Favorite Reads of 2024
2024 started off pretty strong – I went to Hawaii in February to celebrate my 40th birthday, had some fun get togethers with friends and began making plans for future happenings. Then things took a very unexpected turn when my MIL was hospitalized and diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
March to May was honestly a blur. One week we made 3 trips to southern Indiana (a 2+ hour drive for us) because things got so bad and it looked like she was going to pass. My husband pretty much moved in with my FIL for several weeks just so he could be close if there was an emergency.
For the first time in my life, I hit a reading slump. I couldn’t concentrate on anything I was reading and wasn’t really home much to sit down and get engrossed in a book. I’d set my goal at 90 books and got further and further behind until one day I just didn’t care anymore.
Sadly, my MIL did pass away in mid-May and even though things returned to a more “normal” pace, I still struggled to even get into most of the books I picked up.
So this year’s favorite reads post looks much shorter, features a whole lot more non-fiction than usual and contains hope that 2025 will be a better year for life AND reading.
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Daphne Miles is living her dream as a children’s librarian in Michigan. After a recent break-up and strange twist of events, Daphne is now roommates with the ex of the woman her former fiancée’ is now dating.
Somehow that gets misconstrued that they’re a couple now…so the two go with it as a revenge bit against their exes. But maybe they’re actually a great match?!?
This was such a cute story, easy read and I especially enjoyed that the main character is a librarian. Definitely my favorite book by Emily Henry so far.
No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall
Emma swore she’d never go back to the house she left with her sisters. But when her husband loses his job and she finds out she’s pregnant, the couple needs a place to live and she reluctantly moves in to her childhood home.
Her sisters aren’t too happy with her return and all the secrets they thought were long buried start coming to the surface again. Maybe the pact they made to keep quiet wasn’t the best idea after all.
This is one that will keep you guessing until the very end!
College Girl, Missing by Shawn Cohen
It was the summer of 2011 when Lauren Spierer went missing in Bloomington, Indiana. The 20-year-old Indiana University student disappeared without a trace after partying on the night of June 3. The last images of her leaving her Smallwood Plaza apartment wearing black leggings and a white t-shirt and carrying a jacket are forever burned into my brain and the story made national news.
Now, 13 years later, the reporter who covered the case extensively, has written a book about the events that unfolded and where things stand with the Lauren Spierer case.
You can read my full review here!
The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop
A lovely memoir from Kelly Bishop, who played Emily Gilmore on the WB/CW show “Gilmore Girls.”
I knew very little about her career or life outside of “Gilmore Girls” but really enjoyed reading about her accomplishments on Broadway, tv and film. There are plenty of personal and touching stories, especially the chapter in her life when her second husband was going through cancer.
This is a quick and enjoyable must-read for Gilmore fans!
Lost Man’s Lane by Scott Carson
Marshall Miller is spending his summer in Bloomington, Indiana as an intern for the local P.I. office. When he gets wrapped up in a case involving a local woman who goes missing, Marshall realizes there’s more at play here than a typical criminal investigation.
I really enjoyed the setting, timeline (late 90s/early 2000s) and the song lyrics that went along with each chapter. Add in some supernatural twists and this is an excellent thriller that Hoosiers will especially enjoy.
That Librarian by Amanda Jones
In 2022, Amanda Jones (a school librarian from Louisiana), spoke about the freedom to read at a public hearing on library materials in her town’s public library.
Following that meeting, she received death threats, got called all the usual names that are levied at librarians these days and was accused of providing explicit materials to children. So she decided to sue the people in the Facebook groups that were harassing her.
This book is all about that legal case and how she is fighting against censorship and misinformation.
This book hit very close to home as I have seen these attitudes right here in my own state. I urge you to talk to the librarians on the forefront fighting for the freedom to read and to please stop getting your information on this issue from people who share incorrect stats, talking points and facts they learned from biased news sources.
Heartbreak is the National Anthem by Rob Sheffield
Perfectly timed to be released near the end of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, Rolling Stone journalist Rob Sheffield muses on the queen of pop’s rise to stardom.
This is a short read and a great introduction to the singer and her career if you are a newbie Swiftie and want to learn more. It is not, however, an expose on how she reinvented pop music as the title would lead you to believe. There’s not much about that AT ALL in this book, minus a few sentences on Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter and Phoebe Bridgers.
It is a fun book and I really enjoyed it, probably because I’m still in the afterglow of The Eras Tour nearly 2 years after the Nashville show I managed to get a ticket to.
A Well-Trained Wife by Tia Levings
Tia Levings writes an emotional and touching memoir about her life growing up and subsequent marriage to a Christian fundamentalist that practiced the Gothard family system.
After fourteen years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse from her husband and church leaders, Tia finally found a way out for her and their children and not a moment too soon.
This book absolutely gutted me. Not only was she made to feel like a second class citizen in the name of religion, but the abuse was horrific. And she was so brainwashed by her church that she thought she was the problem and she just needed to listen to God more.
Major trigger warnings for abuse, animal cruelty, violence against women, and infant death.
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