2024 Reading Log
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Books I read in 2024.
Date | Title | Author | Commentary |
---|---|---|---|
January 2024 | Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks, and Me | Bill Hayes | Quick read and such a touching story about life, love, and NYC |
January 2024 | The Bassoon King: Art, Idiocy, and Other Sordid Tales from the Band Room | Rainn Wilson | Check out audiobook for a wonderful narration by the author. Fans will enjoy this one a lot. |
January 2024 | Bossypants | Tina Fey | Tina Fey is charming and funny in this brief memoir. Fans will love it, but I think anyone can enjoy it. |
January 2024 | Astrophysics for People in a Hurry | Neil Degrasse Tyson | This will trigger an existential crisis for you, fascinating topic though. |
January 2024 | Yes Please | Amy Poehler | Surprisingly deep memoir. Funny, inspiring, well-written, makes me love Amy Poehler even more. |
February 2024 | The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work | Simone Stolzoff | Thought provoking look at the perils of workism. Must read for anyone earning, or wanting to earn, a salary. |
February 2024 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | Story about growing up, racism, injustice, generations of kids read this book and it still feels like parts of our society are stuck in Maycolmb. |
February 2024 | Year of Less | Cait Flanders | Insufferable. |
February 2024 | Dear Girls | Ali Wong | Brilliant, and laugh out loud funny. I don’t recall ever laughing this much while reading a book. Wonderful collection of essays to her kids about life. My favorite book of this year. |
February 2024 | A Very Punchable Face | Colin Jost | Continuing my memoir kick this year, I really enjoyed this one and learned that Colin Jost is not a one dimensional white dude. |
February 2024 | Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? | Mindy Kailing | Short but sweet memoir, must read for any office fan. |
February 2024 | Yearbook | Seth Rogan | Vancouver, Standup, North Korea, Comedy, Audiobook is special due to the all star cast of voice actors, sometimes playing themselves. |
March 2024 | We Were Dreamers | Simu Liu | Made me cry as often as Ali Wong’s memoir made me laugh. A story that all immigrants can relate to, just beautiful. |
March 2024 | Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know | Adam Grant | No pun intended, really made me think. One of my favs of the year, and makes me want to read a lot of his other work. |
March 2024 | Leslie Fucking Jones | Leslie Jones | Just awesome. Especially the audiobook where she reads. It feels like you’re hanging out with her as she tells you her amazing life story. |
May 2024 | Kitchen Confidential | Anthony Bourdain | One of my favorite books, I re-read it often, love the audio book version since Anthony reads it. |
May 2024 | Beef Noodle Soup | Winnie Chen | Picked this up at Village Well Books & Coffee in Culver City and read it in one sitting. A lovely book of poetry and prose, some things really stuck with me the whole day. Hope to read more of her work. |
May 2024 | Zinky Boys | Svetlana Alexeivich | Brilliant journalist tells the story of the Soviet war in Afghanistan through a series of interviews with mothers and veterans. Her style is remarkable. This book was depressing, no happy ending. |
June 2024 | How to Live | Derek Sivers | This one is so good, made it to my list of 5 books every human should read. I think if Derek Sivers started a cult, I’d join it. A book of contradicting philosophies, it inspires me, makes me angry, and provokes lingering thoughts every time I read it. Reading this book is how to live. |
July 2024 | Down with the System: A Memoir (of Sorts) | Serj Tankian | Amazing memoir by my all time favorite musician. Dives deep into the history of the Armenian struggle, the meaning of reasons undefined, and life on the road with System of a Down. Fans will love it, everyone can appreciate it. One of my favorites of the year. |
July 2024 | When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories, and Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown | Kenan Thompson | I think I’ve read every single SNL star memoir this year, this one is as good as all the others. If you’re wondering what up with that, keep reading. |
August 2024 | Shortest Way Home | Pete Buttigieg | I don’t normally do political memoirs but this one stood out to me. I love his story of a day in the life of a Mayor, it reminds me of Anthony Bourdain’s version of him in his kitchen. I wonder who the first person to do this style was? The chapter with the proposal was special, made me cry during a long walk. Pete inspires me. |
September 2024 | On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft | Stephen King | Part memoir, part writing guide. Reminds me a lot of the book I read last year by Chuck Palahniuk. I enjoyed it, especially in his voice. |
September 2024 | Red Team Blues | Cory Doctorow | “Little Brother for Adults”, I love the universe that Cory Doctorow creates for Marty Hench. I was immediately sucked in. He sniped me with all of the San Francisco references which was one of the reasons I loved Little Brother so much. This book was captivating, a page turner, I finished it in two days. A couple of cliches sprinkled throughout but I think Docotorow has earned it it at this point. |
September 2024 | The Bezzle | Cory Doctorow | Sequel to Red Team blues, also a page turner, also finished in two days. I am obsessed with the Marty Hench universe and I cant wait for the next one in this series. |
September 2024 | Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City MaƮtre D' | Michael Cecchi-Azzolina | Stories from the front of the house, I really enjoyed this memoir spanning nearly 4 decades in the restaurant business. It was inspiring, the result of a life well lived. |
October 2024 | Burn Book | Kara Swisher | Hot takes, juicy gossip, history lessons and great stories from the best journalist in tech. One of my favorite books of the year. |
December 2024 | Whole Worlds Could Pass Away | Rickey Gard Diamond | Collection of stories from a Montpilier Vermont based writer. There are some really powerful ones like “Walls” but overall I had a really tough time getting through this one. |