2024 Reading in Review – and a look ahead

I am doing my yearly review a bit early, and including my December reading, because after this I’ll be taking a break — scroll down to “Looking Ahead” for some news about that.

But first, what did I read in 2024? It was quite a year!

Nonfiction

I had a lot of fun reading books for the 12 different categories of the Nonfiction Reader Challenge, which inspired me to get out of my usual comfort zone — though I might not have sought out books on transportation, architecture, pets, or true crime, it was so worth it. I would like to keep pushing myself in this way.

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang – Health Life After Doom by Brian McLaren – The Future Circle of Hope by Eliza Griswold – A book published in 2024 Making It So by Patrick Stewart – Memoir American Nations by Colin Woodard – History Dewey by Vicki Myron – Pets The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge – ScienceChartres: Sacred Geometry, Sacred Space by Gordon Strachan – Architecture All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley – Culture Savor: A Chef’s Hunger for More by Fatima Ali – FoodFalling Upwards by Richard Holmes – Transportation The Wicked Boy Kate Summerscale – True Crime

Otherwise, I read books from some of my favorite categories, like relationships and psychology:

The Emotionally Absent Mother by Jasmin Lee Cori I Thought We’d Never Speak Again by Laura Davis Break the Cycle by Mariel Buque

Art, books, music, and culture:

Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock by Edward White Custodians of Wonder by Eliot Stein How Sondheim Can Change Your Life by Richard Schoch One Year to a Writing Life by Susan Tiberghien The Release by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew

Religion and spirituality:

The Tears of Things by Richard RohrPaths into the Book of Books by Elspeth Weymann Good Soil by Jeff Chu

Lots of memoirs and personal essays:

Still Writing by Dani Shapiro The Kindness of Strangers by Salka Viertel Outofshapeworthlessloser by Gracie Gold Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot Moab Is My Washpot by Stephen Fry What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About , edited by Michele Filgate The Recovering and The Empathy Exams by Leslie JamisonRadical Love by Zachary Levi

Science and health:

Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitacker The Wisdom of Your Body by Hilary McBride Heal Your Nervous System by Linnea Passaler

And several books inspired by my trip to France in July:

The Golden Age of Chartres by Rene QueridoI, Labyrinth of Chartres by Jacques PaillotThe Discovery of France by Graham Robb Fiction

I felt drawn to do a lot of light and comforting reading this year in the fiction category,. This included reading or rereading a goodly number of childhood classics, including all the Oz books, a number of others by L. Frank Baum, and a couple of spin-offs. It was a very Ozzy year!

The Oz Series by L. Frank Baum:

The Marvelous Land of Oz Ozma of Oz Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz The Road to Oz The Emerald City of Oz The Patchwork Girl of Oz Tik-Tok of Oz The Scarecrow of Oz Rinkitink in Oz The Lost Princess of Oz The Tin Woodman of Oz, The Magic of Oz, Glinda of Oz

Oz-related reading:

The Sea Fairies and Sky Island by L. Frank Baum – shares some characters with the Oz books Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts – Based on the story of Baum’s wife, Maud Gage Wicked by Gregory Maguire – Reread of the Oz-inspired novel, inspiration for the hit musical

I also binged on a bunch of books by Joan Aiken, the subject of this year’s Witch Week celebration:

Go Saddle the Sea, Bridle the Wind, and The Teeth of the Gale Fantastic Fables , Weather Witches and Wise Women , A Ghostly Gallery, and Siren Stories The Gift Giving The Serial Garden – Witch Week discussion The Whispering Mountain and Midnight Is a Place

And I polished off six of the Moomin books, filling in the ones I hadn’t read in honor of Moomin Week

Moominpappa’s Memoirs, Tales from Moominvalley, Moominland Midwinter, Moominvalley in November, Comet in Moominland, Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson (for translators see post)

More children’s classics (three in German!):

Skating Shoes and Theater Shoes by Noel Streatfeild Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones Thursday’s Child and Far To Go by Noel Streatfeild Emil und die Detektive by Erich Kästner Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer by Michael Ende The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof by Annie M.G. Schmidt, translated by David Colmer Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor Momo by Michael Ende The School at the Chalet and The Chalet School in the Oberland by Elinor Brent-Dyer

Plus a couple more fantasy books:

Buried Deep by Naomi NovikThe Secret of Splint Hall by Katie Cotton

One of my proudest achievements of the year had to be re-reading Madame Bovary in the original French, a task that defeated me in college. Otherwise, I managed a few more classics:

The Turn of the Screw by Henry JamesMy Antonia by Willa Cather Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I spent time indulging in mysteries and thrillers, including some theatre-themed ones for Reading the Theatre:

Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh Death on the Down Beat by Sebastian Farr Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

And from time to time I needed a nice romance:

Musical Chairs , Limelight and The Sweet Spot by Amy PoeppelWell That Was Unexpected and Didn’t See That Coming by Jesse Q. Suntano Magic Flutes by Eva IbbotsonLove Lettering by Kate ClaybournThe Lily of Ludgate Hill by Mimi Matthews Happiness for Beginners , Hello Stranger , The Rom-Commers , What You Wish For by Katherine Center

Historical fiction swept me into the past:

The Gilded Mountains by Kate Manning – Colorado in the Gilded Age, through the eyes of a French Canadian miner’s daughter The Crimson Thread by Kate Forsyth – a riff on the myth of Theseus and Ariadne, set in WWII CreteThe Cafe with No Name by Robert Seethaler, translated by Kate Derbyshire – Vienna after the warMeasuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Carol Brown Janeway – About two very different German scientists of the Enlightenment Hawaii by James A. Michener – The title says it!The Covenant of Water and Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese – Two medicine-themed epic family sagas, one set in India, the other in Ethiopia and New York City

And finally, a few random works of realistic fiction:

The Guest Cat by Takashi Haraide, translated by Eric SellandSignal Fires by Dani ShapiroRemarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt The Forest of Wool and Steel by Natsu Miyashita, translated by Philip Gabriel The Marble Staircase by Elizabeth FairLooking Ahead

I am doing a caregiving course that is challenging, especially because it’s in German — just understanding the vocabulary is time consuming. I’ll be done with that in February, but at least until then I will be taking a break from the blog.

I certainly plan to return, but I am thinking of some changes — maybe a new WordPress theme, new graphics, a slightly different focus, changing how frequently I post, different kinds of posts (e.g. more discussions, which have lapsed in the last years).

I also feel that I need to take a break from formal reading challenges and events — though I may take part in one or another spontaneously, no year-long challenges or hosting events on my own blog.

As always, thank you for being here — I deeply appreciate my wonderful readers. I wish you the joys of the season (mindful that for many, joy may seem very far away), and the consolations of a good book. I will look forward to reading your year-end summaries, or please comment below with your thoughts and plans.

In the mountains above Thun