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!
Book Review: The Last Tycoon (Fitzgerald)
Have I read this before: Nope. The was another book added in my most recent “300 Books” expansion.
Review: I love Fitzgerald. I love the way he writes. He has this wonderful ability to create a fully realized character in the first sentence written about them or in their first line of dialogue. He also has this carefree feel to his writing that encapsulates the time period in which his stories are set that I’ve never seen replicated quite the same way. This book (or partial book – it was left unfinished at Fitzgerald’s death) is no different in the characters and style. And even though it is incomplete in terms of plot and resolution, because of these unique features, I’d still give it a better score as a book overall than some of the other things I’ve read off my list (*cough* The Adventures of Augie March *cough*) because it still drew me in and made me keep reading.
ALSO, my freaking Kindle faked me out on when the book was going to end. I knew it was an unfinished novel and thus expected an abrupt ending at some point, but beyond that I didn’t know when this ending would be. So I was reading along happily – with my Kindle saying I was still only 68% of the way through – when the actual book ended and the rest of the Kindle edition (which contained discussions of the book as well as some snippets of other works) began. So it was a very abrupt ending, haha. But I was cool with it.
Favorite Part: Another thing I like about Fitzgerald is he just sprinkles in some absolutely beautiful little lines/descriptions every once and a while. Like this one about an earthquake:
“We didn’t get the full shock like at Long Beach where the upper stories of shops were spewed into the streets and small hotels drifted out to sea – but for a full minute our bowels were one with the bowels of the earth – like some nightmare attempt to attach our navel cords again and jerk us back to the womb of creation.”
Love it.
Rating: 7/10
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