2024 Reading Recap
It’s been a storied year, (or another year of stories) friends! I’m here with my annual recap of reads, from one tired publishing professional to the rest of the world. 2024 was a slow year for reading. I read half as many books as last year, and many of my top books (as you’ll see below) were a return to old favorites. I let my library card expire and spent my evenings scrolling and watching Scandal or Squid Game or [insert social media here]. Was it burnout? Was it work-life balance? Was it life-book balance? Probably a bit of all three. I’m feeling renewed for 2025, and hopeful that I’ll find a good book balance, while still bringing you all the juicy book takes that you’ve been dreaming of.
I’m a big believer that reading is for pleasure (despite it paying my bills), and so I’m not judging myself for a 41% decrease in my reading this year, and neither should you. If you want to read, you should. If you don’t, you shouldn’t. I think book slumps occur mostly because of the pressure we put on ourselves to achieve, especially when what we’re trying to do (I hope) is have a good time.
Here are the stats:
Number of books completed: 35
Number of pages read: 11,380+
In terms of book trends, escapism is still going strong—the BookTok girlies and literary bookstore girlies alike seem to be seeking titles that distract them from the outside world (can I blame them?). I, myself, have taken a step back from the quick and tasty romantasy reads, which may also have contributed to my “reading slump”. Listen, there are only so many books with a brooding-morally-grey-man and milk-toast-chosen-one that this girl can handle, okay?
Alright, enough talk! Below are my Top 5, Mid 3, and Bottom 2 of 2024, as well as a few reading goals for the new year.
Top 5:
Conversations with Friends, Sally Rooney (5/5)
Frances, a young poet in Dublin, writes with her best friend/ex-girlfriend Bobbi while she decides if she wants to do anything else with her life. When they befriend photographer Melissa, and her depressed, handsome, actor husband, Nick, things get complicated. Frances struggles to maintain control of her feelings, her body, and her relationships as her flirtation with Nick transforms into something more vulnerable.
My Thoughts:
If nothing else, take this as your sign to bring one of your favorite books on vacation with you and re-read it. If you know me, you’ll know that this is my favorite of Sally Rooney’s titles, and I’m glad to say that it stood the test of time. God, I love this book—the reason why I’ll always be a Rooney stan, no matter how many Beautiful World Where Are You’s that she writes. Frances has a dry, dark, pointed narration that connects you deeply to her faults, thoughts, and self-projections. Somehow, Rooney manages to turn simple language into a web of self-delusion, love, pain, and mistrust, all while crafting a propulsive and interesting story. I truly believe that Conversations With Friends is an excellent reflection of what it is to walk the tightrope between vulnerability and self-preservation…and then fall off the rope entirely.
Back in 2021, I rated this a 4/5, and wrote that “it expertly captured the anxiety and devoted feeling of first love”. I rarely bump a book up to 5 stars unless it has maintained a strong and important presence in my life and on my bookshelf. This is one of the few favorites that I feel have defined my era of post-collegiate life—hence the rating and re-review!
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke 3.5/5
Piranesi's house has infinite rooms, endless halls, violent ocean waves, and thousands upon thousands of statues—he lives there alone, save for one other person, who Piranesi calls The Other, and together they research into A Great and Secret Knowledge—Piranesi explores the halls and tracks what he finds. But as Piranesi explores, he realizes there’s evidence of another person, revealing a truth and a world beyond the one Piranesi can imagine.
My thoughts:
As somewhat of a professional reader, I pride myself on being able to accept, digest, and compartmentalize spoilers, but this is one book that you should really go in knowing nothing about. It reads like you’re in a dream, twisting, lyrical, and turning—bending reality into something different. Sure, technically it’s a fantasy book, but I’ve really never read a book like this. It’s mythological, crafty, literary, and sort-of also a noir mystery? I really enjoyed the ride, and honestly, don’t want to say much more. Worth noting though—it’s got a slow start that will require you to settle in a little and get used to the prose and the world, but I think it’s worth a try.
