My Favorite Books of 2024
New Reads, Rereads, Honorable Mentions, and Hopeful Reads for 2025
Hi, this is Gloriana from Ink Blots with my favorite books from 2024 (slightly late, of course, since I joined Substack in early January 2025!)! I have a little list-collection for you, in this order:
Top Seven Rereads
Top Ten New Books
Top Ten Honorable Mentions
Twenty-One Books/Authors/Series/Collections I Want To Read In 2025
Let’s get down to business, shall we?
Top Seven Rereads!
1. The Ranger’s Apprentice series
A good read for any young buck wanting an adventure series! I recommended it to a certain other infrequent substacker, who read the first 7-ish books (if he reads this he’ll have to confirm whether I remembered correctly) and made the accurate observation that the first two are the best. I wouldn’t recommend the Royal Ranger sequel series. They degenerate, unfortunately.
Eight out of ten, overall.
2. Ecochondriacs
Out comes Election season… so out comes Douglas Wilson’s Ecochondriacs! Always good for a laugh.
Eight out of ten.
3. Calvin & Hobbes, the complete collection
Comedic perfection!
Nine out of ten.
4. The Outlaws of Time Trilogy
My favorite of N.D. Wilson’s books… but I still can’t quite figure out whether I like the third one or not.
So eight out of ten overall!
5. The Ball and the Cross
I need to recommend this to more people! It’s amazing. Catholic vs. Atheist sword duel in 20th century “modern” England and all that great stuff!
However… it does instill an unnatural (or ought it to be natural?) urge to grab a sword, run up to someone, anyone really, and yell “Stand up and fight, you crapulous coward!” So… thanks Chesterton?
Nine out of ten.
6. The Chronicles of Narnia
No explanation needed. Beautiful. It did prompt me to re-listen to The Gray Havens’ album Blue Flower, which is based on the life of C.S. Lewis. Five at least of the songs are based on the books, but I’m still trying to figure out which songs correlate to The Magician’s Nephew and The Last Battle! If someone finds out, tell me!
Ten out of ten, always!
7. The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit
Again… do I really need to explain this?
Ten out of ten… wish the scale went higher!
Top Ten New Reads!
1. The Gulag Archipelago (abridged version)
I don’t know how I made it through the whole thing; doubt I could have done the unabridged version!
Eight out of ten.
2. The Aeneid
Glad I read it. In fact, I enjoyed the first eight books! The last third of the book had too much bloodshed for me.
Six out of ten.
3. Manalive
Chestertonian hilarity.
Eight out of ten.
4. The Westminster Confession
How to review something that spells out your beliefs? I don’t know…
No rating.
5. Forbidden Child
Great new novel from Canon Press!
Nine out of ten.
6. A Serrated Edge
Douglas Wilson’s defense of Christian satire!
Eight out of ten (what can I say, I like fiction better…)
7. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Finally read the whole thing; it was beautiful, yet definitely has a few weak theological points. For instance, it describes Jesus’s face as being almost woman-like. However, the Bible makes it very clear that Jesus was the embodiment of a strong man! *shelves for further discussion*
Eight out of ten.
8. Death By Living & Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl
Lovely writing, N.D. Wilson! I grew up reading his books, so a book on living in his writing style just seemed beautiful and natural to me.
Nine out of ten.
9. The Ransom Trilogy, otherwise known as The Space Trilogy
Gorgeous. Best Integrated Humanites IV read! (Well, technically I only had to read That Hideous Strength, but I did the other two and they were totally worth it!)
Ten out of ten!
10. The Boys in the Boat
If I show up on the New Saint Andrews rowing team, this book is why! I really never thought that non-fiction could tell as thrilling a tale as fiction! Boy was I wrong. I’m going to dub this my favorite book of the year! It was also my favorite Christmas present.
Ten out of ten, again I wish the scale went higher!
![The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics [Book]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PbK3!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7ff2e3b-f672-4113-ad00-c48000fc0599_1669x2560.jpeg "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics [Book]")
Top Ten Honorable Mentions
1. Ender’s Game
Very disturbing, yet gripping.
Seven out of ten, points given for storytelling, points docked for foul language and worldview.
2. Brave New World
Disgusting, yet somehow there’s truths to be found in it relating to modern-day society. Why did I read it twice? I can’t give any answer except that I had to write a paper on it, and I forgot a lot of it between the two reads. Thanks Dr. Olsson?
Seven out of ten, see Ender’s Game.
3. The Flying Inn
This should have made it onto the list of new books, but unfortunately there wasn’t room! Maybe this year it’ll make it onto the ‘rereads’ section, if I have time!
