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The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 7, Episode 22: Our Top Ten Reads of 2024!
01:22:21
On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are sharing their favorite reads of 2024. This year, we have two lists: favorite reading experiences and favorite books. With so many great reading experiences of… not so great books, we had...
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign hey readers, welcome to the Currently Reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently. And as you know, we won't shy away from having strong opinions. So get ready.
- [00:25]
B
We are light on the chit chat, heavy on the book talk, and our descriptions will always be spoiler free. Today we have a very special episode for you.
- [00:33]
A
I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz, a mom of four and full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And this is my second favorite episode of every year.
- [00:42]
B
And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona. And this was a very different reading year but still worth celebrating. This is episode number 22 of season seven and we are so glad you're here, Meredith. We're done with 2024.
- [00:58]
A
I know, and it is very satisfying to look back at the year. I really I this is my second favorite episode just because the Listener Press episode will forever and always be my favorite favorite because I love hearing about other people's favorite reading. But this one is always so useful to to go through and I really hope that all of our listeners will do this like choose your top 10 or 5 or whatever number feels right for you. Make your superlatives, look at your stats. If you hopefully you're using our, you know, a reading tracker of you're tracking your reading in some way, whether that's on a note on your computer, a pen and paper, or you're using the currently reading reading tracker. That tracker of course has given us the access to a ton of information and data about our reading, which for me helps me to plan my next reading year in a way that is consistently giving me reading years that are better and better and better.
- [01:59]
B
So very true. Actually, right before we started recording this episode, you asked me about some of my least favorite reads of this year. Just kind of off the cuff comment. And I went through my tracker and I found out that in 2024, the lowest I rated any book was three stars. I think that says something about what my reading year was like and how I've honed my my ability to dnf, knowing what works for me as a reader, all of that. I think that's so important to have a really satisfying reading life.
- [02:26]
A
Right, Right. And so the stat that is the most important to me, I know a lot of people talk a lot about numbers of books or reading challenges and all of those things are great. The stat that means the most to me is my average rating.
- [02:42]
B
Okay.
- [02:43]
A
Making progress on that stat which I did make some incremental progress on over last year is really, really important to me.
- [02:50]
B
Yes, mine was exactly the same as last year, just kind of weird. But, yes, I like seeing that number go up over the years, and mine has stayed high since I started using really robust data to track it. So, yeah, let's talk about some stats, because this is a very special episode. So we're going to do some stats, we're going to talk about some experiences, and of course, we're going to give you all our top 10 books each for 2024. So this episode is chock full of great books for the year. We can't wait to talk about them. Okay, what do you want to start with, Meredith? Your average rating or what else you got for us?
- [03:25]
A
Okay, well, just to kind of give you an overview. And this is the format that I've used many years running now, and it's the most helpful way for me to think about my reading. So in 2024, I read 137 books total. That is my highest number ever. That is four more than in 2023. But again, what I will say is the quantity that read over the course of the year is meaningless to me. Certainly as a reader, I don't care If I read 12 books in a year or 200 books in a year. That I never set a number goal because quantity for me means nothing now because I'm a book podcaster who's on a show called Currently Reading. I do need to, you know, read a fair number of books every year to have books to bring to the show. But starting with that number doesn't mean it's the most important number. I had 15 books of the 137 that I rated five stars. And that was down a little, a little bit for me from 2023 at 11%. So 11% of my books that I read over the year were five stars. Pairing my tent, my top 10 was actually really, really hard for me this year. I had a lot of thinking that I needed to do, but I decided finally on these 10 books, I landed on them, and I feel really, really good about them. Once it's important, I think we land on it. Obviously, we want to do it for the show, but also, there are two things that are really playing on my mind that make it higher stakes for me to choose this top 10. The first thing is every year I have an artist on Etsy create a print. A bookshelf for me. Yes, a bookshelf print. Right. That actually shows these 10 books and she goes and gets the spines of them, and she actually replicates them, and it says, Meredith's top 10 books of 2024. It's very. And then I frame it and I put it in my library alongside. This will be the fourth year that I've done this. So this is something that people look at when they come to my home. This is something that I look at all the time. I really want to get this piece right. And also, as you guys saw last week, every year we look back five years ago at what our top 10 books were. And I don't want future Meredith of 2029 to look back on past Meredith of 2024 and think she's a dingbat.
- [05:48]
B
Because that is a sad thing to have happen in your reading life.
- [05:51]
A
Right, exactly. So that's the. That's why the top 10 is so hard.
- [05:56]
B
Yep, I. I understand that sentiment. And I've also had the experience where we listened to that previous year's episode, and I was like, all right, Katie, what happened in your life that year that you chose those books? My kind of general stats, I read I'm gonna finish one more by the end of the year. So it's gonna be 230 total for the year, which is 40 books less than last year. I've talked a lot this year about my reading being kind of off kilter and things not flowing correctly. And 40 books, that's a lot of books. Some people, that's their entire reading life for the year. Right. So that was a 10 to 15% drop in my reading life from 2023 to 2024. But that's okay if it's a satisfying reading life. Right?
- [06:42]
A
Right.
- [06:43]
B
My average reading was 4.2, which was the same as 2023. So I did just as well at picking books, even though there were fewer of them. I read 75% fiction and 25% nonfiction, which has remained pretty steady. And only 10% of my books were five star reads for me. So I'm picking, like, in the middle of the road to maintain that 4.2. They're not all five stars. Right. And there's not a lot of low ratings either. I'm picking a lot of right in the middle of my sweet spot of my reading life. So let's get into a little bit more of the types of books we're choosing and the how we're choosing Meredith. So what jumps out at you with regard to those two things? All right.
- [07:22]
A
Well, genre wise, there's no question that mysteries in my. In the way that I Do my book chakra. I put mysteries and thrillers kind of together in a total, and that's 41% of my reading for 2024. That was down a full 8% from 2023, which is down even further from 2022. So that is an interesting switch. I chalk this up, though, to the fact that a thrillers, which were 8% of that 41%, are working less for me than ever. They are averaging just a 3.7, which is one of my lowest category reads. So they're really. Thrillers are not working for me as much. Also, I've been reading more fantasy, and I really. I read a full 14% of my reading was fantasy this year, which is really up. And I. That's. I can. I kind of think where mysteries and thrillers were down, fantasy was up. I read 7%. Horror. I'm now tracking that genre on its own, Reading a lot more horror. This in 2024. You'll see that in my reading in 2020. And I read 14% of my reading was nonfiction, which is up. That's double the previous year. So this year, nonfiction worked more for me. I wouldn't be surprised if we see even more of that in 2025. There's a lot of really good nonfiction that is interesting me quite a bit. And one of the biggest surprises is that a full 2% of my reading, Katie, was poetry. Poetry has never been on my list at all. And so I'm really, really excited to have a full 2% of my reading be. Be in that genre.
- [09:06]
B
And for 130 books. That is three books.
- [09:10]
A
Yes.
- [09:11]
B
Okay. Just checking where that actually clocked into the numbers there. I like it. Okay, so my genre game flipped a little bit on its head this year, which was fun for me to see. My top genre of the year was romance. It was 14% of my reading this year, followed closely by a tie with fantasy and what I call general fiction, which was 11% of my reading. And then mystery clocked in just below that at 8% of my reading. And this is kind of what I've always said about my reading life, is that even if I have a top genre, it's certainly not half of my books are that thing ever, because my wheelhouse is very big. So there's a lot of other genres in that genre pie as well. But it was fun to see romance take the top spot this year because that hasn't happened in the past. I got most of my books from the library at 36% of my reads. And I count something as being from the library, if I pick up the audio even though I own it in paper, or I pick up a digital copy so I can read on my Kindle even if I own it in paper. So all of that counts as library reading to me.
- [10:23]
A
What about backlist versus front list?
