Best books of 2024

Cafe Society
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I know there are a couple of weeks left in the year, but we’re close enough that I have a pretty good idea of what my favorite books of the year are. I’d love to share those titles, and invite others to share their favorites as well.

No hard-and-fast rules, but a shorter list of truly delightful books is better than a laundry list including just pretty-good books; and a brief description of books and why you recommend them would be great.

Here goes, in no particular order!

  • The Daughters War, by Christopher Buehlman: it’s a prequel to the superfun Blacktongue Thief, but it’s military fantasy, not adventure-quest fantasy, and I’m not normally a fan of military fiction at all. This book is an exception! Excellent characterization, terrifying battle sequences, huge emotional beats, gorgeous and supple prose, at least two laugh-out-loud scenes, the first death-cult I’ve ever read that I could get behind, and giant fucking war corvids. God, I loved this book.
  • Cahokia Jazz: Noir murder mystery set in the 1920s(?) in Cahokia, the Native American state where our Missouri is located. Great worldbuilding and a tricky mystery and a note-perfect noir mood.
  • Running Close to the Wind: this is the raunchiest novel I’ve ever read that was completely unsexy. Comic fantasies usually leave me cold, but this one was a shriek-laugh of a book. It’s like a cross between Our Flag Means Death, an Aardman movie, and Terry Pratchett.
  • The Warm Hands of Ghosts: Great War historical fiction, with a supernatural element that creeps up on you. Beautifully written, great characters, one of the better uses of fantasy elements to explore real-world issues that I’ve read in a long time.
  • The Saint of Bright Doors: A Sri Lankan author’s blasphemous retelling of Buddha, sorta. A hero’s quest story where the Chosen One says Fuck That early in the story. Notes of Kafka and Brazil and China Mieville. It won’t be for you if you want the story to hit traditional heroic fantasy beats, and it won’t be for you if you hate heroic fantasy, but if you’re okay in the fault line between the two, it’s great.
  • The House of Open Wounds: if M * A * S * H were set in a British Imperial army in the nineteenth century in a high-fantasy made-up world, you might get this book. It’s not exactly military fantasy, since it’s focused on the hospital unit. Weird, cynical, darkly funny, and delightful.
  • Chain-Gang All-Stars: The US Prison system sets up gladiatorial combats. Dystopian fiction chock-full of footnotes about the dystopian nonfiction it’s based on. This was a hard read, but very, very good.
  • Exordia: An alien invasion, Iraqi war crimes, mathematical constructs, armageddon–this was a real trip of a book, what you get when Independence Day is written by someone who loathes US military adventurism. One of the books that made me think the most this year.

I’ll round it out to a top ten with two classics that I reread this year: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Last Unicorn. If you haven’t read these yet, you’re in for a treat!

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I’ve seen Tana French’s new book The Hunter on several “best books of 2024” lists. I really liked it. It’s a sequel to The Searcher, which I’d recommend reading first (equally good). Besides plotting compelling psychological mysteries, French is also an excellent writer. She’s lived in Ireland since 1990, and her books are usually set there.

The two books are about an early-retired Chicago policeman who moves to a remote village in Ireland where dark tensions lie beneath the surface. The new book is a followup to the first one.

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Thanks @Left_Hand_of_Dorkness ! God knows I need some apocalyptic fantasies to take my mind off the real apocalypse that seems to be occurring right now. At least with books you (usually) know how it all turns out in the end –

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Great idea for a thread!

Mine are:

O Caledonia, by Elspeth Barker: a neo-gothic telling of the fractious life and early death of a girl growing up in a rambling, crumbling mansion in the Scottish Highlands. Darkly humorous, moving, horrifying and crammed with grotesque but all too believable character vignettes, it’s a wonderful evocation of a rich inner life wresting with an unforgiving outer one.

Rizzio by Denise Mina: A modern crime writer turns her attention to a 16th Century murder in the court of Mary Queen of Scots, but without abandoning the style and approach of the 21st Century. Using the historical evidence to recreate both the murder and the subsequent investigation, this is a gripping thriller using multiple POV characters to give the reader access to what may have felt like a very different world, with the fictional elements both plausible, psychologically accurate, and genuinely tense.

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray: Decided I’d read this before seeing the film, in part spurred on by the debate on here. Still haven’t seen the film - the book is brilliant. Bella’s status as tabula rasa is a device to explore Victorian and modern mores, as well as to open a window on civil society. And that’s all very entertaining, but the literary device of teh found manuscript allows Gray to completely upend the main narrative, reframe all the main characters and in particular our understanding of Bella in a way that I found genuinely breathtaking. We are left with a tale of the inexorably belittling effects of misogyny and the joys and sorrows of rejecting social pressure. Magnificent.

