Top 10 Books of 2024
Here is my Top 10 list of books from the last year. Once again, my book total has dropped from the previous year. I am not counting the myriad picture books which my daughter and I have read together. I read just 44 books this year, averaging less than 1 book a week
1. James by Percival Everett. Winner of the National Book Award for 2024, and a finalist for several others. This story focuses on the character of Jim from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At times a thrilling story, other times devastating in its sadness. There's a very interesting thing done here with the patois that the slaves use. It adds a bit of humor to the story as well as a brilliance to those characters. The writing is excellent and I highly recommend this book.
2. The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown. Although "James" may have been more of a literary, well-written book, this was the book I enjoyed the most this year. A mix of magical fantasy, thriller, and just plain fun. A young woman finds a book left in her bookstore that she soon realizes is magical and will allow her to travel anywhere on the planet. She soon discovers that it is one of several special books and that several people will do anything to get them. If I were still selling books, this is the one that I would be putting in customers' hands and asking them to read it.
3. The Dissonance by Shaun Hamill. A horror novel that would make Stephen King proud (his first book got a blurb from the big man). Hamill is a local boy, having grown up in Arlington and working at B&N there. "The Dissonance" follows four teens who learn some magic that allows them to release something evil in the local forest. It returns 25 years later and they must band together to beat it again. ll over the US. It is a useful but rewarding read.
4. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros. The sequel to "The Fourth Wing" is every bit as good as the first one. The series brings back the magic of reading Harry Potter for me, just with more sex.
5. Lost Man's Lane by Scott Carson. Another horror novel on the list, this one is also a coming-of-age story. A young man is a witness to a woman's abduction, but nothing he saw matches up with what the police know. As he struggles to find more info, he discovers secrets about his hometown and his family.
6. The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary Schmidt. Over the years, Gary Schmidt has become one of my favorite middle-grade authors. Wonderful novels about kids bridging the tween/teen gap, often by the teachers who guide them. Hercules is the smallest kid in his class and newly orphaned. He is living with his older brother and going to a new school. He is skeptical when his homeroom teacher gives him the assignment of duplicating the mythical Hercules' feats in real life. A heartwarming story.
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7. Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by Kristen Miller. One of my favorite niche genres for many years is humorous Southern women's fiction. In small-town Georgia, Lula Dean is the self-appointed arbitator of what should and shouldn't be read. But when she installs a little free library in front of her house, someone starts sneaking banned books into it.
8. Slow Horses by Mick Herron. I'll admit I'm behind on the "Slow Horses" phenomenon. I read Herron's "Dolphin Junction, a collection of short stories, two years ago. It contained a story featuring two of the main characters from the series, but I didn't realize that at the time. I read this first book in the series and loved it. I have gone on to watch the first three seasons of of the British series, which is also fantastic!
9. Throne of Grace by Tom Clavin & Bob Drury. Non-fiction account of Jebediah Smith, one of the greatest pathfinders and mountain men of the American West. It's a fascinating look at the lives of the men hunting animal pelts, dealing with Native Americans and the Spanish, and exploring unknown territory.
10. The Defector by Chris Hadfield. You don't hear the term techno-thriller thrown around much anymore, but Hadfield has written one hell of one. Chris Hadfield is a former Canadian astronaut, perhaps most famous for singing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in a video from the International Space Station. This is a slightly alternate history set in 1973 when a Russian pilot defects with a brand new MiG-25. This affects everything from political relations to the space program. Edge-of-your-seat stuff, the flying scenes by this former fighter pilot ring especially true.
Here are a few honorable mentions for the year: We Solve Murders by Richard Osman, The Pairing by Casey McQuiston, The Devil Raised His Own by Scott Phillips, You Like It Darker by Stephen King, and Boy Swallows Universe (adapted into an excellent Australian TV series) by Trent Dalton. And the worst book this year was one that stayed on the bestseller list for much of the year, The Women by Kristin Hannah. Other than some of the combat scenes in Vietnam, the book was one big, overblown soap opera. Very disappointing, I was a big fan of The Nightingale and The Great Alone by her.
