Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Yippie It's planning time for 2025. It's my favorite thing! Please list at least 3 favorite books you read in 2024. It can be slightly longer than 3 but less is more in this case. Have fun! Your recommendations and suggestions here will be appreciated and will help other members plan.

My three favorite books this year happen to be rereads. It shouldn't be odd since they were 5 star plus reads the first time I read them. They are still favorites and I can easily recommend them to anyone.

A Cry of Angels, my all-time favorite and this was my fourth reread.
On the Beach, Nevil Shute is my favorite author, and I have loved all the books of his I have read. A bucket list goal for me is to read all he ever published.
The Razor’s Edge, Larry Darrell is one of my all-time favorite characters.

My best first time read this year was The Winds of War. An excellent book that I wish I hadn't let sit on shelf for so long.

I love this question because it requires me to stop and think back over this year's reading and all the excellent literature I discovered. Of course, the hardest part is narrowing it down to a manageable number of favorites, but here are my picks.

My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (which edged out his The Chosen by a hair)

Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes - A book that won the Pulitzer and is now largely forgotten but shouldn't be.

The Priory by Dorothy Whipple - I doubt this author is ever going to disappoint me.

Fallen Land by Taylor Brown - Set in my favorite era, the American Civil War.

I am exercising extreme restraint to not list more than four. I'm hoping others have this success with less anguish.

I only have two out of 30 (though about 10 are short stories so it's more like 20) I read this year that I would recommend.

First is a short story that really surprised me:
Brokeback Mountain

And the second is a book that became an instant top 3 if not nr 1.
Stoner

On most years, there would be several. This year, although I read a lot of good books, there weren't many that I would call overall favorites. These are probably my favorite three of this year so far though.

1. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

2. Translations from the Night: Selected Poems of Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (African Writers Series ; 167) by Malagasy poet Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

3. Chrysalis by German writer Anna Metcalfe

All three of these had something unique and special enough that they're worth revisiting.

I am sticking to older books in this post. My favorite new reads will be in groups that concentrate on recent publications.

Favorite group read: Confessions by Augustine of Hippo
Favorite short story: A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir
Favorite reread: Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition by Walt Whitman
Most interesting read of a book with flaws: Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

Favorite buddy read: Three way tie between The Chosen by Chaim Potok The Century Cycle by August Wilson and the Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels by John Updike

Best older book by a new author for me: The Long View byElizabeth Jane Howard

Sam, I read A Very Easy Death in the tail end of 2023. If I had read it in 2024, I would definitely have included it in my list. Such a powerful book!

I didn’t have many standouts this year. Last year, there were at least a couple that instantly came to mind when I was asked for my favorite of the year. This year I actually had to look back and see what I read & how I rated them. But here are my top three ★★★★★ reads:

🔹 Project Hail Mary —This one is the closest to a real standout. I have found myself thinking back to it with some frequency, and I know I’ve mentioned it to a few people. Probably my recommendation of the year.
🔹 Footnotes in Gaza —One of the best graphic novels I’ve read, as far as the artwork goes. It’s not flashy, but it’s so good. And an interesting piece of journalism as well.
🔹 84, Charing Cross Road —I don’t know if it’s because I just finished it, or because it was actually that good, but I loved this one, and it’s definitely still on my mind. As a matter of fact, once I’m done with this post I’m heading to the local indie bookstore to try & procure a copy for my wife’s birthday present!

Greg wrote: "Sam, I read A Very Easy Death in the tail end of 2023. If I had read it in 2024, I would definitely have included it in my list. Such a powerful book!"

Same for me but I cheated.

My top 4 this year:

1. Barbara Isn't Dying by Alina Bronsky
2. The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin
3. Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov
4. Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior

I had a lot of 4* reads this year but not many 5* so it was relatively easy to pick my Top 3.

1. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. Because I love Faulkner’s writing and any book I read by Faulkner will make it to the top 3.

2. Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow. So clever and brilliantly written, this really captured the hectic years of the early 20th century.

3. The Umbrella Murder: The Hunt for the Cold War's Most Notorious Killer. Probably the best non fiction I read this year about an incident I remember so well from my younger days, this just beat A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them into the Top 3.

I had many 5 star reads this year. Here are four favorites:

1. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
2. My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
3. A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

With a special mention of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, who is becoming a favorite author. (I also read and loved A History of Loneliness.)

