The Best Books I Read in 2024
My favorite reads across multiple categories
Happy Friday, readers!
I’m thrilled to share my favorite reads of the year with all of you! I had a great reading year and even ended up discovering a couple of titles that found their way into my all-time favorites list. My picks are organized into three categories:
Contemporary Fiction
Classic Fiction
Non-Fiction
I read well over 100 books this year, so I was pretty happy to get the total number for this list down to 15. All of them were easily given five stars and could be re-read with enjoyment. Without further ado, my favorite reads of 2024.
Contemporary Fiction
Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
I love Colson Whitehead’s work and I’m well on my way to getting through his entire catalog of books. This year, I particularly enjoyed reading his two most recent titles, both featuring small-time Harlem crook Ray Carney. With Whitehead’s trademark dry wit and masterful characterization, the story itself hardly even matters. Thankfully, I enjoyed that part too, following Carney’s hijinks as a furniture store owner just trying to do right by his friends and family. Read my original review.
James by Percival Everett
From the moment I finished this book back in March, I knew it would land in my year-end favorites list. It was my first Percival Everett experience and I was hooked from the very first page. James is a re-telling of Huck Finn, from Jim’s perspective. What really stood out was less the narrative (which was entertaining) than the compelling and unforgettable voice of James that Everett crafted. This one is destined to be classic, especially when read in conjunction with Twain’s famous original. Read my original review.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Another literary re-telling! In this one, Barbara Kingsolver reimagined Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield with a modern setting and characters (downtrodden Appalachia). My wife and I listened to this one on audiobook on a long road trip and were utterly entranced the entire time. The characters, the style, the story — it was all just pitch-perfect. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Demon Copperhead to anyone. Read my original review.
The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut
I’ve never read anything quite like The MANIAC. Benjamin Lababut crafted a story that spanned the world, hitting on early computing science, physics lessons from the development of the nuclear bomb, and budding AI technology in the 2000s. Using a variety of voices and styles, Labatut kept the pages flying in as memorable a narrative structure as I’ve read in a long time. Plus, the underlying message is sure to stick with me: “For progress there is no cure.” Read my original review here.
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
I like my mysteries atmospheric and as much as about the characters as the crime. Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods hit all the right notes is one of the few contemporary novels of this year that lives up to its enormous hype. Moore explored class dynamics, teenage relationships, grief, and drugs. She masterfully wove all those elements together into a believable and wildly compelling story. Read my original review here.
Classic Fiction
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Of the dozen or so Pulitzer-winning novels I read this year, The Color Purple easily stands out as the best of the bunch. Told as a series of letters (mostly from Celie to God, though Walker mixes it up a bit in the second half), it tells a decades-long story about a group of Black women trying to survive the American South of the early 1900s. The Color Purple is as powerful as anything I’ve ever read and I’ll definitely be re-reading it someday. Read my original review.
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Reviews of this doorstopping crime novel tend to focus on Dreiser’s overwritten, often stilted style. But I was hooked from the start and never struggled through its 850 pages. Dreiser masterfully captured main character Clyde Griffiths descent into madness; I knew what was coming the entire time and still held out hope that things would turn out differently. An American Tragedy is an incredible and underrated classic. Read my original review.
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
Another doorstopper for the list, this one topping out at over 950 pages. Even with that heft, I couldn’t put down this epic, post-apocalyptic story of good vs. evil. We start out being almost immediately plunged into a nuclear apocalypse. Some folks have survived, life goes on, and as humans are wont to do, people end up in tribes and small communities that dot the charred landscape. There’s no sun, no crops, no joy to be found. But Josh and Swan — along with an incredibly memorable supporting cast — fight to make the world whole again.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
This classic story follows Pip, an orphan with dreams of rising from his humble village life to become a gentleman of means—a dream unexpectedly made possible by a mysterious benefactor. But as Pip navigates his new life, things don’t unfold as he imagined, and Dickens delivers a poignant exploration of the challenges and disillusionments of prosperity. With vivid psychological insight, memorable twists, and the oddball charm Dickens is known for, I loved every page of Great Expectations. Read my original review.
The Children of Men by P. D. James
I only recently finished this 1992 dystopian book, but I know I’ll be thinking about it for a long time to come. James imagines an infertile world, putting us into the plot about 25 years since the last human was born. The picture we get is pretty bleak — think about how much joy, laughter, and innocence youth brings with it. Not to mention that those living have no reason to conserve money or natural resources. One professor, though, soon embarks are the most important task of his life: the safety of a pregnant rebel. It’s a slow burn, given its genre, but I loved The Children of Men.
Non-Fiction
Challenger by Adam Higginbotham
This was another book I knew would end up on my favorites list the moment I finished it. Challenger often reads like a thriller and I had a hard time putting the book down once I started. It’s one of those where you know how it’s going to end, but it’s written so well that you’re hoping history is somehow changed within its pages. Read my original review.
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
I’m not sure any book has guided my thinking this year more than Walden. Thoreau is often dense, but my goodness is the pay-off worth it. This 1854 classic rewards slow and deliberate reading (5-10 pages per day). And when you do that, Thoreau’s ideas from 170 years ago reveal themselves as utterly brilliant and remarkably prescient. I’m already looking forward to reading it again. Read my original review.
American Prometheus by Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin
I found J. Robert Oppenheimer, the subject of this award-winning biography, to be one of the most fascinating people I’ve read about. He was as much a philosopher as a scientist; he spent a lot of energy thinking about the role and meaning of physics, as well as its impact on the world — including regarding the development of the nuclear bomb. I was never bored by this long biography, which is always saying something. Read my original review.
Midlife by Kieran Setiya
In this compassionate and philosophical exploration, Setiya brings us on a meaningful and often personal journey of finding out how to cope with reaching the midpoint of life. Setiya’s conclusions, which I deeply appreciated, largely centered around a couple of big ideas, like caring about something other than yourself and living more in the present than the past or future. Midlife is a great read for anyone trying to figure out life and meaning. Read my original review.
Catherine the Great by Robert Massie
The lives of Russian rulers comprise some of the most dramatic and interesting stories in history. No author captured those stories better than Robert Massie. His biographies of the Romanovs, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great are fascinating and remarkably readable given their long page counts. My most recent read was Catherine the Great — her name is one you may be familiar with, but know nothing about. The way Massie brings an 18th century empress to life is just remarkable.
I’ll have one more Friday newsletter before taking some time off for the holidays. Cheers to a great reading year!
Be good to each other and thanks for reading.
-Jeremy
How do you find time to read so many books—many of them long and challenging? Do you have any tips for the rest of us?
I read Children of Men last year. A really good book, much better than the movie!