Being positive (for once): 6 books I enjoyed in 2024

To get myself back on Santa’s nice list and prove that I do actually like things in spite of all the negative reviews I’ve produced this year, here’s six books I read and loved in 2024.

Gift them to your friends, family, dogs, cats, hamsters, etc. They will definitely be much better than the new Sally Rooney novel or tickets to Love Actually (sorry, I will stop hating now).

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“An empty house can be as lonely as a full hotel," he said at length. “The trouble is that it is less impersonal.”

This book ripped through me in 48 short hours. I was on holiday, in fairness, but not even the glittering sea or rustling cicadas could divert me from Rebecca.

Not only is this an exemplar of page-turning thriller writing, it is also a staggeringly empathetic depiction of shyness, loneliness, and co-dependence, elucidated in prose that is clear but never simple. It’s so effortless and addictive I would recommend it to anyone who’s trying to get back into reading after a slump.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

“Good-night, my-" He stopped, bit his lip, and abruptly left me.

I first read this ten years ago and I think it went over my head as I’ve always dismissed it as ‘boring’. In revisiting it, I became completely absorbed by Charlotte Bronte’s stoic and, let’s be honest, quite sexy age-gap romance for the ages.

Despite all descriptions insisting otherwise, Mr Rochester is a certified hottie: Bronte understood that the best romances are marriages of the mind (an insight Normal People could have benefitted from - I’m still being hateful! Sorry).

But I’m dumbing Bronte down; the dialogue is electrifying, the characters unforgettable, the descriptions of nature achingly rich, and often mournful. A great read for a damp winter’s day, nurturing a cup of tea before a roaring fire as at Thornfield (preferably without the shrieks of a madwoman echoing upstairs).

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for.

One could make an asinine comment on how a satire condemning wasteful warmongering and blind deference to leadership couldn’t be more relevant today! And it is, but most of all, Catch-22 is comedic gold.

It’s not for everyone, clocking in over 500 pages of non-linear storyline. The cast list is extensive and their personalities borderline absurd. However, the diligent reader will find ample reward in Heller’s endlessly quotable prose and savagely brilliant unpicking of the absurdities of war.

One Day by David Nicholls

‘Live each day as if it's your last', that was the conventional advice, but really, who had the energy for that? What if it rained or you felt a bit glandy?

Maybe I am a sentimental creature at heart. I thought the Netflix TV adaptation of One Day was bad, but now having read the book I am convinced it was a total failure, doing nothing to capture the unique charm and humour that sparkles in the writing. This is a Richard Curtis script done right (SORRY! I can’t help it!!), a little treacly and tear-jerking, but substantiated by real heart, real passion, and real characters.

On paper, it’s a friends to lovers story, but it’s also about growing older, and the disappointed expectations and unexpected delights that entails. Plans change; some dreams never come true. In many ways, that message is more devastating than its infamous twist ending.

Money by Martin Amis

I have always derived great comfort from William Shakespeare. After a depressing visit to the mirror or an unkind word from a girlfriend or an incredulous stare in the street, I say to myself: 'Well. Shakespeare looked like shit.' It works wonders.

Bloody Martin Amis. Money is just so admirably energetic, the kind of novel I wish I could write, creative similes and original jokes sparking off the pages and burning through the cigarettes and alcohol the protagonist John Self wallows in. It’s a riotous critique of 80s consumer capitalism, an affectionate portrait of a sad, gullible fool, and also extremely funny. I’m not jealous.

Burmese Days by George Orwell

It is perhaps one's own fault, to see oneself drifting, rotting, in dishonour and horrible futility, and all the while knowing that somewhere within one there is the possibility of a decent human being.

That George Orwell, eh? He could write! No one’s ever said that before!

Another classic (I have a type, it seems), but it’s earned that status for a reason. Orwell’s years as a policeman in Burma (now Myanmar) inspired this condemnatory and humorous tale of humdrum life at an outpost of British India. The book was notable at publication for its strident (and deserved) critique of the small-minded, untalented, and deeply racist British community.

The descriptions of the lush Burmese jungle bring to life the foreignness of the environment, a landscape naturally hostile to Europeans even before they begin to oppress it. Alongside this delectable prose, the novel poses unnerving questions about the individual’s willingness to stand up to a societal framework they know to be unjust. It’s the perfect book to discuss over a turkey dinner debate with your Raj-nostalgic dad, or to browbeat younger cousins with until they get confused and cry.

Merry Christmas!