Lady Demelza's Year in Books 2024

 Another year, another book list. 

1. Circe by Madeline Miller 2018

2. This is Happiness by Niall Williams 2019

3. Lily On The Dustbin by Nancy Keesing 1982

4. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 1990

5. Inspiration Sandwich by SARK 1992 (re-read)

6. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 2013

7. Monkeys With Typewriters by Scarlett Thomas 2012

8. Literary Witches by Taisia Kitaiskaia 2017 (re-read)

9. Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen 1966

10. milk and honey by Rupi Kaur 2014

11. After Story by Larissa Behrendt 2021

12. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood 2005

13. Hansel and Greta by Jeanette Winterson 2020

14. Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter 1984

15. Dearly by Margaret Atwood 2020

16. Home Body by Rupi Kaur 2020

17. Lovers' Knots by Marion Halligan 1991

18. Sugar Crush by Dr Richard P Jacoby and Raquel Baldelomar 2015

19. 12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson 2021

20. Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki 2021

21. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter 2008

22. Land by Simon Winchester 2021

23. The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North 2019

24. The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes 2016

25. The Vitals by Tracy Sorensen 2023

26. Postcard Stories by Jan Carson 2017

27. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 2022

28. The Crocodile Club by Kaz Cooke 1992

29. The List of My Desires by Gregoire Delacourt 2013

30. Everyone Is Watching by Megan Bradbury 2016

31. The Secret Life of Wombats by James Woodford 2001 

32. Flock: First Nations Stories Then and Now edited by Ellen Van Neerven 2021

33. Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler 2005

34. When The Night Comes by Favel Parrett 2014

There were a few very nice surprises this year. Lovers' Knots, This Is Happiness and Everyone Is Watching were op shop finds by authors that I had never heard of before, and turned out to be delightful. Jeanette Winterson impressed me thoroughly in the manner which I have come to expect from her, though in the non-fiction realm this time, with her essays on the subject of artificial intelligence. The Vitals is really something special. It's hard to describe, being quite a genre-busting, exploratory kind of fantasy fiction, and I found it to be just gorgeous. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue has changed my life in a way that probably only a linguist can understand. Kaz Cooke is absolutely hilarious, as usual, so, nothing too surprising there at least.

I was not, however, so enamoured of The List of My Desires as all the burgeoning and adoring reviews it has gotten have been. The Pursuit of William Abbey started out promising North's potential brilliance but kind of bogged down into a stodgy narrative that was much longer than it should have been, padded out with excess words, much as did Winchester's Land. But mostly I have done a good job this year of just not bothering to finish reading any crappy books.