I read a lot. I jokingly refer to reading as my coping mechanism for reality, and while there’s definitely some truth to that, really it’s just that reading makes me happy.

Since you’re reading this post, I imagine you’re in a similar boat. And that the boat might be listing slightly under the weight of your 20-mile-high to-be-read pile.

Don’t worry! I’m here to make things worse, for I come bearing my favorite reads from 2024!

So, this past year, I decided to do something new. New for me, anyway. Out of pure curiosity, I decided to track my reading. 

I was a little worried this might turn into me optimizing or stressing about Not Reading Enough or Not Reading The Right Books, so I had to promise myself that this really was about tracking, not How Can Sara Invent a New and Unnecessary Challenge! 

Mercifully, I think I succeeded. 

Here’s what I found out. I really do read a lot. I read 131 books last year. This excludes a LOT of books that I only read part of, plus a ton of academic articles, for work. 131 books from start to finish. And I’m glad I tracked them! For once, I actually know what I was reading instead of gazing back into a vague book fog.

I’m not going to list them all here. Nobody needs that, and not all of them were winners anyway. But I did want to share my standout favorites. Not all of them are folklore-y. But I think they all still make sense in the context of what Carterhaugh is: a place all about books, connection, art, stories, and living your most sparkling/ Gothic/ enchanted/ true-to-yourself life.

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher

• T Kingfisher is one of those writers that is outrageously prolific and consistently excellent, but even for her, A Sorceress Comes to Call knocked it out of the park. I’m honestly almost offended by how good this book is. The story is a retelling of The Goose Girl, which is a pretty haunting and messed up fairy tale, even by fairy-tale standards, and Kingfisher turns it into something so powerful and amazing it should be illegal. Our heroine, Cordelia, is the daughter of a sorceress…and an abuser, and she’s enchanted into silence and stillness for hours, sometimes days, at a time. It’s not until her mother sets her sights on a wealthy squire and his fiercely independent sister Hester that Cordelia finds things like safety, home, and friendship for the first time, which help her to break free. I absolutely loved the cross-generational friendship between Cordelia and Hester, as well as Hester’s unconventional romance.

Death in the Spires by KJ Charles

• Probably my favorite book of the year. I keep referring to it as righteous Dark Academia when I try to explain it to people, and here’s what I mean: I love a lot of Dark Academia, but they often end in a way that leaves me feeling queasy. Terrible people do terrible things and then terrible things happen to the terrible people, the end. But often there’s not any sense of justice for the people they did the initial terrible things to. Death in the Spires is all about the fallout, about how manipulation and shame can be overcome. Also, it’s set at Oxford, and there’s a whole Cymbeline sub-plot. Also disability and queerness, actually done WELL in a Dark Academia novel?? I just…I love it so much.

Something Extraordinary by Alexis Hall

• In my book, Alexis Hall is one of the best authors out there right now. I will read literally anything he writes, even when it’s not remotely my genre, because he writes with so much humor, humanity, and insight. His books always feel like complex conversations with a wider genre while also feeling like love letters to the best of that genre. Something Extraordinary is, as Hall puts it on his website, the “absurdist adventure of two friends determined to avoid marriage to unsuitable people as they race through Regency England to marry each other instead.” Arabella is an aromantic bisexual woman, and her best friend Sir Horely is a gay man. It’s a story about choosing your person and your path and finding unexpected joy, and if that’s not the story we need right now, I don’t know what is. I will note that this book is the third in a series (Something Something, all regency romps) and the spice level is pretty high. You can find a content guide here.

Real Self-Care by Pooja Lakshmin

• I have feelings about what we might call “wellness” or “the wellness industry.” On the one hand, a lot of it is scammy and/ or locates “the problem” in the individual while pretending that systemic injustices don’t exist or matter. On the other hand, to roughly paraphrase Glennon Doyle, when men care about self-improvement, we call it leadership and say it’s admirable, and when women care about self-improvement, we call it self-help and say it’s superficial. The reality is that systems exist and have massive impacts on us, and we still have individual agency and power. It’s a both situation. Real Self-Care gets this, and gives incredibly useful, practical advice. It’s a really cool, actionable book from an MD who also happens to be a cult survivor.

The Book of Yōkai : Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore by Michael Dylan Foster, illustrations by Shinonome Kijin 

• This book is such folklore goals. Brittany and I read a lot (a lot) of folklore and fairylore books last year when we were writing Fairylore and Urban Legends, and this was my favorite. Michael Dylan Foster knows his stuff, and he imparts his knowledge in such an accessible, fascinating way. If you want to learn all about Yōkai (Japanese supernatural creatures) and Japanese folklore, this is absolutely the place to start.

Other honorable mentions that I adored:

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian – The best treatment of grief and new love I’ve ever seen in a novel.

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik – The third in a trilogy, and Novik stuck the landing so beautifully! Plus, there was a whole section of the book set in Sintra, Portugal that made my heart explode into sparkles. (My grandparents used to take me there when I was tiny.)

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand – How do you write in the shadow of Shirley Jackson? Like this!

The Daughters of Block Island by Christa Carmen – So incredibly smart. So Gothic. So meticulously put together.

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan – I have been waiting for this book for so long, and it’s Rees Brennan’s signature trope and genre brilliance. Welcome to your villain era, indeed!

What was your favorite book of the year? Drop them in the comments!

P.S. Our book club read this month is Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai, and it’s a delight! 

From the official book description: “In this inspired contemporary fantasy, a Chinese immortal and a French elf try to balance new romance, familial loyalty, and workplace demands. In her debut novel, Taiwanese American author Mia Tsai has created an unforgettable paranormal adventure that is full of humor, passion, and depth.”

We meet to discuss it on January 27th at 7PM ET (and there’s always a recording!) To join us, support our Patreon at $7+ for the month of January. Hope to see you there!

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