THE BEST of 2024

This is a "best of" list based on the 89 books I read and reviewed in 2024. I do not focus on new books, so there are books on this "best of" ranging from being published in 1953 to being published in October of 2024.

The titles are active links to my reviews.

*** = Best of the best in that category.

HISTORY/MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY/NON-FICTION

This is a tough category every year. Every one of these is great, but Tim Alberta's book just stuck with me. His look into the world of Christian Nationalism was an alarm bell in the night for all American Christians.

***The Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta.

Attucks! Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team that Awakened a City by Phillip Hoose. 

Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding a True Faith by April Ajoy.

The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron Howard and Clint Howard.

The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope by Munther Isaac. 

Kurt Vonnegut: The Last Interview and Other Conversations edited by Tom McCartan.

FICTION

Clearly, I was doing a deep dive into older authors this year. Among this list of eight novels I have 4 books from the 1950s and 1960s - all classics of their genre.

***Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

The Waiting (Ballard and Bosch book 6) by Michael Connelly.

Cost of Malice by H. Mitchell Caldwell.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut.

Ban this Book by Alan Gratz.

Sun Moon Star by Kurt Vonnegut and Ivan Chermayeff

GRAPHIC NOVEL

I chose to read several graphic novels this year. All of these were good for different reasons. I chose the one that most would not - a crossover comic with Batman in the Fortnite universe. This could have been such a cheesy mess, but it was made into an interesting mystery.

***Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point by Christos Gage and others.

Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru.

March (Series - Books 1, 2, 3) by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin.

Run: Book One by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin.

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott.

Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin.

SHORT STORY

All of these short stories were excellent in their own way. There is a paranormal story, a Western, a what if? war story and a sci-fi story. 

***Tiger Chair by Max Brooks.

Ushers by Joe Hill

Comrades in Arms by Kevin J. Anderson.

The Turkeyfeather Riders by Louis L'Amour

A CANTICLE for LEIBOWITZ (audiobook) by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Originally published in 1960.
Read by Tom Weiner.
Duration: 10 hours, 55 minutes.
Unabridged.

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, 1961.

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a Golden Age of sci-fi novel that originally started out as three related short stories that were published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1955, 1956, and 1957. The author, Walter M. Miller (1923-1996) was convinced to rework them into a single novel - the only novel he published in his lifetime (a sequel to this book was published after his death.)

Synopsis:

The story is set in a dystopian future. During the late 1950s or early 1960s the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union became a nuclear war called the "flame deluge." Human life was nearly destroyed and genetic mutations are fairly common in man and nature. 

Six hundred years later the only surviving constant from the pre-war times is the Catholic Church. The story focuses on an abbey of monks in New Mexico who collect any and all information about science and technology from the past and treat them as relics of Leibowitz, the founder of their order. They collect technical drawings and anything else they can find. Over time, their abbey becomes one of the places of learning that spark a new technological revolution over the centuries because of its isolation.

The second part of the book features the beginnings of technological renaissance. Governments and universities are now recreating technology of the past and even start working together to learn and create even faster.

Eventually, after around 1800 years, in the third part, mankind has gone beyond the technology of the 1960s. There is space travel to other systems, travel around the world is easy. But, the world is not an integrated place and the world faces another Cold War with nuclear weapons...

My Review:

Like so many books in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, A Canticle for Leibowitz goes for big themes in a big way. You have to give it credit for being much more than a sci-fi adventure.

But, big themes does not necessarily mean a good read. The pacing is slow, especially in the first third of the book. I almost stopped listening to the audiobook multiple times because I could not figure out what was going on and the story seemed to be going nowhere.

The book is stuffed full of Latin phrases that may have been familiar to plenty of Catholics (when the book was written, the Latin Mass was the norm) but was not necessarily familiar to this Lutheran. I mostly followed along, allowing for context, the similarity of Lutheran and Catholic liturgies, and my knowledge of Spanish. The Latin added authenticity, but it also was also mostly unnecessary padding. I appreciate that the Latin symbolized a constant moving through time - in the story Latin, along with the Church, survived the Fall of Rome, the Dark Ages, a nuclear war, a horrific dystopian period with genetic mutations, a rebuilding, and was still here in a new Cold War.  My criticism is that a lot of it could have been translated into English with a note that said that the priests or monks were speaking to one another in Latin.

On last criticism is the reader. I am not fond of Tom Weiner as a reader. I've listened to a few books he has read and he just turns me off.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It's not bad. I am glad I read it, but it is hardly a page turner. It can be found on Amazon.com here: A Canticle for Leibowitz.

WHAT DOES ISRAEL FEAR from PALESTINE? (audiobook) by Raja Shehadeh

Published by Tantor Audio in June of 2024.
Read by Khalid Abdalla.
Duration: 2 hours, 26 minutes.
Unabridged.

Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer, human right advocate, and author. Shehadeh grew up as a Christian and Palestine has been occupied his entire life. This short book is an extended essay of sorts on the state of Palestinian/Israeli relations. 

The book is often critical of Israeli policy and actions, especially under Benjamin Netanyahu, but it is hardly a justification of the October 7 attacks.

Shehadeh does question the sincerity of Israel's attempts to work out something with Palestine - be it a two state solution, a common government with Israeli and Palestinian representatives, or some other system. Ignoring the situation does not make it go away. There are more than 5 million Palestinian refugees and they are not going anywhere - mostly because they are not really allowed to.

It was an interesting listen, providing a lot to think about. It was read very well by Khalid Abdalla.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?

CHESTER NIMITZ: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in 2024 by Hourly History.

Hourly History publishes short histories biographies and histories that are designed to be read in about an hour. Most are pretty good, but this one came up as a middling biography for me.

Chester Nimitz was the Admiral of the Pacific Fleet during World War II. He was appointed to the position just 10 days after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and he led the Navy throughout. 

This biography is excellent when it comes to personal details of his early life and even details of his early career. That is great, but this book is too sparse when it comes to the controversies and strategies of World War II. He was there for all of the important decisions and events from 10 days after Pearl Harbor until the signing of Japan's formal surrender on one of his ships and this book just gives the bare facts details that anyone can find on Wikipedia. They aren't incorrect, but they don't tell any sort of compelling story.

I rate this e-book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Chester Nimitz: A Life from Beginning to End. 

KURT VONNEGUT: THE LAST INTERVIEW and OTHER CONVERSATIONS (Last Interview Series) edited by Tom McCartan

 

Published in 2011 by Melville House.

The Last Interview Series is a collection of 42 books that collect interviews with various artists, celebrities, and political figures. The book includes the last interview given by the featured person.

In the case of Vonnegut, his last interview is very short because he was ill at the time so he cut it short.

There are six interviews here. The best is a co-interview with fellow author Joseph Heller (best known for Catch-22) from Playboy (turns out their interviews were a good reason to buy the magazine!) Heller helps Vonnegut focus a bit - he tends to go off on riffs and some interviewers don't know what to do with that (the first one seemed annoyed by this tendency.)

If you like Vonnegut's essays, you will enjoy these interviews. I love his collections of essays so I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Kurt Vonnegut: The Last Interview and Other Conversations.

WILD BILL HICKOK: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published by Hourly History in November of 2024.

Hourly History offers free e-books every week. Each of the books take about an hour to read and the smaller topics are really quite good. The series is good for things you want to know more about, but you don't want to read a 400 page book on the topic.

There is probably a large book about Wild Bill Hickock (1839-1876), but I don't want to read it. This length made for a perfectly enjoyable and interesting read.

Hickock started out fighting in the pre-Civil War Bleeding Kansas conflict on the anti-slavery side, worked as a guide, a hunter, a sheriff, and eventually ended up being shut in the back of the head while playing poker in Deadwood in the Dakota Territory by a man who was too afraid to fight Hickock in a duel.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Wild Bill Hickock: A Life from Beginning to End. 

YEAR WITHOUT SUMMER: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in July of 2024 by Hourly History.

In April of 1815, a volcano called Mount Tambora on an island in Indonesia erupted in a massive explosion. It was one of the largest explosions in human history. It obliterated most of the volcano, buried nearby villages and causes tsunamis. There were more eruptions that followed. It was a massive local problem, but the rest of the world had no idea it had even happened.

But, the rest of the world soon was affected by these explosions. Debris from the explosion got into the stratosphere and spread all around the world. There was so much ash in the upper atmosphere that 1816 became known as "The Year Without a Summer." 

This short e-book details some of the results, including snowfalls well into what are popularly regarded as summer months in regions of North America that rarely see snowfall after March. There were crop failures across North America, Europe, and Asia and political instability soon followed, especially in the Old World with its larger, more densely crowded populations. 

The cold conditions were less strong in North America the further one got from the Atlantic Ocean. It served as an inducement to to increase the population shifts towards the Western frontier (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois.)

I enjoyed this short history, even if I think it overplayed the long-term consequences, projecting them out decades afterwards in Europe. 

I rate this e-book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Year Without Summer: A History from Beginning to End by Hourly History.

WELCOME to PAWNEE: STORIES of FRIENDSHIP, WAFFLES, and PARKS and RECREATION (audiobook) by Jim O'Heir

Published by HarperAudio in November of 2024.

Read by Jim O'Heir, George Newbern, Eva Kaminsky, Janina Edwards, Roger Wayne, Jim Meskimen, and Adam Verner.

Duration: 6 hours, 24 minutes.

Unabridged.

