Books I Read in 2024

I’ve been meaning to do this since the last week of December 2024 but just haven’t had much time with higher priorities. So I’m finally doing it now! Here are the books I read in 2024. (At least what I can remember. I’m not even including all the picture books I read aloud to my son and grandsons.)

The above book is just so wonderful! Brad Wilcox has such a gift of explaining the wondrous gift of the grace and mercy of Jesus, all wrapped up in the atonement. You can read my full review here.

I read this book above for my Sisters’ Book Club. We live across the country, from North Carolina, Colorado, and Utah, so we meet in Zoom. I didn’t actually read it cover to cover, but I listened to most of it and skipped some of it because it was a little too intense for me that month of March 2024 for my emotional state. It’s one of those books though that I’m glad exists to me help me “walk in someone else’s shoes” in order to feel compassion for those of another race and the prejudice they experience.

This above one is sooo good! My review of it is here. I like to have one spiritual book I’m reading at all times, which I read at night in bed, to help me unwind. (Besides the scriptures, which I read in the morning individually and then in the evening with my family.)

This one, above, is for homeschooling my son. It’s Volume 2 of the Tuttle Twins American History series. These books are a great way to learn American history because the history is told in story format, within a great big frame story. We read it aloud together every day for months. It was part of our Morning Basket time. I look forward to Volume 3.

My pick for Sisters’ Book Club one month. It took me over 100 pages to decide I liked the book. It was weird and wonderful. My married daughter didn’t like it.

Another choice for Sisters’ Book Club, this time picked by one of my CO sisters-in-law. It’s about time I read Tuesdays With Morrie, I’ve heard about it for ages. A delightful read!

Both books below were also for Sisters’ Book Club, and by the same author. She definitely has a beautiful way of weaving stories! They are both books hard to put down because I just want to know what happens next. Definite page-turners!

The books above and below were for the Moms’ Class at the co-op school I used to be part of. I absolutely loved them! Both are wonderful books to mentor mothers in mothering. I thought I knew a lot about Maria Von Trapp and her family but this book below taught me a lot more. She was definitely a woman driven by mission. It was so fun to read about her family’s escapades in America after they left Europe. Especially about her inner call to build a singing camp for families in Vermont, and how they barely got it in done in time before people started coming as guests. I just love books about family life, especially large family life, and especially families led by parents following God. You can read my review of the book above here. It’s so beautiful!

Reading the above book got me in another Sound of Music jag, similar to the one I had back in 2001 or something like that. So, I went looking for and discovered the book below and devoured it. It was like eating a 5-gallon tub of purely wholesome ice cream made with raw milk and whole sweeteners in one week. So pleasurable and nourishing to boot!!! Each of the 7 children who appeared in the movie has a chapter full of the photos and mementos from the making of the movie, preserved by their mothers. So, so, so fun! Can you believe one of the moms in my co-op said she has never even seen the Sound of Music movie?! She is missing out on so much! I hope she has rectified that cultural literacy oversight by now. The books above and below are so perfect for winter!

Reading the book below was pure comfort at the end of a long day. It is full of encouraging, spiritual stories. It’s soo, soo, good! This same author wrote a book I read over 20 years ago, called On Wings of Faith, where he tells the story of accompanying Elder Ezra Taft Benson on his trip to Europe to help people recover from WW2. The stories in the book below will definitely increase one’s faith in Jesus Christ.

The book above is another one that I love to read at night to bring in the Holy Ghost to comfort me. It is full of stories of family history miracles. Go here to read a short summary. So yummy!

These Gordon Korman books above and below are so fun! He has a talent for writing humorous stories of tweens and teens, especially in school settings. I listened to these as audiobooks with my 15-year-old son during our car time, driving to and from seminary and other classes outside the home. You can find these books and a lot of the other books I’ve mentioned in this post in everand.com. It’s super handy that everand has an app just like audible does so we can listen to these on my phone. Next year he’ll be driving on his own, so I’ve got to maximize this car time. Maybe we’ll listen to Little Britches next.

I’ve read these ones below before, so I didn’t read them all cover to cover, but reviewed them a bit for mentoring my LEMI Sword of Freedom Project Class. I did reread Across Five Aprils cover to cover. It’s such a great book!

This one above was especially wonderful to revisit after seeing the room last August, on my trip to Maine with my daughter and sister and son and other relatives, to see the actual room where the book was written. Here’s my blog about that trip.

Then there are the “fun books I dabbled in and didn’t finish.” These are books I read a lot of, especially at night or in the summer while sunbathing, but I haven’t finished yet. See below.

Then there’s the book below I read every night, and continue to read, as part of my bookly nightcap routine. I unearthed it when moving last spring. Like I blogged here, it was a total God reminder that He’s watching over me and wants to delight me. I read that page’s day of events in history and the related trivia questions. Sometimes they are too trivial pop culture for me so I just skip those parts.