Good evening.

Welcome to another episode of Inside the Cover.

In fact, this episode is ou last show for our sixth season.

As you will recall, I do a summary booklist of my reading for the calendar year, a practice that I have followed for 33 years.

Shall we visit about 2024?

It is now time to go inside the cover.

Here is the 2024 book list.

And as you can see, my cover contains a quote from President Harry S Truman.

‘Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.

I certainly concur with the man from Independence, Missouri.

I read 131 books in 2024, which was down from my all time high 157 in 2023.

It was still a good year with lots of productive, fun, important and stimulating reads.

Here is my top ten list of 2024 listed chronologically as read.

The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede The Book of Charlie by David Von Drehle.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.

Like What You Do by Doctor Walt Menninger.

April 1865 by Jay Winik.

Love & Whiskey, by Fawn Weaver.

The Women by Kristin Hannah.

Go as a River by Shelley Read.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore and The Bookshop by Evan Friss.

Of course, it is no accident that each of these books has been or will be reviewed on Inside the Cover.

As far as worst books of the year.

My runaway winner is Taking Eve by Iris Johansen.

After reading that book I shared the following comments with a colleague: “Plot contrived, hard to follow and unbelievable.

The characters were confusing and unreal, and the dialog was stilted and the author's go to word seemed to be ‘bastard.” I returned to several favorite authors during the year: Baldacci.

Parker.

Brands.

Mosley.

Shaara.

Goldsborough.

Russo.

Larsen Penny, Stout, Connelly and Box.

David Baldacci had seven books on my list.

Some new writers were Osman, Forester, Thompson, Read, Moore, and Robert Harris, an author suggested by our English professor son Jackson.

Some classic reads were by James Baldwin, Hemingway, du Maurier Thornton Wilder, Mary McCarthy, Louis L'Amour, and Agatha Christie.

In recent years, my annual reading list also has contained some favorite quotations.

My so-called ‘Notable Quotable from the books that I've read.

Some of my favorites from 2024 include the following.

“Walking the stacks in a library.

Dragging your fingers across the spines.

It's hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits.” “The thing I like about Irish whiskey is that the more you drink, the smoother it goes down.

Of course, that's probabl true of antifreeze as well, but illusion is nearly all we have.” “That's what books were for, after all.

They were passage ways to other worlds, other realities, other lives one could imagin living.” And last but not least.

“Thank you once again to all the wonderful booksellers and librarians out there.

Every time you hand over a book, you are handing over magic from Belfast to Brazil from Crickhowell to Canberra.” We hope that during our sho we have brought you some magic.

That's our show.

I hope you enjoyed this discussion of my reading year in 2024 and we look forward to sharing more magic with you in season seven of Inside the Cover.

Good night!

Thanks for supporting PBS Kansas for watching Inside the Cover and enjoying our show.