My favorite books read in 2025 were all 5*

1. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (1951)
2. Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight (1940)
3. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1960)
4. The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy (1886)

Some short stories I rated 5*
Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant (1883)
The Problem Of Cell 13 by Jacques Futrelle (1905)
The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith (1955)
The Dead Lady of Clown Town by Cordwainer Smith (1964)


LOL I went a little long by putting in the short stories. There were a few more 5* reads this year, but these were my favorites.

Among my fav reads this year:

We Have Always Lived in a Castle by Shirley Jackson - As much as I love SFF/F I am not much of a horror fan, and this year I made a big effort to read some horror books of note over Sept-Oct and this was one of the stand-outs.

Dracula by Bram Stoker - Another selection for my horror reading fest that really wowed me. There is a lot to discuss about this and the Jackson novel, which is a thing I love about any novel, but I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed Stoker's narrative style and the pacing and structure of the novel.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice - Read this for my personal Indigenous Writers Challenge and thought it was excellent. As a work of post-apocalyptic fiction, it is exceptional, not simply because it's written from a Native perspective, but how the very understated tone of the novel actually makes its sense of conflict feel more authentic.

When I looked at my five star reads for the year the three standouts are all recent books:

1. Question 7 by Richard Flanagan
2. The Echoes by Evie Wyld
3. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

I'm going to separate new-to-me books from rereads. I find you can't really compare the two, since rereads have the strong nostalgia factor. All of these books are pretty brilliant.

My top 3 classics read for the first time this year
1. Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
2. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
3. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

My top 3 classic rereads this year (about a third of my reading this year was rereads)
1. A Covenant With Death by Stephen Becker
2. The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
3. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

I had several 5 star books so it was hard to pick. My favorites are a mix of nonfiction, a Victorian novel, and contemporary fiction. I can't resist mentioning my favorite reread since I reread several books.

First time reads
1. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
2. Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
3. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Favorite reread
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Oh, Lynn. How true is your title? This is my favorite time of year--I feel like a kid making a Christmas list with all of this planning.

But coming up with three or four favorites ... that was agony! I had 20 five-star reads so far this year, and six that were added to my favorites shelf. But, okay, I'll try. I'm thinking these were maybe the tippy top of the most impactful. I'll put them in the order I read them, cuz I can't rank them.

1. Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust. Luxurious for a navel-gazer like me.
2. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Almost unbearably powerful.
3. The Wall by Marlen Haushofer. An unusual survival story, and a great find.
4. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. A re-read in preparation for reading the last book in the series. This time I found it equal to Wolf Hall in every way. Breathtaking writing.

And just for fun, I'll add a short story too.
Peter og Rosa by Isak Dinesen. I read lots of good stories this year, but this one stuck with me. But I'm a big fan of this author's stories.

Now I get to play around with everyone else's picks. I see lots of books here that are on my list. I'm off to investigate and see which I need to move up!

All Quiet on the Western Front is on my favorites list as well Kathleen!

Greg wrote: "All Quiet on the Western Front is on my favorites list as well Kathleen!"

And I was so happy to see The God of Small Things on your list, Greg! Truly a special book.

spoko wrote: " Project Hail Mary —This one is the closest to a real standout. "

Yes, it is excellent. Would have been on my list too if I read it this year. Just in case you don't know. A lot of his short fiction is online here:
https://www.galactanet.com/writing.html

The Grapes of Wrath. I really liked the rhythm of long chapters and then a short prose poem-like chapters.

The Destructors by Graham Greene. Like Lord of the Flies in just a short story. Very compact.

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character Re-read. An all time favorite. Probably the book I have gifted the most times.

my planning for 2025 started on July 1st :oD

top 3:

Mason & Dixon
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Fortunata and Jacinta
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Life Before Us
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Kathleen wrote: "3. The Wall by Marlen Haushofer. An unusual survival story, and a great find..."

Oh,.... I need to..... cannot resist. I tried hard to read this tread and adding nothing to my TBR. This one looks too good. Thank you.

My favorite books from 2024 are a mixture of classics, non-fiction, and recent publications. My overall favorite was Middlemarch by George Eliot. But the one one that stays with me is The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe.

