I don't have to read any other replies here! Demon Copperhead was my 2023 book and then 2024 brought the brilliant JAMES by Percival Everett! Cried at the end cause it was so fine. #1 Book 2024!
Best published in 2024: Woodworm by Layla Martinez or Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Best backlist: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which actually might be my new favorite book of the century but please do not tell Emily St. John Mandel that she has been overthrown 👻
I would have to say either Lonesome Dove or Stoner, but while both are close to perfect, I have to go with Lonesome Dove! Just an absolute blast to read.
My top pick for the year has to be Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford. Luminous and propelling, and I never quite knew where it was going next. Spufford is such a fantastic writer and imagines a world unlike any I've encountered in fiction.
Second place is probably A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller. Hard to describe in a sentence, but I would recommend it to anyone, whether they like sci-fi or not. Faith persists even in the most desperate of times, but Ecclesiastes was right that there's nothing new under the sun...
Honorable mention to Columbine by Dave Cullen, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, and O Pioneers! by Willa Cather.
The ‘normality’ of the setting makes it so much more unsettling … the tension is unbearable, that sense of losing control. A real stunner. It set me back in my own writing. I have a dystopian manuscript written but ‘Prophet Song’ made me realise how paltry is it.
Yes, it's this "ordinariness" that takes your breath away. It reminds me a lot of 1933 here in Germany. This slow, rapid slide into disaster. And reinforces my belief that we need to be very, very vigilant - especially now, with everything that's happening around us at the moment ...
This is Happiness by Niall Williams. My book club (mixed gender, well-educated, going on 25 years together) agreed it was once of our all-time favorite reads.
Number one for sure is James by Percival Everett. Followed by My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand, North Woods by Daniel Mason, Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It’s been a good year.
I couldn’t finish Barbra; it was just too, too much Barbra. I’ve been a huge fan hers since she released the album of the same name, but I just felt buried under the minutiae she included in her memoir. She really needed a good no-nonsense editor. As it turns out, I also read several others that you mentioned this year and Team of Rivals was the best nonfiction that I read. The Road has been on my shelf for years and I finally made time for it last month. It was just staggering. Dystopian fiction brought down to just one man and one child.
JoJo nipped in first and loved this. Needing to read this next (‘10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World’ is high on my list of best reads of the year)
I reread Anne of Green Gables for maybe the third time. It enraptures me every time. I always dreamed and aspired to be like Anne in the way she saw and took in the world around her.
Travels with Charley so inspired me that I packed my Toyota minivan and my standard poodle Molly and made my own 2-month tour of our blue highways. I was 61 at the time. Done with marriage and child rearing. Best thing I ever did for myself.
I am not finished with it yet but East of Eden will probably be my top book this year! I read so many good books this year. I finished the last 2 Robert Caro LBJ books and loved Demon Copperhead too!
I haven't read James but it looks like it was a hit!
I discovered William Kent Kruger this year and am part way through the Cork O’Connor series. I love the descriptions of the land and the mix of cultures.
So many books in translation are just so tightly written. Her descriptions of the Elena character's illness symptoms are just visceral. I could feel and see it exactly. There is a pretty terrible Netflix adaptation that I would avoid.
Maybe not a popular opinion but it is my #1 and James is my #2.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and Percival Everett’s James both lived up to all the hype.
Big yes to Demon Copperhead.
Those are *both* on my list too. :)
I don't have to read any other replies here! Demon Copperhead was my 2023 book and then 2024 brought the brilliant JAMES by Percival Everett! Cried at the end cause it was so fine. #1 Book 2024!
Preach! :)
Best published in 2024: Woodworm by Layla Martinez or Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Best backlist: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which actually might be my new favorite book of the century but please do not tell Emily St. John Mandel that she has been overthrown 👻
The Historian is excellent, I definitely agree there. I've not read the others!
The Historian has been on my tbr for a long time and this convinced me to move it to my list of what I’ll be reading within the next month. 🤣
I really hope you love it too!!
I would have to say either Lonesome Dove or Stoner, but while both are close to perfect, I have to go with Lonesome Dove! Just an absolute blast to read.
Lonesome Dove is definitely an all-timer. And Stoner is high on my list for '25.
Lonesome Dove is my favorite of the year, too. By far.
My top pick for the year has to be Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford. Luminous and propelling, and I never quite knew where it was going next. Spufford is such a fantastic writer and imagines a world unlike any I've encountered in fiction.
Second place is probably A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller. Hard to describe in a sentence, but I would recommend it to anyone, whether they like sci-fi or not. Faith persists even in the most desperate of times, but Ecclesiastes was right that there's nothing new under the sun...