- [10:25]
B
Yes. Okay, so I have two more kind of small stats in this arena, which is 60% of my reading was backlist published before 2024, and that is the same as 2023. So I've maintained that about two thirds ratio. And for me, it's important to track my own voices or inclusive reading that has gone down for me this year, it's now less than 50% of my reading at 48%. Last year it was 63. And I can feel that even as I look back at my reading, it feels different than it has in the past. So it's just something I want to be aware of because that's important to me.
- [11:01]
A
Absolutely. And I also read 60% backlist, 35% books that came out in 2024, and 5% of my reading was books that are coming out in 2025, which is a higher number for me as far as reading forward that far. These last couple of months I have been reading more NetGalley, which is why you see those that that 2025 number going up. And I have seen that when I choose a book based solely on NetGalley, that those are lower rated for me. So my backlist books that 60% that is before 2024, those, you know, averaged much higher than ones that are, that I just chose through NetGalley. So again, you and I have always tried to really, just as a podcast, we've tried to, to be deeper into backlist because there are so many places where you can hear front list. And so that is something that, you know, we continue to bring, which I love as from a format point of view. I definitely continue to read more on my Kindle. So I this year, 46% of my reading was in print, 41% was on digital, and 13% was on audio. So the audio number went down, that digital number went up for me. And I see that digital number just going up more and more. Just easier on my eyes for a variety of reasons. So for better or for worse, I see that print number going down and the digital number going up. Cool.
- [12:33]
B
My digital number never goes up.
- [12:37]
A
Not yet. Maybe in a different season.
- [12:39]
B
I'm always like, do you have that galley in paperback? Because I don't want to read it on my Kindle. And it probably won't get as good of a rating from me because I can see that my Kindle or digital reading consistently garners lower ratings. And I think it's because I fall asleep to my Kindle. So I'm not as propulsively reading through a book when it's on my Kindle. And it just. That makes me less interested because I'm like, oh, well, I fell asleep to this book over and over again. Even if I was very interested in it in my head, it's then less interesting.
- [13:09]
A
That's that issue of momentum. Right. And I've. I experienced that same thing when I listened to audio. What I found is the highest rated books for me this year were books that I was mainly reading on my Kindle or my iPad, either one of those. My Kindle remote has made a huge difference. Again, it's just one of those things that I miss. I just always want to have my Kindle remote on hand. So it's just another way that digital reading has increased for me. But the highest rated books are the ones where I was reading mainly digitally and also had the print copy mostly from the library that I was moving my bookmark through for some reason. That combo, which I have in a surprising number, I mean, because I'll pick a book in print and then I'll read it digitally, like actually get the reading done digitally. That combo is very, very satisfying for me.
- [14:02]
B
Okay. I will also shout out right at the end here that my biggest recommendation source, or in this case, buddy read source, was my reading partner, Katie Proctor. We read 54 books together this year, which was 22% of my reading life, were books that I read with or alongside or right after Katie Proctor. The indie press list was next with 29 books recommended to me this year that I read, followed very shortly by three people that I love. Candice, Whitney, Meredith, My Dear, and Mary Heim as my kind of tied for that third place spot in my reading recommendation sources.
- [14:41]
A
Excellent. That is wonderful. So as usual, the category for recommendation source that comes in at 36.5% of my reading is books by authors or books in series that I have read previously. So it's returning to authors that have worked for me in the past. But the person who continues to be my number one recommendation source and who accounts for over 10% of my overall reads is Elizabeth Barnhill. And her books that I are are ones that I absolutely enjoy with an average rating of 4.2 stars. So those are very, very solid reads for me. Consistently new this year to my list Mother Horror came in at 5% of my reads with an average rating of 4.3. And with four books recommended to me, my good friend Betsy Eikenberry comes in with an average rating of a whopping 4.8 stars over those four books. So when Betsy recommends a book to me, I pretty much jump on it immediately. And again, I will underscore for me for future Meredith, I will underscore books I choose solely from NetGalley or books that I choose only from. Seeing them over and over on Bookstagram come in at 3.8 and 3.7 respectively. So I really need to be careful about making choices. For those reasons, they often don't work for me.
- [16:04]
B
See, and these are all such good things to know.
- [16:07]
A
What about publishing houses? That's something that I have been tracking assiduously this year. Katie, do you track. Is that something you pay attention to?
- [16:15]
B
It is something that I keep track of. My top publishing house this year, again related to that bump in romance was Berkeley, followed shortly by W.W. norton, which is kind of an interesting.
- [16:31]
A
That is interesting. Yeah, very interesting. Now, for me, my top publisher, and it almost always is, is Minotaur. That is the publishing house for the Three Pines books, the Louise Penny books. But many, many other books that really work for me come from Minotaur. Also, Tor and Atria are other publishers that consistently garner really high ratings. For me this year, the publishing house I need to stay away from is Del Rey Books, with an average of only 3.5 stars. So that is a publishing house that I really need to. I need to pay attention to that.
- [17:11]
B
Yep, it's all good to know. I definitely have some not great publishers on my list as well, but mostly they're ones that I read one book. So it's an average, but it's based on the fact that I didn't rate that one book very highly.
- [17:26]
A
Yeah, the publishers I just mentioned, I all read. I read multiple books from them. So I wasn't just going by one or two or even three books.
- [17:36]
B
Yeah, if I include all the variations of Tor, that one's actually slightly ahead of W.W. norton, which isn't surprising.
- [17:42]
A
Exactly. Tor is consistently a really, really good publisher for me. And I think, you know, we can talk about this all the livelong day. But again, listeners, this is one of those things. This particular stat book recommendation source is a. Is a really important. That piece of it. If you track only a few things, I would recommend where you heard about the book being something that you track. And if you want to get just A squid deeper the publishing house. Because those two things really help you in the fall when you look at that from your year in the following year, if you keep those things in mind, you will make, you will be able to make better choices for yourself. That's one of those important reader know thyself pieces of data that I think are really worth the time to keep track of.
- [18:33]
B
Yeah, I agree.
- [18:34]
A
Okay, so, yes, talking about books that really worked for us, publishing houses that really worked for us, we also will let you know that while Katie and I are getting ready to talk about our favorite books of the year, Our favorite top 10, our favorite reading experiences of the year, all of the good stuff in this episode, if you want to hear us talk about our least favorite books of the year that came out along with the January indie press list that came out just a couple of days ago to our bookish super friends. So if you want to hear that, make sure that you dip in there and become a bookish super friend. You're going to get January indie press list. You're going to get the best of the rest from fabled, that entire list and you're going to get the tidbit where we spill some tea on books that we really, really did not like. And spoiler alert, there were some things that I didn't like on the big show and then really, really, really doubled down on when we talked about it in the tidbit. So time has not been kind to those experiences.
- [19:41]
B
Yeah, right. It's, it's a, it's a delight. If you like a little bit of saucy spicy with your reading, that's where you want to go.
- [19:48]
A
Exactly. So that is, you know, becoming a bookish friend, certainly. But becoming a bookish super friend is where you're going to hear a lot. The real dish. That's where you're going to hear that.
- [19:59]
B
Yes. Okay, let's get into the actual list people are here for. We've said a lot of numbers. We are going to start with a top reading experience of the year and then we'll get into our first two going, counting from 10 to 1 on our list. So, Meredith, at the bottom of our of this very short list, what is a top reading experience of the year for you?
