KJ's 2024 Reading Recap
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This year I read 29 books
This was the first year I really fell off the social media grind of it all. I decided to delete my "bookstagram" and in turn deactivate my personal Instagram. I also stopped keeping up with all the book reviews. (I am writing this on March 14, 2025, however, I have the ability to say I posted this January of 2025 so that's what I will be doing, as if anyone even reads these posts anymore, I am simply calling out into the void that is the internet.)
This year I created a book club
What originally started out as me and two friends has slowly shifted into a group of five women. Only one person has left the club so far, I am so grateful I was able to start something like this with my friends. Here's the books we managed to read in 2024 in order.
1. True Biz - Sara Novic (my pick)
2. Yellowface - R.F. Kuang
3. Everything Sad is Untrue - Daniel Nayeri
4. The Women - Kristin Hannah
5. Under the Whispering Door - TJ Klune (my pick)
6. 101 essays that will change the way you think - Brianna West
7. The Liars' Club - Marry Karr
8. The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah
9. Coraline - Neil Gaiman (my pick)
10. We Deserve Monuments - Jas Hammonds
11. Six Scorched Roses - Carissa Broadbent
12. The Rose Code - Kate Quinn
My favorites from book club would be: The Women, Under the Whispering Door, The Liars' Club, and Yellowface.
Missing posts
This year I didn't make a blog post about all the books I read, so on top of the 12 books I read for book club, I read 17 more books, in total 29, as I mentioned before. Because of that, I will make a list of all the books I read during 2024 and include a link to the blog post if I made one (not including the book club books).
The first book I read was The Lighting Thief, I was anticipating reading the whole series in honor of the books being made into a tv series through Disney, however, I have yet to continue reading. Next, The Song of Achilles, which I read in lieu of the rest of the Percy Jackson series because it's a more mature tale of the Greek myths. Things took a turn for the next book, I was feeling rather introspective while reading up on trauma in The Body Keeps the Score. But I came back to the Greek Myth retellings and read Circe. Then I found Sylvia Plath, or she found me while reading The Bell Jar. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a bit of an odd duck, I still think about it from time to time. Animal Farm was a classic I'd been needing to read at least once, now matter if I started reading it with that pig of a man. I turned to contemplation by reading Everything I Know About Love and found no amount of reassurance could make me feel better about my situation. Did he love me, or did he not? I became drawn to the idea of rereading something I was familiar with so I could dissect someone else's love life instead of my own and so I read Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes for the second time. Then I began to wonder how people get stuck in shitty situations when everyone around them things the destructiveness is so apparent, and so I read Cultish. Then I thought, maybe it's just my mindset, maybe I'll try reading a romance novel so I could grow to like love so I read the Unhoneymooners. Then my love for cats overpowered my thirst for rewiring my brain, so I read If Cats Disappeared from the World. And shortly after that, not because of me, my relationship failed. Ironically, I went to the movies to watch It Ends With Us with him and I read It Ends With Us before I stopped making blog posts. To make the last part of MY reading journey about him feels completely unfair, however, it's the truth, he consumed me. I ended up reading a couple more books before the end of the year, but I haven't made posts about them, and I'm not sure I will. Here's the rest of the "story." I decided to read the book my friend recommended I read, she said it reminded her of her childhood, and so I read Faithful; it wasn't a religious book, however, the next book I read was Lilith, which was. A feminist retelling of the bible, sign me the fuck up. I then attempted reading This Side of Paradise because I loved The Great Gatsby so much, I didn't finish it, but I read enough. Then I started reading a book series, a pattern I've noticed I start doing toward the end of the year. I only got through the first two books in the series which was, A Court of Thorns and Rose and A Court of Mist and Fury. Toward the end of the year I wanted to think about someone else's past instead of mine and I wanted to escape.
My best of 2024
My favorite book this read was Lilith. My second favorite The Bell Jar. Third, The Women. Some honorable mentions were Circe and If Cats Disappeared from the World.