TURNING THE PAGE ON 2024
READING WRAP-UP
BEST BOOKS READ
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After reading 105 books (28,888 pages) in 2021, believe it or not, in 2022 I decided to try and keep my reading down to a book a week to make time to do other things: playing my instruments, listening to music, and baking. I was only three books over that target in 2022 with 55 books (16,445 pages). In 2023 I was over by ten books at 62 (19,832 pages) read.
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IN 2024 I HIT MY TARGET OF 52 BOOKS ON THE NOSE
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2025 will be another one book a week year.
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2024 READING WRAP-UP
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BOOKS READ
52
ARCS
3
PHYSICAL BOOKS
NONE
EBOOKS
44
AUDIOBOOKS
8
MANGA - GRAPHIC NOVELS - COMICS
10
MIDDLE GRADE
13
YOUNG ADULT
8
ADULT FICTION
24
NONFICTION
7
RE-READ
8
BORROWED
24
MY PERSONAL CHALLENGE TOTALS
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NONFICTION 7/6
MIDDLE GRADE 13/12
NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST NATIONS AUTHORS 2/6
MUSIC 2/6
PLAYS 0/4
BACKLIST ARCS 3/6
CLASSICS 6/3
RE-READS 8/3
FREEBIES/99¢ KINDLE BOOKS 3/12
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Everything on here will be the same for 2025, except I will be changing all the sixes to fours and the threes to fours, except for Nonfiction. I think I will change the FREEBIES/99¢ category to six because I have never come close to twelve in years. In fact most years I read zero of them, ha ha! I will be adding a NYT Best 100 Books of the 21st Century category for 2025.
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MIDDLE GRADE SERIES
TITLES SIX & SEVEN
REALISTIC CONTEMPORARY
FAMILY AND FRIENDS
BIRACIAL SIBLINGS
FUNNY PETS
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I finally read the last two books of The Vanderbeekers series: On the Road and Ever After in 2024. I read the other titles in 2021. This series is Middle Grade perfection for me. The stories take on some serious subjects, but remain positive and fun. And there are always funny pets to add some light-heartedness and laughter.
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ADULT FICTION
CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION
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I buddy re-read this with my son. It was my third time reading it and his second time. It's book number four of the original six book series, written in 1981. It's the least dense of the books in my opinion, and I think more readers would be able to get through the first book, Dune, if it had been written similarly.
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(4.5)
LITERARY FICTION
STANDALONE
FRIENDSHIP
RELATIONSHIPS
LGBTQ
PHYSICAL DISABILITY
CHILDHOOD TRAUMA
MENTAL ILLNESS
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This was my seventh NYT Best 100 Books of the 21st Century title. It is not reading for the faint-hearted; that's for sure. It probably needs every trigger warning known to man, but It's an extraordinary story.
LITERARY FICTION
STANDALONE
CONTEMPORARY
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
THE HUMAN CONDITION
DISABLED MAIN CHARACTER
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This was a story about a man with cystic fibrosis. I haven't reviewed it on Goodreads yet because I have a lot of thoughts about the bad reviews it received for being "sexist". It wasn't. The character was a man with normal sexual thoughts. Women have sexual thoughts, too, are they also being sexist? The story paints a realistic picture of how people who aren't totally physically disabled, especially those who have "flares" where they are only incapacitated and/or hospitalized for short periods of time, are set adrift in the work-a-day world with insufficient or no support and how it makes their lives even more difficult.
✰✰✰✰✰
(4.5)
LITERARY FICTION
STANDALONE
GRIEF - FAMILY - FRIENDS
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER
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Even though I was loving The Goldfinch, I had to set it aside ten years ago because of a huge stack of review books due, and sadly... I never went back to it until 2024. My ebook bookmark showed I was at 60% read, but it had been so long since I had been reading it, I started back at the beginning. I had forgotten how exquisite Tartt's writing is. This was also from the NYT Best 100 Books of the 21st Century.
LEMONS
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I usually include my one stars and biggest disappointments, but I don't feel like listing and linking ten books and finding the book covers right now, and I received too much flack on Goodreads for not liking some popular books, so I'm going to say this... if a book depicts most men as over-sexed maniacs who hide behind living room curtains, watching women walk down the street, pleasuring themselves, and most male scientists and college professors as rapists, the author is just ticking off boxes of what's going to sell with sensationalism. The book I am referring to also misrepresented a lot of other aspects of the late '50s and 1960s. Not all women hated being housewives or felt unfulfilled, and marriage certainly wasn't a woman's only option. Many women had careers, including married women. Most woman had at least some taste, too. The way the author described 1960s home decor was ridiculous. Books like this are published as Historical Fiction and the "history" is more than questionable. It's like they don't realize there are people who lived in the '50s and '60s who are still alive to call them out. Last year I read a Nonfiction book that said the women employees in the animation art department at Disney, in the 1950s, wore smocks over their dresses so the men wouldn't oogle them and make lewd remarks. Just maybe they were wearing them to protect their clothing from ink stains? Plus, I doubt the smocks went all the way to the floor. Good grief.
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Then there are the books depicting the victims of the Witch Trials as real witches. This is highly disrespectful. These innocent, highly religious, people were put to death for being something they were not. This particular book didn't happen to be Historical Fiction, but I am reading one right now with misrepresentation. Fantasy witches can be so many different things. There is zero need to connect them to the Witch Trials. Authors do it because romanticization of the trials is popular and it sells books. You know, authors used to write because it was a passion; not just to make money.
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MY AVERAGE RATING WAS 3.6 STARS
FIVE TWO STAR RATINGS
TEN ONE STAR RATINGS
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At least it's not as bad as 2023 when my average star rating was 3.3 and I had 11 one star ratings and nine two star ratings.
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What were your 2024 top books?
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