Books in 2024

Happy New Year! And early Lunar New Year wishes to everyone. Being well into January, 2024 already feels so long ago, but I wanted to make sure and shout out some of my favorite books from last year. In 2024 I definitely diversified my reading, although romance, both historical and contemporary, were by far my most read genre.

I continued to track my reading habits with The Storygraph. The app is constantly evolving and improving, and I look forward to seeing the stats and graphics for each month’s wrapup. I’ll do a proper post on the app later, so let’s move on to the books. Here were my 5 star* reads, roughly categorized.

Fantasy / Science Fiction

• The Fox Wife – Yangsze Choo
• The Aurelian Cycle trilogy – Rosaria Munda
• The Ministry of Time – Kaliane Bradley

Historical Romance

• The Heart of Blade duology – Sherry Thomas
• Lord of Scoundrels – Loretta Chase
• Ravishing the Heiress – Sherry Thomas

Contemporary Romance / Fiction

• Funny Story – Emily Henry
• Just for the Summer – Abby Jimenez
• This Time Next Year – Sophie Cousens
• Is She Really Going Out with Him? – Sophie Cousens
• The Wedding People – Alison Espach
• You are Here – David Nicholls

Mystery

• Lady Sherlock series – Sherry Thomas

Graphic Novel

• The Inquisitors Tale – Adam Gidwitz

*I don’t rate all the books I read, but sometimes will give books 4 stars and up when I really enjoy them. I don’t have a solid definition for what makes a book 5 stars, usually it’s just the overall feeling of having been transported by the story and unable to put it down.

Author spotlights

Yangsze Choo had a new book out last year! I immediately got The Fox Wife on audiobook and was absolutely enchanted. I have loved all her previous books, and her narrations are always lovely to listen to. I read somewhere she is working on her next book (I believe it has something to do with plants), so I cannot wait to see what she has in store.

By far and away my most read author in 2024 was Sherry Thomas. I devoured her historical romances, then jumped into the Lady Sherlock series, which was also excellent. (Tip: do read past the first book at least, I think the mystery aspect of the first one was the weakest). From her historicals, The Heart of Blade duology (The Hidden Blade / My Beautiful Enemy) absolutely captivated me. I had never read a novel with wuxia martial arts elements before, and I liked the cross-cultural romance. I also literally wept as I listened to Ravishing the Heiress. I don’t think I’ve cried so hard at a book where there wasn’t character death involved. I know it’s cliche to say that a book devastated me, but it really did. That book wrecked me.

My second most-read author was Sarah J. Maas. I started the Throne of Glass series in December 2023, and finished the series in Q1 of 2024. I distinctly remember the thrill when I discovered that my local library had physical copies of the whole series. Oh the utter joy at not having to have to wait weeks for the next book via Libby. Later I found out the Seoul Metropolitan Library also has quite a nice English catalog, and throughout the year I frequented the library to browse the shelves.

Lastly, I am proud that I kept a creative reading journal in 2024. I was so excited to set it up at the beginning of the year, and while some of the enthusiasm waned as the days went by, I still stuck with it. And at the end of the year I had a very chunky journal documenting all the books I read.

Here’s a playlist of all the videos throughout the year for my book journal.

And here are past year in books reviews: 2023 | 2021 and 2022 | 2020 | 2019  | 2018  | 2017 | 2015 and 2016