What can I say about my reading this year? I read a few bestsellers, a couple of classics, quite a lot of young adult fantasy and a handful of memoir-type non-fiction. I bought more titles than I was able to read and continued to enjoy audiobooks.
Here are my best books, honourable mentions, disappointing but not terribles, also reads and DNFs of 2024.
Best books
Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
There was a lot of hype around this novel about a friendship between two brilliant video game creators. The hype is deserved.
It’s smart and creative, experimenting with form in a way that feels more natural than pretentious. Can a part of a novel told entirely in the second person be endearing and not read like a tacky choose-your-own-adventure? Can the gaming concept of a NPC (non-player character) play a narrative function and also carry philosophical weight? Here, the answer is yes.
Okay, so maybe Zevin’s novel is a little pretentious – but just the right amount for someone like me. I loved the video game discussion and underlying philosophy which absorbs many a gamer.
Read my post ‘Korean mums in fact and fiction’, which is part review, part reflection, on this novel and Tasha Jun’s memoir Tell Me The Dream Again.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
I’m a huge Malcolm Gladwell fan though this is only the third book of his that I’ve read. I’m going to say this is even better than The Tipping Point.
It’s insightful yet easy to read, complete with Gladwell’s characteristic humour and astoundedness. The way he paints mini portraits of people and places while building out his central argument is compelling – there needs to be more writing like this and I need to write more like this.
A Wizard Of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
I first read A Wizard of Earthsea *26 YEARS* ago, in the winter of 1998? It was satisfying to reread a 1975 edition of Ursula Le Guin’s classic in the winter of 2024!
I enjoyed it then as a child and I appreciate it now as an adult and a writer. It’s a very complete fantasy novel. The depth of world building she’s been able to achieve in such a short book is remarkable. The novel is full of action yet rich in wisdom.
Also recommended: The Left Hand of Darkness, by the same author.
Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis
I found myself surprised by how C. S. Lewis writes a first person female protagonist. Threads of stereotyping are present, yet overall it’s well observed with strong interiority and an exploration of conflicting emotions that I cannot imagine achieving.
As I read, I was looking for Jesus parallels but the allegory was not as in-your-face as in the Chronicles of Narnia series. There was a darkness, pain and complexity to this novel that I found intriguing.
Circe came to mind almost immediately, given the Greek mythology base of the story and even the “ugly”, suffering heroine. I wonder if Madeline Miller drew inspiration from this novel? Circe has more rage, poetry and pride; Till We Have Faces is more self-reflective and delves deeper into what it means to be human and how the divine rubs up against us.
It was a Substack somewhere that brought this novel to my attention. This isn’t often named as one of Lewis’s seminal works, but maybe it should be.
The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (audiobook)
I enjoyed this 2022 Booker Prize winner (in audiobook form) a lot more than I thought I would. The blend of folk fantasy/magical realism, political thriller and murder mystery worked for me.
The protagonist is a recently murdered gay Sri Lankan photographer navigating the afterlife. Maali is on a mission to figure out who killed him while also trying to help his friends find a crucial box of photos he left behind. It turns out Maali was a wastrel while he was alive, but you still root for him.
The writing is punchy and vivid, some parts are quite graphic. It’s told in the second person – which shouldn’t work, but Karunatilaka pulls it off.
Honourable mentions
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
I was really impressed by the way Mantel was able to bring Tudor England and Henry VIII’s court to life in her Booker Prize -winning novel. It’s intricate and full of evocative details, from the weather and what it felt like in a room, to the texture of fabric, to tensions between characters and the machinations of Thomas Cromwell’s mind. She writes with a striking precision: there’s plenty of nuance and I was always left with the sense that she emphasised exactly what she wanted to emphasise, to the exact degree that she wanted to emphasise it.
It is, however, not the kind of book you can read quickly, let alone skim read. The extensive cast of characters and a stylistic choice with the third person narrator do add confusion for the reader.
The Invisible Road by Elizabeth Knox, Fable by Adrienne Young and Dark Rise by C. S. Pacat (all audiobooks)
I read a fair bit of young adult fantasy this year and I enjoyed all three of these titles. They embody the innocence and chivalry of classic YA and the coming-of-age journey of losing some of that innocence. Too many YA fantasies these days are romantasies glorifying unhealthy relationships, with scenes that read like soft porn. These three novels are a lot more like what YA fantasy should be, if you ask me!
The Year Of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
Originally published in 2015, Russell’s book is a fun look at the idiosyncrasies of Denmark and Danish culture. The hypothesis uniting these observations is this: is Denmark really the happiest country on earth, and if so, why?
I wanted to spend time living in Denmark before reading this book; I still do after reading this. Russell is basically living my dream.
Klara And The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
I loved Never Let Me Go and Ishiguro’s latest novel bears some significant similarities to his earlier work. It’s not quite as good a book but I still enjoyed his wonderful prose which is understated, warm and uncanny, all at once. It’s both easy and fun to read.
