2024: My Year In Books

Being a summary of all 60 Books I read in 2024

Another year, another book round up.

In 2024 I read 60 books, that’s more than I’ve read in a year since my kids were born. I put that down to three things (1) my kids are older now and don’t need as much hands on attention; (2) I stopped drinking entirely over a year ago and found myself with significantly more energy and attention and (3) I basically never turn on the television. Maybe I’ll write more about all that in the future, but for now, on to the books.

As always we’ll start with some best ofs, then a list of every book I read this year with a short micro review ending in whether I recommend this book to all readers (“Recommended”); I recommend the book to readers with an interest in the specific genre or subject matter (Recommended for the Enthusiast”); or I do not recommend it at all (“Not recommended”).

Ok, books…

Best Fiction:

Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake

An sorta eco-terrorism thriller written by one of the great prose stylists working today is an easy best of the year for me. The story of a possibly psychopathic American infiltrating a group of green anarchist types in the forgotten regions of France with side quests into the history of the neanderthals, what happened to post-68 French intellectualism, and the economic hardships behind movements like the yellow vests, this was an absolute corker of a read.

ChatGPT’s illustration for my capsule review of Creation Lake

Best Nonfiction

David Reich’s Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

We are living through a time of radical change on multiple fronts. Perhaps most notably, AI, but also genetics writ large and paleo-genetics in particular. Our understanding of our own very distant past is being entirely rewritten to be both more complicated and, I think, far more interesting than I ever knew. Reich is at the heart of that revolution and this book is his popular explanation of what’s going on. Some of this is a bit technical for a non math dude like me, but it was worth the effort. Something is in the air about all this as Creation Lake also dips its toes into Neanderthal history, which Reich has a lot to say about. Absolutely fascinating. Well worth your time.

(Bonus: Reich was a guest this year of one of my favorite podcasters Dwarkesh Patel you can hear that interview here)

Weirdest

Peter Watt’s Blindsight

Blindsight is such an odd and wonderful book I had to mention it up top, but it's so weird I couldn’t bring myself to name it the best book of the year. Has there ever been a time when a science fiction novel about a vampire, an autist, and a person with multiple personalities teaming up to try to understand the nature of alien life been more relevant? I don’t think so. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be sentient? What is the nature of the individual? All of this and more are jammed into this book that is just overflowing with ideas. I absolutely adored it, depending on your tolerance for the odd, you might find it insufferable.

Strange new intelligence illustrates book about strange alien life

Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris / Helen

They’ll be more on this later, but this year my main reading project was to read all the ancient Greek works that feature human characters from the Iliad. This led me into reaches of the Greek canon I had never read before, including these wonderfully odd works of Euripides where he essentially retcons central motifs of the Trojan war story. What if Iphigenia never died? What if Helen never was in Troy?

I’d no idea these works existed, but they’ve blown open for me how long we’ve been remixing our myths and stories. I thought this shit started with Marvel, but no, it’s far far older and more wonderful. Reading the ancients is always relevant and rewarding.

Best Dad Lit

The Danny Ryan Trilogy (City on Fire, City of Dreams, and City of Ruins), Don Winslow

An ongoing conceit in my book talk is the use of the amorphous term “dad lit” to describe books loved by, well, dads. This can be the sort of narrative history done by Hampton Sides or it can be a series of crime novels written by probably our greatest (now retired?!?) crime novelist. The story of an Irish American gangster Danny Ryan from Rhode Island loosely based on the Iliad is just an absolute joy for any fan of the genre. I devoured these three in a matter of days. So fun. I truly hope Winslow stays off twitter and writes instead.

Here’s Every Book I Read in 2024.

After the Ice: A Global History 20,000-5,000 BC

Steven Mithen

An idiosyncratic look at the earliest human settlements from after the last great ice age. Mithen uses an unusual structure here of embedding an imaginary traveler in the various locales to give a sense of what life may have been like amongst these early human encampments. Kinda weird, totally fascinating, but not a beach reach. Recommended for the enthusiast.

Damascus Station

David McCloskey

Absolutely top-notch spy novel set in Syria from a former CIA dude who clearly knows Syria. Best espionage book I’ve read in a while. Recommended.

