My Noteworthy Reads of 2024
What were the good, the read, and the unfinished?
🎶 It’s the most wonderful time of the year… for lists and year-end wrap-ups 🎶 is what I sang while writing this last month.
I read 28 books in 2024, but I won’t review them all here. You can find and follow my Goodreads and Storygraph accounts for that. Instead, I’d like to hit the highlights in case you are looking for new reads (or reads to avoid) in 2025.
All links go to Libro.fm which supports local bookstores except for titles only available on Audible.
🏆 The Good
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver clocks in at 21 hours 2 minutes on audiobook. Long books are not usually my jam, but I wanted to see why this book is recommended so much on the book subreddits I subscribe to (r/suggestmeabook, r/audiobooks). Charlie Thurston, the narrator, does an incredible job giving the main character, Damon/Demon, a voice that is genuine and sympathetic. It took me a month and a half to get through, but I looked forward to checking in on Damon and rooting him through his trials growing up poor as a foster child in the Appalachia area during the opioid crisis. The trials are unfair and depressing and some reviews call it “poverty porn,” but this post on r/Appalachia says the story is almost too real.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman is absolutely ridiculous. I saw it recommended so many times on the book subreddits, but couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not. I scored an Audible trial and gave it a listen, and it was exactly what I needed at the time. In short, it’s about a man and a cat who end up in a video game. This book falls under the LitRPG genre which I’d never heard of before, but it’s one I definitely look for now. If you play video games or Dungeons & Dragons, this book should be right up your alley! If you don’t, then this book might be a little weird for you. If you can get past that though, it’s a pretty fun ride, and the narrator, Jeff Hays, is extremely talented as he voices all characters, creating an immersive audio experience.
📖 The Read
The Stand by Stephen King is the heftiest book I’ve ever listened to at 47 hours and 52 minutes. I tried to read it when I was much younger, but the way the story transitions in Book Two got me disinterested. I pushed through this time, feeling the same way, but listening to the audiobook helped me stick with it. Without spoiling it, the saga switches from a pandemic survival story to a supernatural / spiritual battle between good and bad. I didn’t care for the switch, but I got into the rhythm of listening to a few chapters here and there, reading other books to break it up. I conquered the beast in four months and wrote my review on Storygraph.
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree is the prequel to Legends & Lattes, both delightfully narrated by the author. I read the latter in 2023, finding it a charming, cozy read. Bonus that it’s gay! Both books follow an orc barbarian named Viv who puts down her weapons in exchange for friendship and the quaint village life. I was glad that Baldree gave us more of this world he built although the prequel didn’t hit the same. It’s still the equivalent of playing Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing — best served while wrapped up in your favorite blanket on the couch at the end of a long day.
📚 And the Unfinished
Red Rising by Pierce Brown is another book I found while browsing book subreddits. I, like many people, have a soft spot for dystopian fiction, so when I saw this was set on Mars, I was ready to dig in. The trilogy follows a teenager named Darrow who can seemingly do no wrong as he and his fellow Reds (the lowest caste) prepare Mars for habitation. No, seriously, I ended up shelving this because I couldn’t get past how he is portrayed as The One. And he’s a teenager? It read too much like a young adult novel when it wasn’t promoted as one, and it wasn’t what I expected. I may revisit it someday.
Special mention to both Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama. I started reading these series during a little manga kick I got into over the summer. Both series are very intense so I ended up getting burned out, but hope to pick them back up this year. Shoutout to public libraries and Hoopla which allow me to conveniently read the ebook versions!
Speaking of public libraries, I wrote about how you can check out ebooks and audiobooks from libraries in this post:
What was your favorite read in 2024? Or worst? Let me know if you have any recommendations!