To date, December 31, 2024: 75 reads/audio books. Slowed down a bit with a lot of submissions and three accepted publications to edit and celebrate (see previous blog post). Ended up with 9 favorites, a few tied, a wide range of OMG to MEH. Beginning 2025 with Sally Rooney Intermezzo. Will let you know.
Thank you for reading with me, encouraging me, PM’ing me, emailing me, hugging me. Love you all.
Cheers to a NEW YEAR of amazing possibilities and so many new titles.
XOX Alexandra Dane
Note: listed in the order I read beginning January, 2024. Comments and ranking completely subjective.
#1 favorite happened to be the first book read: the plot, the premise, the piece of earth. Tough act to follow!Not my genre, but willing to read because it is for a lot of other people I respect.Most gifted book of 2024 (by me!)I love Jess Walter and suspending reality.Perfect airplane read.A long time fan of Laurie, maybe not my favorite but she tackles family of all dimensions.Can you guess? Another gifting book, or chicken soup for the soul when you are not feeling well.Hmmmm.I keep up on all of this because, well, 60’s and sleepless.#3. Unforgettable characters. Fate. Love. Tuscany.Consideration of 50 words, David Whyte style.On friendship. Premise and research a bit thin to me.Siblings, inheritance, Christmas. Short airplane distraction.Tiny stories from covid times. Loved.If you have not discovered Joy Harjo, poet, Native American, memoirist, make that a 2025 goal.Vera Stanhope series on PBS is based on this book series. Engaging.DittoNope.Saga that ends in Seattle. Good listen.Vera, again.This has been controversial amongst friends and strangers. For me, boring.#2. My absolute favorite series based on The Moth performance essays. Favorite!A fanciful story about a librarian, a boy and a dysfunctional family. Engaged me.You will not hold it against me that I am still making my way through this…988 pages, one sentence.Forgive me, but not a fan. If you love all her other writing, you know she changes style for each one.Winner of many prizes, a story from the afterlife. I bought it for the cover, really, and then loved it.#5. Museum guard and his journey into the uniform and out.Honest debut fiction by a Nigerian queer writer.Sorry Ruth.Big-Chill-like with an unusual pact. I found it thought provoking and tempting.I am still reading this in small bites by my bed. Fantastic.Audio. Predictable.Did not grab me one bit.#4. Old book, a memoir about a woman who takes her children cruising in the PNW back when arrowheads were on the beaches and strangers offered meals.oooofAnything Joan Didion. I am catching up on her.Ok this was a phase. Lost track halfway through but engaging mythology.Oh, Colm. We really needed closure.Anything Crow.Memoir, addiction, inheritance, love story.Bletchley Park based novel about Prince Philip’s first love.My new go-to inspiration.The mythology continues.Essays that range the PNW and beyond.Forgettable.Novel of betrayals, art, love and fallen angels. Airplane read.Tied for #1 of 2024. This writing, the darkness and the light are not for the fainthearted.Loss and mystery, an engaging story.No.Essays by a proud, queer indigenous women. I greatly admire her work.Read Tove Jansson’s short spare stories soon. The Summer Book remains one of my all-time favorites.Never a fan of fiction that stretches the facts, this felt hysterical and thin on reality.Background audio.Coming of age in the political turmoil of Iran in the 1950’s. Reminiscent of The Kite Runner.#6 for me: set in Pembrokeshire coast of Wales, a woman’s journey through the sea and her health. Think Rachel Carson and Annie Dillard.Long awaited Flavia de Luce series, book No. 11. Another series to pick up before a snowstorm.Popped up in someone else’s feed and found at http://www.betterworldbooks.com, a thought provoking but a bit meandering and thin book.Set in 1994 in Dublin and County Donegal this leaves you hanging in too many ways.I tried. I really, really tried to like this. Was not for me.The Kate Atkinson binge begins: Jackson Brodie series for planes, cars, sleeplessness, knitting.#7 for 2024, a 2024 NYT Best Historical Fiction Book, inspired from Claire Messud’s own family history. “As intimate as it is expansive.”I will follow this voice anywhere. Though he sort of runs out of interesting meals he sure has interesting guests.Jackson Brodie #2Jackson Brodie #3 — a lot of @adaneknit orders!Pre-ordered and waited with held breath I was profoundly disappointed. My least favorite setting brought back (Monastery) with a lot of to-and-fro with no movement in story. So sad.Jackson Brodie book #4Thanks to a prompt for a virtual book group to discuss this book with Wendy Call, I would call this my #8 favorite read of 2024. Essays so thought provoking and tightly written the editor Wesley Morris knew what the assignment was — tuck this in for your next trip and enjoy.Could not finish. Perhaps done with Elizabeth Strout.Jackson Brodie #5Louise Erdrich is a master. I stayed with this, liked The Sentence better.Ugh. It always comes down to the narrator. I could be skimming if real pages but the voice drags me down. Have hit the ‘pause’ button.Purchased and stamped by Shakespeare + Co in Paris for the airplane home. Distracting.I end 2024 on a book about pilgrimage during our turbulent covid/political times on The Camino Francés. Packed with history about the route, scenery and the soul. Not a fast read but inspiring.
Alexandra Dane 
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