40 Books in 2024
I read 40 books in 2024. It was a great year for thoughtful memoirs and eye-opening nonfiction, as well as some imaginative novels. Book covers in the graphic above are arranged from favorite (top left) to least favorite (bottom right). Below are some recaps for a couple of my favorites, which all happen to be poignant memoirs by women. You can also see my favorite reads from previous years here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.
Best Books of 2024
1. What Looks like Bravery by Laurel Braitman. 
. A beautiful, tender memoir about love and loss. Having lost her father in her youth to a long battle with cancer, she turns to overachieving as her brace against grief, only to look up in her thirties, ready to learn a new lesson about living fully with vulnerability and bravery.
“Dad became a beekeeper because he loved this history; also, it was a new thing to learn and the pollinators would be good for our trees. Then, as time went on and his illness came back for good, I think beekeeping became something else. He wanted to go out, in some way anyway, like the pharoahs he loved reading about. And the white five-gallon plastic buckets of honey he was stashing away in the shed would last forever. Or at least till Jake and I were grown. THere would be enough to stir into our tea till we had kids of our own. Any maybe till they had kids themselves. A great-grandson or -granddaughter might one day taste the dark avocado honey made by a man they’d never met who nonetheless imagined them. It was a lifetime supply of medicine to treat the gaping hole we’d have without him. An impossible prescription.”
“When I eventually came home, lots of people told me how brave I was to be doing all these things by myself. Especially because it all started before I was old enough to buy beer. But by then I knew the truth. The Amazon, and everywhere else I went that required special vaccinations, was just someone else’s hometown. And, sometimes, what looks like bravery is just us being scared of something else even more.”
“There are times that are perfect. When everything, down to the tiniest detail, is right and beautiful and you are not scared of anything and no one is dying. Or rather, everyone is dying, but not quickly. And if you’re lucky, you notice how good it is while it’s still happening. Usually though, you don’t. Usually it’s like Hazel Grace says in The Fault in Our Stars, a part Josh read to me while we were both naked in his bed in his apartment: ‘There’s no way of knowing that your last good day is Your Last Good Day. At the time, it is just another good day.'”
2. Where Every Ghost Has a Name by Kim Liao. . A remarkable memoir that explores Taiwanese American history through a personal lens. Kim Liao visits Taiwan on a Fullbright in 2010, knowing that her grandfather was involved with the Taiwanese independence movement but little more. She has to overcome language, cultural, and political barriers in her quest to uncover these inextricably tied personal and political histories. Understated, beautifully written, a very worthwhile journey.
“In 1947, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek tried to kill my family. In 2010, I traveled to Taiwan to find out why.”
“Some facts about both Taiwan and Chiang Kai-shek: Taiwan is never going to conquer mainland China. Chiang Kai-shek’s body is never going to leave Cihu. Mainland China is never going to “let Taiwan go” or offer voluntary independence. This means that Taiwan’s only real hope to international recognition and legal acknowledgment would need to come from outside international forces, like the United States or the United Nations. Such a scenario seems increasingly unlikely with the recent crackdowns from the Chinese government in Hong Kong, and many fear that Taiwan will be the next battleground.”
“I suspected that these large bronze edifices would have comforted Generalissimo Chiang about his legacy. Grandpa Thomas had also been highly concerned with his legacy. They both had big egos. Both men probably thought they were making the world a better place and that each of them was the only man for the job he had appointed himself to: the leader of Taiwan, whatever that meant to the international community. Perhaps for all their stark differences, they had a number of common traits. Within the boundaries of this country home and sculpture garden, Chiang Kai-shek remained the emperor of his tiny imaginary kingdom, preserved in bronze and formaldehyde for perpetuity. But I no longer felt threatened by his presence. Unlike my ancestors, I was allowed to wander the grounds and come and go freely. After discovering this surreal little corner of Taiwan, Sam and I drove away, while the Garden of Abandoned Chiangs looked on silently.”
3. The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush. . Writer Elizabeth Rush joins a scientific expedition to the Thwaites Glacier on the western edge of Antarctica and combines her observations on the voyage with her uneasy journey into motherhood. Rush resists established narratives about Antarctica, as she embraces the humanity, uncertainty, and hope of being a woman in this world.
“Opposite desires—to observe the last continent disassembling and to create life—set this year in motion. I am in the middle of the first passage, crossing the open water. It occurs to me now that despite the distance that seemingly separates these impulses, both are frighteningly beyond my control. Calving or carrying, nothing I do will guarantee either coming to pass. Alone with my view of the Southern Ocean, I am beset by fear. It feels dangerous to link these longings, and even more ill advised to commit both to print. I fear that pressing my want into the blank page of my notebook might jinx the possibility of its being fulfilled. Some part of me says, That’s silly, don’t fret; another responds, You don’t know anything yet.”
“GUI: We’re in a metal box in the middle of the ocean. You have the right to spend your days in your cabin reading a book and to come out only to do the things you need to do for work. But people don’t do that. Every time I need help, I ask. And every day, people help. Some part of it is boredom; they want something to do. But another part, I think, is the desire to contribute to something bigger than yourself. It’s hard to say if life outside the boat could be like this, but we can learn from the experience. You can think back to the ship and say, On the ship it wasn’t like this; on the ship I didn’t buy a bunch of random stuff to feel better; on the ship I helped other people; on the ship I was good at seeing what was important.”
Do you see anything here that you loved or hated? Have you read any great books this year? I’d would love to hear your recommendations!
