Favorite Reads of 2024

Wishing you a Happy New Year and many good books in 2025! I read nearly 200 books in 2024 and quite a few were so compelling I kept recommending them to others or thinking about them myself. These are my top ten:

My August 2024 Reading

No 5s this month: I liked The Briar Club but not as much as Kate Quinn's other books. I enjoyed Long Island and will suggest my book group reads it but his style is very understated and I wasn’t sure I understood the ending. The Rom-Commers was fun and I’ve decided I like Center’s books much better than Emily Henry’s: although their styles are not dissimilar, I think Center demonstrates more sense of humor.

My May 2024 Reading

There is no doubt my two favorite books of the month were Going Zero, a thriller involving a chase I am still thinking about, and The Diamond Eye, about a Russian sniper during WWII. I suspect they will be on my "Best of 2024" list and I recommend both of them highly.  Overall, there were some very strong and some disappointing books with two good rereads, Lucy Parker's Act Like It and The Emerald City of Oz for Ozathon24.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

Title: The Diamond Eye
Author: Kate Quinn
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication: HarperAudio, 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: Soviet Union and United States

Description: When Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko is sent to the United States during WWII to join Eleanor Roosevelt’s international student conference, Stalin’s goal is to showcase a military sniper whose skill has earned her the nickname Lady Death, hoping she and the rest of Russian delegation can generate American support on the Eastern Front.

My March 2024 Reading

This month’s best reads were all historical fiction: The Phoenix Crown, set around the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco; Daughter of Lir by Diana Norman, about an abbess in medieval Ireland; and Wheel of Fortune by C.F. Dunn, in which a 15th century orphan learns she is powerless against men who should be her protectors.

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

Title: The Phoenix Crown
Authors: Kate Quinn and Janie Chang
Narrators: Saskia Maarleveld and Katherine Chin
Publication: HarperCollins, Audiobook, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: San Francisco, 1906; Paris, 1911

Description: Four unusual women meet in San Francisco, just days before the infamous earthquake of 1906 and resulting fire that lasted three days, destroying nearly thirty thousand buildings and killing at least 600.

Six Degrees of Separation - from Friendaholic to Elizabeth of the Garret Theatre

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place, add six books, and see where we end up. This month’s starting point is Friendaholic by Elizabeth Day, a nonfiction book about the evolution of friendship. I think her premise is that if you spread yourself too thin, you aren’t being a good friend to others or yourself. I find self-help books quite tedious so am unlikely to read this.

Favorite Reads of 2022

Here are my favorite books from the past year:

Best Nonfiction Read of the Year: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson (2015) (audio read by talented Scott Brick). I was mesmerized listening to the audio of the Lusitania’s last and tragic voyage in 1915. Larson weaves together stories about the passengers and crew, bringing them all to life.

WWW Wednesday – March 23, 2022

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

After seeing a New York Times review, my sister Andrea recommended The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk, a mystery set in the rare books department of a large university.

The Alice Network (Book Review)

Title: The Alice Network
Author: Kate Quinn
Publication: William Morrow paperback, 2017
Genre: Historical Fiction

Plot: In a fast-paced new historical novel from bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the based-on-real-life Alice Network in World War I France and a rebellious American college student searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a compelling story of courage and redemption.