Illustrations by me
I read 80 books in 2024. These are the top ten.
Here is how I read: every Saturday morning. Most nights before bed. Anytime I am waiting for anything, anywhere. Sometimes eBooks on my phone: I know everyone hates reading on screens, but this way I can have a book everywhere I go. I listen to audiobooks on my half hour walks to and from work.
Anyone who has migrated here from my soon-to-be-defunct Instagram account will hopefully remember my yearly top ten book posts. Before I delete my Instagram archive I’ll rescue those lists from past years and maybe eventually post them here.
Because this is the first post on my art blog, I decided to draw a small image to go with each book…here they are:
1. Passing, by Nella Larsen
1929
“A brilliant day, hot, with a brutal staring sun pouring down rays that were like molten rain. A day on which the very outlines of the buildings shuddered as if In protest at the heat. Quivering lines sprang up from baked pavements and wriggled along the shining car-tracks.”
This is a spell-binding short novel. Set in Harlem in the 1920s, the novel follows Irene, who encounters her childhood friend Clare and discovers that she has been “passing” as a white woman and is married to a racist white man. The novel follows Clare and Irene’s increasing fascination with each other and each others’ lives. The ending will blow you away.
2. The Bog Wife, by Kay Chronister
2024
A unique blend of magical realism, horror, gothic, mystery. The characters are all painfully real: sometimes loveable and sad, sometimes deeply unlikable, but very well-developed, which made this novel stand out amongst other contemporary horror/fantasy/magical realism books I've read in recent years.
The characters—five siblings navigating parental death and ancient rituals—are all adults, with adult problems and personalities, but this story has echoes of middle-grade fiction adventures where orphans have to survive strange circumstances after the death or disappearance of their parents (i.e. Narnia, Series of Unfortunate Events, The Boxcar Children, etc., etc.). I read this in 2 days.
3. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, by Salman Rushdie
2024
A memoir. It is what it says on the tin: reflections on the circumstances before, during, and after the knife attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022. My first thought when reading this (which may have been influenced by the trashy mystery novel I had just finished) was “oh yes, this is what good writing is like.” I highly recommend the audiobook, which is read by the author.
4. The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. LeGuin
1971
“Things don’t have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What’s the function of a galaxy? I don’t know if our life has purpose and I don’t see that it matters. What does matter is that we’re a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is the wind blowing on the grass.”
The first book I read in 2024 and maybe the best. Er’ perrehnne.
5. The Hearing Trumpet, by Leonora Carrington
1974
Surreal, flawless, perfect. Unexplainable. It starts off with a bunch of hilarious old ladies, and eventually expands to include the holy grail, an ice age, werewolves, poisoning, two-dimensional furniture painted on the walls, bees, and witches. Among many other things.
6. Syllabus, by Lynda Barry
2014
I am going back to my Goodreads page to write these reviews, and all I wrote for this one was “!!!”. Helpful. I loved this because it embodied the experience of being a teacher and an artist, teaching art while making art, and how the two practices meld and overlap. I learned a lot that is useful for my own art practice and for my own own teaching practice, from this chaotic book.
7. The Book of Delights: Essays, by Ross Gay
2019
Writer Ross Gay decided to spend a year writing a short essay about a delight (or joy) every day. The result is surprisingly varied, nuanced, beautiful, sometimes painful and a reminder of the goodness in humanity.
And it’s way more relevant and less corny than I am making it sound!
8. Memories, Dreams, Reflections, by C.G. Jung
1962
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. It may even be assumed that just as the unconscious affects us, so the increase in our consciousness affects the unconscious.”
This book details Jung’s focuses throughout his life. He discusses dreams, the unconscious, visions and premonitions with as much factual reality as he discusses his relationships with real people and the scientific side of psychology. I don’t think I’ve ever underlined more passages in a book.
9. Witch King, by Martha Wells
2023
A good solid fantasy novel to pull you into another world. The story unfolds between two timelines in a way that feels like you are reading a novel and its sequel simultaneously. Often in books with two timelines I find myself preferring one and being annoyed with the other by these are both very compelling. The characters drive the story, but the world-building is fascinating.
10. Penance, by Eliza Clark
2023
Disturbing. Really accurately captures the extremely unhinged energy of tumblr dot com in the 2010s. If you were ever a teen on tumblr, and/or if you have ever had even a passing interest in true crime, highly recommend this book. The framing narrative (a female author writing a book about a man writing a book about girls) works really well and adds to the creepiness.
Honourable mentions:
Water, water by Billy Collins (2024)
Voice Lessons by Eve Krakow (2024)
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2003)
Red Rising by Pearce Brown (2014)
Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki (2023)
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (2011)