With 2024 quickly coming to a close, I’m sure many of us have been reflecting on the year. One of my goals at the beginning of this year was to read more. I used to love reading when I was younger, but lost touch with this love as I started having to read more for school. It can be difficult to find the motivation to read for pleasure when reading for class feels like such a chore. I ended up only reading a total of 10 books this year, but a start is a start! With that being said, here are five of my favorite books I read this year and why I loved them.
- Call Me By Your Name by AndrÉ Aciman
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I didn’t know much about this book before I decided to pick it up at the library one day. I did know there was a movie adaptation but had never seen it, so I was pretty much going in blind. This novel takes place in Italy in the 1980s and revolves around a blossoming romantic relationship between teenaged boy Elio and an older man Oliver, who is visiting Elio’s home for the summer. I found the main premise of the novel quite disturbing but was also struck by the powerful impact of the relationship on Elio, who struggles to come to terms with his sexuality throughout the book. I also found the atmosphere of the novel really interesting. The setting feels very light, romantic, and fantastical—an almost eerie contrast to the perverted nature of the focal relationship. Ultimately I enjoyed this book as well as the movie adaptation, despite its problematic nature. I felt the ending was sad yet powerful in its commentary on obsession and the impact that this level of manipulation can have on someone, even many years after the fact.
- In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
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This book surprised me, to say the least. I also didn’t know much about it and was not expecting it to be as untraditional as it is. By untraditional, I mean that it isn’t written in the format you might expect from a standard novel. Machado uses a lot of really interesting linguistic functions in this memoir-esque novel exploring her experience being a victim in an abusive relationship with another woman. She uses elements of different genres such as poetry and horror to help create incredibly powerful imagery that chucks you right into the hauntingly disturbing “Dream House.” I also admire the way Machado draws attention to the somewhat unspoken topic of abuse—particularly in same-sex relationships. Her story and the way she tells it is impactful; I felt myself both getting sucked in and silently urging the narrator to get out. She makes you, as the reader, feel the same toxic pull that she experiences in real time.
- Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
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I have read snippets of this collection of essays in the past but decided to read the book in its entirety earlier this year. Needless to say, I loved it. Cathy Park Hong is an incredible writer who truly brings her stories to life. This book felt so real; there wasn’t a moment where I felt that Hong’s writing did not authentically reflect her person. Throughout this memoir, she coins and beautifully evokes the term “minor feelings” to describe what it feels like to grow up as part of a marginalized group in America. These feelings refer to the shame, anger, and otherwise undesirable emotions that come along with living in a country whose majority does not respect you as a person. She grapples with the daunting expectation that, as an Asian American author, she must write solely about race. In this memoir she miraculously finds a way to both defy this expectation while simultaneously coming to terms with the importance of her ability to share her story. She demonstrates candidly how people of color in America are multi-dimensional individuals who cannot be solely defined by or valued for their experiences with racism. This memoir is incredibly impactful, and I believe that everyone should read it, regardless of your identity.
- The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
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I read this memoir after it was recommended to me by a friend, and it did not disappoint. The Glass Castle is a memoir revolving around Walls’ childhood and early adulthood growing up in a wildly untraditional and dysfunctional family. She relays her journey growing up with her siblings along with her adventurous yet careless parents, all the way to her establishment as a successful journalist in New York City. Walls is essentially thrust into independence the moment she is born, as her parents provide little to no support in her life. Her father struggles with alcoholism and both of her parents are financially unstable, resulting in multiple moves over the years to evade legal repercussions for their financial misdemeanors. However, what is marvelous about this story is that what shines most brightly throughout it is not regret or resentment, but rather Walls’ love for her parents. Despite his imperfections, she looks up to her father as her hero because she sees his potential for greatness. Wall’s sense of storytelling is almost fantastical in that as I was reading, I could not believe that what was unfolding before my eyes was true. This book is a compelling, heartbreaking and healing account of familial love and perseverance that brought tears to my eyes on many occasions. I would certainly recommend it to anyone, especially if you are trying to get into reading non-fiction or memoirs!
- On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
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I will never shut up about this novel; if you ask me for a book recommendation, chances are this will be the first one to come out of my mouth. My senior year high school English class had a huge unit on poetry, which was when I first read any of Ocean Vuong’s work. I forgot about it for some time but ended up reconnecting with his poetry and eventually reading his debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. It’s written in the format of a letter from a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mother who fled from Vietnam to escape the aftermath of war. In his letter which will never be read, he discusses his relationship with his mother as well as confesses details about his relationship with his first love Trevor, a man he met while working on a tobacco field as a teenager. This novel is an exploration of race, family, trauma, gender, sexuality and addiction. Vuong uses language so creatively; his poetic ability shines in this novel as he portrays how writing can be used as a conduit for healing. It is impossible to describe my love for this book in such a short paragraph, but it genuinely changed my life.
I hope that maybe this list provided you with a couple ideas for your next read. If not, maybe it at least gave you the motivation to pick up a book if you haven’t had time to read in a while. I know that writing this list and reliving my favorite reads of the year has definitely made me want to jump back in and try to reach my goal of reading 20 books in 2025! See you next year!