2024 Books

Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar

My choice for book of the year. Akbar's remarkable debut novel tells the story of a young man fumbling his way through life, addiction, and grief, trying to find meaning. Great writing, and includes poetry (in the voice of the protagonist). Funny, moving, and unique. Literary fiction. Highly recommended. 

“It seems very American to expect grief to change something. Like a token you cash in. A formula. Grieve x amount, receive y amount of comfort. Work a day in the grief mines and get paid in tickets to the company store.”

"It’s easy for people who have sacrificed nothing to rationalize their own ordinariness by calling me lucky. But I sacrificed my entire life; I sold it to the abyss. And the abyss gave me art." 

Fight Me - Austin Grossman

If Martyr! is my best book of 2024, Austin Grossman's Fight Me is the one I enjoyed the most. 

Fiction about former teenage superheroes dealing with now being middle-aged. All too relatable, and extremely entertaining.

Grossman is my age. He wrote for several video games (including some which are favorites of mine) and was responsible for some great innovations in game design. This is his 4th book. I enjoyed all of his previous ones. He is covering territory and references familiar and comforting. I felt like I knew these people and their experiences, and sometimes that is exactly what you want out of a good story.

Grossman is similar to Jason Pargin, in that his books are fun, fantastic(al), and easy to read, but also filled with deeper meaning just below the surface. 

Cory Doctorow's review sums it up well. Read it here.

"It’s a thing that only happens in the wild; the chance convergence of history, desire, despair, wild talents, quirks of physiognomy that ought to kill us and usually does. Then, on very rare occasions, it doesn’t and we stagger back from the catastrophe changed, life upended, clothes still smoking from our encounter with the sublime."

...

"I used to know how life would be: high school grades in order, then college, then a job. Now we’re in a future I never dreamed of, and everything’s changing so fast, I have no way to guess what’s coming."

...

"...Let the very idea become ridiculous. Soon you’ll turn thirty, thirty-five. After a while you’ll forget that the world was ever anything but work and home and bed, and new friendships that are almost as good as the old. Let that earlier time fade, let it hang in the back of your mind like a fancy outfit you’ll never wear again. Be a plain person in plain sight, one among millions."

I'm Starting to Worry About This Big Black Box of Doom - Jason Pargin

Fiction. Pargin's latest novel is set in the present day. There's no phantasmagorical elements, like his John Dies At The End trilogy, or the science fiction of his "Zoey" trilogy. Instead, Pargin writes a taut, funny road story as a pretext for presenting his essays and thoughts about the state of our current moment, society, and world. Pargin is a deep thinker who can convincingly present different perspectives. A breezy, fun read which offset both the heaviness of the world and some of the other books I struggled through this year (See: "Prophet Song").

"Real friendships, real bonds are based on being genuine and vulnerable and flawed around each other, but we’re constantly told that’s dangerous. Ask yourself, who benefits from that? Who wants a society where there are no strong bonds between individuals?"

... 

"It doesn’t matter how comfortable or well-fed somebody is; if you humiliate them in front of their peers, they’ll want to burn the system to the ground. Well, social media algorithms are a twenty-four-seven humiliation machine. That, Phil believed, is how a population is primed for authoritarian rule."

... 

"...nothing ruins your view of the world like getting your dream job."

Maybe You Should Talk To Someone - Lori Gottlieb

Memoir. Gottlieb is a therapist, who finds herself needing therapy to get through a bad break-up. This book tells the story of her own therapy interwoven with her working with several of her clients to provide an interesting "both sides of the couch" view of modern therapy practice. Gottlieb writes breezy, heartfelt prose with a sprinkling of drama. I believe this is in development for a series.

"We can’t have change without loss, which is why so often people say they want change but nonetheless stay exactly the same."

Becoming Myself - Irvin Yalom

Subtitled "A Psychiatrist's Memoir". Yalom is a giant in his field and has written a pile of books, a few of which are on my list for this year. Yalom tells his life story, including how he became a psychiatrist, and how he moved the field forward. He is not a flashy writer, but he is quite good. His life is interesting not so much because of what happens (mostly normal life) or what he achieves (which he understates and is exceptional), but because of his good observations and introspection.

"...many of the issues my patients struggled with—aging, loss, death, major life choices such as what profession to pursue or whom to marry—were often more cogently addressed by novelists and philosophers than by members of my own field."

Shutter (A Rita Todacheene Novel Book 1) - Ramona Emerson

Detective fiction about a native crime scene photographer who can communicate with the dead. Tightly written, solidly executed, with a few great twists and observations about human nature. I am sure this has already been optioned by someone.

"Grandma always said to me that you never do things for people to get something in return. That is the white man’s way of living. You do it because they need you. You do it because if you don’t, no one else will."

