2024 was a no holds barred, fantastic year in reading! In addition to reading more this year than I have in any year since 2018, I thoroughly enjoyed every single book I read. (Minus Heart of Darkness.)
The big theme this year was lot books about conservation and nature, the highlight being Douglas Brinkely’s masterful, three part history of presidents and public lands. Other highlights included a book on knowing when you need to take a break and a book I was privileged to play a small part in it’s creation.
As always, here is every book I read this year, along with my thoughts on each.
The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature by Loren Eiseley: Very very trippy ponderings from an old school anthropologist on life, the universe, and everything.
Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora: Captivating, and at times heartbreaking, I loved how well the author did at writing from the perspective of his nine-year old self.
A Craftsman’s Legacy: Why Working with Our Hands Gives Us Meaning by Eric Gorges with Jon Sternfeld: A collection of essays with various makers on why they love what they make and why they do it.
How To Do Your Own Woodfinishing by Jackson Hand: A treasure trove of information on staining and restoring wood.
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (The Novelization) by Terry Brooks: It’s always fun to read the Star Wars novelizations because you get a variety of extra tidbits and scenes from the film.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: This was a reread and I still don’t really get this appeal/purpose of this.
The Oresteian Trilogy by Aeschylus: Why we don’t have more tv series based on ancient greek tagedies, in this post Game of Thrones world is beyond me.
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare: Read on a whim because it was the Ides of March, therefore meeting my one Shakespeare play a year goal.
Chesapeake Bay: A Pictorial Maritime History by M.V. Brewington: Lots of cool old ship pictures.
Splinters: A Different Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison: Leslie Jamision continues to be my favorite working memoirist, but I have a hard time recommending her to people based on how dark her subject matter can be. This book is on a relatively light subject for her, the dissolution of her marriage.
Electrical Wiring Residential (20th Edition) by Phil Simmons and Ray C. Mullin: I took a nine-week electrician course at my local community college this spring and learning all about the National Electrical Code and a lot of the mathmatic calculations was actually really fun! (Feel free to reach out if you ever need help with electrical projects.)
How To Survive: Self Reliance in Extreme Circumstances by John Hudson: I rewatched the survival series Dude, You’re Screwed, aka one of the best reality tv shows ever made, this spring. John was always my favorite member on the show and his cool, calm, and collected nature translated well into this book which is more about surviving and overcoming challenges in everyday life more so than the wilderness.
The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley: After last year’s Theodore Roosevelt biography era, I was gifted this biography. (Thank you Phil!) Dense but isanely readable, Brinkley focuses specifically on TR’s life as it pertains to being in and later protecting the outdoors. What you get with this book is not only a vivid and detailed picture of TR’s impact on conservation but also a vivid and detailed picture of all of the other people and organizations that helped TR do it.
The End of Nature by Bill McKibben: Written in 1989, yet unfortunately still very precient because of how little progress we’ve made combating climate change.
The Future of Conservation in America: A Chart for Rough Water by Gary E. Machlis and Jonathan B. Jarvis: Meant to inspire hope from two seasoned conservation leaders. Yet, it feels very dated to the year it was written in, 2017, and limited in scope.
Outdoor Pastimes on an American Hunter by Theodore Roosevelt: My first time actually reading TR’s own writings and it made for a fun vacation read!
The Best American Essays 2021 by various: Highlights include “The Kitchen is Closed” by Gabrielle Hamilton and “My Mustache” by Wesley Morris.
The Hope of Snakes and Other Tales from the Urban Landscape by Lisa Coturier: A lovely little essay collection about the author still forging connections to nature, in areas typically thought of as not natural.
Hatchet by Gary Paulson: I always wanted read this as a kid, but for some reason never picked up a copy of it until now. I’m disappointed that I waited as long as I did. 12 year old Mark would have loved this.
Small Game by Blair Braverman: This needs to be made in a film ASAP!!!
Rewild School: A Pedagogy of Possibility by Shawn Humphrey: This was technically a reread, as I provided some edits and feedback on the original manuscript for this book last year.
I’ve often struggled to explain what being one of Shawn Humphrey’s students was like and the profound impact it had on my life. Over the years, I’ve used various different analogies and stories to try and describe, La Ceiba. But, I’ve never been able to effectively convey the unique learning atmosphere that Dr. Humphrey and my fellow classmates created, to anyone that wasn’t apart of it.
Now with Rewild School, I no longer need to do this. Dr. Humphrey, has written a loving guide book explaining his philosophy of teaching and the journey of La Ceiba, which liberated student and teacher alike.
