Welcome to the 9th Annual Book Oscars!

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Here are a few books I loved in 2024: “award winners” for their genre, characters, setting, and things like that. It’s the Tea and Ink Society version of the Oscars!

Eclectic collection of classic and modern books

There are so many books I want to read, yet the more books I read the longer my TBR (To Be Read) list grows! It’s just a fact of the reading life, and not one I worry about any more (I call this the TBR Paradox). I’m already busy picking and sourcing books I want to read in the months ahead, but sometimes it’s just nice to turn around and look back down the paper trail at the books I’ve read the year before. There are certain landmarks on this road–books that stood out to me for various reasons.

As I’ve done annually for the past eight years, I’m awarding “Book Oscars” in several categories as a way of reflecting on my past reading year. Please join me for the 2025 Book Academy Awards, and, if you like, post your own prizes in the comments section for books you read last year. (You can invent whatever categories suit your reading habits.)

2025 Tea and Ink Society Book Oscars

The Awakening of Miss Prim: A Novel

Best Heroine: Prudencia Prim from The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

I really appreciated how Prudencia was a character I liked and sympathized with right from the start, even though her room for growth was evident. She has all kinds of opinions on things–and I think opinions are great–but she also comes to realise her need to be challenged on some of them. That’s a mark of humility we all need. The Awakening of Miss Prim was such a charming, old-fashioned story (albeit only recently published in 2017) that also contained so much thoughtfulness and depth, and Prudencia was the perfect heroine through which to present this type of story.

The Old Man and The Sea, Book Cover May Vary

Best Hero: Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Santiago is the ideal example of tenacity. He has doubts about whether or not people respect and appreciate him, but I for one felt honored to be in the boat with him out in the Gulf Stream, hearing his spoken-aloud thoughts and watching his craft. I don’t listen to a ton of audiobooks, but this one I felt was straightforward enough that I could follow along aurally. (It’s also a short classic.) I listened to the fabulous Charlton Heston narration while I packed subscription boxes.

Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze (Melendy Quartet, 4)

Best Supporting Hero or Heroine: Cuffy from Spiderweb for Two by Elizabeth Enright

I love the whole Melendy family, and I wish there were more books in the series (this was the fourth and the last). Cuffy, the family’s housekeeper, is a familiar and essential part of every Melendy story, but in this book I really enjoyed learning more about Cuffy when she was young. She also had more pagetime because the older Melendy children are absent, and Randy and Oliver need her more.

Lilith

Best Villain: Lilith from Lilith by George MacDonald

Looking over my book log from the past year, I can’t find anyone more villainous than Lillith. In mythology, she was Adam’s first wife and the first to rebel. MacDonald weaves mythology and mysticism into his own dreamworld to create a place where the vampiric Lilith holds ruthless sway over the inhabitants. I read Lilith years ago, but now that I’m a mother Lilith’s crimes seemed even more bleak.

Every time I read a George MacDonald novel, I keep an eye out for all the C. S. Lewis signposts (or should I say lampposts?), knowing that Lewis said everything he wrote had something of MacDonald in it. And of course, one of the big corollaries in Lilith is MacDonald’s villainess and the White Witch from Narnia.

The Uninvited

Best Setting and Descriptions: The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle

This 1940s ghost story does eerie and frightening so well, but I didn’t just appreciate it for those aspects. In spite of the hauntings, Cliff End, the house purchased by the brother-sister protagonists, is also a cozy and beautiful place. I loved the Devon coast setting, and I didn’t blame Roderick and Pamela a bit for trying to keep that house!

I’m grateful to Tea and Ink reader Michelle for telling me about this book!

Case Of The Constant Suicides

Best Mystery: The Case of the Constant Suicides by John Dickson Carr

I read a number of vintage mystery authors, but my personal “Big Four” are Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and John Dickson Carr. Carr is brilliant at atmosphere, dialogue, and ingenuity, and it was all on fine display here. Although a murder mystery, The Case of the Constant Suicides was absolutely hilarious at parts, especially in the beginning. Carr also amps up the creepy vibes once we get to the Castle of Shira in the Scottish Highlands. And he definitely delivers on the locked-room puzzles he’s famous for.

Stack of favourite books from the year
Life Among the Savages

Best Memoir: Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson

These are Jackson’s remembrances and vignettes (sometimes embellished for storytelling effect) of family life with kids in a rural Vermont town. I loved this glimpse into mid century American life, while fully knowing that Jackson’s family was quirky and were sometimes considered oddballs by the villagers. I loved noting the differences–and many similarities–to life in the twenty-first century, and seeing how some things never change about motherhood and parenting, no matter what decade you’re doing it in.

The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life - 3 Volume Set (Summa Domestica, 1-3)

Best Nonfiction: Summa Domestica Volume I: Home Culture by Leila Marie Lawler

After reading what I found to be a very insightful article by Lawler on Hearth and Field, I ordered the hardback boxed set of her Summa Domestica within a couple of days. This is most unusual for me! I did not put it on my wishlist or attempt an interlibrary loan, I knew I needed to own it for my permanent shelves and start reading straight away. 

I spent hours and hours reading volume 1 on our Alabama-to-Wisconsin road trip last summer. It’s so full of insight and humour and I so highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subjects of building a home and family culture. With my own mom now gone, I don’t have nearly as much “older woman speaking into my life” wisdom as I need, and these books are helping to fill that lack. 

A White Heron

Best Short Story: “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett

Such a simple, perfect story. Jewett doesn’t have to say much, but she says it just right to give your imagination all the materials it needs to fill out a whole world in seconds. I felt like I knew Sylvia and her secluded life, I could feel exactly what she was feeling at each moment. This story of Sylvia meeting a strange hunter in the woods reads sort of like a fairy tale or a fable, but with realism and earthiness. I wish I had a whole book with Sylvia as heroine, but this glimpse is lucky enough.

