This is 2026, I know, I know! But I actually wrote these reflections a year ago, and what does the timing of a book round-up matter anyway? I’ll have another post up soon with my best reads of 2025.
I’m a devoted reader. The only thing I spend more time on is my full-time job. I regularly read over 70 books a year, from various genres, even in other languages. And because I’ve read some really excellent books, and since the internet exists mostly for us to share our unsolicited opinions, I decided I may as well make a post about it.
Obviously, these are just my opinions, and the order here is not particularly meaningful. I just picked 10 of the best books I read in 2024 without trying to rank them beyond that. These books should represent the breadth of topics and genres that I read.
If you’re interested in any of these books, I suggest you check if your local library system carries it. (Our library system locally has all but two.)
So here we go.
Fiction
1 – What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (2020, translated by Alison Watts and published in English in 2023)
This is a series of five short stories, all interwoven in small ways. Every character struggles with a problem that is indirectly solved by visiting the local library and reading a book.
I used to be wary of Japanese literature because of Murakami’s magical realism, which doesn’t appeal to me at all. But I’ve found a whole different genre of Japanese literature that’s more of a “slice of life” type of story. I loved that these characters were all dissatisfied in some way with their lives, but by discovering something new, made a small change that set them on the path towards something more meaningful.
A quote from the book:
“In a world where you don’t know what will happen next, I just do what I can right now.” (What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, Michiko Aoyama)
2 – Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (2021)
This is a retelling of various stories in Greek mythology involving Ariadne of Crete. The tales include such famous myths as Theseus and the Minotaur, Dionysus and his mysteries, and Phaedra.
I liked this book more the more than I reflected on it. I read some other Greek mythology retellings after reading Ariadne, but they largely tried to reinvent the myth, rather than telling it as the ancient Greeks set it out. And I understand why. The Greek myths are pretty harsh towards women, either dismissing them outright or lambasting them for taking action on their own. Saint allowed Ariadne to make choices for herself but also suffer the consequences, so that we felt both her desire to own her future and also her helplessness against the power of gods and heroes. So while it wasn’t fully satisfying in the way of happy endings and triumph over adversity, it felt real. Somehow Saint managed to make a story about gods and magic feel grounded.
A quote from the book:
“The gods do not know love because they cannot imagine an end to anything they enjoy…Nothing to them is more than a passing amusement and when they have done with it, there will be another and another and another, until the end of time itself. Their heroes do not know love because they only value what they can measure – the mountains they make of their enemies’ bones, the vast piles of treasure they win and the immortal verses [that] are sung in their name. They see only fame and are blind to the rewards that only human life can offer, which they simply toss aside like trash.” (Ariadne, Jennifer Saint)
3 – Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (2023)
In this fantasy, Emily Wilde, an Oxford academic, goes to a Nordic country to study faeries so she can complete her encyclopedia. She struggles to win over the locals, but then her academic rival Wendell Bambleby arrives.
I’ve seen some BookTubers promote this book, which is how I first heard about it. BookTube recommendations can be hit-or-miss for me, but this was a definite hit. The characters are rich, talented and flawed all at once. The faeries have rules and magic has limits, and that’s the only way Emily can save herself. This could have been a great standalone novel, but the sequel ended up being equally charming.
A quote from the book:
“If anyone were to claim greater happiness in their careers than I do in poking about sunlit wildwoods for faerie footprints, I should not believe it.” (Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett)
4 – The Door-to-Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn (2020, translated by Melody Shaw and published in English in 2023)
In this German book, an elderly bookseller delivers books to his customers and a young girl decides to tag along.
This book spoke very beautifully to the impact of the written word on people. The story was cute and tied together quite well at the end. It was also the first German book that I read, and it reminded me to read outside of my usual categories of books. I’ve made an effort to read translated literature from Japan and South Korea over recent years, but never books from European countries outside of the UK.
A quote from the book:
“You see, there is no book that can please everyone. And if there were, it would be a bad book. You can’t be everyone’s friend, because everyone is different. You’d have to be completely lacking in personality, no rough edges or sharp corners. But even then, many people wouldn’t like you, because they need rough edges and sharp corners. Do you understand? Every person needs different books. Because what one person loves with all their heart, might leave another completely cold.” (The Door-to-Door Bookstore, Carsten Henn)
5 – The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone (1958)
This book is explained entirely by the title. It’s a novel retelling the life of the Renaissance painter and sculpture Michelangelo.
