A round up of my favorite books from 2024
new year, new books + lots of exclamation points!
I absolutely love the book lists floating around Substack1 this time of year! For me, talking about books is one of my favorite ways to make friends and deepen relationships — and that includes my community here! Below you’ll find a list of some of my favorite books from the year, but a few FYIs first:
My pleasure reading slowed down a little this year as graduate school began, but I still finished close to 60 books and enjoyed some novels that will remain on my favorite books list for a long time.
The memoir category is missing from my list even though it’s one of my favorite genres. Unfortunately most of the books I read (or listened to) in this genre were a miss for me this year. I’m hoping to change that in the coming year so if you have a favorite that I should add to my list, please leave it in the comments! I especially love spiritual and celebrity memoir — I’m starting with listening to Elton John’s Me and will follow it with Lisa Marie Presley’s From Here to the Great Unknown.
I have been trying to read books alongside2 my nearly-teenage son as a way to connect and have fun together, but they don’t tend to be my favorite books so you wont see many on this list! If you happen to have a YA or juvenile novel recommendation that would appeal to a 12 year old boy (who reads mostly fantasy and some historical non-fiction) and 40 year old me (who loves celebrity memoir, spiritual narrative, and realistic fiction) — well then you’ll probably win a prize. We read The Inheritance Games series over the summer and a friend just suggested The Last Cuentista, which we are both interested in!
I continued reading the Louise Penny series with Inspector Gamache and the rest of the Three Pines crew, but I’m getting toward the end (I read 7 this year!). I tried The Thursday Murder Club, but it’s not for me. What recommendations do you have for me as I finish the series?
This year I got to meet several authors that my kids and I both enjoy — including Maggie Smith and Kate DiCamillo. I’ve now been saying (probably too often) that “bookstore events are the new live music.” (say you’re 40 without saying it?)
Okay, now for the actual the reason you opened the email:
My Favorite Books from 2024:
Fiction
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (I listen to the audio of this performed by Meryl Streep and highly recommend!)
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (I listen to the audio of this performed by Tom Hanks and also highly recommend!)
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Non-Fiction
The In-Between by Hadley Vlahos
Rest is Resistance by Trisha Hersey
The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene Peterson
Other (Poetry, kids books, and one lonely Memoir)
Poetry of Presence - edited by Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson
If You Would Have Told Me - John Stamos
Eduard Tulane - Kate DiCamillo (I read this aloud to my kids for probably the third time, but it’s such a treat to us all every time!)
I try and not map out my reading too much at the start of the year (mostly because I never follow through) but I have set a goal to read Anna Karenina this year, as I have always wanted to and never have! What’s on your list for 2025?
Happy New Year, New Books,
Holly
See what I did there :)