- [20:24]
A
Okay, so just to remind you, we created this separate category away from the top 10 books of the year, we created favorite reading experiences, which is additional. Okay. These are books that, although they might not, for a variety of reasons not made our top 10 of the year. They really needed to be called out in some other way that our our look back at our reading year wouldn't be complete without going over these really quickly. So for me, the first one that reads off this, that that leads off this category of favorite reading experiences is A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Now this year I read A Discovery of Witches, which is obviously the first in the All Souls trilogy. And I also read Shadow of Night, which is the second book. So I along with my one of my reading goals of 2024 was that I would allow myself to read further into series. Even though bringing a second, third, fourth, 16th book in the series is not necessarily perfect from a podcasting perspective, we decided that we're the bosses of our own reading. So here was an example. A Discovery of Witches I absolutely gave myself over to this series. I will continue to read the trilogy and probably the additional books that came after that. I love these characters. I love being in the world that Deborah Harkness has created. I ended up reading these books with Roxanna. We are going to read the entire series together. So it was very memorable. I love these books as a story. The reason I didn't Roxanna was very surprised that A Discovery of Witches, the first book, was not on my top 10. The reason it didn't make it there is because in the first 30ish percent of that first book, I was not really a fan of our lead character, Diana. I had some major problems with her as a character and I kind of wanted things to happened differently. Once I got to 30%, I was all in. But I couldn't make it a top 10 book because I really struggled in that first third. But as a reading experience beginning, the All Souls trilogy has to be on this list for me.
- [22:37]
B
I love that and I love that series too. So that works out great for me. My first reading experience that I want to talk about is kind of congruent with launching Love and Chili Peppers in August of 2024. Seeing that bump in my romance reading throughout the year and especially from the end of the year, getting to connect with Rebecca each month, living into that joy of romance and not feel like those are books that I have to balance with other things. So as part of that, I will say Colton Gentry's Third act by Jeff Zentner, which I very much associate with the start of Love and Chili Peppers. I asked again, Katie Proctor, my reading partner, to create the first listener press because nobody knew about it yet. So I needed to, behind the scenes be asking for a listener press for those episodes. And that was the book that she chose to press, but we had already read it together. So that book is very emblematic of the launch of that new Patreon show and how much joy it brings to my reading life to live into that love of romance.
- [23:39]
A
Yes. And that, I will say that is a book that has been on so many people's best of list for the year that I feel like that is a. I don't read a lot of romance at all, but that is one that is definitely, especially not contemporary romance. But that is one that's really called to me.
- [23:57]
B
It's on the radar. It's on the radar. It has some of the. Some of the best footnotes I've ever read in a book. Just reassuring you that this dog is going to be okay.
- [24:05]
A
I love it.
- [24:06]
B
So good. Okay, let's get started with our number 10 picks for our top 10 reads of the year. Meredith, what is yours?
- [24:14]
A
Okay.
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B
All right.
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A
It gets once. We have to start saying it out loud right now. No, I just. I. No, I feel really good about my list. I feel really good about. No, I'm gonna flip flop the order of one. I'm gonna flip flop. I'm gonna flip flop the order. No, I'm not. Yes, I am.
- [24:28]
B
Okay, Come on, Coach, make a call.
- [24:30]
A
Okay. No, I'm gonna go with it or the way it was originally. I'm gonna trust my initial gut. Okay, number 10 is I'm thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reed. This was an absolutely singular experience for me. This is an unforgettable literary mystery. This is short. This is propulsive. This is WTF in the most incredible way. I absolutely loved this book so much. So many people for years had been telling me to read it. I don't know what had kept me from reading it, but I'm so glad I finally did. Absolutely deserves a place on my top 10, which actually doesn't have as much mystery and thriller as it usually does on it. So this really earned its place. This is. I'm thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid.
- [25:24]
B
Okay. Interesting. I like that. My number 10 spot is my top historical fiction of the year. And I'm using that category very specifically because I'm choosing River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer. I brought this one to episode 10 of season seven. Finished it on the beach over Labor Day weekend. And that experience of the river, the ocean being close to me reading it with Katie was so transportative for me that I can still see the waves rolling in as the tears rolled down my face. This story of a mom and her Children being separated from her and she has to go find them as slavery comes to an end in the Caribbean. Oh, just phenomenally powerful historical fiction writing. I loved this one and these ones are often not hitting for me anymore. So it was really special for me to have this novel specifically on my top 10. That's River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer.
- [26:23]
A
I love it. That is historical fiction is something that is working more and more for me. So I'm really, I'm glad that it made an appearance in your top ten.
- [26:31]
B
All right, how about book nine?
- [26:34]
A
All right, Book nine is the Safekeep by Yael Vanderwouden. This is another book that was very surprising. I did not expect to read it. It is literary fiction. It is a big award nominated, right? Either Booker. I think it's Booker nominated.
- [26:54]
B
Yeah, that feels good.
- [26:54]
A
And that is not normally my jam. This book was absolutely incredible. Again, you're going to hear me say over and over again what makes my top 10 of the year. It's a book that is memorable. This book has, I don't want to call it a twist. It has a development that had me gasping. I read this with my husband. We had so much to talk about with it. The characters are incredibly memorable. One of them almost made my least favorite character of the year. But I couldn't give her that because I don't feel like she. Because I also kind of love her. And that is to me, the sign of a really incredible novel when a character feels so real to you that she feels like someone you have met. Like you feel like you remember conversations with this person even though clearly you've never met them. So I loved it. Again, a spare novel. It's not very long. I read it really quickly and yet it is seared into my memory. This is the Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.
- [28:01]
B
Excellent. Yes, that one is on my 2025 list for sure. Okay, my number nine pick is my only essay collection, one of two nonfiction on this list. It's High Tide and Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver. This is like a 20 year old book, maybe more, maybe 28. It's. It's an older essay collection. You can tell as soon as you look at the COVID I talked about this on episode 44 of season six. Barbara Kingsolver is a forever favorite for me. But this one, High Tide in Tucson takes place in Arizona. And because we moved back to Arizona in 2023, coming to this novel in 20 or this essay collection in 2024, feeling like I had been re welcomed by the state that I grew up in. That strong sense of place. It just made it very. I almost cried when I talked about it on the show because it meant so much to me to feel so connected to this desert outside my door. I love Barbara Kingsolver and I loved this one especially. It's High Tide in Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver.
- [29:05]
A
I didn't even read that book and I feel like I remember you talking about it so vividly. I feel like I've read it.
- [29:10]
B
Oh, yes. Such a, such a tearjerker for me to even bring it to the show. Let's talk about some more top reading experiences, though. Meredith, what have you got?
- [29:17]
A
All right, the next one has got to be again, I allowed myself to read not just one, but two very long books in a series. This was two books from the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. The first one is the Eye of the World. The second one is the Great Hunt. And I listened to both of these. These are ones that I did a triple tandem, triple tandem read. I was listening to them. I have the hard copies of them and I have them on Kindle. I immersed myself in this series. I will be reading all of this series over the course of, you know, however much time I have left on this planet. I am very, very much money. It's a lot of books. It's a lot of words, It's a lot of pages. But the Eye of the World and the Great Hunt, the first two in the series are absolutely incredible. They're each really, really long. But more importantly, they don't feel long. They just feel immersive. This is high fantasy and they are ones that I can't even tell you how much the reading of them has been exponentially increased by reading them. With my new buddy reading partner, Bill Largent, he introduced me to this series. We chose this series out of. He gave me a lot of different choices. We chose this. He really thought that it would be a great entrance into high fantasy. He was absolutely right. He was the one who said you really should start out by listening and having the physical copy in front of you. It's going to be really helpful because high fantasy is a lot of world building. There's a lot going on over the course of. I can't even remember. There's 11, 12, 14 books in this series. This is a lot of world that we're in. And sometimes this series has taught me you just have to let it wash over you. You're gonna catch up with it at some point. But I love these characters. I feel like I know them. I feel like they are family. And this is an experience. Starting this series feels like an experience because I feel like that world is a world that I. That I live in, and I only come out of it sometimes to join the regular world. So that's the definition to me of a read. So buckle up, buttercups, because you're going to hear more in this series as I read through it, because I just. Reading these books is for me. I just. It brings me so much joy.
- [31:43]
B
Yes. Okay. I just talked about this one recently, but, Meredith, you recommended the Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durst to me when my reading was broken and my heart was broken, and I was just trying to make it from one day to the next, I started it immediately, as soon as we got off recording that day. Grabbed it like a life preserver. Grabbed it like a life preserver. And it swept me away in the very best way. It wasn't the best book that I read this year, but it was a top experience in the way that it buoyed me when I needed it most.
