2024 Reflections, vol. 1
Cassie's thoughts on 2024's slate: the female rage through line, the gorgeous heart-wrenching prose, the really really weird ass reads, and the books we can live without (Venn diagram included)
2024 was quite the year. In many ways, it was a personal wilderness for me. I wandered some, frolicked a little, scraped my knees on the trail repeatedly, and strayed from the path well-taken over and over again. Some parts of the year felt like such a dense forest—at times scary and generally overwhelming. But, as I kept moving forward, getting dirt under my fingernails, my north star was this book club. Throughout the year, despite the heaviness that persisted, there were many moments of light and hope thanks to the slate of magical, beautiful, weird (seriously, very weird), and polarizing reads we so lovingly put together for 2024 and the incredible women who gathered monthly to discuss them.
Four major themes/categories emerged for me this year. First, female rage, which was the most prominent through line. Female rage manifested in eight of the books in violent and gruesome ways—Parable of the Sower, Pod, and Candelaria, especially. Rage also broke through in some refreshing and inspiring ways as well—the two books by poets (When We Were Sisters and The Poet Warrior) were particularly poignant in this respect.
Second, we read some gorgeous heart-wrenching prose—seriously, two of my five favorite books of the year (not just from the slate of book club books) came from our selections. (More on a specific quote from Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow below.) When We Were Sisters stunned all of us in deeply profound ways. In fact, the majority of the discussion involved the group popcorning favorite quotes, eliciting warm ooohs and ahhhs from those listening. Neither Parable of the Sower nor The Poet Warrior need an introduction—Octavia Butler is the sci fi G.O.A.T. for a damn good reason (seriously, if you haven’t read anything by her, do it now!), and Joy Harjo, while lauded for her poetry as poet laureate, writes memoir as if she’s giving a master class on the endeavor.
Third, we read some weird-ass books full of a lot of aquatic magic and magical realism. Shark Heart tugged on everyone’s heart strings, and Pod was excellent fodder for discussion, albeit one of the books of the year most likely to elicit a disdainful face from the readers. Candelaria and The Scapegoat gave us some gruesome depictions of bloody scenes (cannibalism or psychotic breaks, anyone?), but despite the violent episodes, the books were emotional, raw, and very entertaining.
Finally, three of the books we read won’t ever be on my recommendation list, but I’m still glad to have read them. I love Rebecca Serle—In Five Years is great—but Expiration Dates fell flat to me. Don’t get me started on Monsters, or maybe do, but not in this forum and probably over a glass of wine. I also love everything Mary Roach publishes, but Spook also fell flat for me. Gulp, Boink, and Stiff are three books by Roach that are perennially on my recommendation list, so maybe opt for one of those instead.
These themes obviously had some overlap, so as to not belabor the point, I put together a slightly hard-to-read, cheeky Venn diagram of the reads and themes of our year of RAGE-BOND-MAGIC-SPOOK:
Even with three duds (IMO), this year’s slate exceeded even my own lofty expectations. For me, a dynamic book club should be reading the gamut of books—the critically lauded, the polarizing, the challenging books all make wonderful and layered fodder for discussion. AND BOY DID WE HAVE SOME AMAZING DISCUSSIONS THIS YEAR. In fact, our discussions were so dynamic that we were inspired to solicit feedback on some uber-specific superlatives for the picks from the Dear Readers group.
To that end, I’ll leave you with my own superlatives for this year’s slate of books:
The book that made me want to tattoo a quote on my body: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin. This quote especially: “a thousand paper cranes festoon the room.” I yapped about this quote and its accompanying scene so much that Dear Reader Colleen brought me a birthday cake for our May gathering with the quote written on it in lieu of the over-used “happy birthday” and Dear Reader Samantha gifted me a handmade leather bookmark with the quote embossed on it. 10/10 would recommend either practice for the readers in your life. All this is to say, Zevin’s writing was gorgeous and emotionally raw in Tomorrow, and I was in awe of her ability to weave narratives in different forms so masterfully.
The book that lulled me into the most stunning twilight state: When We Were Sisters by Fatima Asghar. Novels by poets aren’t always so accessible, and this book toed that line gorgeously. As the eldest of three sisters, this book was especially poignant.
F*ck me up, Candelaria!!! (Said in the cadence of Taylor Swift’s TTPD hit, of course.) I need (yes, NEED) Candelaria, by Melissa Lozada-Oliva, to be made into a movie. America Ferrera should be involved, and maybe Salma Hayek. Please everybody manifest this for the greater good. This book was weird, like really really weird, and gruesome, but utterly enchanting, engrossing, and (darkly) hilarious.
Fever dream read of the year: The Scapegoat.
and I had previously read this book for the book club (RIP) a few years ago. When we sat down to conceive the 2024 winter ovester picks, we needed a spooky read to round out the trio. Considering both of us texted each other upon finishing the first time “WHAT THE F*CK DID I JUST READ” and were properly spooked, we felt it appropo to re-read this novel with the rest of Dear Readers. The reception was polarizing, but we all agreed that, indeed, this was quite the unsettling and spooky story.The book that made me fall even more in love with sci fi/fantasy: Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler. I had never read Butler’s work before (the horror!), and I was blown away by the storytelling genius of her writing. We chose this book without even realizing that the story starts in 2024 (at the time of publication, 1993, this was a far off year!). The universe provides for us, Dear Readers—something we’ve said from the beginning of this magical endeavor—and this book in particular was such a blessing to read with this group of women in this particular year.
Happy reading, Dear Readers, and we look forward to chatting books and sharing thoughts on our 2025 Year of Reimagining and Retelling. It will be an EPIC REMIX, if we do say so ourselves.