The 2024 Read List, So Far

 Well, we're halfway through 2024....time flies when you're...something something.

Actually, it has been kinda fun.  Driving a lot of routes with the family business myself.  Lot more time to listen to books (and music, and podcasts).   Getting into the list for the year:

January

The Wishing Pool, and Other Stories  by Tananarive Due

A collection of short stories, which seems to be Due's true expert medium.  I've liked her novel work, but her earlier collection Ghost Summer was one of my favorite collections in years.  And I liked Wishing Pool even better.  Ranging across a handful of genres, there's not a stinker in the bunch.  Particularly effective, though were the dark speculative story "The Biographer" and the titular "Wishing pool" which hits home with Twilight Zone impact.  I also particularly enjoyed a pair of stories about Nayima, a survivor of plague that hits in the near future.  

This was a good read.

Practical Demonkeeping  by Christopher Moore

I read this almost entirely at the tire shop, when I had to get them replaced.  Moore's first novel, and one of his only that I hadn't read to this point.  Fun, though I had to look at publication date (1992), when it went so out of the way to make fun of a character communicating with someone communicating via modem....out of place in 2024, as Moore has maintained one of the most pleasing online presences among authors I follow.  Fun read.....

Ghosts of South Carolina by Tally Johnson

Snow Day read.  A gift from my buddy Dino.  Focuses more on the history and verifiable facts around stories being passed down in communities than on building suspense, which was a pleasant surprise, to be honest.  

Thunderbolts: Justice, like Lightning    by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, Mark Bagley

I don't normally include my comic reading in my book list, but out of all the Marvel superhero stuff of the last 60 years, this is probably my favorite.  Just your everyday story of villains masquerading as heroes, and then finding that they are suited to heroing.  Checks a couple boxes of stories that'll catch my interest....redemption arcs and people finding their niche.  There's probably no better writer for capturing the thematic essence of Marvel's stories through the years than Kurt Busiek.  I dig the epic collections in general, and this one in particular.

Bulfinch's Mythology  by Thomas Bulfinch

I'd been thumbing through this copy since September of 2023, when Mom was first put in the hospital for stroke treatment.  I finished it while snowed in at Mom's in a rare snow and ice event in January.

February

Head On by John Scalzi

The work listen.  A follow up to Scalzi's Lock In.  I was discussing Scalzi with a buddy who'd picked up a couple of his books, and I said that I dig Scalzi's SF concepts, and his humor often hits that same circle on the Venn Diagram Dartboard that Douglas Adams Did....sometimes the darts miss, especially in the dialog, which tends toward geek humor a little too strongly for my tastes sometimes.

This one wandered that way a bit, but I still enjoyed the story, and the concept of avatar bots beating the hell out of each other for points was enjoyable.....

Dark Tower VI: the Song of Susannah    by Stephen King

Part of the continuing project.  This was one of the books I was concerned about when I began my chronological read-through way back in 2017.   I don't dislike books 6 and 7 of the Tower, but I don't enjoy them, especially as much as I do the first 4 books.  Part of it comes in the length of time between volumes.  Each preceding volume has its own feel, as King's tendencies as a writer and concerns as a human being change over time.  Books 6 and 7 felt in 2004 like extensions of book 5, in many ways.  

I didn't hate it, but it's still not great.  There are character moments I enjoy:  Eddie taking the reins once he and Roland start tromping around 1977.  And I thought the interplay between Mia and Susannah was interesting, but could have used time in the oven.

King's insertion of himself into the story felt out of place in 2004....it's not as bad in 2024, and I think the inclusion of his journal adds something to the story itself.

The Breach  by Nick Cutter

The second of Cutter's I've read....and a sharp decline from The Troop.  I didn't enjoy this one.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

The work listen, read by Andy Serkis, which ended up being a real treat.  While is performance was painted a bit by some of the performances in Jackson's movies (his Boromir and Gimli are lifted pretty much from Sean Bean's and John Rhys Davies' performances), he interpretations of the songs and lilts of some the accents brings much of the story to life.  I have a weird relationship with Tolkien....I love the story, and the attention to history, but the digressions in the story itself can tire me out.  Still, it's a hell of a good book.....

March

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest     by Ken Kesey

A re-read, though it may as well have been the first time.

I read this for a 20th Century Lit class the same semester I had ridiculous reading lists across 5 or 6 classes.  It was simply one of 22 or 23 books I'd read that semester.

Simply put, it's one of the best books I've read.  And the section with the boat "rental" might be some of the best writing I've wandered across in years.

