BioArtGal: Reading Wrap Up 2024-The Best and The Worst

Hi everyone. Today's post is more for me (and is me having fun geeking out with some reading analysis data), but if you're interested in reading my analysis of my 2024 books lists, then please continue. I'm changing up my wrap up a bit this year, including some book photos as well as my thoughts.

I'll start with my 2024 reading stats:

total number of books: 113

a. number of mysteries: 51

Agatha Christie's: 5

mysteries that were NOT part of a series: 4

all other mysteries: 42

b. number of fiction titles (not including mysteries): 32

historical fiction novels (not counting classics): 13

fantasy fiction: 5

classics (not counting classic mysteries): 7

other fiction: 7

c. number of non-fiction books: 30

histories not focused on one person: 7

biographies: 11

science and natural history: 5

travel experience themed: 2

other non-fiction: 5

And some notes on my reading:

A. My most memorable NEW to me books during the year not including mysteries: In some ways it's hard to pick the best books. There were so many good ones in 2024. Although I've numbered these, that is only for the convenience of writing and reading. These books stand out in my mind as some of the most memorable ones I read.

Although I thought part 2-the post Vietnam War part- could have been more condensed because it dragged on a bit, the part set in Vietnam made me feel like I was actually there.

This book was a surprisingly good history of the Jersey Shore. Not only did it go into the horrible shark attacks, but I learned a lot about the time when going to the beach became a thing to do.

OK, this might be the best book I read in 2024. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that I visited Greece and not just Greece, but the mountain village where my friend's grandparent's came from. This nonfiction book is all about life in a mountain village up to the second world war and then during the the time the Greek communists tried to take over the country. Although parts of this book were actually difficult subject-wise to read about, the story is amazing.

If you like old Hollywood, this story of Hattie McDaniel made enjoyable historical fictional reading and if I hadn't known better, I would have thought it was an indexed biography.

5.&6.

The Fall of Giants is the first book in this trilogy of the 20th century, and the second book, The World in Winter, was as good. You can guess book 3 is on my list for 2025. They're LONG, but well worth it.

This book about Catherine the Great was a well written biography. I can tell the author enjoyed his subject, and wow, what a life she had.

This book is about Mary Anning, one for the first fossil hunters and also new species discoverer. It was also well written and well researched. Not only did it talk about the science, it was a biography where I felt I got to know Mary quite well. And considering Mary Anning didn't leave a whole lot of source material behind, the author found many other sources to write an excellent biography.

This book was really well written with characters that were very relatable. I also loved how it was set in New Hampshire, ties in women's lives,and shows how life is between locals and the summer people, which is still true today.

10.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is an excellent history writer, and I really enjoyed this view of 1960'a history from (mostly) her late husband's memorabilia and also including some of her own stories. Even better, she read the book.

B. Some of my most memorable or enjoyable mysteries and mystery series: These are my favorite type of books. Even though some of these are series, I will only show one from that series even if I read multiple books. Also, the order is only because of how I added them, not in any order of best or worst. But here's some of my favorite single books or series from 2024.

**Notes on these mysteries if you're curious. The writing follows from left to right, top row to bottom:

In order of photos: a) the newest Inspector Gamache by Louise Penny, b) I read several book to complete the Maggie Hope WW2 series,c) Karen Baugh Menuhim writes the Heathcliff Lennox series which is a fun 1920's mystery series, d) A Talent for Murder is actually part 3 of a series but could be rad as a stand alone book and is set here in New England, e) Susan Hill writes a deep and at times scary police series set in England, f) Boys Who Hurt is the latest in this excellent Icelandic police procedural series, g) Ann Cleeves might be the new queen of mysteries; so far there are 3 Matthew Venn books which were all excellent, h) The Black Path is book 3 of a 6 book mystery set in Northern Sweden that can be pretty intense but is well done, i) Agatha Christie wrote so many good stories and it's amazing how she managed to switch them up, j) I have a new Keigo Higashino book that is on my list to read-it's a great series set in Japan, and he has written several different series-I've read all for the Detective Kaga ones as well as the first 4 of the Inspector Galileo k) Anne Hillerman picked up her father's 3 main Navajo characters after he died, and I am so glad she did as these are great southwestern US stories, l) We Solve Murders which is the new series but Richard Osman, and finally m) these Chet and Bernie dog mysteries are funny and boy, did the author create a dog (Chet) is is really believable.

