(some of) The Books I Read Last Year

My year in (some) books. I’d love to know what you are reading and why.

I was a reading-under-the-blankets-with-a-torch child. One of my earliest school memories is being (finally) called out of class by my teacher to sit by the soccer oval on a cold, damp, English day for my first one-on-one reading lesson. Nip, Dick, Dora, and Fluff. I recall telling her that I been wondering when I was going to have my turn (with the clear implication that it should have been some time ago). Assertive followership started young!

So what are some of the books I read in 2024? Here is an incomplete list of what I enjoyed more or less in the order I read them. Mostly fiction – I don’t read a lot of non-fiction books and no leadership guides. Although my go to article of 2024 recommended often and used in all of my teaching and workshops was Zombie Leadership: dead ideas that still walk among us by Alex Haslem and colleagues.

• Demon Copperfield Barbara Kinsolver

• The Matchmaker Saman Shad

• Yellowface Rebecca Kuang

• The Marry Me Juliet trilogy Here for the right reasons, Can I steal you for a second? and Not here to make friends Jodi McAlister

• The wren, The Wren Anne Enright

• Butter Asako Yuzuki

• Caledonian Road Andrew O’Hagan

• Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Woods

• The Weekend Charlotte Woods

• Becky Sarah May

• Small Things Like These Claire Keegan

• Here One Moment Liane Moriarty

• Orbital Samantha Harvey

• The Great Undoing Sharlene Allsopp

• I liked Orbital and The great undoing enough to buy them for others as gifts this Christmas.

• The Dune Trilogy (I’m going to go all Star Wars and state categorically that only the original trilogy is required)

• The In-Between Christos Tsolakis I liked it enough to lend it to a friend and to want it back!

Three difficult to categorise memoirs-I-gues

s works:

• Everywhere I Look Helen Garner

• Question 7 Richard Flanagan

• Theory and Practice (although it might be a novel) Michelle de Kretser

Two non fiction books made the list: Techofeudalism:What killed capitalism by Ynis Varoufakis and The World According to Colour: A cultural history by James Fox.

I also enjoy poetry, not usually in book-sized slabs but I’ve developed a habit of buying a book of poems when I travel. Last year it was 100 Favourite Scottish Poems bought in Glasgow which unexpectedly contained Lernin by my friend Alison Flett.

So there you have it. My year in (some) books. I’d love to know what you are reading and why.