It’s been a great year for reading for me. I read 60 books–47 by women writers–and two manuscripts. I read six audio books, the rest in hard copy. I borrowed roughly one quarter from the library, and read 10 books that had been sitting unread on my shelves for more than a year–including one (The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón) that had been on the shelf for over 20 years. I read multiple books by five authors, and read two books twice. After years of reading mostly new releases by Australia women writers, I diversified and read work from all over time and place. The oldest book I read was published in 1817 (Persuasion), the newest in late-2024.
In no particular order, here are some of my reading highlights for 2024.
The Colony by Audrey Magee. Recommended to me by writer Susan Paterson, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and longlisted for the Booker, this was the one novel my entire book club loved. A powerful story about colonisation told through the microcosm of a community on a remote Irish island, interspersed with a documentary style account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The ending is a gut punch.
Clear by Carys Davies. Recommended to me by Kris Kneen at Avid Reader–for which I am ever grateful–I devoured this book. Like The Colony, Clear is set on a remote island somewhere between Scotland and Norway during the Highland Clearances. Exquisitely written and deeply compassionate, I have been recommending this one far and wide. West by the same author is also a great read.
Rounding off a trilogy of stories set on remote islands–again, off Ireland–is Water by John Boyne, recommended to me by my uncle Michael. I find contemporary Irish writing exhilarating for its truth-telling, exposes centuries of misogyny and corruption through an intimate lens. Both this novel and Claire Keegan’s So Late in the Day rocked my boat in 2024 (no pun intended).
A few books I read were out of left field genre-wise for me. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield came recommended by several library colleagues. I listened to it on audio through one of my library memberships and it was beautifully done, two different actors voicing the wives, Miri and Leah, the latter who has come back from a deep sea mission, miraculously alive but not quite right. I’ve seen Armfield’s work classified as horror and the story is certainly unsettling. But the writing is glorious and I found myself googling some extraordinary deep sea creatures.
Alice Robinson’s If You Go was another read out of the box, though I was already a big fan of Alice’s writing. If You Go might be classified as ‘domestic speculative fiction’. Set in an unspecified future, the intriguing story of a woman who wakes up in an unfamiliar subterranean facility unfolds like a puzzle. I admire a book that confronts me with decisions that challenge me to think about what I would do under the same circumstances and the denouement to this novel certainly delivers in that respect.
Author Willy Vlautin was recommended to me by Jane Ormond, whom I met at a gig for my brother’s band, Honk. I couldn’t find the particular book Jane recommended, so picked up his new release, The Horse, from Avid Reader on Eleanor’s recommendation and devoured this one, too. A succinct novel that reads like an epic country song, the central character’s self-destructive behaviour can make for difficult reading, but Vlautin never loses compassion for him. Stunning!
Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko deserves the multiple awards it has garnered. I read the novel where it is set, in Brisbane, which made me see the place in a whole new light. The story is devastating–as novels about Australia colonisation inevitably are–but it is leavened by engaging and resilient characters and Lucashenko’s wonderful use of humour.
I had the pleasure of visiting Scotland for the first time in 2024. On a tour of Holyrood Castle, we heard a sanitised account of the assassination of David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary Queen of Scots. Later that evening, our guide to ‘Dark Edinburgh’, Iona, told us a queerer, grittier version, and recommended Denise Mina’s novella Rizzio. Visceral and compelling, Rizzio is the first in a series called Darkland Tales, dramatic fictional retellings of stories from history, myth and legend written by Scottish authors, published by Polyglon. I’m keen to get my hands on Hex by Jenni Fagan, also recommended by Iona.
I might not have read Stone Yard Devotional (this was before the Booker Prize shortlisting) as the premise didn’t really grab me; but I was chairing a panel that Charlotte Wood was part of at the Mildura Writers Festival, so read it in preparation. I was so taken by it, I also read The Submerged Cathedral, which Wood published in 2004. It was fascinating to read both books, which touched on similar themes, and see how greatly Wood’s skills as a writer had developed over 20 years to take these themes to the next level. An intensely introspective book that somehow feels expansive. Genius!
I read Cherrywood by Jock Serong twice: once as an ARC and once in preparation to interview Jock at a former seafarers’ chapel in Williamstown–an appropriate venue to talk about a book in which one of the plotlines involves the launch of a paddlesteamer on Port Phillip Bay in the early twentieth century. The other plotline is set in Fitzroy in the 1990s in a pub that seems to move. The lovechild of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Peter Carey, Cherrywood is utterly transporting, with a cracker of a final act.
I will read any book with the word ‘library’ in the title! In 2024, this resulted in one disappointment (The Midnight Library by Matt Haig), and one gem, What you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama. People often ask me for uplifting reads and What you are looking for is in the library is one I recommend. It may make you reflect on self-imposed limitations and may even send you to the library… Honorable mention to Kind of, Sort of, Maybe But Probably Not by Imbi Neeme, which though it doesn’t have ‘library’ in the title is set partly at the Fitzroy Library.
Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader was such a delight, it would be remiss of me not to mention it. Recommended to me ages ago, I found a copy at City of Melbourne Libraries and sped through it. Though not a fan of the British royal family, I was besotted by Bennett’s take on the subversive power of reading. Pure joy!
Being a fan of Holden Sheppard’s short story in Spinning Around: The Kylie Playlist, I read his two novels in 2024 and I could’ve put either on this list of reading highlights. The Brink just nudges out Invisible Boys because the audio book was so well done: three actors voicing the three different narrators of this thrilling story of a schoolies trip gone horribly wrong. As the parent of an 18 year-old, the teen voices felt utterly authentic. Looking forward to Sheppard’s King of Dirt in 2025.
I also read two novels by Myfanwy Jones this year: her 2024 release Cool Water and her 2015 novel Leap, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin award. Again, both were highlights. Jones writes men and Australian masculinity with a steely eye but a compassionate heart. Cool Water has the added attraction of shedding light on the history of a community largely flooded by the building of a dam in the Atherton Tablelands.
I’d intended a ‘Top 10’ but my list has grown to 15, and it could grow further if I let it! Like I said, it’s been a great year for reading for me. In 2025, with plans to return to more substantial writing, I suspect my reading consumption will not be as voluminous. But my summer reading pile looks great, and likewise the book club list for 2025.
Happy reading all!
Angela Savage 