Harry Castleman and Walter J. Podrazik's 3 favorite reads in 2024

One of the surprise successes of television in 2024 was FX’s ten-part re-staging of James Clavell’s epic 1975 novel Shogun (set in 17th century Japan), which had already been a hit in NBC’s 1980 mini-series version. This year’s reboot was much closer to Clavell’s focus and tone, and once the FX run ended, it sent us scurrying to read the original text.

Newly re-issued to tie in to the 2024 TV series, the unabridged novel was a surprisingly quick read for a hefty volume of over 1,300 pages. After struggling a bit to keep up with the complex action and cultural nuances of the series, reading the novel provided welcome time to digest the subtle undertones and a more detailed narrative that explained some confusing plot twists in the TV version. (Castleman/Podrazik)

If anyone would have the “gossip” about the rich and the famous, it’s a libel lawyer. Name dropping the likes of Britney Spears, Johnny Depp, Sarah Ferguson, and Prince Andrew (among many others), author Paul Tweed dishes behind-the-scenes (as much as his professional ethical obligations allow, of course) in this 2024 release.

Tweed recounts over four decades of headline-grabbing libel cases in building from a small practice in Northern Ireland (the town of Holywood) to having an international clientele of A-listers, taking advantage of the more relaxed European legal rules favoring those claiming they were defamed.

Going deeper, in this book Tweed also pivots and uses his successes against corporate giants to highlight his deep concerns over what he sees as the societal challenges from Big Tech, especially AI, and suggests potential countering strategies for the future. (Podrazik/Castleman)

A satisfying (if less-renowned) TV highlight of 2024 was the six episode AMC series Monsieur Spade that boldly took the familiar Sam Spade private eye character of The Maltese Falcon fame and transplanted him from San Francisco in the 1930s/1940s to France in the early 1960s. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did.

While quite familiar with the Hollywood film adaptations of Spade, we had never read the original Dashiell Hammett book where Spade made his debut. Spurred again by a new TV series, we sought out this fine 1999 collection of Hammett’s five full-length novels (from the late-1920s to mid-1930s). Only one involves Spade, but it is here where you see the birth of the classic “noir/hard-boiled” private eye persona that so influenced more than a generation of pulp writers.

The last novel has Hammett changing tone to create the more urbane, cocktail-loving married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles, which spawned six Thin Man films in the 1930s and ‘40s (and numerous copycats thereafter).(Castleman/Podrazik)