I feel like I wrote my 2023 list1 just yesterday?! My stated goal for 2024 was actually to “read less and socialize more” … and – despite reading 61 books in 2024 – I would argue I struck a better balance this past year. It of course helped that I took a brief sabbatical over the summer and, if anything, my goal for 2025 is to extend that balance to work/life.
Not to be dramatic, but 2024 seemed to be the year of reading mediocrity. I didn’t have nearly as many standouts as I did in prior years (books that were easy 5-stars; that I recommended to everyone, à la Demon Copperhead in 2023 and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow in 2022).
To put some data behind this claim: my 2024 reads only contained two 5-star books, while 2023 had four, and both 2022 and 2021 had eight!
This year’s list was therefore more difficult to compile since it required re-reviewing all of my 4 star reads and determining which stood out among the rest.
To counterbalance my pessimistic statement that “2024 was a year of reading mediocrity”: it was also a year of rediscovering historical fiction. A majority of the books I enjoyed this fell into this genre and – I’m sure more than coincidentally – were written by female authors: Still Life, The Frozen River, There Are Rivers in the Sky, The Women, Go as a River, and Lady Tan’s Circle of Women. I spent a lot of time reflecting on the experience of being a woman across different cultures, eras, and geographies.
A few other brief notes and reflections from the past year (damn, I feel like one of those cooking blogs that writes their entire life story before getting to the recipe):
- Shout-out to my book club (again) for helping me combine friends and reading! And shout out to Ali over at Untellectual whose book reviews are *chef’s kiss*.
- Last year, after reading A Court of Thorns and Roses – and subsequently acknowledging I had been living under a rock when it came to fantasty and romantasy – I said I’d try to incorporate some more fantasy into my 2024 reading.
I didn’t really do that.
I did, however, finally read a Frieda McFadden book to see what the hype was about. Honestly, I could probably take it or leave it, but I understand why in a world of distraction, escapism, and audiobooks her books often top the charts. - One of this year’s themes was reading multiple books by the same author. I read two books by Catherine Newman (We All Want Impossible Things and Sandwich); two books in Richard Osman’s “Thursday Murder Club” series (and I am starting 2025 by reading his new novel We Solve Murders); three books by Elif Shafak (Honor, The Bastard of Instanbul, and her latest novel There Are Rivers in the Sky); two books by Maggie O’Farrell (This Must Be the Place and After You’d Gone); and two books by Patrick DeWitt (French Exit and The Sisters Brothers).
I’d categorize this as the “ol’ reliable” approach, or the “if it ain’t broke” approach, since all of these books were ones I knew had a high probability of enjoyment. While it doesn’t lend itself to novelty or necessarily expand my horizons, I like feeling well-versed in an author. (In a world increasingly optimized for “singles” it’s nice to take an “album” approach, if you know what I mean.)
And with that…
Maddy’s 10 “Best Reads” of 2024 (in no particular order):
1. Chris Whitaker’s All The Colors of the Dark.
As someone who ashamedly often forgets the characters and plots of even the books I love, I remember this one really well, and that has to mean something. The characters are incredible: well-drawn and memorable. And not just the protagonists, but the side characters too.
In some ways this novel felt analogous to Donna Tartt’s ‘The Goldfinch’: a super-long purported mystery/thriller that ended up being more of a character-driven, literary drama that took a long time to be resolved. It has a great start and a great ending and, in both cases I enjoyed the journey, but I found myself asking more than a few times, “Does it need to be this long?”
2. Richard Osman’s The Last Devil to Die.
The latest in Osman’s four-book “Thursday Murder Club” series was his best yet! While every book in the series is an enjoyable, humorous, ~4 star read, this one stood out as the most thoughtful. The cast of characters in which I’ve become very invested navigate more explicitly and emotionally the challenges of aging, death, and grief.
I also love this series for the same reason I love Julia Louise Dreyfuss’ podcast “Wiser Than Me”: in a world full of anti-aging propaganda and obsession with youth, both are reminders that your later years can be full of purpose, friendship, and adventure.
And my 2025 reading is off to a strong start as I snagged a copy of Osman’s latest, We Solve Murders, from the library last week!
3. Elif Shafak’s There Are Rivers in the Sky.
Last year’s list included Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees, and I’ve already named her as one of my favorite authors. There are a handful of contemporary authors whose books I’ll read the minute they’re released, and Shafak is one of them. She did not disappoint!
My favorite things about Shafak’s novels yet again shone through in There Are Rivers in the Sky: wonderful story-telling through the lens of the natural world (a tree in The Island of Missing Trees and, in this case, water), poetic prose, and a weaving together of characters over generations.
4. Ed Yong’s An Immense World.
“Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal can only tap into a small fraction of reality’s fullness. Each is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world.”
A book that I read with a pen and paper on hand as there were so may notes I wanted to take while reading! It changed my perspective on the world around me and was one that I savored over the course of many months, reading different chapters slowly over time.
5. Sarah Winman’s Still Life.
What a gorgeous book! If you’re looking for an author who captures the sacred beauty of what it means to be human, Sarah Winman is your gal.
Still Life is a celebration of the ordinary moments that give life meaning: shared meals, conversations over wine, and the quiet companionship of friends. It is a book that reminded me of the importance of kindness, of art, and of the joy of finding beauty in unexpected places … not to mention the lovely portrayals of Florence that made me yearn for the time Thomas and I spent there this past summer!
6. Kristin Hannah’s The Women.
Another book that made me realize I maaaay have been sleeping on female-authored historical fiction. Hannah’s closing notes in particular made me appreciate years of work she put into crafting this novel’s vivid characters and realistic descriptions of war zones.
7. Coco Mellor’s Blue Sisters.
As I wrote in my review of Ann Patchett’s Hello Beautiful last year: “Any book that meaningfully explores love, sisterhood, motherhood, etc. is probably going to be something I enjoy.” Blue Sisters was exactly that, and I enjoyed it very much.
Ironically, according to her Goodreads review, my twin sister seemed to disagree: “Can someone explain to me why this book is so highly rated, I thought it was mediocre at best.”
So – give it a read and let us know which one of us is right.
8. Catherine Newman’s We All Want Impossible Things.
An emotional rollercoaster full of beautiful prose. One of my favorite things about this novel was how Newman captures the necessity of humor in times of hardship and grief.
(Side note: I subsequently read her most recent novel, Sandwich, and maybe it felt too similar in style to We All Want Impossible Things but I didn’t enjoy it as much.)
9. Percival Everett’s Erasure.
Talk about razor-sharp satire…this book had me simultaneously laughing out loud and pausing to somberly reflect on our sad cultural and social realities.
While it might not be for everyone, I like Everett’s experimental style. His inclusion of various cultural references and intermittent dialogue and/or passages unrelated to the story make the reader do a little more work than usual. While I’m almost always reading for pleasure, it does feel good to challenge myself in that fashion once in a while.
I’m currently reading Everett’s lastest, James, and already appreciating it for the same reasons.
10. Claire Keegan’s Foster.
Jumping on the Claire Keegan bandwagon! I read and loved Small Things Like These in 2022 and am unsure why I waited until 2024 to read another of her short novels. As many have already noted: any author can make you care about their characters when they have hundreds of pages to do it, but managing to make that happen over the course of 84 pages is a feat. I already have So Late in the Day queued up for this year.
Thanks for reading! What were your favorite books of 2024? What are you excited about reading in 2025?!