By November last, I was falling behind on my goal of reading (or listening to) one-hundred books in 2024. So, I said to my wife, from now until year’s end I am only choosing books of fewer than two hundred and fifty pages. That’s cheating, she told me.
 
Fortunately, I ignored her (as she might say I often do), and found myself noshing on a amuse-bouche of titles that were not only delectable but often more tasty than many more portly popular tomes. Among them:

• Orbital, Samantha Harvey (207 pp.)
• The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury (182 pp.)
• The Shadow-Line, Joseph Conrad (192 pp.)
• Eastbound, Maylis de Kerangal (140 pp.)
• The Pole, J.M. Coetzee (166 pp.)
• Passing Nella Larsen (141 pp.)
• If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, Tim O’Brien (225 pp.)
• Home, Toni Morrison (147 pp.)
• Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman (140 pp.)
• On Chesil Beach Ian McEwan (166 pp.)

Here are the numbers, for those who insist upon them:

• Print – 69
• Audio – 31 (including Barack Obama’s Dreams from my Father and A Promised Land. His august voice alone remedies current discomforts.)
• Did Not Finish (DNF) – 4 (read at least fifty pages)

Once again, thanks to the serendipity of both digital and physical browsing, I found myself delighting in books I might once, limited by a narrower view of the world, never have read. Among them:

• The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden
• Apeirogon, Colum McCann
• News of the World, Paulette Jiles
• Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman

I have multiples reads from some authors (because why not repeat a good thing?):
 
Ian McEwan (3), Percival Everett (3), Colm Tóibín (2), Paulette Jiles (2), Jane Harper (2), and among the audio listens for the gym and the trail: Walter Mosely (3), Michael Connelly (3), and Craig Johnson (10).
 
Finally, ten that I loved, in no particular order:

• Apeirogon, Colum McCann
• Day, Michael Cunningham
• James, Percival Everett
• Flags on the Bayou, James Lee Burke
• The Trees, Percival Everett
• Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, Salman Rushdie
• Legends of the Fall, Jim Harrison
• Eastbound, Maylis de Kerangal
• The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden
• On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan

The List, 2024

1. Motherless Brooklyn – Jonathan Lethem
2. The Brass Verdict – Michael Connelly *
3. Nightcrawling – Leila Mottley
4. The Women – Kristin Hannah
5. This Other Eden – Paul Harding
6. The Godfather – Mario Puzo *
7. Day – Michael Cunningham
8. Devil in a Blue Dress – Walter Mosley *
9. Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino
10. Amsterdam – Ian McEwan
11. Exiles – Jane Harper *
12. Lessons – Ian McEwan
13. The Lost Man – Jane Harper *
14. The Gathering – Anne Enright
15. California Fire and Life – Don Winslow *
16. Generation Loss – Elizabeth Hand
17. Tinkers – Paul Harding
18. News of the World – Paulette Jiles *
19. The Cold Dish – Craig Johnson
20. The Friends of Eddie Coyle – George V. Higgins *
21. The World Made Straight – Ron Rash
22. Death Without Company – Craig Johnson *
23. Enemy Women – Paulette Jiles
24. Ordinary Human Failings – Megan Nolan **
25. Zero Days – Ruth Ware **
26. A Red Death – Walter Mosley *
27. Be Mine – Richard Ford
28. Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn *
29. Annie Bot – Sierra Greer
30. James – Percival Everett
31. Kindness Goes Unpunished – Craig Johnson *
32. Flags on the Bayou – James Lee Burke
33. Until August – Gabriel García Márquez
34. City of Dreams – Don Winslow *
35. Liliana’s Invincible Summer – Cristina Rivera Garza
36. City in Ruins – Don Winslow *
37. The Trees – Percival Everett
38. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman
39. Another Man’s Moccasins – Craig Johnson *
40. The Great Fire – Shirley Hazzard **
41. Einstein’s Dreams – Alan Lightman
42. White Butterfly – Walter Mosley *
43. On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan
44. Brooklyn – Colm Tóibín
45. The Dark Horse – Craig Johnson *
46. Salvage the Bones – Jesmyn Ward
47. The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett
48. The Reformatory – Tananarive Due **
49. The Lede – Calvin Trillin
50. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder – Salman Rushdie
51. Pet Sematary – Stephen King *
52. Junkyard Dogs – Craig Johnson *
53. Anxious People – Fredrik Backman
54. Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates *
55. Nightwoods – Charles Frazier
56. An American Marriage — Tayari Jones
57. Legends of the Fall – Jim Harrison *
58. The Human Stain – Philip Roth
59. Autocracy Inc. – Anne Applebaum
60. Nobody’s Angel – Thomas McGuane *
61. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin – Erik Larson
62. Atonement – Ian McEwan
63. Hell is Empty – Craig Johnson *
64. Speedboat – Renata Adler
65. Long Island – Colm Tóibín
66. The Nearest Exit – Owen Steinhauer **
67. If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home – Tim O’Brien
68. Fade Away – Harlan Coben *
69. The Almost Moon – Alice Sebold
70. The Heart in Winter – Kevin Barry
71. Dreams from My Father – Barack Obama *
72. Sofrito – Phillippe Diederich
73. Passing – Nella Larsen
74. Breafast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
75. The Pole – J.M. Coetzee
76. Eastbound – Maylis de Kerangal
77. The Wife – Meg Wolitzer
78. A Promised Land – Barack Obama *
79. Fat City – Leonard Gardner
80. The Girls of Slender Means – Muriel Spark *
81. The Shadow-Line – Joseph Conrad
82. The Overlook, Harry Bosch – Michael Connelly *
83. Burn – Peter Heller
84. Creation Lake – Rachel Kushner
85. 9 Dragons, Harry Bosch – Michael Connelly *
86. Pedro Páramo – Juan Rulfo
87. Home – Toni Morrison
88. A Serpent’s Tooth – Craig Johnson *
89. The Marian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
90. Erasure – Percival Everett
91. Fortune Favors the Dead – Stephen Spotswood *
92. Parade – Rachel Cusk
93. Journey Into Fear – Eric Ambler
94. Any Other Name – Craig Johnson *
95. Orbital – Samantha Harvey
96. Dry Bones – Craig Johnson *
97. I Remember Nothing – Nora Ephron
98. The Invisible Hour – Alice Hoffman
99. The Safekeep – Yael van der Wouden
100. Mildred Pierce – James M. Cain

*   Audio
** Did Not Finish