Kristin Hannah’s novels get a lot of love online, so I have been thinking about reading one for awhile but have been hesitant to because I find over-hyped books do not live up to my expectations. Then I found this beautiful 10th anniversary edition of The Nightingale with sprayed edges in Costco and had to buy it. Damn, this book is good. It actually made me cry, which does not happen very often when I read books.
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Anita De Monte Laughs Last has an intriguing premise: in 1985, a rising artist is murdered, and her existence is all but erased from the art scene until 1998 when an art history student discovers her art. But this novel is about more then a sensationalistic murder; it actually examines the intersection of art, privilege and race. There is, however, an unexpected supernatural element to the story that kind of put me off, but I decided to go with it because I love petty acts of vengeance.
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When I first saw The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, I thought, Another book about an octopus?? Are octopuses a thing now?? (Remember, I read Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures not too long ago). The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is NOT about an octopus, and I knew that when I started reading this novel, but I spent the entire time while reading wondering if an octopus was going to make an appearance. It isn’t until page 326 of 368 that you learn what the title is about. Still, this novel wasn’t quite what I thought it was going to be, I think because I did not pay that much attention to the synopsis. I thought it was going to be a mystery story about uncovering family secrets, but there is a lot more to it than that.
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There is an author’s note at the end of This Time Tomorrow in which Emma Straub explains how the inspiration for this novel came from her relationship with her own father. At the end of the author’s note she writes, “I hope that you enjoyed the book and that it made you cry.” I did enjoy This Time Tomorrow, but it did not make me cry, which made me realize how much I do not relate to the protagonist of this story.
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You know I like stories about witches, and Cherie Dimaline’s VenCo is a fun story about witches working together to take down the patriarchy. This novel is a real treat to read.
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Like Pip Williams’s first novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, The Bookbinder is great for fans of historical fiction. You should definitely read it if you have read The Dictionary of Lost Words. The Bookbinder is also set in Oxford during the early twentieth century and focuses on the suffrage movement in England and WWI. Some characters from The Dictionary of Lost Words make an appearance in this novel.
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For the first third of Susan Rieger’s Like Mother, Like Mother, I thought, this book is fun and entertaining, which feels like a weird thing to think about a novel that is about generational trauma. But then the story took a shift in tone that felt inauthentic to me, and I ended up feeling cynical towards this novel.
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The Inconvenient Indian is a great book if you are looking for an introduction to the history of the relationship between Indigenous people and white people in Canada and the US. For someone like me who has already read many different books about Indigenous people, The Inconvenient Indian is just a broad level look at this relationship and does not really examine how it affects Indigenous people on an individual level.
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2025 is off to a good start in terms of my reading. Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark is a very slow-burn story about missing girls and a serial killer. Some people might not like how slowly the story moves along, but I think this novel is great and I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon powering through this book to its satisfying conclusion.
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Another year done and dusted. Not feeling great about the next four years, so I think I am just going to bury my head in books. Before I get to that, though, I am going to share my top five books of 2024:
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