What I read in 2024
2024 was another remarkable year for reading. Somehow I got through 264 books. Here are my favourites.
Fiction
The Incubations, Ramsey Campbell – another fantastically inventive and labyrinthine experience from one of the finest prose stylists in the business. Unique and memorable.
You Like it Darker, Stephen King – the master’s best book in years; a stirring collection of powerful tales, including one short novel surely coming soon to a cinema near you. He still has it.
Yellowface, R F Kuang – a brilliantly caustic look at contemporary PC culture and the publishing business under the shade of sensitivity reading and cultural appropriation. Blackly comic.
None of This is True, Lisa Jewell – one of the darkest thrillers I’ve ever read and topped off with a twist so ingenious you’ll have to go back to the start and see if its suggestion bears out. Jewell has always been a fine storyteller but now she’s a premium fictional terrorist, too.
New Grub Street, George Gissing – I'd been meaning to read this for over thirty years and am so glad I finally got around to it. I love fiction about novelists and this one, set in the late 19th Century, barely seemed to have aged in its jaundiced themes. The prose is disarmingly modern, too.
On Beauty, Zadie Smith – the author continues to impress with her ambition and range. This one riffs off Forsters’s Howards End and is right on the money in terms of its depiction of PC culture’s globe-sprawling vicissitudes.
Wet Paint, Chloe Ashby – a nourishing depiction of youthfulness in a city centre setting, its engaging central character struggling to juggle work and relationships in the context of remaining true to her identity. A real pleasure.
Martin Eden, Jack London – another sterling piece of fiction about writing. I suspect everyone who puts pen to paper will recognise the author’s merciless depiction of the insuperable demands of creativity. A very powerful ending, too.
Author! Author! David Lodge – a roman a clef drawing on the middle period of Henry James’ life, as he struggled to launch himself as a playwright in London’s catty literary life. The author’s prose purrs as ever.
House of Mirrors, Erin Kelly – the author’s brilliant sequel to her first and best book The Poison Tree. Her characters have lost none of their complex appeal, and the story twists and turns just as beguilingly as its predecessor.
Stanley and the Women, Kingsley Amis – I'm going to hell for celebrating this one, aren’t I? It’s the author’s infamous misogynistic novel. Yeah, meanspirited but frequently hilarious. I make no apologies for enjoying it. Well, just a few, perhaps.
The Woodlanders, Thomas Hardy – one of the author’s novels that escaped me as a younger reader. It’s a typically powerful combination of arresting prose, traditional storytelling, and doomed characters – the full Hardyan works.
Swanna in Love, Jennifer Belle – a very impressive book told from the point of view of a Lolita-like character being courted by an older man. Ambitious, risqué, and thoroughly convincing.
A Spot of Folly, Ruth Rendell – I'd been led to believe that these short stories were just negligible odds n ends never collected in the author’s lifetime. Imagine my delight when I discovered that it’s an absolutely rock-solid collection from one of my favourite writers. Should have read it years ago.
Various novels by Amanda Brookfield – I’m working my way through this writer’s back catalogue and find her work moving, convincingly romantic, and beautifully written. You can't go wrong with any of her novels (The Family Man, The Other Woman, The Lover, etc)
Nonfiction
Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher – a brilliantly punchy expose of how the modern social system renders so many of us ineffectual and alienated. Quite depressing and yet illuminating. Essential reading.
Existentialism and Excess, Gary Cox – I have my problems with Sartre as both a philosopher and a man, but after reading this relatively short biography, you can’t help being astonished by his undoubted genius. Some of the material about his work-enhancing drug-taking makes you gasp in disbelief.
Apropos of Nothing, Woody Allen – almost a perfect autobiography. The author writes beautifully and hilariously about his youth. Constantly self-disparaging to the point of borderline disingenuousness. It loses a little shape and joy when it focuses on you-know-what, and did he really need to do it at such length? But the book remains a masterpiece of wit.