Fiction favorites:
Middlemarch
The Mysteries of Udolpho
The Women by Kristin Hannah. I'm having a difficult time that this is "historical fiction" since I lived during this time- lol. I even have a friend who was a nurse in Vietnam and worked with her as she sought funding for the Women's Vietnam War Memorial. She told me that the only nurses who died in Vietnam were those who were flying with helicopter pilots during joy rides which surprised me.
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Non-fiction favorites:
The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End by Robert Gerwarth
No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators by Steve Jackson
The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore
The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz

Kathleen wrote: "Oh, Lynn. How true is your title? This is my favorite time of year--I feel like a kid making a Christmas list with all of this planning.

But coming up with three or four favorites ... that was ago..."

It was Thanksgiving at my son's house. I said, "I need to post the Bingo challenge. We have so much fun planning lists of books for next year." My son in response started singing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." Haha. I told him I was stealing that for the title.

Kathleen wrote: "3. The Wall by Marlen Haushofer. An unusual survival story, and a great find."

I read that earlier this year, thought it was good too.

My 5 star books this year were all re-reads, the most memorable being David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

In the interest of keeping it short I'll only address fiction. I read a lot of very good books, but these really stand out for me. The first is a true classic, the next two I think are destined to be, and the fourth an undiscovered gem that was the perfect way to round out my reading year.

Metamorphoses by Ovid
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
The Lighted Heart by Elizabeth Yates

This topic is going to be great information. Thanks everyone!

My 3 favorite reads from 2024 (so far!):
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
Don Quixote translated by Edith Hamilton
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

Lynn wrote: "It was Thanksgiving at my son's house. I said, "I need to post the Bingo challenge. We have so much fun planning lists of books for next year." My son in response started singing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." Haha. I told him I was stealing that for the title."


On my list of things to be thankful for - planning for these challenges! The anticipation of great reading to come...

My favorite books from 2024 are all 5 star reads.

The Yearling - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - everyone should read this

The Chosen - Chaim Potok - mesmerizing and thought-provoking

Lamb in His Bosom - Caroline Miller - this book is truly an experience

Table for Two - Amor Towles - because it’s Amor Towles!

I have read far more new releases than classics this year, so let's go with one classic, one kinda-classic, and one brand new but involves a classic. Actually no, let's do two of that last category.

Crime and Punishment
(I have maybe 50 pages left, but there is no way this won't be a five star read. So much funnier than I expected and so many morally dark grey characters.)

What I Loved
(Published in 2003 so not a classic by the group rules, but over 20 years old. What a story! I gasped, I cried, I experienced art installations as if I were there. Instant all-time favourite!)

Newer books that deal with a classic:
Enter Ghost - Performing Hamlet in the occupied West Bank. Published in the first half of 2023 and then became intensely topical. Deals with privilege and ignorance, childhood experiences that shape us, art as resistance or as an opium for the people? Issues of translation and modernisation. Identity. Ghosts abound and we are all Hamlet.

James - The book that I most wished to discuss with people after I finished it. A book that is in constant dialogue with both the reader and the classic it re-tells/interprets. Fixes everything I disliked about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but also removes one thing that I really liked.

Teri-K wrote: "In the interest of keeping it short I'll only address fiction. I read a lot of very good books, but these really stand out for me. The first is a true classic, the next two I think are destined to ..."

Tom Lake was one of my top two reads of 2023! It really doesn't get enough love. (The other one was Lonesome Dove)

Leni wrote: "Newer books that deal with a classic:
Enter Ghost - Performing Hamlet in the occupied West Bank. "

Oh, that looks very interesting! I'll have to add that to my 2025 TBR.

James was amazing. I too wanted to talk a lot about that one--how Everett handled what he said was bringing the Black American perspective to the original novel that twain as a white person could never had, how he challenges the assumed white-centricity of the original novel, his nod to Ralph Ellison, his interrogation of "passing" from the perspective of a non-passing Black person, and so much more. Everett covers so much ground in such a short book!

Leni wrote: "Teri-K wrote: "In the interest of keeping it short I'll only address fiction. I read a lot of very good books, but these really stand out for me. The first is a true classic, the next two I think a..."

I may read Lonesome Dove this year - it's on the Pile of Possibilities list. I grew up on a farm in the Great Plains and sometimes enjoy Westerns, I'm not sure how I'll like this one but I'd like to find out!

