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Best Books read in 2024
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I'm so glad you started this off, Mary. I've been thinking that I needed to post mine but life has been interfering.I loved A Prayer for Owen Meany. I went through a period of reading everything by John Irving. I recently reread Cider House Rules in a group with a young woman. She didn't like it nearly as much as I did.
★★★★� Non-fiction� The Talk � Excellent graphic memoir
� The Woman They Could Not Silence Re-read; still ★★★★�
� The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End � A compelling case that there was just one long World War, particularly in Eastern Europe.
� I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction � Probably the most illuminating book on race relations in America that I've read recently.
� The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance � I'm a sucker for pop-science books that focus on one narrow topic and really open your eyes to its depth
� ¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons � Mildly funny, with an emotional punch that I hadn't expected.
� The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind � I'm also a sucker for books that make the case for prioritizing communities & community resources.
� How to Say Babylon � Memoirs aren't my favorite genre, but this was a very good one.
� Dancing with the Octopus: The Telling of a True Crime � Ditto what I said ⇑above�, I guess. Didn't hurt that it took place in Omaha, which is pretty near me.
� Women, Race & Class � The first thing I've read from Angela Davis. I like the way she approaches history, I have to say.
� The Hundred Years� War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917�2017 � Timely, obviously. Contentious also, but well worth the read.
� Footnotes in Gaza � A really well done graphic novel, which also turned out to be quite timely.
� 84, Charing Cross Road � What a charming book. So glad I finally got around to reading it. After which I instantly bought a copy for my wife's birthday present.
★★★★� Fiction
� The Things They Carried � Should have read this years ago, obviously, but didn't.
� Neverwhere � I actually wonder if this would hold up on a re-read, but I love the way Gaiman approaches world-building. Not to mention his spectacular reading voice.
� Project Hail Mary � I had heard such good things, and it completely lived up.
� The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn � Re-read this in preparation for James, and loved it still.
� Pachinko � I don't usually go in for epic/saga-type books, but this was so well kept at the human level. I found it gripping.
� The Left Hand of Darkness � My first LeGuin book; won't be my last. I love how she handles exposition, which is such a crucial part of speculative fiction.
Mary wrote: “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy�That one fell just short of 5 stars for me, and in retrospect I’m not sure I shouldn’t have given it 5. Great book.
Spoko, I really enjoyed Left Hand of Darkness too. Try The word for World is Forest.
Sheila wrote: “Spoko, I really enjoyed Left Hand of Darkness too. Try The word for World is Forest.�Thanks, I’ll put that on my TBR. It looks very good, I have to say.
These were my five star books this year. I saw many in Mary's list that I so enjoyed. Reading is so wonderful.Tom Lake
The Pursuit of Love
Bel Canto
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
Saigon
West With Giraffes
Table for Two
Prophet Song
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Pocketful of Names
North Woods
The Old Man and the Sea
Gossamer
My Friends
The Keepers of the House
Familiaris
James
Lookout
Orbital
Fugitive Pieces
How to Say Babylon
We, the Drowned
My 5-star favorites of 2024:Fiction
- My Friends by Hisham Matar - My Review
- Playground by Richard Powers - My Review
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan - My Review
- Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris - My Review
- Time of the Child by Niall Williams - My Review
- Q & A by Vikas Swarup - My Review
- Morality Play by Barry Unsworth - My Review
- The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma - My Review
- Embassytown by China Miéville - My Review
- Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - My Review
- The Painter of Battles by Arturo Pérez-Reverte - My Review
- Open City by Teju Cole - My Review
- Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi - My Review
- The Soloist by Mark Salzman - My Review
- The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore - My Review
- There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak - My Review
- Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward - My Review
- A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam - My Review
- Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon - My Review
- Early Sobrieties by Michael Deagler - My Review
- Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie - My Review
- Mobility by Lydia Kiesling - My Review
- My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor - My Review
- Pied Piper by Nevil Shute - My Review
- Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill - My Review
- Spies by Michael Frayn- My Review
Non-Fiction
- Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941�1942 by Ian W. Toll - My Review
- An Arabian Journey: One Man's Quest Through the Heart of the Middle East by Levison Wood - My Review
- The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War by Richard Rubin- My Review
- Walking to Samarkand: The Great Silk Road from Persia to Central Asia by Bernard Ollivier - My Review
- Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson- My Review
- Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson - My Review
- Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara - My Review
Joy, THE ROAD TO THE COUNTRY has been on my TBR list � I’ll move it closer to the top now that I see your 5-star rating. Also…SING, UNBURIED, SING was the first Jesmyn Ward book I ever read. I loved it so much I’ve now read everything she has written. I’ve never been disappointed.