Jim O'Heir has been knocking around Hollywood for years as a journeyman actor. He has had roles in dozens and dozens of TV shows and movies - good stuff and bad stuff - but always regular stuff. He was well on his way to becoming one of those character actors that you see so often that you say, "Oh! There's that guy! He was on that one show."

Then in 2009, he showed up on the new NBC show Parks and Recreation playing the bumbling and often befuddled lovable loser Jerry Gergrich. He kept playing this character for all 123 episodes of the show.

This book is a dual biography of sorts. It is the story of Jim O'Heir and how he came to the show, but it's also the story of the show itself. Jim interviews producers, writers, directors, and other actors to give us the story of Parks and Recreation itself. We learn about how it was conceived, how they cast the main characters, what life was like on the set, and more.

Indianapolis is my adopted hometown so I particularly was interested in the field trip episodes that were filmed in Indianapolis. I do have to point out that O'Heir incorrectly claims that the famed St. Elmo Steak House in downtown Indianapolis is not named after the 1985 Rob Lowe movie St. Elmo's Fire. The restaurant first opened in 1902.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It is a must read for fans of Park and Recreation. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation.

THE HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS (graphic novel) by Max Brooks.

Published by Del Rey in 2014.

Illustrated by Caanan White.

Synopsis:

The Harlem Hellfighters is Max Brooks' history of an all African American unit (the 369th Infantry) that fought on the Western Front alongside French units. They mostly came from New York.

This unit was allowed to fight precisely because they were assigned to a mostly French army. The American army would not let African Americans fight and had originally used the 369th as laborers, alongside civilian laborers.

The French were in need of immediate manpower. French white soldiers already had experience fight alongside regiments of soldiers from their African colonies and were eager to bring American troops to the front, no matter their color.

The 369th spent more time than almost any other American unit on the front lines. They may have spent the most time on the front lines. They were the first Allied unit to reach the Rhine River. 

Legend has it that the nickname "The Harlem Hellfighters" was given to the unit by their German foes.

They were among the first units to return to the United States and were given the honor of marching in a tickertape parade in New York City.

My Review:

The story that Max Brooks tells in this graphic novel is a little herky jerky. He tells the story with plenty of emphasis on individual soldiers, the terrible conditions on the front, and the racism they experienced. But, the overall plot of the war is rather poorly told.

The biggest reason that I am giving this book a rating of 3 stars is the illustrations. I truly dislike the art style. I found it distracting and hard to follow. There were details that are included that just filled the page and often made it difficult for me to figure out what I was supposed to be looking at. I bought this graphic novel from an online source without having seen the art. I hated it so much that I didn't read this graphic novel for nearly 7 months. 

Note: The publisher says that this book is aimed at children 8-12 years old. I believe that all of those ages are too young. It has graphic depictions of the violence of trench warfare. There are bullets blasting though heads, spraying bloods and brains across the page. There is a depiction of a bayonet going into someone's mouth and coming out the back of his skull. 

To be clear, I DON'T have a problem with showing the war as it really was. I DO have a problem with showing an eight year old a soldier being vaporized by an artillery shell. I would give this book a PG-13 rating.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks.

SWITCHBACK: A PATRICK FLINT NOVEL (audiobook) by Pamala Fagan Hutchins

Published in 2019 by Pamala Fagan Hutchins.

Read by the author, Pamala Fagan Hutchins.

Duration: 7 hours, 56 minutes.

Unabridged.

My synopsis:

It is 1976 and E.R. Doctor Patrick Flint wants to take his family on a week-long family camping and hunting trip on horseback. He is keenly aware that his teen children are getting older and they won't have too many more opportunities to go on adventures around their Wyoming home.

But, things are starting to unravel. His wife decides she doesn't want to go at the last minute. His daughter is complaining because she'll be out in the mountains and away from the boy she is interested in. 

So, the family separates for the week and that's when things start to go bad - and once things start to go bad in this book they just don't stop.

My review:

The basic outlines of Switchback are quite good, especially for the first book in a series. There's a decent amount of world building and the choice to set the book in 1976 removes all chances of cell phones or computers being a part of the story.

But, there are problems. For example, Dr. Flint is a congenial, funny guy at work. At home, he yells and screams when things don't go his way. The couple throws things at one another - not soft things, but things like dishes and coffee mugs. Maybe that's the way some couples do things, but I've been married a long time and we don't do it that way. Voices can be raised, but things don't get thrown. I disliked the man from that moment.

*****Spoiler Alert*****

This book is just way too busy with plot twists. There are sudden (often violent) plot twists that started at about the one-third point. Once they started coming, they never seemed to stop. An escaped prisoner commits a home invasion, a motorcycle gang (sort of) makes leering sexual comments to the high school daughter, the family uncovers a drug manufacturing operation, a car theft, a devastating car crash, a coyote pack attack caused by the (sort of) gang, food poisoning, a mountain lion attack, a horse killed for no reason, an attempted rape, a kidnapping, a murder, an attempted murder, a stabbing, and a horse breaks its leg in the middle of nowhere. 

