As you know, reading is a huge part of my life. I use it for self-discovery and learning, recovery time, and just for fun.
Heading into this new year, I have a bunch of books on my radar that I’m looking forward to reading. Here are 24 books (and trilogies and series…) I hope to read in 2024 (and a little about why):
- Widen the Window by Elizabeth Stanley. The older I get the more important I find it to learn about my own personal methods for increasing my resilience. I also am constantly on the look out for tools that I can employ to help increase the resilience of my coaching clients. I’m hoping this book gives me ideas in both of these areas.
- The Great Book of Journaling by Eric Maisel and Lynda Monk. One of my annual goals is to dive back into a more regular journaling practice this year. I happened upon this book recently and it seems like the perfect fit.
- You Need a Manifesto by Charlotte Burgess-Auburn. Organizing my annual goals around my radical self-trust framework this year reminded me how helpful it’s been to create that set of principles for myself. I thought this book would be a good tool to deepen my reflection around how I document my purpose and direction.
- Experiments in Reflection by Leticia Britos Cavagnaro. Similar to the book on journaling above, this seemed like a good fit for my goals this year. I love a little playful experimentation and I’m hoping this book offers me some good experiments to try.
- The Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo (3 books). I’ve had this trilogy on my list for a very long time and I hope this is the year that I get to it. I have read and enjoyed several other books by this author (including some set in the world of this trilogy), so this will be fun to read when I can get to it.
- A Soul of Ash and Blood by Jennifer Armentrout. This is the final book in a five-book series by this author. I hadn’t read her before and I have really been enjoying the series and the crazy twists and turns that she is building in throughout each book. I’m excited to see where the plot ends up in this final book of the series.
- Heavenly Bodies by Imani Erriu. I have heard such amazing things about this book and it’s sequel, so I’m looking forward to picking it up and seeing what I think. I’m not even really sure what the plot is, but I love an immersive read, especially if it’s been hyped by reviewers that I trust.
- The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin (3 books). I read the first book in this trilogy years ago and really enjoyed it. It’s a zombie-themed series, and since I haven’t read one of those in a while, 2024 seems like the perfect time to get back to that sub-genre.
- The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb (3 books). Robin Hobb is one of those prolific authors that I want to read more of. I’ve read one of her books so far just to get a feel for her writing, but she has a vast set of trilogies and series books and according to this post, this trilogy is a good place to start.
- The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. This is another one of those books that I have seen recommended far and wide by very diverse readers (i.e. people who are reading in different genres). I think this might be the year to add it to my list.
- The Will of the Many by James Islington. A mystery set in a dark academia setting? Sign me up.
- The Faithful and the Fallen series by John Gwynne (4 books). I saw a raving review of this entire series by a YouTuber that I follow and I’ve been thinking about reading it ever since. I think I’ll need the audio books for this series since it tops 2,800 pages altogether.
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I’ve been slowly working my way through this author’s backlist and this is the next book on my list. Everyone seems to love this book, so I have high hopes for this one.
- The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. This sprawling book clocking in at over 700 pages is another one of the chunksters that I hope to read this year. I have it in ebook and audio book formats, so no sore wrists for me.
- The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen. I’ve really enjoyed this author’s mystery books so when I saw that she was branching out into spy fiction I was among the first in line to pick this up.
- Age of Vice by Deepit Kapoor. Another long (500+ pages) book with rave reviews. This is a crime thriller set in India and I don’t read as much internationally-set fiction as I’d like so this was an easy one to add to my 2024 list.
- Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anondea Judith. I’ve known about this book for a while from my yoga and meditation studies and I have it in hard copy. However, getting a deal on the audio book was what pushed me to pick this one up sooner rather than later. I read most long nonfiction (this one is almost 500 pages) on audio.
- The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman. This is another book that I have in hard copy, but was also able to get on audio. I’ve dipped in an out of this book over time, but would like to read the whole thing. (This is also a book that I recommend to my Slow Hustle participants.)
- Academia Next by Bryan Alexander. Another long-overdue read. I enjoy reading about futurism and this is a canonical work on the future of higher ed that I’ve been meaning to read for a while now.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. Someone on social media called this their favorite audio book ever and I’ve been wanting to read it ever since. I’ve also been wanting to read more RPGlit and this falls squarely into that category.
- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. I’ve heard so many positive things about this book. It’s about an older woman who retired from being a pirate, but is called back to the sea for one last adventure to save a kidnapped girl. Sounds like so much fun.
- The Red Rising saga by Pierce Brown (currently 6 books). The first book in this series was recommended to me by my Denver realtor over two years ago. Since then, I’ve seen others enjoying the series as well. It’s time to get it kicked off and see what I think.
- The Sword of Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks (3 books). My in-laws gifted me this trilogy for the holidays this year and I have fond memories of reading this when I was about 11 years old. I don’t remember much other than a general vibe, so revisiting this series should be really enjoyable.
- The Last Astronaut by David Wellington. I’m a sucker for alien-encounter space books and this one seems like the plot is headed in that direction. I’ve had this on my to-read pile for quite some time and I’ve also never read this author before.
Altogether, what an incredible list of possible reads for 2024! What’s on your to-be-read pile in this new year?