s many a judges,
many a categories. The category that I am a judge
for is non-fiction lifestyle. I guess because I’m a
non-fiction lifestyle author, is that my qualifications? And also just like general book lover, and runner of a book club and
other book clubs in the past. Either way, the books and all of the accompanying
judging material has arrived. I actually already know
what the shortlist is because it was emailed to me, but I’m gonna share it with you. I have no idea if this video is even gonna see the light of day, because I’m not entirely
sure about what I can and cannot share about
the judging process. That’s my child. Yeah? Do you need some help? – Colours.
– Colours? Oh, you want Rainbow Road? – Yeah.
– Yeah, we can do Rainbow Road. I’m back. The toddler has not been well, so I’m trying to work
around the toddler today, and of course, have not been
able to get any reading done. The deadline for when I need to have done my judging stuff is, I think
like two weeks from now. It’s fine. It’s fine. I really don’t know what
I’m gonna be able to share. Bits are confidential, but also, I feel like
there’s a lot, hopefully, that I can share about
the judging process, and also just like doing
a weird reading vlog, because it’s like a very
different reading experience if you’re judging for a book awards, than if you are just reading for pleasure. I mean in theory, I don’t know. I’ve never judged a book awards before, but before I get into the
criteria that I have been given for my category, now I don’t even know if
this is like across the board in all of the categories or
if it’s just my category. Like I’m not gonna have all of the British Book
awards answers here. This is just… I’m just a girl who’s been
asked to judge a book awards and is very excited and overwhelmed, and wants to share as much
of the behind the scenes goss as I possibly can, you know? You know? Anyway, but
enough dilly-dallying. Let’s open this box, right? I
need to get into this somehow. We need a knife. You’re upside down. Wow. Okay. Okay, I’m in. Okay, “Thank you again for being a judge in the British Book Awards. We are delighted that you’re joining us. Please find enclosed
the shortlist of books for your category. As a reminder, news of the shortlist is strictly confidential until after 9:00 AM on
Friday the 7th of March.” So this is way after that. I hope me telling my toddler, who knows how much he’ll
understand of this. Here’s the first thing that I’m unsure of. “We ask that you read as much as possible of these six titles along with the accompanying
publisher submission documents that you’ll find in your judging portal.” Do you know what? I don’t think I have access
to my judging portal yet, so I need that. But here I have all of the books. So this is a thing, it’s non-fiction, and it turns out that I don’t
need to read all of the books, which is honestly a lifesaver. But I have to read like
obviously a good amount of each of them to get
a real sense of them. I imagine that if you’re
judging a fiction prize, you have to read the whole thing. Like that makes sense to me,
but I don’t know for sure. And the reason because of this is because the British Book
Awards isn’t just an award that is like based on literary merit. There are plenty of awards
that do that kind of thing, but this is not just about
the content of the book, but like the whole publishing process. So again, I’m saying all this stuff and I’m like, “Am I allowed to say this?” I don’t know. So there are three things that
I’ve been asked to look at when judging these books. One is quality storytelling,
so the content of the books. The second is publishing excellence. So this is where those
accompanying documents are gonna come in, where I
hear a bit more about the story behind the process of
getting the books published, and whatever interesting things that the publishers wanna
say about the books. My toddler is trying to come in. And then the third is sales success. So actually the commercial success of these books matters in this awards. Do you wanna come see mummy’s
books? What’s in the box? Come on, do you wanna come see the books? So this is in my shortlist
of non-fiction lifestyle. We have got, “What I ate in One Year and Related Thoughts” by Stanley Tucci. What’d you think, Rowan?
– That’s grandad. – I knew he would say that. Stanley Tucci looks like granddad. Is it just because he’s
a bald man with glasses? – Yeah.
– Yeah. This isn’t granddad. His
name is Stanley Tucci. This is his book.
– Oh. – So, oh lovely little end papers there. It is an onion. So I’ve actually already
started listening to this one, but now that I have the physical copy, I’m gonna switch to physical. The other one that I’ve
already started listening to is “A Better Second Half: Dial Back Your Age To Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life,” by Liz Earle. That’s this book. What can I say about my first
impressions of this book? One, that I am not the target audience. Like this is the thing. Like I’m so used to talking
about books on this channel and online, where it’s like
talking about me, me personally, how I feel about the books
and how I like the books. But this is gonna be so different because whilst I can be like, “Yeah, this book is not for me,” for many reasons, which maybe I’ll talk about, I don’t know. I feel like if I was just
doing a regular reading blog, I wouldn’t hold back. As a judge for an awards,
I’m not just judging it off of obviously like, my
personal feelings about this book. There’s other things. Okay, Rowan. Anyway, so that’s that book. What’d you think of this one? What’d you think of that one? Yeah? Look, those are those two. Then I haven’t looked at
any of these other ones. We have, this one looks nice and small, “Spud Man’s Spudtacular
Baked Potato Cookbook,” big portions, tasty toppings, can’t lose, 40 quick and easy recipes. And my child is in the background. This is life. Well, I’m thrilled about this. The question is like, do I have to like make recipes as a judge? But I’m not completely
judging it on the contents, but I think I have to, especially with my like trying
to be veggie video that I did and talking about jacket potatoes. I feel like there’s gonna
be some good things in here. Anyway, fun, love, right?
Well maybe, I don’t know. This one’s pretty, okay,
“Drawn to the Garden,” the woman living in a flat
in London with a balcony and no garden. (laughs) By Caroline Quentin, I love
the illustrations on that. Woo! More pretty end pages. Here we go. So a gardening book. Fun. This is just gonna be like
for my future life, like yes, when I finally have a
garden and can plant things. I mean, we could plant things
on our balcony, I know. But anyway, then we’ve got “Greekish: Everyday Recipes with Greek
Roots,” by Georgina Hayden. So another recipe book, Greek style. I do like Greek food, so great. But we’ll have a little
look-see through this. And this is what I’m saying about the, why I’m not surprised that
it’s not required for me to like read a whole book because like there will
be people out there that read entire recipe books, but I don’t think that’s
the majority of people. So that is “Greekish.” And then finally, another recipe book. “So Good” by Emily English, food you want to eat,
designed by a nutritionist. There we go. The video where I tried
to be veggie for a month hasn’t even been posted yet at the time of like when
they reached out to me. But it seems to all be coming together, like the universe has spoken. I’m judging a book awards
for non-fiction lifestyle, where four out of six of the shortlisted books are about food. Three of them are full blown recipe books. I know nothing about the process of how they pick the shortlist. I can’t speak to that. One gardening book, one sort
of like diary memoir-esque book that is about food. So we can add that to this. And then this one is like middle age, second half of life, lifestyle, which probably will
include some food stuff. I know for a fact includes food stuff. There we have it. Where
do we go from here? I need to access the portal to get me into the documents bit, to actually find out more
about the publishing process and sales of these books. I imagine all of that
information is confidential, that shan’t be shared. I think I’m gonna take you through my trying to read these, and also just like on the
timeline side of things, especially around a toddler
who decides to be ill and can’t send him into his childminders. I better do some parenting. Alas, I cannot start reading
these books right now, which is what I would like to do. Okay, the child is better
and back at his childminders and I can finally breathe. Ah, okay. So over the next two weeks I have scheduled in very little work, ’cause I was like amongst
everything and parenting, like, when am I gonna get a
chance to like read books? At the time I didn’t know that I would be mostly
getting recipe books. So actually, I’m kind
of feeling optimistic, that they’re not gonna
take me as long to read as I initially thought. Anyway, so I have got two
weeks to read all these and because I was feeling
very delayed in starting, because of my kid being
ill and everything, I wanted to get a quick win last night. And so after he went to bed
last night, I read this, this is “Spud Man’s Spudtacular
