Favorite Books of 2024

2024 Favorite Books

Finished 73 books this year. 

Breakdown: 66 audiobooks; 8 print books; 0 e-books.

My favorites (in order):

1. The Satanic Verses (1988) - Salman Rushdie
2. Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America (2023) - Michael Harriot
3. Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Change Your Sex Life (2021) - Emily Nagoski
4. The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism (2023) - Tim Alberta
5. Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology (2023) - Chris Miller
6. World Travel: An Irreverent Guide (2021) - Anthony Bourdain (with Laurie Woolever, posthumously published)
7. The MANIAC (2023) - Benjamin Labatut
8. All The Sinners Bleed: A Novel (2023) - S.A. Cosby
9. Shubeik Lubeik (2023) - Deena Mohamed
10. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (2023) - David Grann
11. All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) (2017) - Martha Wells
12. My Name Is Barbra (2023) - Barbra Streisand

2024 Audiobook Sound Engineering Favorites

I love it when audiobooks use the medium to enhance understanding of the written text. 

Hearing the author read the text can sometimes help (e.g., Patrick Stewart) but it can sometimes lead to a mediocre result (e.g., Billy Dee Williams seemed to struggle to read at times due to age, I think--though I loved hearing him pronounce "Lando Calrissian" and "chandelier").

The best moments:

Having an "aha" moment when hearing word pronunciations exactly as the author intended

Hearing emotion in the author's voice

Hearing audio-only portions (e.g., song performances)

Regrettably, this year did not have many moments like this for me.😝

The audiobooks I chose seemed mostly basic.

However, two did seem to stand out:

1. American Gods (2011 tenth anniversary edition, which includes the "author's preferred text" and 12,000 additional words) - Neil Gaiman: Full cast is excellent 
2. My Name Is Barbra (2023) - Barbra Streisand: Singing

Special mention of a love/hate relationship I had with listening to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980) - Douglas Adams (narrated by Martin Freeman):

• Gargravarr's bass-heavy & computer-distorted narration was nearly impossible to hear while driving
• The audio engineering in other spots was very nicely done, however