My first read of 2024 was The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty, which was a very out-of-my-wheelhouse book club pick. I was so pleasantly surprised to really enjoy this one! It’s a fantasy book that follows a ferocious female pirate - well, formerly ferocious, mostly retired after becoming a mom. She’s lured back to the high seas in search of a wealthy woman’s granddaughter for an unimaginable sum. 

 

This book was fun. It is very plot-driven, engrossing, magical, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. It did start to drag a bit at the end for me, but still had a good payoff. It reminded me how much fun fantasy can be and got me more interested in reading some new books in the genre! I definitely plan to continue this series once the next book is released.

These Impossible Things was also a book club pick. I liked the stories of three Muslim friends dealing with challenges and expectations differently. It was a quick read and I liked that it centered their friendship.

The Tennis Partner was a book club pick and we had a great discussion about it. I really liked the writing, however I found the book to be exploitative overall. Verghese shares the story of a friend training to be a doctor who struggles with addiction. The friend becomes his tennis partner and they grow very close. His friend was ashamed of his addiction and I don’t think he would have appreciated having this story told without being able to consent to it. That said, I did really like the writing and I’m eager to read Verghese’s fiction.

I listened to the audiobook of Essential Labor. This book explores mothering as social change. I liked how Garbes shared her own personal stories while reflecting on the different types of mothering that are essential yet under-appreciated.

I read Foe by Iain Reid for book club. This book is set in the near future where Junior and Henrietta live on a remote farm. A stranger arrives with alarming news that Junior has been selected to travel to space for some time, but while he is gone, a replacement will keep Henrietta company. But, something strange is going on… 

 

This was definitely a psychological page-turner, and while I didn’t totally predict the ending, I did see the path it was taking kind of early. This book was just okay for me. Not a lot happens, and somehow the action feels anti-climactic. Still, I read it quickly, and it was fun to discuss.  The writing reminded me of Blake Crouch, so if you like him, you might like this one. I don’t like Blake Crouch 😝 I am looking forward to watching the movie because I love Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, even though the reviews aren’t great.

I read Practical Magic by Alice Hoffmann for book club. I don’t understand why so many people like this book so much! It was so boring. There was no plot until the very end, it was just meandering nothingness about the apparently most beautiful family you’ve ever seen. Truly such a slog! Also where was the magic? There was almost none. I’m convinced the only reason people claim to like this is because of nostalgia. It was giving nothing.

We did watch the movie after which was slightly more enjoyable but still mostly just vibes. The plot was a little bit tighter but really the only reason to watch the movie is for the 90s autumn energy. Honestly could have skipped both.

Thanks to @pantheonbooks for my copy of Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. I went back and forth between reading and listening to this buzzy book. This dystopian novel is set in an America where prisoners may choose to compete in gladiator-like fights to the death for entertainment. If they win enough, their freedom is secured.

This book mostly follows the relationships between Links in Loretta Thurwar’s Chain-Gang. She is their most senior member, very close to earning her freedom. Also in her gang is Hurricane Staxxx, her friend and lover. The Links are constantly filmed for reality TV, and nothing is forbidden - some have been murdered by their teammates overnight. When the arena rules are changed and the rug is pulled from underneath them, Thurwar and Staxxx have to navigate a brutal, unfair system to try and save themselves. Happening simultaneously are cruel experiments on prisoners, perpetual new enemies and threats, protests against the system, and more.

Things I liked about this book: the world building, the action, the social commentary, and especially the relationships between the main characters. The big qualm I had with this book was the number of characters that took me out of the main storyline. There were a lot of side characters with long backstories, and though the extra information provided more context and enhanced the world building, they sometimes felt distracting and not completely necessary to me, and made the audiobook a bit hard to follow. I do often love a hefty character list but I think because this story was so plot-driven and full of action, I wanted to spend more time with the main characters and less with backstories of the side characters.

Overall I really liked this one. I would love love loveee to see it as a TV show or a movie - it was so immersive on the page and I think it would be cool to see it brought to life on a screen.

I waited too long to read Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. I had a feeling I was going to love this one, because so many of my reader friends with similar taste loved it, so I nominated it for book club. I am so glad I did because I did love it! The chapters are essentially interconnected short stories - each chapter follows a Black British woman (plus one non-binary identifying character) that relates somehow to other characters in the book, but the relationships between them aren’t the most important thing, so don’t worry too much if you aren’t taking notes. I found it easier to treat them as almost unrelated, and then it felt like when I made the connections, it was a bonus.

Almost every single section was compelling to me. These women were strong, they were flawed, they were doing their best, and they felt completely real. This book is written in a stream of consciousness style with no punctuation, but once I got into the flow, I was hooked and fully invested. I felt like it almost read faster because of that. This book touches on a lot of important themes of modern literature - feminism, racism, sexuality and gender, and more - while never feeling preachy. I absolutely loved this one and I’m so glad I finally picked it up. If this has been lingering on your shelves, I encourage you to do the same!

Thank you to @catapult for sending me Brother & Sister Enter the Forest by Richard Mirabella. This book is about a complicated sibling relationship between Willa and Justin. In the present day, Willa builds dioramas of events from her and Justin’s youth. She keeps them private, and she lost contact with Justin a long time ago. When Justin turns up on her doorstep, old wounds reopen, and old traumas are revisited. It’s not clear if the relationship can be salvaged. In the timeline from the past, Justin enters a doomed relationship with an older boyfriend that will have lifelong impacts.

I read this in August of last year, and to be honest, I can barely remember what happens in this book - I had to look up a synopsis. At the time I thought this book was fine, but I wasn’t moved or very compelled. I think it just wasn’t the emotional heavy hitter that I was hoping for. I was a little bored reading it, and it shows considering I barely remember it. But, if you like complicated sibling relationships, maybe you’ll connect with it more than I did.

I listened to the audiobook of Tell Me Everything by Erika Krouse over the summer last year (that’s how far behind I am on sharing what I’ve been reading, sheesh). Erika has one of those faces and affects that resulted in people opening up to her, including a lawyer named Grayson. Despite her having no experience, Grayson hires Erika as a private investigator on a sexual assault case involving the University of Colorado football program. Her retelling of her experience intersperses details of her own life and relationships, including recounting her own abuse that was accepted by her mother and disbelieved by her sister, with details of the lawsuit.

I didn’t know about this case before listening to this book. It’s truly disgusting what the players and football program got away with. I learned about the difficulties of prosecuting these types of crimes, and how unlikely it is for victims to ever see justice.

I liked learning about Erika alongside the case. The memoir sections were actually more compelling to me. Her relationship with her family is so dysfunctional - her mother completely disregarded years of sexual abuse of her daughter, and her sister just didn’t believe her. Yet, she still has a desire to be close with them.

In subject matter and somewhat in tone, this book reminded me of Know My Name by Chanel Miller. If you liked that one, or if you like true crime, memoirs, and can handle reading about tough subjects, I’d recommend this one.