Book Review 2024 - Kaden Barlow

I love New Year's season and reflecting on life, goals, and personal growth. I look forward to writing this blog post and thinking about the books I read. This year, I read a total of 40 books. It's fun to see what books I enjoyed, which books I learned from, and which books were a waste of time. I'm happy to say I branched out into many genres this year. Only half the books I read were Fantasy or Science Fiction. I usually try to read two books at a time. One for entertainment, and one for personal growth. You'll see that in the quick book reviews I've written below.

I write this blog post for myself to keep track of what I've read each year, but if you are reading this, and you aren't me I hope that I've explained enough about the book to give you an idea of why I liked it and when you might want to try it.

Favorites of 2024

Let's begin with the books and series that I loved. These are the books that I couldn't put down, books that I bought the day they were released, and books that remind me why I love to read.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

If I had to pick a single book to recommend to someone this year, my first pick would be Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. It's well-written, funny, and has some great reveals. I saw one review describing the books as "snarkily charming" and I couldn't agree more. I enjoyed the author's metafictional narration and found it very clever. I don't read a lot of murder mysteries and it was nice to have a change of pace. This quick read was hard to put down. If you like a good mystery or enjoy Agatha Christie's books you will enjoy this book.

Not Till We Are Lost

I'm sure at some point in the last four years I've raved to you about the Bobiverse books and I'm going to do it one more time. If you like Science Fiction at all and haven't read the Bobiverse you need to stop whatever you are reading and pick up this series right now. The world-building is amazing. It could be the programmer in me, but I love the idea of an AI cloning itself and exploring the universe. There are plenty of pop-culture references, humor, and action. If you are into audiobooks the narrator is amazing. As far as the series itself goes, I think Heaven's River is the best but I enjoyed Not Till We Are All Lost and it lived up to all my expectations. Do it now, read The Bobiverse.

John Cleaver Series 1-5

Next up is the John Cleaver Series. I had seen I Am Not a Serial Killer several times on different lists and recommended to many who share similar interests as I do so I decided to give it a shot and I wasn't disappointed. I couldn't put the book down. The book starts like a mystery or true crime novel but there is a supernatural twist that may put off some readers. I knew this going in so I wasn't surprised or disappointed by this twist.

It wasn't until after I had read the book that I realized that Dan Wells is the VP of Narrative for Dragonsteel Entertainment, has known Brandon Sanderson for years, and is in a writing group with him. I'm sure that I will be reading more of his work related to the Cosmere and will see his influence on related works so it was fun to read through some of his original content and get a feel for how he writes.

As far as the series goes, the first four books and short story are worth reading. Starting with book five the series goes downhill. There is less action and it didn't keep me on the edge of my seat as much as the first four. I started book six but couldn't push through and finish the series. I still mean to go back and try again at some point. I think one of the big issues with the last two books of the series is that John is traveling the country and the series loses its small-town feel which I think added a lot of intrigue, suspense, and stakes to the series. Dan wasn't able to overcome that. After John leaves his hometown all the characters become temporary because he is moving from city to city and it's hard to care about the characters as they come and go. Traveling between places also takes up a lot of the story and slows the action down. That all said, the first four books are amazing and one of my favorites reads from this year.

The Terminal List Series

Ok, we've covered Mystery, Science Fiction, and Horror, and now onto Military Fiction. When The Terminal List came out on Amazon Prime I saw a lot of raving reviews about it. I also saw that it is based on a book. I was curious and I picked it up to give it a try. I think I read the first book in a single day. I couldn't put it down. It was like reading a Jason Bourne or James Bond movie. The author is an ex-Navy Seal. He uses his knowledge and background to make the action seem authentic. My only criticism of the series is that each book (after the first) feels the same. You have (spoiler alert) the underdog hero who will fight against all odds and save the day at the last moment. Because I read them to be entertained, this didn't bother me and I think if you are looking for this type of book you won't be disappointed either.

The Murderbot Diaries 1-5

If I were going to write a book, I'd want to write a book like All Systems Red. Reading this book almost made me want to try writing a book, no book has made me feel like that before. I loved the mystery, suspense, action, and I thought the writing was well done. It was crazy how invested I was in the main character of the book in so short a timeframe. For being a novella, I thought the plot and world-building were also well done. Each book was a nice breath of fresh air between the longer Stormlight Archive books I read this year. I'm, yet again, recommending another Science Fiction series, but you won't be disappointed if you need a quick read and pick this one up.

Runners-Up

These next few books are books that maybe weren't page-turners but are still good and worth recommending. I'd rate these four stars on Goodreads. They are books outside of my favorite genres that have helped me improve as a person or have made me think about my life and career. They are books I'd easily recommend to anyone even if I wouldn't read them over and over again.

Good Inside

Good Inside is the parenting book of all parenting books. Even if you don't have kids you should read this book if you interact with nieces, nephews or grandkids. It provides techniques to teach kids resiliency and helps them develop skills to become successful adults instead of just changing their behavior to comply with what you want them to be doing as a parent. It goes further than most parenting books and courses that are popular these days that focus solely on helping kids understand and work through their emotions and end up teaching kids that what they are feeling is the absolute truth in the universe. Dr. Becky ties together for me the way to help your kids understand their emotions and then how to deal with them as well. That all said, there are things that the book gets wrong and that I don't agree with but I do think it's one of the best parenting resources I've been introduced to as a parent.