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

A justifiably classic and well-respected book. Half of it is Frankl's account of his life in a concentration camp in World War II. The other half is about his psychotherapy practice. Short, powerful, and worth a read whether you are interested in therapy or not.

"...everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way."

Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia (Zoey Ashe Book 3) - Jason Pargin

Science fiction, done on Pargin's humorous, fast-paced style. Also includes Pargin's incisive and thoughtful takes on a bunch of things. I really enjoyed the other books in this series, and Pargin's previous series John Dies At The End.

Pargin deserves a wider audience, and if he weren't so imaginative, clever, and smart, his books would all be turned into shows on streaming services.

"...the most common mistake we make in dealing with people is in assuming that while our own feelings are a mess of contradictions, everybody else is operating with a clear agenda and any inconsistencies must be due to some kind of ruse."

Slow Horses (Slough House Book 1) - Mick Herron

Spy fiction, in the vein of John Le Carré. This isn't James Bond, it's more the burned-out nobodies who didn't make the grade or washed out. Great pacing, good characters, and an engaging plot. It is easy to see why this book made such a splash and was picked up by Apple for adaptation. Recommended.

"When she held the compact closer to her face, she could trace damage under the skin; see the lines through which her youth had leaked."

North Woods - Daniel Mason

A set of short stories. loosely connected around a place in Massachusetts, starting in colonial times and unspooling to the present. A best seller. The prose is fine, but I think the author was more impressed with his narrative concept album and historical progress than I was. This read like a collection of  typically depressing New Yorker short stories strung together with a thin thread. A bit of magical realism comes and goes throughout, with the author reaching at the end to connect everything and "make a bigger statement." 

Ultimately it is an unexpectedly nihilistic book -- life doesn't matter, the planet persists (even through vaguely described global warming and collapse of human civilization), the afterlife is boring and inconsequential, and nobody cares.

"I was already well into my fifth decade of life and did not have much time left for error..."

The Future Won't Be Long - Jarett Kobek

I read Kobek's I Hate The Internet a few years back and found it compelling. This book is even better.  Literary fiction following the lives of two people who meet in 1980s New York in their youth as they navigate adulthood. 

"What had happened over these years? Why was I dressing like a legal assistant? Why was I so pleased to avoid a party? Perhaps, said I to meself, you should cultivate stupidity as your new hobby. Perhaps you should become one of those horrible people trapped in perpetual adolescence, delighted to bounce up and down in dingy spaces, clapping your hands, listening to atrocious music and smiling like an infant feasting on applesauce. Wouldn’t that be the bee’s knees?"

This One Is Mine - Maria Semple

I liked the other book I read by Maria Semple so much I went back to her first novel. It is an intense, funny, and poignant look at, in her words, "strong, singular women who set out to destroy themselves. Especially if the women are living in fancy houses, have lots of help, and commit adultery." Set in Los Angeles, in a world both all-too-familiar and miles away from where I am today. 

"...happy is a misguided goal,” said Sharon. “The goal shouldn’t be to raise a constantly happy child. The goal should be to raise a child who is capable of dealing with reality. Reality is boring. Reality is frustrating. Reality isn’t about getting everything you want the second you want it. Even a one year old is capable of handling these things.”

Everything/Nothing/Someone: A Memoir - Alice Carrière

Carrière's memoir, covering her unusual parents and her own harrowing mental health journey. Powerfully written, and ultimately a positive and hopeful story. If Carrière can survive and thrive, so can we all.

"Starting at seven years old I said that the only feelings I could feel were 'guilt, regret, and nervous excitement.' I didn’t know the word 'anxiety' so I called it 'nervous excitement.'"

Chain Gang All-Stars - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

A disappointing and simplistic story that read like a violent YA novel. The author attempts to create an important and meaningful work about the impact of incarceration, complete with footnotes. I thought it missed the mark and veered into self-parody, while failing to address any of the issues it wanted. The writing is painfully on-the-nose, the characters thin, and the plot short on movement and surprises. The author clearly knows how to write -- there were some great paragraphs and sentences -- but they are drowned out by what feels like first-draft urgency and clunkiness.

"...she believed that it was no accident that people of color, and particularly people from the African diaspora, made up so many of the characters on this show. She knew that Black people and other minorities were disproportionately imprisoned."

 

The Trespasser - Tana French

Detective/Crime fiction. French has written 5 other books in the "Dublin Murder Squad" series, but by all accounts this latest one from 2016 is the best. Compelling writing, bringing a gritty setting and flawed but interesting characters to life. This isn't my preferred genre, because it tends to feel too programmatic. French is operating squarely within the genre, but her talent elevates the work.

"The truth is, if you don’t exist without someone else, you don’t exist at all. And that doesn’t just go for romance. I love my ma, I love my friends, I love the bones of them. If any of them wanted me to donate a kidney or crack a few heads, I’d do it, no questions asked. And if they all waved good-bye and walked out of my life tomorrow, I’d still be the same person I am today."