C. Series Reading in 2024: It was a good year reading series. Most of the mysteries I read were part of a series. How can you not like going back to revisit some new adventures with some known characters? I finished a few mystery series too: Maggie Hope, Matthew Venn, the Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir Icelandic mysteries to date and until the new Inspector Galileo book came out in December both the Inspector Kaga and Detective Galileo series by Keigo Higashino too.

Here's a few other series I either read completely or started and read a good chunk into the series. (I'm only showing the first book from the series.)

A few other series I read at least one book were the Phyllida Bright mysteries by Colleen Cambridge, 2 Lady Trent memoirs by Marie Brennan, and also one Donna Leon (I really need to catch up on this series since there are over 30 books and I've only read 4).

D.It was also a much better year than 2023 for Classics: I'll start with these rereads, and I enjoyed seeing them again with new eyes. I just love rereading a book I haven't read in a long time.

and moving onto some new to me stories from some classic authors I like.

E. And there were a few books I wish I had skipped and not spent so much of my reading time:

Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective (was too young and I felt like a parent snooping on my kids while I read it), A Calculated Risk (was too much like The Eight but not as interesting a topic), and finally A Woman of No Importance (which I expected to be excellent but for me needed more depth)

F. Books I read quite a bit of and then I didn't finish for various reasons: Besides the 3 books above

The train book was a good book but after being away for 8 days on a trip, I could't get interested enough to pick it up and finish it. But maybe I will this year because it's not a bad book.

G. I didn't keep track of books I started and couldn't get into so I moved on before investing a lot of time in them. However, I bet it was at least 15-20 books.

H. Short stories: I'm not usually a huge short story/novella reader, but this year I seemed to read a few. Or at least more than most years. Here's a few I enjoyed.

The first 3 were single novellas, and the last one on the right was a collection. I also enjoyed reading a few Edgar Allen Poe stories right around Halloween.

I. Science/natural history books; This year I didn't read much in this category, which is surprising because I enjoy this type of reading. I guess every year varies. Here's some highlights, including a biography which isn't exactly natural history but I'm including it here because it connects to the Gerald Durrell series. I really enjoyed reading the real story behind the Gerald Durrell's stories of his years living in Corfu as a child, but that didn't lessen what I think of Durell’s classics.

J. Month(s) I read the most books: October and February with 11, but part of October's 11 books were with 3 shorter novellas and some Edgar Allen Poe short stories. In April I read 12 books, but if I remove a cookbook I had already read before, that also puts me at 11.

K. Month(s) I read the fewest book: March. I listed 6 books, but one of them was on Greek and Roman mythology, which I only read the parts that were relevant for my Greece trip, so that really puts me at 5 books.

L. Book Lengths: I read a few longer books. Gone With the Wind was the longest one at 1,000+ pages in my old paperback. The 2 Ken Follett books were also long, but those clocked in at around 31 hour listens, whereas Gone With The Wind clocked in at a little over 49 hours of listening.There were also a few books around 500 pages. My shortest books would be the novellas I read, either the Housemaid short story (which took me under an hour to read) or the Catherine Coulter fantasy books. I listened to 3 of those stories and they were around 2-3 hours each.

M. Reading Trends: In the last few years that I have been analyzing my reading, I discovered each of those years I had some reading trends like World War 2 , Japan and even food themed books. This year my 2 reading trends were:

-Books set in or related to Greece:

- Reading 51 mysteries - I don't think I need to list any here

Goals for 2025: To get through some of the books I already have. Read some "different types of things-though I'm not sure what that means as of yet. Read and finish some more books from some series I have started. Read more travel style biographies. And read more classics.

If you made it this far-thank you. Now I'm heading into this new year of reading which so far has had a great start.