When the World Tips Over, Jandy Nelson, 4/5
This YA family saga follows five generations of the Fall family through great losses and romances, centering on three siblings. There’s Dizzy, age twelve, (a melodramatic, exuberant tween who sees spirits and just broke up with her best friend) Miles Fall, seventeen (the family genius who secretly harbors deep feelings of loss and fear), And Wynton, nineteen, (destructive problem child, virtuoso violinist). When the Fall siblings were young, their father disappeared without explanation. 11 years later, a young girl with rainbow hair arrives into town and cracks open each of the siblings’ worlds, with road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories, and generational understanding.
Alright friends, strap in. If you’ve known me for a very long time, you may be familiar with my love for Jandy Nelson. For better or for worse, this woman (and her previous two books, The Sky is Everywhere and I’ll Give You the Sun), have defined a lot of my baseline for understanding grief, spirituality, love, and romance. I began reading her books at an impressionable young age, and now I just think she speaks in a language that my inner child intimately understands. In other words…there was no way I wasn’t going to love this book. It’s lyrical and whimsical, and it takes place in the Jandy-verse of hopeless romanticism where love, wine, and music rule supreme over literally every other emotion.
In a serious conversation, I might not recommend this book—it’s for children, technically, and contains a talking dog, and questionable borderline conversations about incest (although no incest actually occurs! This is important.)
If I really like you, though, I will tell you to read it, probably because I wished we lived in the Jandy-verse together. In the Jandy-verse, no matter how many road trips, false starts, and tragic beginnings there are, there will always be love; dildonic, magical, messy, and true.
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro, 5/5
Set in the British countryside in an unspecified near-future, the story follows Kathy, as she reflects on her close relationships with Ruth and Tommy, two of her friends who she grew up with at a boarding school called Hailsham. As Kathy grows older, she is forced to confront the unsettling truth about the life path defined for her, and she reckons with the fleeting nature of life, youth, love, and fate.
My Thoughts:
Okay. I saved this one for last, partially because it’s easily the best of the year, and partially because I am afraid to try and write something coherent about it. I’m also (quite frankly) trying to avoid giving away spoilers.
Actually, if you haven’t read this book, don’t look it up. Put down your device, go to your nearest bookstore, purchase, and read it right now.
I have read this book probably four times in my life, and each time I am struck by the delicate and tense way that Ishiguro writes about nostalgia, life, loss, and the passage of time. The scenes are atmospheric, emotionally fraught, and deftly described. I’m most impressed, though, by how Ishiguro manages to capture the inner workings of youth—the trepidation, manipulation, trust, and love that truly makes us human (or does it?).
Kathy’s growth in character and perspective grasps the exact feeling of moving from childhood through young adulthood, and with it, the complex relationships you build. Add in a little first-love-miscommunication spice and…it’s the perfect book (at least for me).
Mid 3
The Happy Couple, Naoise Dolan 3/5
In her sophomore book, Naoise Dolan writes a multi-POV on upcoming (and questioned) nuptials. Celine, an intensively focused concert pianist, plans to marry Luke (a serial cheater). We also hear from Archie (best man, corporate suicidal lover boy, in love with Luke) and Phoebe (Celine’s sister), as the wedding approaches. Everyone certainly has an opinion about whether the couple should tie the knot, but Celine and Luke remain ambivalent and confused, no matter how close they get to the aisle.
My Thoughts
I think, ultimately, this book suffered from the issue of high expectations. I loved reading Naoise Dolan’s first book, Exciting Times, and was waiting with bated breath for this one, only to find it a little, well, mid. Naoise Dolan’s writing is still enjoyable; dry, witty, and detailed. Dolan pushes the reader to consider heteronormativity and marriage as a pinnacle of emotional ambivalence, despite what the societal norms are. It’s a smart concept, but with the dual POVs, I felt that the writing was a bit circular. Instead of getting to dive deep into Celine or Luke’s perspectives, where I might get a sense of the true miscommunication, I was left trying to uncover the depth of the issues from other POVs. The lack of clarity served to prove Dolan’s point on unsure emotions but made for a less cathartic book reading experience.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin 3/5
Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge to California, we follow Sam Masur and Sadie Green through their complicated friendship and creative endeavors. Friends since childhood, they create a blockbuster video game, Ichigo. Despite overnight success before the age of 25, the friends struggle to communicate their creative ambitions and the love they have for each other.
my thoughts:
Most people who saw me reading this book wanted to know if it had “a lot of video game content” which has led me to believe that this title has been mis-marketed, despite all the positive buzz it’s received. Gabrielle Zevin’s book does have video game content, but it’s easy to read, interesting to understand, and definitely not the point of the book. This is not Ready Player One. I’ll admit that my fear of having to read that again did put me off for quite a while. When I finally picked Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow up for book club, it was with a mix of excitement and trepidation. I enjoyed the arc of the book’s complex and varied friendships and thought that Zevin did a good job of capturing the trials and tribulations of a creative process.
