My Top 10 Books of 2024
And a few honorable mentions
The time has come! I kept putting off this post because I struggled to decide on my favorite books of the year. I read many fantastic titles, which presented me with an excellent problem: how could I choose a top ten when I loved so many?
The answer is staying power. The books I chose as my favorites this year are ones that have stayed with me. Their characters, stories, and insights have impacted how I view the world. Each book on my list differs from the other in tone and subject, yet the thread uniting them is that they illuminate a truth about the human condition. Ultimately, that’s what I’m after when I read. I want to read books that show me something real about the world and people around me. The ten I’m sharing with you today did just that. Here they are!
My Top 10 Books of 2024
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt: This is the book I’d wanted to read for the past several years. I don’t have children, but I work with them every day. For the past 13 years, I’ve worked as a school library clerk. Since 2019, I’ve worked exclusively at high schools. I knew something fundamental had shifted in the lives of young people in the years I’ve been working with them, and I suspected much of it had to do with social media and technology. Jonathan Haidt not only confirmed my suspicions but laid out ample research in which he explains how the “great rewiring of childhood” has harmed kids. That rewiring goes beyond technology and also includes things like the absence of risky play. The Anxious Generation surprised and enlightened me, challenging me to work even harder to develop real, meaningful connections with the kids I serve. I’d recommend this book to all parents and educators.
Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones: When this memoir begins, Chloé Cooper Jones is sitting at a bar with two friends who are discussing whether or not her life is worth living. Jones has had a physical disability since birth, causing her pain and difficulty walking. Easy Beauty is the story of how Jones exists in a world that is not always kind to her. She writes about men who think their interest in her should be considered a sacred prize because of the way she looks. Jones is a brilliant writer, professor, wife, and mother, but she details how her appearance has caused unfair hardship throughout her life.
One of my favorite aspects of this book is the armchair travel readers get to experience as Jones journeys across the world. She writes about attending a film festival in Utah, seeing Beyoncé perform in Milan, and touring Thailand. She goes on these journeys alone, proving to herself that she’s enough as she is and is capable of living life on her own terms. Easy Beauty is an important look at disability and a celebration of authenticity and belonging.
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel: Set over a weekend in Reno, Headshot tells the stories of eight teenage girl boxers as they fight for a championship. I can’t stand to watch boxing, so I was skeptical when I picked up this book. It was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and since I’ve found other titles I’ve loved from that list, I grabbed Headshot from the library one day. Despite my doubts, I was quickly swept up in the girls and their lives, thanks to Rita Bullwinkel’s prose. Check out this passage:
“What a sad thing, to be a good girl, thinks Rachel. God, how I hate the sound of it. Good girl, thinks Rachel, is mountains and mountains worse than good boy. All a good boy has to do to be good is put on a clean shirt. Nobody wants to be a good girl, thinks Rachel. There can’t be a single girl in here who wants to be just fine.”
Not only is the prose itself beautiful, but the structure of the novel makes for in-depth storytelling, which I love. Each chapter focuses on one girl, yet Bullwinkel shows how the characters are connected through their time together in the ring. She also makes good use of omniscient narration to tell readers where some of the girls end up in adulthood, a touch I appreciated.
You might not think you’ll enjoy a book set in a dilapidated gym in the middle of the desert that’s about desperate kids fighting each other, but I encourage you to give Headshot a chance. I think it’ll stay with you the way it’s stayed with me.
James by Percival Everett: Like Headshot, James is another book that surprised me this year. It’s been nearly 15 years since I’ve read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a book I liked, but don’t have strong feelings toward. I don’t gravitate to much historical fiction or retellings, but James was getting so much buzz that my fear of missing out inspired me to get a copy. Thank God for FOMO.
This reimagining of Twain’s classic is funny, fast-paced, and full of adventure. James is a complex and delightful protagonist, who dumbs down his vocabulary when he’s in front of white people. Any novel about an enslaved man will have its share of horrific moments, but in giving Jim the chance to tell his own story, Percival Everett has given him power. James is overjoyed when he’s able to write, saying:
“For the first time in my life, I had paper and ink. I was beside myself. I found a straight stick and shaved it to a point and scratched a groove on one side. I put the paper on my lap, dipped my stick into the ink and wrote the alphabet. I printed letters as I had seen them in books, slowly, clumsily. Then I wrote my first words. I wanted to be certain that they were mine and not some I had read from a book in the judge's library.”
