Reading year in review
And my top ten in fiction, plus a nonfiction plug
We’re a few days into the new year so I’m already running behind on this newsletter, but I have been greatly enjoying two full weeks off of work, which I needed more than I realized. It’s back to the grind on Monday, and I suppose it will be good to get back to a schedule and regularly getting out of the house for things other than dog walks, but I know I will be grouchy.
I’ve been thinking about life in 2024 in review and I’ve come to the conclusion that it was fine. It could have been better, but it could also have been worse. There were some real high points (more community, literary tourism) and some huge low points (my dad’s death, the 2024 election results aside from my new congressional representative, Shomari Figures) but I basically stayed on an even keel all year and I’m proud of that.
My year in reading, though, was bonkers, as this wrap up from StoryGraph shows. (A caveat on this is that I don’t regularly assign star ratings to things, so those numbers are off.)
I obviously devoted almost all my spare time to reading last year, which had its good points but also it’s bad — in 2025 I want to diversify my reading time a bit. I’m trying to get back into knitting (that’s prime audiobook time!) and my cousin sent me the Lego Bookshelf for Christmas and started me on the slippery slope of Lego addiction. We always have been two peas in a pod.
I did some thinking about my 2024 reading and came up with a few highlights, which I will present to you, my loyal readers, now.
Favorite books I read in 2024 (published anytime), ranked according to my highly scientific metrics:1
Honorable mention: Small Rain by Garth Greenwell (pub 2024) - This book wrecked me. He writes about pain better than anyone else I’ve encountered, and it’s an intense and anxious book to which I related greatly. It was clearly an excellent choice to read this when I was already anxious and emotionally fragile… Had I read it at while in a more appropriate mental state, this book would likely be higher in this ranking.
At ten: Fire Exit by Morgan Talty (pub 2024) - I read a galley of this and ended up buying it in print. I feel like it should have gotten more buzz. The thing that really makes it speak to me is that I think it’s the most accurate portrayal of ECT I’ve ever read in fiction.
At nine: Sound Museum by Poupeh Missaghi (pub 2024) - This came across my radar as part of my Coffee House Press subscription. It’s a slim book, and it’s in the form of introductory remarks at the opening of a museum of torture. It makes you think deeply about torture, but I found parts of it almost funny because there’s some real #girlboss energy going on in the speaker.
At eight: Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami - I picked this one up at a Little Free Library. The description sounded totally uninteresting yet also appealing??? Anyway, I found it mesmerizing.
At seven: Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett - I found this one charming and a delightful reading experience. It’s set in a small New England town and the narrators are ghosts from the local cemetery. Also, the small town has a Dunkin Donuts which is an essential element of New England. The author visited my university and I got to sit in on a class she taught as well as attend her reading, which was great.
At six: The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff - Groff is super acclaimed and was also the subject of perhaps the greatest author profile ever in the New York Times. She also owns what looks like a really great bookstore, The Lynx, in Gainesville, to which I have considered road tripping. All that said, I hadn’t gotten into any of her books but kept trying and this one made me really glad I did.
At five: The Trees by Percival Everett - I really think he’s a genre onto himself. This book is a police procedural about lynching and parts of it are quite funny??? No one else could pull that off. He also visited my university and I got to sit in on his class and attend his reading, which was, unfortunately, beset by technical problems.
At four: Same Bed, Different Dreams by Ed Park - I somehow missed this one when it came out in late 2023 and picked it up off a table at Roundabout Books because of the cover. This is right up my alley - multiple storylines, weird. I thought he nailed the ending.
At three: Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino (pub 2024) - This is a book about an alien, or is it? This is a beautiful book that expressed a sense of alienness and distance from human society that I have felt since childhood. Should have gotten more buzz!
At two: James by Percival Everett (pub 2024) - I really don’t need to say anything about how good this book is, because every other best book list and the National Book Awards committee already have.
At one: Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (pub 2024) - I adore this book and, frankly, I’m pissed I’ll never get to read it for the first time again. This is one that I wasn’t excited on based on the description but I got so wrapped up in it. It’s not a perfect book, but he swung big and I appreciate that. I also stood in line for maybe two hours at the Mississippi Book Festival to get him to sign my copy and he is an absolute delight of a human being, one of those people who just exudes charisma and love. My platonic life partner says he has Big Muppet Energy and I think that’s just about a perfect way to put it.
My nonfiction favorite of 2024:
I didn’t read a ton of nonfiction last year, but I can’t write a reading wrap-up of the year without mentioning Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham. Listen, I am of the age that I am acutely aware of what happened with the Challenger in 1986. Like many of my age, I saw it happen in school. So, tell me, how is it possible that Higginbotham built a sense of suspense that had me on the edge of my (car) seat going, “they’re not going to launch, are they? They can’t launch, right?” The book actually begins with a history of the space program going back quite a bit, and as a space nerd, I really enjoyed that.
2025 reading goals in review:
Read fewer books. I want to read lots of good stuff, obviously, but I would like to have a more balanced life in terms of leisure activities.
Read more books from independent presses.
Read more books in translation.
Read more poetry.
I’d love to hear about your 2024, in reading or in life.
Vibes