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Not in strict order, but my favorites are near the top of the list.

The City & The City China Mieville

(Winner of the Hugo Award for best novel in 2010 - I’m trying to read them all.)

A police procedural set in the fictional eastern European city-state of Beszel. The twist is that the city of Beszel occupies the exact same location as the equally fictional city of Ul Qoma. There are parts of the cities where one can cross over, but this is strictly controlled, so that only one building serves as the formal “border”. People are taught to ignore people that they can see in the other city.

The brilliance of the book is that this is all explained very slowly as the story unfolds, and that at the end, it’s not really clear whether this a sci-fi phenomenon like parallel universes, or just a very strange social convention.

To Cook a Bear Mikael Niemi

A mystery set in rural Sweden in the 1800s. A young woman is savagely killed and the incompetent authorities blame a bear. But then another woman is attacked and it’s clear that a killer is on the loose. The central characters are a pastor (Lars Lastraedes, a real historical figure) and his troubled adopted son, a runaway.

In addition to the mystery, there are musings on philosophy, the beauty of nature, and the power of the written word.

I quite enjoyed this book. Some of the prose is quite beautiful.

Caveat: this is NOT a cozy mystery. There are intense depictions of cruelty, deprivation, and violence.

Ballpark: Baseball in the American City Paul Goldberger

A history of American baseball stadiums and their relation to their surroundings by an architect critic, from the early days in Brooklyn to the Golden Age of Fenway, Wrigley, and Ebbets field, the concrete donuts of the post war era, and the retro parks of the 90’s and 2000s.

The Golden Ratio Mario Livio

A short, charming book on the number phi ( 1 + sqrt(5) )/2, which crops in all kinds of interesting places in math and nature.

Enjoyable read, full of interesting historical and mathematical tidbits.

Silk: A World History Aarathi Prasad

An interesting look at the history of the fabric. One thing I learned is that silk can and has been made with the secreted threads of many animals, not just silkworm moths, including using threads that a large mollusk excretes to stick to the ocean floor. (Alas, the mollusk in question is now a threatened species, so this is not done anymore).

There has also been a lot done to make spider silk a viable fabric, none of it completely successful. One issue is that when packed together the spiders tend to eat one another. Recently, researchers tried genetically modifying goats to secrete spider silk in their milk. It worked, but not well enough to be commercial.

A Higher Form of Killing: Six Weeks in World War I That Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare Diana Preston

The emergence of three new technologies - chemical weapons, aerial bombing of cities, and submarine attacks on merchant shipping - during World War I.

The Palace
From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court
Gareth Russell

A history of Hampton Court Palace, home of the British monarchy starting with Henry VIII (he of the six wives) to the Georges, focusing the personal lives of the monarchs and the various courtiers who also lived there. And when I say personal lives, I mean sex lives, which were quite eventful. James I for example had at least one mistress and several male partners. It was good to be the king.

Personal note, I visited the Palace (it’s now a tourist site) a few years ago and it is stunningly beautiful.

The Hidden World of the Fox Adele Brand

A short but informative look at the red fox.

I was surprised to learn that foxes are rather controversial in Britain, the author’s home country. in the U.S., if people think about foxes at all, it’s “cute animal with bushy tail”. but in the U.K. it seems people are worried about foxes spreading disease and kidnapping their children.

Anyway, enjoyable book. I wish it had been longer, which not something I say often.

Titanium Noir Nick Harkaway

A mix of dystopian sci-fi and detective noir. The setup is that in the near future, humanity is divided into two groups - ordinary schmoes like you and me and Titans, a few ultrarich people who have received gene therapy that resets their body clock allowing them to live for centuries, and makes them unusually tall and large.

A Titan is murdered and an ordinary human has to find the killer.

A strange book, but I liked it.

The Devil’s Element Dan Egan

The devil’s element in this nicely-written, informative book is Phosphorus (atomic number 15, symbol P). It’s safe to say that humanity and phosphorus have a complicated relationship. On the one hand, it’s absolutely essential to life. In order to grow enough food for all 8 billion of us, we need to mine it and add it to fertilizer. On the other hand, we use it wastefully, and the excess pollutes our water and spurs toxic blooms of algae.

Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life Jason Roberts

The history of the rivalry between the Swede Carl Linnaeus and the Frenchman Buffon to describe and categorize all life on Earth.

Paradise Bronx Ian Frazier

A long history of the New York City borough, which went from rural idyll, Revolutionary War battlefield, 20th century decline and rebirth.

