As a way to wrap up 2024, I’ve complied a master list of all the books I featured in The Weekend Edition this year. This is my final post for 2024, so consider this my Christmas gift to you. Happy Holidays, my sweet readers. I’m excited to bring you more chronicles from your favorite Chapman in 2025! If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see more of next year, let me know in the comments. xx – Leah

📚 The Most Wonderful Crime of The Year by Ally Carter – Two rival writers receive an invitation they can’t refuse to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of the most powerful mystery author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death. That night, the weather turns – the bridge is out and the phones are down– and the next morning the most famous mystery writer in the world has disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas. Now it’s up to these two rivals to become allies if they have any hope of saving Eleanor. With a tagline that reads, “Knives Out gets a rom-com twist in this rivals-to-lovers Christmas romance-mystery,” how could you not pick up this book?! This book was a joy to read. It’s fast paced with quippy dialogue, sizzling sexual tension, and a mystery that’ll have you guessing until the very end. I highly recommend it.

📚 The Gentleman’s Gambit by Evie Dunmore – I wasn’t ready to say so long to Oxford and the four fierce suffragettes who strived to carve out a place for themselves during the late 1800s in England, but all good things must come to an end, and Evie Dunmore wrapped up the series beautifully with Catriona’s story. Catriona is the bookish, introverted suffragist of the friend group, and her story sizzles with desire from the very beginning when she climbs out of the usually secluded Scottish loch behind her childhood estate and finds herself rather exposed to her father’s extremely attractive young colleague, Elias Khoury. Forced into close proximity in Oxford’s hallowed halls, these two very different people have to face the fact that they might be the perfect match. This story touches on themes such as women’s rights, lbgtqa+ representation, and interracial relationships. You should read The Gentleman’s Gambit if you like strong female characters, historical romance with an emphasis on historical, and lush beautiful writing.

📚 How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang – Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard since the horrible accident thirteen years ago that bound their lives together forever. When they meet in the Hollywood studio that’s adapting Helen’s popular YA series into a television series, their unresolved tension and grief becomes the elephant in the writer’s room. As they are forced to spend more time together, Helen slowly begins to open up about the complex feelings of anger, grief, and guilt she carries, while Grant reveals the deep anxiety he constantly battles with even when he seems like the most popular guy in the room. With a new understanding of each other, their relationship quickly heats up, but there is still one major thing that’s standing in the way of this love story: Helen’s parents would never accept a relationship between them, in fact, they don’t even know Grant is working on the show, and they are planning a trip to LA to see their daughter’s book brought to life. I couldn’t wait to read Yulin’s debut novel after learning she’s the screenwriter & director that’s bringing Emily Henry’s mega popular book, Beach Read (my favorite Emily Henry novel) to life. And I gotta say, I was impressed. While it was a romance, this was a very heavy story filled with lots of sorrow. I thought the story was delivered with such beautiful care that I was able to navigate the heavy topic, but if you like your romances cheerful and bright, then I’d tread lightly here. 

📚 The Ballad of Darcy & Russell by Morgan Matson – Darcy Milligan is on her way back home to LA from the Silverspun Music Festival (“the Coachella of Nevada!”), when the bus breaks down and leaves her stranded at a Nevada bus station until morning. To make matters worse, her phone is dying, she has no cash, and she is leaving for college tomorrow night. Darcy’s convinced nothing good can come from this night…but then she meets Russell. A cute, funny, aspiring musical theater writer who also needs to charge his phone. In a tension-filled, love-at-first-sight moment, Darcy can’t help but wonder if this is the magical moment she’s always been waiting for where she meets the right guy and everything falls into place. Over the course of one fateful night, Darcy and Russell get to know each other as they face emotional circumstances and have to ask themselves can you really know someone after only a handful of hours? Filled with quippy dialogue, funny jokes, and so many puns, this book is the perfect end-of-summer read.

