Every year on New Year's Eve, I vowed to actually read the books I buy versus letting them sit on the shelves to make me look like a reader.
Impossibly, despite having 450+ physical books, I decided to buy a Kindle Paperwhite this year in an effort to make good on my seemingly Mount Everest goal to “read more.”
Treat yo’self.
A friend of mine told me that he buys physical books and then reads them on a Kindle. This spoke to me since apparently my love language is absurdity. That said, and in large part thanks to the Kindle, I've read an astounding number of books already this year, and usually I read only about six to ten per year, so I'm crushing it for 2024.
Part of it is getting the books from the library. I feel like the Libby app has put a countdown clock above my head when I get them, so I have to hurry up and read them before it snaps them out of my grip.
I have a lot of opinions about what I read, so I started sharing reviews of them on my Instagram stories. Which is great, but the text can be hard to read, so I am sharing them here too.
My beef with a lot of book reviews is that they don't always tell you if they liked the book or not. They tell you what it's about, but I want to know if you want to punch that author in the face because they ruined your life with a great book, or wasted your time with a terrible book.
So, if I hate it, you will know. (Sorry writers and editors, I know you worked hard but do better.) And if I love it, I will say that I am forever ruined by this particular book because it took my breath away and now I can't possibly go on.
The books I've read in 2024, in order.
Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved)
Kate bowler.
3.5/5 stars
I heard Kate's interview on NPR several years ago about this book and was intrigued. She's a theology scholar who’s extensively studied the prosperity gospel, the mega church folks who believe that if you pray hard enough Jesus will make it rain money for you. But if you get sick, hurt, a family member is on drugs, or whatever, you somehow “deserved it” or asked for it because you don't smile or pray hard enough and aren't pathologically positive. She's not a member mind you, she’s a theologian.
At age 34 and with a husband and a son, she gets stage IV cancer and is told she has only months to live. Not something you’d expect reading a book with that outlook, but I often legit LOLd because she is funny and sarcastic. It's a solid book with a mix of her personal story and prosperity gospel scholarship mixed in. I'd have liked to have known more about her actual belief system but I enjoyed this book. It's a quick read too if you need a slump buster.
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee
2.5/5 stars
Yoooooo. What book did you all read? Because it wasn't this one. Critics, the New York Times, National Book Awards, etc, etc. Everyone loved this book, which is why you really can't trust anyone.
Emotionally withheld. And the parts that would have been great weren't in it. They were apparently happening off-stage like some ancient Greek play. The plot was choppy, and I thought that the writing was 12th grade English class at best. There was no poetry to the prose, the characters were superficially drawn… They're born and die and meh, who cares.
The Japanese / Korean history insights were terrific because I knew nothing about that, but Wiki is your friend here if you want to learn more rather than read this book. I finished the whole tome (500 pages) and was mildly interested but never invested.
I recognize that I am in limited company here because everyone else loved this book. It was even recently named on the New York Times best books as voted by readers. Clearly, I was not one of those readers.
That said, I saw Min Jin Lee give a reading at the Mercantile LIbrary when this came out and I loved her. During the Q&A session, a woman raised her hand and announced that she just quit her job to focus full-time on writing her novel.
The room exploded in applause. Except for Min, who said, ‘It took me 10 years to write this book, find an agent, etc, etc, and I was only able to do that because my husband works and I can get on his health insurance. So, the reality is, you have to have health insurance and you need to be able to eat.”
I loved that. Real talk from an author.
Open Book
Jessica Simpson
3.5/5 stars
Yes, I did like Jessica Simpson's book better than Pachinko. Don't hate.
Memoir is my preferred genre and I needed a palette cleanser after reading Pachinko. And I loved newlyweds and Nick's Cincinnati connection.
This is good! Jessica Simpson had a great ghost writer. It's a well-written romp through her career and love life, mostly her love life. (60% of the book is about Nick.) And how she came into her career in the midst of the Britney Spears, Christina Aquilara, Ryan Gosling, Justin TImerberlake “Mickey Mouse Club” try-outs era. (Which she bombed.)
There's also great insights into her drinking problem and her business acumen and family. It's a fun page turner.
The Woman In Me
Britney Spears
2.5/5 stars book
11/10 stars music
No comment on on her IG dance videos
You know who didn't have a good ghostwriter? It's brittany, bitch. Chaotic and repetitive storytelling — there is no real narrative arc here. And the press was all over it, so basically even if you haven't read it, you've read it.
That said, I don't know how many more people can disgustingly profit off of her. Justin Timberlake has taken the lions share of heat for being awful to her, and it's warranted, but to me it was her dad, mom, sister and Kevin who deserve it way more. They can piss off. I honestly can't believe that her dad isn’t in prison.
