It may not have been a big year in the feats of human strength department, but in place of long rides and runs I started reading lots. In 2024, I finished 96 books, a personal record.
As I wrote in my other wrap-up post, books became a balm to manage my experiences in a way they had not been previously. I read to make sense of my life, to escape, to immerse myself in creativity, to know that I was not alone.
My tastes tended toward literary fiction with some historical fiction, a frequent side of mystery or thriller, and a dabble into the occasional memoir and nonfiction book here and there.
This was a year when it felt extra important to feel safe with a writer. If I thought a writer might take me to a very dark place or keep writing their story until it suffocated me, I would either not pick it up or I would put it down. Anxiety was too real a feeling in 2024, I didn’t need to go searching for it in a book!
I also became a regular listener of a few book podcasts:
- The Stacks, hosted by Traci Thomas
- The Bookshelf, with Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh (Australia-based)
- The Book Show, hosted by Claire Nichols (Australia-based)
- Book Review Podcast by the New York Times, usually hosted by Gilbert Cruz
I say all this as preamble to give you a sense of the factors guiding my 2024 reading choices.
Of the 96 books read, I consumed about half via audio and another half digital. I read 3 actual paper books. I love real books, but I also like to travel light!
Fifteen of those reads made it into my personal highlight reel, and I’ve listed them 15 in rank order below, along with my brief review (based on no set criteria – mostly emotional heft, creativity, writing quality, believability of the characters, and a little bit of form).
You can see all 96 reviews on my Storygraph (find me there as coffeeneur!), if you’re interested in a deep dive. But really, who has time for deep dives these days, that’s why I’m sharing the top 15 here! And guess what, no spoilers here, so you’re safe to read on!
Let Us Descend, by Jesmyn Ward
Incredible. A life suffused in grief, the horrors of slavery, and yet slivers of hope, love, and determination appear throughout and sustain Annis.
I loved the dynamic relationship between Annis and the spirit world, and the way she holds her memories of the ones she loved. So vivid.
I read Let Us Descend in April, and the messages in it accompanied me throughout the rest of the year. This book helped me feel I was not alone.
Jesmyn Ward narrates the audiobook and it couldn’t be better. She is brilliant. My words don’t do Let Us Descend justice, just read (or listen to) it!
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk and translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Such a smartly woven tale. A murder mystery, a story of unexpected friendships, and a feminist fairy tale. This book could make me a vegetarian, astrology enthusiast, and a William Blake fan.
“The only one who is healthy is the one who suffers.”
Loved the translation and wish I could read it in its original language, too. It went on a pinch too long for me tho. Not sure if that’s because I was also rushing myself to the end to see how it turned out.
James, by Percival Everett
Percival Everett takes the frame of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and tells us the story of James. It’s bold, incisive, and smart. It made the slog of reading the original Huckleberry Finn first worth it, as it gives James even more texture.
So creative, and told with emotional honesty and empathy. I kept wanting to sit with James and see what happened next. Reading this book, we also get insight into how our society, especially white society, has been complicit in slavery and the dehumanization and destruction of black people.
This book is a work of art while also being a great adventure story.
Western Lane, by Chetna Maroo
This book shows so much through observation and the actions of the characters. No long treatises here, everything is succinct. Grief, loneliness, family, growth, even crossing cultural lines were themes in this book, all seen through the eyes of a young girl whose mother has recently died.
I loved how squash anchored this story. Squash built connection from the narrator to Pa. Squash was a way to navigate grief and to grow and connect to the greater world and to find hope.
At times, it was even used as a way for Pa to avoid certain realities and linger in his grief, at least in my read.
I listened to this audiobook outside on walks and I really loved digesting the story in this way. I don’t play squash tho I know the basic rules and I didn’t feel like I needed more knowledge of it to love Western Lane as I did.
North Woods, by Daniel Mason
An epic story of a place and the people who pass through it. There is an intricate interconnection to people and the earth across time in this story. Spirits live on in the land and sometimes cross boundaries. The land outlasts our mortality and yet our actions on it reverberate over time.
I was totally carried away by the writer and this story, especially how interwoven the plotlines were throughout, and in a way that never seemed labored. Parts of it made me laugh and others made me tear up.
North Woods an awesome audiobook. What a treat. I’m in awe of Daniel Mason.
Someone Like Us, by Dinaw Mengestu
I loved this book, how people talked to each other through what wasn’t said, how people understood each other beyond words. I even liked the inclusion of photos.
The telling of systemic racism’s effects on African immigrants was compelling. The issue of addiction was introduced and underexplored as it related to the protagonist to my mind, and that’s my one very minor complaint.
This book about the Ethiopian immigrant experience was a beautiful, fantastical, tragic story of 2 kindred spirits – Mamush and Samuel.
Someone Like Us is DC-based, and that makes another neat overlay for those of us in the Washington, D.C., area.