Books read 2024
Black Plumes, Margery Allingham
Sometimes I Lie, Alice Feeney
Lost Notebook, Louise Douglas
Taste, Stanley Tucci
Curtain, Agatha Christie
Snow, John Banville
In a Lonely Place, Karl Edward Wagner
Good Material, Dolly Alderton
Mayflies, Andrew O’Hagan
And Put Away Childish Things, Adrian Tchaikovsky
Ipcress File, Len Deighton
High Mountains of Portugal, Yann Martel
Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
Girl Next Door, Ruth Rendell
Dead to Her, Sarah Pinborough
Last Train Home, Elle Cook
Man I Never Met, Elle Cook
The Island, Adrian McKinty
Gentlemen and Players, Joanne Harris
House of Eve, Sadeqa Johnson
Yellowface, R F Kuang
First Lie Wins, Ashley Elston
Before We Were Innocent, Ella Berman
Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O’Farrell
IT, Stephen King
Tommyknockers, Stephen King
Moonflower Murders, Anthony Horowitz
Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason
Weaveworld, Clive Barker
Firefly Lane, Kristin Hannah
Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
Creatures of the Pool, Ramsey Campbell
The Comeback, Ella Berman
Library Policeman, Stephen King
Good Bad Girl, Alice Feeney
Liar’s Girl, Catherine Ryan Howard
Just Another Missing Person, Gillian McAllister
Shawshank Redemption, Stephen King
The Whispers, Ashley Audrain
Beautiful World, Where are You, Sally Rooney
Come With Me, Ronald Malfi
The Body, Stephen King
The Push, Ashley Audrain
Take it Back, Kia Abdullah
The Glass House, Eve Chase
List of Suspicious Things, Jennie Godfrey
Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides
Judgment, Joseph Finder
Nightwalker, Thomas Tessier
Best Man to Die, Ruth Rendell
The Blackhouse, Peter May
The Innocent One, Lisa Ballantyne
Homo Faber, Max Frisch
Then She Was Gone, Lisa Jewell
I Found You, Lisa Jewell
Couple at Number , Claire Douglas
None of this is True, Lisa Jewell
The Night She Disappeared, Lisa Jewell
Everyone Here is Lying, Shari Lapena
Invisible Girl, Lisa Jewell
Finding Sophie, Imran Mahmood
The Third Wife, Lisa Jewell
The Hike, Lucy Clarke
Watching You, Lisa Jewell
Tough Crowd, Graham Linehan
New Grub Street, George Gissing
Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher
The Pit, Frank Norris
Money, Emile Zola
On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Ordinary People, Diana Evans
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
All the Fiends of Hell, Adam Nevill
The Auctioneer, Joan Samson
I Know Who You Are, Alice Feeney
Love Marriage, Monica Ali
The Trees, Percival Everett
The Little House, Philippa Gregory
Deaf Sentence, David Lodge
Come Closer, Sara Gran
Way of all Flesh, Samuel Butler
Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell
The Wrong Man, Amanda Brookfield
Orlando, Virginia Woolf
Typhoon, Joseph Conrad
The Woodlanders, Thomas Hardy
Close to Death, Anthony Horowitz
Tom Brown’s Schooldays, Thomas Hughes
A Theory of Haunting, Sarah Monette
Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
Kim, Rudyard Kipling
Woman in the Purple Skirt, Natsuko Imamura
Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
Mouth to Mouth, Antoine Wilson
Constant Nymph, Margaret Kennedy
He Said She Said, Erin Kelly
Case Histories, Kate Atkinson
Wet Paint, Chloe Ashby
Transcription, Kate Atkinson
Treacle Walker, Alan Garner
Martin Eden, Jack London
Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
Mystic Masseur, V S Naipaul
We Know You Know, Erin Kelly
My Antonia, Willa Cather
Inspector Imanishi Investigates, Seicho Matsumoto
Tokyo Express, Seicho Matsumoto
Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid
Guilty Thing Surprised, Ruth Rendell
No More Dying Then, Ruth Rendell
My Last Innocent Year, Daisy Alpert Florin
Human Zoo, Sabina Murray
Some Lie and Some Die, Ruth Rendell
March Violets, Philip Kerr
Shake Hands Forever, Ruth Rendell
A Sleeping Life, Ruth Rendell
Put on by Cunning, Ruth Rendell
Unkindness of Ravens, Ruth Rendell
Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
You Like it Darker, Stephen King
Whatever You Love, Louise Doughty
History of the World in and a Half Chapters, Julian Barnes
Redhead by the Side of the Road, Anne Tyler
Mania, Lionel Shriver
A Bird in Winter, Louise Doughty
Paul, Daisy Lafarge
Author Author, David Lodge
Pietr the Latvian, George Simenon
Quite a Good Time to be Born, David Lodge
Blackbirds, Chuck Wendig
Writer’s Luck, David Lodge
The Young H G Wells, Claire Tomalin
Existentialism and Excess, Gary Cox