Baked Potato Cookbook.” Obviously I didn’t read
the like nitty gritty of every single recipe, but I read all of the
other like story text and like the introductions to each recipe. I love a jacket potato. And so there’s like so much
stuff that you can do here. It’s quite overwhelming. When I’m talking about these by the way, I feel like it’s just best for all of us if I just chat about like
my personal experiences with the books as a consumer,
rather than as a judge. Because also, I’ve not
read the accompanying PDF and materials yet to do with this. So currently I’m just like, “Ooh, yum!” But Dan and I were saying that we wanted to make some
homemade hummus at some point, and this guy has got a hummus
recipe in here somewhere and I can’t… There we go, the hummus one, page 74, that one, boom! So I can tick one off the list already. Very happy about that. I’m not tracking any of
these on the story graph, because my story graph is public, and it is currently confidential. Will I add these later on? I don’t know, ’cause I feel
weird like rating them publicly. I don’t know, this is all so confusing. We’re all learning together as we go. Okay, I’ve got a bit of time now before I need to hop on a call. And so wow, this is bigger
than I thought it would be. So I think what I’m gonna
do, what do I wanna do? Where am I up to in
this book in the audio, let’s figure that out. I’m up to June 7th, ’cause this is like
structured like a diary, and then it’s just like what he ate, with the odd recipe here and there, and like what he’s up to. Love Stanley Tucci. June 5th, here we go. This one and the Liz Earle one, are probably the best ones
to like read entirely, but you cannot make me. Hence why I downloaded the
audio books of these ones, because they make more sense rather than the recipe books doing audio. Do they even make audio
books of recipe books? Maybe for accessibility. But the vibe I’m getting
from this one so far is that it is very diary-esque. So obviously it is done like in dates, and it does feel like the way that you would write in
a diary kind of vibe, in terms of like the way that
the sentences are structured and the grammar and like the
the casualness of it all. And yes, a lot of it’s about food. I kind of love how honest he is and about when he hates stuff. Especially like when he
goes to a restaurant, although he doesn’t like
name the restaurants, but he is like, “The food
was fucking terrible,” and I’m like laughing out loud. Like I think initially
I was like, “Oh god, that’s a bit rude.” And then actually, I don’t know, I feel like as I’ve
warmed to his character, I’m just like, “Oh, classic
Stanley. Hates the food.” It is also kind of an interesting glimpse into like the reality
of fame and celebrity. Also, in terms of like the
things that he gets up to and like what his like
work like looks like. But then also, he is a dad. He’s got like some older
kids who are adults and have flown the nest, but also, he’s got some younger kids. How old are the younger
kids? I don’t know. I feel like they’re primary school age. And so there’s a lot of stuff that he’s talking about in terms of like looking
after his kids and parenting, that I’m like, “Same, Stanley, same.” Like, doesn’t matter how rich or famous you are, parenting truly is one of the
great levellers of society. Is it though? Because rich
people can afford nannies. Anyway, I kind of thought that this… When I first started this, I was like, “Okay, I’ve got a sense for it.” And I do feel like I’ve got a sense for it enough for judging, but I actually am kind of
enjoying it enough to continue. But I do need to make sure that I actually like read
enough of the rest of them, so. This one, Oh, Liz. Oh
there’s photos in this book. Anyway, it’s fine. I’m in the reversing ageing
with science chapter. How to increase your
odds with bio-hacking. But I feel like is this
a safe place? It is. I’ve created this space on the internet, and so a lot of you will be similar to me. There are a lot of red flags in this book. I don’t how many of them are just because I’m in my early thirties and this is for women
who are older than me. This is like, Liz Earle is my mom’s age. But actually, do you know what? If my mom said any of the
stuff in this book to me, I’d be like, “Are you fucking mad?” No it’s fine. It’s one of those things where like, I don’t doubt that the
things that she’s saying, that will help you live a healthier and happier life are true. Like if you do them, possible
positive results will come. Me and Liz just have very
different worldviews. She sees all of the different ways that you can optimise your body and have control over your body, your mind, your life and all of this, and she finds that empowering. I find it exhausting. That is one of the main places
that this book loses me, is that, it’s just constantly telling me how empowering it is. And I’m not empowered, I’m
stressed and I’m exhausted. And yeah, if I even tried to follow like some of her advice, I think I would actually be miserable. I may be healthier, I may have lost weight,
but will I be happy? I feel like I do need to read a little bit more than this, so. I’m only like this way through. So I’m gonna like read a sprinkling of some of the other chapters, and I’m gonna try and not talk about how much I hate it,
too much in this video. Right? What do we wanna
start reading now though? I’ve got a bit of time. I’m kind of tempted to have a peruse of the garden book, “Drawn to the Garden.” And then we can save
these two recipe books for another time. This is beautiful. I love it. We’ll see, we shall see. Maybe there’ll be some good ideas in here for some presents for my
dad, ’cause he has a garden. Let’s go.
(gentle instrumental music) I’m immediately loving this book. Do you know that feeling like after you’ve read like a couple bad books, so you’ve had a few DNFs, and
then you pick up a new book and immediately you like trust the author, because the writing is good. It’s just like being
greeted by a warm hug. Like I’m immediately put at ease. I know nothing about gardening. Anyway, I weirdly got emotional reading, like the first
few pages of this book. This woman, Caroline Quentin,
is apparently an actor, and she has a gardening Instagram account, and she’s also done the
illustrations for this book. She did these, I love it. They’re so good, and like she talks about how
they let her do the drawings, and then she says, “These mixed offerings have been done with love and in the full and certain knowledge that just as I am an amateur gardener and an inexperienced writer, it’s become clear to me that
I am a novice illustrator. I really hope that my
hit and miss attempts at all three disciplines will encourage other
would-be artists, writers, and gardeners to pick
up a pencil, a trowel, or an idea, and run with it.” It’s just so lovely. “Let’s give ourselves
permission to mess up, go wrong, make mistakes and carry on. Shall we turn down the
volume on our inner critic, get dirt into our fingernails,
paint on our cardigans and put a smile on our faces? Hell, why not? We’ve got nothing to lose
and so much to gain.” Woo! Caroline. Right, let’s go. But the illustrations in this are so cool, and I love that she did
them herself, pretty. I am over halfway through
this book and I’m loving it. I’m inspired. One day in the future I
will be having a garden and growing my own food. So you know when I said that
four out of six of the books were about food, and I
didn’t include this one because I thought it was about gardening. Well it’s about growing your own food, and there was a whole
section in the middle of it that’s some of her favourite recipes from things including some like
rhubarb vodka and sloe gin. Cool. But there’s something about the writing and the storytelling in
this book that I just adore. I’m laughing out loud,
like she’s very funny, but not in a trying too hard way, and also just like in a
very like self-aware way. It’s very cosy and just like chill. The vibes are good. The
vibes are excellent. Oh hold on. You know how I said that she’s an actor, so I don’t know her. Maybe I’ve seen her in
things. I’m not sure. But like British TV and theatre. But I’m just seeing on the back here. “Caroline Quentin is a renowned
figure in British comedy.” Well that would make sense
as to why I’m laughing a lot. I’m like chuckling to
myself a lot reading this. Well there you go. Right, I’ve gotta go pick up Rowan now, and then tomorrow I don’t
really have any other work plans other than read, and then a hospital
appointment in the afternoon, which we all know will
require more reading and waiting around. So excellent. Couldn’t
have planned this better. (gentle instrumental music) Today has been a day, but I have finished
“What I Ate in a Year.” I finished reading it on my trip to the hospital this afternoon,
which was a whole thing, and I’ve been crying since I got home. I’m fine, I’m not fine. I finished “Drawn to the Garden,” and of course, I’ve also finished the baked potato spudtacular book. So three down three to go,
and tomorrow is a Friday. So that’s my day off with Rowan,
and then it’s the weekend. So basically gonna get
fuck all reading done then. So we’ll be back at it
next week for these. This one obviously, partway
through, it’s honestly a chore. And then we’ve got these two recipe books which I imagine it’ll