- [32:16]
A
Absolutely. I feel that very, very deeply.
- [32:19]
B
Okay, we're going into book number eight of our top ten. What have you got?
- [32:23]
A
All right, Book number eight. I know this one is going to. All the rest of these are going to make sense to you. This one is going to seem like an outlier. But I have known it was going to be on this list all year long because of all the books. I think. I think about this book more than any of the other ones in the category of. I wish I could find other books that give me the same experience. This is the Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Borland. Katie, you might not even remember what this book is about, but this book is about an American woman, an athlete, who marries into a royal family of a fictitious kingdom. It's contemporary. It's basically like the story of Megan or Kate Middleton. It's like, if you've ever wondered, what is it actually like to be a princess? All the good things and all the terrible parts of it. This book is so juicy. This. I mean, it opens up on a scene where the lead character, the princess, is basically trying to escape. And she's tried multiple times. She's trying to escape, and she basically gets picked up at the airport and brought back to the castle. And we know immediately that this is a really big deal. The romance, the wedding, the engagement, the wedding, what happens after, the paparazzi, the politics inside. What, like the conversations that are actually happening inside the kingdom amongst the royal family. It was so juicy. And that juiciness is what I loved. So for that reason, it's in my top 10. It's really well done. This is the force of such beauty by Barbara Borland.
- [34:11]
B
Okay, My eighth one is Sandwich by Kathryn Newman. I brought this one to season seven, episode 14. This book met me right where I am in this life, right this one. It just is exactly where a lot of us are. The sandwich generation. So many of us are living there. It's a challenge. It's beautiful. This story portrayed it wonderfully. That tension between aging parents and kids growing up and how do you manage taking care of and letting go at the same time. Very evocative sense of place. Made me laugh out loud. Made me cry a little bit. I loved it. Sandwich by Kathryn Newman.
- [34:50]
A
Boy, this is another one that is appearing on a lot of top 10 lists. This is one that sounds really, really well done.
- [34:57]
B
Yeah, it's. It's very good. What about number seven?
- [35:01]
A
Number seven is the Mars House by Natasha Pulley. This is sci fi. This is what would happen if people who are born on Earth go to the colony on Mars that has been set up several generations in the past. When our story starts, people who are born on Earth, we automatically, because of the gravity we've been living in, are a lot stronger on Mars. So an earthborn person, they. They are. They have to be restricted, physically restricted. Because if they weren't, they literally could like, knock over walls and kill people by just touching them. So then our lead character, basically Earth has fallen apart at the beginning of this book, and our lead character has to go to the Mars colony kind of against his will. And then what happens there will completely take you by surprise. He ends up becoming part of a very, very important house on Mars, like house with a capital H. And there's tons of sci fi, drama, adventure. There's some really good romance. There's a fantastic mystery. Natasha Poli is one of my favorite authors. She really, really knows how to set a scene. She writes in a very literary way, but also in a very visual way. Love her writing style. I will read anything that she puts out. This was new this year. This is the Mars House by Natasha Pulley. And again, another one that just I think about all the time.
- [36:31]
B
Excellent. Yes. I remember listening to you talk about that one with I want to say merry when you brought it to the show.
- [36:39]
A
Yeah. I found Charter Books recommended it to me. One of our indie press list stores.
- [36:43]
B
Yeah. My seventh is a love song for Ricky Wilde. By Tia Williams. I brought this one to season six, episode 36, this is a Time Bendy romance. I loved the current day New York City setting, but I also really exceptionally loved going back in time to the Harlem Renaissance, also in New York City, and connecting my reading experience with meeting the author at the Tucson Festival of Books. It just became so big and beautiful the way that this story played out for me. Just I can remember as I finished it, laying in bed and clutching it to my chest. It's that kind of hugging book for me. Went on my Forever keeper shelves. I adore Ricky Wilde and her boisterous, loud family and the way she is so different from them in the best kinds of ways. She's a delight. This is a Love Song for Ricky Wilde by Tia Williams.
- [37:36]
A
Now, you know what this book brings up for me, Katie? And it's something that I actually wanted to mention when we were talking about stats and kind of when we're thinking about the year overall. And that is books that are divisive or what I've started to think of as big swing books. So the Love Song for Ricky Wilde. This is a book that I've heard a lot of people rave about and I've heard a lot of people say they want to throw it against the wall. I think I'm beginning a working theory here that I want to try more of those interesting. Historically, I've kind of stayed away from what I think of as big swing books. Like, because it's like you're either gonna love it or you're gonna hate it. I've kind of stayed away from that because I don't know, maybe I just don't. I wanna stay from the drama or I feel like it's not worth the big swing. What I'm finding in my reading is I wanna take more big swings. I want to try more books. I want to DNF more books. I want to. I want to take the big swing. And reading books that are divisive is a way to do that. I'm kind of less and less interested in a book that it's going to be like a 3.8, 3.9 for me. Historically that's been fine, but I'm really starting to feel like those books tamp down my momentum in my reading.
- [38:53]
B
Yeah, I agree. And they're less fun to talk about on the show than either end of the spectrum. Right. They're less fun to listen to somebody else talk about on the show than either end of the spectrum. So I would much rather have no three Star books ever.
- [39:08]
A
Yeah. And only have just twos and fives.
- [39:10]
B
Very far on either end. Yes, exactly.
- [39:13]
A
And I think we only get that when we gravitate.
- [39:16]
B
Take big risks. Right?
- [39:17]
A
Take big risks. So read outside our comfort zone. Like, again, as we go through our top 10 read. These are not necessarily books that would win. Everyone's top 10 are the books that stood out for them. Almost always. If reader, listener, if you think about your top 10, I challenge you to look at that top 10 and think, where did these fall within my normal comfort reading? And where were they? The ones that I took a bigger swing on? Either from a genre, a recommendation source, a crazy premise that seemed, like, totally nut. Nutty, but it really, really worked for you. Like, that's just. That's really coming up for me a lot. Big swing books.
- [39:59]
B
Okay. And those engender big opinions. So for this little interlude here, we are going to talk about our favorite and least favorite characters of the year, which don't have to be from our favorite books of the year and in my case, are not.
- [40:14]
A
Okay.
- [40:15]
B
Which is kind of fun.
- [40:16]
A
That is fun. I love that.
- [40:18]
B
Yeah. So I actually. I'm gonna start us out because I'm driving this episode, and I'm. I feel like every time I'm like, meredith, you start. Meredith, you start. So I'm gonna start this one.
- [40:27]
A
Do it.
- [40:27]
B
My favorite protagonist, lead character of the year was Medusa in Stone Blind. I loved this book. I talked about this when I brought it to the show, that I wasn't sure if it was gonna make my top 10 of the year. My. My reading year was so crazy anyway. But that character, I just want to climb inside that book and be with Medusa and experience her life and her joys and her tragedies and her pains with her. The way she was written by Natalie Haynes just is amazing. She just jumps off the page in this visceral manner. I thought she was phenomenal.
- [41:03]
A
Yeah.
- [41:04]
B
Correspondingly also related to Greek mythology. My least favorite character of the year is Odysseus from the Odyssey. I am just about finished today. I am finishing the Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson. The first translation of the Odyssey written by a woman. He is the worst ever.
- [41:24]
A
Yep.
- [41:25]
B
The whole story is named after him. He is horrid. He's a sack of turd wrapped in burlap. And. And every time I'm like, why? Why are we. But everybody around him is so interesting, and the actual story is so interesting. It makes sense that this is a classic and an epic poem that we've all read for 3,000 years now. But it makes me furious because he's such a shit.
- [41:50]
A
It is one of the major ways that we have elevated and escalated. That we have elevated mediocre white men.
- [42:02]
B
Exactly. For 3,000 years.
- [42:05]
A
Yep.