Chain Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Intense dystopian fiction about our broken prison system, structural racism, capitalism, and our cultural obsession with violence. A propulsive and vivid tale that is, unfortunately, not so far from reality. Not subtle in its messaging but it seemed to work.
The protest movement was underwritten, but good to know that even in a dystopia there are people who will stand up and take personal risk for what is right and try to move us to a better place.
Chain Gang All-Stars also does a good job of making us think about worthiness and how our society thinks about who is worthy of forgiveness. This was my first audiobook and this vivid creative story told with multiple voices (but not so many as to be confusing) made for a rich audio experience.
We Were Once a Family, by Roxanna Asgarian
A taut thorough story that exposes the flaws, systemic racism, and brokenness in our country’s child welfare and foster care system, and how these lead to very real and lasting trauma for both the children and their birth families.
In the Hart case, they led to adoption by a couple who abused and eventually murdered the children entrusted to them.
So well written and researched, I could not put this book down.
The Vaster Wilds, by Lauren Groff
A radiant survival story of a servant girl who escapes a doomed early European settlement engaged in all kinds of unspeakable horrors. The descriptions and sensory experience of this book are so good.
I really wasn’t sure where it was all going but I rooted for this girl, whose determination and ability to endure impressed. I was unexpectedly emotional listening to The Vaster Wilds and the audiobook is fantastic.
I love Groff’s exploration of language — who names what and the perceived power language has on the earth.
In the end we are the small ones. It is the earth that is big and will inevitably swallow us all.
The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
Not a word wasted in this book that bears witness to the horrors of a juvenile reform school based on the Dozier School for Boys.
This book is brilliant and the boys in this story are vividly drawn and possess great spirit. I wept through the last chapters as the truth of what we are reading unfolds.
I would not have known about Dozier absent this story. What a shame for our country, and Whitehead essentially writes that these racist horrors and injustices continue, they simply change shape over time. What a book.
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, by Deesha Philyaw
Unabashed, direct, sensual, and beautiful. I loved the narration and I will never look at peach cobbler the same way again.
Not a wasted word in these stories! Some call to the others, some stand alone. Philyaw’s stories explore identity, religion/Christianity, sexuality, sensuality, and people’s relationships to community and family in light of these.
The Cemetery of Untold Stories, by Julia Alvarez
Such a creative and tightly knit story. Great audiobook. Everyday magic and it was also quite funny in parts. My only question was that I didn’t know what to make of Pepito in the end, except maybe it was a note about patriarchy and who gets to tell our stories.
The way the themes unfurled in this book was quite beautiful. Everyone has sadness, everyone has regrets, everyone has a story to tell.
“Nothing holds anyone together but imagination.”
Poor Deer, by Claire Oshetsky
Funny, tragic, surreal, imaginative. A twisted fairy tale that intertwines the imagining of what comes next against what actually happens.
Oshetsky’s book delves convincingly into guilt, grief and how these bring a death to a part of ourselves. It shows how guilt can devour us, how tragedy can alter and kill relationships. Poor Deer explores penance snd acceptance, and the complicated nature of the things that happen in our lives.
The manifestation of Poor Deer (maybe there is a version of Poor Deer in all of us) worked well, and even though this book deals with serious topics, the writer is also witty and cynically humorous.
The repeated use of certain words such as insouciance, which I’m pretty sure this narrator is not, and the references to Hummel figurines – loved it! Read on a recommendation from Liz Hein and the Fiction Matters pod hosted by Sara Hildreth.
In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez
Viva las mariposas, if only in our memories. This book is based on the true story of the Mirabal sisters. A tale of the everyday lives of women with everyday desires and dreams who do extraordinarily brave things to resist Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and pay the ultimate price.
What unimaginable loss for Dedé Mirabal, the only sister who lives on to carry their legacy. This book was beautiful, tragic, inspiring, and how fitting to read it during election season. Grateful to Julia Alvarez for this story of the Mirabal sisters.
Number Go Up, by Zeke Faux
A lively and well-researched story of the rise and fall of crypto, and the characters who inhabit it. Good writing and worked well as an audiobook.
Jaw-dropping scams and awful real life consequences of the crypto ecosystem, including human trafficking.
Zeke Faux is curious, funny, and fearless! Who is DM’ing me on Instagram? I will go visit them in Cambodia and find out their story!
This book validated many of my thoughts about an unregulated monetary system like crypto while showing me its global reach and reckless underbelly. What a mess!
That wraps my top 15 book hits for 2024! As I said, there were other good ones in the mix of the 96 I read, this is the highlight reel.
What about you? I’d love your thoughts and opinions, highlights of 2024, as well as recommendations for what to put on my list for next year.
Oh, and if you have any book podcast recs, send those my way, too!
Happy New Year, all! Here’s to more books and grand literary adventures in 2025.
Chasing Mailboxes 