just be quite easy to read and skim through the entire things, ’cause a lot of it will just
be recipes and pictures. So I’m feeling good. I’m feeling good about
finishing all of these on time. I am not feeling good about other stuff that is unrelated to this video, but actually being an
emotional mess and coming back and reading this book was a
really lovely distraction. So thank you Caroline Quentin. (gentle instrumental music) It is a new week and
we are back to reading. So I did manage to listen to more of the Liz Earle
book over the weekend. I hate it less. I have a few more positive
things to say about this book. I thought the HRT menopause
section was really good. The woman has clearly
done a lot of research, so kudos. She knows a lot of
stuff. Is she persuasive? Has she got me on board with optimising every little thing about my health and wellness? No. And we went from like a
sprinkling of fat phobia at the beginning, to like
blatant, so not great. And I just generally find
it hard to trust a book that is about health and wellness, that is all about our individual actions and changes that we can
make to our own lifestyles. And granted, she does
occasionally go into ways in which like the medical establishment hasn’t got a great track
record when it comes to women and research around women’s health. And when it comes to a lot of research, she does point out like where the funding and money has come from. And so you know, that means
that it’s very biassed and skewed and all of that. So there’s some of that in there. But when it comes to people’s bodies and health and wellness in general, there’s no mention of
how things like poverty and mental health and neurodivergence and chronic illness and disability factor. Like occasionally she’ll be
like, “This works for some,” or “Like this may not work for everyone,” but just don’t feel
like that’s enough, Liz. Anyway, enough about that. I’m now reading “Greekish,” and I’ve been turning a few
corners on some recipes. Honestly, recipe books
generally just overwhelm me. I just think that the
people who make these are so proficient in the
kitchen, that they’re like, “This is really easy and
this is really simple.” And I’m like, “Not for me.” I’m like, “You think this is simple?” But sure, but the pictures are beautiful, and the writing is really lovely, and some of these recipes genuinely do look really delicious. She says that she is a mom of two, and so a lot of these recipes
are very like family friendly, like needing to make quick weekday meals. And yet, the recipes do not
say how long they will take on them. You know, when you have
your, serves this many, I just need a timer
underneath that as well. Maybe that was a conscious
choice, but that is information when I’m skimming a recipe book or skimming recipes online, I need to know how long it’s gonna take before I invest in
reading the actual recipe. That’s just me. Maybe it’s
other people too, I don’t know. But I am actually almost
finished with this one, and should finish it today. And then it means that tomorrow should be able to do a
whole other recipe book, and then at some point, finish this. I’m over halfway through this one. I’m currently listening to it. But if I finish these recipe books faster than I’m expecting, then I should be able to
read this faster, I think, than I listen. And then it means that
I can actually listen to an audiobook of my choice. I feel like after all of
this non-fiction lifestyle and food related things, I need to throw myself back into some like fantasy sci-fi thing. Unrelated, but at the time of filming this and when all of this is happening for me, “Civilization VII,” the game, the video game, has been released, and all I wanted to do is play it. I’ve managed to have some
evenings playing it with Dan, but it is wild to me how
different my life is now, when this version of Civ has come out, than when I first started playing Civ VI. Because when I first
started playing Civ VI, I was newly in a relationship with Dan, we had no children, and then a year into our relationship, I got very sick and hospital,
surgery, blah blah blah, all of that. And so I had basically a
whole year of like some work, but also a lot of rest and recovery, and a lot of playing video games. So that was my lifestyle. I was like in surgery recovery
for like a whole year, ’cause I had two surgeries that year, and I got to go deep into playing Civ, and I’m just not gonna be able
to have the same experience with Civ VII, because I have a child. And so this is just my warning out there to anyone thinking about having children. You’ll have less time for video games. Anyway, I’m gonna read this
recipe book, that was a tangent. Because if I finish these
then I can play some Civ. (gentle instrumental music) (Hannah imitates bugle blaring) Finished. Here’s just a selection
of some of the recipes that I turned the corner on. Let’s see, some homemade flatbreads. I like baking. Mushroom and lentil hilopites. Basically like a ragu pasta
thing, but make it vegan. One pot chicken thighs and rice. Let’s see, what else do we got? Potatoes. More potatoes, and this chocolate cake. I’m quite hungry now. ♪ It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day ♪ ♪ It’s a new book for me ♪ ♪ And I’m feeling so good ♪ Right, let’s go. Let’s go. I have finished four and
a half out of six books. Although actually I’m almost finished with the Liz Earle book, and she’s a grower. She’s still got her issues, but I feel like I just have to accept that the book is not for me. And talk to me again,
ask me again in like 10 to 15 years when I’m in my mid forties, approaching 50, menopause, all of that. And maybe I’ll be like
different, who knows? But for now, let’s just get hungry and read some more recipes and about food. This woman, Emily English,
is apparently a nutritionist. Let’s go.
(gentle instrumental music) I absolutely sped through that, and now it’s time for my lunch, and I’m going to be sorely disappointed in what I’m going to eat, because I’m just gonna be
comparing it to all of this. I have cornered so many pages. On the one hand I am very inspired, because as you may know
from previous videos, I’m an incredibly fussy eater, and I also have a chronic
illness and a stoma bag, and all of that, which
like impacts my diet and what I can and can’t eat. And I’m also a child. The
two I think are related. So when I find recipes that I’m like genuinely like, “Oh my god, I want to eat that.” And not only that, that seems accessible, I think I could actually make that, I’m there just like folding corners, dog earing all the corners. Look at this. That being said, so on
the one hand inspiring. I’m like, “Yes. Oh my god, I could cook all these foods and I would potentially like these foods.” On the other hand, overwhelming. With food, it is so difficult
to start new habits. Like it’s all about habits and lifestyle, and when you get into a routine
with how it works for you, like great. We are currently a meal box household, but also Dan and I have
been chatting about not doing that anymore, but we’ve been talking about
not doing it for months and months now. But between the two of us with work and having a toddler, we haven’t
had a chance to figure out what the alternative is
that we replace it with. And so when I think about this I’m like, “Oh my god, I can make all of these things and it’d be so great.” And like some of the things
that are for breakfast, I’m like, “Fuck yeah.” And like the lunches and
dinners, like all of it. But when? Meal planning, I swear to
God, is a full-time job. Like not only finding the recipes but then like planning
your meals for the week, buying all of the ingredients and then actually cooking it all. But the problem with
recipes like these as well is that you’ll buy ingredients
for it, you’ll make it and then you’ll have loads
of leftover ingredients. And so this is another
reason why I’m thinking of getting the like
Sorted Food sidekick app, because that whole thing
is about one shopping list that like makes you three meals
and then you use everything. I definitely wanna make
some of the things in here, but I also then just
don’t wanna be left over with loads of ingredients
that I then need to figure out how to incorporate into other things. Okay, basic, but I love pancakes, and these are some like ricotta pancakes. Yum, yum, yum. Some morning tacos, a butternut
squash mac and cheese. Oh also, there is a hummus
recipe in this book, which means that all three of
the recipe books, so this one, the “Greekish” one and
the baked potato one, all have hummus recipes in them, and they are all slightly different. This one is a caramelised onion one, the “Greekish” one has artichoke in it, and then I think the baked potato one is like just your bog-standard hummus. I feel like we need to do
a battle of the hummuses, and that shall decide the
winner of this book prize. Oh, what else? What else? I’ve like dogeared every
single soup in here, because I want to have like
more soups in my repertoire. Although it is becoming
spring, summertime. So you know, maybe for next autumn. This looks and sounds lovely. Italian sausage and broccoli pasta. Super food vegetarian bolognese. Oh just… And this woman, what’s her name again? Emily English, she loves some canned tuna. She loves some salmon and
