Book Review 2024
Published: 2025-01-12In 2024 I set myself a 40-book challenge and managed to get over the line just before the new year (although I technically read 40-and-two-half books, and one book twice!).
Again I managed to read a good cross-section, including Philosophy, History, Biographies and more fiction than usual (8 out of 40 were fiction which is probably high for me.) I felt that this year's reading was a little under-par from the previous years for some reason. But it has hopefully helped me to understand what topics I enjoy and what I don't.
So hopefully my 5 picks below will provide some inspiration to someone! They are presented in order that I read them. For my full 2023 list, go to my Goodreads profile.
Circe
After reading "The Song Of Achilles", which didn't quite make it into my list last year, I read what is arguably the "follow up", and tells the story of Circe, one of the daughters of the Sun God Helios. Circe is inquisitive and defiant, and after beginning to learn of witchcraft she is banished to a remote island for disobeying the Gods. From there, she refines her abilities and is visited by the heroes that we have heard of from other stories. But they are often not quite as they are portreyed.
I enjoyed this telling of the Greek Myths from the alternative perspective of Circe, and Madeline Miller crafts an anti-hero in Circe and instils her with some 21st-century feminine power. With some tense storytelling and a satisfying overall arc, this was probably the best fiction that I read in 2024.
The Sun Does Shine
I don't often pay much heed to books from Oprah's list, but this one seemed to just get too many other recommendations to ignore. The biography of a death-row inmate and his fight against Southern justice is quite gripping and covers themes not only of truth, justice and friendship, but also of freedom within your own mind and dealing with loss, not just of his cell-mates but also of his time lost behind prison bars and his sense of hope.
River Of Time
Having lived for 2 years in Vietnam, it is nigh on impossible to get by without wanting to know something about 'The War'. Vietnam has a rich and amazing history which goes centuries back (and is worth discovering), but the most obvious to Westerners is the period during and after the war. In some respects, Vietnam is still dealing with it, and it is one of the most covered literary topics.
'River Of Time' is written by journalist John Swain, and depicts his time in Vietnam and Cambodia in the years leading up to the fall of both of these countries to the Communist rulers. Focusing mostly on Cambodia, his work was turned into the movie "The Killing Fields". Swain takes the reader through the 'romantic' times of Indochina, through to the fall of Phnom Penh and the sacrifices his local friends made to help him escape, to his return many years later. A difficult, painful and sometimes shocking read, it is probably essential for anyone wanting to understand what really happened behind the news.
Four Thousand Weeks
Author Oliver Burkeman has delved into the world of 'self help' before, and has since, but in this book he takes a deeper dive into what it means to acknowledge the fact that you only have about 4,000 weeks (about 76 years) to spend on this planet. How should you feel about this? What should you do about it? How should it affect how you live your life?
The first half of this book, as I wrote in my review, is absolute dynamite. It offers a real wake-up call about the hours that we regularly discard and leave behind in our daily lives. From dismantling the productivity argument of 'doing as much as you can' to revealing the things that steal our attention away from us the most, it is something we should probably all read at the beginning of every New Year.
From then it drifted from its focus a little in my opinion and offered broad-brush advice which is not to everyone's taste. But the good bits are so good that this can be overlooked. As a book that gets you to think about the value of your time, it is definitely recommended.
How I Learned To Understand The World
Hans Rosling's "Factfulness" has been on my shelf for a year now, and instead of reading it I decided to read his memior instead. And now I definitely know I should read "Factfulness"! If you have seen him on YouTube (one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w), you will know that he is a passionate character who breathes real life into his work. Having now read his Memoir, I can see that that is the real Hans Rosling.
The book mainly tells the story of how he and his family decided to spend time in Africa providing basic healthcare to a newly independent nation, and the lessons that he learnt there. After learning the importance and relevance of basic health care on an emerging society, he then embarks on a quest to reveal this information to the world, learning even more lessons on the way about the Western world's opinions of the "Third World".
Honorable Mention: The First Fleet
When we moved from Vietnam to Australia last year, I thought I should read a little on Australia's past. Having lived in Australia for 20 years prior, it is really a little embarassing to not know the story of The First Fleet any more than superficially. This depiction begins with the prison hulks of Britain and the decision to colonize 'Terra Australis' (basically a combination of licking the wounds of being kicked out of America, and wanting to beat the other sea-powers to yet another potential colony).
The book does not stop at the end of the fleet's initial arrival, but continues to tell the story of the life of the fleet and the colony until Capt. Philip returns to England. This is what elevated it for me, as it seems most Australian History stops upon the colony being founded in Sydney Harbour. But there is more to it than that, and Mundle describes the tests, trials and calamities that almost undid the project with adventurous ease.