Best books of my 2024

Most fun trilogy

Three novels by Jesse Sutanto:

Dial A for Aunties

Four Aunties and a Wedding

The good, the bad, the Aunties

Re-readable History

The Struggle for Sea Power by Sam Willis - our nascent navy in the revolutionary war

The Yom Kippur War by Abraham Rabinovich - the tragic 1973 surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria, although when I started reading the book, this Syria still existed

The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester - history of precision machining

Coffee: One Man’s Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug, by Augustine Sedgewick - El Salvador

Stays with you

We of Little Faith by Rachel Cohen - if you don’t believe, come right out and say it

Inspired me to do a lot of mapping

“What You’re getting wrong about Appalachia” by Elisabeth Catte - written in direct response to J.D. Vance’s BS

Most surprising & also funny

Jen Beagin: Big Swiss

Is it true that in the upper Hudson River valley there is a new fad with people having mini-donkeys? Seriously, this novel has everything including nearly unbearable suspense.

Other notable

“The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye” by David Lagercrantz. Fifth in the series started by Steig Larson. (I haven’t read the other novels in the series: just ran across this in the library) Some people said this was too violent & the criticism that the action relies too much on orchestrated interruptions and delays (in the Wiki review) is true. The plot is the first time I’ve seen Honor/Shame culture depicted in a modern novel, & there’s a nod to climate change, as, without conducting any commentary on the topic, in various scenes throughout the novel the Swedes often find themselves wearing cold-weather clothing in unseasonably warm weather.

Meanwhile:

Books on the table of 2024