2024 In Review
By Randy Kaufman
with research assistance from Dustin Lowman
When I pick books up, I seem to do so randomly. Their stories, likewise, are unpredictable transmissions, piped in from times and places that often no longer exist — at least in the states depicted in their pages. But in retrospect, as with so many experiences in life, these books appear like points in a constellation, whose resulting shape comes to symbolize the time in which I read them.
Last year’s reading was a tableau of the most challenging stories. They took me from medieval to modern times; around the circumference of the globe; and through war zones, art museums, oceans, and sinking ships. I flew with the Wright Brothers, sailed with Captain Cook, tunneled under the wall in East Berlin, dove for years in dangerous waters to find a U-boat off the coast of New Jersey, searched for the source of the Nile, and most riveting of all, raced solo in a sailboat around the world.
I conquered 40 books last year. Some failed me, many mesmerized. Members of the latter category are listed below.
True Tales of Sheer Grit
In My Element: Life Lessons from the world’s toughest solo ocean race, Pip Hare
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Erik Larson
The Wright Brothers, David McCullough
Ghost Town Living: Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams at the Edge of Death Valley, Brent Underwood
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson
Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall; Helena Merriman
Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II, Robert Kurson
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides
Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder and a Global Maritime Conspiracy, Matthew Campbell
Learning History Via Fiction
Paris, Edward Rutherford. Paris, my favorite city in the world. I’ve been a dozen or more times, yet learned much from this book, especially the fascinating details of the building of the Eiffel Tower
The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak
The Berlin Letters, Katherine Reay
Minding Our Minds
The Laws of Human Nature, Robert Greene.
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, James Clear
My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days, Michael O’Brien. Read the book, and then listen to his podcast in my To Grit with Grace series here.
Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things, Dan Ariely.
Faith, Hope and Carnage, Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan
Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations about Food and Money, Geneen Roth
Pure Fiction: The Fun, The Fury
Temporary, Hilary Leichter
Terrace Story, Hilary Leichter
The Bee Sting, Paul Murray
A Little Luck, Claudia Piñeiro
Elena Knows, Claudia Piñeiro
And now, for the rest. Below here is a link to every book I read in 2024. Some failed me, some mesmerized me. Click any book’s image to visit its Amazon page.
The 2024 tableau
Wishing You A Literature-FilleD 2025
If you read anything last year that moved you, please reach out. Wishing you much grit, grace, growth, and gratitude ahead.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Randy Kaufman, formerly a corporate tax attorney and investment banker, is now a wealth advisor who prides herself on focusing on what matters most: clients’ peace of mind, family dynamics, and getting enough, not more. Randy is a passionate student of impact investing, strategic philanthropy, and behavioral psychology (while not a psychologist, she occasionally plays one in the boardroom). She is dedicated to helping the underprivileged and is a proud member of global venture fund Acumen's advisory board. A thinker, learner, and pursuer of overarching truths, she is always eager to discuss big ideas about money, and its off-and-on associate, happiness.