Enchantment, Magic and Meaning: My 2024 Reading Portal: Part 1
"Books are a uniquely portable magic" said Stephen King. Here are the 56 books I read in 2024 that invited me into the portal of the imagination, my favorite place to be.
This year I read 56 books, and just as I did last year in my “A Year of Reading as Retreat and Renewal” series (50 books), this essay is a look back at the books I’ve read, each of which transformed me in some way. There are few places on earth I’d rather be than curled up with a physical book, pulling out my Kindle with its dozens of titles to prop up for mealtime reading, or while cooking or driving, listening to the books queued up on my Spotify audiobook playlist.
When I moved into a new apartment in December 2023 I chose not to have a TV. I don’t subscribe to any streaming services. But books are everywhere: in bookcases covering an entire living room wall, filling wall shelves in my bedroom office, scattered on the coffee table and stacked on my nightstand. The sweetest part of my day is climbing into bed at night and being transported by what I’m reading.
I am making the final decisions about which of these books will travel with me to Barcelona in February and which will be donated to the local library or gifted to friends and family. It is like parting with my dearest friends; fond goodbyes are necessary and sometimes anguished. When I survey my living room now bare of bookcases, I think of Cicero’s quote: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Lucky me, then, that the books I read often live on in my soul, in one form or another. These authors and poets have kept me company in a sometimes lonely year, one in which I suffered a great loss in the death of my mother in April. My mother Freda is the one who gifted me the love of reading and I know she is reminding me: I am never alone when I have access to the world’s imagination.
The poet Naomi Shihab Nye writes:
"It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words. Even if you don't have friends somewhere, you still have language, and it will find you and wrap its little syllables around you and suddenly there will be a story to live in."
In her wonderful annual list, Favorite Books of The Year, Maria Popova, who writes The Marginalian, a curated collection of reflections and essays on art, science, philosophy and literature, reflects my own motivation for this year-end catalogue:
Because I read for the same reason I write — to fathom my life and deepen my living — looking back on a year of life has always been looking back on a year of reading.
This week I give you the 26 works of fiction I read; next week, I share the 29 works of non-fiction and poetry. May you find a book for your own shelves from my list for the coming year!
FICTION
All Fours by Miranda July: In one of the most talked-about books of the year, a National Book Award finalist, The Guardian had it right. The book “explores dance, desire, mortality and transcendence on a wild autofictional journey.”
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout: A novel cherished by both me and my mother. In her honor I reread it, once again marveling at this stunning portrayal of a teenager's alienation from her distant mother—and a parent's rage at the discovery of her daughter's sexual secrets.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones: Newlyweds Celestial and Roy, a middle-class African-American couple living in Atlanta, Georgia have their lives torn apart when Roy is wrongfully convicted of a rape he did not commit. A poignant and beautiful love story, it is also about how incarceration changes relationships.
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende: I’ve read all of Allende’s books. This one I devoured again, a young Chilean woman’s pursuit of love against the California Gold Rush, because in March 2025 I will be visiting Valparaiso, Chile where much of the first part of the novel is set. While she’s lived most of her life abroad, Allende says she can write about Chile without thinking: “It’s in my blood.”
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver: It took me awhile to crack open this novel, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I knew its subject matter would be difficult and heart-breaking: a boy born to a teenaged single mother in poverty in the mountains of southern Appalachia, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. It deals with drug addiction, the sometimes cruelty of foster care and other traumas. But Demon’s narrative voice is irresistible. Once I began reading, I could not put it down, rooting for him every anguished step of his journey.
Leaving by Roxane Robinson: In this novel, a former couple, age 60, meet by chance after many years: one is married, the other divorced. A love story with many difficult choices unfolds. I fell into this novel from page one, lured by “Robinson’s masterly cadences and insight,” as The New York Times described it.
Liars by Sarah Manguso: This searing novel posits “how marriage makes liars of us all.” Jane, an aspiring writer, marries filmmaker John, believing she has everything she ever wanted, but is consumed by his ambitions and ego. It explores how marriage can destroy a woman artist, and that traditional marriage is a tool of the patriarchy, used to control and dehumanize women. I could not look away.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante: When The New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century ranked this novel at the top, it was time to finally pull it off my shelf and I was not disappointed. This is book one of a four-volume series, the intense, generous, richly detailed story of a friendship between two lower-class girls in Naples following the Second World War, and now an HBO mini series.
No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister: As a devoted reader and writer, I could not resist this book, about Alice whose debut novel is a breakout success. The charm of the novel is in the stories of the nine very different readers for whom her words change their lives in some distinct and essential way, offering a new path forward.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong: The 2019 debut novel by Vietnamese American poet Ocean Vuong, I returned to it this year for our study of it at
next month. An epistolary novel, it is written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mother and it is painfully, breathtakingly gorgeous. Powerful and unforgettable, I look forward to peeling back the layers of Vuong’s art.Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson: This is a funny, sharp depiction of the different ways three women in a wealthy New York family experience their good fortune, one born to it, another married into it and the third wanting to give it all away.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld: This “fizzy ride,” the perfect antidote to heavier reading this year, follows Sally, a late-night TV show writer who swears off love until she meets Noah, a pop star. Their love story is wholly satisfying.
