I prefer fiction to nonfiction. My sense is that fiction probes deeper into the human condition, and, avoids the ponderous writing that befalls many works of nonfiction.
Aw, who am I kidding. I like a good yarn.
That said, there were a number of interesting works of nonfiction. Perhaps nothing that compares to David Gran’s fine, reads-like-a-novel The Wager, but sufficient in both quality and quantity to recommend.
I started to list the nonfiction books that I enjoyed, only to realize that I was listing every nonfiction book I had read. That won’t do. I am going to mention four nonfiction books I found noteworthy. As for the rest, it all depends on your areas of interest. Mine tend to be music and movies and journalism, the occasional current event, history and biography. So choose accordingly.
Here are the four:
An Unfinished Love Story, A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimerer
The Mythmakers, The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien by John Hendrix
The Power Broker, Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
Goodwin’s memoir blends history (as it happened) with the personal. Sweetgrass introduces new ways of thinking, living and learning. The Mythmakers is a graphic biography that focuses on the friendship between two literary titans. The Power Broker is an impressive feat of journalism about a tyrant who ruled New York City for far too long.
On to fiction
Kristin Hannah’s The Women about nurses in Vietnam and how it impacted their lives is 2024’s best novel. There is a statue on the Mall in Washington D.C. that is dedicated to the nurses who served in ‘Nam. I have seen it many times, but it was never so meaningful as after I read Hannah’s novel and revisited the statue this summer.
Runner-up, Playground by Richard Powers. In this book he does for the ocean what he did for trees in The Overstory.
Don’t overlook:
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
Fire Exit by Morgan Talty
The Black Loch by Peter May
The Waiting by Michael Connelly
Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin
Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon
In A Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
Alter Ego by Alex Segura
Novels by Connelly, Rankin and May always worth a read. Orange, Talty and Rendon represent a new and powerful body of writing by indigenous authors. In A Lonely Place was a serendipitous discovery. Dorothy B. Hughes was born in Kansas City. Her book, noir at its finest, was made into a film starring Humphrey Bogart. Segura showcases an intimate knowledge of comic books in his second novel to feature the legendary Lynx. Alter Ego is a follow-up to Secret Identity.
Final notes:
I read lots of classics: Woolf, Twain, Cather, Kafka, and, of course, Dickens.
I read 109 books in 2024, same amount as in 2023.
First up in 2025: John Lewis, A Life by David Greenberg and The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien.
