Welcome back to Such Fun Read.
I wanted to do an episode that included Goodreads at some point. When I looked at the 2024
Goodreads Choice Award winners, I knew that was not going to happen with that. I have barely read
any of the winners this year or probably any of the nominees, but now I see that they have a list
of the 144 most read books for the 2024 reading challenge. And I want to see how many of these
books I have read. I think I might fare better with this than the Choice Award since I didn't
really read a bunch of new releases this year. And maybe I'll end up surprising myself on a book
I've read this year being on this list. So let's take a look at the list and find out.
And it looks like they have them in order. At least I think they're in order. They're numbered.
So, but the first book is Yellowface by RF Kwong. I did not read that book this year,
but I have read this book. I read this book last year and it was actually one of my favorite books
I read in 2023. I really like this book. I really like it. It's set in the publishing world.
Woman decides to pretend to be someone that she's not and there are consequences. I like this book.
Number two, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I started this book and I was
enjoying it. I started last year was the year before. I don't know, but I started and I was
enjoying it, but I never finished it. I should probably finish it. I'm looking at my copy right
now. I really should finish this book. I know it's a popular book. I know a lot of people have loved
this book and why didn't I finish it? I'm rather confused. I don't know. Number three, Remarkably
Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I don't know what this book is. This is something I don't know.
It says an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope tracing a widow's unlikely connection
with a giant Pacific octopus. I've never heard of this book. Oh, it looks like it has a sticker,
a Read With Jenna sticker. And that's one of those book clubs. I think it's a Today's Show book club.
I've never heard of this book. I really haven't. So, okay, I'll have to add it to a possibility
list for me to maybe check it out. Number four, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. This is one of Reese's
book club picks. I've seen this book in bookstores. I've thought about it many times picking it up,
but for some reason I haven't done it yet. Number five, we have Hello Beautiful by Ann
Napolitano. Napolitano. I don't think I've heard of this book either. Huh. Interesting. At number
six, we have Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingslover. No, no, not Kingslover. Kingslover.
I haven't heard of this book. Looks like it was published in 2022. Hmm. No idea. Number seven,
I've heard of this. I have also seen the TV show. Haven't read the book yet. It is on my shelf,
but I haven't read the book yet. I know. I know. But the book is Normal People by Sally Rooney.
And then number eight, we have Mad Honey by Jodie Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boland. Man,
there are a number of books I have not heard of. From the first eight, I've read one. I own three,
including the one I've read. So yeah, I think we're starting out very great. And this is going to go.
Oh, this is going to be funny. Number nine is Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
I believe this is a book set in the tennis world. I've wanted to read this and I haven't picked it
up yet. Number 10 is A Little Life by Hanya Yonagihara. I haven't read this. I think I have
a paperback of it somewhere on one of my shelves. All I've heard is this book is gut-riching
and it will break you and all this stuff. And I don't know if I want to read that. I really don't.
I don't know if that's something I want to read. At number 11 is Good Material by Dolly Alderton.
This I have on my shelf. This I haven't read yet. And number 12 is The Secret History by Dona Tart.
Another book I have on my shelf. Another book I haven't read. I know. I know. I need to read this.
I should probably mention that those first 12 were all fiction. So maybe. Okay, so that
that kind of makes me feel better. Maybe this means that I will have books read that are on this list
later on in different categories. The next category is historical fiction. And I will say
from the look of it, I've read one. I've read two books. So there are 12 books here. I've read two
and I own four others. So moving on up on how many books I've read in the categories. Like on here
at number one is Lessons of Chemistry by Bonnie Garmis. Number two is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn
Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I own both of those books. Haven't read them yet. At number three is
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I've read this one. So there's that. At number four,
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. I don't own this. I don't think I own this.
I thought about buying it last year, but I didn't. So I'm pretty sure it's on my shelf somewhere.
The next two I also own and haven't read and that is The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah and
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Those two sitting on my shelf. I actually see them.
Actually, nope, yes, I actually see them. I see them on my shelf. I'll get to you. The next are
Wayward by Amelia Hart and Great Alone by Kristen Hannah. Do not own either of those. Then I have
The Frozen River by Ariel Lahan and Wear the Crowd That Sing by Delia Owens. I've read the
Wear the Crowd That Sing. I actually did an episode on that. Then we have The Covenant Water by Abraham
Verghese and The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. I think I've heard of The Covenant of Water.
