All the books I've read in 2024

That I can remember/ locate

This is my last letter of 2024. Thank you so much for your support this year! I have loved growing this newsletter. I’ll be back in your inboxes/ on your app (much superior) on 06/01.

---

I usually share a quarterly book stack on Instagram, but I was late on Q2 and forgot Q3 entirely, so the bottom one is a sort of Q3 and Q4 (essentially August onwards.) I’ve written about most of the books on these piles this year, but if I haven’t, then you can expect something next year (very occasionally I never get round to writing about a book, if it just hasn’t yet fit in anywhere or I am not sure what I think — for instance I have not yet written about Monkey Grip, by Helen Garner, because I can’t seem to figure out how I feel about it.)

These pictures are all taken on the same shelf, but in different light, the effects of which I find rather interesting. I enjoy putting these stacks together, but it is also hellish, because I don’t keep a list of what I read (why? No reason, except that I am also that person who doesn’t use iCal, E.G. my own worst enemy), nor do I put things on one particular book shelf when I finish and I also lend books out quite often, so trying to remember what I’ve read and where I’ve put it — when I’m the type of person who can’t even remember why they’ve walked to the end of the road — is a challenge.

I’m not going to hyperlink each title in the stack, because that will send me insane at an already insane time of year, but I thoroughly recommend Bookshop.org, which is an online selling platform for indie bookshops (it’s increasingly impossible for local bookshops to stay solvent, so do buy books from independent bookshops where you can) for new releases. For older books I recommend buying them second hand off Vinted (less known for books and very good, particularly when there’s a bundle option), eBay and WorldofBooks, to save your pocket.

You’ll notice a lot of Coleen Hoovers in there (I appear to have lost a few of them, very me) which will make sense if you have read this!

I have been asked a lot recently for my book of the year and I always find it impossible to answer, so I’m going to do that thing where you answer very quickly without even thinking about it, so as to avoid internal wrangling and debate. If you asked me on another day, my top trumps might have looked different. Because I am woman, I am in flux always!

My literary top trumps of 2024:

• Family Happiness by Laurie Colwin (I have not written about this yet)

• Martyr! by Kaveh Akhbar (more here)

• All Fours by Miranda July (more here)

• The Fetishist by Katherine Min (more here)

• The Wedding People by Alison Espach (more here)

• The Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott (more here)

• Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe (more here)

• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (more here)

• Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais (more here)

• Erasure by Percival Everett (listen to Book Chat)

Four of those books are not new books, which I am pleased by, because I feel I read too many new releases and it irritates me. I will also add that One Day is one of my favourite books of all time, and you’ll notice it on the stack because we did an episode of Book Chat on it, but I haven’t put it in my top 10 because I wang on about that book so much that I’m surprised David Nicholls hasn’t taken out a restraining order against me.

---

I’ve also made a few books resolutions for next year.

Here are some older(er) titles/ authors I want to read in 2025:

• Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

• A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

• Some Maeve Binchy — I’m thinking Circle of Friends, as per Caroline’s rec on last week’s letter

• Some Neel Mukherjee

• Some Marlon James, I bought a bunch of his books second hand a while ago

• Some Muriel Sparks — I have The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, but should I start with another?

• More Joan Didion — I have only read a few titles and a long time ago

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (I really must read some of the old Russians, I always get a sinking feeling when I approach them which is unfair)

• Some Clarice Lispector

I shan’t make any many more promises for now, I won’t keep them. Now do tell me, what’s been YOUR book of the year?

Have a wonderful Christmas. And for those of you for whom this time of year is particularly dark, have a restful one, have a safe one — isolate yourself from festivities, but do not isolate yourself from human connection. You need your people at this time of year.