she loves American mustard. I don’t think I’ve ever
bought American mustard. I also don’t know what the difference is between American mustard and
other mustards that I do know. My assumption is that
it’s probably sweeter and not spicy. Is it like the kind of mustard that you just like put on a hot dog? Is it that kind of mustard? Anyway, I kind of love this book, and when Dan comes home, I’m
gonna show him all the recipes that I dog eared, and
get him to pick some, and then maybe, maybe,
maybe I’ll make some. Sometimes I wish that
it was my full-time job to make food. Wait, I could be a stay-at-home mom. Right, this means that
I just have to finish the Liz Earle book, which has a name. It’s called “A Better Second Half,” and I have just over an hour left. I’ll probably finish it today, we are on the movement matters chapter. And actually, when it comes to movement, she is telling me things that I know and I’ve also heard from my mom, ’cause my mom is the same age. And so my mom is also like
receiving these same messages. I’ve got my moderate to
rigorous exercise down. It’s the strength training, it’s the strength workouts
that I do not do at all. Does Pilates count? I feel like it’s in there, but I also don’t do Pilates anymore. But I did really enjoy it when I did. I just don’t have the
fucking time anymore. Anyway, that’s a side note. Okay, so I’ll probably finish
“A Better Second Half” today or tomorrow morning, and then I’m gonna read all
of the accompanying materials that the publishers have sent
related to all of these books, because I’m not just judging
based on the content, but I think it was publishing
excellence and sales success. So we’ll get a bit of
a sense of those things from those documents, that I can’t share. Okay, now I’m hungry and
I need to eat some lunch, and it’s gonna be so disappointing compared to what I’ve just read. The books have been read and
my judging day is a week away. I completed the task early,
thank God for recipe books, which only take a couple of hours to read. But before I go into all
of the like other materials from the publishers and the other two criteria
about publishing and sales, I just wanted to rank
these not as a judge, but just as me a reader. This is just my rankings based on content, and also just like me,
Hannah, personal preferences, because some books are good
but they’re just not for you. A thing that happens. But then of course, for this awards, there are two other criteria
to take into consideration, and the other judges’ opinions too. So let’s go from favourite
to least favourite. My fave was “Drawn to the Garden.” This was a surprising favourite.
I just was swept up in it. I don’t have a garden,
I don’t grow any plants. There is not a living thing
other than human beings and a gecko in this flat. And yet I was just like fully absorbed in the storytelling, in the information, even though it’s
irrelevant to me currently. And the illustrations, just
cosy, lovely warm hug, loved it. My second favourite was probably the Tucc. This was just again, cosy, and whilst there was no plot, if we will, no stakes, no classic three arc structure. Just reading somebody’s diary. I really like Stanley Tucci’s personality. I think he’s a cool guy, and all of the different
like tangents he went on, the glimpses into fame,
celebrity, travel, family. And I just love that he talked
about foods that he hated, and gross foods that he ate. I just found it quite refreshing. Cool. My next favourite is probably
“So Good” by Emily English. I truly want to properly go through all of the dog eared recipes in here and try and make some sort of a plan. I think my first point of call
is just giving this to Dan and for him to pick some of his favourites of the ones that I picked. So we have like a list of
ones that we wanna try. I just really loved also the
experience of reading this. I’m not a recipe book
reader but I liked this. But we’ll see if it actually like comes to anything in my cooking. Okay, next, this is where, I don’t know, this is where I’m struggling. I think next I’m gonna
have to put “Greekish.” This was also lovely, but
I remember less of it. Like I remember some potatoes. I wasn’t feeling as like, “Oh
my god, I wanna make that, I wanna make that, I wanna make that.” When I was reading this as with this one, but I also liked the
insights into like Greek and Cypriot foods and culture and things. But I was less excited
personally by the recipes. That does not mean the recipes are bad, as we have established, I’m
an incredibly fussy eater. But that goes there. Next, I actually think I’m
gonna put Liz Earle next, “A Better Second Half.” This book grew on me. I hate to say it. I initially went in and I got full on woo woo girl boss vibes, and I came out of it, definitely still with
some girl boss vibes, but less woo woo. There is a sprinkling of woo woo in here, but even like in the
acknowledgements at the end she says about cutting
through the woo woo noise and actually like doing
scientific research. And so we’re on the same page there, Liz. There are other places where we are not. And whilst this book in
my current stage of life, stressed me out, it felt like a chemistry lesson, honestly, with the amount of things. But that isn’t to say, I don’t think there’s like
good nuggets of information and like takeaways in here. I just think that this book
can be like potentially very overwhelming and exhausting, and my other main gripe with it is, I want someone, because
I do not have the time, to go through this book and tally up every single thing,
like every single product, every single like vitamin,
everything that she recommends, and I want someone to
tally up the cost of that, like the upfront cost
of some of the things that you just purchase once, but then also the recurring
costs of some of the consumables that would become like a regular thing. Like because my instinct is that if you follow all of the advice in here, you are gonna be broke. And that’s capitalism baby. The other thing that I would really love is for Michael Hobbs to cover this book on one of his podcasts. It could fit on either maintenance phase or if books could kill. I just need his take on this,
because I find it confusing. And then last, but is it least? Is “Spud Man’s Spudtacular
Baked Potato Cookbook.” Is it its fault that I read it first and in the shortest amount
of time, but this was fine. I don’t know. I don’t feel like inspired
to go through this, and cook anything from it in the same way that I do the other two recipe books, and I’m like, “Cool, a gift for your jacket
potato obsessed friend.” Right, so that’s my personal
ranking this way around, and we’ll see what happens next. This could all change.
What does it even mean? I’ve just got off a call with the like social media
content team at the book awards, the Nibbies, also with
some other content creators who are judges, talking about
content around the awards, confidentiality, what we are and aren’t allowed to say and do. But essentially, I feel reassured that you are actually watching this video, and I’ve not had to can the whole thing, but just before the call, I read all of the publishing packages that came with each of the submissions, and it’s so interesting. That side of things I feel
is incredibly confidential, but it’s just very interesting seeing like the actual sales numbers and then the like publishing process, like how it came to be. But then also a lot of
the like PR, marketing and press around it. And this is probably really
obvious to a lot of people, but reading those things
really drilled home to me just how much of a collective effort it is to create a book, put it out in the world and give it its best chance of success. And especially in terms of
the three judging criteria. So the quality storytelling and then the publishing excellence, like this feels like an award along with like the sales success, it feels like an award that
is not just for the author but for the entire publishing team that made that book happen. And so that’s really cool. Like it’s a very like
industry-based award. And whilst yes, the author
deserves to be celebrated, like all the people
working behind the scenes also deserve to be celebrated for all of the really
creative and like interesting and like hard work that
they did behind the scenes. So whilst… Obviously, already had an
appreciation for publishing, I think reading those
was just like, “Oh cool.” ‘Cause I’ve never worked in publishing, so I haven’t had that same like… Other than obviously for
the two books that I wrote. But it’s just so cool to like, I dunno, see all the behind the scenes. So here’s the thing,
this is where we are at. I have in my head, my rankings for like quality storytelling, and then I also now want
to kind of rank them based on the other criteria,
publishing and sales. And I have a feeling that
the orders of the books are just gonna be completely different for all three criteria. And then maybe I’ll do some maths or I’ll just go off vibes, I don’t know, to then figure out what my top three are. Because I believe going
into publishing day, I need to have at least a top three, and then maybe even ranking all of them and adding some notes
online about them all. And then I’ve got an hour and a half in a room with
