My Favorite Books 2024
Since the election, reading has been preferable to watching the news. I start each morning with the New York Times, and when that becomes too anxiety-producing (sometime within minutes), I switch to a book. A ridiculous amount of my 2024 book-reading occurred during November and December, mostly thrillers and detective stories.
I’d lagged behind my fellow Readers Of A Certain Age in discovering Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache detective series. I downloaded the first two for a late September trip to Quebec –the novels are set mostly in a fictional Quebec village called Three Pines—and became hooked. Three Pines and its residents seem a little like a Quebecois version of Stars Hollow, the charming hometown of TV’s Gilmore Girls and their zany compadres. Bingeing Gilmore Girls got me through 2016, and I saw how the well-crafted eccentrics in Three Pines could help me now: Stars Hollow, but with juicy murders and less saccharine. I read three more in November. There are 19 of these suckers, and they’re delicious. Reading the rest will be a fun, escapist way to spend the next year or so.
Inspector Gamache books are the macaroni-and-cheese of reading experiences – satisfying, comforting, but not knock-you-socks-off. I think of my personal Best of 2024 as Michelin-starred word meals. In no order, here are six reading experiences that stood out for me in 2024:
James, by Percival Everett. A retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of the enslaved character, Jim. With gaps filled in unusual ways and pointed commentary on race, the book has a strong, gripping narrative. National Book Award winner and an “it” book of 2024, for good reason.
Float Up, Sing Down, by Laird Hunt. Hunt writes simply and beautifully about ordinary, semirural Midwesterners, the kind who go to church suppers and like to stroll through corn fields. This collection of integrally related short stories – or novel? – is moving and lovely, and inspires my writing.
Beautyland, by Marie-Helene Bertino. To call this strangely mesmerizing novel a sci-fi satire, as one reviewer did, isn’t enough. The protagonist, it’s true, believes she is other-worldly and communicating with her home planet via an old fax machine. Her take on the economically downtrodden people in her life is observational and weird, poignant and funny. Great characters and absorbing plot; an interesting commentary on being human.
The Beauty of Dusk, Frank Bruni. This memoir was my favorite nonfiction book this year; I’ve previously written a blogpost exclaiming over its perspective on the loss of vision. Lyrical prose and hard facts combined.
The Collected Stories of Lorrie Moore – To have Moore’s short stories in one volume is a real treat. They’re exquisite and peppered with wit (even the sad ones). Intro by Lauren Groff.
The Waters, by Bonnie Jo Campbell. Michigan is proud to claim Bonnie (she lives outside of Kalamazoo and raises donkeys). This book is influenced by fairy tales, yet describes with grit the often-difficult existence of an old woman healer and her daughters and granddaughter, who live on an island near a small town that’s lost its prime industry. Townspeople are divided on what should be the women’s –and the island’s-- fate. Bonnie’s description of place, as always, is superb. The balance of the morality-play nature of fairy tales with the harsh reality of life on the fringe is exciting and different. The photo above is of Bonnie and me in Traverse City.
Onward now to 2025. Stay warm, eat well, love each other, and read good books.