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Lauren Hillenbrand: I was kind of confused at times why the horse Seabiscuit was such a big deal, because it seemed to me that he either lost or drop out of most of his races.
The Impractical Cabinetmaker: Kernov on Composing, Making, and Detailing by James Krenov: I was gifted a box of woodworking books and told if I was to read any of them, read Kernov. A look into the mind of a master woodworker. A lot of it was over my head, but I felt a connection to his mindset of expermentation and adapting to obstacles and mistakes.
Skipjack: The Story of America’s Last Sailing Oystermen by Christopher White: I know I say this every year, but read local history.
QBQ: The Question Behind the Question by John G. Miller: Basically, instead of complaining about them, fix your problems.
The Language of Cottonwoods: Essays on the Future of North Dakota by Clay Jenkinson: The most loving and thoughtful book on North Dakota you will ever read. (Granted, it is also probably the only book on North Dakota I will ever read.) A Dakotas trip is now top on my to-do list.
Barbed Wire: The Fence that Changed the West by JoAnne S. Liu: There is a lot more to the history of barbed wire than you would think.
Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America by Douglas Brinkley: Following up on the footsteps of his cousin, Brinkley highlights how FDR used the Civilian Conservation Corps to permenantly alter and enhance conservation in America, from founding most of our state park systems and expanding other public lands to planting 3.5 billion trees.
The title comes from the following FDR quote: ” I see an America whose rivers and valleys and lakes hills and streams and plains the mountains over our land and nature’s wealth deep under the earth are protected as the rightful heritage of all the people.” I hope that we can all see this America.
Our Inviting Eastern Parklands: From Acadia to the Everglades by Various: A photo collage of eastern National Parks, along with essays. While some essays are deeply medititave and reflective, others just feel like a surface level explorations of the parks they are about.
The Plague by Albert Camus: I should have read this in 2020.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: I enjoyed the complex and varied main characters, but I wish the chapters had been longer. The constant changing of perspectives made things a bit hard for me to follow at times.
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May: The right book at the right time (Thank you for the recommendation Coreen!). Lots of parts of this book stuck with me and one quote that I really felt is as follows:
“A great deal of life will always suck. There will be moments when we’re riding high and moments we can’t bear to get out of bed. Both are normal. Both in fact require a little perspective. Sometimes the best response to our howls of anguish is an honest one. We need friends who wince along with our pain, who tolerate our gloom, and who allow us to be weak for a while when we’re finding our feet again. We need people who acknowledge we can’t always hang on. That sometimes everything breaks. Short of that, we need to perform those functions for ourselves: to give ourselves a break when we need it and to be kind. To find our own grit, in our own time.”
This year brought with it some rough and challenging times. Yet, so much good came out of these rough and challenging times, that I can say they were worth it. Some of these good things are as follows:
Historically, I have a hard time relaxing and a hard time reaching out to people/asking for help. But as I read this book, I recognized that I needed to do both. Because of this, I had fall and early winter in which I which allowed myself rest and reached out to so many people to help process the challenges of the year. In doing this, I gained such appreciation for how strong a support network of friends, family, and coworkers I have and ultimately had a lot of personal growth. As the winter of 2025 arrives, I am taking these good things, and many others, into the new year win with a renewed clarity of focus and sense of optimism.
So thank you, dear reader, if you were apart of my 2024 journey.
Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening by Douglas Brinkley: With this being book three in his unofficial, history of conservation in America trilogy, Brinkley brings everything together into the environmental movement of the 1960s and 70s. I can’t stress enough how detailed the depictions of public lands as we know them today came to be and the wide coalition of people that brought them into being.
I also can’t stress how enjoyable this trilogy is. Like you will be nearly jumping for joy when the Wilderness Act of 1964 passes or Redwoods National Park is finally established by congress! At just over 2,100 pages altogether, you are in for a long haul, but this trilogy is so worth it.
American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal by Neil King Jr.: A fitting final book for 2024. Neil King Jr. died of cancer this year and this memoir chronicles the walk he took from Washington D.C. to New York City in the Spring of 2021 after recieving his terminal diagnose. On this walk, he encounters a wide variety of people and places, all though, uniquely American and uniquely wonderful.
One quote from an Amish school teacher that I’m going to be thinking about often going forward is this: “Humanity, at its core hasn’t changed really since the Roman Empire, or whatever empire you choose. We’re facing the same challenges they faced. And in response you try to be cheerful. You try to be a good neighbor. You try to be loving.”
01/02/2025 Update:
I just discovered that I left one book off of this list. So, I actually read 35 books in 2024
The Last Waterman by Glenn Lawson: A loving look at the character and community of Crisfield and the watermen that make it what it is.