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Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high.

Books, books, and oh! More books...

Author

Kaitlin Bekken
January 02, 2025 • Est. Reading Time: 5 minutes

Though I can’t quite wrap my brain around it quite yet… Welcome to 2025!

One of my 2024 highlights was working on this newsletter. It’s been a blast, which was pretty much my whole goal! To make sure the fun stays sustainable moving forward, I’m going to slow things down to an every-other-week cadence, with some special editions sprinkled in.

So here’s the first of them! A year in review: books edition. I consumed over 38,000 pages and more than 100 books in 2024, and here are my favorites. I hope it either reminds you of the gems you also read, or gives you some titles to add to your TBR.

Series

They’re a time commitment, but you won’t be disappointed.

The Fable Series by Adrienne Young

One of my goals last year was to reread some old favorites, and this was the first I jumped back into. Look, I don’t know why, but I loooooove books that take place on ships. (Do I sail? No. Pirate obsession? No. It’s just a thing!) It was so fun to feel immersed in this nautical world with “singing” gemstones again. West is also a winning character for me.

Emily Wilde Series by Heather Fawcett

On the opposite side of ships for me is faeries. Don’t want them, not interested, keep your Maas books to yourself… except for Emily Wilde. The academic and logical perspective really grounds these novels in a way most faerie books can’t manage. I still loved these despite thinking for most of book 1 that Bambleby was an old, gray professor (which was very confusing when the romance blossomed). They’re beautiful and adventurous and I’m eager for book 3 later this winter.

The Shepherd King Series by Rachel Gillig

You’ve already seen my love for this duology in past newsletters. Dark, spooky, well-crafted, clever magic, so darn enjoyable.

Romance

Thank goodness that as a society we’re no longer shameful of our love of this incredible genre.

(Fair warning that there are open door scenes to skip in these books if that’s not your thing.)

The True Love Experiment by Cristina Lauren

Another reread, that I ended up enjoying twice in 2024. Each character is well-developed and likable, the reality show setting feels like a backstage tour, and I’ve essentially read the ending 4 times because it’s such a clever and cute climax. I’m not a diehard fan of Cristina Lauren but this book is an absolute winner.

The RomCommers by Katherine Center

I’m always up for a celebrity/normie romance, and I enjoyed the unique experience of the celebrity actually being a arrogant, pompous, stuck up dude (who I somehow liked by the end?) instead of embodying the famous-person humility I typically see in these stories. I also don’t think I’ve ever read such enjoyable banter, my lol count was off the charts.

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

This story gives vibes of both the Time Traveler’s Wife and The Last Five Years. It’s fascinating to watch the characters live their relationship in different directions, while trying to manage the seven year gap (which doesn’t seem totally impossible…right?) Please also give me more books set in restaurant world which describe dishes so well I feel like I’m eating them live.

Quick Hits

Great reads, but I can’t wax poetic about everything.

A Sad Story

These reads were a little bit melancholy, but oh so beautiful.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

This was my first read of 2024 and it was a thrill to start with a 5 star book. Eleanor is an office admin with a tragic past that pieces together as the story progresses. She goes through the ringer throughout the novel, but it will stir hope in your own soul to see Eleanor’s resilience, her ability to cope, and watch her learn to heal and thrive before the end.

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Hello Beautiful follows the lives of the Padavano sisters and explores how their choices affect their sibling bonds. There were a lot of bad decisions and some premises I don’t really support, but the writing and story craft was incredible enough to overcome those challenges and make me love the novel.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Look, it’s hard not to love a story set in the Michigan summer, and with a cherry farm no less! This book tackles old relationships, COVID, grief, celebrity, summer romance, the death of dreams, aging, and so much more. I felt engrossed every second of it (except for one really jarring scene towards the end, yikes.)

Weird, But I Love It

When you read so many books, it’s the totally weird ones that stick in your brain.

Houses With A Story by Seiji Yoshida

This is mostly a picture book showcasing unique and fantastical dwelling places across universes. The pictures are stunning and you’ll stare at them for minutes to catch all the details. There’s hints of the story behind each house’s occupant, along with a sort of answer key at the back to fill in the blanks of anything you might have overlooked. The whole family loved this one.

The Martian by Andy Weir

I would not have believed you if you had told me one of my favorite books of the year would include a man explaining the science of survival on Mars, but here we are. Somehow this sci-fi story heavy with physics, botany, chemistry, politics, and stressful disasters ends up being just… fun.

The Ministry of Time by Kailene Bradley

What would happen if time travel was real? Bradley probably rightly imagines it would be regulated and turned bureaucratic, but also become weaponized and maybe destroy us all. I loved the view of the consequences for individuals and the world at large. Part sci-fi, part dystopian, part romance, part historical fiction… all entertainment.

❝

And my favorite book of 2024…

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

This wild ride about husbands (and the lives connected to them) being magically swapped if they just go up into the attic tackles the idea of what it means to have endless choices (swipe left anyone?). Things go totally off the rails towards the end of the story in a way that felt like “yes, this is absolutely how someone would lose their mind.” I don’t know how this didn’t make more of the “best of” lists, it was an incredible and entertaining story from start to finish, with the most perfect ending.

What were your favorite reads of the year?

Reply and let us know!