There were enough plot twists for 2 or even 3 books. My advice - slow things down and save these ideas for another book.

*****End Spoiler Alert*****

Despite my misgivings about the sheer number of plot twists and my dislike of the main character, I found the last third of the book to be pretty compelling - I wanted to find out how the book ended.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Switchback: A Patrick Flint Novel by Pamala Fagan Hutchins.

YOUR JESUS IS TOO AMERICAN: CALLING the CHURCH to RECLAIM KINGDOM VALUES over the AMERICAN DREAM (audiobook) by Steve Bezner

Published in October of 2024 by eChristian.
Read by James R. Cheatham.
Duration: 7 hours, 28 minutes.
Unabridged.

Have you ever listened to someone speak, agreed wholeheartedly with almost everything the person said, but still felt underwhelmed by the presentation?

That's where I am with this book.

Bezner is the pastor of a church in Houston and he discusses how the church needs to stop being a cheerleader for both America and Jesus. Oftentimes, America comes first - especially as churches make political power a priority. 

As the title says, Bezner says the church has to return to honoring Kingdom Values over American Values. Bezner is not anti-American, but he does not that American popular culture and American political culture do not really align with Kingdom Values - and that should be the goal.

He goes on to tell about things he's done wrong in this area of his ministry and things that he believes are working out well now.

Like I said at the outset, I liked what Bezner had to say, but his presentation just was merely okay. The producers of the audiobook made the choice to read the footnotes out loud, including the number of the footnote and every detail of the source. The author includes relevant commentary with his footnotes, so you can't ignore them. Most authors rework footnotes like these into the text. Reading the entire footnote was an odd choice.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: YOUR JESUS IS TOO AMERICAN: CALLING the CHURCH to RECLAIM KINGDOM VALUES over the AMERICAN DREAM by Steve Bezner.

SIN MIEDO: LECCIONES de REBELDES (en español) by Jorge Ramos)

Published by Celebra in 2016.

In Sin Miedo: Lecciones de Rebeldes, Jorge Ramos brings us stories of people that he has interviewed over the years that he considers to be rebels with lessons to offer to all of us.

The title can be translated as Fearless: Lessons from Rebels. Some really are literal rebels, some are rebels that became dictators (he has 4 of these), and some are people that really aren't rebels, but are very successful in areas where people like them are not normally successful.

If you don't know who Jorge Ramos is, you probably don't watch Univision TV very much. Univision is a Spanish language channel based in Miami and Ramos is their most recognizable news anchor. 

The interviewees range all over the place, including Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Fidel Castro, Barbara Walters, George W. Bush, Daniel Ortega, former Presidents of Mexico, two Venezuelan dictators, a Mexican revolutionary leader, Spike Lee, and Richard Branson.

Some of the interviews are pretty compelling with lots of details. Some are skimpy, but fleshed out with some background research (you couldn't really corner Fidel Castro and pressure him to give you a long interview so you make do with the time you were given.)

The result was a mixed bag. I was touched by the patriotism of Venezuelan refugees that kept on fighting the Chavez/Maduro dictatorships in the face of overwhelming obstacles, but the interview with Bill Gates was standard boiler plate profile of his admirable work to fight disease in the Third World.

I skipped the dual interviews with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a Palestine Authority leader, figuring that anything said in that interview was superseded by the October 7 Attack and the Gaza War that followed.

The edition I read was in Spanish. It's been a few years since I read a book in Spanish. The last one was also a Jorge Ramos book. I enjoy his clear, concise style. I guess that makes Ramos my favorite Spanish language author! The English translation of this book is called Take a Stand: Lessons from Rebels.

I rate this collection of interviews 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Sin Miedo Lecciones de Rebeldes by Jorge Ramos.

USHERS (short story) by Joe Hill

Published by Amazon Original Stories on November 1, 2024.

Synopsis:

In Ushers, Martin Lorensen is being questioned by two federal agents that have noticed that he almost died twice in two mass casualty incidents.

One was a school shooting that primarily took place in the classroom he shared with the shooter when he was in high school. He got to school that day, but turned around and went home when he got to the front doors - just a few minutes before the shooting started.

The other was a tremendous train crash - he almost got onto the train - he was at the station with ticket in hand and walked away after telling a girl and her mom to not get on the train.

The federal agents are curious. Is he some sort of terrorist that sets up mass casualty events? Or, is he the luckiest man on the East Coast?

My review:

This is a well-told short story with an ending that would have been a welcome addition to the Rod Serling's old Twilight Zone series.

I rate this story 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Ushers by Joe Hill.