books i read in 2024
aka recommendations for your reading slump
I started 2024 with the goal of reading more books in order to get rid of my doomscrolling habit and return to my childhood roots. While I have only succeeded with one of those goals (guess which one?), I am pleased to have read enough books to make a post about them.
I’m really happy to be writing and posting my reviews here as I am not on Goodreads. I just don’t like the star rating because I feel that I have too much to say about the book that can’t be condensed into a star rating. Additionally, as a fellow writer, I’d feel pretty weird about seeing a number to indicate people’s enjoyment or takeaways from my own work (or maybe, I’m just quirky like that!)
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy
I read this book in the airport on the way home from Hong Kong, so that may be why I’m more nostalgic with this read than you’d expect. This book also marked my journey towards exploring non-fiction, particularly into the rabbithole of memoirs and autobiographies, as you’ll see with the rest of my reviews.
Overall, I love how the book spoke to me like I was a friend and I was even more enthralled with how raw and realistic her voice was. I grew up watching Jeannette on Nickelodeon shows and I loved her as an actor because I always felt that she was one of the few characters that had a distinct personality to portray, whereas everyone else seemed to just be playing a cooler version of themselves. I would even go as far as to say that she played my favorite character of all the ones on the Nickelodeon shows, walking the perfect balance between snarky and loyal.
However, it was heartbreaking to find out all that she had gone through at such a young age. I refrained from mentioning her character’s name in this review because she mentioned several times in the book that she disliked being associated with a character when she was working a job she really did not enjoy, especially as a child who had little to no say in what she wanted, except to please her mother. Even though the title and book cover were manufactured to shock people (and my mom made some quips about it, too), I believe it perfectly encapsulated a reflection of what you would feel as an adult looking back at your childhood experiences.
This book also helped me recognize what narcissism really looks like. Although I’ve never been in a situation as similar as Jeanette’s, her narrative offered a nuanced perspective on the complicated relationship that a narcissistic person has with their loved ones and vice-versa. I think that textbook examples of narcissism are often too direct and impossible to figure out in real life, especially when you’re trying to figure it out from the perspective of a loved one or authority figure.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to drift over to the nonfiction or memoir genre because it’s quite easy to finish in one sitting and is very much a page-turner, especially for kids who grew up watching the author. I also recommend reading books in airports and on airplanes, where you literally have nothing else to do without Wi-Fi or the opportunity to lie down and you’ll be forced to finish the book.
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells
Following the first book I read, I saw a lot of online recommendations for reading this book as it follows a similarly dysfunctional family. This book REALLY lived up to my yearbook quote to “live a life worth writing about” in the most messed up way imaginable. The book starts with a vivid description of her first memory as a three-year-old when she caught on fire while cooking hotdogs alone. Her father rushed her to the hospital only to kidnap her again after her treatment to escape the hospital fees. A few days later, Jeanette finds herself cooking hotdogs again, with her mother smiling and telling her how good it is that she’s gotten over being burnt alive so easily.
The rest of the book follows the chaos of her parents and the subsequent dysfunction this bequeathed on the family in a way that doesn’t leave you pitying the author. Their experiences are both entertaining and sad, as you realize that these are true experiences that happened to an actual family. It’s unbelievably good in a way that it walks this balance between chaos and truth that really pushes you to finish the story. Of all the books on this list, this is the one I’d highly recommend for anybody in a reading slump or anyone looking to switch into the memoir genre.
I’ll Tell You in Person by Chloe Caldwell
While reading this book, I remember thinking to myself, damn, I don’t think I could ever be this open. In this book of personal essays, Chloe Caldwell looks back at the weird and wacky moments of her life, the kind of stuff you can’t talk about with your friends on a call. Instead, these stories are the ones you say you’ll tell them in person, as per the name of the book. Through the essays, Caldwell discusses her life and connects the interspersed moments of her life down a thread, from her stint as a salesgirl for a jewelry designer to her life as an almost professional singer to her summers hanging out with her friend group of all boys. She details her wild nights out, obsession with overconsumption, and drug usage with such raw honesty that I couldn’t help but ardently admire her transparency and passion for telling stories. Damn, I don’t think I could ever be this open.
