I read 54 books in 2024 and here are my favorites

Plus, the MABAM book awards of the year!

It’s that time of the year when we review our reading habits and consider what was worth reading again and what wasn’t worth even reading the first time!

I read 54 books this year, and I want to share them with you because one of my life goals is to encourage people to read more. The more I read, the better I’m able to focus for longer, and the science shows that this applies to everyone. Reading increases working memory, and in our reality of intense distraction, having more focus and improving working memory is profoundly valuable, not only to you, but to those around you.

Reading makes the world a better place.

To track and share the books I read, I use a non-star system I developed with artist Michelle Kosak called MABAM, Mind-Altering Book Award Medallions.

Here is a refresher on MABAM.

I’ve ranked my Top 10 Heroic Dose Books first, including my favorite book of the year, and then I ranked the rest of the books in their MABM categories. Most books fit multiple categories, but I’ve only included them in their most dominant category to keep this transmission from getting crazier than it already is.

I’ve also left some questions for you at the end of this post, as I’d like to add a new MABAM category and need your help with the name.

Now, without further ado…

* Some email providers will truncate this transmission due to images and length. For the best reading experience, read in your web browser or on the Substack app. Otherwise, it may cut off before the end.

My favorite books I read in 2024, categorized by MABAM:

Heroic Doses

Books that rattle you to your core, transform you, masterpieces.

Ranked in reverse order, here are my top 10 heroic dose books:

10. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (non-fiction, business) — Yes, I read this for the first time with my neurodivergent daughter. It’s been around for 100+ years and the advice still holds. Quite a feat in the book world.

9. Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami (non-fiction, memoir, writing craft)

8. The Hell Screens by Alvin Lu (literary fiction/magical realism set in an alt timeline in Taipei)

7. Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer (literary fiction/cli-fi)

6. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. (literary fiction/cli-fi)

5. Valis by Philip K Dick (vintage sci-fi) — This would have likely been number #1 the first year I read it, but this was a re-read.

4. The Singularity is Nearer When We Merge With AI by Ray Kurzweil (non-fiction, futurism)

3. The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgård (literary fiction/magical realism)

2. Tarot by H.R. Giger and Akron (non-fiction, the occult)

1. Creation Lake, by Rachel Kushner (literary fiction/spy novel)

After much thought, Creation Lake was my favorite book of 2024, somewhat surprising because I can’t remember the last time I read a spy novel, but I loved it. I hope someone makes a movie adaptation.

Premise: a slutty, bilingual, ex-fed corporate spy reads the emails of a brilliant French man obsessed with Neanderthals, infiltrates a community of climate activists, and works to frame them as terrorists, while pretending she’s a clueless girl from a fake town in California.

Primary Genre: Literary fiction

Why it’s a heroic dose: The prose, the plot, the characters, the setting, the themes—everything—this one really did it for me. I couldn’t stop reading it. Also the feminine rage running throughout. There are so many good quotes that I could have highlighted the entire book. The whole thing screams.

Style sample:

“It’s the same, whether you’re in a relationship with a man or pretending to be in one. They want you to listen when they tell you about their precious youth.”

“Keep a list, Bruno wrote, of those who have been martyred to joy, lost to it. Do not be on that list.”

Additional Awards: Hits Fast, Body High

Two notes on this list:

• I initially ranked one other book as a “Heroic Dose,” right after I read it—Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents, but when I looked back over my list, I could barely remember anything about it, so I downgraded it to a Solid Dose. Perhaps I blocked it out… And for the record, I read it not because of my own parents, but because I worry that I’m an emotionally immature parent and I want to remedy that.

• Conversely, one book stuck with me so much that I upgraded it from Solid Dose to Heroic Dose: The Hell Screens. I’m still thinking about it… Books that linger in the mind are special. The premise is a very wet, always flooded, alternate Taipei where ghosts exist and blend into society, but are covertly nefarious. Regular humans have a hard time telling who is a ghost and who isn’t. So, ghosts become an allegory for scammers, and this is powerful because we’re all trying to avoid scammers and identify scammers in real life.

The rest of the books I read in 2024 organized by their main MABAM categories.

Cheek Hurters

This category is tough. Very few books hit it. It only applies to books that made me ACTUALLY LAUGH OUT LOUD WHILE READING THEM. Not smile, not think, “that’s witty,” but LAUGH. David Sedaris usually owns this category, but I didn’t read anything by him this year. There was only one this year, and it was truly ridiculous. I laughed out loud multiple times. Rated X. Super disgusting.

The Cuck by Aron Beuregard (corn horror)

Cry it Out

To win this MABAM real tears have to come out of my eyes. Or I have to hold back the tears and feel a wave of profound sadness.

Notice by Heather Lewis

Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance

*These books couldn’t be more different in form or author, but they both made me sad, and they both dealt directly with addiction. When I think about them paired together and the polar opposite fates of their authors—it’s even sadder.

I’ve written about Notice before, and I’ve written about why I liked Hillbilly Elegy, too.

Heart Openers

These books fill you with all the feelings; they have an inner warmth and heart. They’re not tear-jerkers, but they’re emotional and the author’s emotional intelligence and knowledge of the human condition/experience is refined. They touch on something deep in the heart, or they trigger a nostalgia that reopens an often dormant feeling.

Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan (literary fiction, historic fiction, Irish)

But Everyone Feels This Way: How an Autism Diagnosis Saved My Life by Paige Layle (non-fiction, memoir, autism, self-help)

Mind Fluks

These books were TWISTY, or so high concept that they messed with my head, also experiments in form I appreciated, but they weren’t quite Heroic Doses for me, though the first three came close, but they’re more than just a Solid Dose. I’ll note that some readers may find the last three books in this grouping offensive. They’re controversial books.

The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick (vintage sci-fi)

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick (vintage sci-fi)

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (sci-fi)

Crypt of the Spider Moon by Nathan Ballingrud (sci-fi, fantasy)

The Swallowed Town by C.F. Page (cosmic horror, magical realism)

Median by Kelly Robson (horror)

The Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge by Mike Resnick (sci-fi, cli-fi)

Artemis Unveiled by Jason Reza Jorjani (Difficult to categorize this book. Alt history set in the future and written in a non-fiction style.)

Not Forever But For Now by Chuck Palahniuk (literary fiction, slasher)

• This was the most messed up book on my list and probably the most disturbing book I’ve ever read. Only Palahniuk can get away with this… Downright demented. They can’t ever make a movie of this.

Hits Fast

The Hits Fast books are the books I compulsively couldn’t stop reading, ones I read instead of doing other things I was supposed to do. They will keep you up at night turning the pages. There was only one this year that wasn’t also a heroic dose. It was a solid dose but gets a special mention for being extra-binge-able.

You Like It Darker by Stephen King (horror, short story collection)

Solid Doses

The Solid Dose books hit their genre marks and were satisfying, solid works that delivered everything they set out to do. Not earth-shattering, but entertaining and good, easy reading depending on what you’re looking for. I enjoyed all of them.

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay G. Gibson PhD (non-fiction, self-help)

Consider Phlebas by Ian Banks (sci-fi)

The Saliva Tree by Brian W. Aldiss (sci-fi, cli-fi)

Morning Shift by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (thriller)

Code of Reanimation by Lanie Mores (horror)

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (sci-fi, literary cli-fi)

• I know some people LOVE this book the most, but it was my least favorite from the series. I love all the new covers for this series though.

The new Southern Reach Series covers by Jeff VanderMeer

Divergent Minds: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg (non-fiction, autism)

Each One A Nation by D.S. Davis (literary fiction, family saga)

Soccer Massacre by Agah Bahari (action adventure, horror)

Before I go I want you to know by Rue Sparks (poetry, art, LGBTQ)

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (literary fiction, LGBTQ)

Born with the Dead by Robert Silverberg (sci-fi, horror)

7 Figure Fiction by T. Taylor (non-fiction, writing business)

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (commercial fiction, magical realism)

Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (horror)

Modern Tarot by Michelle Tea (non-fiction, occult)

Quantum Psychology by Robert Anton Wilson (non-fiction, philosophy)

Body Highs

Hello corn section! These three were also all solid doses. Almost put book one in the heroic dose category because it’s just so fun and popular. I liked them all! I may even go back to the series next time I’m in the mood for such girl-fantasy.

Ice Planet Barbarians 1 by Ruby Dixon

Ice Planet Barbarians 2: Barbarian Alien by Ruby Dixon

Ice Planet Barbarians 3: Barbarian Lover by Ruby Dixon

Not My Drugs of Choice

I recognize that these books were “good,” well-written, etc, but their genre just wasn’t for me. No shade, just not my taste.

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher

The Plainswalker by M.A. Rothman

De-Extinction of the Nephilim by J.F. Penn

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (Pretty writing, but it dragged for me and I could barely finish it; I think because I knew what was going to happen…)

The cops are here

These books personally rubbed me the wrong way. You might love them, but I took issue with something about them or they contained a pet peeve.

Dear Writer, You Need to Quit by Becca Syme (non-fiction, writing)

• I like Becca Syme’s YouTube content a lot, but this felt like a long blog post repackaged as a book—a pet peeve of mine.

Grasshands by Kyle Winkler

• Totally different style prologue than the rest of the novel, which is a pet peeve of mine. It got me sucked in, then disappointed, and it didn’t deliver on my genre expectations.

Eruption by James Patterson and Michel Crichton

• Michel Crichton's wife should be charged with a crime for letting this be published like this. Parts made no sense. Deux Machina ending. It was nothing like any other Michal Crichton book, felt like a cash grab, and was way more James Patterson than anything else. Dumb plot. I hated it. Made me mad.

Naked Came the Hunter by M.J. Edington

• The premise of this interested me—a nudist colony in West Virginia—but this had weird vibes that made me raise my eyebrows too much. A single mom’s kids kept sitting naked on a strange naked guy’s lap. Parts lacked logic and believability. I finished it, but with difficulty, then I was like, why did I read this?

Now You

Did you read any Heroic Dose books this year?

Any questions about the books I’ve mentioned?

Also, I want to make a new MABAM category for incredibly beautiful prose, stunning sentences, and lovely writing, for the stories that may not be heroic doses for me, but the words are pure poetry. The writing itself is wondrous. What should I call this, and what would a good illustration for it be?

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!

XXXOOO

Charlotte Dune