Best Reads of 2024

 I once more concede that a year's-best posting before Thanksgiving might seem, well, early. But surely not so much if you -- or your reading giftees -- prefer material in paper and ink. If that's you, well, you may prefer to undertake your holiday shopping sooner rather than later. Not to mention: Labor shortages. Postal/UPS/FedEx slowdowns. Countless stores that had up Christmas displays well before Halloween. Also, in general, Stuff Happens. 

In any event, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will soon be upon us. At some stores/e-stores, they somehow already are.

If you find none of the above convincing? In a campaign year, surely any subject change is welcome. Distraction via the books that follow certainly helped me cope. Not to mention that if ever there were a year to support one's favorite authors, 2024 (again! sigh) is it. So: on to the latest installment of this annual feature. 

As always, I read a lot: as research, keeping current with the genre in which I write, and simply for enjoyment. Before the annual holiday shopping onslaught, I've taken to volunteering a few words about the most notable books from my reading (and sometimes re-reading) thus far in the current year. IIRC, this is my thirteenth such compilation. 

When I name a book, you can be certain I really enjoyed it and/or found it very useful. Life's too short to gripe about books I didn't find notable (much less the several I elected not to finish). Presuming that you visit SF and Nonsense because you appreciate my assessment of things, you might find, in what follows, books you (and like-minded friends, relatives, etc.) will also enjoy. Unless otherwise indicated, the dates shown are for original publication. Titles of recommendations are Amazon links, often to newer editions than the original publication (and to Kindle editions, where available).

What's impressed me so far this year? Read on ....

Science Fiction

The Defector (2023) by Chris Hadfield. Loosely a sequel to one of last year's picks (Hadfield's The Apollo Murders). Hadfield is back with more fast-paced, space-based, Cold War alternate history. Hadfield is a former fighter pilot, a former astronaut -- and a great writer.

A Canticle for Liebowitz (1959 -- and never since out of print) by Walter M. Miller, Jr. A post-nuclear-war classic from during the depths of the early Cold War -- and still outstanding. A thousands-of-years, episodic epic exploring Big Issues like if/how history repeats and the suitable roles in society of religion and state.

Other fiction(?)

Book 1 of trilogy

The Last Policeman trilogy, by Ben H. Winter: The Last Policeman (2012), Countdown City (2013), and World of Trouble (2014). Winter created an impressive storyline that's at once apocalyptic, police procedural, science fictional -- and, somehow, often uplifting. It's not heavy on SF, but it certainly has SFnal themes. But whether one has a taste for mysteries, police procedurals, or SF, Winter has it covered.

Science

What do string theory (and its generalization, brane theory), cosmic inflation theory, and multiverse theory have in common? That there seems to be no way to determine if any of these theories -- or, more precisely, any of these vast *families* of theories -- reflects reality or is mere fun with numbers. Physicists have been sparring for decades. Deja vu ... in the latter part of the nineteenth century, physicists had similar disputes over whether matter was infinitely divisible or atomic, whether the laws of (then newfangled) thermodynamics were absolute or -- as atomic theory implied -- merely probabilistic. The earlier disputes are viewed at length, mainly through the prism of the life of physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, in the biography/science book Boltzmann's Atom: The Great Debate That Launched a Revolution in Physics (2001), by David Lindley.

Other non-fiction

Some years, it turns out, much of my reading has a theme. It happened again this year, with the theme being World War I: its causes (*far* more complex than "Archduke assassinated; alliances pulled in everyone" as is often offered), campaigns (bloody and often inconclusive), and consequences (far-reaching ... to this very day). Among the many WWI-centric books I read, some standouts include Europe's Last Summer (2004), by David Fromkin, about the war's causes, The Guns of August (1962), by Barbara Tuchman, about the opening weeks of the war, and The Peace to End All Peace (2001), again by David Fromkin, viewing the war from the perspective of the Ottoman Empire, and how that empire's post-war dismemberment reverberates to this day.

The Wide, Wide Sea (2024) by Hampton Sides, on the life -- and, especially, the epic third voyage -- of Capt. James Cook (of whom, one may speculate, was loosely based a certain Capt. James T. Kirk). Excellent reading as history and adventure.