I have not heard of The Berry Pickers. On to Mystery and Thriller. And we've gone back down.
I've only read one on this list of the 12 and that one is The Only One Left by Raleigh Sager.
I don't think I'm going to mention all of them anymore because I'm getting a little depressed.
Not really. I mean, it's what I feel like reading. So I don't think I need to be depressed. But I read
The Only One Left last year. I enjoyed it. I do own The Silent Patient and First Lie Winds. Those
two books are on this list. I do have those. I think that's it. I don't have The Housemaid.
I haven't really had any interest picking up The Housemaid either. Or I guess The Housemaid's Secret.
These are both by Frieda McFadden. I haven't really had any interest picking up either of those.
The Mystery Guest or The Maid. I have, I think The Maid. I have one of these. Whichever one is
the first book, because I think this is a series by Nita Proes. Whichever one is the first book,
I think it's The Maid. I have that on my shelf. I do have that on my shelf. So that is something I
can pick up. Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney. I've heard that being popular, but I don't know.
I haven't really had an interest in picking it up. Maybe that'll change. I don't know.
All right, we're in the fantasy category. Let's see if this one is better. Barely. Wow. Okay,
so I pretty much own almost all of these books. And it looks like I've only read two. Of course.
Of course. I've read Cersei by Madeline Miller and The Poppy War by R.F. Kwong. The two books I
don't have on this list are Before the Coffee Gets Cold and The Unmaking of June Pharaoh.
Those two books I do not have. But the other ones I do, The Mindak Library, The Invisible Life of
Adi La Rue, The Song of Achilles, Babel, Legends and Lattes, Starling House, Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia
of Fairies, Ninth House. These are sitting on my shelf. I just haven't read them. That's interesting
that they are. Huh. That's interesting that these are the most popular ones in the fantasy category
that people have read this year. Interesting. Okay, let's go to Romanticie. And let's see. Okay,
so I've read three in Romanticie. I've read Forthwing. I've read House of Earth and Blood,
the first book in the Crescent City series. I've read From Blood and Ash, but I don't remember
anything in that book. So yeah, so one and two in Romanticie are Forthwing and Iron Flame.
Surprise, surprise. The next three are Sergio Mas books. You have House of Flame and Shadow,
which is a book that came out this year. Is this the first book on this list so far that came out
this year? I don't, I could be wrong. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. Maybe there are some
others that came out this year from the other categories. I could be wrong. But this one did
come out in 2024. And then you have A Court of Silver Flames by Sergio Mas. And then I guess
A House of Earth and Blood, Crescent City series. Then you have The Serpent and Wings of Night. I
have it on my shelf. Haven't read it. Assistant to the Villain. I do not own that. Manacold.
Oh, this is, I think, Manacold. Is this a fan fiction? I think this is fan fiction. Is this
a Jermani fan fiction? Most likely won't read that. Not, I'm not a Draco and Hermione girl. So
I most likely won't read that. Let's see. There's also Gold by Raven Kennedy. It's the number five
of The Plated Prisoner. Throne of the Fallen by Carrie Maniscalco. I read a Carrie Maniscalco book
this year, and I enjoyed it. And I wonder if this is a continuation in that series. What did I read?
Kingdom of the Wicked? I think that's the book that I read. But I think this one is adult. Well,
that one is young adult. I don't know. And then we have The Never King, which I don't think I've
heard of this. It's Vicious Lost Boys number one. Hmm. I don't think I've heard of that one. All
right, let's carry on. Go to science fiction. Okay. This one. Huh. I've read none of these.
I have read none of these. None of these in science fiction. I want to read a few of these,
like Dune is on here. At some point, I would like to read Dune. All Systems Red. I think I have the
box set of this. Is this a novella? I believe I have the box set. Yeah, the murderbot diaries.
I have the box set of that. Should probably read that. Dark Matter is on here. I have that somewhere.