- [42:06]
B
It's horrible.
- [42:07]
A
It's early. Early. Not the earliest, but yeah. I mean, the Odyssey is early patriarchy.
- [42:14]
B
Yeah, exactly.
- [42:15]
A
For sure.
- [42:17]
B
He's like, well, let me tell you why I had to sleep with everybody on my way back. What?
- [42:21]
A
Jeez.
- [42:22]
B
He's horrible. I hate him.
- [42:23]
A
All right, I like that we're starting out with least favorite, because I have a lot to say. I'm not going to say a lot, but as I was typing this out, Johnny was like, what? There's, like, steam coming out from your fingers. One of. Okay. It's not my lowest rated, but one of the books that really just made me want to tear my hair out this year was Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller.
- [42:44]
B
Okay.
- [42:45]
A
And that book was incredibly well written. I didn't give it a low rating because it's a really well done book and it accomplished what the author set out to do. The lead character from that book, her name was Nephi, 27 years old. This character is. I just wanted to strangle her through the entire book. She had no sense of. She did not rise to the occasion. This was the book where Bill was reading it with me, and he pointed out you really appreciate characters and then inversely hate characters who do not rise to the occasion. This woman had no sense of her own agency. She sort of waited for problems to be solved instead of figuring it out on her own. That Nephi character makes me want to scream. Definitely my least favorite character from any book I read in 2024. That was from the Memory of Animals.
- [43:44]
B
All right, well, swing back up. Who's your favorite protagonist or your favorite character?
- [43:48]
A
Okay. Katie. I cheated in two ways. I did not pick a single character, and I picked ensembles from two from two books.
- [43:58]
B
So, yeah, you cheated in, like, seven ways.
- [44:00]
A
Then the spirit of this, of this is. Is true, but not at all my execution. The characters from the Stand will forever live with me and the characters from the Wheel of Time books. Now, what is important about this that I'm taking from looking back at my 2024 reading? I'm not a visual person. In my reading, I could practically sketch these characters from the picture that's drawn in my mind, both from the ensemble in the Stand and from the Wheel of Time books. What I take from this is when I let myself read epics, epic stories. I Mean, the Stand is the longest book I read in 2024 at 1160 pages. When I let myself read long, that is when I get these immersive reading experiences. Not the only time, but it is often when I get immersive reading experiences that give me casts of characters that become like family.
- [44:57]
B
Yeah.
- [44:57]
A
So that's my take home from answering this question is that I went through my entire reading log and these two things stood out to me. And it really is because I lived a lifetime with these casts of characters, because I let myself sink into a really long book more than once.
- [45:15]
B
And that is how those characters work their way into our DNA. Right, right. You spent a lifetime with them.
- [45:24]
A
Right. And so for all the times that I tell my own self, and I can see it in my. In my reading when I read those books, I mean, it really. Those months, it really slowed down my reading.
- [45:35]
B
Yeah.
- [45:36]
A
But for all the people who say, well, I'm so scared to read long. I'm so scared to get into a brick. I'm so scared there's a reason to do it, and it is because you. It. It is a different reading experience. I'm not saying every long book is like that or every long book is a good book. Lord knows that's not true. But don't let the length of a book keep you from it, because you may very well meet settings and characters that you take with you for the rest of your life.
- [46:05]
B
And may we. All right. Okay. Let's get back to our top 10. We are at book number six and 53 minutes in to this episode.
- [46:14]
A
Good Lord. Super size. Super size. All right. Book number six for me is the examiner by Janice Hallett. This book was very, very interesting. This was a very interesting experience. Janice Hallett writes fully multimedia books, so all of her books are like this. The construct. The construct of the book is completely different. In the examiner, we simply start out reading about these six characters who are taking an art class together, like a master's level art class. And we're getting their emails in, like, their group thread, and we get letters, you know, bits of their syllabuses. We get all of these multimedia things. Somehow Janice Howitt makes every page so propulsive. This book for me, it gives me that feeling. The examiner really did. This gives you that feeling that you're reading things that you're not necessarily supposed to be reading, that you're, like, in someone else's business. You're reading other people's emails and you're getting to see. You're getting the story from all these different perspectives, it's geniusly done. It's flawlessly executed. This particular story in the examiner goes a different way than I ever expected it to go. Someone ends up dying, and I had no idea what the resolution was going to be. I got a chance to meet Janice Hallett to hear her talk, and to meet Janice Howlett this year, and she's the author that I say, if Agatha Christie was still alive, Janice Howard's books would be the ones that she likes the most. And I believe that that is true. This is the examiner by Janice Hallett, and it for sure had a place in my top 10.
- [47:59]
B
Okay. I saw a meme today that said I'm getting ready to send out 1099s to everyone who was up in my business this year. Yeah. What you just said reminded me of that. So it's like, you got to be in this book and all up in their business.
- [48:13]
A
I would be getting a 1099. Yes. I love. I love that experience. Of course, she also wrote the Appeal, which I also really loved, but the examiner was up a few notches from even that experience. It was really well done.
- [48:31]
B
Excellent. Okay. My sixth book is Family. Family by Laurie Frankel. Surprising no one, except for the fact that it's down at number six. Right.
- [48:42]
A
Really? I was positive it would be number one. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
- [48:45]
B
Okay, well, I think you might be surprised by my number one, then. Okay. I talked about this one. Season six, episode 34. Laurie Frankel just captured me all over again with this one. It could garner some criticism from other people that there's a whole lot going on in this book. The ending especially gets very, like, kitchen sink. Y. But she. She pulls in her personal self to some of her books, and this is one of them in that she tackles adoption, and adoption is part of her own family story. And for that reason, it sings off the page in a really powerful, beautiful way. Examining family in all its forms. Truly excellent. Left me a full puddle with a full heart. Like the Grinch that grew three sizes. That one's Family. Family by Laurie Frankel.
- [49:35]
A
Color me shocked.
- [49:37]
B
Amazing. Okay, what's your fifth book?
- [49:39]
A
All right, Katie. We are in our top five now. And this really. That's ratchets up the pressure even more. Okay. But I feel really good about this. My number five book is the Familiar by Leigh Bardugo. This is fantasy. This is just my favorite kind of fantasy. I don't even want to call it Romantasy, because I kind of hate where that genre distinction has gone. This is fantasy. This, the Familiar is like fantasy for grown ups. Yeah, like, but it's not high fantasy. It's like fantasy for Meredith. It's just, I, it's, it's romantic and it's like political machinations and it's incredible magic. Like an incredible magical structure. I loved, loved, loved the two lead characters. I cared so much about what was going to happen to them. The COVID of this is so beautiful. It has black sprayed edges. I love Leigh Bardugo's writing. It's just one of my favorite. I really feel like Leigh Bardugo, if you are saying to yourself, should I read, like, what should I read after Sarah J. Maas? And the first thing you think of is like, oh, let me read Quicksilver or whatever. No, stop. If you just finished Sarah J. Maas, go read Leigh Bardugo. That's what you should be reading next because she is, she is good in the way that Sarah J. Maas's books are really, really good. So I loved the Familiar. I just, I want to hug it. I want to tattoo something from it on my body so that to me says it needs to be in my top five. This is the Familiar by Leigh Bardugo.
- [51:20]
B
So good. Love it. Okay. My number five is the Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon. This is my other nonfiction for my top ten list. I have not brought this one to the show yet. I've given an episode number for every other book because at one point, Meredith, you posted this in your stories and I didn't want to scoop you. So maybe it was a morning read. Regardless, I didn't bring it to the show, but it is my number five of my top five of 2024. Sharon brings history to life by shining a light on the Small and the Mighty. This is excellent, as is everything she does. She had me laughing and crying. And I'm so grateful for the bookish friend who sent me a tote bag from her tour that includes the tagline for this book, which is just peaceful, good and free. May we all live up to the highest ideals of that as a country by creating a world that is just peaceful, good and free. This book made me laugh out loud. It made me cry. It made me hopeful and joyful and furious. And I just was inspired to create a legacy. I just loved this book so much. I would like to be a small and mighty person someday. And I hope that something like what we're building here contributes to that legacy. For Katie Cobb and Meredith Monday Schwartz, this is the Small and the mighty by Sharon McMahon.
