2024 in Reading

Introduction

Here’s most all the books I read in 2024:

1. Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World by Emma Marris
2. My Real Children by Jo Walton
3. The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World by Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro
4. Starter Villain by John Scalzi
5. Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti (graphic novel)
6. The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow (audiobook)
7. Yotsuba&!, Vol. 7 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
8. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
9. A Choir of Honest Killers by Buddy Wakefield (poetry)
10. The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
11. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
12. A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport (audiobook)
13. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport (audiobook)
14. Yotsuba&!, Vol. 8 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
15. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
16. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
17. No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull (audiobook)
18. Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
19. The Bones Below by Sierra DeMulder (poetry)
20. Yotsuba&!, Vol. 9 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
21. A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences by Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery
22. Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You by Ali Abdaal (audiobook)
23. Million Dollar Weekend: Build A Business So Quickly There’s No Time to Chicken Out by Noah Kagan (audiobook)
24. Yotsuba&!, Vol. 10 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
25. The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker
26. A Socially Acceptable Breakdown by Patrick Roche (poetry)
27. Please Come Off-Book by Kevin Kantor (poetry)
28. The Just City by Jo Walton
29. Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire edited by Alice Wong
30. Troubles in Otari by Ron Lundeen, Jason Keeley and Lyz Liddell (Pathfinder 2E: Standalone Adventure)
31. Yotsuba&!, Vol. 11 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
32. The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty (audiobook)
33. Butcher by Natasha T. Miller (poetry)
34. The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Life by JL Collins
35. The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton
36. How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur (audiobook)
37. Dwarf Stars 2024 edited by Brittany Hause (poetry)
38. Necessity by Jo Walton
39. The 2024 Rhysling Anthology edited by Brian U. Garrison and David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)
40. Pathfinders: Extraordinary Stories of People Like You on the Quest for Financial Independence―And How to Join Them by JL Collins
41. The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang (audiobook)
42. The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty
43. Yotsuba&!, Vol. 12 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
44. Yotsuba&!, Vol. 13 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
45. Yotsuba&!, Vol. 14 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
46. The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty
47. Yotsuba&!, Vol. 15 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
48. The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn
49. The Expanse: Dragon Tooth Vol. 1 by Andy Diggle and Rubin (comics)
50. The Expanse: Dragon Tooth Vol. 2 by Andy Diggle and Francesco Pisa (comics)
51. Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc (audiobook)
52. Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
53. Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson (poetry)
54. Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Ladau
55. Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell (audiobook)
56. Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
57. You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson (poetry)
58. The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O’Neill (comics)
59. The Expanse: Dragon Tooth Vol. 3 by Andy Diggle and Francesco Pisa (comics)
60. Translation State by Ann Leckie

Let me share about the highlights.

Standalone Novels

• My Real Children by Jo Walton: This was a re-read. I strongly appreciate this book. It’s a meaningful, moving, and beautiful story of a woman’s life as it splits into two different timelines. The speculative elements of the story take a backseat to a moving meditation on the important things in life.
• The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow: I loved this story! It was such a treat. This is such a YIMBY novel. I wish we had more stories like this, stories exploring how we work together to turn society into welcoming community with enough space for everyone amidst the very real challenges we are facing this century. I strongly recommend this to politics nerds, especially to fellow YIMBYs.
• Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson: This was fun!
• The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang: This novel was also a treat. It has so many strong, fleshed-out female characters, and I really appreciated the setting, the magic, and the general rebel-punk energy.
• The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn: This novel is fantastic, and I wish I saw more people talking about it. It’s a fantasy novel set in late 1800s America that’s paying careful attention to gender, sexuality, race, and class, but more importantly, it’s a delightful and moving romance for all you nature-lovers and bird-watchers out there. You know how in a ton of fantasy stories, people speak Latin to do magic? They do that in this book too — by speaking the scientific names of different species! It’s a delightful reworking of a common trope.
• Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers: This was a re-read. This book remains fantastic, a high favorite of mine. In particular, I love how it imagines household units in hexes, and I love the character of Eyas (and especially her profession).
• Starling House by Alix E. Harrow: This is a great book, and I recommend it to everyone.
• Translation State by Ann Leckie: I loved this so much. It is an incredibly intelligent and fun novel, and it has delicious alien weirdness. If you enjoyed Ann Leckie’s other novels set in her Ancillary universe, I eagerly recommend this. If you haven’t read Ann Leckie’s other novels, I’d recommend you start with Ancillary Justice. This novel stands on its own, but it’s building off of the Imperial Radch trilogy and Provenance, and I think it’ll be easier to appreciate and enjoy this one after you’ve read those (which are all-time favorites of mine and which I highly recommend).

