The last few months have not been a good time for me, reading-wise. I was scrolling through my Goodreads reviews yesterday and realized that some of the books that I was thinking were my 2024 favorites were actually books that I read in 2023. I think my lack of enthusiasm says more about me and my state of mind than anything else. Hoping for better reading in 2025.
But if you made me do a 2024 top ten list (I know, you didn't), here it is. They are loosely in order of how much I still think about them-- order of impact? And probably only the first three or four would have made my 2023 list (she says grumpily).
Lit by Mary Karr
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
All My Knotted Up Life by Beth Moore
Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta
Trust by Hernan Diaz
Good Material by Dolly Alderton
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
Also there were two books I liked-but-didn't-love when I read them, but I think about them more often than some books I rated more highly: Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang, and Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters.
And some genre fiction, for fun: The Goblin Emperor, The Magician's Daughter, A Memory Called Empire, Ten Things that Never Happened.
Here are a few reviews (edited for length) that I wrote in the last couple of months. I did quarterly reading roundups this year here, here, here, and #5 and #6 in this one, so I've already done this for earlier books.
The Book of Love by Kelly Link: Three teenagers emerge from a nightmare that went on for months to find that they had died under mysterious circumstances and had been held in some kind of limbo ruled by a man named Bogomil. Their music teacher Mr Anabin recreates their previous bodies and gives them a week to figure out what happened. I've read and loved many of Link’s short stories so I knew what to expect in terms of style, and the writing is frequently excellent. But this is Link’s first novel and I kept wondering why her editors didn’t provide more help. Somewhere in this 630-page doorstop is a stellar 450-page novel. When it’s good, it’s really good, but unfortunately it is often tedious.
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult: I’ve had two semesters of college-level Shakespeare, which is far from making me an expert, I know. Both Shakespeare professors I had acknowledged the difficulties surrounding the authorship of the plays, but believed that the various theories didn’t explain the facts any better than just accepting that Shakespeare wrote the plays. ... But the main thing I wanted to say is that in those Shakespeare classes, we spent maybe half of one class period talking about this, acknowledged that there was very little evidence to prove anything, and then MOVED ON. The class was about the plays, not about the authorship. When someone gets obsessed about who wrote the plays, I have to think it says more about them and what they need to believe than it does anything real about Shakespeare or literature in renaissance England. Picoult's version makes an interesting story, but is it what actually happened? Who knows?
Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliott: I have mixed feelings about this book. What worked really, really well is the story of a woman who reconnects with her people and her heritage after giving them up several years before to escape her awful parents. What also works well is the exploration of how difficult it is to be Jewish in a Christmas-obsessed world. And it was fun to read a grumpy-sunshine romance where the woman is the grump.
But what didn’t work so well was everything else. The mystifying way Abby lectures Seth about his problems with confrontation even as she is failing to confront any number of issues of her own. The way she is suddenly best friends with Seth’s ex after two conversations. Not to mention the way she totally throws him under the bus to said ex. The way she runs out of the room when she finally sees her parents again and then has Seth go back to confront them. (Wtf?) Things just quit making sense after awhile.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt: You know from the start that everything is going to turn out ok for the lonely, lovable people in this novel— it just has that kind of vibe. And normally I love that. But the number of coincidences and deus ex machina moments that occur to pull everything together are a bit much. Still, it was fun. And how am I going to resist a book that has an octopus narrator?
The Searcher by Tana French: French is always a good writer so I was really looking forward to this. I was surprised that such a meticulous writer created such obviously stereotyped characters— the jaded retired police officer, the strong country woman who takes no prisoners, the neglected kid who just needs a mentor, the gossipy storekeeper, the quirky next door neighbor. But although it takes awhile—quite a while— French does eventually make the characters her own. Good book.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine: Mahit lives on an independent space station that is home to about thirty thousand people. The station exists on the edge of a sprawling multi-system empire and only tenuously maintains its independence. Mahit has been through extensive language and cultural training so she can become a liaison to the empire, but still it is a surprise when the empire suddenly demands a new ambassador. Mahit is chosen, and is given a neurological implant that contains the memories of Yskander, the previous ambassador, harvested fifteen years before-- the last time he was home from his post. Her assignment is to figure out what happened to him, and above all else, to maintain the independence of her home station. The whole thing is fascinating. It was considerably more political than I usually enjoy, but still, this was a great read. Highly recommended to any science fiction fan.
Happy reading in 2025 and to all a good night.
