With minimal preamble, here’s my complete list of books for 2024. The categories are pretty self-explanatory. BTW, I read 52 books this year (!!!), a new record since my record keeping began! I’d say at a glance I still favour murder mysteries, but am not fussy about the setting or style (past, future, Holmes, cozy, scifi) but I also branched out a bit more this year, partly thanks to the Amnesty book club that I joined back in January.
I’m not doing a Reading Challenge wrap up, it turns out it was too much. As in too many things and I’m irritated at the prospect of a long, drawn-out assessment of my performance. For 2025, I’ll keep it simple – read 52 books! And if one more person recommends The Year of Magical Thinking, I’ll consider reading it.
LOVED it
- The English Understand Wool, by Helen DeWitt
- The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
- Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles
- Fascism: A Warning, by Madeleine Albright
- Still Life, by Sarah Winman
Loved it
- The Sleeping Car Porter, by Suzette Mayr
- Starter Villain, John Scalzi
- Lock In, by John Scalzi
- Greenwood, by Michael Christie
- Close to Hugh, by Marina Endicott
- A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
- The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- Bad Cree: A Novel, by Jessica Johns
- Artemis, by Andy Weir
- In The Woods, by Tana French
- Broken Harbour, by Tana French
- Scarborough, by Catherine Hernandez
Imperfect, but with redeeming qualities
- The Age of Magical Overthinking, by Amanda Montell
- Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon
- The Women, by Kristin Hannah
- A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, by Alicia Elliott
- Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan
- The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
- Medicine Walk, by Richard Wagamese
- The Magician’s Assistant, by Ann Patchett
- Transcription, by Kate Atkinson
I liked it, but you might not
- My Dark Vanessa, by Kate Elizabeth Russell
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
- Apeirogon, by Colum McCann
- The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, by Theodora Goss
- European Travel for the Monstrous Gentleman, by Theodora Goss
- A Siege of Bitterns, by Steve Burrows
- A Pitying of Doves, by Steve Burrows
- A Cast of Falcons, by Steve Burrows
- Unnatural Creatures, stories selected by Neil Gaiman
- How to Sell a Haunted House, by Grady Hendrix
- The Final Girl Support Group, by Grady Hendrix
- Woman, Watching, by Merilyn Simonds
- Long Division, by Kiese Laymon
Good, not great
- Elementary, She Read, by Vicki Delany
- Body on Baker Street, by Vicki Delany
- The Cat of the Baskervilles, by Vicki Delany
- A Scandal in Scarlet, by Vicki Delany
- Tiny Beautiful Things, by Cheryl Strayed
- What Strange Paradise, by Omar El Akkad
- The Immortal King Rao: A Novel, by Vara Vauhini
- The Absolution (Book 3 of Children’s House), by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Hated it
- The Maidens, by Alex Michaelides
- Anna O, by Blake Matthew
- The Story of Us, by Catherine Hernandez
HATED it
- Fifteen Dogs, by Andre Alexis
- Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
So pleased that we liked many of the same books: “Still Life”, “Shipping News”, “Rules of Civility”, “Greenwood” and “Shadow of the Wind”. I have printed out your complete list and will try to read some of your LOVED it and Loved it category winners.
Were you the person who wrote somewhere that you would read “The Year of Magical Thinking” if one more person recommended it? I read it and I am NOT recommending it.
Next: Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles and This is Happiness, Niall Williams.
I’m happy hear at least one person not recommend Magical Thinking, I may have to raise the bar on recommendations before I read it from 1 to 5, or 10, or infinite. Lincoln Highway was recommended to me by the same person who first recommended This Is Happiness, so I have added both to my TBR. Am underway with Happiness already!
This is great and will be a good reference to come back to. It’s really cool that you only read 5 books that you hated this year! That’s less than 10%!
I actually didn’t think of it like that, Erin, thank you!! It felt like more because I hated them so much that they took up a lot of space in my brain – a lesson, frankly, to let go of books I hated and move on quickly to the ones I loved. Truthfully, I didn’t love King Rao or My Dark Vanessa either, but they both had just enough of a redeeming characteristic that hate was too strong a word. And Vanessa contains some important messages about how we judge people’s actions. Women’s actions, specifically.