A Serpent's Tooth by Craig Johnson

Johnson continues to turn a good phrase.  This one wanders a bit more into the weirdness of Abrosoka County than the last couple of books.  For a book that takes place out on the Great Plains of Wyoming, it's got cousins down in the Gothic South.  I didn't care much for the cliffhanger ending, but sometimes a soap opera has to rear its head....

The Senior Girls Bayonet Drill Team   by Joe Lansdale

Was tremendously pleased that Subterranean put this out on e-reader, as their limited edition priced itself out of my hands rather quickly.  Especially when short story collections can be such mixed bags, as a rule.  This one was fun.  I'm all about a Jedediah Mercer story, so the volume's opening tilt with the Wendigo was excellent.  I also enjoyed "Gorillas in the Yard" and "the Hoodoo Man and the Midnight Train."

The Dark Tower   by Stephen King

The story ends like it needs to.  He just rushed the ending a bit.

I'll never forget how mad my Dad was in 2004 when Eddie Dean died.  Dad saw a bit of himself in Eddie.

Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War, 1914    by Max Hastings

Good Read.  Takes Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August and wanders further into the war itself.  Looks a bit harder at its impact on the common man, in terms of both society and at those fighting the battles themselves in the trenches.  I liked this one.

April

Kayfabe: a Love Story     by Dave Reuter

My buddy Stephen Silver interviewed Reuter a while back about this released, and I picked it up for the Kindle.  It wavers back and forth between approaching the stories presented in the wrestling ring as real, to commenting on the medium's absurdities in others.  Maybe I'd have liked a bit more consistency on that front.  Still, the book made me laugh, so I recommend.

The Angel of Indian Lake   by Stephen Graham Jones

I don't champ at the bit often for new releases but I was really looking forward to this one.  The third of a trilogy following My Heart is a Chainsaw, which I kinda liked, and Don't Fear the Reaper which I loved, I was really excited to grab this one.  I guess I've been reading Jones's stuff for long enough now that I can stop thinking of him as a favorite new-to-me writer.  His horror is imaginative with a current of melancholy that few can match.  And his shit moves!

It's always gratifying, too, when something lives up to expectations and pays off.  I mentioned in a twitter comment that Don't Fear the Reaper moved with lunatic speed almost from the outset.    Angel of Indian Lake starts a little more tentatively, but kicks into a high gear that outstrips even that previous novel.  The last 150 pages of the book are a fever dream of forest fires, chainsaws, secluded cabins, bear attacks, cave-ins, underwater towns, crossbows, pervert murders and boat collisions. 

In the best possible way.  Probably my favorite thing I've read this year, so far.

The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus  by Bev Vincent

I thumbed through this after finishing the Tower.  I don't understand my own fascination with the Tower.  I guess I'm just glad that other people share the obsession enough to write something like this.  Vincent's book is a good one.  Good take on the metafictional aspects.  Also enjoyed Vincent's impression on the Crimson King, whose depiction in the last volume of the Tower was one of the more confounding aspects of that rushed conclusion....

Infinite Tuesday: an Autobiographical Riff    by Michael Nesmith

I won't lie.  There's part of me that calls the scant few minutes of the book devoted to The Monkees pure balls.  But then, The Monkees really were just 2 or 3 years of the man's life.

Interesting read, with a couple passages into religious thought that I've not read much into, prior to this (Nesmith and his mother were Christian Scientists).  

I ended up being more interested in the musical efforts Nesmith made outside of the Monkees.  I always thought he was a better singer or songwriter than critics gave him credit for.  This volume ended up making me wander through the First National Band and other efforts, which ended up adding a few more songs to the catchall soundtrack.....

A Rule Against Murder  by Louise Penny

I need to summer around a lake in Quebec.

Poor Things  by Alasdair Gray

Picked this copy up for Shyam when we heard that Yorgos Lanthimos was adapting it for the big screen.  Ordered it from England, since there weren't American printings yet.  Amused myself with images of a shopkeep having to fight off cats in stacks of a Dickensian book shop to find this volume, when a google search showed that the book was coming from a warehouse not far from the Taskmaster house in Chiswick, near the Heathrow airport.

The film, I can report, is largely faithful to the book.  I will say this, and Spoiler Warning:  the book's ending (as a poor fool of a man myself) a little cold.  It shouldn't, I suppose.  But then I tend not to shun whimsy, if it's well enough spun....

Quakeland: On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake   by Kathryn Miles

Interesting look at how little we know, seismologically speaking.   The great bulk of quakes come from faults unknown until the point they shift.  Good look at the increase in seismic activity that comes from wastewater injection.

Also a strong look at how ill prepared we are in terms of infrastructure and response readiness.

