My Top 11 Reads of 2024

Chuck Norris and Dolly Parton have read all the books. They think they're ok. 

Impossibly, I read 44 books this year. I don't think I've ever read that many books, except for maybe when I was tearing through Sweet Valley High books in middle school. And even then, doubtful. 

Here are my reviews of all 44. And here are my top 11 reads from the last year. 

The Wager

A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

David Grann

When I tell you I spent a weeks in the throes of starvation and scurvy, with this book, I mean it. 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.

Charlie Hustle

The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and the Last Glory Days of Baseball

Keith O’Brien 

I loved this book. And I love a good sports argument. And there are few as great as an argument about Pete Rose. I bullied multiple people into reading it.

And this one belongs to Keith O'Brien... and Pete Rose.

There is No Ethan

How Three Women Caught America’s Biggest Catfish

Anna Akbari

Jaw dropping. I couldn't put this one down.

More than being a story of a catfisher, which is insane and compelling in and of itself, it's also about justice. I love Akbar for taking no prisoners.

Beautiful Country

A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood

Qian Julie Wang

Profound and emotional, hopeful and heartbreaking.

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

Magical and funny, a treasure of a road book with thoughtful, sly and amusing observations.

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. 

Challenger

Adam Higginbotham

By the time I got to the Challenger disaster, I could hardly stand it. My jaw was in a perpetual state of clenched. The endless mishaps. The refusal to accept good counsel. It’s a wonder anyone on any Shuttle mission made it back alive give the endless compromises, funding cuts and general chaos.


This book is so well done that even knowing the fate of the launch, I felt like I was there, that I could jump into the conference rooms and force them to hear, to listen. 

An absolute page-turner.

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

George Saunders

Illuminating, thoughtful and often funny. Many times I laughed out loud and even cried laughing.
He is funny and wise, pointing out what we should notice, or at least what he noticed. Saunders is a great guide, helping us uncover some of the mystery of Russian literature. 




North Woods

Daniel Mason

Four hundred years of existing in this novel and its strange inhabitants and I didn’t want it to end.

Tuly an imaginative, magical book. Atmospheric and occasionally dark, eerie and shockingly scary, in a funny kind of way.

Speak, Memory

Vladimir Nabokov

A book of poetry told in prose. I highlight so much of it because so much of it is beautiful.

It is a long, vivid poem to the flora and fauna of Russia. He writes with such affection and eloquence about his family, Russia, and the woods and forests and butterfly hunting. 

Crossing to Safety

Wallace Stegner

There is a quiet lyricism to this book reminiscent of John Williams’s book 'Stoner', one of my favorite books of all time (a million five stars). This book reminded of that kind writing.

The voice, tone, and pacing are so good. A remarkable (or unremarkable story), beautifully written.

The God of the Woods

Liz Moore

The writing is immersive, the plot is an expertly paced, slow-burner and I found it a wholly enthralling.

Moore pulls off a grandiose confidence in her characters. She has the audacity to posit that these female character(s) could persevere. And I believe her, and I believe in them. 

A Partner's Crime

Randy and Brandon Stone

In other book news of the year, my friend Randy Stone and his son published A Partner's Crime, a total page-turner. The action ratchets up chapter-after-chapter and I was so impressed with this debut novel, I wrote a review of it for the published version. A first for me as well!