My Top Five Books Of 2024

Picking My Favourites As 2024 Comes To Its End

My copies of The Idiot and Anna Karenina

Hello!!!

This is Joyie and welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet where I talk all things books!

This week I re-read A Christmas Carol and started reading Dracula. Have you been reading anything this week?

First a health update, I have a nodule in my thyroid gland but it's benign. For now it's nothing to worry about but in the future it might need to be removed surgically. Hearing that was definitely a relief.

So, we're down to the last Sunday of 2024 and in today's letter I'm going to talk about my favourite books of this year.

In total I've read fifteen books this year, twelve of which were new reads while three were re-reads.

From the fifteen, I decided to pick my top five.

Fifth place: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

My favourite thing about this book was the depiction of mental breakdown, which I found very realistic and relatable. There were parts that felt way too personal to the point they made me uncomfortable. I also liked the book’s exploration of women's position in society, the limited options you're given and all the double standards you're expected to put up with.

Fourth place: North And South by Elizabeth Gaskell

I generally don't like stories that are about two people ending up together. This book broke that pattern for me, I absolutely loved the chemistry and the tension between the main pair, and rooted for them to please end up together. I also enjoyed the parallel conflict between the factory workers and the masters, and I liked the way the story connected the two which made it a lot more enjoyable for me.

Third place: A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I liked this story because of its writing, it's very happening, there's always something going on to keep the reader occupied and the plot also moves fast enough for my liking, there were no excruciatingly long descriptions. In many ways, it almost felt like reading a mystery thriller. Also, it's set around the French revolution, a historical event I personally have a lot of interest in, so that I think was also a contributing factor.

Second place: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

I went into AK knowing it as a novel about an extramarital affair. But upon reading, I found it to be so much more. There are so many characters with so many conflicts of their own. In typical Tolstoy style, all of them are very human and feel like real people. Just following these characters in their stories was an experience in itself.

To me personally, the concepts around life and its meaning spoke the most, because these are ideas I myself have struggled with.

First place: The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky

My favourite thing about this novel is definitely its heroine, Nastasya Fillipovna. Orphaned at a young age, she is sexually abused as a child and as a result grows up to be a self-destructive adult who can't make peace with her past and can't stop lashing out. Through her, Dostoevsky shows us the picture of a rotten and corrupt society that allows children to be abused. This story broke my heart and perhaps because of that left such a deep impression on me.

Apart from these books, I also enjoyed my re-reads of Wuthering Heights and A Christmas Carol. I also liked some contemporary books, especially What You Are Looking For Is In The Library, Anxious People and Convenience Store Woman. Reading wise, this has been a fulfilling year and I hope that continues into 2025 as well.

What about you? What are your top books of 2024? I'd love to know!!!

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That’s it for today, I'll be back in your inbox next week.

Until then,

Joyie 🌻