Oh, Fahrenheit 451 is on here. I read this in high school. But that was a long time ago. Also,
did I actually read it? Because there were a lot of high school books that I was assigned to read,
but I didn't actually read. So there's that. The horror category is next. I don't read a lot of
horror. I read some. I do own a few of these horror books. Like I have How to Sell a Haunted House by
Gertie Hendrix, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The September House by Carissa
Orlando, and Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. I have those on my shelf. Just some of them.
Let's just move on. Let's move on. Go to the next category. And we're going to next. Go to the next
category, which is romance. And I've only read one book on here. And it's the first book and probably
one of my least favorite reads of all time. And this is the holiday season. I really don't want
to talk about least favorite reads. I want to talk about joyous occasions and happiness. But I see
Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. And that's the one I read. And I wasn't really a fan of that book.
Like I talked last year, I talked about 4th Wing. But I think I'm going to give 4th Wing another chance.
I think I'm going to reread 4th Wing. I'm going to give it another chance. But I would talk about
that last year as like my least favorite book. It's because, but the only reason why I said that is
because I forgot all about Icebreaker. I don't like Icebreaker. Mostly because I'm a huge fan
of figure skating. And I didn't like how figure skating was represented in this book. I really
didn't. I didn't like it. Maybe one day I'll talk about it. I don't want to talk about it.
I want to be happy. So yeah, yeah, that's yeah. But I haven't read any of the others. I see
Emily Henry book on here. Actually, I see two Emily Henry books on here. And in a secret,
I can tell you all I've never read a book written by Emily Henry. I own Beach Read. I have it
somewhere. And I keep saying I'm going to read it. And I keep not doing that. So we'll see. But
there's no Abby Jimenez on here. I did read Abby Jimenez book last year, Part of Your World. And
I really enjoyed that. And she's on here. A little disappointed, but that's okay. It's whatever.
Let's move to the next category. Young adults. The young adult category. I might, this might work
for me. This one might work for me. Let's see. Yes. It looks like I've read one, two, three, four,
five, six. I've read six books in the young adult category. So congratulations to myself. Yes. Yes.
Finally, yes. So on here, the ones I've read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight by Sarah J.
Maas. The Ballad of Somers and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly
Jackson. Powerless by Lauren Roberts. And The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. There are others I
want to read. Like maybe at some point I'll read The Divine Rivals duology. And maybe at some point
I'll finally read Heartstopper. I love the show. Speaking of, I need to watch season three. I haven't
watched that yet. And also Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber. I have the Caraval Series
trilogy. And then I also have this book. I want to read the Caraval trilogy before I read this book.
So there's that. And then it looks like it gets into some nonfiction, which I don't really read.
Although in the memoir category, I do see The Woman and Me by Britney Spears. I haven't read it
yet, but I do have it. And Crying in H Mart. I have that book somewhere as well. Haven't read it yet,
but I do see those. But outside of that, I don't really read nonfiction. I don't read a lot of
nonfiction. Although Aster by Anderson Cooper. I kind of want to read that. I kind of want to read
that. So because I'm always, I am someone who loves The Guild Age, that time period. So I kind of want
to read that. And like old money, new money, old money stuff. Yeah, I want to read that. Anyway,
so those are pretty much the most popular books that people read in 2024 that participate in the
reading challenge on Goodreads. And I have to say after going through all of this, I did not read
any of these books this year. Yeah, all the books I have read, I had read previously. So none of them,
none of them this year. But that's okay. That's okay. It's interesting to see what's been popular
for people as well as like, the majority of these are older books. And what I mean by older is,
they weren't released in 2024. And the one that I really see that was released in 2024, and maybe
there are others as well. But the one that I see that was released in 2024 was the Sarah J. Maas
book, The House of Flame and Shadow, the third book, I believe it's the third book in the Crescent
City series. So that was released this year. And it's number three in Romanticy. But Sarah J. Maas
is a very popular author. So but I'm sure there are others that are out there. Wait, I thought I
saw a Stephen King book that was on this list. Yes, I did. But that one was published in 2023.
So I did see Stephen King, but that was published in 2023. So there is that. But yeah, that's an
interesting list to look at. Have you read any of the books that were on this list? Let me know.
But thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss any new
episodes and we'll speak soon. Happy reading.
you