Top Books of 2024
ALLO, FOOLS! So I didn’t read a whole ton of books last year because we actually didn’t get too much bad weather (and the only chance I get to read is when I’m walking inside on the treadmill), but I figured I’d give you a “top five” book list nonetheless. Though I sorta cheated, as you’ll see. From fifth best to best:
FIVE: Don Quixote (de Cervantes)
This book was a wild ride. Apart from knowing what the word quixotic means and a little bit about the “tilting at windmills” thing, I didn’t really know what to expect from this book. And I was certainly NOT expecting anything that I got, haha. But it was highly entertaining and very funny at parts.
FOUR: The Last Tycoon (Fitzgerald)
The only reason this is in fourth place is because it was left unfinished (Fitzgerald died before completing it) and I WANTED MORE. I really love Fitzgerald’s writing style and how he can portray the essence of a character in a single line, even before we actually meet the character. His style always makes me want to keep reading.
THREE: Holes (Sachar)
LOOK I’M CHEATING! This is not on my book list, but as you may have seen from previous blogs, I’ve also been re-reading some of the books I remember reading as a kid. I guess I didn’t technically read this one – our sixth grade teacher read it aloud to us – but I remember really liking it, so I decided to re-read it. It definitely lived up to my memory. Holes is a really, really, really good book. If you never read it before, check it out.
TWO: Twelve Angry Men (Rose)
We read this in…eighth grade I think? We read it aloud and each had to pick a part to read (I was the Foreman). But even without getting to “act” it out by reading it aloud, it was still very good. I love the building of tension and how (most of) the men are slowly convinced to change their minds about the trial and circumstances.
ONE: The Caine Mutiny (Wouk)
LOOK I’M CHEATING AGAIN! I read this a month or so ago because I finally bought a Kindle version of it and it still stands as my absolute favorite book ever. I don’t know what it is about this story, but I loved it the very first time I read it (seventh grade?) and I love it still. I don’t know if it’s ever going to get dethroned as my favorite book. If you still haven’t read it (even after all my raving on this blog), DO IT NOW!
Best Books: 2022 Edition
I read 29 books last year! Now it’s time to pick the top five. From fifth best to best.
#5: The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
I still stand by my claim that if one wishes to read Steinbeck, one should not start with The Grapes of Wrath (especially if you’re young and/or have a short attention span). It is sloooooooooow at the start. But once things start to pick up and everyone gets on the move, the pacing gets a lot better and it’s much easier to get invested in the characters. Also, the ending is heartbreaking.
#4: The World According to Garp (Irving)
This is not as good as A Prayer for Owen Meany (because that book’s climax is the most perfect climax I’ve ever read), but it displays Irving’s wonderful ability of creating characters that are simultaneously boring and quirky and his ability of making you care about said characters even before you realize you do.
#3: A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)
This was probably the weirdest book I’ve read on my list. I feel like Ignatius is what Boomers think all Millennials are like (even though this was written in 1980, before the first Millennials were even born). Ignatius is obnoxious but oddly charming in a weird way, and reading about his thoughts, adventures, and how he interacts with others was entertaining.
#2: Breakfast of Champions (Vonnegut)
Vonnegut has such a specific style and sense of humor, and of all the works of his that I’ve read so far, I think both the style and humor come out best in this book. It’s also full of little illustrations drawn by Vonnegut and the whole thing has a wonderful rhythm to it as you watch Hoover go more and more insane.
#1: Lonesome Dove (McMurtry)
I mean, was there any doubt? I loved this book, yo. I think Captain Call might be one of my favorite literary characters now, haha. This is another one that starts out slowly, but I honestly didn’t notice it that much because I was immediately engaged with the characters. Check it out if you’ve never read it; you won’t be disappointed.
Best Books: 2021 Edition
I read 58 books last year! Let’s pick the top five, shall we? From fifth best to best.
#5: East of Eden (Steinbeck)
Y’all probably never thought I’d put a Steinbeck on a Top Five list, eh? Though The Grapes of Wrath is probably his most famous work, I think this is the one that Steinbeck himself said was his magnum opus. I can see why. This is an epic story with so many intricacies and relationships and underlying meanings. It’s very well crafted.
#4: How Green Was My Valley (Llewellyn)
This is a fairly long book that spends a lot of time building up the characters of a tightly-knit, hardworking family. This ultimately makes the ending of the book an even bigger emotional punch than it already would have been by its nature.
#3: Dracula (Stoker)
I think this is on here mainly because it was absolutely not what I was expecting when I started reading. It’s one of those books where you’re like “oh, [subject represented often in common media]. I know all about that!” and then you read the source material and you’re like “ooooooooooh, now I get it!” and it’s so much better. This was a much more engaging story than I thought it would be and played out very differently than I was expecting.
#2: Moby Dick (Melville)
I love stories involving the sea, I’m sorry. And I know Melville gets a bad rap because he loves his fish-related tangents (it’s almost like he was writing a story about fishing and accidentally turned it into a novel), but I love his writing style and I love how one chapter can be all technical and the next can be this beautiful philosophical reflection on life.
#1: The Pickwick Papers (Dickens)
I was never expecting a Dickens tale to be funny, but this was absolutely hysterical in places. The characters are wonderful (except Mr. Winkle, oh my GOD he’s annoying) and you want to keep reading.
Best Books of 2021
HELLO!
So I don’t know why I didn’t think of doing this earlier (though I guess it’s only January 3rd…), but I want to give you my top five books of 2020. As you know if you’ve read my blog, I got a treadmill and a Kindle last year in preparation for a possible COVID lockdown that would basically leave us housebound. This never happened (luckily), but there were enough days of crappy whether where the treadmill came in super handy. On these days, I got to read for about four hours straight while I walked. Thus, I ended up reading a lot of books last year (at least in comparison to previous years).
So let’s look at the best ones! From fifth best to best.
#5: The Bonfire of the Vanities (Wolfe)
I think this is my #5 because of the writing style. The story itself is good, of course, but the way Wolfe writes is engaging, funny, and very poetic in places. It definitely influenced the style of my 2020 NaNo, which I started writing about a month after I read this book.
#4: Exodus (Uris)
This is a hard book to get through because of the subject matter, but I think it’s also a very important book to read for the same reason. Uris does a really detailed history of the Jewish people through several characters and their experiences and he shows how it all connects in one way or another. I’m excited to read QBVII when I get to my “Q” book.
#3: I, Claudius (Graves)
I love the style of this book. Like I mentioned in my review of it, I had no knowledge of this time period in history and so I was expecting to be completely unengaged with the book itself. But it was written in a very approachable way that also helped to put you in the time period so that you knew who everyone was and what was going on even if you had ZERO knowledge of it prior to reading.
#2: A Separate Peace (Knowles)
I love how organic and pure the friendship is between Phineas and Gene. This is a relatively short book, but that friendship is so fleshed out that it makes the story seem longer, if that makes sense. It makes you feel like you’ve known the characters and their relationship as long as they had known each other. I think “natural” relationships can sometimes be hard to write or at least hard to introduce, but Knowles does it beautifully here.
#1: A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving)
I have yet to read a book that more perfectly takes every little aspect of the story and puts it all together in a two-page climax. It just…everything just comes together at that one moment and it’s not contrived, it’s not lacking, and it’s not unbelievable (even though it’s a pretty dramatic climax). It’s everything I’ve always wanted to get out of the climax of a story.
It’s a long book, and there’s a lot to it, but read it. It’s worth it for that climax. Trust me.
WOO!
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