- [52:51]
A
Yes, you. So I think you absolutely can and are Katie. And I thought about that a lot as I was reading this, and then I got a chance to go see Sharon McMahon, and that was what I was reading it as I got ready for that. And I absolutely loved it. The book is fantastic.
- [53:08]
B
So good.
- [53:09]
A
Certainly she's a fantastic follow. If you're at all interested in the topic of. Right. Like, how to be the best person that you can be in. Like, how to. How to be that, how to build your legacy of being good and being a good citizen in the world. It's a very inspiring collection. It's a really well done narrative. Like, it's very easy to read.
- [53:30]
B
Yes. So easy to read. She's a phenomenal writer. I loved it.
- [53:34]
A
She's great.
- [53:35]
B
Okay, another top reading experience of the year. Meredith, what have you got?
- [53:39]
A
All right. Well, my next one is the Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett. Now, I purposely have this slotted here because this was my year of Janice becoming a Janice Hallett completist. And I just talked about the examiner, which made my top 10. I just couldn't put two of her books in my top 10. That just seemed unfair to every other book that I read. But the Mysterious Case of the Alberton Angels was equally good. It is darker than the examiner. It gave me chills. If you find the topic of actual Angels, do they possibly exist in the world for some reason? That's a weirdly interesting, catnippy, slightly freak me out trope. And this Mysterious Case of the Alpertin Angels does an incredible job of weaving that into this story of a baby girl that's found when her parents have been killed. And 18 years later, that baby is grown up and is being interviewed for the first time ever and all heck, hence the fan. And so we have journalists vying for the story. And again, this is all told in emails, articles. It's all done in multimedia. I love the way Janice Hallett tells the story. The Mysterious Case of the Albertan Angels makes my reading experiences because multiple times I got full body chills up my spine and into my, like, back of my neck. This was a really visceral experience for me. I loved it.
- [55:17]
B
I love a visceral experience, too. My next top reading experience of the year is in person, Bookish delight. That's a broad category, but I'm specifically calling out the Tucson Festival books, which I went to in March, meeting up with bookish friends in Chicago at Roscoe's. But all of those, of course, are topped by finally meeting our sweet Mary in person, along with bookish friend Liz Hein at Boswell Books, her adopted indie bookstore in Milwaukee. It was marvelous to make in person connections. Those led to books like the Night in Question by Susan Fletcher, the Guncle Abroad by Stephen Rowley, and even, like, seeing the Mars House by Natasha Pulley on the shelves. Because Boswell has these amazing shelf talkers. One of their employees does these, like, hand drawn illustrations on their shelf talkers. So they really pop off the shelf for you. Really exceptional. I just loved being out in the bookish world with our people and having books physically and emotionally pressed into my hands because of it.
- [56:19]
A
Yeah, that's such a perfect reading experience, you know, that really, it really does take things to a new level when you're physically able to go to these shops and talk to the booksellers.
- [56:30]
B
Yes, definitely. All right, we're on book number four. Meredith, what have you got?
- [56:36]
A
Okay. Book number four is Confessions by Kanae Minato. This is a Japanese mystery and it is so incredibly well done. It is a perfect example of why I am purposely reading more Japanese mystery, because the Japanese just write things differently. This particular book starts out where we have a teacher confronting her classroom and saying that she is quitting teaching. And it is because of something that some students in the class have done. And what follows is a series of confessions, rotating points of view. You will never, ever see where this is going. This book is absolutely incredible. I was up late reading it. I was reading it in the car, but I actually only had it in print. So I was reading it, like, had the light on, the actual light on in my car reading this, I could not stop thinking about this book. This is one that Betsy Eikenberry pressed into my hands and said, you have just got to read this. This is one of those mysteries that I would press into the hands of absolutely any reader because it crosses all lines. If you like literary, you're gonna like this. If you love thrillers, you're gonna like this. It's so smart and so well done. And you will just never see coming the direction that this story goes. You just never, ever will. It's brilliant. This is Confessions by Kanae Minato.
- [58:06]
B
This is currently reading first in that we have made it to your top four book of the year. And this is the first one I've read from your list.
- [58:14]
A
Oh, interesting.
- [58:15]
B
After you talked about it, you pressed it into my eardrums. It was exceptional on audio as well. The way that they bring in a full cast for this one. So good.
- [58:23]
A
Oh, man. A full cast for this would be incredibly cool.
- [58:28]
B
It's really great. Yeah. Okay. My number four book. This is going to be very quick because it's on so many best of the year lists, which is kind of why it's on my number four instead of number one, it's James by Percival Everett. I brought this to season six, episode 39. It's since won the National Book Award. It's Barnes and Nobles book of the year. Like, it's freaking everywhere. But of course, it's a retelling of the classic Huckleberry Finn. Flips the whole story on its head, following James instead, who is Jim in Huckleberry Finn. I actually swapped this out as a story that my children read for history. My two older kids read this for history this year instead of reading the original Huckleberry Finn because I wanted them to have this different pivot on the original story. I'm glad I have it on my keeper shelves, but literally, it is everywhere. I don't need to say anything more about it than this. This is James by Percival Everett.
- [59:22]
A
Yes.
- [59:22]
B
Right.
- [59:23]
A
And I have a fantastic copy that I cannot wait to get into. But we will be giving it some time just because you're right. It's. It's absolutely everywhere. So I want to give a little breathing room.
- [59:35]
B
Yes, yes. Let it breathe. Okay. Book number three.
- [59:38]
A
Oh, my God, we're in the top three.
- [59:39]
B
Okay. Angst.
- [59:41]
A
All right.
- [59:41]
B
Angst.
- [59:42]
A
This is the angstiest part of my list. And I, like, I almost am tearing up because this was so hard for me to decide on. My. My number one was a shoe in. I never thought about it again. My number two and number three, I switched out 42 times between the two, like, going back and forth and back and forth. But this is where I'm going to go with it. Number three is the Tainted cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. I know you thought that was going to be number one.
- [60:09]
B
I did think that was going to be number one.
- [60:11]
A
Okay, let me say I adore the Tainted Cup. It is one of those absolutely perfect books. And I do not. You. I do not say that lightly. I will probably say that about all three of my top three books because I do believe that all three of these are perfect. That for this reader, the Tainted cup felt like it was made in a lab for me. I read it in February of this year. Absolutely. Absolutely fantastic reading experience. This is fantasy and mystery together. This is a police procedural in a certain way in that we're following our investigators. We are in a fantasy Setting, we have a body that has been discovered at the beginning of the story. And basically, this man died because a tree grew up through him. Through him. And we follow our two main characters. They are investigators who also have extra kind of skills and abilities that in this society, different people have been given different skills and abilities. They've been given ones that help them to be the best investigators possible. I love these two characters. I love the magical construct here. Oh, and by the way, there are leviathans that are like a. A very real threat. While we're also trying to solve this mystery, there are multiple murders that happen. This book is so excellent, and it is the number one book. What I will say is, of all the books on the list, I wish I could go back and reread this one for the first time. Again, Absolutely perfect experience. Why is it number three and not number one?
- [61:58]
B
We're gonna find out, I assume.
- [61:59]
A
No, I'm gonna tell you right now because it actually, it's unfortunate. It's a cautionary tale, actually, because I read the second book and I hated it. Oh, no, the second book hasn't come out yet. I got an arc of it. I jumped into it immediately. It's not bad. It's not about the second one is not bad. It's not a bad book. It just wasn't anywhere near as good as the first one. And it just made me sad and cranky and it took a little varnish off of the perfection that is the Tainted cup, which I shouldn't let it do. But that was very true of my experience when picking my top 10. So I decided I would say, like, I would say the reason why. But it definitely, I mean, for sure, the Tainted cup is a perfect book for me. It is my favorite kind of book.
