Last year was difficult in a lot of ways. My reading life was not one of them. 2024 was a deeply satisfying year in books for me, and this brings me great joy, especially compared with 2023. At several points in 2024, I thought Wow, I like everything I’m reading! No slumps, no slogs. Just a bunch of fine novels, memoirs, and biographies that added richness to my life. I read 65 books in 2024, and I enjoyed almost all of them.

Here’s what I read in 2024, in chronological order:

• Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
• Wellness, Nathan Hill ♥️
• This Is How It Always Is, Laurie Frankel
• It. Goes. So. Fast. The Year of No Do-Overs, Mary Louise Kelly
• Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, Shane Parrish
• How to Say Babylon, Safiya Sinclair ♥️
• The Forty Rules of Love, Elif Shafak
• Draw Your Day: An Inspiring Guide to Keeping a Sketch Journal, Samantha Dion Baker
• My Cousin Rachel, Daphne duMaurier ♥️
• Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
• The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran ♥️
• Love + Work: How to Find What You Love, Love What You Do, and Do It for the Rest of Your Life, Marcus Buckingham
• Let Us Descend, Jesmyn Ward
• Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better with Age, Chip Conley
• The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel
• CXOXO: Building a Support Team Your Customers Will Love, Mercer Smith
• Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, Lisa See
• Mozart: The Reign of Love, Jan Swafford
• The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah
• The Trees, Percival Everett ♥️
• A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, William B. Irvine ♥️
• King: A Life, Jonathan Eig ♥️
• Kaikeyi, Vaishnavi Patel
• How High We Go in the Dark, Sequoia Nagamatsu
• All the Sinners Bleed, S.A. Cosby
• Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, Cal Newport
• Thistlefoot, GennaRose Nethercott
• State of Wonder, Ann Patchett ♥️
• The Garden of Eden, Ernest Hemingway ♥️
• Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott ♥️
• The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connections and Courage, Brené Brown
• Long Island, Colm Tóibín
• Jamaica Inn, Daphne duMaurier
• The House of Eve, Sadeqa Johnson
• All Fours, Miranda July
• The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George
• Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry ♥️
• Why Birds Sing: A Novel, Nina Berkhout
• Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See, Bianca Bosker ♥️
• The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Deesha Philyaw ♥️
• The Bee Sting, Paul Murray
• Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions About Dead Bodies, Caitlin Doughty
• Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha, Tara Brach
• Blackbird House, Alice Hoffman
• Swamplandia!, Karen Russell ♥️
• The Collected Regrets of Clover, Mikki Brammer
• The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy
• Take What You Need, Idra Novey
• Catalina, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
• Last Night in Montreal, Emily St. John Mandel
• Dare To Lead, Brené Brown
• Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar
• Bunny, Mona Awad
• Intermezzo, Sally Rooney ♥️
• Anatomy of a Disappearance, Hisham Matar
• East of Eden, John Steinbeck ♥️
• Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu ♥️
• The Women, Kristin Hannah ♥️
• Be Ready When the Luck Happens, Ina Garten
• Splinters, Leslie Jamison
• Blue Sisters, Coco Mellors
• The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon
• The City and Its Uncertain Walls, Haruki Murakami

Happy New Year! Here’s hoping 2025 is as good as 2024 for reading 🥂.