My year 2024 in books

It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

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I’ll skip this month’s question in this post. Instead, I want to talk about the love of my life – books. Specifically, books I read last year. My Goodreads stats told me that I read 151 books in 2024. Some of them were DNFs, but others were re-reads, which I don’t mark on Goodreads, so I think the number evens out.

The new and wonderful authors I discovered for myself in 2024 were:

Sofi Laporte’s and her historical romancesMary Lancaster’s PETTERIL mystery series and historical romancesGrace Burrowes’s A GENTLEMAN mystery seriesLinzi Day’s GRETNA GREEN series

I will continue reading them in 2025 as well.

An ongoing fantasy series I keep reading and enjoying is Lois McMaster Bujold’s PENRIC. It had two new novellas published in 2024 – Demon Daughter and Penric and the Bandit. I’m so glad she continues writing these marvelous stories.

And finally, the book I liked best (one of them anyway) was the delightful Yangsze Choo’s The Fox Wife. It was also this year’s happy discovery for me. I feel quite adventurous with so many new authors that I tried in 2024. 

To add some spice to this vaguely statistic post, I played a book title game with myself, and I invite you to play it with me. Below are 12 incomplete statements. I finished each statement with a book title – one of the titles I read last year.    

I would describe the past year as:       Mammoths at the Gates (Nghi Vo)I could have cried about:                      The Fox Wife (Yangsze Choo)I would love to have a respite from: Playing James (Sarah Mason)The biggest surprise for me last year: Petteril’s Portrait (Mary Lancaster)I always laugh out loud at:                   The Snails of Dun Nas (K.L. Noone)The best party I attended featured: Very Nice Funeral (Jennifer Crusie, Bob Mayer)My motto for the new year will be:     Books & Broad Swords (Jessie Mihalik)I am most looking forward to:             Small Magics (Ilona Andrews)A recurring dream I’ve had involved: The House of the Red Balconies (A.J. Demas)What you could see in my closet:        Something Blue (Emma Jameson)The best job for me would be:             Enthraller (Michelle Diener)What most people don’t know about me: Demon Daughter (Lois McMaster Bujold)        

What about you? Did you discover new authors in 2024? Could you answer at least one of the above questions in the comments? Do you play a different book game?