A jolly romp through England with a barrel of whiskey and a inn-sign, singing songs and running from the law. I think Taylor Kwan would like it!
Nine out of ten; I liked The Ball and The Cross better.
4. The Anne of Green Gables series
Forever a childhood favorite, I reread it about once a year.
Ten out of ten, I’m biased.
5. The Door Within Trilogy
By Wayne Thomas Batson, this trilogy is a Christian fantasy adventure fit for both young men and women.
Seven out of ten for slightly cliched language and writing in an unelevated fashion for an elevated setting.
6. All Quiet On The Western Front
It’s a classic, but I didn’t like it. Too nihilistic for me.
Five out of ten.
7. A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich
Same author as the Gulag Archipelago. Same place, but shorter if you want the gist of the misery of the place with an actual storyline.
Six out of ten, because I didn’t really like it but it was still well done.
8. Cry, the Beloved Country
Excellent perspective on history through a fictional novel. The writing style wasn’t quite to my taste, but I think that’s because I was raised on Tolkien and Lewis, both European.
Eight out of ten.
9. The Hunger Games
Only book one… I plan to finish them in 2025! The nihilistic worldview is somewhat disturbing, but Suzanne Collins sure can tell a gripping story!
Seven out of ten, see Ender’s Game and Brave New World.
10. Through Gates of Splendor
Beautiful true story! I couldn’t put it up with my top reads because I’d already gotten to ten and I had told myself I wouldn’t put more than ten up there…
Nine out of ten.
Twenty-One Books/Series/Collections/Authors On My Reading/Rereading List For 2025
I’m calling this my pre-NSA bucket list!
1. The Faerie Queene (Edmund Spenser)
Slightly ambitious, yes, I know.
2. Paradise Lost
I wish to reread it without the constraints of an academic deadline.
3. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
See my note on The Faerie Queene!
4. Les Miserables
Been on my list for a while, I need to check it off.
5. The Three Musketeers
Same as Les Miserables. Besides, they’re both sitting on the bookshelf. I blame El Procrastinato.
6. The Divine Comedy
Do I need a reason to read the classic that my friend has been telling me all about for years and years?
7. C.S. Lewis
I like his books.
8. Get the Guy: How to be the kind of woman the kind of man you want to marry would want to marry
Does that need much explanation? I’m a girl… I wanna marry a guy… I need all the advice I can get. Hopefully I can get ahold of it somewhere.
9. The White Horse King
In case I end up in Ashdown. I want Jericho, but hey… at least I know a couple people in Ashdown! As for Malta… uh… I know no one.
10. Jane Austen
Always handy to have a bunch of classical-sounding romance novels under one’s belt.
11. Planet Narnia
I’ve been wanting to read it ever since that one lecture in IH4.
12. Institutes of The Christian Religion/Confessions
These are NSA required books, right?
13. George MacDonald
I know where I can get ahold of some, and it might be a nice break from all of the other books.
14. G.K. Chesterton
I think this list is possibly getting unmanageable.
15. Charles Dickens
Just a sampling, perhaps. Not the whole works.
16. My Dear Hemlock
This one at least is realistic, since my young ladies study group is reading it!
17. Douglas Wilson
The guy founded the college I’m going to, gotta know what I’m getting into, right? The downside? Now my siblings roll their eyes every time I pick up a new one of his.
18. Brandon Sanderson
Just to round things out with some fiction.
19. P.G. Wodehouse
For a laugh… I’m going to need it.
20. Anna Karenina
Or something else Russian, I need some other regions on my list… because it’s mostly Eurocentric.
21. The Silmarillion
Some Fictional History… for the nerd in me.
Farewell!
Well, thanks for reading! If you made it this far, you might as well subscribe to see if I actually make it through all of those books this year!
Adios!
You are so on track 😱 The Aeneid is so great. Notes from the tilt-a-whirl helped me through my angsty middle school doubting-my-faith phase. Having read 1984 I really wanna read Brave New World to have all that apocalyptic dystopian (prophetic????) stuff under my belt. I want to read Planet Narnia too!! I should probably read more Chesterton (I have only read Orthodoxy). And I need to read more Wodehouse eeeeeee. Have fun with Dante, Milton, and Dickens, all iconic 😉 If you want an easy and short intro to Dickens I recommend The Christmas Carol. Probably one of my favorite books. And please, do an update on what you think of all the new books you read! Thanks for sharing! You have aroused the book-devouring wolves in my soul now and I want to read everything 👀
(Also you wouldn't happen to be classically educated, would you? I am too... if you can't tell....)