The State of the Art: Books 2024

When I kicked off list-making season this year, I got an unfortunate sense of ennui while I was looking over all the cultural offerings I consumed. Usually, there's something in every category that I get really excited about, but in 2024, even the titles that took the top spot sometimes only got a "Eh, it was pretty good," out of me. Happily, I don't have to say that for the book category, because I had a handful of really great reads this year. As ever, I looked over the list to see if I could pick out a "theme":

2019: "Anywhere But Here"
2020: "Dealing with Loss"
2021: "What We Owe to Each Other"
2022: "Look Behind the Curtain"
2023: "Stay In Your Lane"

For 2024, it appears that the starkest theme I can see is "The Ones Who Are Overlooked". Whether it's because of their gender, nationality, sexual orientation, physical appearance, or... you know, because they've been cursed by a literal demon, the characters in the books I read this year aren't given the attention and credibility they deserve. 

Thanks to Goodreads, I have some actual stats, and as a fellow with a pretty busy life, I'm satisfied with my total of 20 books (7008 pages). I've got a good range of authors from different backgrounds, too, which is an evergreen resolution of mine. Hopefully, I can keep up the pace next year. I constantly wrestle with the concept of "best" vs. "favorite". Sometimes, I can recognize that literarily, one book is superior to another, but I just happen to like the latter more, so I guess suck it, impeccably-written novel! Let's get to the list!

How to Be Eaten (Maria Adelmann) (2022) (A)

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Shehan Karunatilaka) (2022) (A)

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V.E. Schwab) (2020) (A)

Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears (Michael Schulman) (2023) (A-)

James (Percival Everett) (2024) (A-)

How to Sell a Haunted House (Grady Hendrix) (2023) (B+)

The Kamogawa Food Detectives (Hisashi Kashiwai) (2013, 2023) (B+)

The Memory Police (Yoko Ogawa) (1994, 2019) (B)

Stone Blind (Natalie Haynes) (2022) (B)

The Annotated Northanger Abbey (Jane Austen, David M. Shapard) (B) (1817, 2013)

Six Wakes (Mur Lafferty) (2017) (B)

Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir (Ai Weiwei) (2024) (B)

The Leavers (Lisa Ko) (2017) (B)

A Haunting on the Hill (Elizabeth Hand) (2023) (B)

The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory (John Seabrook) (2015) (B)

The Thief (Megan Whalen Turner) (1996) (B-)

A Botanist's Guide to Flowers and Fatality (Kate Khavari) (2023) (C+)

The First to Die at the End (Adam Silvera) (2022) (C+)
The Anti-Book (Raphael Simon) (2021) (C)

Wilder Girls (Rory Power) (2019) (C)