Both/And
Huma Abedin
3/5 stars
Huma. Girl. Oof.
I was here for the Anthony Weiner dramz after reading an excerpt of this book and damn, I think I repressed all of that crazy stuff because I still have PTSD from the election.
Huma was Hillary's aid for about 100 years, and most of the story is a road book through all the places they travelled together, with the Anthony Weiner crazy train arriving midway. She has an interesting background and family history, but for all of her time with HRC, we don't learn anything about her actual work, other than it sounds terrible… event planning, ordering pizzas, and shaking hands. Surely there was more to it than that? We’ll never know.
She needed a good editor. Cut in half, this would have been a much better book.
American Heiress
The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst
Jeffrey Toobin
5/5 stars
Wild Saga indeed! This book/story is incredible.
Just when I thought my jaw couldn't drop any further, I'd turn the page and be shocked all over again. Filled with a cast of some of the dumbest people on Earth, from the kidnappers to the police to the FBI, truly each person you meet is crazier and dumber than the last. It's almost unbelievable.
And such an absurd “revolution.” I almost felt bad for these idiots, minus that people got killed for such stupidity. Hearst goes full Stockholm, and she might have been the smartest person in the whole wild tale.
Toobin is masterful. A well written page turner. Read this book ASAP.
The Wager
A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
David Grann
4/5 stars
Look, when I tell you I spent a weekend in the throes of starvation and scurvy, I mean it.
First, I was stranded on Wager Island and then fighting for my life through Straits of Magellan gales in a rickety-ass boat called The Speedwell. It was rough and rocky seas to say the least.
Grann is masterful in The Wager, taking a long-forgotten seafaring story of misery — shipwrecks, starvation, scurvy — and shaping it into a well-written thriller.
Also, poet Lord Byron's grandfather was on that boat. Crazy. The Wager is spectacular.
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Osage Murder and the Birth of the FBI
David Grann
2/5 stars
Uhhh. How is it that the same person who wrote The Wager also wrote this tripe?
Grann must have gotten a better editor after this one because it is not good. He blew an incredible story with terrible, unsuspenseful writing and filled it full of mundane quotes and attributes. It's repetitive and boring. Such a waste. Skip the book and go see the movie. I haven't seen the movie but it's got to be better. And if it's not at least the pain is over more quickly.
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
2.5-3/5 stars
The writing is better than the story, and the writing is sharp and spectacular. The story, which I had heard was gothic, dark, and possibly futuristic, wasn't any of those things.
It’s been described as moving, heartbreaking, and profound. Wrong. It's none of those things. It's a well-written tale for sure, but it carries no emotion or feeling. Kazuo won a Pulitzer Prize for literature but it definitely wasn't for this book.
I thought it would be some profound rumination on what it means to be human, but the author seems to have never encountered an actual human.
All that said, it’s been months since I read this book and scenes from it still cross my mind. I think I am still trying to puzzle it together. Kazuo is an incredible writer and this book had so much potential to cut like a knife, but it fell flat for me.
Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen
2.5/3-5 stars
If you're a big Springsteen fan, you might want to skip this one. Bruce comes across as kind of a nightmare.
An insecure, neurotic control freak one minute, and an arrogant out of touch man-child the next. It's a wonder he got as far as he did given how uptight he is. He also paints a story about what an ass his dad was, but he really didn't seem that bad to me. (Sorry Bruce.)
It's also looooong. He shares a lot but doesn't reveal much. I don't have some great insight into the creative mind of Bruce Springsteen even after reading 500 pages of his memoir. How he came up with his songs or the emotions that you feel when you listen to them is nowhere to be found in this book.
I read another review that said it should have been titled ‘Born to Drone.’ Lol
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Anthony Marra
3/5 stars
Man, what a let down. I loved Mara's book The Tsar of Love and Techno, deeply loved it. I bullied people into reading it. But this one left me cold and bewildered.
It’s grim. The plot points were kind of ridiculous and I felt like Marra just wanted to punish the reader. Everyone is terrible and everyone makes terrible choices. Also, I didn't realize the whole book was about the young girl until the end. Lol. That said, Marra paints a picture and he's a gifted writer. But skip this one unless you hate your life and want to hate other people's lives too.
The Tsar of Love and Techno
Anthony Marra
5/5 stars
And speaking of Anthony Marra, I was staggered by the Tsar of Love and Techno and its rich characters and sense of place.
The painting and censorship; the hill in Chechnya; the white forest; the Mercury lake. Shocking in its brutality and moving in its depth, I was riveted by every word and at Marra’s skill at creating such vivid worlds from such bleak circumstances. Exquisite and one of the most beautiful, stark, creative books I've ever read.
It's billed as short stories. That's a lie. It's a composite novel and the stories are connected like everything is connected. Don't be put off by that misnomer. I read this book in 2017 and wish I could read it again for the first time.