Before the Dawn: Recovery the Lost History of our Ancestors

Nicholas Wade

If you’re not paying attention, you may not know how fast genetics is changing our understanding of humanities deepest past. This book is only a handful of years old and already somewhat out of date. Still a great intro to the complex story of how our world, thought in hindsight, I wish I’d read David Reich’s Who We Are and How We Got Here first. Recommended for the enthusiast.

Moscow X

David McCloskey

Lesser sequel to Damascus Station, this is fine, but nowhere near as good. There are too many excellent spy novels in the world to waste time on the mediocre. Not recommended.

Civilization Before Greece and Rome, H.W.E. Saggs

Delivers what it says on the tin, with one caveat – a far reaching overview of early Mesopotamian and Egyptian society and their contributions to human knowledge. Certainly focused on the pre-history of the western world with early Chinese and Indian societies getting short shrift. Still a good overview for someone as ignorant of this world as I am. Recommended for the enthusiast.

All the Sinners Bleed, S.A. Crosby

A fine crime novel, recommended by Barack Obama among others. I enjoyed it. Recommended for the enthusiast.

Epic of Gilgamesh, N.K. Sandor (trans)

Always seems absurd to write these capsule reviews of the most important works in literature, and always embarrassing to admit I haven’t read these foundational texts before, but here we are. An absolute must read for anyone (like me) who is trying to understand the Western world. Remarkable how much of this is familiar even though it is so strange and distant. Recommended.

Homer and His Iliad, Robin Lane Fox

An idiosyncratic book that is both a great overview of what we know about Homer, oral tradition, and the scholarship around the Iliad and a strangely personal look inside the mind of one of our greatest classicist and his preoccupation with Homer. Absolutely loved this one, but you have to be interested in this world to appreciate it. Recommended for the enthusiast.

2034, Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis

There is a real rise in these near future military books and they all seem to be preoccupied with war with China and what that would look like. Big face out at Politics and Prose vibes from this one. I enjoyed it. Recommended for the enthusiast.

Going Zero, Anthony McCarten

Total banger of a page turning thriller. All gas, no brake fun. Your next vacation read. Recommended.

2054, Eliot Ackerman and James Stavridis

The sequel to 2054, but a much worse book. While 2034 leaned into the author's expertise on modern warfare, this one shows how little they understand about other aspects of the future. Bad. Not recommended.

The Iliad, Homer (trans Emily Wilson)

Buncha weirdos got big mad at this translation of the Iliad on the internet recently. I don’t know what the fuss is about and I suspect most of those who got mad don’t read ancient Greek and should just stop. I enjoyed this translation, maybe not my favorite translation, but readable and interesting. Recommended.

The Odyssey, Homer (trans Emily Wilson)

It’s funny how the older I get, the more the Iliad resonates with me and the less the Odyssey does. It was certainly the reverse in my 20s and 30s. That’s a development worth exploring in a separate post. Here I’ll just say I found this translation wonderful and Wilson’s introductory essay brought scores of new ideas to the work for me. Recommended.

The Quantum Spy, David Ignatius

Old guys should probably stay away from trying to explain complex technical subjects they don’t really understand and stick to just straight up espionage page turners. The spy craft parts of this are top notch, when it veers into tech exposition, less impressive. Still, recommended for the enthusiast.

Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People, Tracy Kidder

A book I would like to put into the hands of who has an opinion on addressing the wicked problems of homelessness, addiction, and persistent criminal behavior. Can something be both inspiring and depressing at the same time? Yes, and it’s this book. Recommended.

War Music: An Account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer’s Iliad, Christopher Logue

The cool kids choice for best interpretation of the Iliad and they’re not wrong. This isn’t beginner stuff – it’s pivotal moments from the Iliad retold by a contemporary poet who grasps something fundamental about Homer, something deeper than the language and almost visceral. You need a familiarity with the underlying text to get this, but if you have that, highly Recommended.

City on Fire, Don Winslow

City of Dreams, Don Winslow

City in Ruins, Don Winslow

Winslow is among my favorite crime novelists, but somehow I missed that he’d written a new series recently based loosely on Homer and starring Irish gangsters in Providence, Rhode Island. Absolute catnip for this son of the New England Irish and a great joy to get to read all three of these in a row. Recommended.

