Sue me! I'm a book snob

Everything I read this year

Dec 12, 2024

If you’re looking for Colleen Hoover and Sarah J. Mass, you’ve come to the wrong place. Maybe it’s my superiority complex, bred from English courses and the desire to call myself a writer, or a genuine predilection for objectively high-quality literature, but I will be dead before I pick up It Ends With Us. I totally might be missing out, but I don’t care. I’m not one who can overlook cheesy writing for the sake of plot. And I don’t like smut. Sorry!

I don’t mean to brag, but I did surpass my goal for my Good Reads 2024 Reading Challenge. Thank you, thank you, please hold your applause! My target was 15 books and so far I've read 21. For me, that’s a lot of reading.

Here is everything I read this year; the good, the bad and the in between.

Best of the year ✮✮✮✮✮

Here Goes Nothing by Steve Toltz

This was my favorite book I read this year, and bonus points because I found it on my own! I typically gravitate toward books my parents recommend, and occasionally endorsements from friends with trusted tastes, but I found this gem in a bookstore in Boystown Chicago, the cover partially obstructed by a sticky note with praise from a bookseller.

Oh, the plot is so dark and delicious! It’s got murder, scandal, apocalypse, and so much tasty pondering about the human condition.

A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

What a debut!! If Toltz’s mind even slightly resembles the cluttered, dusty, never-ending cavernous, labyrinths of his characters’ thought machines, I don’t how he gets any writing done, and I don’t know how he’s only published three novels.

I’m struggling to put into words how this story touched me, but touch me it did. I feel a little spot etched deep into my brain fibers where Martin and Jasper, the father-son main-character duo, will live for a long time I think. Alas, they’re novel-driving fear of mortality is extinguished by the reader.

On the sentence level, Toltz is a genius. Here are some of my favorite moments:

“Everyone knows loneliness tastes like cold potato soup.”
“I pray the baby won’t be premature—undercooked people are trouble.”
“I saw him as a spider who woke up thinking he was a fly and didn’t understand he was caught in his own web.”

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Speaking of debut novels, Van Pelt’s set the bar tremendously high for the rest of her authorial career. This is a beautiful story about connection; between human and octopus, parent and child, the living and the deceased. It is a beautifully crafted narrative filled with beautifully crafted syntax. I would do anything for Tova and Marcellus.

The Beach by Alex Garland

Thank you to the woman at Hatchards in London who saw me dubiously holding Lord of the Flies and asked if I would be open to something better. This was fantastic, and I don’t use that word lightly! I use it darkly. This story was very dark.

Was it a bit unbelievable at times? Sure. But I could not put it down. For the whole four days it took me to read it, I looked forward to the moment I could quit my responsibilities and enter Garland’s arcane, sandy world. The scenes featuring Mr. Duck were of the most vivid and haunting writing I have ever ingested.

Everybody’s Fool by Richard Russo

Richard Russo is a recurring character in this reading roundup. I adore everything he writes, but this was my favorite that I read this year. Russo has a unique talent for creating profound worlds out of small towns and simple people. Plot typically takes the back burner, leaving room for deep characters with tear-jerking character development. But I’ll be damned! Everybody’s Fool had plot to spare!

This is the second novel in Russo’s “Sully trilogy” and I recommend reading them in order.

Normal People by Sally Rooney

I don’t think I have anything to add to this conversation. I started and finished the book in one day.

Really good ✮✮✮✮

The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin

My grandma recommended this to me and it did not disappoint. Love Hardin is a fabulous writer who fearlessly shared her story of addiction, motherhood, and perseverance. I want to give her a hug.

Nomadland by Jessica Bruder

While I prefer to read fiction, this was an amazing piece of journalism. For years, Bruder followed the eccentric individuals who chose to abandon the conventions of houses and apartments and instead live nomadically in a variety of moving vehicles.

Nomadland inspired me to write this piece for Haloscope Magazine — here’s a shameless self promo!

Somebody’s Fool by Richard Russo

We know how I feel about Russo.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

This was really good, and I read it really fast because it was really good. Really! Some parts, however, felt a bit too dramatic, though I’m sure that was the intention. Though I enjoyed the read, the main character’s life was so chaotic (brought about by her own horrible decisions) that I was glad when it ended.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Why I waited so long to read this is just as inexplicable as why I never picked up Normal People until this year. I devoured this book and somehow managed to swerve movie spoilers for ten years. Fabulous!

Based on a True Story: A Memoir by Norm Macdonald

I miss Norm. This “memoir,” compiled of ridiculous fictional tales that so perfectly capture Norm’s comedic cadence, was a joy to read.

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

Again, nothing else to say.

Good ✮✮✮

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

I have a mental block when it comes to books where each chapter is from the perspective of a different character. I have a harder time holding onto the story. And wow were these chapters long. I witnessed someone’s entire childhood, seemingly spare of few details, and then had to wait 150 pages to hear from them again! That being said, the ending of this book was incredibly gripping. All of that grueling character development served it’s purpose for the last quarter of the novel.

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Cute.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

I really wanted to like this book because it has such an interesting premise; a mysterious third-world country, a cohort of elites of many native tongues, a beloved Opera singer trapped amongst adoring strangers like a peacock in a zoo. But then nothing happened until literally the last ten pages. I was bored!

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

I’m so sorry Ann but this was also boring!

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

I wanted to like this but I just didn’t. The first half of the book was totally lost to the second half. However, I did learn a lot about the Native American experience which is a topic I want to read more about.

Not my place to judge

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

This book should really be required reading for anyone. Was it good? I guess it was as good as any book can be that dives into all of the intricate horrors of the factory farming system.

The Push: A Climber’s Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits by Tommy Caldwell

I read this right after I watched Free Solo and felt slightly obsessed with Alex Honnold. This is a memoir written by his friend, who was featured in the documentary, about his own experiences as a climber. Was it good? Eh. But I didn’t read it because I thought it would be good, I read it because I wanted to hear his story.

Do not read ✮

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

No, no, no. I hated this. Clearly this is an unpopular opinion, because Hollinghurst won the Booker, but oh my god did I hate it! I hated all of the characters and I hated the story. Nothing about this was redeeming.

Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman

This was a book I suffered through not because it was bad, but because it left such a sour taste in my mouth. At some points it felt really evil. I did not feel moved by this at all, in a positive or negative way. I closed the book and thought, thank god I’m done with that.