My Best Books of 2024

I wish I could say I met my goal… but I fell short by just a few. But what I lacked in quantity, I made up for in quality. This year’s reads were delightful and edifying and inspirational. I won’t dive into them all, but here I will explore those that I would recommend.

Favorite Modern Reads:

The Fraud by Zadie Smith
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Levin
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Deacon King Kong by James McBride

I’m starting with modern reads this time because I often push them to the side. The Fraud was by far my favorite. Smith is a delightful and compelling writer. I am so in awe of her talent. Though I had no clue this was based on real people, it was an intriguing thing to realize after finishing the book. I’ve had Swing Time by her for years but have yet to read it, so this has inspired me to revisit it.

Favorite Classics:

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

I cannot pick a favorite classic of the four I listed here. They were each incredibly brilliant. Giovanni’s Room is perhaps the one that will haunt me the longest. Its form and its content were compelling; Baldwin is a master of the craft.

I do love the classics best, but I still come across some I detest every now and again. I remember feeling very strongly about The Scarlett Letter in high school, but in some cases, my taste matures and develops. So this year, I tried to give Hawthorne a second chance. A friend recommended The Marble Faun and I suffered through it. Hawthorne has a writing style that I cannot enjoy.

Favorite Nonfiction:

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Mystery and Manners by Flannery O’Connor
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garden
Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

These are all so different. The Glass Castle read like fiction, so I loved it. This story is incredibly well-written and Walls does a fantastic job of sharing her traumatic story in a way that stretched the reader’s empathy and understanding. In my work with Georgia CASA, I have learned so much about the child welfare space that this book touches on. I cannot recommend it enough.

And Be Ready When the Luck Happens touched me in such a specific way. It was the failed home rehab, the many reinventions, the unknown path forward that encouraged me. That she tried, and sometimes failed, helped me feel better about my past failures and inspired to keep trying new things.

As I look back on 2024’s reads, it seems all over the map. Historical fiction was new for me, but Smith was the perfect person to go there with. There was a lack of sci-fi and fantasy, which was not intentional, but something I plan to be intentional about this coming year. I hope to keep exploring and expanding my library and my mind.

Cheers to a fun and thought-provoking year in books; may 2025 bring many more.