It’s Christmas Eve.
I’ve wrapped up my work day, (yes, I worked today) and it’s quiet here at home. I’m waiting for my husband to get home (yup, he had to work too) before starting the holiday celebration. Our festivities will be low key, just sharing cookies, wine, and good conversation with a few friends.
This gives me the perfect opportunity to take a few minutes to look back and reflect on my year in reading. The last time I shared an annual reading year in review was in 2020.
Number of Books Read in 2024
I read or listened to 47 books this year. That number is split fairly evenly between paper books and audiobook. I prefer paper books, but I also really enjoy listening to books while cooking and commuting to work.
First Book Read in 2024
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim kicked of my reading year. It also happened to be one of the best books I read in 2024.
A friend asked if Happiness Falls is a mystery, I don’t believe that’s an apt descriptor. Yes, there is a mystery, the mystery of the missing father, which is what moves the plot forward, but this story is so much more.
This is a nuanced novel that in obvious and not-so-obvious ways challenges us to think more deeply about what we think we know.
This novel is sweet and smart, funny and sad, satisfying and unresolved, with a compelling story line that that will propel you forward without sacrificing moments for reflection.
Last Book Read in 2024
I wrapped up my reading year with another great novel, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore.
This slow-burn of a novel peels away family history hidden away under a layer of wealth. The story, centered around a missing child, is told from multiple points of view and different periods in time.
What really drew me in was the setting – 1970’s summer cap in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York – which is fairly close to the time and place of my own growing up.
My favorite character was Investigator Judyta (Judy), a smart 20-something woman who is struggling to gain independence from her more traditional Polish parents.
Five Surprisingly Good Memoirs Read in 2024
(1) Neon Girls: A Stripper’s Education in Protest and Power by Jennifer Worley. This is about the author’s time working at the Lusty Lady, a peepshow venue in San Francisco, while going to graduate school. During her time there the Lusty Lady unionized, it was the first ever stripper union to form in the world.
(2) Stray by Stephanie Danler. Awhile back I got hooked a charming, short-lived TV series called Sweet Bitter. Have you heard of it? No one ever has. Turns out the show was based on a novel by Stephanie Danler’s own experience working in the restaurant industry in New York City. I never ended up reading this book, but somehow found my way to her memoir, and I’m so glad I did. It’s a painfully honest and beautifully written book about family, trauma, addiction, and mistakes.
(3) This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life by Lyz Lenz. This is both a personal story of getting married, being married, and getting divorced, as well as a quasi-academic (or at least researched and referenced) book about what marriage is like for women in America. Read this. Just read it.
(4) Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse. The author falls into a job working as a private investigator and ends up being part of a significant civil rights case related to a culture of sexual assault and harassment by a football program at a big, unnamed university. There were parts of this memoir that were hit or miss, but overall the this was good. I do hope Krouse continues to write.
(5) The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star by Nikki Sixx. I grew up listening to Motley Crue and remember going to see them play when I was probably too young to be at a concert without a parent (#GenX). I was both surprised and not surprised by the amount of drugs Sixx used during this period. What was most compelling was his vulnerability, he seems so young and lost. He writes about not bathing for days, seeming to struggle with depression off and on, and all his relationships being centered around drug use. After reading this I had to see where he is now, turns out he’s been sober for a long time, he still writes and performs, is a photographer, appears to be happily married, and living in Montana with his family.
Reading Project in 2024
During the first year of the pandemic I created an armchair vacation reading project where I read a few books about a location. I found I really liked having a reading project = I thought about books in a different way, I researched a topic, I created plan – it was fun.
I decided to continue the practice of having an annual reading project.
This year I did a Brat Pack Reading Project, which I wrote about earlier this year, to go along with the Andrew McCarthy documentary Brats (for the record, I liked this documentary) and read memoirs of actors who were considered to be part of the Brat Pack.
(1) Andrew McCarthy’s memoir Brat: An ‘80’s Story gave me the impression he is intelligent and introspective.
(2) Rob Lowe seems to be grateful and hardworking based on what he shared about his life and career in Stories I Only Tell My Friends
(3) Demi Moore had a much harder life than I imagined, as shared in her memoir Inside Out, and I see her now as someone who is tenacious and resilient.
All three memoirs were enjoyable, though not exceptional books. But, I have found myself thinking about these memoir more than once over the past few months and I’m glad I read them.
Looking Ahead to 2025
I don’t anticipate reading another book this year, but I do plan on setting reading goals and perhaps creating a reading project for next year over this next week.
See you next year!
The Seventeenth Line 
Love your book references! I need to keep up with my readings too. Hopefully can be back into it in 2025.
Glad you liked the book references. I hope 2025 is a good reading year for you. Cheering you on!