Favourite Books of 2024

I don’t have any expectations for the number of books I’ll read in any given year. For whatever reason, 2024 started out with a bang and things just progressed from there. One hundred and thirty books is a new record for me, by some margin. It could have been a fair bit more but I ran out of steam over the holidays. Unlike last year, there are a number of books I thought were great this year, along with many entertaining books I can’t recall.

I read more nonfiction last year than in previous years and while they were still a small fraction of the total books I read, they feature prominently in the books I’ll mention. Given this occurrence over the past several years, I’ve decided that I will read mostly nonfiction for 2025. As in past years, I also read books related to TV series or movies and as usual, was typically disappointed by the screen version.

To that end, I read Jeffery Deaver’s Colter Shaw series and found them enjoyable. Sadly, the CBS series Tracker, which is based on these books was pretty terrible. Granted, I only watch 2 or 3 episodes, so maybe I’ll go back and try it again at some point but geez, not a good start.

I read all of Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series and a few other short stories. I watched the original Denzel Washington movie version and the new(er) series (from 2020, which was canceled after 1 season), both of which were okay. I felt like neither of them really got the relationship between Rhyme and Sachs right, which may have been on purpose but bugged me. I reread Dark Matter by Black Crouch in advance of the Apple TV+ series but have only managed to watch the first episode. I probably need to give this one more runway. Finally, I read The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. It’s always interesting to read such old books, especially from a technology standpoint. The TV series, created by Sky Studios and then brought to the US by Peacock was decent. I’m not an Eddie Redmayne fan and didn’t really feel he was the best choice for the Jackal. I had similar feelings about Lashana Lynch, who plays Bianca. She didn’t really work for me as she was portrayed.

Fortunately, I was only really disappointed by one book this year. Sadly, it was James Rollins’ Arkangel. I still like the Sigma Force characters but they and/or the stories have lost the edge for me. Not sure how much longer I can continue with them. It was interesting that I read a couple of books based on the story of the Golden Library, so that helped soften the blow a little.

Here are a couple of honourable mentions before I get to my overall favourites. Perhaps strangely, I really liked Good Boys by Jeremy Robinson. He can definitely be off the wall and this book is no exception but it way better than I expected. Finally, A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko was a great read. I had seen the documentary, so had a good sense of it going in. I like his writing style, The Emerald Mile was one of my favourites of 2022. The book and the movie are both worth your time.

On the fiction side, there were 3 books that really stood out from the rest. I read Tana French’s The Searcher last year and really liked it, despite it not making my favourites list. This year’s The Hunter was great. I think familiarity with the characters helped. You don’t have to wade through all the backstory of why Cal moved to Ireland and Trey’s family. I am eagerly awaiting the next book in this series.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt was just flat out great. Loved the story, the characters. So good. Reminded me of the movie My Octopus Teacher, which I also loved. I strongly recommend everyone read this book, you will not be disappointed.

Dennis E. Taylor (who is Canadian) makes a huge comeback with his Bobiverse book 5 novel, Not Til We Are Lost (which just recently became available in ebook format). I may write more about this book (and the series) but for now, NTWAL felt like coming home. It reads very much like book 1 to me and it’s style matches the first 3 books. I have warmed slightly to book 4 over the years and maybe it was a necessary evil to get the Bob’s to where they are now so that book 5 and the ones that follow can move forward. My one gripe would be with the entire Howard and Bridget Jaberwolky escapade. It felt like it’s sole purpose was to have something substantial for those characters to do and it just doesn’t fit with the rest of the book. I mean, it’s okay, but I read this book many times and in the last several instances, just skipped every chapter that dealt with that story line. It’s such an offshoot, it doesn’t provide anything to the central theme of the book. Regardless, it’s great to have Dennis and the Bob’s back on familiar ground.

On the nonfiction side, I read/reread most of Malcolm Gladwell’s books. I really like his style, the background, the data. Not sure I have a favourite, they are all good. If I had to pick, I think Outliers was the most interesting to me, given his hypothesis going in and what he actually found. Blink and Talking to Strangers were also great and eyeopening. The fact he’s Canadian also doesn’t suck

Like many others, I read Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, also a Canadian. I liked this book for several reasons: I think Peter gets a bit of a bad rap due to some of his earlier work and this book clearly states how he uses data to make decisions and where he has changed his mind because of new research. This topic fascinates me and I feel like Peter is someone out there trying things but with a purpose, with rigor, unlike say Bryan Johnson, who just comes across as a hack. Besides, we have to live long enough so that we can be uploaded into Dennis’ replicant matrix!