Continuing, for some reason, an effort to chronicle every book I’ve read since The Lord of the Rings in the spring of 2017. This serves as an extension of my participation in what I labeled the Old Lady Book Club.

Part 1 (2017) | Part 2 (2018) | Part 3 (2019) | Part 4 (2020) | Part 5 (2021) | Part 6 (2022) | Part 7 (2023) | “Selected readings from the Old Lady Book Club”

Critical remarks are avoided apart from book club reactions and five- and one-star recognitions. Rereads coopt the register mark and establish that “rereads” and “coopt” are not to be hyphenated.

The year’s legacy: fiction breaks through, Trump books compel.

Melissa Maerz
Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused (2020) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kelly Link
White Cat, Black Dog (stories, 2023)

Danielle Evans
The Office of Historical Corrections (stories, 2020)

Gustavo Eduardo Abrevaya
The Sanctuary (2003/2023 translation)

Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

Chris DeVito
Coltrane on Coltrane: The John Coltrane Interviews (2010)

Steven Heighton
Instructions for the Drowning (stories, 2023)

Stephen King
Revival (2014)

Rebecca Scherm
A House Between Earth and the Moon (2022)

Adrian McKinty
The Chain (2019)

Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Plot (2021)

Katie Hafner
The Boys (2022)

James McBride
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (2023) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ken Napzok
Why We Love Star Wars: The Great Moments That Built a Galaxy Far, Far Away (2019)

Jonathan Abrams
The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop (2022)

Agatha Christie
Poirot Investigates (stories, 1924)

Daniel Sweren-Becker
Kill Show (2023)

Daniel James Brown
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (2013)

Un-Su Kim
The Cabinet (2017/2021 translation)

Stan Parish
Love and Theft (2020)

Bob Woodward
Rage (2020)

Samanta Schweblin
Mouthful of Birds (stories, 2009/2019 translation)

Ashley Audrain
The Whispers (2023) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Mike Royko
Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago (1971)

Emily St. John Mandel
Sea of Tranquility (2022)

Claire Keegan
Small Things Like These (2021)

Kurt Vonnegut (Jr.)
A Man Without a Country: A Memoir of Life in George W. Bush’s America (essays, 2005)

Alexandra Petri
Alexandra Petri’s US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up) (2023)

Rachel Kushner
The Flamethrowers (2013) ⭐

Kurt Vonnegut (Jr.)
Palm Sunday (collection, 1981)

Agatha Christie
The Moving Finger (1942)

Stephen King
Later (2021)

Neil Gaiman
A Study in Emerald (2018)

Rumaan Alam
Leave the World Behind (2020)

Kathleen Hanna
Rebel Girl: My Life As a Feminist Punk (2024) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Charles Dickens
Hard Times (for These Times) (1854)

Andrew Grant Jackson
1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music (2015)

Tom Clancy
The Hunt for Red October (1984)

William Peter Blatty
Which Way to Mecca, Jack? (1960) Ⓡ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

William Landay
All That Is Mine I Carry With Me (2023) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Paul Shirley
Can I Keep My Jersey? Eleven Teams, Five Countries and Four Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond (2007)

Claudia Piñeiro
Elena Knows (2007/2021 translation)

Ambrose Bierce
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (1890) Ⓡ

TJ Newman
Falling (2021)

Ainslie Hogarth
Motherthing (2022)

Carol Leonnig
I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year (2021) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Agatha Christie
The Murder on the Links (1923)

Tim O’Brien
America Fantastica (2023)

Darrell Hartman
Battle of Ink and Ice: A Sensational Story of News Barons, North Pole Explorers and the Making of Modern Media (2023)

Agatha Christie
Towards Zero (1944)
Elephants Can Remember (1972)
The Man in the Brown Suit (1924)

Kurt Vonnegut (Jr.)
Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage of the 1980s (collection, 1982)

Nicholas Binge
Ascension (2023)

Nikolai Gogol
“Diary of a Madman” (1835/1916 translation)
“The Nose” (1836/1916 translation)
“The Overcoat” (1842/1916 translation)

JG Ballard
High-Rise (1975)

Josh Malerman
Incidents Around the House (2024)

Agatha Christie
The Big Four (1927)

Michael Mammay
Generation Ship (2023)

Clay McLeod Chapman
Stay on the Line (2024)

Nikolai Gogol
“The Night Before Christmas” (1832/1916 translation)

Peter Swanson
The Christmas Guest (2023)

Agatha Christie
“The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” (1923/1960 revision)