It's the most wonderful email of the year!

Hi fellow travelers,

If you've been journeying with me for a year or more, you probably know how much I LOVE creating and sharing my annual Top Ten Books List!

After all, it's a great excuse to spend time just thinking about books and call that "work."

It also comes with convienient byproducts such as giving me a chance to reflect on the art I interacted with this year, share the stories that have impacted me most over the past twelve months, and hopefully introduce my fellow travelers to extraordinary fantastical adventures through my favorite reads.

Equally, I LOVE hearing from my fellow travelers what their favorite reads of the year were! Please let me know what books (or movies, shows, plays, songs, video games, wood carvings*, etc.) made your Best of 2024 list!

In short, I look forward to this email every year.

However, the great challenge every year is to narrow down my list to just ten books. And this year, I've found a very pleasurable solution to the problem:

Abandon self-restraint!

Allow me to explain:

For the past three years, I've also made a YouTube video about my top ten reads of the year (see: 2022, 2023). And I like that format because it lets me ramble on about the books without the resulting email taking you two hours to scroll through.

But I also like to include a bonus for my newsletter subscribers every year because you guys are my fellow travelers and you're special.

All that to say, this year, for the first time, I have given up on restricting myself to only ten picks. I have added an official, organized, legally binding Honorable Mentions List.

These are books that didn't make the Big Ten for various reasons, but they totally could have. And I can't resist sharing them with you as well.

So, without further ado, let's kick off the New Year with my Top Ten Reads of 2024...starting with #16.

#16: Voices of the Future Vol. 4: Stories of Adventure and Imagination

Yes, I'm biased, because this collection of fourteen short stories was written by my friends. And yes, I've been impressed by every Voices of the Future volume so far.

But Vol. 4 really stood out to me as an extra high-quality collection of student works. A year after our inaugural anthology kicked it all off, I feel like these Author Conservatory student showcases have properly hit their stride.

Highlights include: a riddle-based scavenger hunt through Seattle, a haunted old house and garden, lots of libraries, and loyal sibling relationships!

#15: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

In all honesty, this book was so slow-paced that I couldn't quite feel that it lived up to all its hype. And no, not all the long, intricate chapters came back to mean something plot-relevant.

However, this massive tome still impressed me enough to be one of my most notable reads of the year. It's a fantasy book, but it's set in the early 1800s. And what's weird is that it FEELS like it came from the early 1800s to a distubring extent. If this author claimed to have swallowed Charles Dickens or Jane Austen, I would believe her, because sometimes I felt like I was hearing their voices while reading this.

The interesting parts were super interesting. The commentary on English Magic was spellbinding. It's just that like 70% of book was neither of those things, in my opinion.

However, if you've always wanted an 800-page regency novel that will leave you confident in the historical accuracy of magic, this may be your favorite thing in the world.

#14: Howl's Moving Castle

I FINALLY read the classic cozy fantasy tale where a young hatmaker gets turned into an old woman and becomes housekeeper to a capricous but lovable wizard.

I did love it. But I'd already seen the Studio Ghibli film before reading the book, and I...liked the movie a bit more? *Hides*

Still, there's so much here to enjoy. The plot twists will throw you for a loop. The ending is an interesting combination of fairytale-ish and messy. The reading experience feels like sitting down with an old friend over tea.

#13: Ignite

Written by one of my writing teachers, Ignite is about a young phoenix girl who needs to protect her clan in a frozen, dying world.

It's emotionally intense, but rather than having Mara wallow in or glorify her pain, the story takes her on a journey where she actually starts to grow and heal.

Don't get too comfy, though--the ending will definitely leave you needing the next book.

This one totally could've made my Top Ten List, except for the problem that there can only be ten books on it.

#12: The Shadow Rising (Wheel of Time Book 4)

The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time Book 1) was my #1 read of 2023.

My ongoing experience with the series since then has been...interesting? You see, I've hit the middle portion of the series, which is unaffectionately known as The Slog.

However, I still really enjoyed books 2-5, and book 4 especially stood out to me as being full of gripping character moments, worldbuilding revelations, and plot set pieces.

(Oddly enough, since, from what I hear, this is far from one of the most popular books in the series.)

I didn't include it in my Top Ten primarily because I didn't want to use up one of those coveted spots on a series I already highlighted last year.

#11: Defiant (Cytoverse Book 4)

Last among my Honorable Mentions is yet another Book 4 that didn't make my Top Ten precisely because it is Book 4 of a series that I've previously featured in my Top Ten List.

Defiant concludes the story that began with Skyward, which I read back in 2020. Spensa's adventure of rising from her underground civilization to fly among the stars is one of the main reasons why I got hooked on sci-fi four and a half years ago.

*pauses to cough and splutter about 2020 being five years ago*

While I enjoyed the second and third books, they did leave me concerned about whether the final installment would conclude the series in a satisfying way.

Thankfully, I didn't need to worry. Defiant brought the story home, returning to the series' roots and somehow barely managing to pull all the story threads together into a cohesive whole.

And now, at last: Jandalf the Green's Top Ten Books of 2024!

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Have you read any of these books?

Which of the books sound most interesting to you?

And of course, once again:

What were your favorite books of 2024?

Ok, despite using the video format for my Top Ten List, this still turned into a monster of an email.

So I'll just mention this briefly: I totally dropped the ball on the Quest of Five Tasks.

Whoopsie!

I meant to send you more reminders about this awesome opportunity to see some incredible character art for "People of the Rain." And I didn't. Sorry, folks!

That said, my oversight expands your window of opportunity. I'll be in touch again soon about this. In the meantime, go link clicking and imagine the coolest "People of the Rain" character art possible!

Adventurously yours,

Jenny Gossell (Jandalf the Green)

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*I mention this because I got a beginner woodcarving kit for Christmas and have taken up whittling. Here's my proof. If you can't tell what it's supposed to be, please be polite and pretend it's obviously a pine tree.