I’m back with more books I loved in 2024. On Friday I shared the fact that almost all my 5-star favorite books for the year were backlist, but I still wanted to give a shoutout to this wide variety of new releases I thought were wonderful. Each provided me with the escape I wanted in a year that was a lot to handle. Mysteries and thrillers came on strong for me ... Read More...
My 9 Favorite Books in 2024
As I started reviewing my reading year there was one stat that jumped off the chart at me. Of the 13 five-star books I read this year my favorite 9 were backlist (published before 2024). I’m sure publishing analysts could provide an easy explanation (fewer books published in an election year) or a psychologist something more detailed (possibly around escape and avoidance) but ... Read More...
Coming Home by Brittney Griner
I don’t know much about women’s basketball, but I certainly know the name Brittney Griner. She is the WNBA player for the Phoenix Mercury who was wrongfully detained in Russia when cannabis vape cartridges were discovered in her luggage. She recounts her harrowing story in the memoir Coming Home. For years Griner supplemented her income by playing on a Russian international ... Read More...
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
And it’s inside myself that I must create someone who will understand. In the midst of the 1864 Colorado Sand Creek massacre of the Cheyenne a Native boy is able to escape. After years of wandering, he finds himself in Nevada where he’s told he can go to a mission for food and shelter. He does and is promptly chained and sent to a prison in Florida. It’s only years after his ... Read More...
In Memoriam: A Novel
I haven’t read a war book in quite a while as I burned out on WWII after reading so many outstanding novels on the subject. But a friend recommended In Memoriam and while I was resistant at first my 2024 reading has been tepid at best so I decided to give it a chance. And just like that, my heart was unexpectedly torn by this work of horror and tenderness, set amidst WWI, a ... Read More...
My 8 Favorite Books of 2023
Finally! Let’s talk reading again, specifically my favorite books of 2023 so we can move onto what lies ahead in 2024. It was an interesting year in that I don’t remember another time when I had this many 5-star nonfiction books. I’m not even sure I’ve ever read so much great nonfiction in one year (and I’m too lazy to go back and check)! Somehow, 2023 came ... Read More...
