This is one of my favorite posts to write each year and I'm pretty sure I say that, every single year. My reading year wasn't quite what I had hoped for, especially through November and December where life just got crazy busy. I hit 175 books like most of the last many years but that was strongly held up by the MANY short chapter books I read to Sam (seriously, so many). Reading keeps me grounded and feeling like myself and life was just A LOT this holiday season where there just wasn't time for reading (and I felt that!). BUT...I still read many good books throughout the year; my initial list for this was around 16! So good year for reading! 2025 isn't off to the best start but I'm hoping once we find our homeschool groove that I'll settle back into my normal reading groove too.
Some stats:
- 175 books this year (I've averaged 175/year since 2018, one year hitting 180, once 170 but 175 every other year since)
- 22 were rereads (13%)
- Finished 3 books with Luke (2%), 27 with Sam (15%), and 4 with them jointly (2%) (nearly all of those were also rereads included above. I was mostly reading Harry Potter with Luke which took MUCH longer per book than what I was reading to Sam.)
- ~33 were books we/I own (19%) (Unsure on the exact number because I can't remember exactly which Zoe Rescue Zoo books Sam owns and which we got through inter-library loans)
- 33 were non-fiction (19%) (The exact same number I read in 2023!)
Note: Affiliate links abound below, I make a small (very small) commission off items if you purchase through those links, at no extra cost to you. I appreciate your understanding and support! Of course I fully support utilizing the library or shopping used or from an independent bookstore!
The Opt-Out Family: How to Give Your Kids What Technology Can't by Erin Loechner
This was, hands down, the best book I read all year and one I should have dedicated a whole post too but the whole "life was super busy" recently thing. I'd recommend this book to any parent who still has kids at home, especially ones under 18, the younger the better. Goes over the importance of giving kids a life away from screens, not giving them their own phone until they are older, keeping them off social media. Those are all messages we've heard before but she goes further, pushing back on how much of traditional school is on screens and the screens that are places like the zoo or botanical gardens (she recently moved away from my hometown but when she talks about the local botanical gardens replacing their play kitchen with a giant interactive screen...I know exactly what she's talking about and have to pull my kids away from it when we visit). She talks about health benefits to unplugging, mental health benefits, and just how much wonderful life there can be without screens. Highly highly recommend. Definitely gave me more responses to the "but I'm the only kid in my class without a cell phone!" argument we started getting last fall!
Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell
This cover is just delightful and I found the story to be the same. Does it involve some light cheating? Maybe.(blurred lines). Would I tolerate this in real life? No. But did it make for a fun story? It really did. Set in 1999, a man and woman whose significant others are working together in some capacity meet at a party which then expands to meeting on their own, without their S.O.s, to spend "summer Fridays" together, when many in New York have off work. A lot of people are heading out of town for the weekend but these two were stuck exploring the city together. It reminded me of Grace Grows by Shelle Summers, a book I have read and reread many times since randomly pulling it off the shelf at Target over a decade ago. Just a charming read and perfect for summer (when I read it!)
All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor
This is a 5 books series set in the early 1900s in New York City, following the sweetest Jewish family which starts off with 4 or 5 girls but they welcome a baby brother in one of the first few books. I read the books to myself but I could have read them to my kids. The family was super charming but also interesting learning a little more about some of the Jewish customs and traditions, mixed with some of the traditions of 100+ years ago. Reminded me of the Vanderbeekers series which is also about a family of many kids (5 in that one, also just 1 boy) but set in current day in Harlem vs. All of a Kind Family mostly in Brooklyn I think. These were quick to read, about an hour each, but well worth it.
Pray For Us: 75 Saints Who Sinned, Suffered, and Struggled on Their Way to Holiness by Meg Hunter-Kilmer
Two of my 3 non-fiction picks for 2023 have authors with ties to Indiana, this one currently working in South Bend with some affiliation to Notre Dame. I've followed her on Twitter for many years, maybe over a decade at this point. This was a very interesting look at 75 Saints, only one of which I had heard of before starting the book. There are many very well known saints like St. Patrick, Valentine, Nicholas, Mother Teresa, etc. But there are many many more named and canonized by the church that are lesser known. A few of the stories were a real ride and I enjoyed retelling those to Matt or whoever I could get to listen. Many lived quieter but no less important or holy lives, definitely people to learn from. I read this in a few days because of library holds and getting to it late (I finished it at the orthodontist office, thanks to a long appointment for Luke) but it would have also been good to read over a more extended period of time.
Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
I had one very summer set book on this list and now one very Christmas set. I had read an earlier book by this author which I liked but didn't love so I was a little dubious going into this one but then it turned out just to be a lot of fun and a great way to kick off the early (November) holiday season. A bit of a Knives Out story where a group of people are under one roof together and someone goes missing. Everyone is a suspect, who did it? In this case, it was set over Christmas with some former lovers turned enemies turned maybe back to friends thrown in with the family of the missing women. There is a snow storm, nobody can come or go and yet...someone disappears. I don't read much mystery and so maybe I'm terrible at figuring out what happened...but I also didn't figure it out. And I have since forgotten so maybe I could reread it this November and be surprised all over again. A fun Christmas-set read that wasn't strictly a romance, which most Christmas set books I read are.
Until Next Summer by Ali Brady
Sleepaway camps seemed to be a bit of a theme this year, I read a few at a variety of camps and even though my whole sleep away camp is a total of 4 nights over 2 years at 4-H camp when I was 9 and 11, I still quite enjoy the setting (this may also be influenced by MANY watches of Parent Trap, the correct Lindsey Lohan version, as a early teen. My sisters and I could quote most of the movie at one point). This is about two former best friends and the camp they used to visit together might be getting shut down. One of them now runs it, the other visits for one last summer on a week for adults. They had a falling out years ago but now maybe if they can come together they can save the camp. Camps always need saving in these books but also, it's great storytelling when they do. There is romance in this one and the perfect summer setting of sleep away camp, which feels nostalgic even if you've only experienced it vicariously through Lindsey Lohan.
Nothing Else but Miracles by Kate Albus
Two years ago A Place to Hang the Moon by the same author was my favorite book of the year. It was so charming and I recommended it to quite a few people. I was excited to see a new book and it was one of the first books I finished in 2024. It wasn't quite as good but I still enjoyed it enough to make this list. Also set during World War II but this time in New York City. Three children who have lost their mother are making due on their own after their father goes to serve in the war. They have to pretend that they have a parent and that they weren't left on their own for months on end. They have to get creative, resourceful, and sneaky to make it happen. Kids aren't supposed to be living on their own for a reason! The Statue of Liberty places a nice role and the kids do get a bit lucky. I was rooting for them. (Middle grade, yet another I could have read to my kids...but didn't).
Women at Ground Zero: Stories of Compassion and Courage by Susan Hagen
This is my 4th book on this list set in New York although, you can tell from the title, that this is very different in tone and everything else from any of the previous ones on this list. My sister recommended this one and I purposely saved it to read in September. I was in my freshman year of college on 9/11/01 and was watching the news obsessively that day. Between that and in the subsequent 23 years, I had read a decent amount about that day and the days after but this book still had many new stories and perspectives that I had never heard. The women were all interviewed within about 18 months of 9/11 so the memories were still very fresh and the mental anguish still rather raw. It was heartbreaking and definitely hard to read at times but interesting and felt necessary to honor these women and what they went through on 9/11 and the days, weeks, months that followed.
Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan
Annabel Monaghan is nearly a perpetual entry on this list and one of the few authors I auto buy. Her new books are always perfect for summer (or anytime but she writes the exact types of books I want to read in the summer). This is an accountant turned professional organizer (and I was so delighted that someone else saw the connection between those jobs!) Trying to return to herself after her mother has died and her husband left. And then there is an unexpected romance. Annabel Monaghan is very good at writing charming romances with slightly older protagonists (like 30s, not fresh out college).
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center
Katherine Center is the only other author that I auto-buy and I unintentionally put them together at the end of this list. The timing of her new releases means that "Matt" usually gives me hers as a birthday present and it's always fun getting a book I am almost guaranteed to enjoy. This one has to do with two writers, one up and coming (her) and who has idolized the other who is very famous (him). But too bad he wants nothing to do with her, even if she has some good points that may help his writing. Katherine Center writes such good banter and are always just a joy to pick up, even as they might be dealing with harder topics. I don't see an end to this birthday tradition anytime soon.
What was YOUR favorite (or some of your favorites) book in 2024?
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2023
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2022
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2021
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2020
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2019
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2018
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2017
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2016
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2015
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