And just like that, 2024 is over. Thank you 2024 for all the memories and the lessons. We’ve successfully completed a 365-day revolution around the sun. As the old adage goes, with every end comes a new beginning. 2024’s conclusion comes with the opening of a new door. We are provided with 12 new chapters with 365 blank pages ]upon which to paint new memories. I hope that we will paint these blank canvasses with memories that we will cherish for a lifetime, may it be with the people we love or all by ourselves.

As has been the tradition in the past few years, I will be kicking off the new year by looking back to the previous year, its hits, and of course, its mishits. It is also an opportunity to take a glimpse of how the coming year is going to shape up. This book wrap-up is a part of a mini-series that will feature the following:

  1. 2024 Top 20 Favorite Books
  2. 2024 Book Wrap Up
  3. 2024 Reading Journey by the Numbers
  4. 2024 Most Memorable Book Quotes (Part I)
  5. 2024 Most Memorable Book Quotes (Part II)
  6. 2024 New Favorite Authors
  7. 2024 Beat the Backlist Challenge Wrap-up
  8. 2025 Books I Look Forward To List
  9. 2025 Top 25 Reading List
  10. 2025 Beat the Backlist Challenge

Ah. The backlist. I have always been the backlist type of reader; a backlist pertains to a book published beyond the current year. I got into reading later than most; I started reading works of fiction when I was a senior in high school although I read magazines and encyclopedias when I was younger. It comes as no surprise that my want-to-read list is brimming with backlist books. Even my bookshelf agrees with me. To decongest my growing backlist, I signed up for the Beat the Backlist Challenge. This has become a tradition. For the 2024 challenge, I set a target of 60 books. Given my natural tendency, I am that confident about hitting my target. It came as no surprise that I went above and beyond my target. Of the 129 books I read last year, 117 were backlists.

I added my own twist to the challenge. Apart from setting a target for the year, I also craft a list of backlist books that I resolve to complete for the year. During the first time I participated in the challenge in 2019, I listed fifteen books. I fell short of this target so I reduced my target to twelve books in the next two years. Thankfully, I was able to complete reading these books. I picked up a notch by listing fifteen books in 2022 and then 20 books in 2023 because I wanted to challenge myself. In 2024, I again listed twenty books and for this year, I have no plans of changing that. I liked most of the books in my 2024 Beat the Backlist challenge list but some fell short of my expectations. Nevertheless, I am glad that I came up with the list for I have crossed out several books that have been gathering dust on my bookshelves.

Here’s my 2024 Beat the Backlist challenge list:

For the first time, I also joined Beat the Backlist Bingo, particularly the 52 prompts. Unfortunately, I was not able to complete all the fifty-two prompts. Here was how I fared in the bingo.

