2024 Reading Round-Up: My Highlights!
As the year comes to a close it’s time to pick some of my favourite reading this year. 2024 brought some amazing books! I’ve continued to avoid rating books on a scale when I’m sharing my thoughts and reviews, because I’ve found that the “star” rating can’t capture the feel of the book, or a good quote, or the things that made it impactful to me. I do rate some books on Goodreads, though I’m using that platform less and less. I have found The StoryGraph to be an excellent site to keep track of my reading, and I rate the books out of five stars there, mostly so I can take a look at the end of the year.
After three years of book blogging and Bookstagramming (reviewing on Instagram), not only have I stopped rating books on my posts, but I’ve also started to avoid the word “review” much of the time. I continue to write about books for The British Columbia Review, and this is a review in the truest sense of the word. On Instagram, my posts are sometimes true reviews, but more and more they reflect my thoughts on a book rather than a critique.
Why? As I read, one part of my brain is always assessing the positives and negatives of the book, so there’s an inherent evaluation happening at some level. But on another level, the books that impact me the most often have an ineffable quality. They engage me deeply in the themes as I turn the pages. Perhaps there are one or two concepts that will really stick with me. Those books often lead to conversations with others; inspire further reading for education on a topic; or tug at my worldview, making me see things in different ways. Perhaps I feel transported. Books that are somehow greater than the sum of their parts often defy an easy explanation or straightforward rating.
Some of my 2024 bookish highlights:
- I continue to review for The BC Review, now for both fiction and nonfiction.
- My semi-annual Tackle Your TBR Challenge continues strong, where I and a group of readers vow to read books that we already own for a month.
- I co-host a CanuckReads book club focusing on Canadian Literature.
- I finally finished my Read a Series: The Expanse Edition project. That was nine long books that were stellar and I can’t recommend highly enough to SciFi fans
- My blog featured two Author Chats: Dr. John Maxted on his medical memoir To Be A Family Doctor…And More Than That!; and Linda Purcell on her vegan cookbook Veggie Outlaws.
- My guest blog post Two Years In: What I’ve Learned as a Reviewer on Bookstagram appeared on the River Street Writing blog in June.
- I participated as an Avid Reader for the 2024 Canadian Book Club Awards. I’m read all the 2024 submissions in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category and helped to select the three finalists.
Favourite Fiction
●When We Were Ashes by Andrew Boden
Goose Lane Editions
This debut novel gets my vote for the best reading experience of the year. From my blurb for the BC Review: “Exquisitely written, Boden’s novel addresses the Aktion T4 program in Nazi Germany, and despite the difficult subject, his novel speaks to the dignity of the human spirit in the midst of suffering. He treats his characters with tenderness and care; main character Rainor is a revelation. With touches of magic and music infusing the narrative, this was an unforgettable reading experience.” If I was a Giller Prize jury member, I’d pick this book for the 2025 shortlist, just saying.
●The Watch That Ends the Night by Hugh MacLennan
This novel contained layers of theme and thought that truly satisfied, along with a story that evoked a vivid picture of 1930s Montreal. We chose it for our CanuckReads book club, and I’m so glad we did. It was a Canadian bestseller for four months in 1959, and won the Governor General’s Award for literature. This is an engaging story, but the book’s strength lies in its vivid description of a segment of Canadian history: the zeitgeist of the 1930s in Canada. MacLennan captured the horror of the Depression, the left-over horror of the First World War (“...there was poison in the air then, and I think it spread from the rotting corpses of the first war.”), and the inevitable, ever-present spectre of Hitler’s fascism and another war. It’s so rich that an entire Uni course could be taught on it!
●We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
What horrific fun! This book actually freaked me out a bit, and I don’t scare easily. It has the magic mix to make it a page-turner that you want to keep picking up. It’s got a house that’s more than it seems, mysterious and vaguely threatening folks who may or may not prove trustworthy, weird hospital basements where they shouldn’t be, and a plot line that had me questioning my own take on things.
●Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes and Christina Wong
ECW Press
Everything I want in a book, this is an absorbing narrative of a Chinese elder living in a rapidly changing Toronto Chinatown dealing with grief, and the stuff of everyday life. There are detailed illustrations of the neighbourhood transformations to firmly contextualise the story. Wong writes beautifully, sometimes choosing to structure the words on the page to reflect sounds and sights, or emotional states. Occasionally the prose transforms into poetry for a brief interlude. Innes’ drawings of locations mentioned in the book were fascinating. This is my top pick for a book I’d like to give as a gift!
●Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
There was not a wasted word or sentiment in this beautifully constructed, devastating novel of a mother, a son, and an addiction. I listened to this on audio, narrated with such artistry by Angus King. Agnes Bain has an alcohol use disorder and her son Shuggie is her biggest supporter. It’s not a role he chose; rather, it’s one he was born into. Mother and son are truly enmeshed, and for all the heartbreak that brings, Stuart’s talent is to bring a measure of love and sympathy to this story as well. Shuggie is now on my list of most amazing fictional characters. He’s noble and he never allows us to forget Agnes’ humanity in the face of illness, which is the most precious gift of this book.
●A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
This was a re-read for me. I read it originally as a teen, and remember ugly crying at the end of the book. I’m so glad I picked it up again, and it was even better because I read this in tandem with a friend, and the book and its ideas sparked great discussion. I enjoyed this novel immensely, and once you accustom yourself to the style and rhythm of Dickens’ 19th century prose, it is absorbing, immersive, clever, funny and poignant. His ability to draw a colourful character is impressive, and his tongue-in-cheek political observation is sharp, as is his insight into the unchanging vagaries of human nature. It's got my favourite quote of the year (see below). I didn’t actually cry hard this time, but I will admit to tearing up a bit.
Honourable Mentions:
●Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
A story of a life in progress, where hockey stands in as a metaphor for so much of life in this novel, by the talented Ojibwe author Wagamese.
●A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke
What a wonderful discovery of a whimsical book! I felt swept away as I journeyed with Aubry Tourvel through her strange, surreal and sometimes beautiful life.
●Brotherless Night by VV Ganeshananthan
A nuanced take on the Sri Lankan civil war through the eyes of one woman with competing loyalties, this served as both a tale of the vagaries of war and a portrait of loss.
●NORMA by Sarah Mintz
This debut novel gets my vote for the best reading experience of the year. From my blurb for the BC Review: “Exquisitely written, Boden’s novel addresses the Aktion T4 program in Nazi Germany, and despite the difficult subject, his novel speaks to the dignity of the human spirit in the midst of suffering. He treats his characters with tenderness and care; main character Rainor is a revelation. With touches of magic and music infusing the narrative, this was an unforgettable reading experience.” If I was a Giller Prize jury member, I’d pick this book for the 2025 shortlist, just saying.
●The Watch That Ends the Night by Hugh MacLennan
This novel contained layers of theme and thought that truly satisfied, along with a story that evoked a vivid picture of 1930s Montreal. We chose it for our CanuckReads book club, and I’m so glad we did. It was a Canadian bestseller for four months in 1959, and won the Governor General’s Award for literature. This is an engaging story, but the book’s strength lies in its vivid description of a segment of Canadian history: the zeitgeist of the 1930s in Canada. MacLennan captured the horror of the Depression, the left-over horror of the First World War (“...there was poison in the air then, and I think it spread from the rotting corpses of the first war.”), and the inevitable, ever-present spectre of Hitler’s fascism and another war. It’s so rich that an entire Uni course could be taught on it!
●We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
What horrific fun! This book actually freaked me out a bit, and I don’t scare easily. It has the magic mix to make it a page-turner that you want to keep picking up. It’s got a house that’s more than it seems, mysterious and vaguely threatening folks who may or may not prove trustworthy, weird hospital basements where they shouldn’t be, and a plot line that had me questioning my own take on things.
●Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes and Christina Wong
ECW Press
Everything I want in a book, this is an absorbing narrative of a Chinese elder living in a rapidly changing Toronto Chinatown dealing with grief, and the stuff of everyday life. There are detailed illustrations of the neighbourhood transformations to firmly contextualise the story. Wong writes beautifully, sometimes choosing to structure the words on the page to reflect sounds and sights, or emotional states. Occasionally the prose transforms into poetry for a brief interlude. Innes’ drawings of locations mentioned in the book were fascinating. This is my top pick for a book I’d like to give as a gift!
●Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
There was not a wasted word or sentiment in this beautifully constructed, devastating novel of a mother, a son, and an addiction. I listened to this on audio, narrated with such artistry by Angus King. Agnes Bain has an alcohol use disorder and her son Shuggie is her biggest supporter. It’s not a role he chose; rather, it’s one he was born into. Mother and son are truly enmeshed, and for all the heartbreak that brings, Stuart’s talent is to bring a measure of love and sympathy to this story as well. Shuggie is now on my list of most amazing fictional characters. He’s noble and he never allows us to forget Agnes’ humanity in the face of illness, which is the most precious gift of this book.
●A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
This was a re-read for me. I read it originally as a teen, and remember ugly crying at the end of the book. I’m so glad I picked it up again, and it was even better because I read this in tandem with a friend, and the book and its ideas sparked great discussion. I enjoyed this novel immensely, and once you accustom yourself to the style and rhythm of Dickens’ 19th century prose, it is absorbing, immersive, clever, funny and poignant. His ability to draw a colourful character is impressive, and his tongue-in-cheek political observation is sharp, as is his insight into the unchanging vagaries of human nature. It's got my favourite quote of the year (see below). I didn’t actually cry hard this time, but I will admit to tearing up a bit.
Honourable Mentions:
●Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
A story of a life in progress, where hockey stands in as a metaphor for so much of life in this novel, by the talented Ojibwe author Wagamese.
●A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke
What a wonderful discovery of a whimsical book! I felt swept away as I journeyed with Aubry Tourvel through her strange, surreal and sometimes beautiful life.
●Brotherless Night by VV Ganeshananthan
A nuanced take on the Sri Lankan civil war through the eyes of one woman with competing loyalties, this served as both a tale of the vagaries of war and a portrait of loss.
●NORMA by Sarah Mintz
Invisible Publishing
I was captured by author Mintz’s straightforward prose that begs to be read aloud, mixed with forays into wildly experimental writing. All the better to dive into the mind of main character Norma, a recently widowed retiree who fixates on an abused grocery store clerk as her reason to keep living. It’s a stealthy exploration of loneliness and grief, and I loved it from beginning to end.
Favourite Nonfiction
●Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista
An amazing journalistic examination that taught me about the Philippine “war on drugs” under former president Rodrigo Duterte through the voices of those who lived through it. This was an extraordinary book, not only because it was well-written, incisive in its reportage on the extrajudicial killings, and horrifying in its clarity; but also because it reminded me that it is worth taking time to learn about recent history that I didn’t fully appreciate and can learn from now.
●The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
I was moved and a bit shaken by this comprehensive examination and indictment of the US criminal justice system and the war on drugs to create a new race-based “caste” system. Alexander’s thesis is that the US criminal justice system has led to mass incarceration of mostly young Black men as a result of the War on Drugs that started in the 1980s and has led to a system of racial control, even while justice purports to be colorblind. The book is logically laid out, and Alexander’s argument is coherent and transparent. It was most interesting how she invoked many things that I have known about over the years, and shone the light of injustice on them.
●How to Think Like Socrates by Donald J. Robertson
Combining a philosophy lesson, a history tutorial and an analysis of how to apply it all to the modern world, I feel enriched for having read this book.The Peloponnesian War is raging, with Athens battling Sparta. What a bloody history indeed! And in Athens we find no less roiling trouble politically, with democracy giving way to demagogues and oligarchs. The cool part is when Robertson takes Socratic philosophy and applies it, at the end of each chapter, to a cognitive-behavioural principle that we can use; or provides commentary on how these principles relate to the way Socrates advocates living a just and wise life.
●Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
This deep exploration into the nature of a forest left me with a much richer and more complex understanding of how trees and other flora exist symbiotically. There’s science, but Simard makes it easy to understand, letting the reader learn with her 20-year-old self how to conduct an experiment in the forest. Gradually, we discover with her that trees communicate through underground fungal roots (mycorrhizae) and share resources–in all sorts of ways. And the oldest trees (Mother Trees) support their kin and other flora as well. Her work challenged the prevailing wisdom of clearcutting, and using pesticides to decimate a forest before replanting.
●Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
Klein has chosen as a subject her real-life doppelganger Naomi Wolf to begin her exploration of the “mirror world.” This uncanny mistaking is the beginning for Klein to discuss Wolf, but then she does something cool, which is to take this idea and examine the world that we all live in, either on one side of the mirror (rationality?) or on the other (the “mirror world” of conspiracy or extreme right or left thinking). A fascinating journey through the looking glass into the world of conspiracy and the ultra-right. But the further Klein dives into this mirror world, the more it seems we might be seeing our own reflections.
●The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
A lengthy series of essays on Camus’ philosophy of the absurd, I won’t say too much about this one except that it provided such rich food for thought about the nature of how we conduct ourselves in our lives with respect to contentment and happiness. I didn’t even understand parts of this very well, but it was a great part of my current Author in Depth project for reading the works of Camus. I suspect this selection will appeal to those interested in philosophy or Camus.
Favourite Poetry
●Limited Verse by David Martin
I was captured by author Mintz’s straightforward prose that begs to be read aloud, mixed with forays into wildly experimental writing. All the better to dive into the mind of main character Norma, a recently widowed retiree who fixates on an abused grocery store clerk as her reason to keep living. It’s a stealthy exploration of loneliness and grief, and I loved it from beginning to end.
Favourite Nonfiction
●Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista
An amazing journalistic examination that taught me about the Philippine “war on drugs” under former president Rodrigo Duterte through the voices of those who lived through it. This was an extraordinary book, not only because it was well-written, incisive in its reportage on the extrajudicial killings, and horrifying in its clarity; but also because it reminded me that it is worth taking time to learn about recent history that I didn’t fully appreciate and can learn from now.
●The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
I was moved and a bit shaken by this comprehensive examination and indictment of the US criminal justice system and the war on drugs to create a new race-based “caste” system. Alexander’s thesis is that the US criminal justice system has led to mass incarceration of mostly young Black men as a result of the War on Drugs that started in the 1980s and has led to a system of racial control, even while justice purports to be colorblind. The book is logically laid out, and Alexander’s argument is coherent and transparent. It was most interesting how she invoked many things that I have known about over the years, and shone the light of injustice on them.
●How to Think Like Socrates by Donald J. Robertson
Combining a philosophy lesson, a history tutorial and an analysis of how to apply it all to the modern world, I feel enriched for having read this book.The Peloponnesian War is raging, with Athens battling Sparta. What a bloody history indeed! And in Athens we find no less roiling trouble politically, with democracy giving way to demagogues and oligarchs. The cool part is when Robertson takes Socratic philosophy and applies it, at the end of each chapter, to a cognitive-behavioural principle that we can use; or provides commentary on how these principles relate to the way Socrates advocates living a just and wise life.
●Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
This deep exploration into the nature of a forest left me with a much richer and more complex understanding of how trees and other flora exist symbiotically. There’s science, but Simard makes it easy to understand, letting the reader learn with her 20-year-old self how to conduct an experiment in the forest. Gradually, we discover with her that trees communicate through underground fungal roots (mycorrhizae) and share resources–in all sorts of ways. And the oldest trees (Mother Trees) support their kin and other flora as well. Her work challenged the prevailing wisdom of clearcutting, and using pesticides to decimate a forest before replanting.
●Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
Klein has chosen as a subject her real-life doppelganger Naomi Wolf to begin her exploration of the “mirror world.” This uncanny mistaking is the beginning for Klein to discuss Wolf, but then she does something cool, which is to take this idea and examine the world that we all live in, either on one side of the mirror (rationality?) or on the other (the “mirror world” of conspiracy or extreme right or left thinking). A fascinating journey through the looking glass into the world of conspiracy and the ultra-right. But the further Klein dives into this mirror world, the more it seems we might be seeing our own reflections.
