Books Read (and Listened to) 2024

With the turning of the New Year, we finally got some snow.  Huzzah!!  

Snow piling up on the decorative post my dad made me last year.  It made the garland and bows even more festive.  1/3/2025

It has been a weird winter (following on the heels of a weird autumn, too).  It hadn't even really felt like winter to me yet.  Our Christmas was anything but white.  Matt cycled to work in his light jacket on Christmas Eve!  We played Kubb in the backyard on the Solstice!  It has been different.

Aren't flocked trees the best?!  1/7/2025

I don't much enjoy automotive travel through snow, but it is all worthwhile to live in a place seasonally transformed into this white sparkly wonderland.  Ohhhhhhhhhhh, snow is magical.  On Wednesday we had some of those enormous fluffy flakes that drift so lazily down.  My!  Such a tranquil sight!  We went xc skiing this week instead of going to the gym.  It was glorious.  I hear there might be more snow coming this weekend.  So as I kick off a snowy New Year I also present my annual reading recap and reflection.  

This was our first ski together this year.  Matt's second outing...because he is very enthusiastic about xc skiing these days.  1/4/2025

I did not reach my book count goal last year.  I was short by eight books.  So it goes.  I still read 96 books and I am cool with that number.  I suspect that focusing on non-fiction slowed me down.  I also read fewer children/YA level books (which "pad the numbers" a bit.)  Since I started setting a book count goal in 2017, this is only the second time I've failed to reach my target.  

2024 and 2020 are the years I didn't hit my count goal.  Everyone gets a pass for not meeting their minor, inconsequential goals during 2020 though, right?  Screenshot from Goodreads.

My Top Ten Reads (in no particular order) of 2024 Excluding David Sedaris' Books (because I love him so much):

• The Power by Naomi Alderman 
• US History in 15 Foods by Anna Zeide
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
• This Is Your Mind on Plants (Michael Pollan)
• The Only Woman (Immy Humes)
• Bagombo Snuff Box by Kurt Vonnegut
• Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American West by Bryce Andrew
• Beasts and Beauty by Soman Chainani & Julia Iredale
• American Gods (Neil Gaiman)
• Saved by the Dead: Poems by Robert Cooperman

The best book I read last year was The Power by Naomi Alderman.  The rest really are "in no particular order," but that's why The Power leads the list above.  When I stopped to ponder my year of reading it soared into my mind like an Olympic high jumper.  Rarely do I even try to say, "The best book I read last year was XYZ," but this year it was pretty easy to do.  The Power was so thought-provoking and (forgive me) powerful that after finishing the audiobook version I immediately reread it a second time in print.  I am 100% certain I will read it again someday.   With themes on justice, gender, power, and our shared humanity, it had a dystopian-feminist-Margaret-Atwood vibe that was right up my alley.  

David Sedaris wins in by a mile!  I wrote him a fan letter in the fall of 2024, but I still haven't mailed it yet.  Image created by StoryGraph.

2024 Annual Stats

Number of young adult or children's books: 26
Number of adult books: 34
Number of audiobooks (both adult and YA/children): 36

96 Total Books (44 less than in 2023)

Going to Hillberry for a week really cuts into my reading, as evidenced by the substantial dip in October.  Image created by StoryGraph.

There were a few repeat reads.  

• The Power
• Congratulations, by the Way: Some Thoughts on Kindness
• Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls
• The Night Before Christmas at Dunder Mifflin
• Theft by Finding: Diaries

Three (Theft by Finding, The Power, and Congratulations, by the Way) were repeated because I thought the audiobook was so good that I wanted to read the words with my own eyeballs, too.  To hold the book in hand and savor and re-read a powerful phrase or paragraph at my leisure.  The Dunder Mifflin book was my selection for Christmas reading with the BobLobLaws so I read it once as practice and then read it for them on Christmas Eve.  Val and Hannah are big fans of  The Office so I knew it was the perfect choice.  I listened to Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls twice as an audiobook...just because.  David Sedaris is so funny and clever.  (Have I mentioned this?  Hahahaha.)  That makes it 91 unique titles this year.  

Image created by StoryGraph.

I am happy to report a reading year without any one-star books!  Huzzah!!  There were 10 two-star books (okay-but-not-that-good).  Meanwhile, there were 13 five-star (it-was-amazing) books.  Woohoo!!  I'm satisfied with that.  As usual, the bulk of my reading falls in the (good) three-star to (really good) four-star class.   My average rating was 3.6-stars.  

Image created by StoryGraph.

I was successful in my 2024 objective to increase my reading falling under the non-fiction banner.    Between 2011 and 2024, non-fiction comprised 36% of the books I read. In 2023--when I set this goal--non-fiction made up 30% of the books I read.  However, in 2024 I managed to bump that up to almost half (48%).  

Image created by StoryGraph.

My goal for 2025 is to read five German-language children's books--and to read them aloud.  I also plan to keep it up with the non-fiction.

I find this "mood" graph interesting.  I had never considered this way of evaluating the books I've read.  I don't really read "dark" stuff that much.  But boy oh boy!  You can really see all the merry-and-bright Christmas reading I do in November, December (and even into January).  Ho, ho, ho!  Image created by StoryGraph.

Below is the complete list of books I read or listened to during 2024.  An asterisk indicates that it was an audiobook.  They are in reverse chronological reading order.

