Splainer’s reading challenge 2024
Editor’s note: For the first Advisory edition of the year—after a long hiatus—our former book editor Anushree Kaushal is back with the immensely popular splainer reading challenge for 2024. You can reach out to Anushree at kaushalanushree@gmail.com to share notes or just to say hi:)
Written by: Anushree Kaushal, a freelance editor and writer
Hi all—we haven’t met in a while. How have you been? What have you been reading?
I had a great reading year in 2023. I read some extraordinary books that left me yearning for their worlds days and weeks after I had left them behind; predictably, I also had some disappointments, but that is always to be. The one thing that made my reading so successful was finding a balance between reading intuitively and reading intentionally and meaningfully. That path led me to my favourite book of the year—The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, an unforgettable story of a surprising friendship and a small village convinced that it is being haunted by a mythological sea serpent.
That’s the idea I want to continue imbibing in 2024. I have set out a reading challenge for us that feels achievable while also (hopefully) leaving enough room for us to expand our reading horizons. Almost all the books I recommend here I have either already read or are on my active TBR. There are 24 prompts, two for each month. I hope you find at least some of these books interesting and worth your time, but at the end of the day, I simply hope you have a fantastic 2024, in books and otherwise.
A book about Horror in an isolated place: ‘All the White Spaces’ by Ally Wilkes—something sinister is stalking a polar expedition crew and ‘Dead Silence’ by SA Barnes—something sinister in space!
A book with an animal on the cover: ‘Whalefall’ by Daniel Krauss—a scuba diver gets swallowed by a sperm whale… need I say more? Also ‘What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds’ by Jennifer Ackerman—I love owls, and I’d like to read at least one owl book a year, and 2024 is the year of this book.
A non-fiction book that has been nominated for a prize: ‘Lab Girl’ by Hope Jahren—a memoir about work, love and plant life and ‘Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory’ by Keggie Carew
A book about sports: ‘Peter Pan's First XI: The Extraordinary Story of J. M. Barrie's Cricket Team’ by Kevin Telfer and ‘Sudden Death’ by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer—begins with a brutal tennis match that could decide the fate of the world.
A book that has a number in the title: ‘The Last One’ by Will Dean—a woman wakes up on a cruise liner and finds herself all alone and ‘Dead Eleven’ by Jimmy Juliano—a newcomer arrives on a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994.
A book set in a post-apocalyptic world: ‘Severance’ by Ling Ma and ‘Land of Milk and Honey’ by C Pam Zhang
A Booker-nominated book: ‘In Ascension’ by Martin MacInnes—I’m dying to get started on this 2023 longlisted book and ‘A Brief History of Seven Killings’ by Marlon James—my signed copy has been languishing on my shelves for years, so maybe 2024 is when I’ll finally read it?
A book from a small/indie press: ‘Still Missing’ by Beth Gutcheon—published by the excellent Persephone Books and ‘Fifty Sounds’ by Polly Barton—by the award-winning Fitzcarraldo Editions.
A mystery with an isolation trope: ‘Death at the Sign of the Rook’ by Kate Atkinson—literally my most anticipated book of the year, featuring one of my favourite detectives, Jackson Brodie and ‘No Exit’ by Taylor Adams.
Fiction about or featuring space: I recently read and was deeply moved by ‘On A Sunbeam’ by Tillie Walden, a graphic novel set in the future and ‘Enlightenment’ by Sarah Perry—about astronomy and friendship.
A book that concerns or revolves around a building: ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ by Amor Towles—the Metronome Hotel in which the eponymous gentleman finds himself “imprisoned” is as much a character in this novel as he is and ‘The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America’ by Erik Larson.
A book whose title is a song lyric or a poem: ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro and ‘The Queen of the Night’ by Alexander Chee.
A book by a famous author with a long bibliography: In 2023, I read my first Stephen King, ‘Salem’s Lot’, and I quite enjoyed it! In 2024, I will begin reading Ann Patchett with ‘Commonwealth’. Go find your own famous author to dive into!
A memoir about life in another country: ‘The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story’ by Victoria Belim and ‘Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller’ by Nadia Wassef.
A book that talks about religion: ‘A Sacred Space is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism’ by Victoria Smolkin and ‘The Book of Strange New Things’ by Michel Faber.
A romance with a twist: ‘The Seven Year Slip’ by Ashley Poston—a time travelling house and two people who meet out of time and ‘Expiration Dates’ by Rebecca Serle—every time the protagonist meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it, signifying the exact amount of time they will be together.
A book with a season in the story or title: ‘Four Seasons in Japan’ by Nick Bradley and ‘One Summer in Savannah’ by Terah Shelton Harris.
A book featuring a young protagonist: ‘The Loophole’ by Naz Kutub—a timid seventeen-year-old queer Indian-Muslim boy and a possible jinn! Also, ‘Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer’ by Gillian Goerz.
A book about language: ‘The Centre’ by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi—a mysterious language school which boasts complete fluency in just ten days (sign me up!), but at a sinister cost (maybe not!) and ‘Babel’ by RF Kuang.
A book with bad weather: ‘A Traveler's Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water’ by David Gessner and ‘Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World’ by John Vaillant.
A book featuring twins: ‘The Thirteenth Tale’ by Diane Setterfield and ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
A book about food: ‘Good Taste’ by Caroline Scott—in 1932 England, a writer is commissioned to write a history of food in England and how the English like to eat. Also, ‘Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives’ by Kitty Tait and Al Tait.
A book about the mind or the brain: ‘The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry’ by Jon Ronson and ‘All the Answers’ by Michael Kupperman
A sci-fi/fantasy: ‘Kings of the Wyld’ by Nicholas Eames and ‘Children of Time’ by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