Lots of interesting detail and very well written

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I love this book. It’s such a clever idea - FWIW my take is the superimposition of the two cities is purely a social convention, and I read it as a commentary on the way we do, all the time, allow our lives to pass in parallel through others’.

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As usual, it doesn’t matter when the book was published, just that you read it during 2024. Since I read a lot of books, I made lists for nonfiction and fiction.

Nonfiction:

  1. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (Robin Wall Kimmerer) Best book I read this year. For its fascinating scientific/historical information, plus its language and setting.

  2. The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization (Roland Ennos) For its fascinating scientific and historical information.

  3. First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human (Jeremy DeSilva) For its fascinating description of evolution.

  4. Venice is a Fish: A Sensual Guide (Tiziano Scarpa, translated by Shaun Whiteside) For its use of language, setting, humor, and fascinating historical information.

  5. Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood (David Mamet) For its great Hollywood anecdotes and humor.

  6. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) (Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling) For its reporting on the events, setting and characterization.

  7. American Flygirl (Susan Tate Ankeny) For its description of how female pilots, focusing on Hazel Ying Lee, participated in America’s defense during World War II.

  8. Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! (David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams): Fun (mostly) background of the funniest movie I’ve ever seen.

  9. Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World in a Big Way (Roma Agrawal) For its fascinating historical and scientific information.

  10. Frankenstein’s Brain: Puzzles and Conundrums in Mary Shelley’s Monstrous Masterpiece (John Sutherland) For its fascinating information and humor.

Fiction:

  1. Angel of the Overpass (Seanan McGuire) Fantasy. For its language more than anything else, and also for the characterization and worldbuilding. This is the third book in a trilogy that began with Sparrow Hill Road.

  2. Thistlefoot (Genna Rose Nethercott) Fantasy. For its language, worldbuilding, and characterization.

  3. Station Eternity and Chaos Terminal (Mur Lafferty) Science fiction/Mystery First two books in a science fiction mystery series. For their worldbuilding, characterization, plot, and humor. I started to read the second book which contained a massive spoiler for the first. I stopped to read the first book, which was so good I didn’t care about the spoiler.

  4. Halting State (Charles Stross) Science fiction. For its plot, language, humor, and worldbuilding.

  5. The Fifth Season (N. K. Jemisin) Fantasy. For its language, plot, and worldbuilding.

  6. Mammoths at the Gates (Nghi Vo) Fantasy. For its plot and characterization.

  7. A River Runs Through It (Norman Maclean) Historical. For its language, setting, and characterization.

  8. The Longmire Defense (Craig Johnson) Mystery. For its characterization, setting, and humor.

  9. Grailblazers (Tom Holt) Fantasy. For its humor.

  10. Peace Breaks Out (Angela Thirkell) Historical. For its characterization, humor, and language.

Both Fiction/Nonfiction: Life on the Mississippi (Mark Twain) While mostly nonfiction, there are substantial sections of fiction. For its characterization, humor, use of language, setting, and interesting anecdotes.

Best opening sentence, from A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears), by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling: “During the summer of 2016, the firefighter became convinced the bear was watching him.”

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A bit of a hijack, but Kevin Drum posted his 21 favorite books of all time. He presented them in chronological order, without comment.

No comments. By publication date.

I own ~5 and have only read 2, but I suspect they are solid recommendations.

  1. The Count of Monte Cristo, 1844, by Alexandre Dumas
  2. Crime and Punishment, 1866, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  3. Southern California: An Island on the Land, 1946, by Carey McWilliams
  4. Youngblood Hawke, 1962, by Herman Wouk
  5. The Chronicles of Amber (first series), 1970, by Roger Zelazny
  6. Time Enough for Love, 1973, by Robert Heinlein
  7. The Power Broker, 1974, by Robert Caro
  8. Plagues and Peoples, 1976, by William McNeill
  9. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (first trilogy), 1977, by Stephen Donaldson
  10. A Distant Mirror, 1978, by Barbara Tuchman
  11. Godel, Escher, Bach, 1979, by Douglas Hofstadter
  12. The Belgariad, 1982, by David Eddings
  13. The Quincunx, 1989, by Charles Palliser
  14. Infinite Jest, 1996, by David Foster Wallace
  15. The Corner, 1997, by David Simon and Edward Burns
  16. American Aurora, 1997, by Richard Rosenfeld
  17. Cryptonomicon, 1999, by Neal Stephenson
  18. Before the Storm, 2001, by Rick Perlstein
  19. How Wars End, 2010, by Gideon Rose
  20. The Broken Earth trilogy, 2015, by N.K. Jemisin
  21. Chip War, 2022, by Chris Miller
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Just chiming in to say how fascinated I am by those of you that read that many books. My Top Ten would include all 3 books I read. :rofl:

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My highest-rated on Goodreads this year (again, not 2024-published):

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
Sacred Hunger, Barry Unsworth (a first reread since it came out)
The Nearest Exit, Oleg Steinhauer
The Quiet American, Graham Greene (also a reread)
My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Emil Ferris (a graphic novel)

I read 44 books this year, about half my normal, as I tried to slow things down. The Ramayana took a big chunk of the early part of the year.

