I’m just going to say it, because I don’t often pat myself on the back: I like the eclectic nature of my reading lists! To anyone who might want to join my unofficial book club, here’s what I got through in 2024:
- The Circle, Katherena Vermette
- Games and Rituals, Katherine Heiny
- How To Kill Your Family, Bella Mackie
- Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade, William Goldman
- Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, Anthony Bourdain
- So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo
- Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them, Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx
- The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, Simon Morgenstern (The “Good Parts” Version, 30th Anniversary Edition, abridged by William Goldman)
- Blindness, Jose Saramago
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, Emmanuel Acho
- Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture – and the Magic That Makes It Work, Jesse David Fox
- How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain, Ryan North
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson
- Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, Nicholas Pileggi
- The Possible Self: A Leader’s Guide to Personal Development, Maja Djikic
- Being Dead, Jim Crace
- Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks, Chris Herring
- Bottle Rocket Hearts, Zoe Whittall
- Glory Days, Simon Rich
- Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV, Emily Nussbaum
- Brotherless Night, V.V. Ganeshananthan
- Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, Kate Conger & Ryan Mac
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy
- Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton
- The Internet of Animals: Discovering the Collective Intelligence of Life on Earth, Martin Wikelski
- Help Wanted, Adelle Waldman
- Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians, Joe Quirk with Patri Friedman*
- Old Man’s War, John Scalzi
- The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Okay, I was hoping to get another one finished before the new year, if only so this list wouldn’t end on such a bleak note. But hey, it’s a nice round number, and this is a historical record, dagnabbit! The good news is next year’s list will start happy!
*Though I did read it, and some parts were interesting, this was research. Lest anyone wonder if I’m going a little cuckoo.