2024 Year in Review

This is a summary of the books that I read in 2024. Most have been recorded as blog entries. Some entries are not published yet.

There were 28 books consisting of novels, collections and nonfiction listed in 27 entries. (One entry had "Two short novels".) Also, one book was audio only because the book never became available at any of three libraries. Additionally, I read my own book (but I didn't write it out), mostly because I was looking for typos, but also because I wanted to read it back after a while away from it. Looking back, I see that Signal Fires was actually a 2023 book that didn't get written up until 2024.

• The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year (Carter)
• The Crown of Zeus (Norris)
• The Mimicking of Known Successes (Older)
• What Kind of Mother (Chapman)
• The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (Goodman)
• The Hidden Palace (Wecker)
• The Golem and the Jinni (Wecker)
• Remarkably Bright Creatures (Ven Pelt)
• The Adventures of Larry the Alien (McDonnell)
• Tequila Sheila and Other Tall Tales (Lucci)
• 52 Loaves (Alexanader)
• The Lexical Funk (Clausen)
• A House with Good Bones (Kingfisher)
• A Cry of Hounds (Ackley-McPhail, ed)
• In Defense of Witches (Chollet)
• Pinata: A Novel (Gout)
• DNF: The Saint of Bright Doors (Chandrasekera)
• The Skeleton in the Closet (Fox)
• Two Short Books: The Race & Big Bullet Monster Bomb
• Funny Shorts 5 (McDonnell)
• The Shadow Glass (Winning)
• Lessons in Chemistry (Garmus)
• Stake and Eggs (Childs)
• DNF: The Zoo of Intelligent Animals (Holdsworth)
• I'm Glad My Mom Died (McCurdy)
• Raising Caine (Gannon)

Of these, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, What Kind of Mother, The Golem and the Jinni, A House with Good Bones, In Defense of Witches, Pinata: A Nove, The Saint of Bright Doors, The Shadow Glass, and Lessons in Chemistry were Pandemic Book Club books. I'm Glad My Mom Died and 52 Loaves were alternate choices which weren't picked but which I read it anyway.

52 Loaves, In Defence of Witches, and I'm Glad My Mom Died were nonfiction of different sorts, which were meh, bad, and interesting, respectively.

There were several horror books, which is not my usual wheelhouse, and a few cozy mysteries (one paranormal), which is becoming my wheelhouse.

Two books were labeled DNF, The Zoo of Intelligent Animals and THe Saint of Bright Doors, but I got fall enough into them that I listed them.

Stake and Eggs was audio only. The book isn't available. After nearly a year, I started the next book.

It looks like if I want to continue with the Caineverse, I'll have to buy the next book. I do have a gift card to use if it hasn't expired.

No Sue Grafton books this year. I didn't realize.

In the "It's a Book, but It's Not a Book' category: I read the Book of Genesis. Yes, I came up with this idea a few years ago as something else to read in between books, and something that I can read in church with I'm early for Mass. (And, yes, I get there early because otherwise, someone will be in my spot.) I've started Exodus.

So with re-reading my own book (looking for typos, but reading), I read 30 books last year, literary, science fiction, fantasy, horror, religious, and nonfiction. Mostly novels but several collections.

The following magazines were mostly read in the pool. THere was a fourth book which I didn't finish. There's only one more story to be, plus the articles at the end. If there is one thing that I noticed, it's that they longer stories generally don't agree with me. I don't think I'll be selling any novellas to Clarkesworld any time soon. Then again, I haven't sold anything to Clarkesworld yet, but I think I could have a shot with shorter fiction.

• Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 171 (December 2020)
• Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 172 (January 2021)
• Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 173 (February 2021)

Those four are the only ones I have, but I do have other magazines to read, both in print and as ebooks. Plus, I made an entry to find old ebooks online.

Graphic Novels and Magna

• My Hero Academia Volumes 36-39 - I'm reading fewer because I'm up to date and waiting on new translations to be published, picked up by the library and made available -- and then wait my turn.
• Fangirl: the Manga, Vol 1-4 - recommended by the BPL, I had to wait for the series to complete. Based on a book. It was a comic more than Manga.
• The Devil is a Part-Timer, Vol 17 - a random volume found outside the library, nothing to make me want to read more of it.
• Power Girl: Power Trip - some random comics and then a series with a new "Terra".
• Superman '78 - Batman '66, it was not. It was a bit dull and there wasn't much to set it about from regular Superman except the images. But they included Braniac, so there's that.
• Superman in the Fifties - I love reprints of the old stories, except for when I don't. Contradictory, I know. Those stories are a bit quanit and a product of their time, so it's not unusual that I can't read the entire thing in one sitting. Also, they choose specific stories, so it isn't a continuous narrative like modern grahic novels try to be (but often fail because they can't condnese them -- they can only drop entire issues from the run).
• Shazam - I read it but I didn't write it up, apparently. I don't even remember the title of it. When I first looked at it, I thought there was some gag going on because Billy and Savanna looked like (non-blue) Smurfs. Nope, it was just the artist's interpretation of the material. Billy was even younger and looked to be about three heads tall like Charlie Brown. Sivanna was similarly short, but they made a joke about that when he was standing behind a podium. Literally behind it. Short. Since Luthor was president at the time, the writers made Savanna the Attorney General, but he was still crooked. It was interesting. Sivanna was more interesting in Power Girl though. (A villain slept with Sivanna to get what she wanted. Sivanna double-crossed her saying that he already got what he wanted and no longer cared what she wanted. And then I think killed her or made a good attempt at killing her.)

Miscellaneous

• More Gaming Books - I've read some, not as many as in 2023, but there is no write-up.
• A Firkin of eSpec Books - this is not posted yet. I've been reading more Kickstarter freebies. However, since I was going by size, I'm up to actual novels now unless more short stories are awarded.
• Novellas - I listened to a random novella, and then read it. "Pleasing the Queen" by Selina Coffey, 2015 was read July 2024.
• Some of the Best From Tor.Com 2016 Edition -- I'm not sure that I read anything from this book this year. I think I just noticed the draft and "saved" it so it would move up the list. Honestly, I download 4 or 5 books from them a year and don't read too many of them. I read a bunch a couple years ago. Some were okay. I don't think Tor dot com leans toward my interests in their current configuartion. I wouldn't mind selling to them but I don't think that'll happen. I don't write what they publish, and you have to know somoene to even get in the door.

Analog and Other Old Magazines

None this year. I should get back to that. It was fun. The problem is the downloading and carving up of the books. The PDFs are too big to mail. If I open the PDF in a browser, it will keep reseting to the top, losing my place. That means taking sections of the text and making 4 or 5 parts to submit to kindle. It's a pain.

And that's about it: 30 books (including my own book and 1 audio only book), 9 volumes of manga and 4 graphic novels, nearly 4 issues of Clarkesworld, and a smattering of short stories, novellas and gaming books.

Here's looking to 2025!