The Commissar Vanishes
The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin’s Russia
David King
5/5 stars
Because Marra’s The Tsar of Love and Techno surrounds a Russian censor (one of my favorite plot points in the novel), I discovered this book. And wow… chilling, fascinating and disturbing.
The Commissar Vanishes shows how Stalin used photo editing to advance his political career, purging rivals from photos (in addition to killing them in real life, of course), and altering crowd shots to depict more legions of followers, all with the original photo juxtaposed next to the doctored version.
It's the alternative facts of Russian history as directed by Stalin. It's more of a coffee table book, only instead of light-hearted fashion or design, it's a documentation of a dictatorship, for when you want to bring Orwellian darkness to your next gathering.
State of Wonder
Ann Patchett
2.5/5 stars
A page turning disappointment. This book never quite clicked for me.
The plot was wholly unbelievable and ridiculous. Like a vapid beach read wrapped in sometimes eloquent prose. From the hapless main character to all the rest, the characters are lifeless and boring. And the main character has such a lapse in judgment at the end of the book that I'm not sure that the author was writing about the same person. Did she forget who her main character was?
I also wasn't sure what the point of it was… Ethics? Morality? Friendship? Some kind of bizarre coming-of-age?
It was more like the State of Wondering why I kept reading it. I guess because I really thought there would be some poetic, awe inspiring ending. There wasn't. The ending was ludicrous. I didn't hate it but it wasn't particularly good. Also, I know a lot of people love Ann Patchett, so maybe this one is just a dud for me?
The House in the Cerulean Sea
TJ Klune
2.5/5 stars
Another disappointment that everyone else seemed to love. About as subtle as a brick to the head.
It started off bright and curious but quickly veered into saccharine and dull. The sentiment is good - be nice to people who are different from you - but the story is heavy-handed and cloying. Nothing exciting or surprising, and it is a slog.
If this is what passes for charming and delightful we are in serious literary straits, friends. I get that it's a YA book but it's insulting to young readers.
This Time Tomorrow
Emma Straub
3/5 stars
A sweet, nostalgic book about a father and daughter and their love for one another, told through time travel.
A bit saccharine but I like that it made me present and made me think about all of these days of our lives — what's important and what isn't. I sobbed at the end, but that was the author's intent. I don't necessarily think that makes a book good, but in this case, it was cathartic. I also I loved the ‘90s nostalgia. A good pool book in my opinion.
Answered Prayers
Truman Capote
2.5/5 stars
If there is a better lesson than this book to not do drugs, betray your friends and drink yourself to death, then I don't know what is.
Capote's In Cold Blood is masterful. Perfect in every way. I will take no further questions. But this dreck… oof. I picked it up after seeing previews of the series based on it and it reveals Capote to be such a miserable, awful person. And a verbose one to boot. The writing is drudgery and silly. And he just seems… lost in it. The women who play the parts of the Swans in the Netflix series are stunners though.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Agatha Christie
3/5 stars
My first and likely last Agatha Christie book. An easy, quick read, but not particularly well written. Like a high school senior could have written it. But I was legitimately surprised by the ending and enjoyed the ride for the most part.
This is said to be her most controversial book, the one that upended traditional mysteries. So that's cool. I tried to guess whodunit, but mostly I just kept flipping pages so I’d know who the culprit was for certain.
Charlie Hustle
The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and the Last Glory Days of Baseball
Keith O’Brien
4/5 stars
I loved this book. And I love a good sports argument. And there are few as great as an argument about Pete Rose.
Compulsively readable and fascinating. After reading it, I decided that Pete should without a doubt be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. For MLB to suddenly make a rule that the writers couldn't even vote on it is such BS.
I also thought that the ‘bad guys’ Pete was mixed up with were kind of… quaint. Some hilariously d-list coke and steroid users, and some low-rent bookies. Like, Ohio bookies. We're not talking break-your-legs New Yorkers here.
Howard Cosell called Pete Rose a ‘two-bit thug.’ Howard, be serious. Pete was no angel, but a thug? Come on.
He's an addict. He's destructive. He's a serial womanizer and a statutory rapist. He's a bad dad and a worse husband. He also made 4,197 hits. Less on talent and more on sheer grit. And it isn't called the Hall of Saints. There are plenty of lowlifes in those halls.
What I am against is the hypocrisy. MLB are a bunch of hypocrites who are in bed with all the sports books, but Pete is the problem? Hmm.
So let him in and let the fans debate it. He made those hits. And ol Ty Cobb is in there. (See the 1919 World Series for that hypocrisy.) Or don't let him in, because I'd be happy to meet up with any of you to argue about this over ballpark nachos and a helmet sunday.
