The Book List for 2024

I wanted to do an end-of-year reading list.  I keep relatively good track of what I finish over on my knitting Instagram, but it's nice to have a list.  And in compiling this one, I realized I had left a few out.  Taking a picture of something the moment I finish it and immediately telling the Internet isn't my favorite way to keep track of things, but I guess it worked well enough for what I was able to keep up with this past year.  Going forward, though, I think I'll be happier if I keep a running list in a notebook or a Word doc. 

I tidied up the space by my bed last week and whittled down my reading pile. Since taking this photo, I have purchased 2 more books and checked about 6 more from the library.  I like to have fun. 

I've decided to set everything out in alphabetical order by title.  I'm surprised by how many of these books are ones I actually own, but maybe I shouldn't be.  My sister loaned me a couple and my mother-in-law passed on a lot.  I checked out books from the Central Arkansas Library System, the North Little Rock Library System, and my church's library.  I borrowed a few books from the library and the meeting room at a church where I work.  At the end of things, I was a little surprised by the amount of thrillers.  I didn't read much nature writing, but I enjoyed what I did and realized that a lot of the nonfiction I read addressed place and included a lot of descriptions of nature, which I enjoyed. 2024 was a good reading year. 

Library books are marked by asterisks.  

*After the Funeral. Agatha Christie

Annihilation. Jeff Vandermeer

At Home in Mitford. Jan Karon

At Home in this Life. Jerusalem Jackson Greer

The Bell in the Lake. Lars Mytting

The Best of Me. Sharon Sala

Blacktop Wasteland. S. A. Crosby

The Book of Speculation. Erika Swyler

The Broker. John Grisham

*Burn Town. Jennifer McMahon

Camino Island. John Grisham.

*Cheap Land Colorado. Ted Conover

*The Child Finder. Rene Denfield

*Daughter of the Morning Star. Craig Johnson

*Day Shift. Charlaine Harris

*Dead Man Walking. Sister Hellen Prejean

*Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta. Richard Grant

The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. A. S. Byatt

*Ducks. Kate Beaton.

*The Essex Serpent. Sarah Perry

*The Final Girl Support Group. Grady Hendrix

*The Golden Spoon. Jessa Maxwell

*Hark! A Vagrant! Kate Beaton

Heart of Dixie. Tami Hoag

These High Green Hills. Jan Karon

*Horror Movie. Paul Tremblay

The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. John Grisham

*The Kind Worth Saving. Peter Swanson

*Land of Wolves. Craig Johnson

*The Last Chance Library. Freya Sampson

The Last Remains. Elly Griffiths

Leaving Church. Barbara Brown Tayler

A Light in the Window. Jan Karon.

*Of Literature and Lattes. Katherine Reay

*Midnight is the Darkest Hour. Ashley Winstead

Mr. Popper's Penguins. Richard Sullivan

*My Sister, the Serial Killer. Oyinkan Braithwaite

*Next to Last Stand. Craig Johnson

Night Road. Kristin Hannah

*Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. Jessica Bruder

*The Only Good Indians. Stephen Graham Jones

*Parable of the Sower. Octavia Butler

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Stephen King

*The Only One Left. Riley Sager

Out to Canaan. Jan Karon

*Ozark Dogs. Eli Cranor

*The Prophet. Michael Koryta

Reduced Circumstances. Vincent H. O'Neil

The Running Man. Stephen King

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. Patrick Radden Keefe

*Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six. Lisa Unger

The Seven Kinds of People You Find in Book Shops. Shaun Bythell

*Sherlock: the Blind Banker. 

The Stolen Marriage. Diane Chamberlain

*Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home. Kerri ni Dochartaigh

*Those Who Wish Me Dead. Michael Koryta

The True Love Experiment. Christina Lauren

*We Should All Be Feminists. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

*Weather. Jenny Offill

*Weyward. Emilia Hart

The Wishing Game. Meg Shaffer

X. Sue Grafton