●The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
A lengthy series of essays on Camus’ philosophy of the absurd, I won’t say too much about this one except that it provided such rich food for thought about the nature of how we conduct ourselves in our lives with respect to contentment and happiness. I didn’t even understand parts of this very well, but it was a great part of my current Author in Depth project for reading the works of Camus. I suspect this selection will appeal to those interested in philosophy or Camus.
Favourite Poetry
●Limited Verse by David Martin
University of Calgary Press
David Martin’s latest book Limited Verse defies expectations. There’s much to discover within this slim book; the reading experience changes as you progress through. It’s about poetry: old poems translated into “New English,” a form of English in the near future that is Harmonized into 850 words in order for those forced to colonize New Earth to communicate seamlessly. Prisoners’ memories are wiped, so they’ll have no knowledge of their past. It’s poetry sci-fi! A book unlike any other I’ve read in recent memory, this is a participatory reading experience at turns clever and heartbreaking.
●Rebellion Box by Hollay Ghadery
Radiant Press
Hollay Ghadery’s debut poetry collection is one that landed on the top of my TBR right when I needed it. She’s an Iranian-Canadian memoirist and poet living in Ontario who has shared a glimpse of her life in Rebellion Box. She explores pain, joy, motherhood, existential anxiety and abuse. Spend an afternoon with these searing, searching poems and I suspect you will find something that truly resonates.
Best Audiobook Experiences
●I’m Glad My Mom Died by Janette McCurdy
This poignant yet humorous memoir masterfully blended self-disclosure and brutal honesty with authenticity and genuineness. McCurdy writes and narrates her story of being a child actor, birthed onto the screen by her mother, who desperately wanted her daughter to be an actor. Reading of the intrusive parenting and McCurdy’s absolute attunement to her mother’s emotional needs was tough. After her mom died, she spiralled, the legacy of years being the emotional container for her mother, and having nowhere to put any of the feelings. And she hated acting. Seeing her emerge into recovery was affecting, and I was quite emotional reading some of her sentiments around disordered eating. It felt genuine.
●The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time (1963) is two essays: the shorter Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation and the much longer Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region of My Mind. I was impressed by the writing, but it was Baldwin’s content that shouted. He was a man with so much lived experience, and had important things to say about the racially divided society he found himself in. The stories he told were unfailingly interesting, relevant not only to his era but absolutely to today’s. The way that he took his stories and used them to frame his opinions was masterful.
●Heavy by Kiese Laymon
This 2018 memoir won the Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction, and was selected by several “best of” lists that year. I think the audiobook is an excellent way to go, because Laymon narrates his memoir, and it was amazing to listen to. Laymon’s style is suited for reading aloud: he writes with a poetic sensibility that feels like spoken word poetry at times. Written in the form of a letter to his mother, Laymon’s memoir is combined with opinion on the current state of some aspects of American society. His comments on being a Black man growing up in Jackson, Mississippi as the son of a woman who was a professor, yet suffered from gambling addiction and poverty, were illuminating. I appreciate his openness in sharing his own battles with childhood sexual and physical abuse, severely disordered eating, and gambling addiction.
***
Special awards go to:
Books That Morphed Into Fun Activities:
●Poetry Comics by Grant Snider
I stumbled upon Snider’s Substack Incidental Comics, and more specifically, his post from April 2024 called “How To Make Poetry Comics.” I am not an excellent poet, nor do I have any skill with art or drawing, but something about his mini-tutorial took root, and I decided to check out his March 2024 graphic novel Poetry Comics. It was great, and then I organized an art night where I, my spouse and another couple made our own poetry comics.
●Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez
Our October pick for the #CanuckReads book club was Scarborough, a book that I’ve been wanting to read for a while. It was a Trillium Book Award finalist, and shortlisted for Canada Reads 2022. A multifaceted, beautifully woven tale of community, with both its heartbreak and its moments of triumph. We had a great book club discussion, then some of us decided to meet to watch the 2021 film adaptation. It was a great night of socializing, food, and discussion.
