I’m fairly certain that nobody is reading this, but all the same, writing about the books I read last year is a tradition that I enjoy. Here’s a link to last year’s post for anyone who cares.

2024 marks an all time low in the number of books I’ve managed to read, coming in at just 30, more than half of which were audiobooks. I attribute this to several factors, including my ongoing PhD, eye surgery in the middle of the year and my eyesight never being the same again, and other fun diversions. As a result of this poor effort, I only have five books to tell you about this year, and these are they:

The Camomile Lawn, by Mary Wesley

There is a surprising amount of sex in this wartime novel, and more than a nod to polyamory. The timeline leaps around but is not too hard to follow, the characters are delightful, and it’s one of those books I’d have liked to carry on reading for a bit because it was just nice to be in the middle of it.

Julia, by Sandra Newman

This was a re-imaginining of Orwell’s 1984 from the point of view of the female character Julia. It gives a much richer version of the 1984 world, along with her back story and the twisted motivation for her involvement with Winston Smith. The Room 101 scene was utterly chilling, and the whole tale was quite grim. I won’t spoiler the ending; I will tell you that I have a lovely memory of listening to this while running through a park in Cardiff in the rain.

Ithaca, by Claire North

Spotify now provides free audiobooks, with limited hours which are never enough to finish the book. It’s like you get it in two helpings and I’m fine with that, it means I don’t need audible anymore. Ithaca is set two years before Odysseus returns from Troy, with a bit of a plot that presumably is not based on any actual story, but mainly lots of interesting speculation about the lives of the various characters left on the island waiting for the return of the king. Really amusing narrative voice from the goddess Hera, which worked well in audiobook format.

Medusa, by Jessie Burton

I loved this retelling of Medusa’s story, in which she is the one who kills Perseus (as airheaded and attractive as ever) with her stony glare, in a moment of strength and self-knowledge that empowers her to reclaim her autonomy and happiness. It was short, too short – I read the whole thing on the trains in and out of London on a day when we did an escape room with Pete’s sister. How lovely it was to gobble up some fiction.

Yellowface, by R F Kuang

Probably the best read (listen) of the year, although the standard generally was not high this year. I was engaged with this one from the opening paragraphs and all the way through. A mediocre author steals a manuscript from a dead friend and passes it off as her own, immediately arousing suspicion that she, a white woman, did not write this epic work about Chinese labourers in World War 1. Her overt racism and general unpleasantness ooze through the story, she is never redeemed, and the whole thing is an excellent, entertaining shitshow. A carcrash of a novel, I loved it. I’m currently reading Kuang’s Babel which shares some themes while also being so very different in nature.

And that is all I’ve got for you this year, which makes me a teeny bit sad.