That being said, I was a bit frustrated at how she shied away from discussing the main emotional highs and lows of the story. Each time something big happened (death, birth, loss, success), the novel shifted away from the character experiencing the brunt of the emotion, into the perspective of the other friend. While this was clearly a choice and served to prove how the friends failed to communicate, it only pushed me further away from the characters and made me less invested in the story as a whole.
Klara and The Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro 3/5
Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches the behavior of those who come in to browse from her shelf in the store. When a young girl, Josie, picks Klara to accompany her through life, she is overjoyed. Josie, though sickly, is vibrant with childhood dreams, and a crush on her neighbor, Rick. It soon becomes clear that Josie’s sickness is more deadly and complex than Klara thought, and she becomes determined to heal Josie. In her search for a cure, Klara finds that the promises and emotions of humans are more complex than she believed possible.
My Thoughts:
Klara and the Sun is another one that suffered from high expectations, unfortunately. When I began reading this book — the second Ishiguro book I’ve read in my delicate young life—I saw so many of the themes I loved from Never Let Me Go appear that I let myself be convinced that it would be just as transformational of a reading experience. While the book was, in fact, timely, well-paced, surprising, and about the complicated nature of innocence…it didn’t hit as good as I had hoped. That’s my fault though. If you’re looking for a take on AI, this one might be as good as any. Smart and surprising—just not my favorite book of all time.
Bottom 2
Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir 2.5/5
A science fiction novel by Andy Weir (author of The Martian) follows Ryland Grace, a high school science teacher who wakes up on a spaceship with amnesia in a different star system. He has no idea where he is or why he’s there—and everyone else on the ship is dead. When he discovers that he is Earth’s last hope to save them from an alien microorganism consuming the sun, he becomes determined to complete his mission, no matter what (or who) gets in his way.
My thoughts:
I picked up Project Hail Mary in an attempt to stretch my reading boundaries—I rarely read sci-fi, and I was hoping for something accessible, new, and interesting. While Weir’s book was all of those things, and very well written, I still sort of struggled to…like it. Ryland (our protagonist) is a science teacher, and his voice captures that warm, welcoming, and affable effect that makes reading this easy. Honestly, reading this felt like being in a middle school science class and doing an experiment. You aren’t really learning anything, but you sure are having fun putting that baking soda and vinegar in a volcano and wondering when it’s gonna explode.
Y/N, Esther Yi 2/5
Y/N a novel about a Korean American woman living in Berlin whose obsession with a K-pop idol, Moon, sends her on a journey of self-destruction. Our unnamed narrator begins writing Y/N fanfic, creating a relationship with Moon. In the stories, Moon suddenly retires, vanishing from the public eye, and Y/N flies from Berlin to Seoul. The narrator, too, journeys to Korea in search of the object of her love, where real life and fiction approach each other.
My Thoughts:
I think my disappointment in Y/N has a lot to do with the topic. As a woman experienced in Tumblr and embarrassment, I was really excited to see a literary take on fanatic obsession and fanfic on the market. While I do think that Yi makes a valiant effort and writes well, Y/N just didn’t work as a whole. It was slow, winding, and had a sort of dizzying and disorienting effect that transcended it’s thematic use and just made me confused. It has beautiful prose, but ultimately felt like it wasn’t successful in anything beyond some good sentences and strange imagery. I feel like this is a “the ones who get it, get it” type thing…and despite my love for weird literary books…I just did not get it.
2025 Reading Goals:
Read a classic (any suggestions?)
Read 35+ books (some amount more than 2024)
Shop my own bookshelf
Maybe get back to book reviews on this silly lil blog?
If you made it down here…thanks for reading!! I’m wishing you a lovely 2025 full of good books, and here, as a special treat, is a compilation of the website’s 2024 monthly songs. Go give her a listen!
