My reading was a bit thin in 2024, due to our family’s big move to China. But quality over quantity, right?
My overall favorite of 2024 was A ROVER’S STORY by my dear friend Jasmine Warga. As I said in last year’s roundup over at We Heart YA’s new Substack…
“I love how Warga was able to imbue so much humanity into a story about cute, adventurous little robots! It’s an absolute gem of a book, one that I think would appeal to readers of all ages.”
THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY was also exactly my jam — like The Time Traveler’s Wife meets Laini Taylor, full of magic and hope — and it definitely got me obsessed with Alix E. Harrow for a while.
Andy recommended A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW to me, and although it took time to build up, I did find Count Rostov, his friends, and their adventures in the Metropol hotel to be immensely charming.
I picked up THE HENNA ARTIST after attending the San Francisco Writers Conference, where the author Alka Joshi was a keynote speaker. She also taught a panel that I quite enjoyed, about weaving sensory details into one’s writing. Her novel definitely does that, transporting readers to Jaipur in Northern India, and I really liked how it featured so many different women trying to be strong in so many different ways.
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By 2025, we were fairly well settled into Guangzhou, so I was able to make reading more of a priority and habit again.
At long last, I dove into the world of Elena Ferrante, specifically her Neapolitan Quartet, which clocks in at something like 1700 pages across the four books. To be honest, I didn’t really notice the length, partly because I read on my Kindle, and partly because I was so immersed in the characters and their world. It flew by.
More of my thoughts about these books:
- “Stories That Cast a Spell” (Writer Unboxed)
- About the genius of their titles (Instagram)
Apart from the My Brilliant Friend series, I also especially enjoyed these:
In SLOW DANCE, Rainbow Rowell continues to excel at compelling relationships and witty banter.
THE WEDDING PEOPLE was heavier, wiser, and more comedic than I had expected.
And HOMESEEKING unspools a diaspora love story across Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong, New York, and California. My own connection to those places and cultures definitely added to the reading experience.
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Hopefully 2026 will prove to be a robust reading year as well. I’m always happier when I’m reading.