Reading in 2024
I read 45 books in 2024, which is down from recent years. I’ve been reading over 50 books, but this year my 45 includes Augustine’s City of God. He broke his magus opus into 22 books, so maybe I exceeded my goal as I only counted it as one! I’m not sure my favorite book of the year, but it’s probably one of the four I have highlighted in the title slide.
Reading Recap
Summary:
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Total books read | 54 | 53 | 53 | 45 |
| Fiction | 8 | 4 | 8 | 6 |
| Poetry (and about poetry) | 5 | 6 | 1 | 3 |
| History/ Biographies | 13 | 17 | 13 | 12 |
| Theology and ministry[1] | 16 | 22 | 19 | 11 |
| Essays/Short Stories | 8 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
| Humor | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Nature | 6 | 9 | 13 | 10 |
| Politics | 3 | 3 | 5 | 10 |
| Memoirs | 10 | 11 | 4 | 14 |
| Writing (how to) | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Titles by women | 14 | 7 | 16 | 14 |
| Read via Audible | 20 | 20 | 26 | 19 |
| Books reviewed | 30 | 34 | 39 | 32 |
The numbers do not add up as some of the books fit into multiple categories. I will add probably 3 more reviews in early 2025, some of which are already written. I generally don’t read “how-to” books, but this year read two (both related to Amateur Radio). Also, three books were re-read. Four were by foreign (non-English) authors.
Below are the books with a photo of my favorite book for the month. Also included to links to my reviews. I will update this list to include reviews posted in 2025.
What’s your favorite book of 2024?
January
Rachel Carlson, Silent Spring
Timm Oyer, Dinner with Jesus
Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told
77 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, told by the Nation’s Own Journalist
February
Cecile Hulse Matschat, The Suwannee: Strange Green Land
Edward Chancellor, Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation
The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual
Russell D. Moore, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America
March
Erik Larson, In the Garden of the Beast: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Germany
Chimamade Ngozi Adichie, Half a Yellow Sun
It was hard to pick between these two excellent reads.
April
Jonathan Haley, The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689
John Lane, Gullies of My People: An Excavation of Landscape and Family
Steve Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo
Fleming Rutledge, Help My Unbelief
May
Reuven Fenton, Goyhood
Danielle Chapman, Holler: A Poet Among Patriots
The ARRL General Class License Manual
June
Tracy K. Smith, To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
July
Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
Pat Conroy, A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life
Aaron Bobrow-Strain, White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf
August
Saint Augustine, City of God (Started in April, this is really 22 books/1100 pages)
Tim Kaine, Walk, Ride, Paddle: A Life Outside
Tim Alberta, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism
Daniel Silliman, One Lost Soul: Richard Nixon’s Search for Salvation
September
Beth Moore, All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir
Tony Horwitz, One for the Road: An Outback Adventure
Holly Haworth, The Way, The Moon: Poems
Stephanie Stuckey, Unstuck: Rebirth of an American Icon
October
Clare Frank, Brunt: A Memoir of Fighting Fire
Nate Schweber, This America of Ours: Bernard and Avis DeVoto and the Forgotten Fight to Save the Wild
Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
November
Ivan Doig, English Creek
John P. Burgess, Holy Rus’: The Rebirth of Orthodoxy in the New Russia
Peter Wohlleben, Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America
Thomas Seeley, The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild
Douglas R. A. Hare, Mark: Westminster Bible Companion
December
Nadivka Gerbish and Yaroslav Hrytsak, A Ukrainian Christmas
Ivan Doig, Dancing at the Rascal Fair
Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power
Christian Winman, Hammer is the Prayer (Selected Poems)
Neil King, Jr., American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal
Wayne Caldwell, Woodsmoke: poems
Year in books by blogging friends:
I would have said I read all of your book reviews, and I’d be wrong. There are a bunch there that look interesting.
I know you’ve read a lot of my reviews, for you have commented on many of them. I don’t know exactly where you live in S. California, but I hope you’re safe from the fires.
I love seeing others’ book lists! Really like your table organization, I might try that for my next update.
Silent Spring is lovely, I wish more people would heed its message. I’ve only read arts of City of God — I should add it to this year’s reading stack!
Silent Spring was one of those books I’ve known about and read excerpts of, but had never gone through it totally until this year. City of God has some brilliant parts along with a lot of boring slough to get through. But Augustine was an amazing thinker.
Thanks for sharing your list, Jeff! And what a great list it is. I’ve bookmarked this post, because there are books I want to read in it. Of course, I read “Sand County Almanac” and “Desert Solitaire” long ago. “Desert Solitaire” takes place in the heart of one of my favorite landscapes in the world. I really connect to it with heart, mind, and soul. I’m behind on recording my reading for the year, and I tend to read most books at least two times. Certainly “Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr, “The Dark Forest” and “Death’s End” by Cixin Liu, and “The Road to Character” by David Brooks are among my favorites this year. And I read and reread “Meditations for Mortals” by Oliver Burkman at least three times.There are so many fabulous books and so little time! Wishing you a year of fabulous reading, my friend!
Both “Sand County” and “Desert Solitaire” are re-reads for me. Great book. I haven’t read “Cloud Cuckoo Land” but did read Doerr’s first book and heard him speak at Calvin University’s Festival of Faith and Writing last year.
Great list and thanks for the shout-out! As you know, I’ve read a number of these. For some, the Harrison Scott Key book is too raw and too real. I get it, but I found it to be an incredible story of redemption. Loved Beth Moore’s book too.
I agree with you about Harrison’s book, it is raw. I hope his marriage sticks. He also had some tough words for the more conservative Presbyterians… It seems this year, fewer of those I read have published end of the year reading reports.
Quite the list, Jeff. Congrats on all of the good books you read.
Thanks, Matt. Even though I missed by goal, I did have read some good books.
Some good reading in 2024, here’s to more during 2025 🙂
All the best Jan
Thanks, Jan.
You got in quite a few books.
I do tend to read a good number of books.
I really enjoyed both of the Moore books (Russell AND Beth) and there are others here that I still want to read. I’ve had Augustine’s “City of God” on my Kindle for a decade, but I’m but I’m always afraid to get started on it!
I read such a variety I’m not sure I can pick a favorite. Thanks for the link up.
Yes, both Moore’s books are good. While I recommend “City of God,” you might want to listen to the Great Courses lectures on the book first–it helps provide an understanding and he does go through the entire book.
You have some interesting books in your 2024 lineup. I think my favorite book this year was Isaacson’s Code Breaker. It was touted as a bio of Jennifer Doudna, the scientist who played a significant role in developing CRISPR, but it was more a tracing of how DNA was mapped. Fascinating.
https://cleemckenziebooks.substack.com/p/short-story-wednesdayagain
Thanks, Lee. “Code Breaker” sounds interesting. When’s your next book coming out?
I’ve read quite a few books on your list for the year. I really enjoyed Key’s “How to Stay Married” though it was sort of a melancholy book. All of Larson’s books are great. Two of my favorite books of all time were on this list with Leopold’s “Sand County Almanac” and at the very top of the list “Desert Solitaire” by Edward Abbey, the person whom I borrowed my alias blogger name from. I enjoy Horwitz’s writing as well. I see a couple more that I have added to my reading list for the future and I look forward to reading your review on “American Ramble” next week.
As you know or probably suspect, “Sand County Almanac” and “Desert Solitaire” were rereads for me. I think you’ll like “American Ramble.”