- [62:48]
B
Okay. Wow. I'm shooketh. But I do understand that sentiment. Yeah, my number three. This is where I'm cheating. Because my number three is the Ember and the Ashes Quartet by Saba. To hear four books here, that's fine. That's our show. We make the Rules. Season seven, Episode five. I brought the fourth in this series to the show, but talked about it as a whole. That's because I spent our summer break binging all 2,000 pages of this story. I had read some of the series in the past. It captured me in a completely different way this time, especially being able to drink it in and follow it all the way to its conclusion. I just drowned in the words of this book, I understand the love for the series. Now I'm looking for A special printing of it for my forever shelves because it is so exceptionally well done. The story arcs the way that she planted seeds in book one, that she sprouted to conclusion in book four, Chef's Kiss. Just amazing writing. Phenomenal series. It is. It is for. It is Harry Potter for grown ups. It is diverse and beautiful and a little bit scary and murdery and there's blood and you don't get lost in the fighting, but it's there. Like, it's like kind of like it was made for me. And the reason that it was so impactful is because I had tried it in the past and it wasn't the right fit at that time.
- [64:21]
A
Oh, I love that.
- [64:22]
B
2024, Katie. It was the perfect fit for her. And here it is, my number three book of the year. My number three books of the year.
- [64:31]
A
Yeah, yeah. No, I think it's totally fair to bring it because that's the way that you brought it to the show. I love that you allowed yourself to read the entire series. Right. We said we were going to do. We were going to read what we liked. And I think that that was a good choice for us and I think that was a good choice for the listeners if we're reading what we want to be reading. Right?
- [64:49]
B
Yeah.
- [64:49]
A
And also you read long.
- [64:51]
B
Yeah, I just let myself go with it. Yeah.
- [64:54]
A
And it's a perfect example of in our. In not right now, set books aside if they're not working for you. Not because they. I mean, sometimes you just know they never will work for you. Like, that's a dnf. But sometimes, you know, like, it's not working for me right now, but there may be a time in the future when it really does. I've had some big hits that have come to me in that way. And so I love, I love that you made that distinction.
- [65:20]
B
Yes, definitely. So this was the Ember and the Ashes Quartet by Sabaa Tahir. Okay, top reading experience of the year. Before we get into our top two, Okay.
- [65:29]
A
I will tell you, with my reading experiences, I actually haven't been ranking them, which maybe I should have. They're sort of all just, you know, minor things.
- [65:37]
B
Yeah, same.
- [65:38]
A
Memorable. But I won't spend a lot of time on this one. I will just say that my fourth one was the Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durst.
- [65:44]
B
Oh, fun.
- [65:45]
A
And for the exact same reasons. I was having a really hard time. I needed an emotional support book. This is cozy fantasy at its best. And it came alongside me and kept me company in the exact way I needed in the moment. And it's a book about someone who loves books. It's got a little bit of romance, really a little bit of love story. It's got Kaz the Talking Plant. It's so good. I love the Spell Shop and it was a memorable reading experience for me from this year.
- [66:19]
B
Love it. My other top reading experience of the year is kind of what Meredith referred to earlier. It was letting myself be swept away by series. So of course the Ember and the Ashes quartet is part of this. I also read all four, or I'm just about to finish the fourth of the Rebel Blue Ranch series, which is like swift and saddled, lost and lassoed, wild and wrangled, like all these western romances. And I talked about them on an episode of Love and Chili Peppers. And by the time that episode released, the bookish friends were like, oh, I hope you really enjoy those. And I was like, girls, I am done. I've already injected them all the way into my veins. Like I just devoured them whole cloth. And it made me very happy. So just letting myself be swept away by a series and enjoying it all the way through is my. One of my top experiences of this year.
- [67:11]
A
Good. I love it. I love. I wholeheartedly co sign that I love it so much.
- [67:16]
B
Yes, definitely. Okay, books. Number two books. Number two for both of us.
- [67:21]
A
Our number two books of the year.
- [67:23]
B
What do we got?
- [67:24]
A
My number two book of the year is the Stand by Stephen King. Okay, this one is the only book of the list that will definitely be on my top 25 books of all time. This is obviously backpack backlist. I can't even remember what year it was, but Stan's been out forever and I read it. Yeah, read it this year. Read it with Bill Argent, which absolutely increased how much I loved it. Apocalyptic, dystopian horror. It's an epic story with some of the most memorable, One of the most memorable bad guys ever, but also some of the most memorable good guys. To me, the Stand is everything that is great about Stephen King. All of his storytelling, all of his horror, all of his visceral plotting, and just an epic tale that really boils down to are you more good or are you more evil? And at some point, humans gotta pick a side. And it turns out that a global apocalypse will do that. And this is also a book that really very viscerally gives you how the fall of mankind happens. I love that in a book. I will forever be scared to sneeze after this. You know what? What does a sneeze mean, because in the Stand, it ain't good. And so this is really. It is a. A lifetime reading experience and it's just incredibly well done. I took my time with all of its 1160 pages. I took my time with it. I never once was like, oh, I wish I wasn't still reading this really long book. I was just along for the ride. I cried multiple times when certain things happened to certain characters. I cheered when they had a positive thing happening. I just. This is a great buddy read too. Like, get you a buddy to read this book. You can't have Bill Large, and he's mine, but somebody else. And you will. Absolutely. If. If you like apocalyptic dystopian, if you like Station 11, you've got to read the stand, because Station 11 stands on the shoulders of the Stand, right? And so all. And I don't just mean Station. I mean all of the books that have, like, all of this post apocalyptic dystopian, it stands on those shoulders and oh, it's so good. Top 25 books of my life. The Stand by Stephen King.
- [70:02]
B
Excellent. Amazing. Amazing. This makes me very excited and also worried that our top book of the year might be the same one, because it's not this one. Number two is Wolfsong by T.J. klune, which I brought to season six, episode 35. I don't think I cried when I talked about this one either, but I could have if you asked me to.
- [70:23]
A
You didn't cry, but I thought at one point you might growl.
- [70:28]
B
Yeah, well, because I told y'all that I turned feral as I read this book. I was possessed by werewolf. This is not your mother's Twilight. This is so much more than that. It is a romantasy werewolf romance. Paranormal romance. I turned part wolf by the end. It was partly my love for TJ Klune, who's a great author crush of mine, partly hearing him speak at Tucson Festival of Books. Those in person events really added to my reading life this year. And just partly the right moment in time, but it combined into this perfect storm of sands in the hourglass to make this one of my very favorite reads of the year. I do have book two sitting on my shelf. I have not. I just look at it out of the corner of my eye and I say, someday I will approach you with caution. Maybe those will be my yearly spring break reads as I move forward. But for now, I just want to live in wolfsong. I just want to be a wolf with this big family that just loves each other so hard and Oz. Oh, our protagonists. Just. I love them all. I want to hug them. I want to fight alongside them in the forest. I want to tear out someone's throat who hurts them. I was part wolf. And look, here he comes again.
- [71:50]
A
Yep.
- [71:51]
B
It is so good. I love this book, Wolfsong by TJ Klune.
- [71:56]
A
I love it. This does not surprise me that this landed this high up on your list, Katie, because it really seemed to be a singular experience for you, like a full body experience.
- [72:09]
B
It definitely was. Yes, absolutely. Okay. We are at our number one books of the year.
- [72:16]
A
Okay.
- [72:17]
B
I, like, I almost want to put money on the fact that this is going to be the same book, just because I will be shocked if this isn't anywhere on your top 10.
- [72:23]
A
Yeah. But I will be shocked if it is on your top. If it is your top book of the year. Honestly, that. That will. That will really surprise me. But okay, so my top book of the year, God of the woods by Liz Moore.