Also a takeway:  in December of 1990, my school was one of many that participated in Earthquake drills and sat under our desks on the assigned day that a forecast earthquake was to take place.  Even at the age of 13, I felt like the prediction was bullshit, but this was always refuted with the "fact" that Iben Browning was correct on the other 3 he predicted.  

No.  He was not.  He was a pseudoscientific crackpot.

The Colorado Kid   Stephen King

For the first time in a while, in my continuing project, a new one.  I'd tried this one at its publication, but it didn't speak to me.

It's not bad, but it's half a story.  

May

The Imprending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861    by David M. Potter

Strong read.  Threads the needle between the Polk administration and the Mexican War to the first shots fired at Fort Sumter.  Details the political pressures, and various crises created and allayed in that time.  I liked this one.

Supersize Island  by J.J. Walsh

Quick read.  Funny.   Scratches a lot of the same itch that Christopher Moore and John Scalzi do.....

Dead Detective Mountain    by John Swartzwelder

Not quite as effective as a lot of Swartzwelder's Frank Burly novels, but I still got a chuckle or two.....

Sharp Objects    by Gillian Flynn

I'd never read any of Flynn's stuff, despite several recommendations.  I liked this one.  A little pulpier than I expected.  Camille is a fine flawed character, who causes as many problems in her investigation as she solves.   Props to the book for keeping one clue that I thought was a grotesque red herring, and was actually the key to the whole thing.....

McSweeney's 71:  Horror Stories   edited by Brian Evenson

Starts with a mission statement of introducing literary and horror fiction to each other....it's not a bad collection, but I was ultimately underwhelmed.  Much of what's here is too....clean?  Orderly?  Too interested in setting atmosphere, as often as not, but shying away from the dreadful.  Yeah, I get letting your imagination do the heavy lifting, but every now and then horror needs to punch you in the gob.

"The Noble Rot" was fun.  I kinda liked "The Pond God."  Gabino Iglesias's "Dont Go Into the Woods Alone" is probably the best of the bunch.

June

Business is About to Pick Up:  50 Years of Wrestling in 50 Unforgettable Calls by Jim Ross w/ Paul O'Brien

I could listen to Jim Ross talk about wrestling any day of the week.  And I have.  

Which might be part of the problem.   I'd heard a few of these stories on Ross's podcast with Conrad Thompson. 

Still, a fun read. 

The Demon of Unrest   by Erik Larson

I don't know which of Larson's books won me over to become appointment reading, but I can't think of anything of his I've read that I didn't enjoy.  A good coincidental followup to Potter's book spanning the years between the Mexican War and the Civil War....Larson's work follows the various camps of the nation in the months between Lincoln's election and the shots at Fort Sumter.  

Strong read.   

Cinderwich by Cherie Priest

Fun read.  Heavy on atmosphere.  Was just happening to deliver around Nickajack Lake, the story's setting, as I listened.

Sho gun     by James Clavell

Started reading at the conclusion of TNT's excellent adaptation, which concerns itself a lot less with the size of John Blackthorne's penis than Clavell's book does.

Faithful   by Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan

Maybe the biggest surprise in my re-read of King's work, and in this year.  I enjoyed the hell out of this one, despite having read it back in 2005.  Funny how King's and O'Nan's complaints about that Red Sox team in May and June of that season would match my and my friend Ray's complaints about the Cubs this year (though as I write on July 7, I'll be the loudest to say the Cubs have next to NO CHANCE of turning it around in 2024.....and the way things look right now, 2025 might be a long one, too).

A lot of fun.  And should be considered one of the books in canon of great books about Baseball.....

Batman   by Craig Shaw Gardner   (novelization of story by Sam Hamm)

Listened to this the same weekend, plus 35 years, that the Batman movie was released in 1989.  

Notable for its narrator Roddy McDowell, being either unaware of the tone of Tim Burton's flick, or being completely uninterested in portraying it in his narration.  His portrayal is almost that of a more straightlaced adaptation of the 60's television series.....

The Nineties: a Book   by Chuck Klosterman

Nice sociological look at an American Era, where we as a culture were casting about for some meaning as the Cold War ended, and Generation X began to take the reins of popular culture.  Interesting because the 90's were my teenage and college years, and I too was casting about for some meaning.  Good read.....

Lapvona   by Ottessa Moshfegh

After the passing of Cormac McCarthy, Moshfegh might be my favorite user of the English language.   Her books are uncomfortable....vaguely sad....uproariously funny....grotesque.

This was is a bit of a departure, while being completely true to that form.  A fairy tale constructed out of horror imagery.  It is funny and depressing often in the same paragraph.