●A Perfect Day for a Walk by Bill Arnott
Spending time with the author reading about his Vancouver walks was so pleasant. I revisited some of my own memories, learned some new things about my adopted city, and even went for my own “perfect walk.” Local author Arnott’s enthusiasm for Vancouver is clear. It’s divided into neighbourhoods, and as he walks around the city he invites us to take a literary walk along with him. The book is a valuable snapshot of Vancouver neighbourhoods as they are now, and gives historical context. After I was done, I went for my own walks to Stanley Park and Seaforth Peace Park as inspired by the book.
Best Fungal:
●Fungal by Ariel Gordon (Wolsak&Wynn)
Essays on mushrooms that might just make you a fungus fan!
●You Will Speak for the Dead by RA Busby (Stelliform Press)
Creepy but ultimately beautiful, this short novella used horror to speak to the magic of interconnectedness.
Most Amazing Zombie Concept (with uncomfortable Freudian symbolism):
●American Rapture by CJ Leede
What a wild book! I wasn’t sure what to think but as I kept reading, this zombie tale with a twist hooked me with its exploration of repression, guilt and religion. This is zombie horror with a twist, as the contagion is spread via fluids, which includes sexual transmission. These are lusty zombies, and it's at once as campy and as horrible as it sounds (but in the end, I really liked this book, though it’s not for the squeamish).
Most Snarky Fun Reading Experience:
●Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2) by Matt Dinniman
This genre is LitRPG: books that follow the form of a role playing game with a sci fi/fantasy type of element, but we read it rather than play it. This book was escapist, violent, and cartoonish, but has such a satisfying storyline and it actually has heart (somewhere deep underneath the blood and guts). This is mildly non-PC, gore-laden, irreverent fun. Carl has a heart of gold and gets into trouble trying to help everyone. I like the satire as well, but the flaming lemurs from the abandoned circus were a highlight for me.
Weirdest Plot Twist (...like, seriously out there):
●Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes
This was a good but not great, really long book that was basically about spycraft, with a decent story that I was sort of enjoying…until the 73% mark. All of the sudden there was a mindblowingly weird abrupt genre change/plot twist. The plot twist is enough to make the entire book worthwhile. I was completely gobsmacked and now I will probably never forget this book. Ok, maybe there were tiny clues…little things that made me question the plain spy novel narrative a tiny bit…but not enough to see the twist.
Best First Lines:
●Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
“Maybe it was that Cyrus had done the wrong drugs in the right order, or the right drugs in the wrong order, but when God finally spoke back to him after twenty-seven years of silence, what Cyrus wanted more than anything else was a do-over.”
●Rothschild’s Fiddle (short story) by Anton Chekhov
“The town was a little one, worse than a village, and it was inhabited by scarcely any but old people who died with an infrequency that was really annoying.” (it is from a coffin maker’s perspective!)
Best Quote:
From A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:
I will not forget my first reading of the chapter “Monsieur the Marquis in Town,” with the frankly hilarious spectacle of the powerful political figure Monseigneur requiring no less than four servants to assist the delivery of his hot chocolate to his lips. The opulence of his surroundings is spared no literary expense, and then Dickens goes in for the kill, with a satirical dagger:
●Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante
Yes, I read the whole 800 page classic and got no joy from this melodramatic family saga. From my review: “It struck me as a manual for how not to live. How not to conduct oneself in this life. Everyone was relentlessly horrible to everyone else. Empathy was non-existent, and kids who are devalued will devalue others. Narcissism was the predominant flavour, and if one doesn’t have a decent core of self-worth, then one can be held hostage by others’ whims.”
And finally…
Most Disappointing Novel of the Year:
●Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante
I should have DNF'd this very long book, but it had great reviews and I kept waiting for it to get better. I read it as a part of a readalong, and the group I was reading with were great, which kept me going. After 800 pages, the most concrete takeaway I got? Instead of trying to live with people, it's better just to get a cat. (And yes, you’ll have to read the entire book to understand what I mean!)
***
And that’s my highlight reel for my 2024 year in books. I wish everyone a fantastic and interesting bookish 2025!
David Martin’s latest book Limited Verse defies expectations. There’s much to discover within this slim book; the reading experience changes as you progress through. It’s about poetry: old poems translated into “New English,” a form of English in the near future that is Harmonized into 850 words in order for those forced to colonize New Earth to communicate seamlessly. Prisoners’ memories are wiped, so they’ll have no knowledge of their past. It’s poetry sci-fi! A book unlike any other I’ve read in recent memory, this is a participatory reading experience at turns clever and heartbreaking.
