I plan to follow up with notes on some of my favorite reads this year, here is the list of books I read this year. A few I have to Google to remember their content; others will not leave me. As I read other people's list of favorite books--as well as the New York Times list of the best books of the century so far, my list of what to read next gets longer. Here are the 80 I read and remembered to record:
Books I Read in 2024
Carolyn Weber, Surprised by Oxford
Lee Smith, Silver Alert
Julie Whelan, Thank You for Listening
Elena Ferrante, The Lying Life of Adults
Fred Chappell, I Am One of You Forever
Daniel Mason, North Woods
Kari Gunter-Seymour, Dirt Songs
William Kent Kruger, The River We Remember
Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend
Margo Jodyne Dills, The Nail Set
James McBride, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
Jill McCorkle, Old Crimes
Chris Bachelder & Jennifer Hebel, Dayswork
Gary Goldman, What I Meant to Say Was
Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water
Luis Alberto Urrea, The Hummingbird’s Daughter
Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!
Mark Zwenitzer & Charles Hirschberg, Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?
Carla Jean Whitley, Muscle Shoals Sound Studios
Percival Everett, James
Angeline Boulley, A Firekeeper’s Daughter
Sarah Clarkson, Book Girl
David Grann, The Wager
Leif Enger, Peace Like a River
James Goodhand, Day Tripper
Erica Bauermeister, No Two Persons
Ben Groner, Dust Storms May Exist
David Platt, Something Needs to Change
Lucinda Williams, Don’t’ Tell Anyone the Secrets I Told You
Amor Towles, Table for Two
Marianne Worthington, Girl Singer
Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse
Julia Alvarez, The Cemetery of Untold Stories
Colm Toibin, Long Island
John Cowan, Hold to a Dream
Tommy Orange, Wandering Star
Monica Wood, How to Read a Book
Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Luis Albert Urrea, Goodnight Irene
Anita Prose, The Mystery Guest
Sian Hughes, Pearl
Mohsin Hamid, Exit West
Amanda Skenandore, The Life of Mirielke West
Sean Dieterich, Kinfolk
Emilie Hart, Weyward
Barbara Martin Stephens, The People and the Music
Jodi Picoult, Wish You Were Here
Michelle Horton, Dear Sister
Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois
Joanna Quinn, The Whalebone Theatre
Elizabeth Berg, We All Are Welcome Here
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Goo Omens
David Barry, Big Trouble
Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
Christina Dodd, Daughter of Fair Verona
Scott Owens, Augury of Birds
Adrian Rice, The Chances of Harm
Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist
--. Show. Your Work.
Paulette Giles, Chenneville
Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything
Ryan McGee, Welcome to the Circus of Baseball
Brian Fairchild, Willie, Waylon, and the Boys
Tyler Mahan Coe, Cocaine and Rhinestones
Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf
Emily Critchley, One Puzzling Afternoon
Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These
Chris Whitaker, All of the Colors of the Dark
Todd Snider, I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like
Amanda Peters, The Berry Pickers
Liz Moore, God of the Woods
Leah Weiss, If the Creek Don’t Rise
Ruth Thompson, Journey Bread
KB Ballentine, All the Way Through
John Thomas York, The Charge,
Claire Keegan, Foster
Desmond Tutu and Ngho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving
Thomas Fuller, The Boys of Riverside
Jonathan Haidt, Anxious Generation
Elizabeth Keating, The Essential Questions