Matt Bronleewe's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Moby Dick is probably on everyone's list of "books I should read". I don't know about you, but newly-released books often get ahead of the classics in my reading list, so I'd put off reading it until a good friend of mine - fellow author and recent co-author Eric Wilson - told me that he was blown away by the book. Really? Moby Dick? That old, musty tome that's been both lampooned and celebrated for eons? I decided to give it a whirl, and boy and I glad I did. The opening chapters are some of the best, and I quickly fell into a world I knew very little about, the old-timey nautical life. At times brutal, at times funny, and always told in Melville's quirky style, I digested every chapter in full, excited to see what tasty morsel might arrive next. Queequeg was a quick fan favorite for me, and I found myself rooting for him given his outsider status among the legion of seamen. (Melville could have spent much more time with him, if you ask me!) The ending of this book has probably been spoiled for you dozens of times, but don't let that dissuade you from partaking in one of the most dramatic endings ever written. I found myself spellbound by this book, and now I've moved it over to my "I'll read this again someday" pile, which I'll get to eventually (after all those newly-released books I talked about earlier, haha!)

I don't know about you, but a good recommendation really helps when choosing a book. I'd almost purchased this one after seeing it on shelves - what a great cover! - but it wasn't until a few people said "You'll love it!" that I finally gave it a chance. I'm just an old school gamer (think Galaga, Super Mario Bros, etc) so I wasn't sure how much the game-driven plot would grab me, but I was immediately entranced by the artistic, digital worlds the main characters created, and how those worlds intersected with their own. The characters in this book are marvelous, reminding me somewhat of the multilayered characters that Michael Chabon conjures, characters you love in some instances, get angry with in others, and finally accept whole-heartedly in the end. There were some twists and turn, nothing overly dramatic, but there were certainly some unexpected moments to keep things interesting. (Nothing I'll spoil here!) I don't think you need to like video games at all in order to enjoy this book, but even a passing interest might make this a more interesting read. And if you enjoy a good book cover, you might need to get a hardback copy to stand out on your shelves!

I read all of Mark Twain's books when I was younger, so I was extremely interested to see what James would bring to light. This is by no means an easy read - at least it wasn't for me - and the flipped-script narrative can sometimes be brutal, but maybe that's the point? Not that this book isn't enjoyable, it most certainly is at times, but there's no head-turning from the mission at hand: to put on full display a dark history that Twain had breezed past. Is this book a companion to the original? A rebuttal? Some form of literary retribution? I'll leave the labeling up to you, but if there aren't classrooms across America assigning back-to-back reads of Huck Finn and James, with plenty of time for group discussion, then something is amiss. But I don't want to mislead you. This book shouldn't be viewed as an assignment. It fully stands on its own as a book worth reading because it's just a great read, case closed. But for those of you who remember Huck Finn from your youth, or are maybe thinking about reading it now, James is a worthy addition to your library as what will someday be labeled as a classic right alongside Twain's original.