What We Read in 2024

Monday, December 9, 2024

By:

Eric Wolf

In keeping with our annual tradition, we recently asked Library staff about the books they enjoyed reading (and listening to) most in 2024. Also in keeping with tradition, responses provided a rich variety of books. We hope you find something here that sends you to the stacks (or reaching for the Cloud Library app).

Cullen Gallagher, Catalog Librarian

For most of this year, my nose has been stuck between the crumbling (and often moldy) pages of 1940s aviation and detective pulp magazines as I researched the lost stories of noir auteur David Goodis, cross-referencing them with the Popular Publications, Inc. sales records in the New York Public Library to establish authorship for tales originally published under pseudonyms. To make a long story short, Goodis, a Philadelphia native, started writing for the pulps in the late 1930s after his debut novel, Retreat from Oblivion, failed to catapult him to literary stardom. Pulps paid his bills until he was able to sell Dark Passage to the Saturday Evening Post in 1946, which was subsequently published in hardcover and made into a movie with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. At that point, Goodis moved away from the pulps back into hardcovers, before turning to the burgeoning paperback market in the 1950s.

My research this year resulted in an updated bibliography that includes 179 stories that can verifiably be traced to Goodis. Now, most of these 179 stories have never been reprinted since their initial appearance on newsstands. Only one collection of Goodis's short fiction has ever been published, Black Friday and other stories (edited and introduced by Adrian Wootton), located on Stack 5 alongside several of Goodis's now-classic noir novels. Head's up: of the 11 stories included here, two are now confirmed to be the work of Alden H. Norton; a third story is likely to also be Norton's; and a fourth, published under the pseudonym "Logan C. Claybourne," had no sales record in the NYPL's Popular Publications, Inc. record. The mystery continues...

P.S. If anybody reading this has Real Western May 1941, Super Sports October 1941, or True Gangster Stories 1942, please let me know :)

Dark Passage Cover Black Friday Cover

Ellie Murphy, Communications Designer

From books read in 2024, I most highly recommend Remembering Peasants : a Personal History of a Vanished World. Patrick Joyce's utterly original memoir of the common man feels, at the same time, deeply familiar. In it he revisits the very definition of culture while asking us to think about where we came from and where we are going. All through the lens of body, land, and repetition.

I also recommend:

Double Click : Twin Photographers in the Golden Age of Magazines by Carol Kino.

The rediscovery of America : Native peoples and the unmaking of U.S. history by Ned Blackhawk.

Eric Wolf, Director of Collections

Some time in August or September of 2024, I decided that this would be the year I finally started to read Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time (A la recherche du temps perdu) from beginning to end. As of this writing, I have completed Lydia Davis's translation of Swann's Way and James Grieve's translation of In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, and started Mark Treharne's translation of The Guermantes Way. So I am about 1,200 pages in, and have read about one third of the novel. So, before the year is over, I hope to complete The Guermantes Way, and possibly Sodom and Gomorrah. This leaves The Prisoner, The Fugitive, and Finding Time Again for 2025. So far, I have really enjoyed this journey; while it is at times as difficult as I feared (we talk about long, complex sentences as being "Proustian" with good reason), it is also much more accessible and humorous than I expected. Set against the backdrop of France during the Dreyfus affair, Proust's exploration and critique of divisive politics across different social classes and castes seems particularly relevant today. So this winter I will stock up on tea and madeleines and finish one of the works of literature I have always been meaning to read.

Swann's Way Cover In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower Cover Fire Next Time Cover When B

Evie Ippolito, Circulation Assistant/Page

This year I made a point to read more non-fiction than the previous few years. The Fire Next Time was my first James Baldwin book ever, somehow, and one of my favorites of the year. The portrait of Black civic life, the insights on whiteness, and the vision of collective liberation it presents feel so enormous that it's hard for me to believe the book is only 128 pages. Similarly, When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan was a paradigm shift for me in the way I imagine the borough's history, and the way I imagine the discipline of history in general.

Vicky Rybnick, Circulation Page

In January, I read Thin Skin by Jenn Shapland and thought to myself that it may be the best book of the year. I continued to think about this book for the rest of 2024 and compare the rest of my reads to this book, and very few have held up. This is a beautiful series of essays and ruminations on motherhood, feminism, nuclear weapons, queerness, and healthcare in American life.

