Best Books of 2024
Unlike my worst books of the year, I don’t see coherent themes in this list, nor is there a clear standout. None of these are perfect; they all annoyed me, just a little, in some way. In whittling the list down to ten, I tried to keep only the books where the annoyance is more about me than the book. In the order I read them:
- Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. They don’t write them like this anymore. Sprawling historical love story based on The Odyssey. Bonus: gave us a great movie adaptation starring Jude Law at peak hotness.
- The Book of Evidence by John Banville. This actually could be a standout. Pitch perfect, creepy as hell, and based on a true story, but this book does so much more than recount or sensationalize.
- Big Mall by Kate Black. If you want to read about the intersection between resource extraction, colonialism, animal cruelty, violence, tourism, architecture, and your local shopping mall, this is probably your best (and only) bet. My review and interview here.
- Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park. This reminded me of Infinite Jest (complimentary) not only in content – sports, alternate history, Canadian subplot that I didn’t see coming- but in how it blew my fucking mind.
- Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. Yes, it was a book first. Yes, the book is “better,” in that, there’s more there, and more of Bella Baxter in particular.
- Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, tr. Sam Bett and David Boyd. I stayed away from this one for too long because I had the impression that it was one of those very on-the-nose feminist “message” novels, but it’s not. It’s brilliant.
- Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer. A rare case of an author’s social media presence selling me on a book. He vindicated my pickiness about Oxford commas and insistence on the proper use of “begs the question.” It’s the perfect book to read while falling asleep (complimentary.)
- Any Person is the Only Self by Elisa Gabbert. This is what I was looking for in the handful of millennial woman writer/critic essay collections I read this year. Humour, literary criticism, and, notably lacking in the others I read this year, humility.
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. If I reread WH in a given year, it will appear on my best books list.
- Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell. A near-future climate disaster novel in which things start going downhill rapidly in 2025 might be a bit much right now, so I’m glad I read it in 2024.
I don’t need to ask for your best books, we’re all posting them. Keep them coming!
Reading in Bed 
I also loved Breasts and Eggs, definitely glad that it wasn’t on-the-nose! It’s a long time since I read Cold Mountain but I loved that too, and I remember your review of Big Mall, which sounds great.
‘Begs the question’… once you know, you can’t unknow. People misuse it so much that I almost wish I didn’t know!
Ugh, ever since I read David Foster Wallace’s essay about begs the question (not just about that, but he goes on a rant, it’s called Tense Present and I may have to read it again!) I’ve been unable to let it go. Every time I see it in a book, I brace myself for it to get wrong (99% of the time it is) and then have to make excuses like, it’s dialog, or whatever, if I am to keep reading.
Wonderful ♥️
I’ve got a PDF of Arboreality because it won the Ursula K LeGuin Prize, and must remember to get around to it because it does sound great.
It is! I found the timeline a little confusing at first though, take note when durations, ages etc. are mentioned.
Great tip, thank you.
I read “Poor Things” in 2024 but never even got around to seeing the movie. I enjoyed how offbeat the book was . . . a rather fun read.
Oh you must see the movie!! It’s so good, on its own merits.
It’s rare that I love a book and films equally but Cold Mountain is just perfect. The character of Ruby is so well done it makes the film for me.
I agree and I need to rewatch it.
I really loved Dreyer’s English too, but it had fallen out of my brain, so thanks for the reminder. I’ve also got a copy of Elisa Gabbert’s book, but had been resisting it for what sound like similar concerns to those you’ve expressed about other books like it…glad to hear it was such a hit. Hope you have lots of great reading ahead of you in 2025. (I don’t think I always get your posts in my feed, but it was nice to spot this one!)
Well, like I said in the intro, even these books had minor annoyances, and in Gabbert’s, it was the covid essays. I dunno if it’s too soon, or I just don’t empathize with child free adults who were lonely (e.g. not trapped at home with kids – even though I didn’t feel trapped!) but I could have done without it. But overall, yeah, she’s so smart and funny!
I never see yours in my feed either!! I just tried re(?) subscribing, maybe one day…
Hunh, this has happened once before, with one other specific blog and we used to joke that the internet didn’t want us to be friends! Well now that I know you’re still posting, and it’s a matter of my feed making decisions for me 👀, I’ll try to remember to check back, even if I don’t get a notification…
Thank you Laura and Happy New Year to you.
I can tell Dreyer would be a kindred spirit, and I’ll take your advice and try the Gabbert as a tonic for some of those more disappointing essay collections (*cough* Becca Rothfeld’s). Arboreality has been on my radar for a while and I am definitely keen. I need to read more by Banville, too.
I mostly liked Becca Rothfield’s, but with some pretty major reservations. I went so far as to comment about one (not out of nowhere, on a substack post where she wrote about it and said she was open to feedback) and she replied and either completely missed my point OR she got it, but pretended not to understand what I said lol.
Gabbert was absolutely a consolation from that, and Oyler, and even Samantha Irby, who I also liked but with reservations!
Oh dear, I’d be wary of engaging directly with an author for that very reason!
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