Books I’ve Read in 2024: A Review

At the end of 2023, I decided that I was going to make a commitment to reading, primarily for me and to help me as a writer. I wanted to read and study more of the books that fall into genres that shaped me as a writer – most particularly Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, and Suspense-Thriller.

I set an overly ambitious goal to read 59 books – one book for each year I have been here on this earth. It was ridiculous to do; I had never read more than 20-25 books in a single year, but I felt like it was time to shift how I use my energy. I decreased my online time dramatically; instead of scrolling news feeds, I was flipping pages. Instead of tuning in to the news (gag) on the radio on my hour-plus commutes to and from school, I downloaded books through Audible and Libro.FM (and now, at the end of 2024, Libby).

It worked. Not only did I read 59 books, I surpassed my goal and logged in a total of 64 books.

Below, you’ll find the following:

• My list of the books I read in 2024 (by genre);
• My top-10 2024 books from all genres; and
• My reading goals for 2025, including some modifications (from 2024) to what (and how, and why) I read.

2024 Books Read (By Genre)

Books read (by genre) in 2024 (some books cross-genre listed):

FANTASY/MAGICAL REALISM
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman

LGBTQ+
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
We’ll Never Tell by Wendy Heard
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

LITERARY/POETRY
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Martian by Andy Weir
Cold Rock by Rus VanWestervelt
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Dead Poets Society by NH Kleinbaum
English Romantic Poetry and Prose edited by Russell Noyes
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman
Vestiges of a Dark Night by Dylan Podson
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

CHILDREN’S LIT
Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

PLAYS
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail by Jerome Lawrence

MYSTERY/SUSPENSE/THRILLER/DYSTOPIAN/HORROR
Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
The End of Temperance Dare by Wendy Webb
The Vanishing by Wendy Webb
The Keepers of Metsan Valo by Wendy Webb
The Stroke of Winter by Wendy Webb
The Witches of Santo Stefano by Wendy Webb
We’ll Never Tell by Wendy Heard
Never Again Goodbye by Terri Blackstock
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

NONFICTION
Christmas: A Candid History by Bruce David Forbes
Double Knot by Mac Caltrider
Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Baltimore in the Civil War: The Pratt Street Riot and a City Occupied by Harry A. Ezratty
What Lies Beneath: The Farms, Mills, and Towns Under Our Reservoirs by Ann Royston Blouse

SPIRITUAL
No-Nonsense Buddhism for Beginners by Noah Rasheta
The Art of Living by Thich Nhat Hanh
Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life by Julia Cameron
The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship by Miguel Ruiz

ACADEMIC
A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation by Noah Lukeman
The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins
The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom by Felicia Rose Chavez

WRITING/CREATIVITY
World-Building for Writers by HC Harrington
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

My Top-10 2024 Books (From All Genres)

I feel like my goal in 2024 was to just read a quantity of books, which I did. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t intentional selections along the way. I wanted to finish Wendy Webb’s ghosty roms (which I did), and I enjoyed reading several LGBTQ+ books in a summer reading challenge through the Howard County Public School System. Those titles led me to other authors (such as TJ Klune), and the fantasy genre really opened my eyes to new writers (like Seanan McGuire).

My top ten books of 2024 capture (to me) two things:

First, I think these books are incredibly well-written. They connect with their readers in an igniting way that keeps us reading until the very end. AND… they don’t disappoint. I want to read more and more by these authors, and I will.

Second, they represent me in 2024 as a reader I have never been before. I really expanded my genre selections, and apparently, I’m not alone. In a December 2023 survey conducted by NBC News, the LGBTQ fiction genre is skyrocketing, and I’m so glad I jumped on that rocketship. I wrote my first LGBTQ short fiction this year, and I’m working on longer pieces for 2025. It’s exciting to broaden my own personal reading and writing universe. Where will it take me? I’m open for the experience.

Here’s my top ten, and in order:

10 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
9 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
8 The Stroke of Winter by Wendy Webb
7 The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
6 We’ll Never Tell by Wendy Heard
5 Fairy Tale by Stephen King
4 Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
3 The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
2 Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
1 Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

What’s Next for 2025?

Certainly, 2024 opened my eyes to new genres and new authors, shattering the boundaries of my reading in previous years.

So what does 2025 hold?

Well, since I read 64 books in 2024, I will set my goal as 65 in 2025.

With a catch.

I am going to exclude any nonfiction titles from this count, including memoir and other sub-genres that fall under the category of creative nonfiction. I’m doing this because I am immersing myself in world building for a new Fantasy/LGBTQ+/SpecFic/Mystery/Thriller series that I am writing, and I want all of my reading to contribute to those genres, directly or indirectly.

I do have some foundational series, as well, that I will be reading. They comprise 56 of my goal of 65 books:

• Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (3 books)
• The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King (8 books)
• The Complete Books in the OZ series by L Frank Baum (14 books)
• The Chronicles of Narnia Series by CS Lewis (7 books)
• The Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series (will reread the first book and then the remaining 4 books)
• The Empyrean Series [Fourth Wing (currently reading), Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm] by Rebecca Yarros (3 books)
• The Something Dark and Holy Series (Wicked Saints, Ruthless Gods, and Blessed Monsters) by Emily A. Duncan
• The Another Day Series (The Bride of Maracoor, The Oracle of Maracoor, and The Witch of Maracoor) by Gregory Maguire (this is a spinoff of the Wicked Series by Maguire) (3 books)
• Finish the Wicked Series (Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz) by Gregory Maguire (3 books)
• Finish the Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire (7 books)

I will also be reading more standalone books by these authors:

• TJ Klune
• Percival Everett
• Wendy Heard
• Lev AC Rosen
• Neil Gaiman
• Gregory Maguire
• Victoria E Schwab
• Stephen King

To be honest, to be fair: I don’t really know how concerned I am about goals; I’m more interested in just keeping my heart in a good book all year long. If that takes me to 65, then wonderful. If it doesn’t, then wonderful as well. Gone are the days of me doing things to check any list or fill a bucket; every moment experienced is a bucket filled.

If you want to follow along with me on my journey, I use Goodreads to keep track of what I’m reading. I might do that more here as well, at The Baltimore Writer. Not sure.

Regardless of whether you leave a comment here, or if you follow me on Goodreads, or if you choose to do the same with reading goals and such, know this:

None of that matters more than simply reading. We don’t have to shout it out to the rooftops or join book clubs or leave comments or write authors little notes. All of those things are wonderful. They really are. But what matters most is that you have a book in your bag, and you open that at least one more time than you might open your phone in 2025.

Peace to all today and in the coming year.

Yours in words,

Rus