  • Fae or aliens
    – None
  • Title contains a body of water
    – God Dies by the Nile (1974) by Nawal El Saadawi
  • Four-word title
    – Cities of the Plain (1927) by Marcel Proust is the fourth book in Proust’s magnum opus, Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time.
  • Travel by ship
    – The Tears of Dark Water (2015) by Corban Addison
  • Prominently features a desert
    – Cities of Salt (1984) by Abdelrahman Munif. While Abdelrahman Munif’s Cities of Salt does not explicitly mention a prominent desert, the book’s setting already gives a hint. It is set in an unnamed Gulf country, documenting how the discovery of oil in the region has slowly altered the region. Overall, an insightful and thought-provoking read.
  • Retelling of a classic
    – None
  • Small town vs. big city
    – A Woman of Pleasure (2013) by Kiyoko Murata is the story of fifteen-year-old Aoi Ichi. She grew up on a rocky volcanic island but was sold by her father to an exclusive brothel in Kumamoto, a regional capital along an inland sea on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu. Aoi often compares life on the island and her new life in Kumamoto.
  • Queer AF
    – Vagabonds (2022) by Eloghosa Osunde transported the readers into the underbelly of Lagos. It was teeming with life, with queerness at its core. It was also a scathing social and political commentary that probed into the maladies that keep Nigeria shackled to the ground. 
  • Good vibes only
    – Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop (2022) by Hwang Bo-Reum. Hwang’s novel may tackle the weariness of millennials, particularly the pressure placed on them to conform to norms, but it is also a heartwarming story about healing, starting anew, and the beauty found in genuine connections.
  • These woods hold secrets
    – The Empusium (2022) by Olga Tokarczuk. Inspired by another Nobel Laureate in Literature, Olga Tokarczuk’s latest novel transports readers to the village of Görbersdorf, a health resort tucked in the Silesian mountains.
  • Anything but a monarchy
    – A Small Town Called Hibiscus (1981) by Gu Hua captures the impact of totalitarianism on a small town. It captures how the town and its denizens navigate the changes taking place during the Cultural Revolution.
  • Published 100+ years ago
    – Mansfield Park by Jane Austen was published in 1814.
  • Walk through history
    – The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (2021) by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers opens in the contemporary but travels into the past, tracing the provenance of Ailey Pearl Garfield, the novel’s heroine. In the process, the novel captures the Black African slavery experience and how it intersected with the Native American colonial experience.
  • Door on the cover
    – Stone Yard Devotional (2023) by Charlotte Wood. The book was short-listed for the 2024 Booker Prize.
  • 2023 debut novel
    – Western Lane by Chetna Maroo was shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction
  • Bird is the word
    – When We Were Birds (2022) by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
  • Writing about writing
    – Love and Garbage (1986) by Ivan Klíma is the story of an unnamed writer whose work was censored. He was relegated to working as a trash collector in Communist Czechoslovakia’s Prague. While ruminating, he undertook the task of writing an essay about Franz Kafka.
  • Live in infamy
    – The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Blurbed by a fave author
    – The Shadow King (2019) by Maaza Mengiste. On the book’s cover is a commendation from Salman Rushdie: “A brilliant novel, lyrically lifting history towards myth.”
  • Recommended via a newsletter or podcast
    – The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (2023) by James McBride. It was actually through literary publications and magazines that I came across McBride’s novel. Midway through 2023, the book was called by many as one of the best books of the year. I have to agree.
  • Tickles your funny bone
    – Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming (2016) by László Krasznahorkai. This was an unconventional choice. It is a satire of how a small town was deluded by the return of a once-popular denizen who wasted his life away abroad.
  • First in an unfinished series
    – The Maid (2022) by Nita Prose
  • On your TBR 5+ years
    – The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (2008) by The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I think I bought the book about eight or nine years before I read it.
  • Coauthored or illustrated
    – The Three Musketeers (1844) by Alexandre Dumas.  My copy of the beloved classic published by Reader’s Digest contains illustrations.
  • Share the love
    – Sing You Home (2011) by Jodi Picoult is the story of Zoe Baxter who, for the longest time, struggled to have a child with her husband Max. Unable to bear another failure, Max divorced his wife. Broken, it was at this juncture that Zoe met Vanessa Shaw. The two fell in love and the rest, they say, is history. But not really.
  • Author last name starts with “v”
