All the books I read in 2024.

It is always a weird feeling to look back at all the books I read in any given year. Some books I loved, some books I remember strongly and evoke a specific emotion, and honestly there are some in here that I have to look up to remember the slightest thing about them.

Fire Weather was both an important read and a total page turner, and it was one of the best books I read this year. Say Nothing was also outstanding, as was this year’s excellent Hulu limited series based on this book.

There was some very fun diversions, like Our Band Could Be Your Life about the American punk scene, and Goth about, well, the Goth scene written by one of it’s pioneers.

Some others that really jump at my as I reflect on this list are Knife, 1Q84, How the World Ran Out of Everything, and the fantastically well-written Zeitoun.

Here are all the books I read in 2024 in the order I read them…

  1. Why We Sleep — Matthew Walker 
  2. The Sympathizer — Viet Thanh Nguyen 
  3. The Zone of Interest — Martin Amis 
  4. Firewater — Harold R. Johnson
  5. World Within a Song — Jeff Tweedy
  6. Eve — Cat Bohannon 
  7. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry — Gabrielle Zevin 
  8. Our Band Could Be Your Life — Michael Azerrad 
  9. Trust — Hernan Diaz 
  10. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine — Rashid Khalidi 
  11. Burn Book — Kara Swisher 
  12. How to Know a Person — David Brooks 
  13. Goth — Lol Tolhurst 
  14. All the Light We Cannot See — Anthony Doerr 
  15. Erasure — Perceval Everett 
  16. Great Expectations — Vinson Cunningham
  17. Fire Weather — John Vaillant 
  18. Say Nothing — Patrick Radden Keefe 
  19. I Shall Not Hate — Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish 
  20. Rogues — Patrick Radden Keefe
  21. Kitchen Confidential — Anthony Bourdain 
  22. The Deluge — Stephen Markley
  23. Knife — Salman Rushdie
  24. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo — Taylor Jenkins Reid 
  25. In My Time of Dying — Sebastian Junger 
  26. Limitarianism — Ingrid Robeyns
  27. A Children’s Bible — Lydia Millet
  28. The Talented Mr. Ripley — Patricia Highsmith 
  29. Justin Trudeau on the Ropes — Paul Wells
  30. Becoming Earth — Ferris Jabr
  31. Comedy Book — Jesse David Fox
  32. Darth Plagueis — James Luceno 
  33. Aurora — Kim Stanley Robinson 
  34. Crooked Teeth — Danny Ramadan
  35. The Marrow Thieves — Cherie Dimaline
  36. 1Q84 — Haruki Murakami 
  37. The Will To Change — bell hooks
  38. The Undoing Project — Michael Lewis 
  39. Rest is Resistance — Tricia Hersey
  40. Misfit — Gary Gulman 
  41. Ripley Under Ground — Patricia Highsmith 
  42. Our Crumbling Foundation — Gregor Craigie 
  43. Age of Revolutions — Fareed Zakaria
  44. The Message — Ta-Nehisi Coates
  45. Nexus — Yuval Noah Harari 
  46. Revenge of the Tipping Point — Malcolm Gladwell
  47. Reconciling History — Jody Wilson-Raybould 
  48. Hunting by Stars — Cherie Dimaline 
  49. Red Mars — Kim Stanley Robinson
  50. How the World Ran Out of Everything — Peter S. Goodman
  51. The Spamalot Diaries — Eric Idle 
  52. Zeitoun — Dave Eggers
  53. At a Loss for Words — Carol Off
  54. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord — Daniel J. Levitin 

I also saw lots of great films and many amazing shows in 2024.

Best films of 2024.

These are the best films I saw in a theatre this past year. Some of these were released late in 2023, but didn’t play in Vancouver until January or February of 2024.

For me, Zone of Interest was one of the great films of the past few years. The way Jonathan Glazer used the medium, especially the sound track, to evoke a place in history and the ways humans can acclimatize to evil was extraordinary. Sing Sing was my favourite film that came out in 2024. An extraordinarily beautiful film with a truly amazing cast.

Sebastian Stan’s performances in both A Different Man and The Apprentice were a mind-blowing combination, and elevated them both onto this list.

  1. Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer 
  2. Sing Sing, Greg Kwedar
  3. Dune 2, Denis Villeneuve
  4. A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg
  5. American Fiction, Cord Jefferson
  6. Anora, Sean Baker
  7. A Complete Unknown, James Mangold
  8. A Different Man, Aaron Schimberg 
  9. Democracy Noir, Connie Field
  10. The Apprentice, Ali Abbasi 
  11. Who Can See Forever: A Portrait of Iron & Wine, Josh Sliffe

In addition to these films which I saw in a theatre, I have to give a shout-out to three truly excellent shows: Ripley, Say Nothing and Shogun. All are cinematic and top-notch.

I also read many good books and saw many amazing shows in 2024.

Concerts and shows of 2024.

This was another year where I was lucky enough to see some amazing shows and performers. There were a few acts that I’d never seen before and was so grateful to get to see them in person.

LCD Soundsystem is the main band I was so happy to finally see live, and they did not disappoint, putting on a stellar show.

I’d also been wanting to see IDLES live for years, and their show walked a fine line between being super aggressive musically and keeping it all tight and sounding great. I don’t know how they do that, it was spectacular. And we finally got to see the great St. Vincent who put on an epic show.

Being in the presence of both Kamasi Washington and André 3000 and listening to their music live was a very special treat. Hans Zimmer may have been the biggest surprise. We almost didn’t go, and it was an amazing show with upwards of 40 truly great musicians performing on stage.

And we love Mike Birbiglia and James Acaster and they were perfectly hysterical.

  • Jan 19 – Mike Birbiglia
  • Feb 16 – Aparna Nancherla
  • Mar 6 – James Acaster
  • May 3 – IDLES
  • May 14 – The Postal Service & Death Cab for Cutie
  • May 19 – LCD Soundsystem 
  • May 30 – Kamasi Washington 
  • Jun 10 – Nick Lowe & Ron Sexsmith
  • Jun 23 – Iron & Wine
  • Aug 11 – St. Vincent 
  • Sep 3 – Frank Turner
  • Sep 20 – James & Johnny Marr
  • Sep 29 – Gary Gulman
  • Oct 2 – War on Drugs & The National
  • Oct 6 – Hans Zimmer
  • Oct 11 – André 3000
  • Oct 12 – Brittany Howard & Michael Kiwanuka
  • Nov 4 – The The 

Here’s to a great 2025, we already have tickets to some great shows that I’m looking forward to, including a tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of American Football’s LP1.

I also saw lots of great films and read many good books in 2024.