My Favorite Books from 2024
The year 2024 turned out to be one of my best reading years in quite awhile. Granted, I kept pace via audiobooks, but since that is my go-to, I don’t even count it.
The Stats
Overall, I got through 34 books in 2024, and I was 45 minutes (2 chapters) from finishing a 35th on New Year’s Eve. My science fiction book club (now entering its sixteenth year!) can account for at least eight books most years. Yeah, I don’t finish a book I don’t like. Long ago I realized it is better to pull the ripcord on a bad book and read something I enjoy versus slogging through a book I don’t enjoy.
Four of the books I read last year were non-fiction, including a Top 10. I discovered Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar, reading the first two entries in that series. I also read a pair of Agatha Christie’s novels as part of the always-fun reading list put together by her estate.
But the winner for most books by one author—three—went to John Jackson Miller. I read two of his Star Wars books—Kenobi and The Living Force—and then Batman: Resurrection, a direct sequel to the 1989 movie. By the way, did Miller have one of the best years for an author? He published three books in three different franchises: Star Wars, Star Trek, and Batman.
If you put Miller and Coben in the mix, I read eighteen new-to-me authors, accounting for 22 of my 34 books. I do not count Tom Straw in that list since he wrote the Castle novels—but The Accidental Joe was the first of his with his own name on the cover.
Ever since I read Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic in 2021 (and again in 2023), I’ve picked out a book meant to be read daily. Last year, it was The Daily Laws by Robert Greene. As of today, I’m four days into The Daily Pressfield by Steven Pressfield.
The Top 10
Here are my favorite books of 2024, presented in chronological order.
Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson. Super clever narrative style with the clues rather obviously (in retrospect) sprinkled throughout. Excellent narrator.
Kenobi (Star Wars) by John Jackson Miller. If the original Star Wars was meant to be a western in space, then this is “Shane” in space. It details the first months of Kenobi’s months on Tatoonie and it delivers what I most want from Star Wars: stories set in that universe that have nothing to do with the characters we already know. This one truly is a western, only with lightsabers and Kryte Dragons.
Learning to Love Midlife by Chip Conley. Anyone at any age can benefit from this book, but for us midlifers, this book is gold. Chip’s metaphor of a chrysalis—of when a caterpillar consumes, then gestates, and then transforms into a butterfly—is the core of this book. It’s the lens through which he advises us to see our lives. He calls everything that came before a dress rehearsal. A driving factor of this book is the growth mindset by which you measure not by winning but by learning. “A growth mindset facilitates seeking out, exploring, and enjoying new experiences. It is the antidote to midlife boredom.” It is also the antidote to boredom no matter how old you are.
The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand. A few years ago, my wife discovered Hilderbrand and has read everything she wrote since. When she finished this book, she put it on the kitchen table, a signal for me to return it to the library. For whatever reason, I picked up the book and read the description. Still curious, I wanted to see how it started. Twenty-nine pages later, I walked into the next room, book in hand, and told my wife, “I am in!” It certainly didn’t hurt that the five lead characters are all my age, but Hilderbrand’s effortless writing made the pages fly by. I was completely enthralled, and while I got misty when it came to what happened to the characters, I really got to the point where I didn’t want the fictional weekend—or the actual book—to end.
The Heist by Jack Du Brul (Clive Cussler). Isaac Bell is my favorite of Cussler’s series and a new entry is always cause for celebration. Plus, this one begins with an aerial attack on the yacht of President Woodrow Wilson. Cussler’s novels are always good, reliable action/adventure mystery/thrillers guaranteed to be the summer blockbuster movie you see in your mind. When you have a series character like Isaac Bell, it’s rare the hero loses. The joy comes in the locations, the devices the hero uses, and specifically the steps and derring-do Bell takes to get his man.
Worst Case Scenario by T. J. Newman. My personal joke with Newman is that the cover of her debut, Falling, so captivated me that it took me a year to read it. But then I read it and her second, Drowning within weeks of each other. Worst Case Scenario is her third, and for a thriller writers, she’s three for three with eliciting an emotional response from me. Her stories have great elevator pitches, like this one: What do you do if a plane crashes into a nuclear power plant? It’s the kind of situation you hope never, ever happens in real life, but Newman tells this story using characters that you really start caring for from the moment they step into the story. As a human, I became terrified at how easily something like this might happen. As a reader, however, I was enthralled and emotionally engaged throughout the entire book. And I will read everything T.J. Newman writes. You should too.
