Here are the best (and worst) books of 2024 according to me. This is always my favorite column to write each year. What can I say? I love a list. This isn’t your regular top ten run of the mill books of the year list though. Instead I frame this list around the questions I ask my guests every week on my podcast, The Stacks. If the author of any of the below books was a guest on The Stacks, I have linked to that episode below for your listening pleasure.
TWO BOOKS I LOVE
James by Percival Everett
For the first time I can remember there was a very clear “book of the year” in 2024. It was James. This reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as told from Jim’s (aka James’) perspective had early buzz and sustained that enthusiasm all year long. Not only did the book have the buzz, it lived up to the hype. I loved this slim propulsive novel. Everett shows off his skills as a satirist, storyteller, and cultural observer. The book starts in one place and when you read the last line (that damn last line!) you feel like you are in a totally different place. It is a wow.
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
Adam Higginbotham took a story we all know, complete with images that will never be erased from our brains, and made it feel fresh and new. I was at the edge of my seat certain the Challenger would not launch on that fateful day in January 1986. He brings the people to life, he explains the detailed science in a way anyone can understand, and when we get the commission at the end, good luck not screaming at every person who had a hand in the disaster. Higginbotham adds new research to the public record and handles all the pieces with a perfect balance. Never boring, always compelling. This is narrative nonfiction at its best.
ONE BOOK I HATE
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie
I get that this book is important or notable, but I wish folks would stop pretending its any good. It’s not bad, but like, Rushdie could write a better book. A memoir with so much potential (an assassination attempt for goodness sake) that falls so flat as to feel more like a rushed grab for attention than anything that was needed. I don’t doubt that Rushdie has a lot to say about the stabbing that blinded him, but I wish he had taken more time and care to tell the story in a way that felt imperative instead of obligatory.
THE LAST GREAT BOOK SOMEONE RECOMMENDED TO ME
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer
Patrick Radden Keefe posted this book on IG stories. I asked him if it was really good, he said it was top notch. PRK has great taste and does not lie. This history book of immigration to the USA from Central America gives the current immigration crisis much needed context while bestowing presidential treatment on the subjects of the book, migrants who have often have their depth of humanity and individual stories ignored. This is a comprehensive look at the history, policy, and politics that have created and exacerbated the immigration crisis in the USA tied to the people who have lived it.
BOOK I LOVE TO RECOMMEND
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
If you have asked me for a book recommendation this year it has been Maryr! the debut novel from poet Kaveh Akbar. I can’t really explain what this book is about, but I can tell you it is a novel with so much damn heart and love for people and curiosity about life. It is the kind of book that makes you feel things and fall madly in love with the protagonist. It is hopeful and devastating. It is a treat for the reader.
CURRENTLY READING
Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan
I have known that the Kennedy men were womanizers and abusive and even murderers in some cases (allegedly) but seeing it all together in one place in one book is a little overwhelming. While the content of this book is so good, the tone is a little off for me so far, but I’m enjoying the salacious details enough to keep going.
FAVORITE AUDIOBOOK
What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
I could slot this book in to so many of the prompts. I loved this book. I put it here because this is the most special audiobook I read this year. The book consists of 20 interviews that answer the question of what it would be like if we get climate change right across industries, from journalism to architecture. Why the audiobook is so special is that the print book has excerpts from these interviews (very well edited and thorough) but the audio has the actual audio from the interviews. The audiobook is like 20 mini podcasts on climate solutions and it is wonderful to be immersed in all that possibility. Plus Johnson’s voice is soothing and joyful and perfect.
BOOK THAT MADE ME LAUGH
Colored Television by Danzy Senna
If you’re giving me an unhinged woman making terrible decisions I’m giving you some laughs. In the case of Danzy Senna and Colored Television I am giving you a lot of laughs. In this novel about a novelist, Jane, who is struggling to finish her second book and gets wrapped up in the world of TV writing, we get a lot of very “do not do that Jane” moments that are “can not look away”, peak cringe situations. Messy and chaotic fiction at its best.
BOOK THAT MADE ME ANGRY
The Real Americans by Rachel Khong
This book is totally mediocre, which is fine, though obviously not ideal. What made me angry was the way it handles eugenics. It’s a major part of the story and really I can’t say more (without spoiling), but I will say if you’re writing a sort of fun literary fiction novel that explores genetically altering people you better be certain you can carry the weight of the subject. This book could not and did not.