One Summer in Savannah

This book was part of OneDrive's Together We Read book club, which they do annually. For the book club, over two weeks, anyone can check out the book with no waitlists on OverDrive or Libby. I thought that was cool and I decided to give it a try. I don't normally read fiction or romance like this, but the writing style sucked me in. The book deals with some pretty heavy themes such as sexual assault, trauma, and death. Overall I thought the author did a remarkable job telling a thought-provoking story about forgiveness, love, and hope.

Rework

I started my career as a Ruby on Rails developer and have since followed dhh and 37 Signals. The general developer population finds most of dhh's takes controversial. I certainly don't agree with everything he says but I agree with a lot of it. I decided to give his and Jason Fried's book a try. I didn't learn anything revolutionary from the book but it was a quick read and I do like a lot of their takes on how to run a small software company. So you can get a taste, here are some things I liked from the book.

Real heroes are the employees who figure out how to get things done faster and more efficiently and then go home instead of the workaholics who burn themselves out and make others feel inadequate.
Don't hire until it hurts, and don't hire too quickly
Meetings are bad, avoid them or keep them short
Long projects are bad for morale
Software estimates suck and are impossible, break things down as small as possible and just get to work
Culture is a byproduct of behavior, you can't create it
If a decision is reversible, don't worry about it

The Ministry of Time

The Ministry of Time was on Barack Obama's summer reading list. I saw it at my local library and picked it up. I don't think I've ever read a book before that realistically shows the culture shock that I would expect someone to go through after traveling into a new time period. Not only was this a fun and new idea for me, but I got a good kick out of the related humor. The plot was just so-so. Most of the book, while fun, wasn't important to the overall story line and the author rushed through many major plot points in the last few chapters. That's ok because the book was more about the writing, the relationships, and the author's exploration of colonialism, slavery, race, and immigration, as well as morality, ethics, and agency.

Losers

These are the books that I wish I hadn't read. Each was a book that I should have just stopped reading but I have a hard time with that once I'm so far in unless it's a long book. I've tried to explain why I didn't like them below in a way that you can decide if you would feel the same as me, and if so, you can avoid wasting your time on them.

The 4-Hour Work Week

There is not a single person I would recommend this book to. It easily comes in first place for the worst book I read this year (maybe ever). I thought this book would be a follow-up to reading Die with Zero (which I'd recommend to anyone and everyone). I love the idea of choosing the experiences you want to have in life and not letting life pass you by stuck in the grind each day. I love that money isn't the most important thing in the world and that there is value in meaningful work, a flexible schedule, and family time and memories. While the book has one or two good insights, the presentation is trash. I couldn't come away from the book without being able to focus on how unethical, fraudulent, and dishonest Tim Ferris is. People buying into what Ferris sells are falling for promises of a get-quick-rich scheme. He found an actual problem, the drudgery and emptiness that many Americans feel suck in their day jobs, and gives the impression that he has the secret to fixing that problem. It is apparent from his book that he is a jerk and doesn't care at all about other people. It's so bad I can't even talk about it more. I can't believe I'm wasting my time on it.

The Miracle Morning

This book should have been a one or two-page blog post, not a whole book. It's also ridiculously over-hyped. The book can be summarized in a single sentence. Wake up an hour earlier and spend 10 minutes on each of the following: Meditation, affirmations, visualizations, exercise, reading, and writing. 99% of the book is fluff. It felt like a conglomerate of self-help principles from other self-help books put together into a single ritual packaged in an MLM sales pitch. It may even be a good one. If you are interested in learning more look up a summary, don't read the book, it's a waste of time.

Columbus Day

Columbus Day appears to be everything I normally love and was recommended to me by two different friends yet it fell flat for me. It could be that I read it instead of listening to it (I've heard the narrator is amazing), but there were a couple of things I couldn't get past. First, the book was pretty slow. There were a few exciting parts but then a lot of the book was waiting around without much happening. The author talks about the world wing for 50% of the book instead of showing the world through the story. Second, the humor just wasn't for me. As much as I wanted to love Skippy, I just couldn't. His humor was juvenile insults, sarcastic quips, and bad dad jokes. There wasn't a lot of character development and the writing was mediocre and immature. Fans of the series love that there are 17 books to keep them happy, I realized there was no way I could stick through that many books after how I felt after the first one so I called it quits. I'm pretty disappointed as there are a lot of references to this series in the Bobiverse and vice-versa. I wanted to like these books.

All prepped for Wind and Truth!!

Lastly, I had a goal this year to reread The Stormlight Archive in preparation for Wind and Truth which came out at the beginning of December. Each of the four main books is over 1000 pages long. There are also two shorter novellas. Because of the sheer volume, I didn't quite finish my goal of reading them all before the fifth book came out, but I did read them all this year! This series is the best of Brandon Sanderson's writings. The world-building, character development, and plot are all exceptional. It isn't the place to start for Sanderson's writing, but the whole series is in my top three of all time. I'm excited to read Wind and Truth as my first book of 2025!