Gina, wasn’t NORTH WOODS terrific! I enjoy books in which, for me, the house is one of the characters.
spoko,,I read Left Hand of Darkness a few years ago and since then I’ve read a couple of her other books. Your post prompted me to check my TBR list and I discovered I’d added her LAVINIA a while back so I’ve borrowed an audio edition from the library and plan to read it in the next week or so. Lavinia is one of Virgil’s characters in The Aeneid so it’ll be interesting to see what Le Guin has created.
Mary wrote: "Joy, THE ROAD TO THE COUNTRY has been on my TBR list � I’ll move it closer to the top now that I see your 5-star rating. ..."Hope you appreciate it as much as I did, Mary.
Mary wrote: "spoko,,I read Left Hand of Darkness a few years ago and since then I’ve read a couple of her other books. Your post prompted me to check my TBR list and I discovered I’d added her LAVINIA a while b..."Mary, I read Le Guin's Lavinia a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. Lavinia gets barely a mention in Virgil. Le Guin gives her voice, character, and background, expanding on Virgil's vision. The novel is in Lavinia's first-person voice and is very well done. Hope you enjoy it.
I don't personally do lists, but have read and enjoyed many on the lists above, and liked hearing about a few I didn't know about.Glad to know there are other Andy Weir fans. I was the only one who liked him when my in person book club read The Martian.
This is always one of my favorite threads of the year. As you can see from the previous posts, these books are our favorites that we read this year, not necessarily books that were published this year. Here are mine:Fiction:
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
James by Percival Everett
The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
The Eyes & the Impossible by Dave Eggers
Big Tree by Brian Seznick
The Mysteries by Bill Watterson
Nonfiction:
Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather
by Benjamin Taylor
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench
Audiobooks:
On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss
The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis by George Stephanopoulos
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Absolution by Alice McDermott
spoko and Joy, I just finished Le Guin’s LAVINIA. I enjoyed it very very much. It is an interesting concept for a fantasy novel & deftly executed…I enjoyed the story, found Lavinia fascinating, and appreciated the quality of the writing.
Barbara wrote: "This is always one of my favorite threads of the year. As you can see from the previous posts, these books are our favorites that we read this year, not necessarily books that were published this y..."My brother-in-law gifted The Bookshop to Jim and I for Christmas and we read most of it aloud chapter by chapter until Jim flaked out. I finished it and read the essays between the chapters aloud to Jim just to make him acknowledge the rest of the book.
It’s a really enjoyable, informative book, isn’t it, Dottie? Since I experienced it as an audiobook, I can imagine that it would be a great read aloud.
Very much agree. -- and the read aloud aspect was fun -- even after it was adapted downward.
Constant Reader
Books mentioned in this topic
Tell Me Everything (other topics)Wandering Stars (other topics)
James (other topics)
Absolution (other topics)
Our Town (other topics)
More...
Fiction � 5 stars
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
The Orchardist, Amanda Coplin
The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth (loved the movie but had never read the book)
The House of Doors, Tan Twan Eng
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy
The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy
Let Us Descend, Jesmyn Ward
The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien (it was time for a re-read)
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
North Woods, Daniel Mason
The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin
Death’s End, Liu Cixin
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey (loved the movie but never read the book)
The Hummingbird’s Daughter, Luis Alberto Urrea
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir
Jesus� Son, Denis Johnson
Non-Fiction � 5 stars
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy