2024 Book Reviews (thus far)

I recently realized that I am in the midst of my “Transitions Era.” 

Clearly a stock image. I don’t read Russian. I’m good, but I’m not reads-Russian good.

I go to bed and wake up earlier; I don’t spend time with my kid nearly as much as I used to now that he’s getting older; I enjoy my garden more than I do most people; and the version of “fun” I enjoyed for the better part of my 20s and 30s no longer aligns with what I deem as “fun” now.

Instead of listening to music and having a few beers on a Friday night, I would much rather fawn over my houseplants for a solid 30 minutes and then retreat to our bedroom with the dogs and a good book. My “Transitions Era” is one I’m happily working to better understand, but one that I’m not sure I understand well enough to write about just yet, which is why instead of publishing an introspective blog, I thought I’d give my readers (I like to think there’s more than one of you) a glimpse into the best and worst of the 51 books I’ve read or listened to since December. Enjoy.

Top 10 Books I’ve Read (thus far) in 2024:

1. Demon Copperhead
Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publication Year: 2022
Rating: 5 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
I listened to Demon Copperhead on audiobook, but I almost stopped two chapters in because I questioned whether I should be reading the physical copy instead. While I’ve vowed to read this book before the end of the year, Charlie Thurston’s narration is some of the best I’ve ever heard and the reason I recommend listening to this one if audiobooks are your preference. As for my thoughts on the story itself, this novel is nothing short of a masterpiece and now ranks among my top 10 favorites of all time. A book about poverty and struggle, Demon Copperhead is sad, angry, endearing, oddly funny (and especially through the voice of Charlie Thurston), and downright exquisite. The characters are layered, the addiction and death are very real, and the relationships are authentic. It’s clear why this book won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize, and if there’s one book you read in 2024, it should be this.
Publisher’s Summary:
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenage single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.

2. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
Author: Robert Dugoni
Publication Year: 2018
Rating: 5 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell is a beautiful story about friendship and family and how both sustain us throughout our lifetimes and mold us into the people we were always meant to be. The characters are wonderful and deeply loved by the author, which is a connection I believe is imperative to any good story. I also (and especially) enjoyed the depiction of the Catholic faith and the question of devotion as it relates to actions and outcomes. Additionally, reading about the family’s pilgrimage to Lourdes, France on Ash Wednesday was so fitting and (in my opinion) no coincidence. This story reminded me how fortunate I am to know and love my faith even if I’ll always question the religion. With that said, please don’t let Catholicism be the reason you don’t read this book because it’s about so much more than that.
Publisher’s Summary:
Sam Hill always saw the world through different eyes. Born with red pupils, he was called “Devil Boy” or Sam “Hell” by his classmates; “God’s will” is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of little comfort, but Sam persevered, buoyed by his mother’s devout faith, his father’s practical wisdom, and his two other misfit friends. Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls. Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design—especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always known. Running from the pain, eyes closed, served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world. This time, his eyes are wide open—bringing into clear view what changed him, defined him, and made him so afraid, until he can finally see what truly matters.

3. All the Sinners Bleed
Author: S.A. Cosby
Publication Year: 2023
Rating: 5 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
This book is both unbelievably dark and undeniably profound, and its categorization as “crime fiction” doesn’t even remotely do this novel justice because it’s so much more than a procedural read. While, yes, the story addresses horrendous acts of violence against children, it also poignantly discusses issues of race, history, love, and familial bonds, and the primary character, Sheriff Titus Crown, is a man whose side you’re on from the very start. Exceptional storytelling and expertly written dialogue make this one worth reading, although the subject matter of the investigation can make it hard to stomach at times, so I recommend proceeding with extreme caution if you do add this to your “TBR” list.
Publisher’s Summary:
Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. But after years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface. Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history. Charon is Titus’s home and his heart. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning.

4. The Push
Author: Ashley Audrain
Publication Year: 2021
Rating: 5 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
I want to both recommend this book to everyone I know because it’s such a captivating story, and discourage everyone I know from reading it because the subject matter is so incredibly heavy. The writing is excellent, honest, and thought-provoking and while, yes, the book can be quite disturbing at times, I also thoroughly enjoyed it for the psychological thriller it is. Warning: If you DO decide to move forward with this one, I strongly recommend you read the publisher’s summary that follows to be sure The Push is in fact for you. I also recommend avoiding it altogether if you’re pregnant. With that said, and regardless of how difficult this book may be, The Push will blow you away.
Publisher’s Summary: 
Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had. But in the thick of motherhood's exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter—she doesn't behave like most children do. Or is it all in Blythe's head? Her husband, Fox, says she's imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well. Then their son Sam is born—and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she'd always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.

5. Mad Honey
Author: Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
Publication Year: 2022
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts: 
This book is good. Like, really, really good. It’s a bit too long and could have benefitted from a better content editor, but it’s still excellent nonetheless. The audio format is also a great way to take in this novel as it took me an entire drive from northern Indiana to Florida to finish, and the narration of Lily’s character is beautiful. Like some of Picoult’s other novels, this book is really hard to review without giving away a MAJOR plot twist (which is revealed about halfway through), so the most I can say is this: Mad Honey delves into subject matter that is relatively unknown to so many but should be better understood so that we can all gain some much needed perspective. I also LOVED nearly each and every one of these characters who, per usual, are captured in a way that endears readers to both their beauty and their faults.
Publisher’s Summary:
Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business. Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start. And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet she wonders if she can trust him completely. Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in Ash, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her. Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

6. Wish You Were Here
Author: Jodi Picoult
Release Year: 2021
Rating: 4 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
This book is about COVID and was written while Picoult was still quarantining during the early stages of the pandemic. I’m so glad I waited several years to read it because I think the subject matter would have been too fresh had I started it just a year into what will always be one of the most challenging and bizarre times in our collective world history. Picoult beautifully captures the pandemic through a variety of lenses that are both relatable to many (complying with various health safety protocols) and perhaps a bit foreign to others (working as a physician in a COVID unit). If you check out some of the online reviews prior to reading this book, you will see a couple trends: (1) There is a huge twist that some readers appreciated and others did not (I belong to the first camp who thought the turn was executed brilliantly) and (2) Picoult politicizes the pandemic, which I think is total bullshit. Picoult simply recounts what ACTUALLY happened through the eyes of a first responder. Anyone who says otherwise needs to calm down.
Publisher’s Summary:
Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s an associate specialist at Sotheby’s now, but her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time.But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes. Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they’d booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders. In the Galápagos Islands, where Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different. 

7. The Snow Child
Author: Eowyn Ivey
Publication Year: 2011
Rating: 4 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
Unlike some of my other recommendations, this story is nothing short of lovely and what I would describe as an adult fairytale. The Snow Child perfectly captures what it means to feel both joy and sorrow and how these emotions are both long-term and fleeting. It’s also an excellent portrayal of friendship, marriage, and community, even if it’s set in a location as remote and isolating as Alaska. Also, shout out to Esther, Mable’s Alaskan best friend, who is comfortable in her own skin and not afraid to do what needs to be done for others. If I had one complaint about this book it would be the ending, which made me sad, but still fits perfectly with the story’s overall theme.
Publisher’s Summary:
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart - he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone, but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

8. Kill for Me, Kill for You
Author: Steve Cavanagh
Publication Year: 2024
Rating: 4 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
Although it took me the first 90 pages or so to really get into this book, once I finally raised my first questioning eyebrow, I could hardly put it down. There were so many moments throughout Kill for Me, Kill for You that made me think I had it all figured out, and because I was always wrong, I couldn’t help but keep moving through it at a pace that is unlike me as a reader (although I read a lot, I’m not a particularly fast reader). Truly, I haven’t read a thriller that kept me guessing like this one did in a very long time. Kill for Me, Kill for You is a rollercoaster and, while sad at times, it’s also fulfilling and very exciting, too. If you enjoy thrillers, move this one to the top of your TBR list ASAP.
Publisher’s Summary:
One dark evening on New York City’s Upper West Side, two strangers meet by chance. Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realize they have much in common, especially loneliness and an intense desire for revenge against the men who destroyed their families. As they talk into the night, they come up with the perfect plan: if you kill for me, I’ll kill for you. In another part of the city, Ruth is home alone when the beautiful brownstone she shares with her husband, Scott, is invaded. She’s attacked by a man with piercing blue eyes, who disappears into the night. Will she ever be able to feel safe again while the blue-eyed stranger is out there?

9. The Women
Author: Kristin Hannah
Publication Year: 2024
Rating: 4 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
If this book had been written by anyone else I would have easily given it 5 stars. However, because the author is Kristin Hannah and I have grown accustomed to nothing but the best from her as a writer, I was forced to give it a 4 stars as it doesn’t even come remotely close to being as good as The Nightingale or The Four Winds (which, with the exception of Demon Copperhead, you should totally read before any of the other books on this list if you haven’t already). With that said, this book provided me with a new and necessary understanding of the Vietnam War and the experiences of the nurses who so selflessly served during such a difficult time. I also loved Frankie’s female friendships and her eventual connection with her mother. What I didn’t like were the somewhat repetitive disappointments in Frankie’s life and her near blindness toward her own privilege, which should have been much more apparent even during the timeframe given her insights into the experiences of the Black women and men in her life. Still, The Women is another great example of historical fiction, which Hannah writes better than anyone else.
Publisher’s Summary:
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost. But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam. The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

10. The Return of Ellie Black
Author: Emiko Jean
Publication Year: 2024
Rating: 4 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed this page-turner of a mystery that is very sad, but still rather unpredictable for its genre. Like All the Sinners Bleed, The Return of Ellie Black provides readers with a necessary glimpse into the lives of those who are here one day and gone the next, and the members of law enforcement who won’t (or can’t) let them go. While I found pieces of the ending a bit hard to believe, I loved the writing style and the fact that while Emiko Jean could have easily provided a lot of gory details, she instead chose to summarize what other authors would have glorified out of respect for the fictional victims in her story and the real-life victims whose stories still have yet to be told.
Publisher’s Summary:
Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie’s reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers. It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work. Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State. But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return. The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.

Top 3 Worst Books I’ve Read (thus far) in 2024:

1. The Teacher
Author: Frieda McFadden
Publication Year: 2024
Rating: 1 Star
Kate’s Thoughts:
I absolutely hated this book, which I listened to rather than read (although I’m not sure it would have made much of a difference in my critique). While I loathed the narration (Leslie Howard’s voice anytime she reads male dialogue sounds sinister even when the conversation is meant to be civil), what I really hated was the sincere unlikeability of every single character. Eve, Nate, and Addie are ALL terrible people who are each given very few (if any) redeeming qualities. Oh, and there’s also the pedophilia, which somehow manages to come in second on the list of things I hated about this story (so you KNOW it has to be bad). Throw this one in the trash.
Publisher’s Summary:
Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except… Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye. Addie can't be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that's what everyone says. But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet.

2. The Midnight Library
Author: Matt Haig
Publication Year: 2020
Rating: 2 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
First, this book is about suicide, which is not mentioned anywhere in the publisher’s summary. Second, A LOT of people LOVED this book, which is a best-seller and has won numerous awards. Finally, when it comes to reviews, readers either loved it or hated it, and I am definitely in the latter category. While the concept is clever, Nora sucks as a character and can never seem to get out of her own way. With no real reason to cheer her on, I never cared whether she made it out of the Midnight Library (i.e., purgatory) to live a better life or not. So if you’re looking for a great book that explores both existentialism and the laws of physics that doesn’t involve suicide, read Dark Matter by Blake Crouch instead.
Publisher’s Summary:
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?
In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

3. The Only One Left
Author: Riley Sager
Publication Year: 2023
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Kate’s Thoughts:
Although the publisher’s summary is super captivating, this book is a bore. Sager is constantly doing too much in his stories, using too many red herrings and giving readers a conclusion that never had any context to begin with. Honestly, I really need to stop reading his books. Both Kit and Leonora were wildly unsympathetic, and every secondary character serves little to no purpose. Skip this one. Trust me.
Publisher’s Summary:
At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope.
Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life.
It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.
“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead.
As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.