The Accidental Joe by Tom Straw. Every now and then, you hear a concept for a book and it instantly hooks you. This is one of those books. What if an Anthony Bourdain-type celebrity chef who hosts a TV travel show is also a CIA spy? Here, Sebastian Pike is the Bourdain stand-in, and you’d be hard pressed not to imagine the real celebrity chef in this story. When I read the hardcopy, it was Bourdain’s voice I heard in my head. Later, as I listened to Straw’s narrations, he put just enough of a tonality that could I still hear Bourdain’s voice. It was pretty magical, as was the relationship between Pike and Cameron Nova, ostensibly his producer, but we soon learn she’s a CIA agent who recruits Pike for this job. Pike is one of my favorite new amateur detectives. I love stories where a non-detective becomes embodied in a larger, dangerous story. I love it when what this non-detective brings to the table—cooking and TV production in this case—actually helps solve the case. I love it when we meet a character that just feels like you’ve watched every episode of his fictional TV show for years.
Deal Breaker by Harbon Coben. Where has this book been all my life? On the bookshelf of a local store, just waiting to be read. Myron Bolitar is a sports agent, and while you might think it would take some narrative gymnastics to get him involved in a mystery, you’d be wrong. One of Bolitar’s clients, Christian Steele, a rookie quarterback, receives a phone call from his girlfriend. That would be his missing girlfriend whom everyone presumes is dead. Know who’s also dead? her dad, a medical examiner, who was killed during a mugging. Coben delivers an entertaining co-star. Windsor Horne Lockwood III is Bolitar’s old college roommate, friend, and “partner.” I might’ve been late to the Myron Bolitar party, but I ended up listening to the second book right after this one.
Batman: Resurrection by John Jackson Miller. Who knew that one of the best sequels of the year would be a novel to a thirty-five-year-old movie? A highlight about this book is that we get scenes we would have liked to have seen in the movie. A key one is with Alexander Knox, the reporter played by Robert Wuhl. We get a number of scenes with him, doing some investigating about a gang of Joker acolytes, the Last Laughs, and, most importantly, interacting with Batman himself. Miller, a former college reporter, gave Knox some great content and retained Wuhl’s trademark sarcasm. He also shines when he gets into the heads of our characters. Specifically, he puts you in Bruce Wayne’s head, the Michael Keaton version. He’s still new at this costumed hero thing and he struggles with what he has to be, why, and what’s next for him. Miller shows us how Batman uses the tools on his utility belt, and how, during longer conflicts, he can run out and must rely on his fighting skills. I particularly enjoy the relationship between Alfred and Bruce. There’s that paternal instinct in Alfred, and yet he still questions why Bruce does what he does. In a Batman world without a Robin, Alfred is very much a partner.
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave. Know how, as soon as you finish watching The Sixth Sense, you watch the movie again, knowing the truth, and it all lines up? That’s how the prologue is in The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave. This is the story of Nora, and architect, who is surprised by her estranged half-brother, Sam, who is convinced their father’s recent death was not an accident. What follows is a dual story: Nora and Sam’s investigation and their father’s life. The more Nora digs, the more she looked inward on her own life. Laura also wrote a line of dialogue I’ve extracted from her book and put into my own book of quotes. When Nora is doubting herself, a young mom says “If you are looking for answers you can’t find, you need to change the question.” This line hit my reality and forced me to look around and assess things. It’s always a good and positive thing to assess one’s life and make adjustments accordingly. I do it rather frequently, but Laura Dave’s succinct way of saying it crystalized it for me. One of the best books I read all year. Oh, and I get to books any number of ways, so for this one, a hat tip to The University of Texas at Austin, Apple TV, and Houston’s Blue Willow Bookshop for introducing me to the work of Laura Dave. Here’s the review for how those things connect.