The 2024 Reads That Roused This Rabble of One
We All Love an End-of Year Recap, Don’t We?
My go has been thoroughly gotten. My timbers shivered. Murgatroyd and Heavens have joined forces to create a chaos cabal.
Great googly moogly, folks, I’ve consumed not-quite-a metric buttload of books this year. I’ve also abandoned a few along the way without shame. Life’s too short and other platitudes
We long for stories that fuel the soul. Whether you get them through books, e-readers, audiobooks, puppet shows, or, MAYBE, you know, this superb nonsense right here. You’re welcome.
A lot of my reads this year were solid, some stellar, but these? These are the books that stuck like particularly hearty and literary overnight oats.
So, if your TBR pile isn’t yet a towering Jenga stack of ambition, here are some suggestions to make it so. Hopefully, there’s something here for your next visit to the reading nook of your choice.
Presented in the order I devoured them:
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
Beyond brave. It’s honest. It’s messy. It’s often overwhelming. It’s wonderful.
This is the one I’ll crawl back to when I’m dangling off the edge of life’s proverbial cliff and need to grab hold of something — someone — for dear life. Artistically speaking. And also in all the other ways.
Full review in this post.
Blue Nights by Joan Didion
Aging, parenting, disillusionment, regret, grief, and the accompanying sense of fragility, presented with the calm of deep grief. It’s magnificent. It’s Didion.
This is the one I hope I’ll never need to return to — but I’m deeply grateful it’s there, should I need an unwavering companion when grief strikes its deepest, darkest notes.
Full review in this post.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
So fricking weird. (*heart emoji*) Murata’s wild originality had me falling head over heels one moment and clutching my stomach the next. It’s the kind of book that makes you say, “Wait, what?” on every other page. Do read a summary before you dive in — it’s not for everyone.
This is the one I’ll revisit whenever I need to remind myself just how boundless, bizarre, and brilliantly unsettling human creativity can be.
Full review in this post.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Needle-sharp detail. Characters so deep you could drown in them. Language that brushes up against the divine. TIt’s a long one, sure, but not for a second did it feel like it. Every word earns its place.
This is the one I’ll revisit when I want to study with a master.
Full review in this post.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Can I interest you in a Pulitzer Prize winner that just doesn’t let go? This is the kind of book to take on a long train ride. Or several short ones. Or just sit with at your kitchen table, pretending you’re in some windswept European war zone while your coffee goes cold because.
Of this year’s books, the one I’m most likely to reread.
Full review in this post.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
A deeply resonant, delightfully offbeat novel that juggles wild trips to the end of the earth, absurdity, and lawn warfare with pitch-perfect balance.
This is the one I’ll reach for when I need a reminder that satire can be both razor-sharp and laugh-out-loud hilarious. Also on those days when I want to pretend that I, too, am a perfectly flawed genius navigating a world that just doesn’t get her, but likes to text about her anyway.
Full review in this post.
Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life by Dani Shapiro
A steaming hot bowl of chicken noodle soup — comforting, helpful, a little salty. Perfect. You want to rush through it? Wrong move. This is a slow-simmer kind of book. It’s the kind of thing you read and pause, read and pause. You mellow with it. That’s where the magic is.
This is the one I have already revisited several times as I bemoan one writing issue or another.
Full review in this post.
James by Percival Everett
Percival Everett not only brings the goods, the whole goods, and nothing but the goods — he delivers them with such unapologetic brilliance that you’ll find yourself wondering, ‘How has no one done this before?’ And then you realize — no one else could have done this.
I am thunderstruck.
This is the one I will revisit when I’m in the mood to be astonished and delighted by audacious brilliance.
Full review in this post.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Read this when you are in a place to do so, if only because the writing and structure are elegant and majestic. But also, read it when you can stomach the violence and sorrow.
This is the one I will revisit to marvel over the near-perfection of the title piece.
Full review in this post.
The Glen Rock Book of the Dead by Marion Winik
There is warmth here, and ferocity. There is compassion, too, and an unwavering sense of curiosity. What does it mean to remember someone? What does it mean to be remembered? These are the questions Winik circles, never directly, but with every story she tells.
This is the one I’ll revisit to marvel at how entire lives can unfold in just a few paragraphs, every word chosen with surgical precision and care.
Full review in this post.
What books made your year more bearable? More enjoyable? More human?
P.S. Because I love you and them and all of us.