Best Books of 2024

James — Percival Everett

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn retold from the perspective of Jim — the enslaved man who helps Huck escape. Everett writes Jim as a man of profound intelligence who performs ignorance for his own survival. The Pulitzer winner was an instant classic on publication. Devastating and essential.

The God of the Woods — Lauren Fox

A girl disappears from a summer camp in the Adirondacks in 1978 — and the discovery triggers a decades-old family secret involving a previous disappearance. Literary mystery with a dual-timeline structure. One of the surprise hits of summer 2024.

All Fours — Miranda July

A middle-aged woman goes on a road trip, stops at a roadside motel 30 minutes from home, and doesn't leave for weeks. A novel about desire, perimenopause, and what it means to want a life different from the one you've carefully constructed. Provocative and polarising — one of the most-discussed literary novels of the year.

The Familiar — Leigh Bardugo

Spain, 1505. A converso woman with secret power becomes entangled in the court of a Spanish king and the Inquisition. Bardugo's most literary book — quieter and more historical than Grishaverse but just as immersive. Her best work since Shadow and Bone.

The Women — Kristin Hannah

Frankie McGrath becomes an Army nurse in Vietnam in 1965 and comes home to an America that doesn't acknowledge what she experienced. Hannah's most ambitious novel — Vietnam as a prism for examining how America treats its women veterans. Her biggest book commercially and arguably her best.

Funny Story — Emily Henry

A librarian and her ex-fiancé's new girlfriend's ex-boyfriend end up as roommates. Henry's fourth novel — warm, witty, and emotionally smarter than the concept suggests. Confirmed her as the best writer of contemporary romance working today.

Onyx Storm — Rebecca Yarros

Book 3 in the Empyrean series — the Fourth Wing sequel that surpassed its predecessor in pre-orders. The dragon-riding war college saga's third act expands the world significantly and delivers on the mythology teased in Books 1–2. The most anticipated fantasy-romance of the year.

Wind and Truth — Brandon Sanderson

The fifth and final book of Stormlight Archive's first arc — the conclusion of a story Sanderson began in 2010. Dalinar's arc resolves. 1,300 pages. The most anticipated epic fantasy release of the decade for Cosmere fans.

The Familiar — Leigh Bardugo

House of Salt and Sorrow (sequel) — Erin A. Craig

Gothic fantasy with fairy-tale DNA — Craig's follow-up to her breakout debut builds on the atmospheric horror of her Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling. For readers who want lush gothic fantasy in the vein of Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

The Women — Louise Erdrich

The Fury — Alex Michaelides

A group of celebrities on a Greek island for a private retreat — and one of them is murdered. Michaelides bringing his Silent Patient plotting instincts to an Agatha Christie-style closed-environment mystery. Lighter than his debut but enormously fun.

The Maid's Diary — Loreth Anne White

A maid witnesses something at a wealthy client's house that draws her into a murder investigation. White's domestic thriller does the unreliable-narrator domestic-crime formula with more plot than most. A sleeper hit of the year.

Intermezzo — Sally Rooney

Two brothers grieve their father in very different ways — one a chess prodigy, one a successful lawyer. Rooney's fourth novel is her most emotionally direct: less irony, more feeling. Divided critics; united readers who found it her most moving book.

The Anxious Generation — Jonathan Haidt

The argument that smartphones and social media — specifically after 2012 — triggered a mental health crisis among teenagers. Haidt's most polemical book and his most-read. Whether you agree with the thesis or not, it was the defining nonfiction conversation of 2024.

Orbital — Samantha Harvey

A single day on the International Space Station — six astronauts completing 16 orbits. Almost no plot; entirely prose and perception. The 2024 Booker Prize winner was one of the most unusual choices in the award's history — and one of the most purely beautiful books of the decade.

Eruption — Michael Crichton & Eric Singer

An unfinished Crichton manuscript completed posthumously — Yellowstone is about to erupt. The most commercially compelling Crichton continuation since his death. Exactly what you'd expect from the author who gave us Jurassic Park, which is both its greatest asset and honest limitation.

James (again — the year's most important book)

If you only read one book from this list, make it James by Percival Everett. Pulitzer Prize winner, National Book Award winner, and a novel that earns both.