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Non-fiction- The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson- about ft Sumter and the start of the Civil war.

Proves- beyond all doubt- the South shot first.

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I read 80+ books this year, several of them rereads, it was nice to hang out with old friends.
My top ten, in no particularl order:

  1. A Sorceress comes to Call by T. KIngfisher. That was a rollercoaster of a book, which is absolutely what one expects when starting a book by T. Kingfisher. For a book that was mostly about people in a country house, in a time and place vaguely like Regency England, who are having what amounts to a house party, I could not put the book down!

  2. Death in The Spires by K.J. Charles The book has a lot of layers and as you read they get peeled back until, like our hero, Jem, you really aren’t sure what you know. As usual, Ms. Charles characters are likeable, until they aren’t, interesting and realistic, the set up plausible: a group of friend, once attached at the hip but now torn apart by suspicion and secrets.

  3. The Rip Through Time series by Kelley Armstrong. A modern detective finds herself in the body of a Victorian house maid in Edinburgh Scotland. Wildly implausible, above and beyond the time travel, I am nevertheless enjoying the hell out of Mallory’s adventures.

  4. Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel A post apocalyptic troupe of entertainers deal with no more technology, religious fanatics and the empty American Midwest. Just enough tension, and a lot less gross than The Stand.

  5. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. This was everything I wanted Miss Peregrine to be but wasn’t: funny, charming, heartrending.

  6. The Secret Adversary, Partners in Crime &* N or M?* The first three Tommy & Tuppence novels by Agatha Christie. Definitely more light sprited than the Hercule Poirot novels, they’re a lot of fun on a long ride.

  7. The Not a… series by Madeline Kirby. Yearly rereads, Jake and his friends are just fun to hang out with, even with murder involed… but there are cats and Cats.

  8. The Duke at Hazard by K. J. Charles. A chase across Regency England to find a stolen signet ring and restore a man’s reputation.

  9. The Flash Gold Chronicles by Lindsay Buroker Another reread, steampunk, gold fever and pirates in dirigibles. What’s there NOT to like here?

  10. The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren, Really a short story it’s a sweet meet cute about an email sent to the wrong account, just what I needed when things got stressful.

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I only read 21 books this year but I like them long and only really “read” when driving or doing chores (Audiobooks). I did rate 8 of the 21 as 5 star plus had two 4 star books I probably should upgrade since I think they deserve to be on the list.

In order of awesomeness:

  1. The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel
  2. True Grit by Charles Portis, read perfectly by Donna Tartt.
  3. Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
  4. The Hunter by Tana French
  5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  6. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
  7. Dead Man’s Walk by Larry McMurtry (this years re-read #1)
  8. Comanche Moon by the same - re-read #2)
  9. The Dutch House by Ann Pratchett. I think I gave it 4 stars because it is not really my type of book but I think about it enough that I should probably give it 5. I liked it enough to try Tom Lake by the same author, which I did not love because it was too comfy but I would try the author again.
  10. Holly by Stephen King - the villains were sooo deliciously evil, even if some of the plot was tired and Holly had a few Covid-related moments that I thought were out of character and took me out of the story. I still had a lot of fun listening to it.
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  1. An Introduction to Linguistic Typology - Viveka Velupillai
  2. Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
  3. Enchiridion - Epictetus
  4. The Nation’s Favourite Poems - Griff Rhys Jones
  5. A History of New York in 101 Objects - Sam Roberts
  6. Syntax: A Generative Introduction - Andrew Carnie
  7. L’Étonnement Philosophique - Jeanne Hersch
  8. Metaphors We Live By - George Lakoff, Mark Johnson
  9. Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms - Claire Breay, Joanna Story
  10. An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding - David Hume
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2024 wasn’t a very good reading year for me. I only read 37 books, an all-time low since I started tracking my books in 2008. In looking over my list, I found five books with perfect five-star ratings, and twelve with four stars. The embarrassing part is that I barely remember some of these!