BOOK THAT BRINGS ME JOY
Big Night: Dinners, Parties & Dinner Parties by Katherine Lewin
I love a cookbook, I love to host, and I love this book. The recipes range from super simple to challenging enough for a homecook and they taste great. This book inspired me to think about my hosting philosophies and what kind of big nights I want to be having. The visuals are fun and bright and the insight Lewin brings to hosting is simple and easy to pull off but has a major impact on your guests.
BOOK WHERE I LEARNED A LOT
The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports by Michael Waters
No, I did not know there were trans athletes in the 1936 Olympics. Yes, I did know the Nazis are awful and the Olympics have a long history of appeasing them, but everything else in this incredibly researched and rendered book was new to me. Add to that the fact that nothing is new, this book helped me to see the historical context of much of the anti-trans sentiment and policy being enacted in the US today, especially around trans athletes.
BOOK I’M PROUD TO HAVE READ
I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: (But I’m Going to Anyway) by Chelsea Devantez
My friend Chelsea Devantez wrote a memoir, which is enough on its own to make me very happy, but the joy I felt in reading the final copy and seeing how she had transformed her story into a compelling narrative left me beyond proud. It has jokes, it has vulnerability, and it has a woman at the center who created a whole lot (including the book itself) against all odds.
BOOK I’M EMBARRASSED I STILL HAVEN’T READ
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
This year I actually feel like I have read most of the buzziest books on the literary scene, but this novel about a young woman who joins Only Fans to survive for herself and her child is one I haven’t gotten around to reading, but know I must!
BOOK I WISH MORE PEOPLE READ
How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom by Johanna Hedva
This essay collection about disability, pain, care, and culture is fantastic. It is my favorite essay collection of the year. It is what I call “second generation” in that Hedva is writing about disability as a member of the disabled community but is not writing exclusively about their experiences within the community, instead it is the lens through which they explore the world around them. These essays are cutting, Hedva does not hold back. They are also tender and funny and sharp and so well written. I am begging you and everyone else to read this collection, I just know you’d appreciate it.
A BOOK PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO KNOW I LOVED
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Yes, I read a buzzy summer mystery about a girl going missing at a summer camp in the Adirondacks, and I loved it. This book knows what it is, and does exactly what you hope it will. The writing is smart, the characters are strong, and the ending has the right amounts of twists. It nails it.
A BOOK ABOUT WHERE I AM FROM
Another Word for Love by Carvell Wallace
This is my favorite memoir of 2024. A book about healing and harm and what love can look and feel like. Carvell Wallace is from the East Coast but has spent more than half of their life in Oakland and Los Angeles, coincidentally the same places I have spent more than half of my life. They also went to NYU for theatre, so that too is a place I am from in many ways. This book tugged on all sorts of heart strings for me and reminded me that memoir can do much more than just document a moment in one life. It can reach out and touch the reader. It can change how we think about connection, repair, and of course, love.
PROBLEMATIC FAVE
Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball by Keith O’Brein
This book isn’t problematic, but Pete Rose (RIP) certainly is. The book is a delicious juicy biography of the most infamous man in all of baseball, Pete Rose, who was excommunicated from the sport for betting on baseball. But before all of that he was known for being chesty, aggressive, and a big asshole to most of his teammates. He also set the hit record in MLB (which stands today) and was a damn good ballplayer and also a degenerate gambler. O’Brein captures Rose in all his anti-hero glory. A joyful read for folks who love a jerk or love baseball, or in my case, both!
A BOOK I WOULD ASSIGN TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win by Jessica Valenti
We’re not talking to the kids nearly enough about abortion, their bodies, and what is at stake. I don’t just mean the girls either. This book is clear, concise, and explains what is at stake and how our rights are being taken away. I also think this would be an extremely important read for young folks because it also shows the power of rhetoric and linguistic performance (which they teach in English class, right?). It is about public opinion and political agendas, and while abortion is the singular focus of this book, much of what is happening on that front is happening in other political arenas.
BOOK I WOULD LIKE TO SEE ADAPTED FOR THE SCREEN
Come & Get It by Kiley Reid
Messy college students and a professor who behaves badly in a story all about race, money, and class. YES YES YES. A dark comedy with a whole bunch of strong female leads. Can we get this made?
BOOK I WOULD RECOMMEND TO THE PRESIDENT
The Barn by Wright Thompson
In 1955 Emmett Till was a Black child murdered by a group of white men for whistling at a white woman. Most people associate this murder with the town of Money, MS, where his body was found. The truth is he was killed in Drew, MS, in a barn. This book tells the story of the murder and the barn and the land on which it sits. A wild and winding journey that starts in the Mississippi Delta makes its way across the Atlantic and back again. This is a book about who America is and how we got this way, and why some things have never changed.
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