My 2024 was pretty busy, mostly in good ways. 

So. That happened. I am sick to death of politics, so all I’ll say is, I hope everyone gets the year they voted for and deserve. 

New Zealand sister, her husband, and kids came for a good visit. I hadn’t gotten to meet her kids before now, so that was a delight. That whole visit was a highlight of the year, though I feel bad that their schedule meant they had to come in the hottest part of summer. There’s nothing good about summer in Phoenix. Sorry, Z – I hope next time you get to come when it is not a million degrees out. 

A few months after their visit, her younger brother came for a visit as well. He had a few days to kill between arriving in the States and taking his test to get promoted to captain (he works on superyachts – how cool is that?), so he came to visit us. I hadn’t seen him since he was like 8, so that was a fun visit as well.

I took my daughter on a trip to London during her fall break from school. One of my best friends met us there a few days later and we had one epic girls’ trip. I got a new tattoo while I was there; we saw a few plays, including A Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre; got to visit my friend’s family during a trip to Kew Gardens and Camden; ate dinner at St John, which was one of Anthony Bourdain’s favorite restaurants in London; saw, FINALLY, the tomb of William Marshal in the Temple Church; and spent hours in a massive 6-storey Waterstone’s, buying books that weren’t published in the States yet because buying books in Britain is more fun, and also I have no ability to delay my gratification when it comes to books in general. 

I hit a major reading slump this year, too, but I still did alright. I read a total of: 

• 36 books
• 11,113 pages
• 12 audiobooks
• 153:27 hours listened
• 67% of women authors
• 33% of male authors
• 8% LGBTQ+ authors 
• 19% LGBTQ+ characters (I did really badly in these 2 categories this year; I try to do 25-30% at least)
• The genre I read the most was sci-fi. Big surprise there. 44% of my reading was sci-fi
• The month I read the most was December, which is weird
• I had 8 books that I rated as 5-star reads
• I had 1 book to which I gave a 1-star rating

My favorite books of this year were:

• The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (also the audio)
• The Wild Silence also by Raynor Winn
• Thorn Hedge by T. Kingfisher
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
• A Closed and Common Orbit also by Becky Chambers
• the witch doesn’t burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace

My favorite audiobooks of this year were:

• The Salt Path written and read by Raynor Winn (also eyeball read this)
• Lost Boy by Christina Henry, narrated by Samuel Roukin
• Norse Mythology written and read by Neil Gaiman
• The Gentleman by Forrest Leo, narrated by Samuel Roukin and John Keating. (Some serious, laugh out loud funny moments in this one. The side notes just about killed me)
• The Shadowed Land by Signe Pike, narrated by Eilidh Beaton, Toni Frutin, Gary Furlong, Angus King, and Siobhan Waring (I waited 3 years for this book to come out and it was so worth it. Probably my new all-time favorite take on Arthurian legend)

I still have a few days left of 2024 so I may get a couple more books read between now and then. But it’s close enough.

My goals for 2025 are much as always – read lots, try new food, go to some interesting places, hang out with friends. I will try to complete my own reading challenge in 2025. For fun, I try to complete The Nerd Daily’s annual challenge as well, though I don’t make myself crazy if that doesn’t happen. And, of course, I try to do the reading challenges by tackling my own TBR in the process. I will post my annual reading challenge in a couple days for anyone who might want to participate. 

Happy Holidays, all!