War and the Iliad, Simone Weil and Rachel Bespaloff

A re-read of this NYRB book of two essays on Homer and the Iliad. On this reading, the Weil essay just continues to blow me away while the Bespaloff, less so. People who get mad at Wilson for her takes on Homer should really read Weil who hones in on what is both brilliant and disturbing about the Iliad and it’s main subject – the use of force. I wouldn’t say this is a take down of Homer, but it is a ruthless critique of the valorization of heroism and violence that permeates much of the hyper masculine cult around the Iliad. The Bespaloff essay is also good, but Weil is a must read for anyone interested in Homer. Recommended for the enthusiast.

The World of Odysseus, M.I. Finley

The ground breaking work that situates Homer in the Bronze Age world of the Levant in which it takes place. Look, parts of this are dry, but if you’ve reached Finley levels of Homeric interest, you’re probably down for a deep discussion of the political economy of Bronze age Greece, Recommended for the enthusiast.

Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson

Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson

Blue Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson

Nerds all around me talking about colonizing Mars like it’s a fait accompli got me to finally read KSR’s seminal works on Mars colonization. Like all KSR books it's a wonderful mix of hard SF, political economy, and human relationships. I loved these, an absolute joy to dig into. KSR is known for being essentially optimistic about the future, which we need to keep in mind when taking the idea of colonizing Mars seriously. It's hard in these books, but eventually successful, I think that’s less likely in the real world. Recommended.

Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War, Christopher Kirchhoff and Raj M. Shah

Fascinating look at what it took to bring defense department dollars to Silicon Valley. I’m going to be writing a lot more in the coming year about how we accomplish an abundance agenda and a reform of how we do government procurement. This book is a snapshot of how it can be done in the defense context. No reason that can’t be replicated elsewhere. You gotta be into this stuff to like this, but if you are, you will. Recommended for the enthusiast.

Hatchet, Gary Paulsen

Read with my son. Most children’s literature is trash, but this is great. Real drama, real loss, really good, especially if you have outdoor obsessed kids like I do. The scene with the pilot grossed us both out, which is a total win. Recommended.

A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, Have We Thought This Through, Kelley Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith

A clever book that gets real about what it would take to actually colonize Mars. TLDR? Don’t hold your breath. Recommended for the enthusiast.

The War the Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer’s Iliad, Caroline Alexander

Doesn’t really do what it says on the tin. This isn’t a “true story” , it's a work of criticism that looks at the Iliad not as a glorification of heroism, but as a critique of war. It’s a good close reading, even if I disagree with it. Probably lots more on the Iliad in the months to come, but I think Alexander, like many others, wants to fit the Iliad into our modern understandings of war and heroism when really it's a stranger, more unknowable text. Still, recommended for the enthusiast.

On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything, Nate Silver

Really enjoyed this look at the rise in value in probabilistic thinking told through poker, finance, and effective altruism. I think Silvers writing on Silver Bulletin can be a bit flabby, but here it’s great. Recommended.

The Survival of the Bark Canoe, John McPhee

Shockingly, my first McPhee. Finally got around to reading him after learning he’d gone to the same summer camp my son attends. An absolute joy of hyper crisp writing and wonderful storytelling. I’ll probably end up reading everything he’s written. Recommended.

Red Rising, Pierce Brown

Terrible. One of the most recommended of modern SF books and just bad. Plot and writing like a bad YA novel, but with sexual violence. It’s an indictment of the SF genre that this is so popular. Not Recommended,

When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracies and How America Cracked Up in the 90s, John Ganz

Wasn’t super impressed with this when I read it, perhaps because I know a lot about the subject, but I have found myself referencing things from the book often since, so I think it’s more valuable than I first thought. Probably worth it if you’re interested in the prehistory of our current crazy political moment. Recommended for the enthusiast.

Not the End of the World: How We Can Be The First Generation to Build a Sustainable Future, Hannah Ritchie

An absolutely wonderful book that takes a rigorous look at the challenge of climate change and comes up with real, actionable ways we can address it. It’s become trendy to be skeptical of the effective altruist / rational giving world, but that’s short sighted. Ritchie is a great example of the best that world has to offer and she has thought deeply about the problems we face and is working to address them with a clear eyed honesty and technical mindset. Inspired by this one. Among the best books I read all year both for its subject matter and how it challenged me to think more clearly. Recommended.

Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner

The novel everyone was reading… and for good reason. Part eco-thriller, part literary exploration of.. Psychopathy? The Human condition? I don’t know. I do know it’s been a long time since I like a fiction book the fancy Brooklyn literary people also liked. Recommended.

The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought The World to War, Tim Butcher

Can you call a travelogue based around the life and travels of the man who shot Franz Ferdinand “fun”? That’s the first world that comes to mind when thinking about this one. Not a major work, but interesting throughout. Recommended for the enthusiast.

Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past, David Reich

The book to read if you want to understand the latest in DNA research into the earliest history of humans. I could barely hang on through some of the math here, but still got a tremendous amount out of reading this one. More on genetics to come here on the blog, but if you’re not paying attention you may not know that in the last decade, we’ve revolutionized our understanding of our deep history and the lessons from that are just starting to become clear. Absolutely fascinating stuff. Recommended.

Playground, Richard Powers

I’m gonna call this a lesser Powers, which is fine after the back to back absolute BANGERS he had in Overstory and Bewilderment. It's fine, there’s some beautiful parts, but Overstory changed my life and Bewilderment left me in tears. Hard to top that. Still, recommended.

The Art of Biblical Narrative, Robert Alter

THE book to read to think about the Torah as a literary work. At times a bit dry, but still a very high number of interesting ideas / reading per page. I’m still a green belt when it comes to Torah studies, but I learned a lot from this one. Recommended for the enthusiast.

Self Help is Like A Vaccine: Essays on Living Better, Bryan Caplan

People I like and admire say this is Bryan Caplan’s most accessible book. I thought it was fun and challenging, but it didn't make me want to read more of his work. I think I’ll stick to following him on twitter. Not recommended.

The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkein

Re-read with my son. A bit disturbed by how much harder I found this to follow than I did when I read it as a teen, made me want to re-read the whole Lord of the Rings to see if I’ve actually gotten stupider. Recommended.

Stubborn Attachments, Tyler Cowen

I am, it is fair to say, a Tyler Cowen superfan, but somehow had never read this, probably his most philosophical and “difficult” book. Perhaps more rewarding because I had to work a bit harder, but also maybe not for everyone? Recommended for the enthusiast.

Polostan, Neal Stephenson

Look, it’s a Neal Stephenson book, I’m going to love it. Great scene setting of Russia and America between the wars. Probably a minor work, but the first of a trilogy so we’ll see. Recommended.

Works and Days / Theogany, Hesiod

Dry. A book I think is read more for the content (extensive information on the Greek gods) than for the prose. The kind of book you read in an undergrad classics class and resent it. Not recommended (GPT superior).

The Trojan Women and Other Plays, Euripides

Gut wrenching meditations on the aftermath of war, especially on women. I read these once before, but this time I feel like they hit even harder, maybe because war and its effects on civilians is even more at the front of my mind. I’ll be writing more about Greek tragedy this year but suffice it to say, this stuff is gold and should be more wildly read for pleasure and not just stuck in undergrad classes. Recommended.

The Complete Odes, Pindar

People smarter than me like this. I found the Odes interminable. Maybe if I read Latin I’d have enjoyed it more, but I kinda doubt it. Read as part of a project that I’ll write more about soon, but certainly will not read again. Not recommended.

The Complete Sophocles Vol II (Elektra, Ajax, Women of Trachis, Philoctetes), Sophocles

Some obvious all time bangers here (Elektra!) and one of the more interesting and less talked about ancient tragedies (Ajax). This was such a relief after Pindar and made me realize again how fun and exciting the classics can be. Recommended.

The Complete Aeschylus Vol I (The Oresteia), Aeschylus

The Oresteia, the telling of what happens to Agamemnon and his cursed family after the Trojan war, is probably the best and most robust continuation of the story of the Iliad outside of Homer. Gripping stuff. Of the great ancient Greek poets I tend to find Aeschylus a bit harder to follow, but worth it for its absolutely gut wrenching telling of the destruction and redemption… or at least as much redemption as the Greeks are capable of. Recommended.