the other judges to chat, to judge. We’re gonna be so judgmental. I’ve made lots of notes,
I need to sleep on it, but it’s also the end of the week. So sleep over the weekend on
it, come back to it next week and then I will be ready for judging. (upbeat music) Good morning. It’s book awards day! (cheering) I was horrendously ill with
a stomach bug all last week, but I am better and I am well
just in time for the Nibbies. Oh my goodness, I’m so glad. Imagine if I couldn’t have
gone after all of this. So they are later tonight. Oh I need my ticket, my ticket. It’s on the fridge.
Here’s my fancy ticket. The drinks reception
starts at 5:00 PM, early. This agenda is insane.
It’s such a long evening. Ceremony starts at 6:20
and dinner at 8:00. That’s good to know. I love it when they tell
you when dinner is gonna be, if it’s on time, so I can
plan my appetite accordingly. Especially having come off a stomach bug, where my appetite is all
over the place at the moment. And then it finishes at 10:30, but that’s when the after party starts. I will not be going to the after party. I would love to go to the after party and mingle with all the
exciting bookie people, but I cannot, I have a toddler, and coming off the back
of a stomach bug, so. It’s not gonna happen guys. But it is at some very
fancy hotel on Park Lane, which if you know on the
London Monopoly board, is like the second most
expensive property. But I actually have a full day in London. I’ve got an event this morning. It’s the Doing It For the
Kids community meetup. So I’m going to the meetup this morning and then my friend, Leena, who doesn’t live in
London, has got a hotel, and so I’ll be going to her
hotel to get ready with her. I’ll get ready together! She was a judge for one
of the other categories. So I have a huge backpack of my things that I need to bring with, and I also have to hope
that there is a cloak room at this fancy event for me to
give someone my huge backpack. Okay, right. It is a very hot day today. It might thunderstorm and rain. We will see. That means I’ve had to
pack even more things for the weather. Right, but let’s go and enjoy our day and get ready for the Nibbies and try and not get too
sweaty and wet today. (Hannah squealing) I have made it to Leena’s hotel room. She is filming a time
lapse doing her makeup. – Have content.
(Hannah cheering) Oh yes, we do a little bit of content. – Yeah, we’ve gotta get the content, and now I need to get ready, and I’ve brought two pairs of shoes. We need to decide. I might
do an Instagram poll. Have the people decide. – [Leena] Why make your own decisions? – When you can outsource them. – Democracy. This is democracy manifest. – These are my shoe options. Oh wait, the dress, first the dress. Oh I’m going to be wearing this one. The dress code is cocktail attire darling. I wore this for the red
carpet at Buffer Festival, and then I also wore it for Lex’s birthday party in
a manor in the countryside where we played a big game
of a murder mystery game, and my character was a Russian ballerina. – Multipurpose.
– A multipurpose dress. So that’s this dress, that’s the dress, and then the shoe options. These bad boys that I’ve had
for, I want to say 10 years, and I wore these with them on the Buffer Festival red carpet. They are wrecked and ruined. Look at the state of these shoes. But is anyone gonna be
looking that close though? I don’t know. There’s
two different colours. Like this kind of purple is… Can it even be called purple, is I think closer to the original colour, and then you’ve got,
like on the front here, you can see how it’s gone gray-green. So they’re from Zara 10
years ago, and I love them. – I’ve gotta see this.
– Look, so the this- – Oh that’s fine.
– This colour- – They’ve just seen few
Freshers Fairs, haven’t they? – Yeah. It was a garden wedding, I think. – Yeah.
– On their first outing 10 years ago. – That just says, “This
isn’t my first party.” – No.
– “I’m here to have fun.” – It is not their first first party. And then the other pair of shoes, this would actually be their
second party if I wore them, because their first party was my wedding. And this is those shoes. So they’re yellow, and there’s some yellow in
the embroidery on the dress, and also the detail of
the flowers on these shoes is like that like
purply-gray colour again. – [Leena] I’m wearing my wedding shoes. – Are you?
– Yeah. – There’s an argument, I feel,
to be made for both shoes. These ones are lower to the
ground and they are comfortable. I did my whole wedding day in them. These ones are higher, and maybe like objectively
less comfortable, but I have done many a evenings in these. Have I done a whole evening in these since I have had a baby? I don’t think so. So these are my options. – [Leena] It’s a good way to
measure the ageing process. Like can you? – Can I still do a night in these shoes? What were your wedding shoes? – Show you.
– Show me. – Hannah wasn’t invited to my wedding. Drama! No, nobody was. It’s fine
– Rude. – These are my wedding shoes. – Are these Irregular Choice?
– They are. Buyer vintage.
– They’re very Irregular Choice.
– They’re little cats. – I was looking for Irregular
Choice wedding shoes, because they do, they do-
– They do do them. – Where are these ones from actually? They are from Ruby Shoes. Ruby Shoes. And it took me so long
to find a pair of shoes I wanted to wear to my wedding. There’s Leena.
– Thanks, I made it. – [Hannah] Oh where’s dress from? – Oh, thank you. I made it. It’s got pockets. Actually these pockets are velvet, so they double as a glasses cleaner. So I’m just going around being like, “Anybody want a glasses cleaner?” – Oh my God.
– Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? – [Hannah] My sunglasses
are actually filthy. – [Leena] Well, come on in. – These are my number one shoes. Oh, if it’s relevant. This is the bag – [Leena] That is relevant. That’s more than relevant.
– Okay. – [Leena] It’s kind of key. Okay, lift it up again.
– Whoop! – Lovely, blushing and yellow.
– Okay. – Or.
– Or. – [Leena] Nice kind of gray-purple, if you can’t see in the light. – Yeah, do I need to paint my toes though? Or can we get away with?
– Looks great. I don’t toe, either
way, you’re nailing it. – So Rowan’s strong opinion
this morning was these ones. – [Leena] I think that because
the bag is quite green. – Yeah.
– I’m not sure about the yellow and the green. – Yeah, I think introducing
too many colours. – [Leena] You’re
introducing another element. So while these feel like
less of a wild card, I think you’re already-
– Quite wild. – Yes.
(Hannah laughs) So we’ll see what Instagram says there, ’cause your opinion doesn’t matter. – No, we just ask them
so they feel involved, but really, we make the decisions. – [Leena] We find the influencer
in her natural habitat, grooming the outer regions of her body. This one’s for the world. – [Leena] Oh it does look
like it could storm actually, before I was like, “I don’t believe it.” I just don’t wanna buy
another umbrella, you know? It just doesn’t feel right. – So Leena is very good at makeup. Look at those eyes, look at them. – I spent a lot of time on YouTube in 2010 watching Lisa Eldridge. – You also used to make makeup videos. – I did used to make makeup
videos. The audacity. – Yes.
– I knew nothing. – I, 99% of the time don’t wear makeup, but tonight is calling for a makeup look. – You must go full disco hag.
– Yeah. – Let’s do it. – And this is the one
palette I brought with, we’ll see what we can do with it, but Leena’s gonna help me. – Yeah
– Right, I’d literally just put concealer on my face like it was foundation and that’s me done. – Okay, that’s fine. Do
you want more foundation? I don’t think it’ll be the same colour. – No, and also, I don’t
just think I need it. I think like even if I put
like the barest minimum on, it looks like I’m wearing makeup to me. – Yeah, you have very clear skin. Especially ’cause you don’t
wear makeup very often, so your skin will be even better. – Indeed.
– Very clever. – And I also use Skin and Me and not spa. Sometimes spa
– Occasionally. And I don’t believe in Skin and Me, but they have been targeting
me with Hair and Me, and that is something
that I am insecure about, and I don’t understand the science about, and maybe they are right and they know it. They’re really trying
to hammer me down with- – They reached out to me
about doing a campaign for Hair and Me, but I
said no, because I… No.
– You’re gifted in the hair department. – Yeah.
– I think we’d know. Gotta bronze the beard. – Gotta arrange the boobs. – Yeah.
– Very important. – Bring the children.
– Bring the children. Gone with these earrings, and now we need to find out
which shoes I’m wearing. Although actually I already
know which shoes I wanna wear, but let’s see if my Instagram
followers agree with me. – Democracy’s a lie. – Right, 79% of people say
the gray-purple ones, so. – Finally some sense
from the general public. Finally.
– So that’s- – [Leena] Right, get ’em on! Get ’em on! – We’re gonna walk there. I’m gonna put my trainers on, so no. No. Right, do I need to do
anything with my hair? – [Leena] I think it looks really nice. Have you brought anything to do there? – No.
– I’ve got some product if you want- I don’t know what you put in it though, because it’s quite good.
– I could brush it. Does it need-
