Somehow, this year, I managed to blow past my previous records for numbers of books read and end the year with 154 books read. As usual, a full accounting of the books is at Goodreads.
My favorite books of the year, in no particular order.
- The Wedding People by Alison Espach. This starts out seeming like it’s going to be a dark book, one of those will the protagonist commit suicide or not books, but thankfully, Espach veered away from that quickly and the whole thing turned more into a light comic novel which was just what I needed at year’s end.
- Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia Cerda. My only regret is that I read this in translation and not in Spanish.
- Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer. Some mighty fine stories. Stunning that this is just the beginning of Packer’s career,.
- St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell. The title story was my first exposure to Russell’s writing and I’d meant to read this collection since I first read her in Best American Short Stories but better late than never, I suppose.
- The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes. Another long-delayed read. I bought this when it came out (Vanderbes was my MFA thesis advisor), but only got to it now and I wish I’d read it sooner.
- I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times by Taylor Byas. A wonderful poetry collection about life on the south side of Chicago.
- James by Percival Everett. Arguably the best book of 2024.
- Loot by Tania James. A fun bit of speculative history.
- Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Improbably coincidences aside, still a great read.
- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. My pick to have won last year’s Rooster, even if the judges disagreed.
- The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. Perhaps a bit of tokenism here to include a book by a white man, but I did find this book well worth reading.
- Babel by R. F. Kuang. This was a wild read, mixing science fiction and historical fiction and cultural criticism in one book.
- Absolution by Alice McDermott. I mentioned this as a likely pick for this year’s list when I made last year’s list and McDermott is definitely one of my new favorite authors.
It’s notable that there are only three male authors on my top reads for the year and only five white authors. I don’t read diverse books because it’s my vitamins, I read diverse books because it’s women and people of color who are writing the best stuff right now.
And now, time for charts and graphs:
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