2024 Book Round Up

Every book Sammi read in 2024

Your newsletter, prompts, and news will arrive later this week! For now, books!

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The thing about my first book round up as a parent is that where I could hardly remember what happened in my life two weeks ago before, now I have trouble remembering what happened yesterday. Will this ever go away? Where I used to feel disappointed to not hit my 50 books a year goal, I find myself shocked to see that I somehow had time for 26 this year. Of those, I only held 7 in my hands, the rest I listened to on time stolen from dog walks and while my daughter napped on me while we traveled.

While some of my favorites were listened to, memories of reading the hard copies make me look at books in a new way—something I didn’t think was possible at this point in our love affair. Parenthood has a way of changing the way you see even the most lifelong practices. By the light of my beloved reading lamp, I sweat through my pajamas at a haunted inn in the Scottish Highlands while I polished off The Talented Mr. Ripley, I cried gentle tears under my winter quilt reading Without Her, and forced my eyes to stay open for just one more passage, ok maybe two more, while I devoured The Bee Sting.

Of course, a book has always been my friend, but now I see how much a book can be a refuge, a secret hideaway. I share my deepest secrets in my writing. I share space and trips with my family. I share meals with my toddler. I share a writing desk with my students. But these moments between me and a book, I shared with no one.

In 2025, I’m recommitting to the 50 book goal I subscribed to pre-baby, if not for the sake of our next book round up, for the sake of my person as a single entity.

Though you’ll only find 26 books here, they are all winners. Another thing about parenthood, is that I have no time for bullshit, and this list doesn’t represent the books I started then abandoned. Life is too short and the amount of books too great, to read something I don’t like. (If you are reading a book you hate right now, I give you permission to stop). Also, I’ve included another superlative since I read about 1000 of these this year: best children’s books!

And now, Sammi’s very official, 4th annual reading awards that no one asked for:

Favorite novel:

The Bee Sting, Paul Murray

This book had me by the throat in the best way possible. To compare this breathtaking work of art to reality television is unfair on the surface, but if you find yourself stuck watching people make bad decisions while their relationships fall apart on Bravo, this book may be the antidote to your drama-hungry brain. Just as watching women yell at each other on TV makes us feel better about our own lives, the four POV characters in this book had me so transported from my life because of their continuous and delicious bad decision making. Murray somehow inhabits the voice of an unhappy housewife, a father who’s lost control, a teenage girl hellbent on drinking the end of high school away, and a mischievous 12-year old boy for a sweeping look into one Irish family’s quest to hang on to their upper-middle class status.

Close second:

James by Percival Everett

Writer, take James as both an incredibly engaging narrative and a lesson in a writer’s best defenses against fading into insignificance: perseverance and staying true to oneself. To say Percival Everett was an unknown writer before this book would be laughably untrue. His 2001 novel Erasure was adapted into the film American Fiction, after all, but his satirical and ironic style had yet to make him a household name when I was introduced to him in graduate school in 2015—already two dozen books into his career. This retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim finally earned him the National Book Award he deserves. His commitment to his unique voice, the humor and off kilter perspective only Everett can bring to a novel, is what got him there. I lapped this book up as quickly as I possibly could, then mourned it when it ended, and I still miss Huck and Jim as I write this today.

The rest of the fiction:

Trust by Hernan Diaz finance and art clash in depression-era NYC, Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller sexy, gay take on the Trojan War, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt delightful octopus story with two POVs (three if you count the octopus), Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister a mystery told backwards by the murderer’s mother, Our House in the Last World by Oscar Hijuelos autofiction before that was a thing written by the first Hispanic Pulitzer Prize winner, Tom Lake by Anne Patchett a family COVID tale that feels like a classic, The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese sweeping, upsetting epic of love and medicine, Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang close to home environmental apocalypse centered on food, All Fours by Miranda July a mother and wife runs away and finds everything is different even a few miles away, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride a murder mystery with McBride’s signature humor and perspective at the crossroads of his Jewish and Black background, The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith a gripping character sketch of a likable murderer, Intermezzo by Sally Rooney sex, love, chess, and brotherhood

Favorite nonfiction:

The Color of Water by James McBride

Yes, I know, this memoir was published when I was five. But I am honest, and this was my favorite memoir of 2024, ok? James McBride is one of my top five favorite novelists, but somehow I had never read this memoir centered around his mother. Crazier still is the fact that I am also writing a memoir centered around my mother’s story. In this braided narrative, McBride lovingly captures his mother’s Jewish experience in a thread that reads like fiction, while staying true to what it meant for him to be a young Black boy with the only white mother in his predominately Black Red Hook project building.

Close second:

Without Her by Rebecca Spiegel

To me it seems near impossible to survive the untimely death of a sister, let alone write about it. In this memoir of the aftermath of her sister’s suicide, Spiegel somehow makes her experience digestible by sticking close to each moment. She creates a generous and lasting portrait of grief through the every day objects, meals, and artifacts she encounters in the early days without her sister.

The rest of the nonfiction:

Solito by Javier Zamora harrowing journey of a 9-year old’s illegal immigration from El Salvador to the US, Paris by Paris Hilton name drops and glamour punctuate an important story of child abuse, A Stolen Life by Jaycee Duggard disturbing child abduction story (research for a novel I will one day finish), Splinters by Leslie Jamison motherhood and shame complicate this divorce story, Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley Crosley mourns a close friend and ruminates on what different losses deserve, The Fact of a Body by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich a murder and a memoir, Lit by Mary Karr an alcoholic poet spills the secrets of her addiction and how she got clean, The Creative Act by Rick Rubin an utterly inspiring craft book with blank pages at the back that you will use, Devotion by Patti Smith a tiny memoir of the love of writing

Favorite children’s:

Maybe by Kobi Yamata

This book was a gift for my daughter, but it has made me cry multiple times. The illustrations are gorgeous. Something about the character’s aviator hat makes them universal. They could be me or you or anyone. An apt hero to lead a story about possibilities. We’ll cherish this one for a long time.

Close second:

Racky’s Magic Letters by Jenna L Anderson

Written by a former Fledgling, this book cleverly introduces an early reader to the idea of sounding out words in the most magical way. My 14 month old has been sounding out letters that I point to because of this book!

Share your favorite book of 2025 in the comments!

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