– I don’t have a brush. Do you have a brush?
– No. – Love that idea. Why would we own brushes? What kind of influences are we? – Okay.
– I guess, I’ve got the attachment
for my whatchamacallit. You could use that if you wanted a handle. – What’s the red carpet
like photo look though? Is it like hair back? Is it hair forward? No, hair forward just
doesn’t feel very cocktail. – [Leena] You could do a little
strand at the front maybe. Oh, oh yeah, that’s nice. – Oh.
– Perfect. – I just need my professional
hair person to be there. Ready to like rearrange. – Yeah, to judge.
– To do a little judge. Right, are you ready?
– I’m ready. Let’s take a final look in
the mirror. What do we think? – I’ve not got my shoes on but, hi. – That’s two human women wearing clothes, what could possibly go wrong? (Hannah and Leena singing) Books!
– Read a book. – We have arrived. We have arrived. I think I’m just gonna let the
rest of the evening play out in B-roll. – I think that’s for the best, don’t you? – Also, my makeup looks so
much better in this light. – You did a great job,
it looks really nice. (gentle jazz music) – We’re not sat at the same table. (music drowns out Leena) Who are we gonna be sat next to? It’s a mystery. Will they like me vlogging?
(gentle instrumental music) – [Announcer] The winner
is, “It’s Wilding.” (audience applauds and cheers) – [Announcer 2] The winner is, “Patriot.” (audience claps and cheers) – [Announcer 3] It’s “Hunted.” (audience claps and cheers) – And cheers, thank you so much. (audience claps and cheers) – I’d like to applaud
the publishing industry for hiding extroverted
narcissists from writing for all these years.
(audience laughs) It’s James.
(audience claps and cheers) – [Announcer 4] Now it’s time to reveal the non-fiction lifestyle,
by the industry- – This is you.
– This is me. It’s my category! – [Announcer 5] “A Better
Second Half” by Lisa Earle. “So Good” by Emily English. “Greekish” by Georgina Hayden. “Drawn to the Garden” by Caroline Quentin. “Spud Man’s Spudtacular
Baked Potato Cookbook,” by Spud Man. And “What I Ate in One
Year” by Stanley Tucci. (audience claps and cheers) – Wonderful books all, but from those, the judges’ winner was a charming read, suffused with honesty and joy. Hannah, who is it?
(drums rolling) – The winner is, “What I Ate
in One Year” by Stanley Tucci. (audience claps and cheers) – Thank you so much. I’m gonna read this off my phone. I’m flattered and more importantly, I’m now a writer, according to you all, and I’m proud of it. I’m shocked, but I’m proud. I’d like to thank Helen
Garnons-Williams and Fig Tree- (audience claps and cheers) (gentle jazz music) – Hello, it is the morning after. Oh the voice croaked, didn’t even go to the party afterwards, and yet. So yeah, if you didn’t clock from some of the footage
that I got from last night, our winner for best non-fiction lifestyle and illustrated was,
“What I Ate in One Year,” by Stanley Tucci, and he was there to accept the award. We loved this book, and obviously I can’t speak
for all of the judges, but for me I just felt like his voice in this book was so warm
and funny and charming, and also, it was just like
a really interesting insight into one particular kind of lifestyle, but picking up on things around
food and family and travel and work and all of that kind of stuff. And I just really loved this, and obviously, very happy to see it win, because I was part of the judging process. Here was our lovely,
lovely shortlist again. And actually the other
day, I cooked a recipe. Oh my god, she did it, finally. From Emily English’s book, “So Good.” The one at the bottom there, which was like a a sausage and broccoli spaghetti pasta-y
thing and it was very yummy. I have my little booklet
of all of the winners, and it was such an interesting and also an emotional
rollercoaster of an evening. And I just wanna debrief,
I need to debrief guys. But I made some new
friends, sat at my table, there was other judges from some other categories
that were there. I was sat on a table with Sarah, of What Sarah Read Next on Instagram, and she was very, very lovely. She was judging, I think
best fiction, best fiction. As well as Arifa Akbar, who was sat next to me,
who is a theatre critic. So I got to talk about
theatre with somebody next to me all night, and get
some great recommendations. So we love an evening
where we make new friends, and also we love an evening
that extends our TBR. So obviously there were
lots of brilliant winners last night, and some of the books that
have like immediately jumped to the top of my TBR are
Percival Everett’s, “James,” which won book of the year for fiction, and also Percival Everett won
Author of the Year as well. And Sarah and Arifa, who
were sat on my table, were judges for this category, and they just sang its praises. So I really want to read that. The other one is, the
winner for debut fiction, was “Butter” by Asako Yuzuki, which is translated from Japanese. And I have another
Japanese translated fiction that I actually have a physical copy of, that I wanted to read. And honestly, I couldn’t
tell you what this was about, but the talk around it
was very intriguing, and I was like, “I wanna read that.” Oh my god guys, I feel
like all the parents in the room were fangirling, but Julia Donaldson and
Axel Scheffler were there. They won book of the year
for children’s illustrated with “Jonty Gentoo: The
Adventures of a Penguin,” which we don’t have. We have “Snail and the
Whale,” we have “Gruffalo,” those are big hits in our household. So now I wanna get Jonty Gentoo, but yeah, on my table I was like, “Oh my god, that’s Julia Donaldson.” And then the winner for
non-fiction narrative was “Patriot” by Alexei Navalny. This is where I wanna talk about the emotional rollercoaster
of this evening. Alexei Navalny is dead. He was a political figure
in Russia who opposed Putin, and there was a video from his wife, and this book also won like
best overall book of the year. So like all of the
different books of the year in all of the different categories
then get pulled together, and there is a group of
judges who read all of those, and then pick the best
overall book of the year, which was “Patriot.” And it was a really
emotional evening, obviously, because of the conversations
around, “Patriot,” and the fact that Alexei, you know, was the only author there who wasn’t alive to be
able to accept their award. But then there was just like this air in the room of, “Really?” There is construction work. Can you hear that? How rude. I’m trying to have a moment. There was this air in the room of recognising the political landscape of the world right now, and the situations that
we are living through. The winner for book of the
year discover, Len Pennie, her acceptance speech about domestic abuse was so powerful, so brilliant. There were mentions of trans
rights, freeing Palestine, AI, especially like in the, you know, the book publishing world as well. It just felt like there
was a lot going on. It was really heavy, and a lot of things,
rightly, were being said. And then obviously it was also like a fun and celebratory evening as well. The hosts did a really good job of like really managing
all of those tonal shifts. That’s a really tough job, but it did feel like
quite a special evening, especially being a
ceremony, celebrating books and the power of books and reading in terms of helping to, you know, expand people’s worldview, educate, like all of the different,
various purposes of books, but just like how important reading is, and access to books and access to reading is at times like these. In these times. It was just quite an intense
evening, if I’m honest, but like in a good way. Like in a, “Whew! That
was heavy but important.” Yeah, so I literally this morning, downloaded the audiobook of “Patriot,” so I’ve started listening to that. And then I definitely wanna read “James” at some point as well, as well as “Jonty Gentoo:
The Adventures of a Penguin.” But all this to say, I’ve
absolutely loved being a judge for the British Book Awards this year. I can’t believe that I got to do this, it has been very cool. Maybe I’ll get invited back
another year. Who knows? I love me an audio book, there
is an audio book category, and congratulations to all
of the shortlisted nominees, and of course, to our winners. (Hannah imitating a bugle) I hope you liked following me
along on this whole process and getting a little bit
of a behind the scenes into the process and experience of judging
for a book awards. I hope this isn’t my last
judging of a book awards. Who knows? And let me know what you
are currently reading in the comments. I’m currently reading, obviously “Patriot” by Alexei Navalny, and for my Patreon book club, I’ve just started reading
“Disability Intimacy,” which is a collection of essays by lots of different disabled
people edited by Alice Wong. So that’s what I’m currently reading. I hope that you’re doing well. I know last week’s video
was also book related, with the combination of Easter holidays and then me getting ill and having to like move
a lot of stuff around. It just so happens that next week’s video is also going to be book related. So I hope you enjoy this triple bill, like month long, BookTube Channel. I’ll see you in the next one. Bye.