●Rebellion Box by Hollay Ghadery
Radiant Press
Hollay Ghadery’s debut poetry collection is one that landed on the top of my TBR right when I needed it. She’s an Iranian-Canadian memoirist and poet living in Ontario who has shared a glimpse of her life in Rebellion Box. She explores pain, joy, motherhood, existential anxiety and abuse. Spend an afternoon with these searing, searching poems and I suspect you will find something that truly resonates.
Best Audiobook Experiences
●I’m Glad My Mom Died by Janette McCurdy
This poignant yet humorous memoir masterfully blended self-disclosure and brutal honesty with authenticity and genuineness. McCurdy writes and narrates her story of being a child actor, birthed onto the screen by her mother, who desperately wanted her daughter to be an actor. Reading of the intrusive parenting and McCurdy’s absolute attunement to her mother’s emotional needs was tough. After her mom died, she spiralled, the legacy of years being the emotional container for her mother, and having nowhere to put any of the feelings. And she hated acting. Seeing her emerge into recovery was affecting, and I was quite emotional reading some of her sentiments around disordered eating. It felt genuine.
●The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time (1963) is two essays: the shorter Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation and the much longer Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region of My Mind. I was impressed by the writing, but it was Baldwin’s content that shouted. He was a man with so much lived experience, and had important things to say about the racially divided society he found himself in. The stories he told were unfailingly interesting, relevant not only to his era but absolutely to today’s. The way that he took his stories and used them to frame his opinions was masterful.
●Heavy by Kiese Laymon
This 2018 memoir won the Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction, and was selected by several “best of” lists that year. I think the audiobook is an excellent way to go, because Laymon narrates his memoir, and it was amazing to listen to. Laymon’s style is suited for reading aloud: he writes with a poetic sensibility that feels like spoken word poetry at times. Written in the form of a letter to his mother, Laymon’s memoir is combined with opinion on the current state of some aspects of American society. His comments on being a Black man growing up in Jackson, Mississippi as the son of a woman who was a professor, yet suffered from gambling addiction and poverty, were illuminating. I appreciate his openness in sharing his own battles with childhood sexual and physical abuse, severely disordered eating, and gambling addiction.
***
Special awards go to:
Books That Morphed Into Fun Activities:
●Poetry Comics by Grant Snider
I stumbled upon Snider’s Substack Incidental Comics, and more specifically, his post from April 2024 called “How To Make Poetry Comics.” I am not an excellent poet, nor do I have any skill with art or drawing, but something about his mini-tutorial took root, and I decided to check out his March 2024 graphic novel Poetry Comics. It was great, and then I organized an art night where I, my spouse and another couple made our own poetry comics.
●Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez
Our October pick for the #CanuckReads book club was Scarborough, a book that I’ve been wanting to read for a while. It was a Trillium Book Award finalist, and shortlisted for Canada Reads 2022. A multifaceted, beautifully woven tale of community, with both its heartbreak and its moments of triumph. We had a great book club discussion, then some of us decided to meet to watch the 2021 film adaptation. It was a great night of socializing, food, and discussion.
●A Perfect Day for a Walk by Bill Arnott
Spending time with the author reading about his Vancouver walks was so pleasant. I revisited some of my own memories, learned some new things about my adopted city, and even went for my own “perfect walk.” Local author Arnott’s enthusiasm for Vancouver is clear. It’s divided into neighbourhoods, and as he walks around the city he invites us to take a literary walk along with him. The book is a valuable snapshot of Vancouver neighbourhoods as they are now, and gives historical context. After I was done, I went for my own walks to Stanley Park and Seaforth Peace Park as inspired by the book.
Best Fungal:
●Fungal by Ariel Gordon (Wolsak&Wynn)
Essays on mushrooms that might just make you a fungus fan!
●You Will Speak for the Dead by RA Busby (Stelliform Press)
Creepy but ultimately beautiful, this short novella used horror to speak to the magic of interconnectedness.
