Literary LEMur: The 2024 Roundup Edition

As this will be my last post of the year, I figured it made sense to round up some of my favourites from 2024 and to look at my writing journey.

My top 8 reads (in no particular order) of 2024 are:

• Julia (2023) - Sandra Newman

• Tress of the Emerald Sea (2023) - Brandon Sanderson

• The Annual Migration of Clouds (2021) - Premme Mohamed

• The Plot (2021) - Jean Hanff Korelitz

• Station Eleven (2014) - Emily St. John Mandel

• Wrong Place, Wrong Time (2022) - Gillian McAllister

• A River Enchanted (2022) - Rebecca Ross

• Wool (2012) - Hugh Howey

Dystopians surprisingly dominated my year (50% of my top titles). Coincidence? That's for you to decide! Although I'll read pretty much anything, science-fiction and fantasy novels are usually the ones that captivate me the most, evident here by the fact that only 1.5 (Wrong Place, Wrong Time has a time travel component, hence the 0.5) of the books in my list don't fall into those genres (I count the dystopian novels as science-fiction).

You'll notice that none of my picks were written this year, nor are many of the books I read this year. This is largely because I borrow 95% of the books I read instead of buying them. In addition to this, I mainly read eAudiobooks. These two factors mean that I am not only waiting numerous months for newer releases, but I have to be very selective with my holds as I can only have 15 at a time. It makes more sense for me to wait a shorter time for an older book, than to wait forever for a newer title, thus preventing me from reading in the meantime. It's all about strategy, people!

For a full picture of my 2024 reading journey, visit "Laura's Year in Books" over on Goodreads.

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For grins and giggles, these are my favourite TV shows and films that I watched in 2024:

TV Shows	Films
Arcane (2021-2024) - Netflix	Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)
Bridgerton (2020-) - Netflix	Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022)
The Decameron (2024) - Netflix	Inside Out 2 (2024)
Doctor Who ('2024'-) - Disney+	Wicked (2024)
The Gentlemen (2024-) - Netflix
Kaos (2024-2024) - Netflix
Midnight Mass (2021) - Netflix
Rivals (2024-) - Netflix
Skeleton Crew (2024-) - Disney+

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My "Year in Writing" is as follows:

• I finished my final personal edit of Forgiving Fate

• I researched publication methods and strategies

• I started this blog

• I had Forgiving Fate professionally edited

• I queried 10 literary agents (have yet to hear back from 5 of them)

• I'm closing in on completing the first draft of Book 2

I'm pleased that, despite my proclivity to switch up fixations (both creative and otherwise), I really stuck with my writing this year and made progress with my debut trilogy. I hope that 2025 will prove even more fruitful!

Happy Boxing Day to all and to all a good nap. See you next year!