Series

• The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin: This was another re-read for me. This remains really, really good.
• The Thessaly trilogy by Jo Walton: I daresay this was my favorite and the best thing I read this year. This felt so surprising and original. It is simultaneously deeply focused on philosophical ideas and extremely character-driven. More importantly, each book was meaningful, moving, and powerful. Please read this.
• The Daevabad trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty: I enjoyed this series. I thought it handled sibling relationships really well: they felt so real, so relatable, so complex, and so fun. The worldbuilding was also great: this is a fun, detailed, living world, firmly rooted in Middle Eastern culture and tradition. If you want to disappear into a fantasy world informed by Middle Eastern culture and tradition, check this out.

Short Fiction

I wrote nine short fiction reviews for Skiffy and Fanty in 2024. Check out all my reviews at skiffyandfanty.com/author/cameronncoulter/ to see my favorite stories from the year and to get my thoughts on them. But if I had to narrow down all those stories to a handful of truly standout stories from 2024, I’d go with these.

“A Saint Between The Teeth” by Sloane Leong (published in Lightspeed Magazine Issue 164): In this story, set in an alien world with alien creatures, Kharatet is a carnivore who needs to eat not just other creatures, but sentient, intelligent creatures. Kharatet isn’t happy about that, but his meal genuinely wants to be eaten and has good arguments for it. It’s a deeply weird and alien story about the ethics of carnivores. Read my full review of it here: Short Fiction Review: January 2024.

“Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim (published in Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 209): This story responds to and builds off of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s horrific (just read the title), but it is also intelligent, inventive, and honestly quite playful. Read my full review of it here: Short Fiction Review: February 2024.

“A Magical Correspondence, to the Tune of Heartstrings” by Valerie Valdes (published in Uncanny Magazine Issue 57): This is a cozy romance about a busy woman trying to fit in just one more thing — in this case, a correspondence course in witchcraft. The setting feels like classic medieval fantasy, but thematically, it struck me as quite modern and relatable. Read my full review of it here: Short Fiction Review: March – April 2024.

“The Ex Hex” by Jae Steinbacher (published in Lightspeed Magazine Issue 172): In this story, a witch tries to hex their ex in a fury of vengeance, screws up the spell in the process, and then needs to make it right. The story is firmly rooted in restorative justice and community reparations, and it’s got fun characters with delightful dialog. Read my full review of it here: Short Fiction Review: September 2024.

“A Most Lovely Song” by Albert Chu (published in PodCastle Episode 861): In this tale, a talking bird accompanies a Chinese boy and his descendants through times of war and protest, but the bird isn’t as altruistic as it first seems. It’s a moving and urgent story that challenges its readers to remain sensitive to violence, to war, and to colonialism. Read my full review of it here: Short Fiction Review: October 2024.

Manga & Comics

I read Yotsuba&! and it is so charming! It is such an ordinary slice-of-life series, but somehow that makes it feel particularly special and unique. Yotsuba is a great character, and it is a joy to see the world through her eyes. The other characters in her life are kind and playful; it is heart-warming to see them all interact together. I also appreciated seeing time slowly progress from one day to the next as I read each chapter.

I read The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O’Neill, and I’m currently working my way through the sequels. I find the art style incredibly beautiful; it’s cute, clean, bright, and verdant. The story and its themes are nice, and the diverse representation is a treat. Also, the tea dragons are adorable. I definitely see myself coming back to re-read these as a comfort read.

Poetry

Please Come Off-Book by Kevin Kantor is my standout poetry book from the year. It’s real, it’s fun, and it felt fresh to me. It has a lot to offer theatre nerds and genderqueer people, which is to say, it has a lot to offer me (and hopefully you). I’m planning to reread this one because it absolutely deserves it. Check it out!

Nonfiction

The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World by Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro

I highly recommend this book to all you history and national security nerds out there. This book essentially tells the story of how war became illegal — how war shifted from being the way states addressed disputes to an abnormality, a notable derivation from the norm.

This is a hefty, detailed book, more so than I can really dive into here. It presents its arguments clearly, and it sketches out important historical figures in pleasing detail. It really deepened and changed how I understand war, both historically and in the present day. With some chagrin, I must say this book made me realize how fascinating World War II really was. Gosh, I feel like such a old dad writing that, but the way this book frames World War II as a pivot point — a war about the meaning and future of war — truly is fascinating.

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker

This is a remarkable book. It is an easy read that’s loaded with wisdom about planning and hosting engaging and meaningful gatherings of all types. I enjoyed reading Parker’s stories about the different gatherings she has helped facilitate, and I was inspired by all her stories and different ideas. I liked this just as an interesting book to read, but I particularly cherish it for Parker’s wisdom and advice laced throughout. My partner and I enjoy hosting gatherings for our people and always want to plan more, and this book offers a thoughtful framework for doing just that.

Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Ladau

If you’re looking to learn more about ableism and disability justice, this book is a great start. It is a solid overview, and it is written in a very approachable style. If you already know more about accessibility, ableism, and disability justice, I’m bot sure this book will have as much to offer you. However, I must say, I thought this book’s chapter on disability etiquette (you know, actually being kind and respectful to people with disabilities) was great. It is probably the best treatment on that subject I’ve come across, so even if you’re already familiar with a lot of what’s covered in this book, I’d recommend you give that chapter a read.