Shannon (sturlington) Gets to Those Books She's Been Meaning to Read (or Reread) in 2024

Hi, everyone! This year, my challenge is going to be very loose, and I'm not actively going to do any CATs or KITs. The goal is to read what I want to read when I want to read it. My theme is books that I've been meaning to read or reread for a while now. I have a list that includes new books and old ones, classics and obscure, from which I'll choose whatever I feel like reading at the time -- while giving myself permission to wander farther afield and read whatever catches my eye and fancy.

I will continue to do the BingoDOG despite not coming close to filling up my card in recent years. I'll also follow along with my long-time favorite challenge, ScaredyKIT, in case my reads coincide with the monthly themes. And I'll keep tracking the locales where my reads are set.

And that's it! I expect my reviews this year will be extremely short and sweet, but I'll list everything I read, and I'm happy to discuss books with anyone who stops by.

I hope all my fellow readers are having a wonderful, relaxing holiday. Here's looking forward to a great new year!

BingoDOG



1. Featuring twins: Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian
3. Featuring water: American Mermaid by Julia Langbein
4. Another cultural tradition: Kindred by Octavia Butler (slave narrative)
11. Paper-based item in plot: Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward
16. POC author: Passing by Nella Larsen
17. Three-word title: Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason
18. LT similar library: Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J. W. Ocker
21. Reread a favorite book: The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
22. About friendship: Cackle by Rachel Harrison
24. Only title and author on cover: I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

ScaredyKIT Themes:

✔January: Psychological Thrillers - Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason
✔February: Gothic - Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J. W. Ocker
March: True Crime
✔April: Witches, Evil Spirits, and Black Magic - Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward
May: Graphic Novels and Short Fiction
June: Serial Killers
July: Corporeal Undead
August: Middle grade and YA horror
September: Stephen King and Family
October: Contemporary Horror
November: Things with a Bite - Vampires and Werewolves
December: Catch Up! Read Something That Fits Any Month's Theme

USA Road Trip: Continuing my road trip from the previous year


Create Your Own Visited States Map

✔Arizona: Dinosaurs - outside of Phoenix (read in 2023)
✔California: American Mermaid - Hollywood (read in 2024)
✔Florida: The Light Pirate - Fictional town of Rudder, Florida. (read in 2023)
✔Idaho: Beulah - Fictional small town of Beulah, Idaho. (read in 2023)
✔Iowa: The Houseboat - Fictional small town of Oscar, Iowa. (read in 2023)
✔Maine: Looking Glass Sound - Fictional coastal town (read in 2024)
✔Maryland: Kindred - Plantation in 19th-century Maryland. (reread in 2024)
✔Massachusetts: No Gods, No Monsters - In and around Boston. (read in 2022)
✔Minnesota: This Town Sleeps - Small town of Geshig. (read in 2023)
✔Mississippi: The Trees - Small town of Money. (read in 2023)
✔Montana: Lone Women - Very small town of Big Sandy. (read in 2023)
✔New Hampshire: I Have Some Questions for You - Boarding school. (read in 2024)
✔New York: Vladimir - Upstate liberal arts college. (read in 2023)
✔North Carolina: Three Graves Full - Small town of Stillwater. (read in 2024)
✔Ohio: The End of the Road - Small town/farm in rural Ohio. (read in 2023)
✔Oregon: Hummingbird Salamander - Guessing this was the setting as it was never specified; I may trade this out if I happen to read a book more explicitly set in Oregon. (read in 2022)
✔Rhode Island: The Pallbearers' Club - A large portion is set in Providence, but also some is set in Beverly, Massachusetts. (read in 2023)
✔South Carolina: How to Sell a Haunted House - Set mainly in Charleston. (read in 2023)
✔Tennessee: Summer Sons - Set at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. (read in 2023)
✔Washington: Remarkably Bright Creatures - Small coastal town of Sowell Bay on the Puget Sound. (read in 2023)
✔Washington DC: Never Saw Me Coming - Stand-in for Delaware

World Map: Maybe I'll get outside the US more this year.


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

Italy: The Talented Mr. Ripley (reread in 2024)

Welcome!

Welcome back and have fun!

Glad to see you here Shannon and looking forward to following your reading.

Like the maps! Good luck with your 2024 reading.

Here's to a great reading year in 2024, Shannon.

Have a wonderful 2024 reading year!

Good luck with your reading in 2024.

Happy reading and armchair travelling!

Happy new year, and lots of luck in 2024!

Thanks for the New Year's wishes, everyone!