    – The Covenant of the Water (2023) by Abraham Verghese. The book was one of the ten books on my 2024 Top 10 Books I Look Forward To list but I was not able to obtain a copy of it in the previous year.
  • It’s the end of the world as we know it
    – Under the Eye of the Big Bird (2016) by Hiromi Kawakami. It is the latest novel by the Japanese writer to be translated into English.
  • STEM stan
    – The Invention of Morel (1940) by Adolfo Bioy Casares. The title is a giveaway I guess. Bioy was the mentee of renowned Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.
  • We have so much in common 
    – Woman of the Ashes (2015) by Mia Couto. This one is a little difficult. I am picking this book by Couto because Couto and I share the same birthday (July 5). Another reason is because the novel is a work of historical fiction, a literary genre that has become a home for me.
  • Between 300 and 400 pages
    – I’m Not Stiller (1954) by Max Frisch. The novel is 384 pages long. It is my first by the Swiss writer.
  • An unexpected inheritance
    – Inheritance from Mother (2012) by Minae Mizumura
  • Neon colored cover
    – Calling for a Blanket Dance (2022) by Oscar Hokeah
  • Hotel, mansion, or castle
    – The House on Calle Sombra (2021) by Marga Ortigas
  • Author and character share an initial
    – The Castle (1926) by Franz Kafka. The novel’s main character was named “K”
  • Character name is a color
    – My Brilliant Friend (2011) by Elena Ferrante. One of the two main characters in the novel is Raffaella Cerullo. However, she is more warmly referred to as Lila. Lila, in English, is lilac.
  • Let’s circle back to this (Circle on the cover or in the plot.)
    – The Luminaries (2013) by Eleanor Catton
  • Name that tune
    – Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age (1986) by Kenzaburō Ōe. This is part of the Nobel Laureate in Literature’s series about his mentally challenged but musically talented son, Hikari.
  • Popular throwback
    – Devils (1872) by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It is Dostoevsky after all.
  • Sweet or spicy
    – Identity (1997) by Milan Kundera.
  • 3+ points of view
    – The Temple of My Familiar (1989) by Alice Walker. Considered by many literary pundits as the sequel to Walker’s The Color Purple, the novel is told from the perspective of multiple characters, including Arveyda, Carlotta, Suwelo, Fanny, and Lissie.
  • Coffeehouse reads
    – More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (2011) by Satoshi Yagisawa
  • We all scream (for ice cream?)
    – Butter (2017) by Asako Yuzuki. Inspired by a true story, Yuzuki’s Butter captures the story of gourmet cook Manako Kajii who was about to undergo retrial following indictment for the murder of three of her lovers.
  • That’s not my name (Character mistaken for someone else.)
    – The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman (1986) by Andrzej Szczypiorski. Set during the Second World War, the titular Mrs. Seidenman is Irma Seidenman, a Jewish woman who, because of her blonde hair and blue eyes, has passed as a Polish officer’s widow. An act of betrayal derailed her life.
  • Dance the night away
    – Dance on the Volcano (1957) by Marie Vieux-Chauvet
  • Second chances
    – A Sentimental Education (1869) by Gustave Flaubert is the romantic story of Frédéric Moreau juxtaposed with the French Revolution of 1848 and the founding of the Second French Empire.
  • Sibling showdown
    – The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana (2017) by Maryse Condé. It is not exactly a showdown but the fates of the main characters, twins Ivan and Ivana, diverged as the story moved forward.
  • I was framed!
    The A.B.C. Murders (1936) by Agatha Christie is a classic Christie, the Queen of Suspense. The police initially accused Alexander Bonaparte Cust, an epileptic traveling salesman, of executing the infamous A.B.C. murders. It took Hercule Poirot to prove him innocent and catch the correct perpetrator.
  • Anthology or omnibus edition
    – Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare (2023) by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto. I bought the book believing it was a novel. I guess I was wrong.
  • Released the 13th of any month
    – The Appointment (1997) by Herta Müller. The novel was originally published on January 1, 1997 in German. Its first English translation, however, was released on September 13, 2001.
  • Written by or about a (fictional) celebrity 
    – I Was the President’s Mistress!! (2022) by Miguel Syjuco. At the heart of the novel was the expose by Filipino starlet, celebrity, and social climber Vita Nova.
  • Creature feature
    – Mina’s Matchbox (2005) by Yōko Ogawa. The latest translated novel by the acclaimed Japanese writer, this coming-of-age story features a pygmy hippopotamus, Pochiko, which was the family pet.
  • Space – the final frontier
    – Orbital (2023) by Samantha Harvey was declared the winner of the 2024 Booker Prize.

Here’s how I fared with the bingo.

That is a huge improvement compared to the previous year. I only managed to complete two lines in 2023 but in 2024, I only missed two items. Hoping for a black out this 2025.