Here's everything I read in 2024, with my favorites in bold. I loved more of what I read in the second half of the year, for whatever reason, and it's funny to see my little crime noir phase in the summer (Patricia Highsmith remaining the absolute master).
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Resentment: A Comedy (1997), a just-barely fictional account of a journalist covering the trial of the Menendez brothers. It's true crime, it's 1990s LA, it's hilarious, and I can't recommend it enough. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), ostensibly a travelogue of a journey through what was then Yugoslavia, taught me more about European history and the events that led to WWI than any other text I've encountered.
Spring still feels miles off so I'm indulging in memories of the last days of summer at the beautiful wedding of @kate.geisel and @andrew.geez đź“·:@delaneyinamine
Trying something new and sharing my reading list for the year. I like to discuss what I read with others and don’t get the chance to as often as I’d like. Perhaps this will spark some new avenues for book chats.
Every year I strive for a balance between new releases and classics as well as fiction and non-fiction and to include writers of varying perspectives.
My favorites this year were:
-Life and Fate, Vasily Grossman (1952): the second of his two novels about the siege of Stalingrad.
-The Hive and the Honey, Paul Yoon (2023): a fantastic new collection of short stories.
-Fathers and Children, Ivan Turgenev (1862): about generational divides during a period of social upheaval.
-The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture, Orlando Figes (2019): about Ivan Turgenev, his lover the singer Pauline Viardot, and her husband the Art critic Louis Viardot and how their lives intersect with the making of a cohesive nineteenth century European culture.
-The Beloved Vision: A History of Nineteenth Century Music, Stephen Walsh (2022): the perfect companion piece to the book above.
On this date 15 years ago I moved to NYC. Some things have not changed.
Edited to include photo credits as there have been complaints:
Innocent, naive, youthful me (probably sending an ill-advised text): @katzcarl
Grizzled New Yorker doing her best impression of Kendall Roy: @mrwhite_
I was promised bald eagles (“the pigeons of the Delaware River”) and on that point this tubing trip did not deliver. However, we did manage to evade attacks by a succession of increasingly large spiders and that was all the wildlife I required.