Thornyhold

Best Book: Thornyhold by Mary Stewart

Of all the books I read in 2024, I think my favourite was Thornyhold. You know I love Mary Stewart, but even among her novels this was Stewart Top 5 material for me! First, I adore the house that Gilly inherits (and who wouldn’t want to inherit a house?). We also get to know Gilly better than any other Stewart heroine because we see her childhood, too. The hurts and dreams from her past find beautiful resolution in her adult life–and of course, all of this is told from the perspective of age; Gilly looking back from a distance of many years. I loved the gentle weaving of English folk tradition, mystery, and magic. It’s a cozy, understated, wonder-inducing novel that will be a delight to return to many times.

Book Oscars from Past Years

Here are the other previous Book Academy Awards I’ve done, if you want way too many ideas for your TBR:

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18 Comments

  1. This inspired me to order Thornyhold with a free Thriftbooks credit! I greatly enjoyed it when I read it in… well, looking back it must have been 2022, didn’t think it had been that long. It is one that I could see revisiting regularly, perhaps in the autumn. J

  2. I read Thornyhold this year, too! Cozy is the best word for the sweet novel. The amount of magic was well done, as there was a simple explanation at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for recommending it. This is my very favorite book blog. Ever.

  3. I completely agree with Prudencia being a fantastic heroine, but on the flip side completely disagree with your selection of hero. 🙂 I listened to The Old Man and the Sea for the first time last year and don’t understand the hype. Oh well.

    Don’t ya just want to live where Miss Prim went? All those delightful hosts with their hot cocoa at the ready, and pastries! And no one was ever in a hurry…

    1. Haha! Did you listen to the Charlton Heston version, though?? Maybe that’s what did it for me, ha! I do want to live there, yes. Cake…tea…cocoa…roaring fires…how can I start getting people to “drop in” on me like that…and how can I drop in on them?? Would it fly? I will have to start having cake on hand, and then eat it myself if there are no takers(;

  4. Thornyhold sounds delightful! Added that to my TBR.😀
    My top three favorites I discovered last year (a lot of them thanks to this blog!) are, The Enchanted April, (I can’t believe I’d never read it before!) The Chosen, and Rebecca (a wild page-turner!). Favorite non-fiction is Missing Microbes. And favorite re-read is tied between Christy and Mother. They’re both too good!
    Loved seeing your list!

    1. Oh, such good books! Missing Microbes sounds interesting. If you want a really fascinating health nonfiction read for your TBR, may I suggest Clean by James Hamblin? I loved that one a couple years ago. Who wrote Mother? I’m not familiar with that title.

  5. “A White Heron” is one of my favorite short stories, too! I’m curious to know more about the Summa Domestica books…

    1. Wow, I didn’t know that! Have you read her story Lady Ferry? It’s one of my favourite short stories, ever. If you want to borrow any other Jewett fiction, I have The Country of the Pointed Firs and some short stories. I don’t have Lady Ferry in paper form, but I can send you my PDF. I’ll let you borrow my Summa Domestica set when I’m finished with the first read through!

  6. The White Heron has been downloaded and Miss Prim is winging her way to me! Thanks for the recommendations.

  7. Ooo just added a bunch of these to my TBR!
    Most atmospheric book: Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
    Funniest Book: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibson
    Best Nonfiction: A Spoonful of Sugar: A Nanny’s story by Brenda Ashford
    Saddest Book: House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
    Sweetest Book: Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan
    Can’t seem to pick a favorite….maybe The Nutcracker by EFA Hoffman?

    1. I love hearing your Oscars! Wardrobe was sweet, wasn’t it? Did you like House of Mirth? It was sad, I agree. But such phenomenal writing. I really like Edith Wharton.

  8. So fun to see Summa Domestica on your list! I did the same thing– ordered it to own, which I rarely do so quickly! It’s SUCH a great resource. I love her wisdom.

  9. It looks like you read some interesting things in 2024. Thornyhold has long been a favorite of mine (I’ve read all of Mary Stewart’s books). I’ve already downloaded “The White Heron,” and I definitely have to check out Lilith. I discovered George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin in my elementary school library and loved it; I didn’t realize he wrote fantasy novels for adults, too. Speaking of childhood favorites, I remember enjoying the Melendy quartet as well.
    I looked through your previous Book Oscars list and smiled when I realized that I have Middlemarch and Wide Sargasso Sea on my library pile right now…with the same covers shown in the posts.
    Here’s my Oscars list for 2024:
    Best Heroine: Jane Eyre, from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
    Best Hero: John Thornton, from North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
    Best Villain: O’Brien, from 1984 by George Orwell
    Best Setting: The Birdcage by Eve Chase
    Actually, all of Chase’s novels have a strong sense of place. This book, in which the story alternates between a father and three daughters reunited for Christmas at the family home in Cornwall and a life-changing summer in the same location twenty years earlier, was a favorite read for 2024.
    Best Play: Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
    While the ending was undeniably tragic, I was surprised to find some quite humorous scenes in the play as well.
    Best Short Story: “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe
    I read Poe’s Great Tales and Poems throughout OcPoeBer; this was my favorite story in the collection.
    Best Nonfiction: One Man’s Meat by E. B. White
    A series of articles White (author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little) wrote for Harper’s between 1938 and 1943. His descriptions of life take the reader back to a simpler time, and it was really interesting to read some of his takes on WWII as it was unfolding. I was going to read this online, but I loved it enough to buy a copy.

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