Though I am a bit late to the game on this one, I also enjoyed When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan this year. A winner of the 2019 New York City Book Awards, this book examines and illuminates Brooklyn's vibrant queer history prior to the Stonewall Riots, from 1855-1969.

A final favorite in non-fiction was Susan Orlean's The Library Book. Again, I am a bit late to this one but I am glad to have made time for this book this year. It was recommended to me by a visitor on a tour, and I immediately checked it out. A must-read for lovers of libraries.

This year also held a plethora of excellent fiction across a variety of genres and formats. To name just a few:

The Power by Naomi Alderman
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Barbara Bieck, Special Collections Librarian

There are 3 books I’ve read this year that made a lasting impression on me that I keep referring to friends and co-workers. Since I refuse to play favorites when it comes to books, I’m going to list these book in the order I read them.

I read All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley in February, and I’m still thinking about his vivid descriptions of his coworkers and loved ones. I initially picked this up because I thought it’d be interesting to see the Met through the eyes of a docent. I wasn’t expecting to ride the rollercoaster of Bringley’s years of loss and love.

I read Femina: a new history of the Middle Ages, through the women written out of it by Janina Ramirez in June. Ramirez explores the lives of five powerful (and previously historically popular) women who have been lost to recent memory after being written out of history by Victorian (male) scholars. I was delighted to discover Ramirez a passionate author keen to engage her audience. In an age of misinformation, this work is an excellent example of the importance of referring to primary source materials.

Finally, this November I read Han Kang’s poetic and arresting The White Book. Probably best known by Western audiences for her novel The Vegetarian, Han has published 11 books and 5 have been translated into English. I was curious to read more of her work after she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. The White Book mines scenes from her past to create mini-essays or meditations on objects and feelings associated with the color white. I found her prose evocative and devastating. So unique and emotive. This is one of the rare books that I loved so much I purchased my own copy.

Marialuisa Monda, Programming and Communications Assistant

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World by Edward Dolnick

In another life, I would been a paleontologist, and I try to read as much as I desire, a combination of nonfiction and fiction books. This book is a witty and insightful narrative of the groundbreaking discoveries and fascination with dinosaurs and other ancient creatures in the early 19th century. Dolnick beautifully and intelligently illustrates how the puzzling mysteries of fossils led to the astonishing realization that Earth was once home to beings unlike any living today, in a period when extinction was not even a concept! (Some had bemusing theories, but this is completely reasonable. After all, who would imagine that the likes of Stegosaurus (Late Jurassic period), ichthyosaur (ancient marine reptile of the Early Triassic to Late Cretaceous), and other beings existed? A must-read for lovers of dinosaurs and ancient natural history.

Curlfriends: New in Town written by Sharee Miller, coloring by Luke Healy

This was heartwarming and soul-soothing for me. It beautifully captures the relatable journey of navigating new places, making friends, and discovering where you truly belong. It has warm and inviting tones that showcase the challenges of feeling different while searching for connect ion and a welcoming, safe space. All the characters, including Charlie (our main character), are so realistic! I love the illustrations, as they create a cozy, comforting atmosphere. As someone who struggles with feeling like an imposter and still wonders where home is, this was absolutely healing for me, filled with laughs, smiles, and some tears.

Sayer Holliday, Director of Programming and Communications

Anyone who knows me will tell you that math and I have not been friends for many years, so I was surprised to be grabbed by the now-classic biography Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. Like so many great biographers, though, Hodges comprehensively introduces readers not only to his protagonist, but to his era and his field. Learn about one of the most unique and fascinating of 20th-century thinkers – groundbreaking mathematician, World War II codebreaker, father of computer science and artificial intelligence, dyed-in-the-wool weirdo both by his nature and on purpose – and you’ll learn a bunch of math whether you mean to or not. Turing’s fame got a bump from the 2014 film The Imitation Game, loosely based on this book. It’s a darn good movie but wildly inaccurate about what Turing was like and what he did – that is to say, he was really that eccentric, and his wartime work was really that thrilling, but not in the ways the movie shows it – leaving that much more good stuff for the reader to discover. The Library’s edition of Hodges’ book is an early one, from 1983, and well complemented by newer and additional materials available on the author’s website plus, if you like, the brief newer perspective from Sir Dermot Turing (Alan’s nephew), Prof: Alan Turing Decoded. If you just want a hint of why Turing’s mathematics were so inventive, you can look at our copy of Hugh Whitemore’s play Breaking the Code – or just get the essential explanation straight from Derek Jacobi in the televised version.

