I had a fantastic reading year in 2024 and finished 26 books. There were:

1. Colorlesss Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami—post here.
2. Breasts and Eggs, Mieko Kawakami— post here.
3. Burnt Sugar, Avni Doshi—post here.
4. White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard to Talk to White People About Racism, Robin DiAngelo
5. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky—post here.
6. Blue Nights, Joan Didion (audiobook)
7. Kampong Boy, Lat
8. Town Boy, Lat
9. A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki—post here.
10. The Boy and the Dog, Seishu Hashi— post here.
11. The Twilight World, Werner Herzog
12. Ben, in the World, Doris Lessing
13. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster, Jon Krakauer
14. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote
15. A Father’s Story, Lionel Dahmer
16. The Last of Her Kind, Sigrid Nunez
17. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jeanette McCurdy (audiobook)
18. The Beach, Alex Garland (audiobook)
19. Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery (audiobook)
20. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee (audiobook)
21. Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
22. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens
23. The Art Thief, Michael Finkel
24. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea, Yukio Mishima
25. Eileen, Ottesa Moshfegh (audiobook)
26. 1Q84, Haruki Murakami (reread) — post here.

In 2024, I discovered several new all-time favourite books as well as authors whose collections I intend to explore more of in the coming years, namely, Yukio Mishima, Jon Krakauer and Sigrid Nunez. I also tried different genres and mediums. As someone who did not previously read much outdoorsy non-fiction, I was surprised at how much I loved Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. In fact, I could barely put it down to do anything. I consumed many of the books on my list as audiobooks, a medium I’m finally warming up to. Lastly, I accomplished a goal of reading more Japanese fiction and read 5 in total, from giants Haruki Murakami, Mieko Kawakami and Yukio Mishima. I consumed several of the books on this list as audiobooks, something I am enjoying more and more. Until recently, I found audiobooks difficult to focus on, probably because they were read in an almost monotone. The authors were simply reading the wordss. However, audiobook readers seem to now be as much voice actors as they are readers and the novel reads/sounds almost like a movie. The Beach by Alex Garland was particularly fantastic.

Of all the books I did finish reading, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was the only disappointment, the only one I felt had wasted my time on. While the story is widely popular, I cannot help but suspect that it is because its symbolic meanings are so superficial. The “deeper meanings” seem to be deliberately low-hanging fruit and my overall feeling after reading it was frustration and dissatisfaction.

From the list above, my top favourites are still the same as they were during my mid-year book review, which you can read here.

My favourites from the second half of the year are:

3. Eileen, Ottesa Moshfegh (audiobook, narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan)

Eileen is told from the main character Eileen’s perspective. Ass a now elderly woman, she tells the story of her last few weeks in the conservative, sleepy town of X-Ville as a younger woman, before she manages to escape to the great New York City. During that time, Eileen worked in a juvenile detention center and lived with her severely alcoholic father, enduring his antics and abuse. When she meets glamorous Rebecca, she finally gets the courage to stand up for herself and eventually leave.

Like the stale air in a small town, Eileen’s life is routine and bleak, broken only by wishful thinking and daydreams. Listening to Eileen in exactly the same time of the year it is set in— the weeks leading up to Christmas—seem to be the best time to do so. Moshfegh really does have a gift for capturing the atmosphere of a snowy small town that is preparing for Christmas, knowing that it is both the greatest event of the year and not much to brag about at all.

Eileen has quite the unexpected twist at the end, upending what we— and Eileen— think we know about her and the people around her.

2. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee (audiobook, narrated by Sandra Oh and Min Jin Lee)

This book is mentioned everywhere and for good reason. Pachinko is a sprawling family drama and historical fiction that follows a family across a four generations and two countries. I learned so much about the history between Korea and Japan and about the lives of Korean immigrants to Japan through this book. The most striking details are how the Japanese discriminated heavily against the Koreans. Beginning from the middle of the book, a huge proportion of the plot and character development stems from how each character navigates this intense prejudice and what how they make themselves from it.

Lee’s believable and sympathetic characters suggest that what helps a person triumph is the courage to face up to reality and the ability to dust off ones hands and keep going, no matter what.

1. 1Q84, Haruki Murakami

I ended off 2024 with my biggest book this year and a reread. 1Q84 was my first Murakami read still remains my favourite. 1Q84 is a magic realism book about two characters, Aomame and Tengo. They meet as ten-year-old children in school before going their separate ways, not before leaving deep and permanent imprints on each other’s hearts. As they get older and live their adult lives, their paths remain entangled due to their bond.

When Tengo is pulled into an alternate universe— 1Q84/ the cat town— he draws Aomame in with him. They both embark on different yet connected adventures, aimed at bringing down the same political and religious cult, Sakigake. As they chip away at the cult’s omnipotence, their parallel paths draw closer and closer together, revealing the inescapability and strength of true love.