Most Amazing Zombie Concept (with uncomfortable Freudian symbolism):
●American Rapture by CJ Leede
What a wild book! I wasn’t sure what to think but as I kept reading, this zombie tale with a twist hooked me with its exploration of repression, guilt and religion. This is zombie horror with a twist, as the contagion is spread via fluids, which includes sexual transmission. These are lusty zombies, and it's at once as campy and as horrible as it sounds (but in the end, I really liked this book, though it’s not for the squeamish).
Most Snarky Fun Reading Experience:
●Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2) by Matt Dinniman
This genre is LitRPG: books that follow the form of a role playing game with a sci fi/fantasy type of element, but we read it rather than play it. This book was escapist, violent, and cartoonish, but has such a satisfying storyline and it actually has heart (somewhere deep underneath the blood and guts). This is mildly non-PC, gore-laden, irreverent fun. Carl has a heart of gold and gets into trouble trying to help everyone. I like the satire as well, but the flaming lemurs from the abandoned circus were a highlight for me.
Weirdest Plot Twist (...like, seriously out there):
●Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes
This was a good but not great, really long book that was basically about spycraft, with a decent story that I was sort of enjoying…until the 73% mark. All of the sudden there was a mindblowingly weird abrupt genre change/plot twist. The plot twist is enough to make the entire book worthwhile. I was completely gobsmacked and now I will probably never forget this book. Ok, maybe there were tiny clues…little things that made me question the plain spy novel narrative a tiny bit…but not enough to see the twist.
Best First Lines:
●Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
“Maybe it was that Cyrus had done the wrong drugs in the right order, or the right drugs in the wrong order, but when God finally spoke back to him after twenty-seven years of silence, what Cyrus wanted more than anything else was a do-over.”
●Rothschild’s Fiddle (short story) by Anton Chekhov
“The town was a little one, worse than a village, and it was inhabited by scarcely any but old people who died with an infrequency that was really annoying.” (it is from a coffin maker’s perspective!)
Best Quote:
From A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:
I will not forget my first reading of the chapter “Monsieur the Marquis in Town,” with the frankly hilarious spectacle of the powerful political figure Monseigneur requiring no less than four servants to assist the delivery of his hot chocolate to his lips. The opulence of his surroundings is spared no literary expense, and then Dickens goes in for the kill, with a satirical dagger:
“For the rooms, though a beautiful scene to look at, and adorned with every device of decoration that the taste and skill of the time could achieve, were, in truth, not a sound business; considered with any reference to the scarecrows in the rags and nightcaps elsewhere (and not so far off, either, but that the watching towers of Notre-Dame, almost equidistant from the two extremes, could see them both), they would have been an exceedingly uncomfortable business–if that could have been anybody’s business, at the house of Monseigneur. Military officers destitute of military knowledge; naval officers with no idea of a ship; civil officers without a notion of affairs; brazen ecclesiastics, of the worst world worldly, with sensual eyes, loose tongues, and looser lives; all totally unfi for their several callings, all lying horribly in pretending to belong to them, but all nearly or remotely of the order of Monseigneur, and therefore foisted on all public employments from which anything was to be got…”Best Book to Teach You How to be a Bad Person:
●Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante
Yes, I read the whole 800 page classic and got no joy from this melodramatic family saga. From my review: “It struck me as a manual for how not to live. How not to conduct oneself in this life. Everyone was relentlessly horrible to everyone else. Empathy was non-existent, and kids who are devalued will devalue others. Narcissism was the predominant flavour, and if one doesn’t have a decent core of self-worth, then one can be held hostage by others’ whims.”
And finally…
Most Disappointing Novel of the Year:
●Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante
I should have DNF'd this very long book, but it had great reviews and I kept waiting for it to get better. I read it as a part of a readalong, and the group I was reading with were great, which kept me going. After 800 pages, the most concrete takeaway I got? Instead of trying to live with people, it's better just to get a cat. (And yes, you’ll have to read the entire book to understand what I mean!)
***
And that’s my highlight reel for my 2024 year in books. I wish everyone a fantastic and interesting bookish 2025!
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