My 2024 in Books

I started off this year with The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. My sister and I had agreed to do a buddy read – and this was a book both of us had been keen to read for a while, so we agreed on a set amount of pages each day, and read it at the same time. I really enjoyed doing it this way, as it meant that we could discuss our thoughts on each section we’d read, and theorise what we thought was going to happen next. This is a story of a group of friends in a retirement village, who meet up every Thursday to go through and investigate unsolved murders and cold cases – just for fun. One day a murder happens right on their doorstep, which puts this unlikely group of crime-solvers to the test.

We loved the first book so much, we dove straight into the second book in the Thursday Murder Club series. I actually think I liked this book even more than the first! The characters are so well written, complex, and humorous, and it doesn’t take very long before you become quite attached to the main crew. The mystery also keeps you on your toes, and it’s fun to try and work it out for yourself as you go along, and get given more clues.

I picked this up on a whim after spotting it on a table at Waterstones. I’m super interested in space travel, and I love a romance book, so I thought this was an unusual, yet humorous, combination of the two. This story centres around a struggling event planner who meets a local astronaut at her usual coffee stop. Both at a crossroads in their lives, they agree to pretend to be in a relationship in order to impress both his family and her ex, but end up falling for each other for real. This was a fun read, and I actually quite enjoyed it for what it was.

I had heard a lot of people talking about this one, and my sister had been strongly encouraging me to read it for a while, so I finally picked it up this year. This is the story of a famous Hollywood actress who, now in her golden years, decides to hire an unknown magazine reporter to write a biography of her life, telling stories about her career and relationships never told to anyone before. I enjoyed this, found it very compelling, and was keen to keep hearing the tales of Evelyn’s life.

I came across this book while on the Penguin website in the summer, and it sounded like just what I needed. I’ve been made redundant twice, once because of covid related job cuts at the start of the pandemic, and again when the company I worked for went into liquidation. If you’ve been through this too, I’m sure you can relate to how lost and directionless it can make you feel, and how being knocked back to square one can really dent your confidence in yourself. This was a quick read, but would definitely be handy if you’ve ever been through redundancy, and it’s full of useful tips. I liked how the author framed redundancy as simply a chapter in your life, rather than an ending or punishment, and found it quite comforting to read about others who have been through the same experience as myself.

This book was absolutely excellent – honestly one of the best books I’ve read in 2024. Space: The Human Story covers the whole history of human spaceflight, from the very beginning, all the way through to what comes next. It was so so interesting, engaging, humorous, and eye opening – and it really gives a brilliant overview of the human stories behind one of history’s greatest achievements. I immediately want to read it again!

I was really hoping to love this book – and I really thought I would. This book won the Booker Prize for 2024, and is a story about six fictional astronauts as they spend 24 hours on an orbiting space station. Sounds like it would be right up my street, right? However, I really, really didn’t like this. The way this was written was really unenjoyable to read – it felt like I was reading someone’s creative writing project where the aim was to just use as many descriptive words as possible for the sake of it, rather than trying to make anything readable or engaging. I really wanted to love it as I’m super interested in space travel, and have read a lot of both fiction and non fiction on the subject, however the end of this book really couldn’t have come soon enough. Honestly, the only reason that it gets two stars from me, instead of one, is literally just because it’s about space.

In September we went on a little family getaway to Delamere Forest, and I wanted to bring along a couple of Autumnal reads to celebrate the start of my favourite season. I also needed a palette cleanser after Orbital, so when my sister showed me this book I knew I had to bring it! It is a YA, so the story was a little easier and lighter, but it was exactly what I needed. This cosy read was very reminiscent of the film You’ve Got Mail (one of my all-time favourites), and follows the story of Lucy Kane whose mum runs a small independent coffee shop in Briar Glen. Life quickly gets complicated when a big chain coffee shop opens up right across the street (selling her number one most hated drink – Pumpkin Spice Lattes), threatening her mum’s business, but even more so when Lucy finds herself accidentally falling for the owner’s son. Some of the dialogue was a little too cringy for me, hence the star rating, but I still enjoyed it overall.

Continuing with cosy reads, I then dove straight into The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, after seeing it everywhere on TikTok. Again this is an easy Autumnal read – very reminiscent of a Hallmark Christmas film. It follows Jeanie, a girl who moves away from the city to the small town of Dream Harbour to take over The Pumpkin Spice Cafe from her aunt, and who soon finds herself catching feelings for grumpy local farmer Logan. I enjoyed this, and while the characters were a little frustrating at times, it was the perfect kind of book to read in the Autumn, and great if you’re a fan of small town romance.

Still in Cheshire I paid a visit to The Curious Cat Bookshop to pick up the next book in the Dream Harbour series. I love how these books not only take place in the same town, but how the focus each time is on characters we have already been introduced to in previous books. Jeanie and Logan from the Pumpkin Spice Cafe appear often in this book for example, and it’s really nice to see what they’ve been up to after the first book ended. This one follows Hazel, who works at the Cinnamon Bun Book Store (called such because they give out hot cinnamon buns to customers on Saturday mornings – how cute!), whose quest to have a fun summer before her birthday leads to a romance with local fisherman Noah.

This was hands down my favourite book of 2024, and probably one of my favourite books in general. I never wanted this book to end! I loved it so much I even wrote a whole post dedicated to it here. As the title suggests, this is a fictional story about how a big movie gets made – right from the very start with the source material, to the comic strips, the screenplay, the casting, filming – and everything in between! It was so well written, I felt like I was living in the story myself the whole time. You have to give this a try – I would give it 10 stars if I could!

My sister and I finally picked back up with the Thursday Murder Club series, this time with the third book. I plan on writing a full review once we’ve finished the whole series, but needless to say I loved this one too. The characters were fun, the mystery kept you guessing, and the plot was paced so well.

Diving back into my Autumnal reads, I had again seen this book a lot on TikTok, so had asked for a copy for my birthday. It’s marketed as a modern reimagining of When Harry Met Sally, and while I could see some similarities, it didn’t quite have the same feel. The characters were really quite unlikable, which was frustrating at times, and meant that it was hard to root for them. I did enjoy this, but wouldn’t read it again.

The Dream Harbour series just keeps getting cuter – and when I saw a Christmas sequel was being published I had to get my hands on it! This is the story of Kira North, who moves to Dream Harbour to take over an old Christmas Tree Farm – even though she hates Christmas. She meets Bennett Ellis – the brother of Jeanie from The Pumpkin Spice Cafe – who, on a mission to convince her to reopen the Christmas Tree farm, also ends up falling for her. As with the others, this feels just like a Hallmark Christmas film, and was the perfect read for the festive season.

As well as books about human space travel, one of my other favourite groups of non-fiction are self improvement books. I love how motivated they leave me feeling, and I often find the information pretty digestible. Books such as Atomic Habits, and Working Hard, Hardly Working for example are definitely books I refer back to a lot. This book by the late Dr Michael Mosley was based on the BBC podcast Just One Thing, and is a collection of small and easy things you can add to your daily routine to help improve your mental ad physical health. This was a quick and easy read, full of useful nuggets of information. Did you know standing on one leg while brushing your teeth can do wonders for your health over time?