2024 book year in review

I read 99 books this year, and am proud of myself for (1) reading so many, and (2) not forcing myself to read past the point of pleasure in December just to get 100. Also, for some reason I had a bunch of really long books this year (24 of the 99 were 400 pages or longer), so this year's 99 was more reading than some previous years' 100+.

	Woman	Man	Grand Total
Asian, Asian American, and Asian British	10	4	14
Black	4	5	9
Latine	6	4	10
Middle Eastern	3	1	4
Multiracial	5	2	7
Native	1	1	2
White	43	10	53
Grand Total	72	27	99

In terms of gender, I somehow only read cis authors (oops) but still slightly improved my share that wasn't cis men.

Time period	Authors that aren’t cis males
Childhood	69%
High School	18%
College	56%
Post-College to 2016	41%
2016	69%
2017 and 2018	68%
2019	79%
2020	66%
2021	63%
2022	63%
2023	72%
2024	73%
Overall	61%

In terms of race, some groups increased and others decreased. The white share went up, but that's mostly because I discovered Ann Patchett and had to read all 13 of her books

Time period	Asian & Asian- American	Black	Latinx	Middle Eastern	Native	Multi- racial	White
Childhood	0.6%	1.8%	0.6%	0%	0%	-	97%
High School	0%	3.7%	0%	1.2%	0%	-	95.1%
College	1.4%	2.9%	2.9%	11.4%	1.4%	-	80%
Post-College to 2016	2.1%	22.4%	2.8%	4.2%	0%	-	65%
2016	8.5%	22.3%	11.7%	11.7%	4.3%	-	33%
2017 and 2018	4.5%	36.4%	4.5%	3.0%	1.5%	6.1%	43.9%
2019	14.2%	24%	9.5%	9.5&	6.3%	-	34.9%
2020	8.6%	28.6%	7.1%	10%	2.9%	11.4%	31.4%
2021	18.9%	18.9%	9.0%	7.2%	5.4%	5.4%	32.4%
2022	25%	17.2%	3.1%	3.1%	1.6%	6.3%	42.2%
2023	24.3%	6.7%	8.1%	2.7%	5.4%	5.4%	46.0%
2024	14.1%	9.1%	10.1%	4.0%	2.0%	7.1%	53.5%
Overall	9.5%	12.6%	4.7%	2.2%	1.9%	3.2%	64.8%

Favorite fiction books of the year:

• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. I know I'm late to the party on this one, but this was my first Patchett book and I devoured it. It's a fictionalized account of a real hostage situation, and it's one of the most beautiful and empathetic portraits of a group of complicated people that I've ever read. As I said above, it made me go out and read her other 12 books - none of them disappointed, but this one is still my favorite.
• Life After Life and A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson. These two books aren't exactly prequel and sequel, so much as parallel stories about siblings living through World War II. They both have a bit of a weird narrative structure, but the writing is exquisite and engrossing and even months later I'm still thinking about certain scenes from each one.
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Never in a million years would I have anticipated becoming obsessed with a 900+ page account of a long cattle drive in the 1870s, but here we are. Through thousands of miles of idle conversations and midadventures, McMurtry builds up a deep and beautiful portrait of male friendship - it's hard to even understand how he did it; one minute I was wondering why my friend recommended this book and the next I was crying because it ended. 

Favorite nonfiction books of the year:

• Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater. A riveting journalistic account of a group of high school boys who made and/or followed a secret Instagram account with racist memes of their Black fellow students, and the years of ensuing fallout. I remember reading some news coverage when this happened, but the book goes into much more depth about the complexity of what happened and its ripple effects, without defending or apologizing for the boys. It made me extremely glad I didn't have social media in high school, and worried for my kids when they are old enough to want it.
• An Inconvenient Cop: My Fight to Change Policing in America by Edwin Raymond. An infuriating memoir of his time coming up through the ranks of the NYPD and learning how the system really works, and that "activity" (stop and frisks, summons, tickets, etc...) is prioritized above all else - e.g. cops hide in subway stations so they can catch and ticket turnstile jumpers, rather than be visible to deter crime and help people. There are lots of Kafkaesque stories that are infuriating to read about, but it's insightful to have an insider explaining exactly how and why the system works the way it does.