Iphigenia in Aulis, Helen, Iphigenia in Tauris, Euripedes

I had not read any of these plays or even heard their plots before digging into this one. If these retelling of the stories of Iphigenia and Helen are new to you, trust me they are far weirder than you think. I did not know the Greeks got down with this almost marvel universe reworking of the stories. Everything new is actually old. Highly recommended.

The Mercy of Gods, James S.A. Corey

The start of a new series by the writing duo that brought us the Expanse series. Great stuff here playing with the alien monsters conceits of golden age science fiction while also getting at who is, and isn’t, a monster. Will definitely be reading the rest. Recommended for the enthusiast.

Weaves, Scribes and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East, Amanda Podany

An incredible work of scholarship that takes us far beyond the epic of Gilgamesh into the daily lives of folks in Babylonian over hundreds of years and multiple ruling elites. Also, writing so clear you can see through it. While I think this falls just on the academic side of the line between academic and popular, it’s very readable and fascinating to someone like me who knew next to nothing about this. Recommended for the enthusiast

The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates

This book made an absolute splash and everyone got big mad, so I thought it was some major work. It’s a slim collection of essays, only one of which is about Israel / Palestine. Coates is a polemicist, probably the best currently writing. This is largely a collection of polemics, including one against Israel. It doesn’t even attempt to provide a solution to the problem, which I don’t think Coates sees as his job. That’s all fine and good, but not of much interest to me right now. Not recommended, but your milage may vary.

War and Punishment: The Story of Russian Oppression and Ukrainian Resistance, Mikhail Zygar

An epic retelling of the long and fraught history of Russia and Ukraine. The subtitle here is a bit misleading as the book is more even handed than the subtitle would lead you to believe. I learned a tremendous amount about a region that will forever be relevant. Recommended.

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, Ethan Mollick

If you read this substack, you know I follow developments in AI very closely for someone not directly in the industry so this all felt stale to me. If you’re normal and don’t follow AI that closely, you should read this book. Certainly the best, most up to date, take in book form of where we are and where we’re going. Recommended.

Blindsight, Peter Watts

Definitely the weirdest book I read this year, probably one of the weirdest books I have ever read. Strange aliens, vampires, multiple personality disorder having heroes, the nature of consciousness, what it means to be sentient, space travel, and more. A one of a kind ride that I recommend for those willing to have their brain kinda hurt. Recommended, but expect weird.

Hunted, Abir Mukherjee

Fun quick thriller about family and terrorism. I enjoyed it enough to stay up late finishing it, but ask me about a detail of the plot a year from now and I doubt I’ll remember. Recommended for the enthusiast.

The Water Knife, Paolo Bacigalupi

With my love of a thriller and my concerns about climate change, it’s kinda crazy it took me this long to read this seminal eco-thriller. Page turning corporate espionage set in a water starved South West. This was a great. Recommended.

There’s Always Next Year: On Basketball and Ascension, Hanif Abdurraqib

I read everything Abdurraqib writes and I am never disappointed. This is about basketball as much as Friday Night Lights is about football. It’s a way to center a story that is about what it meant to be a young Black man in a certain time and place. Feels more vulnerable than Abdurraqib’s other works and for that more powerful. In a couple years I’m going to make my basketball obsessed son read this. Recommended.

Futurmania: Electronic Dreams, Desiring Machines and Tomorrow’s Music Today, Simon Reynolds

A collection of essays tracking Reynolds engagement with electronic music from the 1970s to the (nearly) contemporary. I found the earlier essays here up to the rave era more interesting, but perhaps that’s because I knew less about the music. Good stuff throughout. Recommended for the enthusiast.

Forest of Noise, Mosab Abu Toha

Toha is a Palestinian poet who has been writing about life in Gaza for many years. This, his latest book, includes poems written since the start of the most recent war. The great Ilya Kaminsky calls it “poetry of witness to the horror of warfare”. That’s very true. You cannot read this with an open heart and not be moved. There’s so much more here than there is in the now famous Coates essay, I wish this little book had gotten half as much coverage. Recommended.

Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen

Whew, this one. Jacobsen deeply researched what could actually happen, minute by minute, if a rogue state like North Korea sent a nuclear warhead towards the U.S. It’s deeply researched, absolutely fascinating, and truly, truly terrifying. Much to learn here about how systems are built, and orders ordered, but so many instances where folks could say, “enough” before the world ends… but probably won’t. Recommended.