50 Comments

  1. it's exhausting but hilarious how kids can just make the ABSOLUTE most noise when you're like "I … really? You were looking at a book quietly for an hour yesterday, but today I need to do something and you're learning the cup stack game and how to play bongos at the same time . . . .NOW?" and they're completely oblivious so you can't do anything. hahaha

  2. So curious, given what you've read about publishing etc, would you recommend someone use a publisher? It's a debate my colleagues and I are having, given we do all the work, yet the house takes all the %£!?

    Also, love how your dress has lil vulva flowers on it! (At least that's what I saw hehe)

  3. Such a great video! I really hope they have you back as a judge again — I think the audiobook category would be so perfect for you. And overall, after watching this, I feel like you must be a really great judge: you're so open-minded, organized, and thoughtful! Perfect combination.

  4. Umm…I'm so impressed at you reading Physical books. I love to read, but since the birth of my daughter 3 years ago I have pretty much exclusively read audiobooks. Having to read a physical one now for my book club as wasnt available in audio and I have not made much progress (and the only reason I have made Any is cause I went on my first solo non work weekend trip to visit friends, and had 2h to sit while i did my glucose tolerance test )

  5. Love that you mentioned Michael Hobbes in relation to Liz Earle's book, the whole time you were talking about the bio-hacking chapter I kept thinking of the recent MP episode on biohacking. Strongly agree that he'd probably end up doing enough research to have more pages than the original book!

  6. If you're ok with a kinda boring food style most days, what I do is just make sure I have veg, protein, and (maybe) a starch each dinner. I buy lots of my veggies frozen then just roast or saute them from frozen. (Definitely prefer fresh but the expense is kinda killer right now.) A good quality olive oil gives you plenty of flavor, just make sure to properly salt and you're good to go! Steamed veggies with a bit of salt and lemon juice are bomb too, depending on the veg. A rice cooker is a life saver, and you can add so many different flavors with spices, stocks, etc. As long as your water to rice ratio is good, you'll get perfect rice every time! Potatoes can be as difficult or as easy as you want, just pick your poison lol. I'm pescetarian so my protein is usually fish, egg, or rice+beans. With fish I usually just bake it. You'll have more flexibility being able to do other meat types there. Breakfast for dinner is always awesome imo because I love breakfast foods. Sandwiches are pretty versatile, as well as pastas since you can customize sauces/add-ins.

    If a specific meal plan for each day is overwhelming, I highly suggest having "simple dinner" nights cus you can just throw them together whenever! It's also a great way to grow confidence in the kitchen because you master those easy dishes pretty quick and can start messing around with new flavors whenever you like. And another thing!! No one told me that I'm always going to mess up when working with a new stove, or with new pans, or whatever! Even people who cook for a living can still make mistakes with unfamiliar tools. The first time I made fettuccine sauce from scratch I burnt my first 2 tries lol. Pan was too hot. When I started using stainless steel, I had to learn that they hold more heat so I had to learn to use lower heat settings for them. (And not worrying about some stuff sticking, which led me to learning about deglazing and figuring out how to do it. Which is easy!)

    Meal boxes are still great if they work for you! Whatever you decide, doing the boxes sometimes still isn't terrible. Restaurant food here and there too will account for some meals. The way I eat now is very much like the way my parents cooked for us.. affordable and easy meals that still tasted good and provided adequate nutrition. Didn't end up making us picky eaters or anything but it did instill an appreciation for simple food, I think.

  7. "Battle of the hummuses" sounds like a great video idea tbh. Just you and dan making a shitload of hummus and trying them all. You can freeze homemade hummus so then you have homemade hummus for the following moths 😊

  8. "I'm not empowered. I'm stressed, and I'm exhausted" 😅 genious comment. That's how I felt a couple yeras ago when all those videos/posts were trending (at least in my feeds) with "I get up at 5 every day to do yoga and have a smoothie before my kids wake up"

  9. American mustard is thinner, like the kind for hot dogs. British mustard is thicker, sometimes has flour as a thickener. American mustard can taste sweeter, but no sugar is actually added. Swedish mustard actually adds sugar.

  10. I ended up showing the GIF of 'If you have kids you'll have less time for video games' to my spouse (they had already watched the video themselves). It's not that we didn't know, and it's too late now since I'm writing this with our 6 month old screaming at his feet next to me, but lol.