These were the five-star:
What Feasts at Night, T. Kingfisher
Grave Expectations, Alice Bell
The Haunting of Velkwood, Gwendolyn Kiste
Annie Bot, Sierra Greer
Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia, Jason Pargin

I’ll list these to round out the top ten:
You Like It Darker, Stephen King
Displeasure Island, Alice Bell (sequel to Grave Expectations)
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher
The Dissonance, Shaun Hamill

And call these the “honorable mention” awards.
The Endless Vessel, Charles Soule
Good Girls Don’t Die, Christina Henry
Murder Road, Simone St. James
The Court of the Stone Children, Eleanor Cameron
Little Darlings, Melanie Golding
Playing With Myself, Randy Rainbow
Convergence Problems, Talabi Wole

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Similar thread on the same topic

Best books of 2024 - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board

Maybe these can be merged?

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I enjoyed this book too. Lots of interesting historical and technical tidbits.

The sequels are good too, although the first one was best.

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Normally I wait for Elendil’s Heir to start this list, but since two threads have already been started and merged, I’ll place it here.

I managed to read 104 books this year, up from last year when I had cataract surgery.

In chronological order:

  1. Matthew by R. Alan Culpepper. A very insightful, non-evangelical, academic commentary on the gospel.
  2. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garman. Not my usual fare, but an enjoyable romp nonetheless.
  3. TR’s Last War by David Petrusza. Masterful, as usual, description of Theodore Roosevelt’s last years and the election in which he died before he could be nominated as a candidate.
  4. Miles Coverdale and the English Bible by Henry Guppy. Fills the niche usually missed in the history of the English translation of the Bible by providing biography and history from Tyndale’s execution up to the KJV.
  5. Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays The Rend by Dame Judi Dench. Interviews with the Royal Shakesperean Company actress about the roles she played, and her thoughts on the plays and acting as a profession. She loves Lear, detests Merchant of Venice, and has her own ghost story about the Scottish play.
  6. I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle. I’ll read anything by Beagle, so another bright and hilarious fantasy from him is just my speed.
  7. What Are They Saying About The Parables? by David B. Gowler. Part of an immensely useful Roman Catholic series on various books and aspects of the New Testament, the author covers and comments critically on all the major discussions of Jesus’s parables in the last 20+ years. My only regret is they aren’t updating the series.
  8. Feet on the Street by Roy Blount, Jr. Loving travelogue/reminiscences of New Orleans.
  9. How To Fracture A Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen. Collection of short pieces in which famous fairy tales are addressed from distinctly different angles: the Three Billy Goats Gruff, for instance, is told from the POV of the bridge.
  10. My Brother’s Keeper by Tim Powers. Mr. Powers is my favorite author of all time, and here he puts his supernatural spin on the Bronte family.

Now to look at what others put up.

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Since I think it’s cheating to have 10 each for fiction and non-fiction, here are my top five favorite fiction and non-fiction books:

Fiction:

  1. The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis – A juicy plot with theft, secrets, and love affairs, while also exploring some historical issues like feminism and homosexuality at the turn of the 20th century.
  2. Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon – I’ve never before encountered a ghost story where the ghost herself was such a complex character with a fascinating backstory.
  3. The Swallows by Lisa Lutz – A high school where girls are being objectified by boys, but instead of speaking up and complaining, the girls decide to get even. And they get vicious.
  4. Never Lie by Freida McFadden – This thriller is the king of “I didn’t see that ending coming”!
  5. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler – Compelling characters.

Nonfiction:

  1. Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease by Sharon Moalem – A fascinating examination of how certain genetic conditions are generally considered harmful, but can provide an evolutionary advantage when the circumstances are just so.
  2. The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All – But There is a Solution by Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott – An excellent overview of cancel culture in the U.S., full of case studies, statistics, and an examination of why cancel culture is so harmful.
  3. The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story by Hyeonseo Lee –Exciting, heart-wrenching, and educational.
  4. Africa is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin – Part history, part cultural critique. This book gave me a better understanding of Africa and why we’re so tempted to think of the entire continent as one big country (the country borders do not align with different ethnic groups and cultures because they were artificially drawn by Europeans).
  5. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam M. Grant – Essentially, turning open-mindedness into a science. It provides supported by research and statistics.

Depending on what you count, this is out of either 75 books or 68, because I started 75 books last year, but a few of them were too bad for me to finish. (Maybe we should have a Worst Books of 2024 thread too!)

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Surprised no one yet has listed Percival Everett’s James. I thought it crap, and couldn’t believe the near universal praise, other than possibly as a lifetime acknowledgement of Everett’s work.

Read a couple more of Everett’s and decided I’m done with him. My fave of his was Trees.