Final Books Of 2024

December reads, and a 2024 reading summary

Note: I've decided to start including affiliate links again, mainly because it does sometimes lead to a tiny bit of spending money for me on Amazon - which I will most likely be using to buy more books to read. So the links in the post are affiliate links, and hopefully that's not too annoying!

Between Christmas break, cozy fires, and Christmas lights gleaming, December always ends up being a decent reading month for me. I read several winners this month, and I’m wrapping up the 2024 reading year quite satisfied overall.

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for a list of my favorite reads from the year, and please leave a comment and let me know your best book of the year too!

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Live Not By Lies by Rob Dreher

This book was an interesting exploration of how people, and specifically Christians, handled oppression under communism in Eastern Europe. I thought he made alot of interesting points about ways to stay connected and keep your spirits up in the midst of a tyrannical governmental system. I enjoyed the first half, and started to get bogged down in too many names and stories in the second half - some of his points got a little muddy for me. However, the title of the book really sums up the best advice of this book and all the people that Dreher interviewed - to be careful not to let an oppressive government or culture cause you to "live by lies" - that is, to fall into the easy path of going along to get along and act in a way that is against the things you believe in just to avoid conflict. Overall, an interesting read.

The Penderwicks and The Penderwicks On Graham Street by Jeanne Birdsall

These were re-reads for me as I listened to them with the kids. My kids found them hilarious and delightful. These books follow the girls of the Penderwick family as they go on vacation and meet a new friend (Book 1), and then try to foil their father's attempts at starting to date again (Book 2). Content Notes: In Book 2, one of the more dramatic characters gets very into the Aztecs, and unseriously "prays" to a false god. It's a brief scene, so the kids and I talked about it, but we throughly enjoyed the rest of the books. Can't wait to start the third book together!

Halloween Party by Agatha Christie

I have long been a fan of Hercule Poirot books, and this is one I am not sure I ever read. A girl is killed at a Halloween Party, and Hercule Poirot suspects this event may be tied to seemingly unrelated crimes from years before. The ending of this book was not totally satisfying to me, since the criminal died before he could face justice. The ending was a little more twisted than some of Agatha Christie's earlier books. It's long been a goal of mine to read the Hercule Poirot series in order, and I think I may have to do that and see how Christie's writings and endings develop. Content Notes: There was more talk about there possible being a sexual abuse aspect to the crime in this book than in Christie's other books.

Pitchin’ A Fit: Overcoming Angry And Stressed Out Parenting by Israel Wayne

This is a book I've picked up here and there over a couple years now, and I finally completed it. Wayne gives alot of wise advice for Christians on how to not let stress and anger seep into their parenting. It will probably be one I read again at some point, because there were so many tips I've probably forgotten by now. One thought that stands out to me from when I recently picked it up is that it takes alot of strength to be gentle, and I've been pondering on that.

How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

I picked this book up on a whim when I saw it at the library, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Annie Adams just finds out that her great Aunt Frances intends to change her will to let Annie inherit, but when Annie arrives for the meeting with Frances, they find her murdered in her mansion. We find out that Frances received a prediction of her murder from a fortune teller as a teenager, and she has been determined to prevent her own murder for years before her ultimate demise. Annie finds Frances's diary, and we flash back and forth between Annie in the current day and Frances's teenage self, learning more about Frances's troubled friendships while Annie tries to solve her murder. This felt like an old-school murder mystery book, with all the charm that implies. At the end of the book, Annie finds more of Frances's journals - and I immediately googled to see if there will be another book, and there will be in 2025! So I'm looking forward to that. Content Notes: Scattered cursing, two of the characters start to "fool around" before getting interrupted, fornication is part of the conflict in the book but not described, one of the side characters is in a lesbian relationship (but it's not a big part of the plot).

A Lot Like Christmas by Connie Willis

This was a collection of Christmas, science fiction short stories. That sounds weird, but it really worked! I had some moral, ethical, and/or theological issues with two of the stories in particular - “Epiphany”, which was playing off some of the symbolic language in Revelation in a non-biblical way, and the ending of “Cat’s Paw”, which made a point that an animal had more value than an insane human being. I had minor quibbles in other chapters, but those two stories were the main ones I took issue with. But overall, I was willing to overlook a couple story elements or statements I didn’t appreciate because I so thoroughly enjoyed the rest of these stories. If you want a different type of Christmas fiction book, this is a fun one! Content Notes: Some minor cussing, a couple vague references to physical relationships between characters, and the aforementioned moral/theological issues.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

This is my second year in a row reading this book to my older kids, and I highly recommend the experience, but you must do the voices while reading. It's a requirement.

Merry Ex-mas by Courtney Walsh

I overall liked this book. It was a cute Christmas romance story - Marin finally comes home for Christmas, only to discover that her ex boyfriend, Max, is staying at her parents’ house. Marin and her producer decide to play up the chemistry with Max to help Marin gain viewers and win her a promotion, but in the process Marin and Max end up sorting through their feelings and rekindling the romance. I liked the atmosphere of this novel was fun and Christmas, and I appreciated it was mostly clean.

There were a few things I wasn’t crazy about in the book, so I’ll just mention a couple - my biggest complaint is that Max’s character was too perfect. Marin was very bratty at times, and in response he did and said all the right things, with nary an annoyance or hurt feeling in sight. That felt unrealistic to me, and didn’t bring real stakes to the question of whether they would work things out, because it was very clear Max was willing to put up with anything. I think it would have worked better for me if we only saw Marin’s perspective instead of the dual perspectives, because it would have left us more in doubt about where Max stood.

Also, even though this is billed as a clean romance, there was a lot of lust on both sides, but especially for Marin, who was constantly noticing Max’s physique and even touched his rear end and commented on its firmness while she was drunk. I don’t like when female OR make characters are treated like a piece of meat, and it kind of felt like that at times.

As The Darkness Clears Away by Thomas Ascol

Loved this advent book - had a good amount of depth, biblically sound, and touched on several aspects of the birth of Jesus that are not usually covered in devotional books. Probably in my top five advent devotionals! Reading this also led me to learn the hymn that the title is referencing, and it was a nice addition to our Christmas season.

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2024 Reading In Sum

Since this is my last book post of 2024, I want to share a reading summary for the year! Here are my favorites in no particular order…

My Top Non-Fiction Books:

1. A Little Book On The Christian Life by John Calvin

2. Bad Therapy: Why The Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shrier

3. Bread Of Life: Savoring The All-Satisfying Goodness Of Jesus Through Breadmaking by Abigail Dodds

4. Theologians You Should Know by Michael Reeves

5. Sound Worship: A Guide To Making Musical Choices In A Noisy World by Scott Aniol

My Top Fiction Books:

1. A Lady’s Guide To Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin

2. Drowning by T. J. Newman

3. Daughter Of Mine by Megan Miranda

4. Jane Of Lantern Hill by L. M. Montgomery

5. Shipwreck At The Bottom Of The World by Jennifer Armstrong

6. These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

7. True Grit by Charles Portis

Pages Read: 14,007

Books Read: 55

Average Book Length: 254 pages

Other book posts from 2024:

Please see these posts for reviews of all the books I mentioned above, plus many more.