However, I’ll admit that I had to look back at my copy of this book to write about it, as for some reason, I struggled to remember the key details of any of the essays despite enjoying them as I read it. But with that, this may also be a good thing as Caldwell writes so conversationally that it’s almost like simply listening to your friend tell you about her great adventures and catching up with the wild ride they’re taking. And sometimes, that’s all I need in a good book.
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Although this book had been raved to death on Substack and TikTok, I still had my doubts when I picked it up. The brightly colored cover with a boy and a girl seemed like it was another romance story, maybe a beach read, and that wasn’t exactly my genre of choice. However, this book was an incredible read that truly captured the nihilism of today’s generation in regard to complicated relationships, or what seemed to be nearly a decade-long situationship.
To start, this was not a romance story but far from it. Marianne and Connell are indeed a girl and a boy who start out with tons of romantic and sexual tension colluding to a high school situationship, but they’re never quite together. The book follows their relationship as they enter the same college together and manages to discuss the economic and social parties that drive barriers between them, besides of course, their own personalities.
This is one of those books that I can not describe without massively overexplaining and analyzing each part because the characters are so nuanced and complex. I understand why a lot of people went into this thinking they would love it as they were expecting a romance story, but I believe going into this book expecting little to nothing of all. This is a story that features a startlingly realistic relationship, and with that in mind, I’d say to expect a startlingly realistic ending.
Every Heart a Doorway, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, and Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
I previously wrote about the first book in this series in a previous article I’ll link below. In my previous review, I praised McGuire’s ability to craft an intricate yet simple world full of worlds, leaving much curiosity for the backstory of every new character encountered.
The Wayward Children series is about a school that enrolls children and teenagers who claim to have gone to different other worlds, from Candyland to a horror movie to the underworld. With each 200-page book densely packed with so much lore, The Wayward Children is the series that keeps on giving with each new book.
Reading the next two books in the series made me truly appreciate McGuire’s ability to grow the seeds sprouted in the first book organically. With flowery, detailed prose and unique, three-dimensional characters, McGuire gives so much space for the characters to simply be who they are, giving them so much humanity that you forget you’re reading a fantasy series.
Each book that follows Every Heart A Doorway explores the world of a character you previously met, diving deep into what makes them so unique and how their personalities suited the world that absorbed them.
How to Rock: Break-Ups and Make-Up by Meg Haston
This was one of those books I picked up because it was hardbound and on sale, and was obviously for kids. I liked it as something to read on a rainy day, but it’s not exactly groundbreaking except with how I found it was supposed to be a Nickelodeon show. Still added it to the list because all forms of reading are good and important (just can’t find a good quality picture of the cover!) <3
Some Days You Can’t Save Them All by Dr. Ronnie Baticulon
This is a highly recommended read for all Filipino medical professionals, and at first, I thought it was a little overstated. Since my pre-med days, I’d always been adamant that the term “saving lives” felt a little pretentious. To me, there were a lot of problems in healthcare that had to do with placing doctors on a pedestal, which led to social disparities and patient mistreatment in the workplace.
However, this book changed my mind with how it made me cry three times. Even though I still disagree with most notions of hierarchy associated with the medical field, Dr. Baticulon was not afraid to get into the nitty-gritty details of what it means to work in a public hospital, from having your first patient nearly die on you to accidentally making promises to a child you just couldn’t save. One day, I hope to be able to write about my experiences in medicine like this.
Surgeons Don’t Cry by Ting Tiongco
With a mixture of grit and humor, Ting Tiongco tells us all about his medical career which started in the 1960’s. Despite the pragmatic title, much of Dr. Tiongco’s stories had me laughing until I cried, from trying to find donors for a blood bank only to end up with more patients (he ended up being the donor for them) to his holiday kissing rounds in the surgery department.
However, his funny stories are what make his sad stories ache all the more. Dr. Tiongco is brutally honest and real in his narratives, detailing his regretful moments and struggles through medicine. He masterfully walks the balance between funny and serious, making you feel like you’re reading a book from your grandfather.
The Report Card by Andrew Clements
This is a children’s book, but I picked it up for super cheap at our local secondhand bookstore, so how could I not? I have loved Andrew Clements’ books since childhood, but it was only upon reading this that I realized how good he is at writing characters that appeal to a certain demographic—the burnt-out gifted kids.