Honorable mention to Columbine by Dave Cullen, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, and O Pioneers! by Willa Cather.
The only one I havent read there is Canticle — it's definitely on my list. Great picks!
Canticle is amazing, and it will stay with you a long time.
Love Willa Cather!
Prophet song by Paul Lynch. And the Slough House series by Mick Herron.
I keep hearing great things about the Slough House series!
They are:superlative .Even better than the series.
Absolutely blown away by ‘Prophet Song’
Very unusually written. It starts slowly and then grabs you by the throat and won't let go!
The parallels are scarily similar … this is why writing dystopia is hard - current affairs are already dialled up so high!
The ‘normality’ of the setting makes it so much more unsettling … the tension is unbearable, that sense of losing control. A real stunner. It set me back in my own writing. I have a dystopian manuscript written but ‘Prophet Song’ made me realise how paltry is it.
Yes, it's this "ordinariness" that takes your breath away. It reminds me a lot of 1933 here in Germany. This slow, rapid slide into disaster. And reinforces my belief that we need to be very, very vigilant - especially now, with everything that's happening around us at the moment ...
This is Happiness by Niall Williams. My book club (mixed gender, well-educated, going on 25 years together) agreed it was once of our all-time favorite reads.
That's great to hear! Adding it to my list.
James by Percival Everett
Agree.
Number one for sure is James by Percival Everett. Followed by My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand, North Woods by Daniel Mason, Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It’s been a good year.
Great picks! I've read a few, and the ones I haven't are high on my list.
My name is Barbra on audio was perfection.
Aw, I forgot about North Woods. So good!!
I couldn’t finish Barbra; it was just too, too much Barbra. I’ve been a huge fan hers since she released the album of the same name, but I just felt buried under the minutiae she included in her memoir. She really needed a good no-nonsense editor. As it turns out, I also read several others that you mentioned this year and Team of Rivals was the best nonfiction that I read. The Road has been on my shelf for years and I finally made time for it last month. It was just staggering. Dystopian fiction brought down to just one man and one child.
Love Cormac: https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/no-country-for-old-men
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Nice, I've heard good things about that one.
JoJo nipped in first and loved this. Needing to read this next (‘10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World’ is high on my list of best reads of the year)
I reread Anne of Green Gables for maybe the third time. It enraptures me every time. I always dreamed and aspired to be like Anne in the way she saw and took in the world around her.
Hoping to read that one with my daughter in the next year.
Oh, please do!!!
I’m sure it would make your wife really happy to see and hear you read it.
There's Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib
His writing is just always on point. And I always love when a writer writes a memoir in a new, innovative style.
I've heard some great things about that book — I'll definitely check it out next year.
My #1 overall has to go to East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
Very close runners up are God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut and On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder.
Travels with Charley so inspired me that I packed my Toyota minivan and my standard poodle Molly and made my own 2-month tour of our blue highways. I was 61 at the time. Done with marriage and child rearing. Best thing I ever did for myself.
That’s so great! Love to hear it. Wonderful book.
I sure love East of Eden. And I have Timothy Snyder checked out from the library right now.
My friend just handed me a copy of East of Eden and told me to start reading :)
It' fantastic.
I am a little over halfway with East of Eden (my first time reading) and it will definitely be in my top 5!
OH thank you!!!
Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite author!!!!
East of Eden is incredible. Agreed.
James - Percival Everett
Agreed for sure.
I am not finished with it yet but East of Eden will probably be my top book this year! I read so many good books this year. I finished the last 2 Robert Caro LBJ books and loved Demon Copperhead too!
I haven't read James but it looks like it was a hit!
Caro, Copperhead, Steinbeck.. what a great year indeed. Good stuff!
I discovered William Kent Kruger this year and am part way through the Cork O’Connor series. I love the descriptions of the land and the mix of cultures.
Ah, yes! I'm so glad you gave him a chance! One of my favorites for sure.
I really enjoy Kruger's books as well! I read Ordinary Grace and The River We Remember and both are excellent!
Elena Knows-Claudia Pineiro (translated from the Spanish) and James-Percival Everett
I've not heard of Elena Knows, but I'll look it up. And I definitely agree with James.
So many books in translation are just so tightly written. Her descriptions of the Elena character's illness symptoms are just visceral. I could feel and see it exactly. There is a pretty terrible Netflix adaptation that I would avoid.
Maybe not a popular opinion but it is my #1 and James is my #2.
Thanks for picking Elena Knows for our Postal Book Club, Michelle. It was an excellent case study of someone with a chronic disease.