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.