James is an unforgettable novel, and one of the things I love the most is its celebration of writing and storytelling.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe: Twenty-year-old Margo isn’t exactly set up to succeed in life. Her parents met when her mom worked at Hooters and her dad was a pro wrestler. Raised by only her mom, Margo’s dad Jinx was in and out of her life. When she becomes pregnant with her professor’s child, Margo decides she’s going to keep the baby. Struggling to pay the bills and care for a newborn as a single mom, Margo says yes when Jinx suddenly appears at her doorstep, asking to move in. She’s still desperate for money to make ends meet, so she starts an OnlyFans account, using her dad’s background in entertainment for ideas about how to be successful in front of the camera.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a funny and surprisingly sweet novel. I loved the rocky relationship between Margo and Jinx and rooted for them to be there for each other. I also appreciated the thoughtful commentary on poverty and the way the world treats single mothers. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Margo since I met her, and I bet the same will be true for you, too.
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Divided into three essays, The Message is framed as a letter from Coates to his students at Howard University. He’s talking about the power of writing and uses that baseline to explore different topics as he journeys around the world. In the first essay, Coates describes the first time he visited Africa and what that experience was like for him as a Black American. The second essay finds Coates in South Carolina where his book Between the World and Me has been banned from an AP classroom. Lastly, Coates visits Palestine and reports on what he sees there, horrified by the similarities to the Jim Crow South.
As I read The Message, I was impressed by Coates’s ideas, of course, but also by his prose. His writing is a joy to read, even when the subjects he covers are complicated and emotional.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson: Open Water was the first book I read in 2024, and I knew it would make it onto my favorites list. Caleb Azumah Nelson writes like a poet, using second-person narration to tell the story of the novel’s unnamed protagonist, a Black Londoner who meets and falls for a girl. He’s a photographer, and she’s a dancer. Their appreciation for art and beauty draws them close to each other rather quickly, but he struggles to open up to her fully. He witnesses violence against another Black man, leading him to shut down thanks to the fears he has about existing in modern society that judges him for his skin. At its heart, Open Water is a tender love story, but it also addresses the realities of living in a hate-filled world that celebrates violence more often than it celebrates connection.
Piglet by Lottie Hazell: Everything is lining up for Piglet. She’s about to be married, just bought a new house, and has a good job as a cookbook editor. Two weeks before her wedding, her fiancé Kit confesses a betrayal that sends Piglet spinning. Despite the bomb that’s just been dropped on her life, Piglet is determined to go through with the wedding. She won’t let the life she’s built crumble without a fight. But then the hunger becomes too intense to ignore.
Piglet is a deliciously smart novel about female desire and rage. I flew through it in one sitting, captivated by Piglet’s slowly simmering emotions. This clever story is one you don’t want to miss if you’re a fan of books like My Year of Rest and Relaxation and All Fours.
Same as It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo: Julia Ames is in her late 50s. Her son shocks her with an announcement, her daughter is about to graduate high school, and she runs into someone at the grocery store who witnessed some of the worst moments of her life, a former friend and older woman named Helen. As life’s changes and surprises come at her, Julia looks back at her life, mistakes, and what she’s worked hard to build with her husband and children.
Like Headshot, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, and Piglet, Same as It Ever Was is another story about a woman on the brink. Julia is a complicated character whose poor choices almost destroyed her young family. But instead of seeing her only as a flawed, deceitful woman, Claire Lombardo unfolds the layers of who Julia really is, reminding me that our worst moments don’t have to define us. I loved getting to know Julia, and I also enjoyed the unique relationship she had with Helen, who resprented everything good Julia longed to have for herself.
Fans of family dramas and intimate stories about women’s inner lives will devour Same as It Ever Was like I did. You might find yourself weeping thanks to the story’s poignant ending, so have a box of Kleenex ready for duty.
There There by Tommy Orange: This powerful debut novel follows a large cast of characters living in Oakland during the lead-up to an important powwow. They’re dealing with things like addiction, poverty, family legacy, and violence. Tommy Orange does one of my favorite things in fiction, which is telling separate stories and then revealing how they intersect. I loved getting to know Orange’s characters and seeing glimpses into their lives, which all felt so real. The climax of this novel is one of the most gripping of any I’ve read, leaving me surprised and shaken like the best stories always do. I wish I would have read There There even sooner, but I’m thankful I finally picked it up in 2024.
Honorable Mentions
Here are some other books I read and loved this year:
A moving graphic memoir about the realities of racism.
The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu
A hilarious novel about a public high school in Texas.
A lighthearted delight from start to finish.
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
An atmospheric mystery set at a remote summer camp.
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I had so much fun reflecting on my reading and writing this post. I hope you enjoyed it and found some titles you’re excited to pick up. What books did you love in 2024? What else should I read based on these favorites? Leave your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for being here!
Great list! Have you read Liz Moore’s previous book, Long Bright River? I really loved J Courtney Sullivan’s book, The Cliffs. I also read both of Shannon Bowring’s books in the Fall, they’re amazing!
Thank you 👍🏽