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Reading is a major activity in my life. I read for my work as your minister; I read to deepen my spiritual life; I read for fun. I read about hikes I’m going to take and games I’m going to play. I read self-help books and science fiction and those works by dead authors that are now called “great literature.” For years I have been keeping track of the books I read, so that I can reflect on what my reading life has meant to me over the past year.
There was the usual amount of genre fiction in 2024; I especially like science fiction, fantasy and mysteries. My favorites this year were The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman and The Future by Naomi Alderman. (Lev Grossman wrote the popular Magicians trilogy, and Alderman’s previous book was The Power, both of which became successful television shows.)
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabreille Zevin is not strictly science fiction, but much of the action takes place inside of video games, giving it a genre fiction feel. I have been giving this book as a gift all year; it was hands down my favorite contemporary novel of 2024.
My major reading accomplishment last year was to finish In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. I first read Swann’s Way in college. I returned to the multivolume epic around 2016, beginning again from the beginning, and reading the new Penguin Classics translations. This year I completed the seventh and final volume, Finding Time Again.
Proust offers cutting observations of upper class society in turn-of-the-century France, and also evokes human emotions with perfect clarity. The novel’s plot unfolds at a glacial pace, giving emotions and reflection ample room for focus and expansion. A friend compared Proust to TikTok, in his ability to isolate one of the narrator’s single human emotions and then expand it to universal significance. The narrator observes how difficult it is to stop doing enjoyable things that are bad for us; why it is we are most likely to lie to the people we love the most (because what need do we have to lie to people we don’t care about?); and why true art requires the distance of time and understanding (as well as the discipline of creation) to come into existence. The most challenging aspect of In Search of Lost Time as a modern reader is Proust’s treatment of the many gay, lesbian and bisexual characters in the book. Proust himself was a gay man. I hope to read some queer criticism of Proust this year. I will be thinking about this work of literature for the rest of my life.
Sometimes books allow us to approach taboo topics, and my reading this year included works on burnout, addiction and sex. These are all human realities that come up in life and in my pastoral work. I have been recommending Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections by Emily Nagoski for people in committed relationships who want to improve their communication about intimacy.
Finally, I spent many happy days in 2024 hiking. New Hampshire’s 52 With a View: A Hiker’s Guide by Ken MacGray offers clear and comprehensive descriptions of hikes in New Hampshire that are more approachable than the famous 4,000-footers. Read Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England by Tom Wessels before you go and you’ll have a better understanding of the human and animal environments you encounter along the way.
My list of all the books I read in 2024 is below, in the order I read them; my favorites are starred. I would love to hear from you about what you’re reading! And if you want to read and discuss books with other members of First Unitarian Church, you’re invited to our monthly book club. Their next book is Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner, and they'll meet on Wed. Feb. 19 at 6 p.m.
In faith,
Sarah Stewart
Books I read in 2024
Still Life by Louise Penny
W Is for Wasted by Sue Grafton
Bridge by Lauren Beukes
★Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
We Will Be Free: The Life and Faith of Sojourner Truth by Nancy Koester
Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman
Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov, trans. Dmitri Nabokov
An Unsuitable Job For a Woman by P. D. James
The White Album by Joan Didion
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz
Killing Is My Business by Adam Christopher
★My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
★Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (audiobook)
★The Future by Naomi Alderman
Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz
The Power by Naomi Alderman (audiobook)
★Erasure by Percival Everett
Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada, trans. Louise Heal Kawai
Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (audiobook)
The Age of Overwhelm: Strategies for the Long Haul by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
★Contemplation in a World of Action by Thomas Merton
★The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 1, ed. Anne Oliver Bell
White Nights by Ann Cleeves (audiobook)
★New Hampshire’s 52 With a View: A Hiker’s Guide by Ken MacGray
The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, trans. Peter Collier
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski
Hospital of the Transfiguration by Stanisław Lem, trans. William Brand
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (audiobook)
Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism by Jonathan Tran
Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
Letters to Marc About Jesus by Henri J. M. Nouwen, trans. Hubert Hoskins
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Big Time by Ben H. Winters
★Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections by Emily Nagoski
★The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
The Burnout Workbook: Advice and Exercises to Help You Unlock the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski
★Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England by Tom Wessels, illus. Brian D. Cohen
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff (audiobook)
Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
Severance by Ling Ma (audiobook)
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen by F. Wesley Scheider and Kate Irwin et. al.
Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders (audiobook)
★Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, annotated Kenneth Hite
Effective Organizing for Congregational Renewal by Michael Gecan
Finding Time Again by Marcel Proust, trans. Ian Patterson
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut, trans. Adrian Nathan West (audiobook)
Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist by Eli Saslow
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