Every year, She Reads reaches out to readers to discover the books that they thought were the best of the year! This year we had over 8,000 of you cast your vote and the results are in. In our roundups of all the Best Books of 2024, we’ll include the number one book, chosen by you and some favorites from our professional book loving editors. We hope this reading year was as wonderful for you as it was for us!
Best Book of the Year: The Women by Kristin Hannah
The Women by Kristin Hannah
This tear-jerker period piece is another to add the collection of astounding Kristin Hannah novels. Following a young woman who ships off to Vietnam to join the Army Nurse Corps, we get a rarely viewed perspective on one of America’s most infamous wars. Though a war-ravaged land across the ocean is a devastating journey, the return home proves to be just as painful.
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With the year coming to an end, now is the perfect time to reminisce over all the amazing books we have read this year. From nonfiction to thriller, fantasy and mystery, so many wonderful stories were told in 2024, and we want to take a moment to celebrate that. Take a trip with us down memory lane to all the best books of 2024 and remember all the heart-pounding and tear-jerking moments. Or if you missed any of these releases, make sure they end up on the 2025 TBR!
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
A New York Times bestseller and Read with Jenna pick, All the Colors of the Dark might be the book that was everywhere this year. In this emotionally deep mystery, a boy named Patch has gone missing after thwarting an attempted attack on a wealthy girl in town. In the wake of this incident emerges a serial killer thriller and an unexpected love story that readers raved about all year.
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James by by Percival Everett
This imaginative retelling was an instant New York Times bestseller and an instant-buy for readers in 2024. This twist on Mark Twain’s classic tells the story of Huckleberry Finn through the eyes of the enslaved man, Jim. This book turned a keen, critical eye and unstoppable humor on an American classic that has destined this book for the same long-lasting fame.
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The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
From the bestselling author of Long Bright River, Liz Moore’s latest book was a runaway New York Times bestseller. In this thriller, a young girl vanishes from summer camp. But she’s not just any girl, she’s a Van Laar child. Not only do her parents own the camp, but the same thing happened to her brother 14 years ago. Now, secrets are unfolding as the wealthy family searches for their second missing child.
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Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
A New York Times bestseller and a longlisted title for the Booker Prize, Wandering Stars is the follow up to Tommy Orange’s Pulitzer Prize finalist, There There. After surviving the Sand Creek Massacre, Star is sent to prison castle and brutalized by a man who will go on to found Carlisle Indian Industrial School. A generation later, his son will face the same harsh reality at the hands of the man who tormented his father.
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Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Shortlisted for the National Book Award and also hitting the New York Times bestseller list, Martyr! is a family story of an orphaned son of immigrant Iranians. As Cyrus battles addiction and digs into his family’s secrets, art and poetry guide him through the journey.
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Real Americans by Rachel Khong
A New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna pick, Rachel Khong’s latest novel is a timely and poignant reflection. Lily is the daughter of immigrants who fled Mao’s cultural revolution, Matthew is the East Coast dwelling heir to a pharmaceutical fortune. Despite their differences, they fall in love. Now, over twenty years later, fifteen-year-old Nick senses that his single mother, Lily, is keeping things from him and sets off to find his biological father.
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The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
Everyone’s favorite gay uncle is back and this time he’s headed to Italy. After taking in his niece and nephew temporarily, Patrick’s life has gotten back to normal. But now, his brother is getting remarried, five years after losing his wife, and the guncle is returning to support the family, battle with the new lesbian aunt and hopefully find a piece of happiness himself.
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Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung
In this bestselling debut novel, a wealthy family living in Shandong are on the outskirts of a civil war, but a battle is brewing in the home with no male heirs to pass the fortune down to. Hai is the eldest daughter and when the men flee, leaving the women behind, she must answer for her family’s crimes. Left destitute after the brutality, the women are penniless and starving, but free for the first time.
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A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
The New York Times bestselling author of Seven Days in June brought us a new character to love this year. Ricki Wilde is the free-spirited counterpart to her socialite sisters who moves into a Harlem brownstone and encounters a mysterious man. Swept away by the art, music and magic of Harlem, this is another perfect romance for your TBR.
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Just For the Summer by Abby Jimenez
Justin and Emma are both cursed. Every person they date ends up getting “the one” after they break up. Justin’s story goes viral on Reddit and and Emma proposes that they date each other and break up as a way to cancel their losing streak. The problem is, they are both catching feelings neither of them expected. Don’t miss out on the book that shot up to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list this year!
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The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall
Bestselling author Rachel Howzell Hall is sneaking one more must-read romantasy novel in before the end of the year. Rebecca Yarros calls this one “Masterful storytelling with a female protagonist worth rooting for.” Kai has no memory, only a mission. Awakening in a desolate and brutal land she has to reach the Sea of Devour to save in this horrific place. When a skilled blacksmith joins her in the fight, she is set by ablaze by the tension between them and confronted with the reality that many are not who they seem.
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Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune
In the much-anticipated follow up to the beloved The House in the Cerulean Sea, readers reunite with their favorite cast of peculiar characters. Arthur takes his job at the orphanage overseeing magical children very seriously. When he’s faced with threats outside and inside his walls, he has to fight on two fronts to protect the children and create a future for all magical people.
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The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library comes a story full of tenderness and magic. Widowed and retired, Grace, gets the shock of a lifetime when an old friend leaves her a home on Ibiza. On a whim, she decides to visit this place and discovers a world stranger than she could imagine and an opportunity to reconcile her past.
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The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
This book was a smash hit of summer reaching the New York Times bestseller list, Obama’s favorite books of summer and Good Morning America’s book club pick. In this time travel romance, a woman is responsible for housing a time traveling Commander from 1845. He’s unfamiliar with modern times and it’s her job to make this “expat” at home, but then unexpectedly begins to fall for him.
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The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim
Chosen as one of Time‘s 100 Best Books of 2024, The Eyes Are the Best Part is a haunting and thrilling decent into destruction. Ji-won’s family is rattled by her Appa’s affair. The new man in her Umma’s life is condescending to Ji-won and her sister and is taking up too much space in tiny apartment. Plagued by dreams of rooms filled with eyes, Ji-won lies and manipulates to unleash her anger in this bold new serial killer thriller.
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Here After by Amy Lin
In this striking, bestselling memoir, Amy Lin is a newlywed whose 32-year-old husband leaves to run a marathon and that is the last time she sees him alive. The memoir details the void created by the loss, her life with her late husband and the power of grief and love.
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Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen
Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen dives deep into the reality of nuclear war in this investigative exploration on the reality of the world’s nuclear position. Examining the minute-by-minute events that would follow a nuclear attack, Jacobsen presents the true horrors of these weapons and the fragility of the system designed around them. This collection of her in-depth research reads like an apocalyptic novel, but warns of a terrifyingly real threat.
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The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
From the New York Times bestselling author of Between the World and Me comes the next gripping book by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The intertwining essays on his trips to Africa, South Caroline and Palestine paint a portrait of race, history and the stories that drive national and global narratives. With the power and precisions only Coates can deliver, he contemplates how our stories and, hence, our perspectives shape reality.
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Heir by Sabaa Tahir
This #1 New York Times bestseller and National Book Award winner brought a new YA fantasy read to our shelves this year. In this story, three unlikely heroes are spread across an empire, faced with their own haunted pasts and driven to outrun their own destinies. An orphan, an outcast and a prince must rise above their predetermined path and fight the powers of greed and control.
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