The best nonfiction I read this year were:
Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones - My first Jones but definitely not my last!
Spam Tomorrow by Verily Anderson - Delightful memoir of a young newly-wed living in London, and other places, during WWII.
Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power by Leah Redmond Chang - I didn't know much about these women, but this book enthralled me.

I read so much more non-fiction than usual this year, thanks to the Women's Prize for non-fiction. But Young Queens is one of the ones I haven't gotten around to yet from that longlist. And in February there will be a new, no doubt amazing, longlist out!

I'm going to list 4 classics that I loved this year.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (reread)

Newer books I loved and enjoyed
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Everything Stephen Fry narrated - Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold, Troy and Odyssey

Shaina wrote: "I'm going to list 4 classics that I loved this year.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
Someone at a Distance by ..."

Lucky you for getting Odyssey from Stephen Fry already! The publication date here keeps getting pushed back - now it's May of 2025. I love his earlier books, and The Odyssey has been a favorite of mine since I was little so I've waited a long time for this. Guess I'll just have to wait longer!

Teri-K, I listened to the audiobook narrated by Fry himself. It was an amazing experience! I hope you get to read it soon.

I am updating my list:

Old:
The Grapes of Wrath. I really liked the rhythm of long chapters and then a short prose poem-like chapters.

The Destructors by Graham Greene. Like Lord of the Flies in just a short story. Very compact.

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character Re-read. An all time favorite. Probably the book I have gifted the most times.

New book:
The Wizard of the Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli, 2022. It has a unique dark ironic style and (tries) to see the world from the Russian side. It is excellent. I am not finished. But if the last 30 pages were blank it would still be 5 stars.

I had a few five-star reads this year.

Fathers and Sons - I thought I had read this one in my high school Russian Lit class (which we were SO lucky to have had offered to us) but I didn't recognize it at all when I picked it up this year - did I read it? Anyway, I absolutely loved it, loved the tension inherent in two generations who view what is the right way to live through different lenses - a familiar, repeated dance through the ages. I appreciated the history lesson and was delighted by the unexpected humor.

Recitatif Every read in my world is compared to Morrison, the yardstick by which I measure 5-star reads. If I punch my fist in the air after completing a read, it gets 5-stars. Morrison is a consistent fist-punch for me.

Macbeth It's Macbeth. Bloody, poetic, archetypal, haunted. Again....Macbeth.

Brideshead Revisited This one will not leave me. Likely not helped by my viewing of the 80's miniseries afterward (which is excellent in that it is fiercely loyal to the story, but does not match the pace at which I feel the novel moved). I continue to pick at it, like it is a knot of necklaces.

Finally, I had two 5-star reads that I felt a little sheepish about giving 5-stars to, as they aren't Shakespeare or Morrison 5-stars, but did it anyway with this rationale: they're more "I got 5 stars of enjoyment out of them" rather than "A book that is at the pinnacle of literary achivement." That's good enough for me!

The first is My Cousin Rachel. DuMaurier is a superb writer and one of her unique qualities is that she understands seduction. She writes seductive characters; she unfolds her stories in a seductive manner; she crafts her stories to seduce the reader. She is masterful in writing the experience of seduction....and of awakening from its spell.

The Likeness This one was reminiscent of The Secret History for me and I enjoyed it almost as much. It is probably more of a 4.5 star, but I really appreciated this one and am 2 for 2 on Tana French so far (other one I read was In the Woods.

Helene wrote: "I had a few five-star reads this year.

Fathers and Sons - I thought I had read this one in my high school Russian Lit class (which we were SO lucky to have had offered to us) but I di..."


I also gave Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder 5*. I have recommended this book many times to friends. I am glad you got so much out of it. The end after all the family storylines were resolved was most moving for me.

Lynn, it makes me so happy that you loved this book too! Here's to finding more mutual 5 star reads in 2025!

Lynn wrote: "Helene wrote: "I had a few five-star reads this year.

Fathers and Sons - I thought I had read this one in my high school Russian Lit class (which we were SO lucky to have had offered ..."

As a published author, my execution shall be like this:

"I raised the bar of my own game. To grow, and unleash the uniqueness in me."
-Marcus Dizon

Brideshead is a fantastic read and one I would sorely love to revisit. In fact, the title alone urges us to do so.