Best Books of 2024

  My list is not extensive by any means, but I need to share out my favorites from 2024 like I have the past. Maybe these aren't my favorites, actually... maybe they're books I believe other people could benefit from if they read them. I read a bit more for myself this year, along with more books I thought my 7th graders would enjoy or books they recommended for me.

     2023 Favorites

     2022 Favorites

     2021 Favorites

     2020 Favorites

     2019 Favorites
     2018 Favorites
     2017 Favorites
     2016 Favorites
     2015 Favorites
     2014 Favorites

Here are the books I would most recommend from my list of 105 books I've read this year... I tried to whittle it down to one or two per genre, but I read some genres more than others! I'm not going to describe them for you - you can check out the complete list with my thoughts for this year here. Another note: One of my goals this year was to read more adult books. Young adult and books geared toward seventh graders just aren't holding my attention like they used to.

Biography / Autobiography / Memoir
     Adult - Kate Moore's The Woman They Could Not Silence: One woman, her incredible fight for freedom, and the men who tried to make her disappear

Fantasy

I only read three this year, and they weren't my favorites.

Graphic Novel

Middle School - Pedro Martin's Mexikid 

Historical Fiction

Adult - Kim Michelle Richardson's The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and Lynda Rutledge's West with Giraffes and Alice Walker's The Color Purple

I didn't read fabulous YA or middle-level historical fiction books this year.

How To / Self Help

Regina Jackson & Saira Rao's White Women: Everything you already know about your own racism and how to do it better pulled no punches.

George Sanders' Congratulations, By the Way was a graduation speech, and I actually read the entire thing to my husband while waiting for the meatloaf to be cooked.

 

Mystery

I'm not a huge mystery reader, but Lauren E. Rico's Familia was on a list for Hispanic Heritage month, and I loved it.

Nonfiction

Adult - reads like a narrative - John Howard's Black Like Me was one written by a white man - not like me to read a book about race by a white man, but it was on a list from a Black woman, so... (I compared it to the movie, and the movie is terrible.)

Adult - reads like a history book, but with anecdotes thrown in... Michael Harriet's Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America

Poetry / Prose / Novel in Verse

Middle School - Lisa Fipps' And Then, Boom!

Alicia D. Williams' Mid-Air

Professional

I only read one this year, and it wasn't my favorite.

Realistic

Adult - Claire Jiménez's What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez?

Tayari Jones' An American Marriage

Liane Moriarty's Here One Moment

Middle School - Erin Bow's Simon Sort of Says

Charles Waters & Traci Sorell's Mascot

 

 

Romance

Adult - Raquel Vasquez Gilliland's Witch of Wild Things

Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful

Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Science Fiction

I read a middle-grade one which was alright, and I also read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Would I recommend them? Not really.

Sports

I was a terrible sports reader this year - just two middle-grade books!

Thriller / Horror

Young Adult - That's Not My Name by Megan Lally

I'm still on the lookout for books that stretch my thinking, are written by those with different experiences than me, and are written well. Please comment your favorites (from this year or all time) down below, so I can add more to my list! Cheers to more reading in 2025!