- [72:36]
B
Okay. It's not the same. Okay, okay. Okay, great. Let's hear about it.
- [72:41]
A
All right, so. Right. See, that's what I was saying. I was like, I really haven't read this one yet. If. If this is your. Cause I didn't even know that you'd read it. Yes. God of the Woods. There was really no question from the time I read it. I read it over the summer. There was really no question. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about it because Lord knows this is another book like James that you're just going to hear about or see on every top 10 list. For me, this was an absolute standout, perfectly constructed mystery by a master writer. Just the pacing was perfect, the characterizations were perfect. The construction, the rotating points of view, the rope, the back and forth timelines, the setting, which of course is a camp setting. This is the book just to super quickly remind you, this is a book where we have a very rich family. They own a camp that rich people send their kids to, and the daughter of the camp goes missing. That's the mystery that we're trying to solve in the present timeline. And then we find out that 14 years earlier, the girl who's missing her older brother also went missing, never to be found. So that's our mystery. Liz Moore. This is my first time reading her. I had not read Long Bright river, certainly one that a lot of people have said is absolutely fantastic. God of the woods was a perfect mystery and one of those books that I think you could hand to pretty much anyone and Whether or not they're big into the mystery genre, they will say, that was an incredible read. So for that reason, it is my number one book of the year and really was not contested at all.
- [74:21]
B
Okay. I love this. I'm also shocked, but I love that because I forgot about this.
- [74:27]
A
You forgot about God of the Woods?
- [74:29]
B
Of course. It's not forgettable. I just haven't read this one. So that's why it wasn't on my radar of what could be your top one. Especially after the Tainted cup was not your number one. That's right.
- [74:39]
A
I threw you. I threw you off completely. Yeah.
- [74:42]
B
My number one book of the year is all the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker.
- [74:49]
A
Yes. Yes.
- [74:51]
B
Oh, and as I wrote in my notes, I will be shocked if we make it to the top. And Meredith has not yet mentioned this, but regardless, Chris Whitaker proved to me with this book that he is a master of the human heart. It is unclassifiable with regard to genre. It's devastating and beautiful. It's epic in that it's. It's long. It takes place. It takes over your heart and your brain. I loved every word of every single page. It went on my keeper shelf. When I read it in June, which was on an airplane coming back from Chicago, there was a weird thing happening in the seat next to me that thankfully, I was able to ignore completely because Chris Whitaker kept me safe the whole way. I love this book. I love Patch especially. He could have been my favorite protagonist of the year, but I was trying not to double up. I love Patch so much that I can't believe he doesn't. He's not just walking around in the world somewhere because he feels so real to me. This character created by this author. I adore this book. All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker.
- [76:05]
A
The only reason this book wasn't on my top 10. Well, there's two reasons. Number one, I. For some reason. And this is just one of those things. And everyone does this, but for some reason, I consistently conflate God of the woods and all the Colors of the Dark because I read them really close in time.
- [76:21]
B
So close. Yeah.
- [76:23]
A
So there was a part of me that almost felt like I had to. I had to choose between them. They're not the same at all.
- [76:31]
B
Right.
- [76:32]
A
Except that they were both really memorable mysteries by writers that I really like. I love Chris Whitaker. I love this book. At the end of the day, I ended up not. It is still. And it's on my keeper shelf. I have a signed copy of it. I Love this book. Probably should have included this in a reading experience, but I ended up feeling like there were just a couple of places where I felt like it was trauma porn or it was emotional piling on. There were a couple of choices that he made that I felt like he glazed the donut and the donut didn't need any more glazing. That was the only reason. But I love this book.
- [77:18]
B
I love this book.
- [77:19]
A
And Patch is an amazing character.
- [77:21]
B
Yes.
- [77:22]
A
And who's that with the girl Character is.
- [77:25]
B
I don't know. I looked her up when I was preparing and I couldn't find it.
- [77:28]
A
The female lead I also really love. So yes, this was part of the reason why of five star books. This was like how to nail it, nail down the top 10. I felt like all of my top 10 had to be like almost perfect examples of what they were trying to do. And so I just couldn't. I shouldn't have introduced perfection into the equation because otherwise this would have been on my list in. Very interesting that that's your top book of the year.
- [77:56]
B
Yeah, I just. It shattered me.
- [77:59]
A
Yeah, I cried multiple times.
- [78:02]
B
I just didn't expect it to get me so hard.
- [78:07]
A
It's very, very, very emotional, for sure, you know. And I love Chris Whitaker. So those are big lists. A lot of feelings. 90, 90 minutes of us talking about them.
- [78:22]
B
Gushing. Yep. I love it.
- [78:24]
A
All right, remember, if you also want to hear us talk about our least favorite reads of the year, you can join us as a bookish super friend. That's $10 a month, which is not nothing, but you get so much for that. And you can join us as a bookish friend for $5 a month and you get all things Murderful Love and Chili Peppers Indie pressed list, which is.
- [78:47]
B
Very special this month and also super sized.
- [78:51]
A
Right. And the Reading Tracker. So you can right now, if you are listening to this, if you are thinking I really should at some point start tracking my reading to the level where I have this usable data that I can look back at my reading year and be able to make sense some better choices for myself. Getting the currently reading Reading Tracker is the way to start. And you do that by becoming a bookish friend. It's $5 a month. And again, if you want to dip in and dip out, you can absolutely do that. And you probably most people, the vast majority of people decide to stay because there's a tremendous amount of content and community there. But if you just want to get the reading Tracker, please do that because it will so benefit your Reading life. If that's the only, the only thing that you take from currently reading the reading tracker, using that. And right now is the perfect time of the year for you to jump in. I don't even touch my reading tracker till the end of January because I just do. I do my, my entries once a month so you're not behind. You can still take 2025 by the horns and track your reading in the way that's perfect for you. There's also Katie. You've done three different zooms, one of which is available as a replay. So if you want to dip in, get the reading tracker, watch the zoom where Katie walks you through everything. But if you're, if you're good with Google sheets, you're not going to need to be walked through anything.
- [80:17]
B
Oh, it's worth watching. It's so fun.
- [80:19]
A
Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, takes you on a deeper level and start tracking your reading because that is really the take home of this entire exercise that we go through once a year is, is that we're able to do this because we track our reading and we can really have a sense of what worked well for us.
- [80:38]
B
Yep, definitely. And we didn't do an ad for Patreon this month, so consider that done and dusted.
- [80:44]
A
Exactly. Exactly. Reader, know thyself you. That is the key to a better reading life.
- [80:50]
B
Yes.
- [80:51]
A
All right, that is it for this super sized episode of Currently Reading. As a reminder, here's where you can connect with us. You can find me, I'm Meredith, Meredith Monday Schwartz on Instagram and you can.
- [81:03]
B
Find me Katie@notesonbookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Puttivong Evans. You can find her on Instagram at most of Megan's Reads.
- [81:13]
A
Full show notes with the title of every book we mentioned in the episode and timestamps. Lord, Lord help you, Megan.
- [81:20]
B
Poor Megan.
- [81:21]
A
So you can zoom right to where we talked about. It can be found in our show notes and also on our website at Currently Reading podcast.
- [81:29]
B
That's like 68 books this week. You poor girl. We love you.
- [81:33]
A
Yes.
- [81:33]
B
You can also follow the show at Currently Reading Podcast on Instagram or email us@currentlyreading podcast gmail.com and if you, as.
- [81:41]
A
We said, join us as a bookish friend or a bookish super friend, you can have so much more content and community. You will absolutely love it. You can also rate and review us on Apple podcasts and shout us out on social media. All of those things help us find our perfect audience.
- [81:59]
B
Bookish friends are the nerdiest and the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.
- [82:06]
A
Until next week, may your coffee be.
- [82:08]
B
Hot and your book be unputdownable.
- [82:11]
A
Happy reading, Katie.
- [82:12]
B
Happy reading, Meredith.