Klara and the Sun explores what it means to be human through the eyes of the narrator, who is an “Artificial Friend”, making this a timely read with all the debate around AI.
For me, this one is better than The Buried Giant, Nocturnes and An Artist of the Floating World. I think it’s on par with The Remains of the Day but it’s been a while since I read that one.
On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
My sister lent me this 2009 YA novel by the author of Looking for Alibrandi. Melina Marchetta does a wonderful job of capturing the bluster and fragility of adolescence, and all the emotion of being a teenager. Her novel covers some dark material around death, violence and drug use and even touches on sexual abuse but everything is perfectly pitched at a teen readership.
Taylor the protagonist was frustrating at times – but only in the way I’d probably find all teens (including my younger self) annoying now, at my age. I found the themes of family, belonging and loss moving.
Disappointing but not terrible
Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay and The Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
I loved My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name and was really looking forward to reading the other half of the Neapolitan Quartet. And yet. While the genius in the precision of Ferrante’s prose and her protagonist’s interiority is present here, some of what worked beautifully in the first two books descends into soap opera in the third and fourth. Perhaps I felt that Elena and Lila should have matured as they got older and had children, but they continued with their petty mind games and insecurities and I grew weary of that and of them. Too many stupid decisions. Too many people getting hurt. And Nino – please get that boy-man out of everyone’s lives.
Redemption In Indigo by Karen Lord
This promised to be an interesting read, being a magical realism novel by a Jamaican author, drawing on Senegalese folklore. It certainly had a lightness and exotic flavour to it, but the likeable heroine didn’t undergo much character development and, given the stakes, I wonder if it might have been better with less lightness and more gravitas to the tone.
Faith, Hope And Carnage by Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan
The Red Hand Files won me over to Nick Cave, so I was very much looking forward to this book. Sadly, the transcription of Cave’s interviews with journalist Seán O’Hagan, though covering similar themes and topics to The Red Hand Files, isn’t nearly as engaging. If I’m honest, I didn’t have a lot of motivation to keep reading.
It’s languid and philosophical but without the intimacy and intentionality of Cave’s responses to fan questions and comments. I think it’s that particularity, that sense of Cave speaking directly to real people and not just talking about himself and his art to another writer, which is sorely lacking here.
Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come by Jessica Pan
This is a wonderful book title and Jess Pan is a wonderful writer. She’s articulate and very funny, blessed with the ability to turn really everyday encounters into fabulous rom-com worthy moments. So this memoir of her year of doing extrovert things has some great moments. However on the whole, as with Nick Cave’s book, I prefer her newsletter.
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (audiobook)
This southern Gothic horror meets Beauty and the Beast has a lot going for it. It was promising and engaging at first and I didn’t even find the angsty protagonist Opal annoying initially. I didn’t mind the slow burn attraction/romance either.
But the final third slowed right down, while the resolution felt rushed. Both Opal’s and Arthur’s decisions became forced and unbelievable, some lines too cliche. The way the romance and the mystery of Starling House were tied up didn’t feel satisfying.
Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (audiobook)
There was a lot to like about this sassy bestseller. But the zealous and vicious anti-Christian messaging, plus the rape scene, really ruined this for me.
Read all the thoughts that spun out of that for me in my post ‘On sexual assault, feeling triggered and being jaded about men’.
Also read
The Branding by Jo Riccioni. This YA fantasy by an Australian author is the first in a duology. It’s pretty solid, but embraces the still trendy trope of the angry female drawn into a less than healthy relationship with mysterious bad boy.
Nettle And Bone by T. Kingfisher. I enjoyed Ursula Vernon’s fairytale-style standalone novel for the fact of it not being a romantasy. The 2023 Hugo Award winner is short and not-quite-sweet – it’s actually on the dark side with some moments of sweetness. A nice blend of classic fantasy and folk elements.
Somehow: Thoughts On Love by Anne Lamott. I’ve listened to several of Anne Lamott’s books now. They’re basically all the same thing, but they’re always comforting. I love sitting down with Lamott and her self-deprecating humour and compassion for all humans including herself.
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad. Moody, flowing tale about a young refugee boy who survives shipwreck and arrives on a small Greek island where a teenage girl finds him and tries to protect him from the authorities.
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. Passionate with an important message about the limitless, unimaginably big love and grace of God and its power over all of our sin and shame. Many people need to hear and receive this good news message, though it wasn’t quite as cohesive or impactful for me personally.
Tell Me The Dream Again by Tasha Jun. Memoir from a Korean-American writer rediscovering and reembracing her Korean heritage – and her mother’s epic journey out of the Korean War and to the US.
Did not finish (DNF)
Too slow/didn’t care enough: Legends And Lattes by Travis Baldree, The Magician’s Apprentice by Ann Patchett, My Father The Whale by Gina Perry (audiobook), The Bookbinder Of Jericho by Pip Williams (audiobook).
Not my cup of tea: Winter by Ali Smith, The Book Of Elsewhere by China Miéville & Keanu Reeves (audiobook), Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
2025 reading
What should I read in 2025?