  11. In re. your recipes, meal prep, and leftovers chat – my family has found Souper Cubes (well, actually, a knock-off that we found online) to be so, so helpful. We freeze almost all of our leftovers now and can reheat them for lunches or dinners in a reasonable single-person portion size, no food goes to waste, and we are able to have more leftover variety because we don't have to use things up before they go bad.

  12. Love Stanley Tuci so the book is great, but sorry dear Hannah, I really the bag doesn't go with the dress or the shoes.

  13. so glad you mentioned michael hobbes!!! the earle book gave me if books could kill vibes and i was gonna recommend the podcast if you hadn’t heard it 😅

  14. I loved this video! Thank you for taking us along on your book awards judging journey. I’m currently reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead which is brilliant. I also recently read Asako Yuzuki’s Butter through my book club but I have to say I was disappointed – along with most of our club! So not sure I can fully recommend that one.

  15. I’m not reading books right now as such but I’m taking a bunch of online courses through Coursera and my current one is on skepticism and what is a healthy amount of doubt versus radical skepticism. It’s very interesting so far

  16. When you'd talked about this earlier I was not particularly interested in any of the books, apart from maybe Stanley's cuz I do enjoy his work, but after hearing you talking about the garden book and so good I am now intrigued 👀

  17. The secret to meal planning imo is not planning 7 different dinners but 2-3 and then just make a shit tonne of it and eat the leftovers for lunch and dinner later in the week. Also things where you can make the leftovers work for another meal, like a big batch of bolognese and then you can have it with pasta or on a jacket potato for example. If you hate eating leftovers multiple times in a week make a big batch and freeze it instead. Also meal propping ingredients for example shredded chicken can go in tacos, salad, pasta ect. Which all require minimal effort if you've already made the protein.

  18. Definitely add Butter to your reading list! The descriptions of food are so good you'll want to try everything they talk about but it also weaves in the expectations of women and how they are perceived in a patriarchal society and touches on body image. It's not action-packed or anything but I really enjoyed it!

  19. On meal planning being such a chore I so resonate! I've been using an app called Cherrypick for nearly 2 years and it's a game changer! Provides you with recipes and then concerts it into a shopping list which you can then shop in store or get delivered through Sainsbury's, Asda or Tesco. You should see if they'll sponsor a video!

  20. I loved this insight into the judging process. I have requested Drawn to the Garden from my library halfway through the video haha and will definitely be keen to read Patriot too. I'm currently reading None of the Above by Travis Alabanza.

  21. In my view, smart investors should keep their capital actively working. With 2025 already showing signs of broader market diversification, now is a strategic time to stay invested. Given the strong performance of certain sectors, I've committed my $460K portfolio accordingly-reaffirming my belief that the stock market remains one of the most intelligent and rewarding investment vehicles available. Clearly, many others share this outlook.

  22. Georgina Hayden (the author of Greek-ish) also has a cookbook called Nistisima which you might like for finding more veggie recipes. It's all about "naturally vegan" Mediterranean recipes, many of which are traditional Greek Orthodox fasting food for Lent and other holidays.

  23. You are a fantastic book reviewer and judge of literature and this video totally shows the strength, depth and breadth of your judgement – thank you!! They got the right person to be a judge in this awards process.
    PS There might be something to getting the Sorted SideKick app to change cooking habits. As you say, cooking is only a part of it – the meal planning, shopping, cooking, dealing with left-overs – it's a lot and can be overwhelming even for those with lots (and lots) of experience.

  24. 25:18 Are you not going to get in trouble for showing whole legible pages of coprighted work like that? Especially with it being a recipe book and a single page having all the info you need for certain dishes.

  25. I get what you’re saying about meal planing and leftover ingredients. I paid for a year of meal plans from Rainbow Plant Life (my fave vegan creator that my meat-eating husband loves) and it was so worth it! I have the meal plans forever, and they do the same as Sorted Foods so you’re not wasting ingredients. And I’ve tried and enjoyed so many new things!

  26. Oh goodness that you don't know Caroline Quentin makes me feel so old, im only 5 years older than you but she was on tv so much when I was growing up 😂 I LOVED Johnathan Creek growing up

  27. I work at a very big university. A load of my colleagues booked a few days off work to play C7 when it came out (including some getting together in groups), with the blessing and encouragement of the rest of us. This is not an unusual event in our lives and no one is made fun of for it. We are a variety of ages, this isn’t recent graduates. Totally legitimate unse of annual leave. We’ve even planned work around video game releases for people when we can.
    No, we don’t work in IT.
    We just try to be honest and support each other’s interests.
    It turns out that popular games are, you know, popular. If you ask enough people you’ll find someone willing to admit that they like it too. We don’t do shame.

  28. Ohhhh it’s been way too long since I got ready with my girlfriends with a night out (I am currently very-extra disabled from long covid). The ending of this video SOOTHED and HEALED my soul. Not the whole point, I know, but thank you. 😭💛

  29. Really enjoyed this video and interesting to hear you talk about meal prepping. I'm a big advocate for meal planning / prep and actually me and my partner normally meal prep all our breakfast & lunches + a couple of weeknight meals. A few tips of helpful:

    – Don't plan a new recipe every night. Normally we will try one new recipe every few weeks or so cos I find it too overwhelming
    – Get a personal recipe book. Me and my partner use Trello and the recipes are all linked (or photos) and are ordered by cuisine and also how easy it is to make / whether it needs weird ingredients
    – If you are buying a weird ingredient that you don't use often, Google other recipes for that ingredient before you go shopping and make a plan for that recipe as well
    – Double up recipes (or even more) so you can have repeats later that week (with zero need to do more prep) or in a future week

  30. Loved this video soooo much!! I’m currently reading A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor!

  31. I would totally be down for more cooking/meal planning/meal prepping content if you want that to be more of your job!

  32. How I "meal plan": Whenever the food levels are getting low and we're coming up on another grocery run, my husband and I will go through our cookbooks and pick out about seven recipes we'd like to make. If the recipes are designed to make only two servings, we double them, because we always want leftovers (we don't want to cook every night). Then we go through the ingredients and see what we already have on hand and make a list of what we will need to buy. If we're really on our A game, we'll have looked to see if there's something we need to use up and chosen a recipe specifically to incorporate that item. Then after we've bought the groceries (our ingredient list plus whatever "staple" items we were low on), we cook through the meals in whatever order we feel like. Usually we just go according to what fresh produce will go bad the fastest and use it up first, but of course we also factor in whether a particular recipe will take more time and will need to be made on a specific day because of that. Not sure how much fridge space you're working with (I know it tends to be smaller in Europe compared to the average American fridge), so you might be needing to buy fewer meals in one go, maybe just four or five. But that's pretty much been my method for the past ten years or so. It keeps us eating lots of different things, and it's flexible enough that we don't feel like it's a lot of work to come up with the 'plan."

  33. Late to watch/comment and may have been said already but on Len Pennie- fantastic speaker- I saw her at a book festival last year and she was just so engaging. She has another collection coming out soon, so if you get the chance to see her speak I wholeheartedly recommend!

  34. I LOVE your awards dress but I’m so impressed that you can wear a dress like that, I have just written spaghetti strap dresses off as not for big chested people like me.

  35. I would love to see a battle of the hummuses video. I'd also love you to keep us updated if you make any more of the recipes, especially from the Emily English one, so we can decide if it's worth buying. I'm currently listening to the audiobook of The Three Lives of Cate Kay and it's really good, and a very well done audiobook!

  36. I'd love to hear more about the sorted food app! That sounds interesting, especially from a sustainable and not wanting to waste food point of view

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