The Truth and Other Stories - Stanislaw Lem

Lem remains one of my favorite writers, if one can say that about books that are inevitably translations. Regardless of the prose, Lem has always had great ideas. This collection of short stories is mostly strong, full of those great, inventive, strange, and unique ideas. Like many short story collections, some are stronger than others, and one or two tested my patience. Still, it's Lem. If you like him, you'll enjoy it. If you have never read his books before, I'd still point you at "Solaris" or "His Master's Voice" to start. 

"...birds and insects, to a different degree admittedly, come into the world with ready knowledge, of the kind they need—cut to size, of course. They hardly have to learn a thing, but as for us, we waste half our life studying, only to discover in the second half that three-quarters of what we’ve stuffed into our heads is unnecessary ballast."

American Narcissus - Chandler Morrison

Literary Fiction. Chandler Morrison writes about contemporary life in Los Angeles. In terms of setting and tone, he's similar to Bret Easton Ellis and Bruce Wagner. If you like their work, you'll like Morrison's. Morrison distinguishes himself with a bit more light than Wagner's unrelenting, scabrous downbeat tone, and more warmth and feeling than Ellis' often chilly work. Definitely not for everyone, but I loved every page of it.

"...it’s not only my future that’s questionable—it’s everyone’s.. Society is decaying. It’s collapsing under its own weight. You know what I’m talking about. I can see it in your eyes. Can you imagine what the world—or America, for that matter—will look like in thirty years? Twenty, even? Ten? I know I can’t. Preparing for retirement would be investing in a future I don’t believe in. I try not to make bad investments.”

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World - Naomi Klein

Nonfiction. Klein writes about the experience of right now, and the years just past -- the impact of the pandemic on truth and reality. She starts discussing the (deliberate?) confusion of Naomi Wolf and Naomi Klein, and then pulls the focus wider and to different spots of society. 

Klein is a powerful and clear writer. Her work is difficult mostly because she relentlessly highlights uncomfortable and dark truths, and asks tough questions. The more personal nature or frame of this book, and perhaps its immediacy (it feels like it was written this morning), made this book more enjoyable for me than her other books.

"If the Naomi be Klein you’re doing just fine 

If the Naomi be Wolf Oh, buddy. Ooooof."

"I would say, dripping with disdain, 'I’m an author. Not a brand. The product isn’t me. I am trying to communicate ideas. The ideas are in the book. Read the book.'”

"There is something uniquely humiliating about confronting a bad replica of one’s self—and something utterly harrowing about confronting a good one."

 

James - Percival Everett

Everett writes a companion/b-side to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. Everett fills in what happens to Jim and recontextualizes some events from Twain's book. (You don't have to remember or have recently read Twain's book to enjoy James, but you might want to afterwards.)

James is more or less critic-proof, and will top many people's best-of lists for this year. Everett is a great writer, and the narrative moves along quickly. He makes the reader experience the non-stop stress and terror of being a slave on the run. It is enjoyable, you care about the characters, and Everett's prose is immersive and intense.

But I found James to be a bit of a "Mary Sue" at times, and some of the plot struck me as a bit contrived. There are a couple of big twists which I saw coming chapters away, and some aspects of the book seemed like checking off a comprehensive list of bad things about slavery with a 2024 mindset. These are minor quibbles, and this is also sort of the point of the book in the first place.

I fully expect a big-budget filmed adaptation.

“I don’t like white folks,” he said. “And I is one.”

Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner

Literary Fiction. Kushner tells a story of a spy-for-hire infiltrating a group of French lefty hippies that may or may not be planning something big. But it's really a story about how we are all fooling ourselves, and how people often see right through us and our self-deceptions. Not as immediately gratifying as "The Mars Room", but Kushner's writing is great and I expect a re-read would prove even richer.

"In my own salt, my own core, this is what I knew: Life goes on a while. Then it ends. There is no fairness. Bad people are honored, and good ones are punished. The reverse is also true. Good people are honored, and bad people are punished, and some will call this grace, or the hand of God, instead of luck."

Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change - W. David Marx

Non-fiction. The title says it all. A book filled with observations that seem both completely obvious and absolutely revelatory. Makes me wish I was in college (oh, wait...) so I could take a class with this book at the center of it.

...sociologist Pitirim Sorokin declared, “Any organized social group is always a stratified social body. There has not been and does not exist any permanent social group which is ‘flat,’ and in which all members are equal. Unstratified society, with a real equality of its members, is a myth which has never been realized in the history of mankind.”

"A critical point about originality, however, is that choices never need to be original on an absolute, universal scale. They must merely be surprising within the community. A shortcut for great taste is arbitrage, finding easily procured things in one location and then deploying them elsewhere where they’re rare."