Ringing In 2024 With Some Good Books

Happy New Year! I hope your 2024 is filled with joy and peace. 

If spending less screen time is on your list of resolutions for 2024, getting into a good book or two is a great way to bypass your phone, computer and TV (Kindle doesn’t count in my, er, book). Here’s a rundown of what I’ve read recently; let me know what you’re reading!

Fiction 

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, James McBride — A remarkably powerful story about redemption and the power of love that takes place in the Chicken Hill section of Pottstown, Pa. in the 1920s. Yes, I’ll admit it — these eyes got a little misty at the end. The best novel I’ve read in a very long time.

The Good Lord Bird, James McBride — A fictional account of abolitionist
John Brown and his attempted takeover of the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry. A time-well-spent read by one of our finest writers, but it didn’t engage me quite like Heaven and Earth did. 

The Bee Sting, Paul Murray —An amazing — but long — chronicle of an Irish family’s journey, and the secrets that impact characters’ fates. Some readers hate the ending, but I thought it was just right. An extraordinary book from this Irish author.

Trust, Hernan Diaz — Outstanding, clever piece (or four) of fiction about a highly successful investor and how perspective shapes truth. 

City on Fire, Don Winslow — Fun novel about the struggles between Irish and Italian organized crime families in Connecticut. Winslow has a great ear for dialogue. 

The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway — I unearthed my battered, worn paperbound copy from college, the pages falling out while I fumbled to keep them in order as I read. So worth the effort! Many of the stories are really just vignettes, but such well-crafted ones. 

Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert — Back when I was an English major in college, Madame Bovary was considered by some to be the perfect novel. I wouldn’t go that far. But if you can get past the flowery prose and Victorian aesthetic, the plot really pulls you along, and there are some comedic scenes that lambast politicians and the pompous that feels pretty 21st century-esque. 

The Spy who Came in from the Cold, John Le Carre — Expertly written spy novel by the master of the genre. Enough twists and turns in the plot to keep you guessing to the very end. 

The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre — It takes place in 2000 Kenya and is probably my least favorite Le Carre novel. Too much description, too long, too preachy toward the end — too much of a commentary about geoeconomic ethics rather than the taut Cold War-era spy thrillers he was such a master of. 

Absolution, Alice McDermott — A chronicle of a woman’s realization of how little control over her life she has as the wife in early 1960s Saigon. I didn’t love it. 

Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut — The inventive, trippy anti-war novel, which I first read in high school, didn’t age well. So it goes.

Nonfiction 

The Wager, David Grann — A can’t-put-it-down historical narrative of the 18th century shipwreck, mutiny, survival, and near-miraculous return to England of the crew of the HMS Wager. Like an Erik Larson narrative, it’s written to make you feel like you are there. 

The Nazi Conspiracy, Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch — World War II, spies, and conspiracies — the trifecta for me for nonfiction. Engagingly written account of a (probable) plot to assassinate Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin in Tehran.