Sam by Allegra Goodman: “A portrait of a young girl at risk that shimmers with an unusual intimacy and depth,” as The New York Times described it, Sam is a child destined to fall through the cracks but somehow doesn’t, leaving us hopeful.
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout: A favorite writer of mine, her latest book brings together beloved characters from her previous novels including Olive Kitteridge, Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess. In quiet, stunning prose, she explores new friendships, old loves, and the human desire to matter in this world.
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak: The compelling, multi-layered story of two girls, one Turkish in contemporary Istanbul, the other Armenian-American in San Francisco, confronting the weight of history in the Armenian genocide. Bravely taking on a taboo topic, Shafak was sued by nationalists for ‘public denigration of Turkishness,’ and eventually acquitted. You can read her essays here on Substack in
.The Book Club by Mary Alice Monroe: As someone who has founded or been part of book clubs for over 30 years, I loved this novel about five women for whom their monthly book club meeting is the sanctuary for their hopes, fears, and triumphs. Each woman, at a point of transition, holds tight to their friendship.
The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood: Another book club/friendship novel, each member must choose “the book that matters most to them” for the group to read. At its center is Ava, whose 25-year marriage has fallen apart. A mysterious book from her childhood helps her make peace with the trauma of the untimely deaths of her sister and mother and her troubled relationship with her daughter.
The Celebrants by Stephen Rowley: I have a signed copy of this wonderful novel, having met the author in Palm Springs, California in March. Five friends from college, nearly three decades later, are flummoxed that they still haven’t figured out life. Over the years they reunite periodically in Big Sur to honor the pact they made to give each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—and living well. This is a novel that makes you want to drop everything and call your best friends to tell them how much they mean to you.
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams: This is a fictionalized tale of a true event, the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary but also a tribute to real women whose work on the Dictionary went largely unheralded. Esme, the daughter of a lexicographer, is determined to save the words the men consider inferior because they describe the world of women Esme knows intimately.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett: A dark fairy tale about an adult brother and sister, orphaned from the house and wealth in which they were born when their father remarries. I was spellbound as over five decades the siblings learn to confront the father who betrayed them and the mother who left them behind.
The Hundred Lives of Juliet by Evelyn Skye: A modern-day reimagining of Romeo and Juliet, in this charming novel Helene thinks Sebastien is the flesh-and-blood hero of the love stories she’s spent her life writing. But Sebastien knows Helene is his Juliet, and their story is inevitably doomed. Evelyn, a guest teacher at
’s writing program and author of is as delightful as her books.The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood: When her only child suddenly dies, Mary Baxter joins a knitting circle to fill her lonely, empty days. Around the circle, each woman reveals her own stories of love and loss, allowing Mary to face her own grief in this moving, heart-warming novel by one of my favorite authors.
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller: Elle, 50, married mother of three, reconnects with her childhood love at the family summer home, forcing her to decide the future she wants. Beautifully told story of love, desire, secrets and lies.
The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl: When her estranged mother dies, Stella’s inheritance is a one-way plane ticket and instructions to “go to Paris.” Now in her 30s after a traumatic childhood, she is timid at first. Then the city casts its spell, starting with a bewitching dress, and then a meeting with an elderly art collector who takes Stella under his wing where she ends up living as a “tumbleweed” at the famous bookstore Shakespeare & Company. I love Paris and adored this book.
The Unbreakables by Lisa Barr: Let’s stay in France, shall we? On Sophie Bloom’s 42nd birthday, she discovers from a secret online dating site for married couples that her husband is the top cheater in town; her “perfect marriage” topples. She jets off to France to put the pieces of herself and her life back together. Add the rediscovery of her lust for life and steamy sex and you have a very French novel.
Wherever There Is Light by Peter Golden: Paris along with Miami Beach and Greenwich Village are the backdrop of this interracial love story of a beautiful painter Kendall Wakefield and Jewish immigrant Julian Rose, a gangster and bootlegger. It’s one of those decades-long, sweeping tales I love, not least for its depiction of life in post-war Paris where the pair mingle with Sartre, Picasso, and a host of other artists and intellectuals.
Here’s a little gift of a song, courtesy of
& and her wonderful playlists, reminding me of this classic: Joni Mitchell’s “River.” The line “But it don’t snow here/it stays pretty green” captures our Florida Christmas vibe perfectly, tinsel and sand between our toes:-)If you like what you read, please leave a heart ❤️, a comment or restack for others to find their way here. Recommendations from other Substack writers are so appreciated! Special thank you to my paid subscribers. If this space brings you value, and you have the means, please consider upgrading your subscription. And if you’d like to make a one-time contribution of any amount to show your support, click on the button below. Thank you!
Not surprisingly maybe, I love your list Amy! I am a huge fan of Allende, and Ferrante (whom I have read in Italian and my daughter now is reading in French!). Ocean Vuong’s “on Earth we’re briefly gorgeous” has been a huge inspiration for my writing. But my absolute favourite (and surprise!): The Paper Palace!!! I devoured the book and went back to reading it as soon as I finished it. I have so much to say about it. I LOVED, LOVED it! I was looking forward to Miranda July’s “All Fours” and was surprised by how underwhelmed and disappointed I was by it. Especially part 1, which bored me. It got better later, but I wouldn’t list it among my favourites, even though I really like and respect July. Curious to know what you thought of it…
What a great list! I'm saving this post, Amy.