Travis Reads Sometimes. (Pt. 1)
Awards for the best books I read in 2024
Anyone who knows me knows that I love reading. The slow, low-stimulation consumption of stories and knowledge just works for me in ways that other media styles don’t.
Not to brag or anything, but I hit my Goodreads goal all the way back in January! To be fair, my official goal was to read two books this year (I like to aim low so that I can always mark that I achieved my goals).
I ended up reading and audiobooking 60 books so far in 2024.
I know this isn’t as impressive as many of my fellow Substackers, but I don’t do it for the quantity. I do it because I love learning and experiencing stories.
With that in mind, I have decided that it is appropriate for me to jump on the “Best Books I Read This Year” bandwagon and post a list of my own to Substack. The list is way too long and involves way too much description, so I will be splitting it into two parts. This first part you are reading now is the “(Dis)Honors Awards,” a miscellaneous “Dundie-style” list of awards (à la “The Office”) subjectively named by yours truly. Next week will be the real “Best of 2024” Awards.
A Quick Note Before I Begin…
Much of my Substack content involves theology and Christian ministry/life, but you’ll notice an apparent lack of Christian books in this list. The reasons are twofold:
I will include books about theological topics in next week’s true “Best of 2024” Awards list. This week’s list is mostly the “fun” awards.
The list below mostly involves fiction. Once Christians start writing decent, well-regarded fiction books again (books that don’t involve straw-man silliness or weird Amish fantasies), I’ll start including them in my best-of lists.
Anyway, here are the awards!
Most Surprisingly Good
Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit by Josh Noel
While on a trip to Illinois this fall, I paid a visit to Barnes and Noble. I love Chicago and the Midwest in general whenever I visit, and I wanted to check out the “Local Interest” section to see if there was anything Chicago-y to read. There in front of my face, in bright yellow, was a book about most bitter, rancid, and beloved beverage in Chicago. The story of this company that should have gone out of business several times over the last 100 years was so enthralling that reading it was all I did on the plane ride back (no movie, no in-flight map, no nothing, just this book).
There aren’t many ratings for it on Goodreads, and it was just published this year in 2024. It’s a sleeper, but well worth it if you’re into “small histories” about cocktails and Chicago.
Five stars. Very interesting bit of Chicago history.
Most “The Movie Was Better”
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
My family has to watch “Christmas With the Kranks” starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis every year. This story of a couple choosing to forego the ostentatiousness and superfluity of Christmas to the chagrin of their neighbors speaks to grinches and Christmas lovers alike. It’s hilarious and perfectly cast, and every year when I see that the credits say it was based on a book by John Grisham (you know, the “The Rainmaker” and “A Time to Kill” guy), I always thought to myself, “Huh, I should check that book out.”
The book was not great. It was rushed, and I felt none of the empathy for Luther and Nora Krank that the movie evoked. It was almost like Grisham was encouraged by his agent to bang out a Christmas book real quick so they could make it into a movie and he can get the writing credit.
Two stars. Just watch the movie.
Most “Evidently My Tastes Have Changed”
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
In my earlier adult years, I would love reading books about the underbelly. Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, and others were on my list of most admired authors. In recent years, however, I would try re-reading some of their works and would end up about a quarter of the way through thinking, “Huh… why did I empathize with these characters again?”
Philip K. Dick was a master of science fiction and alternate histories. His stories, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” (basis for “Bladerunner”), “The Man in the High Castle,” and “Minority Report” are immortalized by their acclaimed film and TV inspirations. “A Scanner Darkly” had a great beginning concept just like the other books, but ends up devolving into hallucinations, paranoia, and “stream-of-consciousness” that kind of just become a jumble of words that don’t lead to a comprehensive story. Younger me might have thought that was “artistic,” but 30s me asks “… Why?”
Three stars. Paul Giamatti’s narration was good though.
Most Overhyped
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
My Goodreads review of this book does it better justice, but here’s a brief description of how I felt about it.
This book is a major darling of so-called “BookTok.” I’ve seen several Instagram and TikTok videos listing “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” as one of the most beautifully written books they have read.
I didn’t get that vibe.
Ocean Vuong is probably a great poet, and I’m eager to read his books of poetry in the future. But I just can’t get into novels that use stream-of-consciousness as a crutch when lacking a fleshed-out, compelling narrative.