This was an excellent work of historical fiction, covering the whole of Michelangelo’s life and all of his creations. Stone portrays Michelangelo as obsessive about his art but unwise with his money. He was commissioned by cardinals, dukes and popes, sometimes having to abandon one project for another when a more powerful person showed up.
A quote from the book:
“But the artist was not in flight; he was in pursuit. He was trying with all his might to overtake a vision.” (The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone)
6 – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (1848)
In a lesser-known Brontë novel, Gilbert Markham becomes curious about the new tenant at Wildfell Hall. It’s a woman with a young son, attempting to make a living as an artist. She eventually reveals the truth about her past to him, and to the reader.
This book sat on my bookshelves for years. And I didn’t expect to like it, given it’s so much less well-known than the other Brontë sisters’ works. The scale of this story is quite small, but the writing is so good. Helen is just a woman trying to do the right thing, to meet both the expectations of a woman in Victorian society and her desperation to escape a psychologically abusive marriage.
A quote from the book:
“You do not complain, but I see – and feel – and know that you are miserable – and must remain so as long as you keep those walls of impenetrable ice about your still warm and palpitating heart.” (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë)
Non-Fiction
7 – Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport (2019)
This book introduces the concept of “digital minimalism,” a new way to use technology to serve us instead of letting it use us.
I’m not sure Newport’s signature digital declutter is for me, but there were so many good tips in here for reducing your reliance on technology. I read the book already sold on “breaking up with my smartphone” (which is a whole other book I could recommend). Still, the book made me realize how interconnected our smartphone addiction is to other problems we have, such as widespread loneliness. Newport also made a point about prioritizing demanding leisure activity over passive consumption. It’s not that watching TV isn’t fun, but learning to play the guitar is probably more fulfilling.
A quote from the book:
“Declaring freedom from your smartphone is probably the most serious step you can take toward embracing the attention resistance.” (Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport)
8 – The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles (2009)
This is a biography of Vanderbilt, the “Commodore,” the first robber baron, who built his wealth off steamboats and railroad. He lived a long life from 1794 to 1877.
Sometimes I like to learn history by biography. Vanderbilt’s life was so long and his impact so large that the US changed unimaginably during his lifetime. The idea of putting guardrails on private enterprise was unthinkable before Vanderbilt came along. It’s tough sometimes with biographies to decide whether I liked the book or not because my opinion is so tied up with my opinion on the subject. So while I can’t say I liked Vanderbilt (the guy did shut down an entire railroad line to disrupt a competitor, uncaring that it also disrupted the daily lives of thousands of people) I found this biography to be thorough, well written and pretty “epic.”
9 – Summer of Blood: England’s First Revolution by Dan Jones (2009)
This is a history of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. That was the first rebellion in England that wasn’t led by disaffected nobility, but rather by ordinary people.
Dan Jones knows how to explain history to the modern reader. The Peasants’ Revolt began, perhaps unsurprisingly, with a tax that fell disproportionately on the commoners, implemented to pay off war debts. Jones organized this book into easy-to-follow sections. He covered the state of England before the revolt, the revolt itself (as it began, at its height, as it waned), and the aftermath.
10 – Truly, Madly: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century by Stephen Galloway (2022)
This is a dual biography of Old Hollywood royals Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. The book focuses on their relationship through the years.
First of all, it was well written and utterly readable. I flew through it, and I felt that Galloway handled the whole romance and Vivien Leigh’s mental illness with considerable compassion. The book didn’t try to glorify either star, but took them as they were, both magnificent and flawed.
Reflections
Three of these books (What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, Ariadne, and The Door-to-Door Bookstore) were totally random finds. By that I mean that I went to a bookstore without any idea what I was looking for and walked away with these books.
There’s something empowering about choosing a book for yourself and liking the result. Too often we’re inundated with recommendations (the irony of this post does not escape me). I totally understand why we gravitate towards recommended reads: we want to know that we’re not wasting our time reading a book that sucks. But we often also want the social validation of reading the same books that everyone else is reading. So as someone who keeps a To-Be-Read list of books based on topics I want to learn about and fiction recommended to me, I was so pleased to have chosen some good books based on nothing more than my own intuition.
Part of this blog is about travel and hiking, so…exploration. I think it’s important to get out of my comfort zone and be willing to try something new. Reading should be like that too – we should read various genres and literature from various countries. In other words, don’t hike the same trail every day. You might just find something amazing.