1. Cackle by Rachel Harrison (2021): A good break-up book, with delicious food, sumptuous dresses, and a very cute spider. Also witches. As I'm feeling a bit witchy myself in my advancing age, I found this novel very helpful.

Fits BingoDog "About Friendship" square.

>16 sturlington: Taking a BB for this one. I love witches and spiders. I have always felt witchy since my teen years.

>17 lowelibrary: This is the book for you then!

>16 sturlington: Glad you liked it, I thought it was a fun one too!

Happy reading in 2024. And safe travels!

Good luck with your 2024 reading. I think the title of your thread could be my title every year. We will never be able to read ALL the books we mean to. :(

>21 JayneCM: And then there's those shiny new books that distract us!

2. Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason: An older thriller that's been on my list for a while so I got it from the library. Did I think this was Coen brothers' level black comedy, as some of the reviews mentioned? No, I think it was a tad overwritten for that, but it was entertaining, and I'm glad the dog didn't die.

3. I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai: Mixed feelings. The book was most certainly too long. The #metoo themes seemed sometimes didactic, sometimes muddled. I didn't agree with the characters who seemed to think they had the right to destroy other peoples' lives through social media and podcasts based solely on suspicions, even if they are right. Would have liked to see some exploration of the revictimization of subjects of true-crime podcasts as well.

4. Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J. W. Ocker - Read for ScaredyKIT--Gothic month. Haunted house story. I found it gimmicky.

5. Passing by Nella Larsen - Read for a book club. An interesting book but with no likable characters, which I'm sure was intentional. Passing as white is not the only kind of passing going on here. The novel presents a point of view we don't usually get, but still this is a book obsessed with class and appearances.

6. American Mermaid by Julia Langbein - A book about a writer and the soul-crushing process of adapting your story for Hollywood. Clever and often funny. Too much drinking.

>27 sturlington: I've just started that one. It is clever.

>28 RidgewayGirl: I look forward to reading your thoughts on it. I wouldn't want to say too much about it for fear of spoiling--it's one of those books I'm glad I didn't know a lot about going in.

7. Kindred by Octavia Butler - A reread. I felt much more compassion toward this book than I did the first time I read it, nearly 20 years ago. I'm glad I revisited it.

8. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith - A reread for classics book club. Here is my original review written 14 years ago. My feelings on this book did not change much in rereading--it remains an all-time favorite.

I really like Patricia Highsmith’s writing style. It is a little old-fashioned, perfectly conveying the time and place of the story, but her word choices are so precise and evocative that I can almost see the action unfolding in technicolor in my imagination’s eye. I hope it’s not spoiling anything to tell you that there is a scene where a murder takes place, and that scene is so well narrated that I actually felt like I was the one committing the crime. At the risk of sounding like a fuddy-duddy, I don’t know if people write like this anymore.

The Talented Mr. Ripley is probably Highsmith’s most well-known novel, and the first by her that I have read (I have since read several more). Her antihero, Tom Ripley, is a character who is impossible to like, or even to sympathize with, but he does fascinate. Tom is not particularly clever or charming, or even that self-aware. Rather, he is a very lucky opportunist who wants to be anyone other than who he actually is — he despises himself — and he gets away with what he does through a combination of skillful lying and unthinking brazenness. Therein lies Tom’s talent: He doesn’t just lie effectively, but he convinces himself that his lies are what actually happened. Since he believes them so sincerely, everyone around him must believe them too.

We may not like Tom Ripley, but we do love his story, as it goes completely against the kind of story we’ve been conditioned to expect, in which the good guys triumph and no one gets away with murder. I’m sure that’s why several more Mr. Ripley books have followed this one.

9. The September House by Carissa Orlando

This is a twist on the tried-and-true haunted house story, with some insight into being in an abusive relationship. Very horrifying, on multiple layers. A bit too much at the end.

10. Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Kind of a mess. Graphic sex and violence, but still felt juvenile. This was about psychopaths, and I think we were supposed to like them or root for them, but I didn't. I also think it was setting up a series.

>33 sturlington: Well darn. I already bought the audiobook. I guess I can put it at the end of queue.

>34 Charon07: You may like it better than I did! I think it has that first-novel feel. And I don't normally read series, so that aspect annoyed me.

11. Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

Another mind bender by Ward, although for some reason, I liked it less than previous books--perhaps the magical aspect of the plot didn't quite work for me. Though when I got to the end, and realized how I had been tricked, I wanted to reread it right away. Great characters, very evocative setting, nice insights into the act of writing.