Three stars. Ready to read Vuong’s “Time is a Mother”
Most Appropriately Hyped
This category has a tie! I’ll give them both their due though…
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
I had seen this book on a few lists of “Great books,” and given my past experiences with lists like those (*ahem* ACOTAR), I was reticent to read it initially.
It blew me away.
In “All the Light We Cannot See,” Anthony Doerr tells the almost-parallel stories of a young German conscript and a blind French girl, unlikely to ever meet under good circumstances, as the Nazis gain then lose their occupation of France in World War II.
Doerr brings to life the ground-level stories of individual characters involved in an historical period often viewed from a mile-high balcony. In so doing, he reminds us of the humanity of our enemies, forcing us into a perspective we aren’t prepared for but desperately need.
I tried starting the Netflix series, but I stopped two-thirds of the way through the first episode. It felt as though the show fell into that pit Netflix can’t avoid to dumb down and overly dramatize the plot for the American audience when they would have done better with subtlety and nuance.
Five stars. Pulitzer Prize well deserved.
Tied with…
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
Another Netflix darling. After the disappointment that was season two of “House of the Dragon” and my straight-up-not-bothering-with season two of “Rings of Power,” I needed something to cleanse my fantasy palate.
Andrzej Sapkowski’s introduction to The Witcher did just that.
An entertaining short-story collection following a misunderstood magic man who fights (and sometimes saves) monsters. I typically don’t love translated books as I’m always afraid I’ll miss the nuances that simply cannot translate to English, but they made it work. The simple, back-to-basics elements of the fantasy make it powerful and easy to follow in any language (HBO and Amazon Prime show-runners could learn a thing or two).
Five stars. Great start to a low-commitment fantasy series.
Most “I Literally Can’t Categorize This, It’s So Good and So Bad”
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
This 800-plus page book is an absolute titanic feat of modern literature.
I will never read it again. In fact, it’s a book that actually made me need to take a break from reading books in general for a while.
“A Little Life” is a heavy tragedy following the life of what the back of the book says is “four friends” but is actually just one man named Jude. (In fact the synopsis made me think it would have more in it about brotherhood and platonic friendship between men, but it was really just about how crappy Jude’s life is.)
This author has a real knack for words and sadistic human psychology, but the book could have easily been 200 pages fewer. It made me feel like the author specifically set out to torture the reader (which, props to you, Hanya, you made sold a good amount of copies by doing so).
Three stars. Part of me said “one star” and part of me said “five stars” so I averaged it out.
Most “Great, so This is the Trajectory of the American Publishing Industry?”
The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
Another BookTok darling.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: American media needs more stories of healthy male friendships that fight toxic masculinity while steering away from devaluing the “maleness” inherent to our identities.
This book ain’t it.
It’s just another romance novel complete with the same old story beats, the same tired descriptions of male anatomy, the same graphic sex, the same inaccessibility to regular male readers, etc. I give it a better blasting in my Goodreads review, so check that out so I don’t have to repeat myself.
Two stars. I’m starting to see a pattern with “BookTok darlings.”
Most Braindead Pile of Slop I’ve Ever Attempted To Read (Puked, DNF’ed, Threw it in a Ditch)
Why Naked Women Look So Good: Understanding and Meeting a Woman's Deepest Needs by Bill Perkins
This book doesn’t deserve a full review, but I gave it one anyway.
This is supposed to be a book about Christian marriages but ends up reading as one man’s perverted fantasy about what he interprets to be “biblical” marriage and manhood. If I ever have a daughter who gets engaged, and her pastor gives her (or her future spouse) this book as part of pre-marital counseling, I would start the process of having that pastor fired (or arrested).
Perkins unironically cites disgraced and unrepentant megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll as a decent source for marriage advice, which should pretty much tell you everything.
The only redeeming part of the experience of reading this book is that I found it in a pile of free books at my church meaning I didn’t financially support the author and the book will forever stay out of the hands of other vulnerable Christians seeking marriage advice.
I almost never give a book one star on Goodreads, but…
One star. I hate that the only “Christian” book on this list is this worthless stool sample.
We’ve had a lot of fun here (with most of these books), so next week, I will post my more serious “Best Books I Read in 2024” lists complete with a list of all of my five-star books as well as my award for Best Fiction and Best Nonfiction.
If you respect my opinions on books after this (Dis)Honors Awards, then we’ll see you next week!
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