For context, the other books I’d read so far from him and owned were The School Story, The Landry News, and Don’t Talk. Although it’s been around a decade since I’d read these, I still remember how much these characters inspired me. Clements doesn’t write realistic stories, for one, but seeks to create aspirational characters who carry so much agency in their stories, which I’d say is relatively rare for children's books. Instead, his books offer a snapshot of rebellion and give kids back their power, reminding them of our collective humanity and shared goals with adults.
This is starting to sound like a seriously tall order for a children’s book, but The Report Card offers exactly that. The book’s main character, Nora Rose Rowley, is a hidden genius who purposely gets low grades and average scores to appear normal to everyone, including her parents and her best friend Stephen. In her free time, however, she researches sustainable energy and takes college-level online classes at MIT. When her secret comes out after a stunt she pulls, she accidentally wreaks havoc on the school, causing chaos all the way to the school board.
I was so surprised by how poignant this book was, despite being unrealistic and cheesy at times (but again, these books don’t seem designed to be realistic). As a burnt out medical student who has been through the rigorous academic fast track again and again and again, I nearly started bawling through this book multiple times. And yes, I’d still highly recommend it to anyone who feels like the shell of a child prodigy, or anyone who used to be called gifted.
Bunny by Mona Awad
This was my final read for the year, and I tackled it in the airport and a five-hour plane ride with no internet, forcing me to finish as much of it as I could in one go. This horror-thriller comedy was not my usual genre, but it was so deliciously disgusting that I couldn’t stop reading.
Taking place at a fictional prestigious Ivy League-style university, Bunny is about a MFA student Samantha Heather Mackey and the creative writing program she takes, where she gets excluded by a clique of four girls that call each other Bunny because of her dark imagination and similarly dark stories. All that changes when she’s finally invited by the clique to join in on their strange writing sessions held at night, where more than just writing goes on.
Awad does a wonderful job of creating a vibrant, rich world that manages to discuss mental health, creativity, friendship, and loneliness, all at once. Although the prose tends to be too long at times, Bunny offers a rather crazily unpredictable plot that has a way of keeping you at the edge of your seat, eagerly waiting to see what happens next.
Did Not Finish
In this section, I go through three books I started but did not finish this year! I don’t publish my book reviews, so I thought that this might be the place to share my thoughts on these books that will most likely be added to my 2025 TBR list.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reed
I finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by the same author a couple years ago and I found it moderately enjoyable and easy to read. However, this book just felt so much more difficult to continue as I didn’t quite find the characters to be as engaging or compelling at all. This book is also narrated in third-person instead of in first-person, which further adds to the disconnect I feel from the characters in the story.
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
I have mentioned this book a few times in a previous essays and I actually did enjoy reading the first half of it so far. So, this is a book I do hope to still finish this year because I still believe it has very interesting insights about science communication, medicine, and sociology. However, this is one of the first books I have ever tried to annotate, and it is proving to be a challenging although meaningful task. I look forward to reading it this year.
The Collected Stories of Jessica Zafra
Zafra is an author whose works I’d perused since high school, and I was so pleased to finally be able to pick up one of her books during the Manila International Book Fair last September 2024. However, given that this book is a compilation of her short stories, I found that her first few stories seemed to blend together. Most (if not all) of her works seem to revolve around the same urban fantasy Filipino landscape and featured pessimistic and prideful protagonists that I found neither relatable nor endearing. After those first few stories, they no longer seemed to feel compelling either. I do still hope to return to this book because I understand the appeal of Zafra’s gritty works and why they are so popular in Filipino literature, so I hope to be writing a longer review about it this year.
And that concludes my 2024 in books! Feel free to share your own book reviews, book recommendations, or reading lists for 2025 in the comments, I would love to hear from you!
Bibliography
To my childhood self, who could devour hundreds of books a year and never get tired or bored,
To my current self, who is still trying to get back to that level and find enjoyment in her childhood hobbies,
And to Harry, who I’ve made to read new books with me and has wholeheartedly supported my interests from the start.
Thanks for sharing these books Liv! It's been a while since I've seen Jennette's memoir being talked about, and it's such an impactful read. I was surprised by its depth, and really felt for her with what she went through at such a young age.