📚 The Fury by Alex Michaelides – “This is a tale of murder.” These are the words you’ll find  in bold when you open the front cover of Alex Michaelides most recent thriller, The Fury. Elliot Chase, a struggling playwright and friend to one of the most famous actresses in the world, is the narrator of this tale, and an unreliable one at best. He’s constantly interjecting his own opinions and blurring the lines of what’s real and what’s fiction. The storyline is a typical thriller plotline: A reclusive ex-movie star invites her friends to spend Easter weekend on her private Greek island. What’s supposed to be an idyllic getaway turns into a game of cat and mouse until one of them is murdered. What makes this story unique is Michaelides writing and how he plays with story structure throughout the novel. It wasn’t a very fast-paced book, but the great writing kept me invested until the end. 

📚 Bewilderment by Richard Powers – Widower and astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while raising his neurodivergent son. Robin is a nine-year-old warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He’s also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As Robin grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin’s emotional control, one that involves training the boy on the recorded patterns of his late mother’s brain. Bewilderment felt like a modern day Flowers for Algernon, but instead of trying to improve the subject’s intelligence (like in Flowers), the focus is on improving Robin’s emotions. Bewilderment touches on themes such as grief and family. It also focuses a lot on the importance of science as well as the natural world and its destruction caused by humans. Bewilderment is a slim novel that packs a punch.

📚 The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd – After Nell’s estranged father is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, she can’t help but investigate. She finds a worthless gas station map hidden inside her father’s desk drawer. It’s the same map that tore their relationship apart years before. Nell then embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret and discover the true power that lies in maps. This book has all the elements for a thrilling ride: A dead body, an unusual map, and a dark family secret. While I guessed a few of the “surprises” early on, there was one big twist I didn’t see coming, which I thought elevated the story from being good to great.

🎧 The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – Xiomara feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood, so she pours all of her frustration and passion onto the pages of her notebook. When she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, Xiomara is hesitant because she doesn’t want her strict mother to find out. But what if keeping silent has been what is holding Xiomara back? I don’t read too many novels written in verse, but I’m considering reading more of them because I loved The Poet X. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook because it’s narrated by the author Elizabeth Acevedo, who is a National Poetry Slam Champion, so the cadence and flow of her voice really enhances the novel’s storytelling.

🎧 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – is a coming-of-age novel that follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood. I’m ashamed to admit I don’t read too many classics, so it took me years to finally pick up Little Women despite hearing it referenced all the time in English classes. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard people say how they longed to be Jo but realized they were actually just Beth. Now I actually understand what they were talking about–also, it turns out I am a Beth but more on that in a sec! If you are intimidated by the classics and the size of the book (she thick), then I highly recommend listening to it on audio. Overall, the book is super cozy and comforting. It touches on multiple themes, but especially on sisterhood, true love, and discovering your true identity in the world.

🎧 The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop – Actress, dancer, and broadway star, Kelly Bishop shares some of her greatest stories and life lessons in this candid and captivating memoir. Do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook. It’s narrated by Kelly, and she brings so much warmth and confidence in her storytelling. If you’re a Gilmore Girls fan, then this book is for you. Kelly Bishop is a queen. 👑

🎧 The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann – This buzzy bizarre tale is well worth the listen, especially if you’re a fan of non-fiction, true crime, or survival tales. The book tells the tale of the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. They were in the midst of chasing a Spanish galleon (filled with treasure and troves), when it wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men were marooned for months on the island with no ship, no food, and no patience for authority, which ultimately led to murder and anarchy. As someone who doesn’t always have the attention span for non-fiction, I liked being able to listen to the book while multitasking. However, this one was sometimes hard to follow at times because there are a lot of “characters” in the story. For some of the moments in the story to really hit ya, I think it’s best to listen to this with your undivided attention.

🎧 Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, And The Inside Story Of Emily Weiss’s Glossier by Marisa Meltzer – Meltzer combines in-depth interviews with former Glossier employees, investors, and even Weiss herself to bring you inside the walls of Glossier, one of the hottest brands that completely revolutionized the beauty industry with its chic branding and unique approach to influencer marketing. I listened to the audiobook during my daily walks and was captivated by Glossier’s origin story from the beauty blog, Into The Gloss, to a billion dollar empire. If you’re hoping to gain more insight about Emily Weiss and her personal life, you will be a little disappointed. Despite agreeing to be interviewed for the book, Weiss never truly opens up with Meltzer, so her answers are short and vague. However, that didn’t keep me from enjoying the book and learning more about the beauty industry overall.