What I Read in 2024

Once again, here is my top 10 (in no particular order) book roundup for 2024, a few days late this time! This is the fourth year running I’m doing this, and here are my previous roundups for 2023, 2022, and 2021.

I finished my Goodreads challenge, 110 books of romance novels and nonfiction books (no other genres), and here are some of my favorites. This year is heavy on the nonfiction, mostly because I didn’t read many romances I loved, and therefore supplemented with additional nonfiction.

• You Can't Have It All: The Basic B*tch Guide to Taking the Pressure Off by Stassi Schroeder

  I got back into Vanderpump Rules last year after I had to stop watching it because it reminded me of a friend I lost, and Stassi, who always has reminded me of myself at my most … most, is by far the most successful lifestyle entrepreneur of the VPR cast. I read her two previous books, and honestly while I was somewhat skeptical of this one based on the title, I found it surprisingly poignant and very balanced, which I definitely did not expect. In particular, the chapter about her addiction and self-harming behavior was a shock, and I’m glad she seems to be recovered from it. Stassi’s got her flaws, many of them to say the least, but prior to Beau, it was mildly horrifying seeing her interact with her love interests. The scene in season 6 where Patrick hits on Lisa Vanderpump and Stassi’s begging him to not break up with her is honestly depressing and just plain sad. I’m genuinely happy for her that she has a loving partner in Beau who nonetheless holds her accountable.

• A Tempest of Desire by Lorraine Heath
  I’ve always been a big Lorraine Heath fan, and this one is among my favorites. Aside from the wild premise of it (courtesan heroine gets stranded on deserted island after her hot air balloon crashes), Marlowe is a heroine who in a lesser book, would be the antagonist instead of the protagonist, and I liked that Heath flipped that narrative on its edge. I joked in my Goodreads review that Langdon was almost written as a love interest rather than a protagonist, but honestly, that’s not a bad thing.

• Citizen by Bill Clinton

  I didn’t expect to but I really liked Bill Clinton’s latest book about his life after his presidency. He’s very intelligent and funny, and appreciated his blunt honesty (“I gave speeches post presidency because I sent my daughter to Stanford and was broke fighting my court cases”) and his genuine confusion to being older than any man in his family ever has been, which is like #relatable despite the fact I’m 50 years younger than him. Like I’ve said many times, Bill Clinton (Father) » Bill Clinton (President) »» Bill Clinton (Man) »»»» Bill Clinton (Husband).
  

• Widow’s Kiss by Jane Feather

  One of my continual gripes with the romance novel genre is that there are no stakes, and in this book, where a Tudor-era widow four times over is investigated for the murder of her latest husband by a detective sent by King Henry VIII, there are absolutely stakes. I liked both protagonists in this book, and especially appreciated that they fell in love totally distrusting each other. It felt as if their falling in love was out of their control, and I just found that irresistible romantic. That said, it should be noted that the two sequels of this book are … not good at all, especially the third book in the series wherein (spoiler) the hero is responsible for arranging the drugging and rape of the heroine. But that said, Widow’s Kiss is phenomenal.

• Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks
  On principle, I love romance novels that aren’t Regency/Victorian and this book is no different. I liked how Eveline’s deafness was handled in the book, and how consent was negotiated between a woman that couldn’t communicate from the first and a man that has no idea what to do with her. I also find it interesting and a bit frustrating that there’s such a stark contrast between romance novels written before 2016 and those written after 2016, in historicals and especially in contemporaries, and while there are some exceptions, by and large, the more recent ones are noticeably worse, with fewer stakes and less resonance.

• The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All—But There Is a Solution by Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott

  Something minorly funny about me is that I’m a huge proponent of free speech in a way most partisan Democrats aren’t anymore. As a result, I end up reading and enjoying books that most people that vote like me are reluctant to champion, but I don’t have any qualms admitting that I like reading about how different people approach the world. It has always been somewhat ironic to me that left-wingers hate free speech because at the end of the day, cancel culture is rhetorically right-wing (just look at what happened at Hamlin College in Minnesota). In any case, this book was worth reading whether or not you think you’ll agree because I feel like there’s more common ground than you’d imagine.

• The Latino Century: How America's Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy by Mike Madrid
  When I read this book, the 2024 election had not yet occurred and people were still insisting up and down that Hispanics wouldn’t shift right and that anybody who believed the polls or rather, their crosstabs, was stupid. Lo and behold, the pollcels (of which I was one) were right. Hispanic men AND Hispanic women shifted double digits to the right from 2020 to 2024, and I think Mike Madrid gets understands the Latino population in a way nobody else does.

• Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin

  Lastly, despite being a dragon media superfan, I hadn’t read Fire and Blood until this year, but I finally did it! On the whole, I enjoyed it but man do I hate basically every Targaryen man, especially “Good” King Jaehaerys like he needs to be forced to walk over legos for all of purgatory to say the least¹. I feel like I vastly preferred the original ASOIAF books although I haven’t read them in years so maybe my opinions have changed since I was in my late teens. I was never a Targ stan and quite frankly I think the dragons are symbolic of nuclear weapons that nobody should really have access to and that entire family is rotten to the core, but that said, I find the Targs much more fascinating pre-Daenerys in the main ASOIAF books and during the Dance of the Dragons, which is depicted in the HBO show, House of the Dragon. In any case, Fire and Blood is worth reading, but the events therein should honestly should be taken with a giant grain of salt since well, it’s a history written from the point of view of men that clearly have major problems with women. Maybe that was intentional on George R.R. Martin’s part, but the point still stands.

1. My very dark theory that’s shared by some other ASOIAF fans is that Jaehaerys fathered his youngest daughter’s child, after which she mysteriously died, the youngest daughter that his sister-wife Alysanne never let out of her sight, even in sleep. The ultimate question then is whether Alysanne, whose older daughters all show serious signs of sexual abuse, was protecting her Gael or keeping the abuse discreet, in the family as the Targaryen family motto seems to be.