But until then, read this book. I bullied multiple people into reading it, so if you see me out and about, get ready.
Keith is excellent. And this one belongs to Keith O'Brien.
There is No Ethan
How Three Women Caught America’s Biggest Catfish
Anna Akbari
4/5 stars
Jaw dropping. I couldn't put this one down. It's a wild and riveting page-turner.
I read a review of this book that contains spoilers. Don’t be like me. It's better to go in blind because it's so crazy. Don't Google it or read other reviews, just enjoy the ride.
I felt badly for the women who got catfished by this maniac, but also a bit, “Yo, maybe you're in love with a fantasy here. None of this is adding up.” But you don't expect people to lie to you, and hope and loneliness are powerful drugs.
At the end I legit wanted to smash this catfisher in the face with a chair. A real sociopathic, pathetic loser. Who is a physician! STILL! Right?!
More than being a story of a catfisher, which is insane and compelling in and of itself, it's also about justice. I love the author for taking no prisoners. Often we're supposed to forgive and forget. To hell with that. Poetic justice for the win.
East of Eden
John Steinbeck
2.5-3/5 stars
What a let down.
The Grapes of Wrath had me in awe. The writing, the story. Poetry. All of it. East of Eden? Are we sure the same author wrote both of these books?
I know I'm the minority here, as East of Eden is proclaimed to be Steinbeck's magnum opus, but I thought it was too long, too boring, and poorly written. I don't care how many Biblical allusions you make in your book, if the story and writing aren't good, neither is your book.
I also think as soon as an author sets out to write their ‘Great American Epic Novel’, prepare to suffer as a reader. Reading this was a slog. Save yourself. Read Grapes of Wrath instead. It is magnificent.
You Think It, I’ll Say It
Curtis Sittenfeld
3.5/5 stars
A collection of short stories, with many taking on power imbalances, envy and anger, often with hilarious send-ups of people's hangups and hypocrisy.
Sittenfeld is razor sharp with a cutting eye. I’d hate to be friends with her in real life. Yikes. Ha. (She's also a Cincinnatian and I interviewed her in my previous life as a journalist and thoroughly enjoyed chatting with her.) So if you're looking for a short story collection, these are thought-provoking. I read her novel Prep ages ago and it is excellent. I loved it. Four of five out for Prep.
Beautiful Country
A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood
Qian Julie Wang
4/5 stars
Loved this book. A powerful story of an undocumented childhood. Profound and emotional, hopeful and heartbreaking. I felt like I traveled alongside Qian as an immigrant, that's how good the writing is. The poverty, hunger, shame and hiding. The free school lunches, the public schools and public libraries. (We are all so lucky.)
There is also a lot of humor, joy and love in this book. It is an American story above all, the good and the bad.
Travels with Charley
John Steinbeck
4/5 stars
After he did me dirty with East of Eden, I too was surprised I picked up another Steinbeck so quickly, but I cannot resist a book about 1) books and 2) road trips. And this one is a gem. I forgive Steinbeck for East of Eden.
I was bereft when I finished it. I spent weeks on the road in Rocinante with Steinbeck and Charley, the big poodle, traveling the byways of the United States. I felt very much at home in their company, letting Steinbeck illuminate the landscape. I trusted his steady hand at the wheel in the slashing rain and enjoyed the strangers (mostly) we found along the way. I hardly wanted it to end.
It’s magical and funny, a treasure of a road book with thoughtful, sly and amusing observations. What we seek when we get restless, and how we occupy our minds across long stretches of road.
It’s a book of America's natural beauty too, with lyrical descriptions of the landscape. The autumn leaves of New England, lit from within; the great spiny mountains of Idaho; the cathedral hush of the giant redwoods. You can imagine Woody Guthrie riding shotgun with Charlie in his lap penning This Land is Your Land.
His mission, he said, was to find America, remind himself of his country. What his also finds is the death of localism and the homogeneity of the US — the roadside cafe, language, speech — replaced by cellophane covered food and vending machines. And everyone speaks like they do on the TV news. The cities are ringed with trash — rusted cars and refuse.
What’s fascinating is that after I read it I discovered there’s a bit of controversy about how “true" the road-trip and conversations were with folks he met. I love this squabble. “Not totally accurate!” journalists and Reddit commentators will tell you.
This makes me like the book even more.
Writers seem to dismiss it, he was a novelist after all and it doesn’t diminish the spirit of the book. While others note the impossibilities of some of the travels based on letters home of what happened and when.
If the dialog wasn’t exact or if he didn’t take a certain highway, it’s irrelevant to me. I prefer some shape, some literally touches… elevation of some moments and exclusion of others.
What he did as a novelist on a road trip was create a vivid, lyrical narrative of what he saw in 1960 out of his front windshield with his big poodle by his side.
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