Coral Studio’s favourite reads of 2024
Where J fires through rolls of film like it’s nobodies business, and I take on average 8 months to get through 36 shots, speeds are reversed when it comes to reading. I’m a serious book worm through and through (just like me mum). Beating my old annual best of 30, I proudly got through 40 books last year. According to GoodReads, that’s ~14,000 pages, not counting the endless resources I was forced to read to prepare for the EXaC…
One time I commented on a book instagrammer’s post and wracked up 400 likes, so I’m basically already a book influencer.. (it was something about The Little Life IYKYK).
We thought it would be cute to do our own Coral Studio recap for each of our top three books this past year. Much like all of our shared interests, we have drastically different takes on reading. J is making their way through some of the must-read, helped-build-the-canon, literature-not-books, and has come to appreciate each of them, even if he didn’t particularly like it.
I on the other hand, am drawn to more contemporary fictions. For years, I resisted buying the books they put out on the first table at Chapters (often the hyped up popular picks of the now), thinking that I could just shuffle through and suss out the under appreciated goldies. Honestly, I think The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo changed that for me. It was worth the hype!!
So, now I have no problem with picking up the current talk of the book world. I usually go into Chapters, Book Warehouse, Pulp Fiction, (or more recently, the library), with a list of five or six that I’ve pre-screened on Goodreads. Life’s too short to read a bad book - I’ve also stopped feeling like I have to finish a book if we’re not vibing.
Anyways, we’re getting away from the point. Here’s our top threes of the year (check out my Goodreads profile for my thoughts on the other 37)
Kelsey’s Top Picks
Greenwood by Michael Christie
This book starts in 2034 after humankind has destroyed most of the trees on the planet, and there’s one little untouched slice left in BC that only the ultra rich can go any experience as part of a luxury glamping trip. One of the tour guides is secretly investigating a potential sign of disease in some of the remaining trees, but little does she know, her family lineage has some secret ties to not only the trees on this island, but has a multigenerational connection to the logging history in Canada. This story jumps around through time, showing how each direct family relationship effects the next’s relationship to the land. You learn one thing about a character from one persons story, and then your perspective on them changes when you hear them justify their actions in their own chapter. Great story telling, complex characters and an unpredictable storyline. Made my mom read it after me, and she’ll back me up.
Still Life by Sarah Winman
Most of this book a string of things that just happen and often don’t make their way back into the plot. And because of that, I almost ditched this book because I couldn’t get into it. But once you start appreciating the fleeting moments for what they are, which I think is the point (??) you can get through the moments that are dramatic but most of the time just unexceptional. BUT SOMETIMES THE MOMENTS DO MAKE THEIR WAY BACK, and those moments are magical.
Set mostly in Florence, and sometimes in London, it’s hard not to wish someone would leave you a lush villa in Italy in their will so you could just up and quit your life and move there with few responsibilities. Coupla odd ball characters and the way they choose to live their lives out.
Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Okay, so NYT released their Top 100 Books of the 21st Century this past week. Coincidentally, I started reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and The Bee Sting at around the same time, but they were kind a similar LONG book about a dysfunctional family and I found Franzen’s character’s to all be UNBEARABLE. So almost half way through it, I ditched it and continued with Murray’s book. But, Corrections made NYT’s list with only a foot note of “if you liked this book, we also recommend The Bee Sting”.. I personally believe it should have been the other way around with Bee Sting making the list, but I guess my judgement on Corrections is only half baked because I only got halfway through it.
Anyways, Bee Sting is jumps between complex characters of a dysfunctional Irish family who is struggling through the downfall of the family business that once gave them clout in town. Each character has their own fairly dramatic storyline that plays out with the other character’s being too absorbed in their own shit to pay much attention. Some moments read like a thriller with blackmail, a potential catfish, the risk of a scandal getting out, an affair (?), and a final moment that builds up through the last section of the book. Each character gets their own decently long section that has a story within a story, but leading up to the end, the sections switch more frequently which helps build tension into the ending. Imelda, the mother’s, sections have no punctuation and poor grammar which is honestly a bit tough to get through. But, stick with it, I think her character ends up being the most interesting piece of the puzzle.
Justin’s Top Picks
Bonjour Tristesse (Hello Sadness) by Francoise Sagan
This slim novel somehow packs an entire French summer’s worth of glamour, angst, and poor decisions into just over 100 pages (If you don’t like it, don’t worry, it’ll be over quick!). Written when Françoise Sagan was just 18, it’s the kind of book you read when you want to feel both intellectually superior and mildly scandalized…
Sagan wrote the book/novella in French, and the English translation I got my paws on was by Irene Ash. Ash somehow managed convince me I was reading the book in French IN FRANCE with a cigarette dangling from the corner of my mouth. Perfection. This is the specific reason that I’ve forced a handful of my friends to pick it up.
Cécile, the main character, is a teenager vacationing on the French Riviera with her widowed father and his glamorous (and revolving) love interests. When her dad starts bringing a new woman around who is both poised and serions, Cécile hatches a scheme to sabotage their relationship, with consequences that are both petty and devastating.
What makes this book work isn’t just the drama but Sagan’s ability to capture the restless, self-absorbed voice of a teenager who’s intelligent enough to understand the stakes but too immature to care. It’s elegant, tragic, and a perfect one-sitting read that lingers as tobacco smoke in the room long after you’ve ashed.
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
A few years back I read Slaughterhouse Five, arguably Vonnegut’s most famous book, and instantly fell in love with his writing style. It’s whimsical and satirical while somehow conveying a weight through social commentary. Vonnegut’s first novel doesn’t quite have the biting, satirical rhythm of Slaughterhouse-Five, but it’s still classic Vonnegut. Set in a dystopian future where machines handle everything from factory work to administration, Player Piano is part sci-fi, part critique of capitalism, and part existential crisis in book form.
Dr. Paul Proteus is the main character. He is a factory manager caught between his cushy life at the top and his growing unease about the soulless world around him. The story has all the dry humor and absurdity you’d expect from Vonnegut, but it’s also surprisingly heavy. The questions it asks about humanity’s relationship with technology and progress feel even more ripe for the plucking now than when it was published in the early ‘50s.
Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life & Cars by Neil Young
Each chapter centers around a specific car from Neil’s past, from his dad’s old hearse (which he hilariously drove his band around in) to the iconic Cadillac he reluctantly gave up. Along the way, Neil weaves in tales of his musical journey, family life, and growing passion for environmental causes, and even has his own coloured sketches of each car that he forms a chapter around. Even if you’re not a car person, you’ll walk away from this feeling like you’ve cruised through some of the most formative moments in his life, and some fun music trivia too…
This book was a surprisingly fun read. It’s not a rock star memoir, it’s his love letter to cars, environmental activism, and music, and had a directly positive impact on how I view Neil as more than just a musician. I always say that everyone could use one ounce of Neil Young.