I've read 50 books in 2024. These were the best.
And no, I don't finish books I don't like.
Let me just say it:
It’s nice to be among readers.
I’ve been doing my book roundup posts on and off for almost 15 years now, and I’ve always noticed different reactions depending on where I publish them: my blog, LinkedIn, direct to my non-Substack email newsletter.
The best reactions so far, hands-down, to the moon and back, have been here on Substack, where I’ve barely gotten started.
What I love about doing book lists on Substack is that the focus in the comments isn’t on how much I’m reading (HOW U READ SO MUCH U DO ANYTHING ELSE WHT IS WRONG W U, etc.), but on the books themselves, and the many others books that should be on my list for next time.
So, here you go.
As a I reminder, I read about 100 books a year, which sees me starting around 125 or so and not finishing 20% of them. I’m a big quitter of books I don’t like, mostly because I’m not a sadomasochist, but also because I have other shit to consume, like television.
Furthermore, I have zero problem stopping at book at 80%, although I didn’t do that with The Covenant of Water, which I still regret. (Sorry, Oprah.)
the best books I’ve read so far in 2024
Splinters by Leslie Jamison
Almost 25 years ago, I met Leslie Jamieson when she came to visit my best friend at college. (My BFF from college is Leslie’s BFF from high school.) Since then, I’ve read all of Leslie’s books. And, despite our nonexistent 1:1 relationship (although her other high school BFF actually introduced me to my husband here in Argentina!), I always feel compelled to tweet at her to tell her everything I think about each and every one.
Case in point: When another friend went to one of her recent book tour readings, Leslie told her something along the lines of, “Yeah, I hear from Claire…” And although she said it with kindness, we all had a big laugh at that one, because, THAT’S CLAIRE, generally running around bugging people on the freakin’ internet!
So, the book. I loved Splinters. I had high hopes, and they were more than met, and you should read it. She opens up so much that I was on pins and needles, and there is zero slowness (I admit to being weighed down at times by that in her last book, The Recovering.) LOVED.
Sea of Tranquility
The Poisonwood Bible
Trust
I wrote about these in this post, I re-read 3 of my favorite novels of all time, so I won’t belabor them here. Suffice it to say, rereading these greats makes it onto the list of fave books read so far in 2024.
Turning by Jessica J. Lee
I’m a cold water swimmer.
I’ve always been good at getting in cold water, because we camped so much as a kid to cold mountain lakes, my mother shoving us in, do or die.
But then I got especially into it.
It started when I went to Finland right before the pandemic. I had just read a book I loved, The Finnish Way: Finding Courage, Wellness, and Happiness Through the Power of Sisu, and I made sure to do the whole cold sea and sauna thing.
At home in Buenos Aires, we live on a little lake, and we have a pool in our yard, so when the the temperatures started dropping in May of 2020, I decided to buy a thermometer and try it. The pool gets down to 4 degrees Celsius in winter, which is quite acceptable for the lows required for cold water swimming, and I LOVE my 30 seconds in the water.
That said, I also love to read about the water and swimming. I read Turning because of a piece by Jessica K. Lee’s in another swimming book I loved, At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies’ Pond. (Yes, I’ve been there.)
I highly recommend Turning. A taut narrative of Jessica going wild swimming at all the 54 (?) lakes near her home in Berlin.
Lincoln in the Bardo by
Holy hell this book hit me like a truck. First, though, I needed to understand what the heck I was reading. I went in, blind, and by page 10 had to stop, Google, and figure out what was up.
Are these citations? From historical documents? Like real sources? And what about over here on these other pages? All these names, who seem to be talking in paragraphs?
I found this article, which is an interview that
did with The Friends of the Lincoln Collective, to be the best guide. I recommend this step to everyone who tries this one.Once I understood things as well as they can be understood, I read it in a day and had so many lovely and sad moments in the process.
I highly recommend.
Sabotage by
I used to be an only non-fiction life-improvement rah-rah reader, and though I’m far away from that now I still love to get my hands on a good one. I really enjoyed this short book by Emma Gannon. A super fast and easy read on a topic I find fascinating. Many a highlighted passage emerged! Recommend.
Costalegre by
This is one of those books I’ll remember for a long while. The jungle! The art! The atmosphere of atmospheres!
With Europe on the brink of WWII, American heiress and art collector Leonora Calaway ships her favorite surrealists from their homelands to her mysterious resort home in the jungles of Costalegre, Mexico.
Another quick one, with period dialogue that zings. Such a treasure.
And a huge thanks to
for sending me her amazing and related chap book, Notes from Mexico, which was no longer available to buy online.
The Quickening
I was late to the party on this one, which was a finalist for a Pulitzer. Climate journalist Elizabeth Rush boards a scientific voyage, pregnant, to report on the collapse of the Thwaites Glacier. Part memoir, part scientific narrative on the nightmare of our warming world, it’s a great and informative read.
A couple others I also really liked:
The Perfect Passion Company by Alexander McCall Smith
Floor Sample: A Creative Memoir by Julia Cameron
Un Instante en La Oscuridad by Gemma Urraka (only in Spanish right now)
"I’m a big quitter of books I don’t like, mostly because I’m not a sadomasochist, but also because I have other shit to consume, like television."
These words had me rolling. It is exactly how I feel about books and TV. I have a friend who complains about whatever she is reading and I say DNF that book. Then she whines that she can't. Ugh so annoying. For the love of God, readers please dnf books.
De qué trata el de Gemma Urraka?