Books Read in December 2024, Plus Stats for the Year

 

December was a good reading month and three of my reads were Christmas books. I included some notes on my reading in 2024 at the end of this post. 

Here is my list of books read:

Fiction

Tom Lake (2023) by Ann Patchett

This was a very good book and an enjoyable read. Basically it is the story of a woman telling her daughters about a summer love affair she had with a famous actor before she married their father. The daughters are in their twenties and all of them are living with their parents because of the pandemic. I like books about families and relationships. From beginning to end I was absorbed in this story.

A Redbird Christmas (2004) by Fannie Flagg

This book is set in Alabama, my home state, in a small town near Mobile. I could not quite figure out what time it is set in, sometime after World War II, but I don't think it really matters. Oswald T. Campbell lives in Chicago but he is very ill, has emphysema, and his doctor says he will have to move to a milder climate if he wants to live much longer. So he finds a place to live in a tiny town in Lost River, Alabama. I have never read anything by Fannie Flagg, but Kathy at Reading Matters recommended this book and December was a great time to read it. It is a Christmas book, but it is about so much more, and it was a wonderful read.

Gothic Horror

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) by Shirley Jackson

This is a classic gothic / mystery or horror story. I had put off reading this for years but the story was not nearly as scary or tense as I expected it to be. There was a sense of foreboding and waiting for something horrible to happen. The beauty of the story was in the way Jackson very slowly reveals small bits of the plot. My review here.

Fantasy

The Wood at Midwinter (2024) by Susanna Clarke

This is a fantasy story about a young woman, Merowdis, who loves animals and nature. She has many dogs and many cats, and a pig, plus other assorted animals. She prefers to spend her time in the woods alone, and she has a sister, Ysolde, who understands her and aids and abets her in her escapes to the woods. The rest of her family wants her to marry and be normal. My review here.

Crime Fiction

Elegy for April (2010) by Benjamin Black

Benjamin Black is a pseudonym used by John Banville. This is the third book in the Quirke series; I read the second book, The Silver Swan, earlier this year. The series is set in Ireland in the 1950s; Quirke is a pathologist in a hospital and gets involves with crimes or possible crimes often. I like the slow pace of the writing and the emphasis on the characters as much or more than the crime investigation. I will be reading the next book, A Death in Summer, in 2025.

The Unfortunate Englishman (2016) by John Lawton

I have been a fan of John Lawton's writing for years. His Inspector Frederick Troy series consists of eight novels published between 1995 and 2017. Those novels are a mix of police procedural and espionage, and are set between 1934 and 1963, with many of them covering multiple timelines. The Unfortunate Englishman is the second novel in the Joe Wilderness series. That series (so far) has focused on English / Russian / German relations in Berlin following World War II. The books in this series are really good spy fiction, but also complex and confusing. I love the focus on Berlin and the wall. You really have to read the first and second books in the series; this one doesn't stand well alone.

Mom Meets Her Maker (1990) by James Yaffe

Between 1988 and 1992, Yaffe wrote four mystery novels about Dave and his Mom. Mom Meets Her Maker is the 2nd of the four novels. Dave is an investigator for the Public Defender's office in a small town in Colorado. The book is set at Christmas, and it was the perfect read for me at this time of year. My review here.

A Bird in the Hand (1986) by Ann Cleeves 

As far as I can tell, A Bird in the Hand was Cleeves' first novel and the first book in the George and Molly Palmer-Jones series. Because I knew that it was focused on birdwatching and birders, I have been looking for a copy to read for years. George is the amateur sleuth. He has retired from the Home Office, which gives him some credibility and access to some records when he needs them. He is a "twitcher," a birder who travels to various parts of the English countryside, following reports of rare birds as they show up. His wife Molly is not that interested in birds but she enjoys the chase. Before retiring she worked as a social worker. The book is not as good as Cleeves' later books, but satisfied me in every way. I liked the characters, the setting, and the birdwatching.

End of Year notes

I read 89 books in 2024. That is very close to the number I read last year. The longest book I read was 834 pages:  The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters. The average number of pages for the books I read was 302, which was about the same as last year. 

• Of the 89 books I read, 68 books were from my TBR pile, which surpassed my goal of 48 books. I will continue to aim at 48 books from my TBR in 2024. 
• I read less mysteries than last year, 48 as compared to 65 in 2023. Seven of the mysteries were espionage novels, and I enjoyed all of those. Eight of the mysteries were published before 1960.
• I read eight nonfiction books. Two were books about books, two were memoirs, and one was a travel/adventure book.
• I read eight books in the science fiction or fantasy genres, so I did better in that area than I thought I would. Three of those books were about time travel.
• I read 15 novels that I categorize as general fiction. And four short story books. 

The photos above and at the top of the post are from a couple of photo excursions. The bird was at the Santa Barbara Zoo, but we don't know the location of the other two photos. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.