One Book a Week (Julia Reads Books)

Finding pleasure in Horror & Fantasy

I have done a little worse than in the previous years but there were definitely some great books in my list. Stephen King, as always, is a good read with “Four past midnight” and You like it Darker, but unfortunately his new novel “Holly” just did not do it for me. Bentley Little steals the…

Written by

Carra Lucia

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2024 Books in Review

  1. The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker (10/28/2019)
  2. Echo – The Saga of Maya Lopez (Comics) (1/7/2024)
  3. 10 Year Re-Read – Four Past Midnight (1/15/2024)
  4. The Elementals by Michael McDowell (1981) (1/24/2024)
  5. Bentley Little – The Vanishing (2/6/2024)
  6. The Haunting of Blackwood House by Darcy Coates (2/18/2024)
  7. A Deadly Divide A Mystery by  Ausma Zehanat Khan (2/20/2024)
  8. The Disappearance * Bentley Little (2/23/2024)
  9. The Variant – Trust No One – By Robinson Wells (2/27/2024)
  10. 1989- The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe (2/29/2024)
  11. Stephen King – Holly or the Covid Finders Keepers (3/14/2024)
  12. Dunbar by Edward St. Aubyn (3/16/2024)
  13. The Imperfectionists * Tom Rachman (2010) (3/20/2024)
  14. Angel Fire * Lisa Unger (3/21/2024)
  15. Ashes of a black frost * Chris Evans (3/26/2024)
  16. The Faithless * Martina Cole (3/29/2024)
  17. In the country of men * Hisham Matar (2006) (4/2/2024)
  18. 320 Black Cats (Rodica Ojog Brasoveanu) – 320 de pisici negre (Ro) 1978 (4/2/2024)
  19. Sfarsitul retelei Iason – The end of the Jason network (1978) by I. Mocanu (4/5/2024)
  20. Lisa Miscione * The Darkness Gathers (Lisa Unger) (4/9/2024)
  21. Malcolm Gladwell * Outliers (2008) (4/12/2024)
  22. This Thing Between Us: A Novel by Gus Moreno (4/15/2024)
  23. Lola in the Mirror – Trent Dalton (4/22/2024)
  24. Providence by Caroline Kepnes (4/25/2024)
  25. Things fall apart * Chinua Achebe (1958) (4/29/2024)
  26. Justin Cronin – 2010 – The Passage꞉ The Passage Trilogy, Book 1 (Horror) (5/3/2024)
  27. Maeve Fly by C.J.Leade (2023) or the horror of Elsa in L.A. (5/7/2024)
  28. It Starts with Us by Coleen Hoover (5/10/2024)
  29. The Vegetarian * Han Kang (5/16/2024)
  30. Book Lovers * Emily Henry (5/19/2024)
  31. The Drab Princess, the Black Cat, and the Satisfying Break-up Volume 1 by Rino Mayumi (5/22/2024)
  32. All The Broken Places by John Boyne (5/25/2024)
  33. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (6/18/2024)
  34. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (6/21/2024)
  35. Ready Player Two – Ernest Cline (2020) (6/26/2024)
  36. Our Missing Hearts, Celeste Ng (6/27/2024)
  37. The Quiet Tenant – A novel by Clémence Michallon (6/29/2024)
  38. The Housemaid: An absolutely addictive psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist by Freida McFadden (6/30/2024)
  39. Yellowface by Rebecca Kuang (2023) – or the story of the plagiarist who wrote a book to justify it (7/2/2024)
  40. Unfortunately Yours * Tessa Bailey (7/5/2024)
  41. Ruth Ware * Zero Days (2023) (7/9/2024)
  42. Malaysian Children’s Favourite Stories , Kay Lyons (7/12/2024)
  43. Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm (7/16/2024)
  44. Marley and Me by John Grogan, 2007 (7/19/2024)
  45. The Narrow Road Between Desires, Patrick Rothfuss (7/23/2024)
  46. The Last House on Needless Street (2021) by Catriona Ward (7/26/2024)
  47. A New Toy by Brenda Stokes Lee (7/30/2024)
  48. You like it Darker – Stephen King (8/1/2024)
  49. Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood (2023) – Best sex scene in a book award for 2024 (8/4/2024)
  50. Aurora by David Koepp (2023) or the story of the time when the world went dark after Covid (8/6/2024)
  51. Atalanta * Jennifer Saint (8/9/2024)
  52. Truth & beauty: a friendship by Ann Patchett (8/13/2024)
  53. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (2011) (8/15/2024)
  54. The Toll House by Carly Reagon 2022 (8/20/2024)
  55. Icebreaker (The UCMH Series Book 1) by Hannah Grace (8/23/2024)
  56. Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon (8/27/2024)
  57. The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende (2023) (8/30/2024)
  58. Greenlights: Raucous stories and outlaw wisdom from the Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey (9/7/2024)
  59. One of Us Is Back * Karen M McManus (9/10/2024)
  60. Virginia Andrews * Gates of Paradise (1990) (9/12/2024)
  61. Dirty Thirty by Janet Evanovich (9/17/2024)
  62. Everyone here is lying * Shari Lapena (9/20/2024)
  63. My Soul To Keep by Melissa Solis (9/24/2024)
  64. The Summer Girl * Elle Kennedy or the story of the girl with the trembling nipples (9/27/2024)
  65. Whisper to Me in the Dark by Audra Claire (2012) (9/30/2024)
  66. Craven Manor * Darcy Coates or the story of the groundskeeper and the black cat (10/1/2024)
  67. The Whistling by Rebecca Netley (10/4/2024)
  68. The Influence * Bentley Little – Or the story of the fallen angel from Castlevania (10/4/2024)
  69. Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix (10/9/2024)
  70. Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter (10/11/2024)
  71. We Sold Our Souls, A Novel by Grady Hendrix (10/15/2024)
  72. Aurora * Kim Stanley Robinson (1976) (10/18/2024)
  73. Nigh Omnipotent * A. Lee Martinez (10/21/2024)
  74. Bentley Little – The Town (or the story of the Molokans and the banya) (10/22/2024)
  75. We Can Never Leave This Place by Eric LaRocca – or the grotesque version of Life of Pi (10/25/2024)
  76. Monster * A. Lee Martinez (2009) (10/26/2024)
  77. What Moves the Dead by Ursula Vernon (10/29/2024)
  78. The Only One Left by Riley Sager (2023) (10/31/2024)
  79. Murder Unprompted * A Charles Paris Mystery by Simon Brett (11/2/2024)
  80. The House of Silk: The New Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz (2011) (11/6/2024)
  81. Practice Makes Perfect * Sarah Adams (or dating for introverts) (11/8/2024)
  82. Saturn’s Return to New York by Sara Gran (11/13/2024)
  83. Dracula by Bram Stoker (11/13/2024)
  84. Motherhood, the second oldest profession * Erma Bombek (11/15/2024)
  85. Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas (11/17/2024)
  86. Gilian Anderson * Want (2024) (11/20/2024)
  87. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (11/22/2024)
  88. Still Life * Sarah Winman or the boring story about art. (11/27/2024)
  89. Sea of Tranquility * Emily St. John Mandel or the 200 page Cloud Atlas (11/29/2024)
  90. The Au Pair by Emma Rous (12/6/2024)
  91. Silver Nitrate * Silvia Moreno-Garcia or the story about the “mordant” people (12/11/2024)
  92. Normal Rules don’t apply * Kate Atkinson (12/13/2024)
  93. John Scalzi – The Sagan Diary (Novella) (12/15/2024)
  94. Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway (12/17/2024)
  95. Alice Sebold * The Almost Moon Book Review (12/19/2024)
  96. Rodica Ojog Brasoveanu – Sa nu ne uitam la ceas (Let’s not watch the time pass) – Romanian (12/21/2024)
  97. Frankenstein: The Dead Town by Dean Koontz (Book 5/5) (12/24/2024)
  98. The Yellow Wallpaper And Selected Writings (Charlotte Perkins Gilman) 1892 (12/26/2024)
  99. Rodica Ojog-Brasoveanu – Nopti Albe Pentru Minerva (Romana) 1982 (12/28/2024)
  100. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (2024 Re-read) (12/29/2024)
  1. Evgheni Evtusenko – Dulcele tinut al poamelor – Wild Berries – Romanian (12/31/2024)
  2. The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon (1/2/2025)
  3. John Ajvide Lindqvist – The Kindness (Or the Pokemon Go book) (1/4/2025)
  4. 2024 Books in Review (1/7/2025)
  5. The Infinite Blacktop * Sara Gran (1/7/2025)
  6. Meet Me at the Lake * Carley Fortune (1/10/2025)
  7. The Fervor * Alma Katsu (1/14/2025)