If your appetite’s now whetted for Second World War spydom, run straight for the latest novel by Adam Gidwitz, among the most gifted and winning writers for young people working today. I loved to death his Tale Dark & Grimm trilogy and The Inquisitor’s Tale, so I was excited for Max in the House of Spies (also available as an audiobook), and I was not disappointed. Who but Gidwitz could combine the dread, hope, trauma of Nazi Germany and the Kindertransport with stiff-upper-lip British intelligence and a wacky supernatural element straight out of vaudeville? It’s the first of a duology, so we have something to look forward to in 2025 as well.

Susan Vincent Molinaro, Children's and Young Adult Librarian

On the kids’ side, my favorite reads of this past year were Victoria Grace Elliott’s Yummy: A History of Desserts, a non-fiction comic that explores the origins of ice cream, cookies, cakes, pies, and more courtesy of some friendly sprites, and the magnificently titled madcap adventure, The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science, by Saturday Night Live alum Kate McKinnon. Both were absolutely delightful, Kate’s especially so via audio which she reads with her fellow comedian sister! As for “grown up” books, I also enjoyed Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking For Is In the Library, whose title speaks truthfully. Composed of five vignette stories about people searching for meaning to their lives, I relished it by reading it slowly at meal times. From May to November, I participated in even slower read, paging my way through Dracula via daily digests that lined up the journal entries and letters that make up the book with the date itself. Whilst reading this tome, I visited the London Library where I learnt that Stoker had researched and written it there! Another slow read was poring over the intricate details in Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Book 2. Monsters aren’t actually my favorite thing at all, but I’m glad I was brave enough to conquer three books featuring them, though also grateful to have some sweet reads for a nice counterbalance.

Randi Levy, Head of the Children's Library

Two excellent books I read this year were written by one of my favorite authors, Kate DiCamillo the former American National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and winner of skads of children’s literature prizes. Ms. DiCamillo crafts gorgeous sentences to tell compelling and often unexpected stories. Though she writes “for” children, DiCamillo's novels are for everyone and will leave your heart fuller for having read them. The inviting cover of Ferris drew me in with its quirky dining room scene including a glowing candelabra chandelier (surrounded by...bees?), multi-generational warm smiles, and a dog at table. Within is a beautiful story infused with a touch of melancholy but mostly humor and heart, about how in the summer before fifth grade Ferris makes sense her world of beloved (and sometimes irritating!) family, her true best friend, and her possibly haunted house. Also consider the audiobook edition, read by the inimitable Cherry Jones. The Magician’s Elephant is a fantastical tale dotted with detailed and expressive full-page illustrations set in the city of Baltese “at the end of the century before last." A fortuneteller urges orphaned Peter seeking the truth about his sister to "follow the elephant." A faltering magician summons an elephant to the opera house, instead of a bouquet of flowers. From there the story unfurls with a series of adventures and challenges for Peter and many inhabitants of Baltese as the elephant provokes the twisting and turning quest for what is good and true.

Michelle Andreani, Children's and Young Adult Library Assistant

Proof of my Gemini dual nature: I do not like insects, but I adore lightning bugs. I’ve been enamored of their magical glow ever since childhood, and years later, I’m still fascinated by the thing that makes them so special: bioluminescence. So, I eagerly picked up Luminous: Living Things that Light Up the Night by Julia Kuo. Not only is it informative, but the illustrations capture the wonder of the natural world shining in the darkness. My only warning is this book may have you Googling trips to bioluminescent beaches upon finishing. (Or maybe that’s just me!)

Another favorite of the year is Houses with a Story by Seiji Yoshida. This book feels like a different kind of magic. With detailed illustrations and the conjured histories of places like a “Methodical Witch's House” and the “Post Office of the Dragon Tamer,” it is both cozy and boundless in its imagination. It’s perfect company for daydreamers or anyone hoping for a little creative spark. I could dig into this charming book for hours and still discover new details in its pages.