Books I read and listened to in 2024, with commentary (Part 1)

Hello!

It is time, once more, for the annual book list. These are all books that I finished reading in 2024 in either paper or audio format. As in most years, I read more fiction than nonfiction, more women than men. Since this post is bound to be criminally long, I’m dividing it into two parts:

1. Fiction

2. Nonfiction, Memoir and Poetry/Other.

You can find my previous book lists here or click here to read why I’m ambivalent about the whole enterprise of making these end-of-year lists.

Without further ado, on to the list!

Fiction

I read 35 novels this year. To make the list less unwieldy I’ve divided them into the following categories:

• Novels that deal with marriage and motherhood

• Mystery! (Unintentionally, I read more crime and mystery than usual.)

• New novels by familiar favorites, e.g. Elizabeth Strout

• New-to-me authors, including two brilliant Sarahs (Perry and Moss)

• Exciting debuts

• Books that made me think

• Most recommended books – a handful of titles that I think a lot of readers will like

Marriage and motherhood

• All Fours by Miranda July. In a post called Menopause Lit in September, I wrote that I was having an unprecedented number of conversations about this book. Months later, I can report that people still want to talk about this book! Just now, my dad came over to watch football with my husband and son. He is listening to All Fours and finding it laugh-out-loud funny. I am delighted by the men in my life who are enjoying this novel, and the conversations it has sparked about midlife female desire.

• Sandwich by Catherine Newman. This novel about a middle-aged woman on vacation with her family did not delight me as much as All Fours, but I’m intrigued and gratified to have read several novels this year in which characters are dealing with trauma from pregnancy, pregnancy loss, and childbirth. Much of the humor in Sandwich felt trite, but the narrator’s emotional arc has stuck with me.

• Reproduction by Louisa Hall is a slim novel that reads like memoir or autofiction. Ostensibly, the plot is about a woman who is writing a book about Mary Shelley while trying to become a mother. But that description doesn’t convey the book’s depth. This is stunning, wise, essential reading for anyone who has given serious consideration to fertility, creativity, and motherhood in the