I have done a little worse than in the previous years but there were definitely some great books in my list.

Stephen King, as always, is a good read with “Four past midnight” and You like it Darker, but unfortunately his new novel “Holly” just did not do it for me. Bentley Little steals the show once more with horror novels set in the dry Arizona desert and inside Adobo houses in the prairie. His book with the staring chicken was really funny!

In terms of foreign author reads, I really loved In the country of men * Hisham Matar (2006).

I also found a new author I want to read more of (Gus Moreno) as his study on grief and death floored me (This Thing Between Us: A Novel by Gus Moreno) and a surprising actor’s audio book has really made me want to go and see Australia.

Good year for sci-fi as I’ve finally tackled Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson (1976). And it’s going to be an interesting 2025 with the rise of the machines.

“Maybe that’s why we’ve never heard a peep from anywhere. It’s not just that the universe is too big. Which it is. That’s the main reason. But then also, life is a planetary thing. It begins on a planet and is part of that planet. It’s something that water planets do, maybe. But it develops to live where it is. So it can only live there, because it evolved to live there. That’s its home. So, you know, Fermi’s paradox has its answer, which is this: by the time life gets smart enough to leave its planet, it’s too smart to want to go. Because it knows it won’t work. So it stays home. It enjoys its home. As why wouldn’t you? It doesn’t even bother to try to contact anyone else. Why would you? You’ll never hear back. So that’s my answer to the paradox. You can call it Euan’s Answer.” Later: “So, of course, every once in a while some particularly stupid form of life will try to break out and move away from its home star. I’m sure it happens. I mean, here we are. We did it ourselves. But it doesn’t work, and the life left living learns the lesson, and stops trying such a stupid thing.” Later: “Maybe some of them even make it back home. Hey—if I were you, Freya? I would try to get back home.” Later: “Maybe.”