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 | 29 |
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 (review upcoming)
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 (review upcoming)
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 (review planned for next week)
Wayne Caldwell, Woodsmoke: poems
Year in books by blogging friends:
Quite the list, Jeff. Congrats on all of the good books you read.
Some good reading in 2024, here’s to more during 2025 🙂
All the best Jan
You got in quite a few 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.
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
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.”