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C Clarke
Edmund Burke, Jesse Norman
Hannah Arendt, Dana Villa
The Inklings, Humphrey Carpenter
Veiled One, Ruth Rendell
A Likely Story, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais
Horror Movie, Paul Tremblay
Apropos of Nothing, Woody Allen
High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
No Hard Feelings, Genevieve Novak
Bookshop Woman, Nanako Hanada
Woodcutter, Reginald Hill
Landscape of Death, M S Morris
Aspire to Die, M S Morris
You Are Here, David Nicholls
The Incubations, Ramsey Campbell
Hide and Seek, Ian Rankin
First Wife’s Shadow, Adele Parks
The Missing Family, Tim Weaver
Drowning Kind, Jennifer McMahon
My Thoughts Exactly, Lily Allen
Silent Ones, K L Slater
The Facts, Philip Roth
Killing by Numbers, M S Morris
Small Town Horror, Ronald Malfi
House We Grew Up In, Lisa Jewell
Truth About Melody Browne, Lisa Jewell
Let Her Fall, Erin Kelly
House of Mirrors, Erin Kelly
Girls Who Disappeared, Claire Douglas
Contemporary Fiction, Robert Eaglestone
Ghosted, Jenn Ashworth
Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, Stephen King
What the Dead Know, Laura Lippman
City and the Pillar, Gore Vidal
The Well-Beloved, Thomas Hardy
Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson
Corfe Castle Murders, Rachel Maclean
Satsuma Complex, Bob Mortimer
Liars, Sarah Manguso
Dead Low Tide, John D MacDonald
Le Grand Meaulnes, Alain-Fournier
Eyes and the Impossible, Dave Eggers
Very Cold People, Sarah Manguso
Cold Granite, Stuart MacBride
Double Image, Helen MacInnes
Breaking the Dark, Lisa Jewell
Perfectly Nice Neighbours, Kia Abdullah
The Family Remains, Lisa Jewell
Vladimir, Julia May Jonas
Nightbitch, Rachel Yoder
Berserker, Adrian Edmondson
Stanley and the Women, Kingsley Amis
Difficulties with Girls, Kingsley Amis
The Seven Doors, Agnes Ravatn
Detective Fiction, Lee Alexander
Kyra, Just For Today, Sara Zarr
I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai
Honestly Elliott, Gillian McDunn
Raven’s Gate, Anthony Horowitz
A Shadow on the Wall, Jonathan Aycliffe
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Eric Idle
Fruiting Bodies, Brian Lumley
Heroes, Stephen Fry
Journey into Fear, Eric Ambler
Travels with my Aunt, Graham Greene
Incidents Around the House, Josh Malerman
Hannah Green and Mundane Existence, Michael Marshall Smith
The Shining, Stephen King
Salem’s Lot, Stephen King
Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene
Mary Poppins, P L Travers
Swanna in Love, Jennifer Belle
Sirens & Muses, Antonia Angress
Riverside Villa Murders, Kingsley Amis
House of Last Resort, Christopher Golden
Gabriel’s Moon, William Boyd
Secret Keeper, Susan Lewis
Hidden Fires, Sairish Hussain
As Young as This, Roxy Dunn
Good Sister, Sally Hepworth
Girls of Riyadh, Rajaa Alsanea
Selected Campbell
Selected Poe
Selected M R James
The Other Passenger, John Keir Cross
The Lottery and Other Stories, Shirley Jackson
The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury
Lost Stories, Daphne du Maurier
Dark Tales, Shirley Jackson
Stories, edited by Gaiman and Sarrantonio
Selected MMS
Everything That Rises Must Converge, Flannery O’Connor
Book of Blood , Clive Barker
Book of Blood , Clive Barker
A Spot of Folly, Ruth Rendell
Selected Aickman
Selected Rendell
Judgement in Stone, Ruth Rendell
Selected Wodehouse
The Gropes, Tom Sharpe
Blott on the Landscape, Tom Sharpe
Wilt, Tom Sharpe
Wilt Inheritance, Tom Sharpe
The Lover, Amanda Brookfield
The Other Woman, Amanda Brookfield
Make Death Love Me, Ruth Rendell
After Leaving Mr Mackenzie, Jean Rhys
Lake of Darkness, Ruth Rendell
Brighton Rock, Graham Greene
A Severed Head, Iris Murdoch
A Family Man, Amanda Brookfield
Clues into Disappearance of my Sister, Joyce Carol Oates
The Keep, Jennifer Egan
Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
A Man Lay Dead, Ngaio Marsh
Tigerlily’s Orchids, Ruth Rendell
Fraud, Anita Brookner
Sweetheart Sweetheart, Bernard Taylor
The Godsend, Bernard Taylor
Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty, Vendela Vida
The Veteran, Frederick Forsyth
The Afghan, Frederick Forsyth
The Carter of Providence, George Simenon
Crossing Place, Elly Griffiths
Winds from Further West, Alexander McCall Smith
This Sweet Sickness, Patricia Highsmith
A Dark-Adapted Eye, Barbara Vine
No Comebacks, Frederick Forsyth
Reader I Buried Them, Peter Lovesey
Eight Perfect Murders, Peter Swanson
Cakes and Ale, Somerset Maugham
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