My Favorite Books of 2024

I read 60 books this year and so I had many choices when it came to compiling my list of  favorites for 2024.  These aren't necessarily the best or the most critically acclaimed books I read this year but they are the books I liked the best.  Two of the authors: Tony Horwitz and George Gissing I have read before.  The remaining seven are new to me and so in no particular order here is my list of favorites for 2024: 

Not sure if I will read 60 books in 2025.  I might go for 50 books instead.  And Libby is such a wonderful reading service. Five of my favorite books I was able to borrow through Libby.  

I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year and that we read alot of great books in 2025!

Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

"There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live with shame, and those who die from it. On Tuesday, Adelaide Henry would’ve called herself the former, but by Wednesday she wasn’t as sure. If she was trying to live, then why would she be walking through her family’s farmhouse carrying an Atlas jar of gasoline, pouring that gasoline on the kitchen floor, the dining table, dousing the settee in the den? .. Was she planning to live, or trying to die? There were twenty-seven Black farming families in California’s Lucerne Valley in 1915. Adelaide and her parents had been one of them. After today there would only be twenty-six." - Victor Lavalle, Lone Women

I love books in which a character fleeing trouble or looking for a new start decides to pack their bags and head to hopefully greener pastures.  And when Lone Women begins 31 year old Adelaide Henry is escaping a very bad situation.  Her parents have been murdered and Adelaide is setting fire to their home.

What happened?  Did Adelaide kill her parents or was it someone or something else?  Regardless, Adelaide knows she can't stay in Lucerne Valley and so she decides to escape to Big Sandy, MT, a small rural community where the government is giving out free land to anyone willing to make a go of it.  Adelaide brings with her some books and a mysterious locked steamer trunk.  But if she is looking for safety Big Sandy may not be the place to find it.  In fact some of the town's people are as scary as what she is trying to flee from.  

Lone Women is a combination western and supernatural horror novel.  You find out early what the steamer trunk contains but learning this secret didn't spoil the book for me.  Adelaide is a sympathetic character and I became invested in her struggle to escape her past and start a new life.  But as Adelaide learns you can't leave your past or your family behind.  As much as you may want to move on, the guilt stays with you.

All of the characters we meet in Big Sandy are well drawn and they have their own secrets.  I recommend this novel and Victor LaValle is a writer worth checking out.

Christmas Books and Movies

It's the holiday season and I really enjoy Christmas novels and movies and so I decided to make a list of my favorites:

THE BOOKS

When I moved down to Florida in 2011 Burning Bright was one of the books I brought with me and I have it still (if I can locate where I placed it)  It's an anthology. Three stories set in Crescent Cove, VT.  And in each story a woman who is having trouble in her life around the holidays enters a candle shop and the candle each woman chooses has a certain magic to it which will lead to a happy ending.  Loved it.  And Magggie Shayne, Anne Stuart and Judith Arnold are very fine writers who will get you in the holiday spirit!

I keep telling myself I must read Fried Green Tomatoes and I will but in the meantime years ago I did read A Redbird Christmas which I highly recommend.  Time for a reread.

I purchased Christmas Witness Survival several weeks ago not knowing the author or what to expect.  But the plot interested me: 

Fleeing after discovering her fiancé is a murderer, Hailey Davenport thinks nowhere is safe this Christmas. Trusting another man is the last thing Hailey wants, but she reluctantly finds refuge in the back of Michael “Chap” Chapman’s truck. The security expert won’t let her face hired gunmen alone—even when danger follows them to his ranch" Goodreads

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this novel.  Hailey and Michael are characters with troubled pasts but they are well drawn and I really felt the chemistry between. them.  I intend to check out more books from Jane Choate and the Love Inspired Suspense series.

THE MOVIES

I saw A Town Without Christmas many years ago and what you want in a romantic film is chemistry and Patricia Heaton and Rick Roberts are wonderful together.  Also Peter Falk is very good as the angel who brings them together.  My only regret is that A Town Without Christmas doesn't get shown on TV anymore and that's a shame.

Discovered The Holly And The Ivy a few years ago when it was shown on Turner Classic Movies.  What a wonderful film with a great cast.  And the two aunts that arrive for the holidays are quite the pair!

No need to watch any other version of A Christmas Carol in my opinion.  The great actor Alistair Sim owns the role of Scrooge.  

Loved Prancer and Sam Elliot is so good as an apple farmer who is trying to raise his young daughter but he is struggling after the death of his wife.  And then over the holidays a reindeer arrives.

So those are my picks and if you want to share your favorite books and films for the holidays I would love to hear.