What’s harder than finding time in one’s day to read a book? Finding time in one’s day to read a book aloud with one’s adult child who’s still living at home but working full-time and as heavily involved in volunteering as one is.
Okay, I’m talking about Flicka and me, and it’s our New Year’s idea (the word resolution is too exacting) to tackle a bunch of books together. The idea is sweet, the schedule tight. But we’ll do this thing—even if we need to plug the activity into our calendars and stay up past our bedtimes.
Early in January, over cups of ashwagandha tea, flames dancing in the nearby fireplace, my girl and I discussed our reading goals. Our book list would cover a variety of genres, include a few classics we should’ve already read, provide entertainment, send us on trips through time and place, and grow our faith roots deeper.
See what you think.
Books of 2024
All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr, literary fiction)
The God I Never Knew (Robert Morris, religious/spirituality nonfiction)
The Thursday Murder Club (Richard Osman, cozy mystery)
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath, autobiographical/psychological fiction)
Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, speculative fiction/unreliable narrator)
Earthlings (Sayaka Murata, bildungsroman/psychological fiction)
Neither Here Nor There (Bill Bryson, travel literature)
Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray, satire/social criticism)
The Gospel Comes With a House Key (Rosaria Butterfield, Christian literature)
Sunburn (Laura Lippman, private detective/psychological thriller)
The Elizas (Sara Shepard, psychological thriller)
Menfreya in the Morning (Victoria Holt, murder mystery)
East of Eden (John Steinbeck, allegorical novel)
Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky, psychological drama)
In case you’re interested, we’re only halfway through All the Light We Cannot See, and it’s already February 1. Can we do it? Can we complete this entire list (don’t forget the reading aloud part) before “Auld Lang Syne” floats through the air?
Also, what do you bookworms recommend should we find ourselves craving more after Dostoevsky exits the building?
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