• The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Bear (Stan Berenstain & Stan Berenstain)
• The Night Before Christmas at Dunder Mifflin (Brian Baumgartner, Ben Silverman, & Mael Gourmelen)
• The Cat That Climbed The Christmas Tree (Susanne Santoro Whayne & Christopher Santoro)
• The Gingerbread Man (Patricia Zens Martin)
• The Night Before Christmas at Dunder Mifflin (Brian Baumgartner, Ben Silverman, & Mael Gourmelen)
• Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 (David Sedaris)
• Holidays on Ice (David Sedaris)*
• Getting to Know Germany and German (Janine Amos)
• Nancy Drew Christmas (Carolyn Keene)*
• Sold (Patricia McCormick)
• Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia (Peggy Parish & Lynn Sweat)
• Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (David Sedaris)*
• The Body Breaks (Vivian Ellison)
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Jesse Andrews)
• Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders)*
• The Only Woman (Immy Humes)
• Congratulations, By The Way (George Saunders)
• Congratulations, By The Way (George Saunders)*
• The Puzzle Solver: A Scientist's Desperate Quest to Cure the Illness That Stole His Son (Tracie White & Ronald W. Davis)
• A Salty Piece of Land (Jimmy Buffet)
• Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls (David Sedaris)*
• Banned in Boston: The Watch and Ward Society's Crusade against Books, Burlesque, and the Social Evil (Neil Miller)
• The Best of Me (David Sedaris)*
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Agatha Christie)*
• This is Your Mind on Plants (Michael Pollan)*
• Barrel Fever and Other Stories (David Sedaris)*
• Me Talk Pretty One Day (David Sedaris)*
• Holding Fire: A Reckoning With the American West (Bryce Andrews)
• When You Are Engulfed in Flames (David Sedaris)*
• Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians (Joan E. Biren)
• Theft By Finding: Diaries 1977- (David Sedaris)*
• The Midnight Library (Matt Haig)
• Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance (Joseph M. Marshall III)*
• We Belong Together: A Book about Adoption and Families (Todd Parr)
• The Children of Men (P.D. James)*
• Golden State (Ben H. Winters)*
• The Girl Prince: Virginia Woolf, Race and the Dreadnought Hoax (Danell Jones)
• Big Time (Ben H. Winters)*
• Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls (David Sedaris)*
• Frizzy (Claribel A Ortega)
• Man, Underground (Mark Hummel)
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time (Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin)*
• Wayward Creatures (Dayna Lorentz)
• Mublecusser: And Other Poems (Allen Morris Jones)
• Elinor McGrath, Pet Doctor: The Story of America’s First Female Veterinarian (Jacqueline Johnson)
• Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (Jon Krakauer)*
• Conundrum (Jeff Crook)
• What You Need To Be Warm (Neil Gaiman)
• Calypso (David Sedaris)*
• David Sedaris: Live at Carnegie Hall/Live for Your Listening Pleasure (David Sedaris)*
• Banana Rose (Natalie Goldberg)
• The Labrador Pact (Matt Haig)*
• Through the Wilderness:  My Journey of Redemption and Healing in the American Wild (Brad Orsted)
• The Power (Naomi Alderman)*
• Take Your Baby and Run (Carol Youngson)
• Lawn Boy (Jonathan Evison)*
• Crash Harrison--Tales of a Bomber Pilot Who Defied Death (Deana J. Driver)
• The Power (Naomi Alderman)*
• Owsley and Me: My LSD Family (Rhoney Gissen Stanley & Tom Davis)
• See You in Le Touquet: A Memoir of War and Destiny (Romie Christie)
• Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (Neil Gaiman)*
• Kender, Gully Dwarves, and Gnomes (Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman)
• Eternity's Wheel (Michael Reaves, Mallory Reaves, & Neil Gaiman)*
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)
• The Bear Who Went to War (Alan Pollock & Bryony Thompson)
• The Silver Dream (Michael Reaves & Neil Gaiman)*
• Just Drive (Robert Cooperman)
• Interworld (Michael Reaves & Neil Gaiman)*
• Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist For Justice (Tommie Smith & Derrick Barnes)
• Full Throttle: Stories (Joe Hill)
• The Dogs of Babel (Carolyn Parkhurst)
• US History in 15 Foods (Anna Zeide)
• Lots of Laughs! volume 18 (Symphony Space)*
• American Gods (Neil Gaiman)*
• The Night Before Valentine's Day (Natasha Wing)
• Assassination Classroom (Yūsei Matsui)
• Big (Vashti Harrison)
• Iron Flame (Rebecca Yarros)*
• Saved By the Dead (Robert Cooperman)
• The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (Don Miguel Ruiz)
• Bambombo Snuff Box (Kurt Vonnegut)*
• Tomfoolery!: Randolph Caldecott and the Rambunctious Coming-of-Age of Children's Books (Michelle Markel)
• We Are Starlings: Inside the Mesmerizing Magic of Murmuration (Robert Furrow)
• The Real Mother Goose, volume 4 (Blanche Fisher Wright)
• The Real Mother Goose, volume 3 (Blanche Fisher Wright)
• The Real Mother Goose, volume 2 (Blanche Fisher Wright)
• The Real Mother Goose, volume 1 (Blanche Fisher Wright)
• The Everybody Ensemble: Donkeys, Essays, and Other Pandemoniums (Amy Leach)
• Melissa (Alex Gino)
• Hag-seed (Margaret Atwood)*
• Glitter Everywhere!: Where it Came From, Where It's Found & Where It's Going (Chris Barton)
• Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer)
• Gopher Baroque and Other Beastly Conceits (Sandra Boynton)
• Travelog (Charles Harbutt)
• Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut)
• Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales (Soman Chainani)

The combination of Christmas lights and snow delights me to no end.  1/3/2025