“I know” — one is supposed to post on these matters before the clock ticks over from the old year into the new. But I, alas, am behindhand again.

In terms of my “Reads o’ the Year”, I focus on those books that leap out when I cast my mind back over the many I’ve read and enjoyed. In 2024, there were three clear standouts, starting with:

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

The link to my in-depth, August 26 post is here.

Here, too, is a small sample of what I had to say:

“As the “compelling” suggests, I found The Notebook fascinating. It’s also accessible, engagingly written, and very, very readable. (Although I love historical non-fiction, it does not always, sadly, embody these three criteria.) I’m fairly confident, too, that anyone who not only loves history, but also the history of knowledge and advances in human thinking, will love it as much as I do.”

I sure hope you do!

My two other standout reads for 2024 were both Junior fiction, starting with:

Victoria M Adams’ The House At The End Of The Sea.

I did a series of interviews with the author (who is a friend of longstanding.) One of which was one of the ten Most-Read” Posts of 2024. You may also recall that I “blurbed” the book (although that came a little earlier):

“The House at the End of the Sea has it all: characters to cheer for, worldbuilding that weaves together the fantastical and the everyday, and magic that is curious, double-edged, and fraught with consequence. Definitely a story that kept me reading! HELEN LOWE”

My third and final standout for the year was the wonderful:

Pinch Perkins and the Midsummer Curse by Cathy Fitzgerald.

Definitely another book that I loved reading and will be recommending to young readers in my life — as I first observed as recently as December 16. I also said that:

I loved the characters, the story, and the imaginative use of fairytale and folklore to weave the tale — and was very often smiling as I read. It’s a fun, fastmoving, read with just enough scary to keep a reader on the edge of their seat.

So if you haven’t checked out either The House At The End Of The Sea or Pinch Perkins and the Midsummer Curse yet, or introduced them to the younger readers in your life, I’m still recommending both.

So there you have it, my three standouts for 2024.

As for what became of those other TBR contenders mentioned on November 7, they are definitely still in the running — but for 2025. 😀