My top reads of 2024
Just like that, we’re at the end of another year, and I’m writing my sixth annual reading round-up.
While 2024 isn’t going to go down as a particularly memorable year for me (except in a ‘well, at least the horrors of 2025 hadn’t yet been unleashed’ way), pulling together this collection reminded me that at least I read some stunning books.
According to Goodreads, I finished 152 books (though I might get another one or two in before the bongs). I’ve sorted my top 26 into categories, mainly for collage management – some of them fit under more than one heading, I know.
Hot off the press
The best thing about doing blog tours is getting to read some fantastic books that might not have otherwise crossed my path, and right when they’re just coming out, too. Here are four such books I couldn’t recommend highly enough this year.
In Memory of Us, by Jacqueline Roy
Daughters of the Nile, by Zahra Barri
This Motherless Land, by Nikki May
New(ish) books from old favourites
Of course, this isn’t the first year I’ve found a new favourite author to follow as a result of signing up for a blog tour (this is how I got into Gabby Hutchinson Crouch in 2021 – her latest book, Cursed Under London, is on the TBR).
Blog tours are also a great way to get some of my existing favourite authors’ new books a little early, for free (though I have also spent money on Doug Johnstone’s books, mostly as gifts for other people!).
In other cases, I’ve bought myself new/recent books by authors I love, and found them on top form.
Past Lying, by Val McDermid
The Half Life of Valery K, by Natasha Pulley
Home Sweet Hell, by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch
Hell Bent, by Leigh Bardugo
Death at the Sign of the Rook, by Kate Atkinson
Living is a Problem, by Doug Johnstone
Sci-fi
This was the year I really started to appreciate what contemporary sci-fi and speculative fiction has to offer: awe-inspiring facts, wondrous environments and visions of the future, and diverse, relateable characters who cooperate with one another.
These titles particularly embodied these qualities for me this year – some author duplication with the previous and next categories here!
The Infinite, by Ada Hoffmann
The Collapsing Wave, by Doug Johnstone
The Mars House, by Natasha Pulley
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers
New favourite authors
You know that thing, when you discover/get into a new-to-you author who already has a few books out, so you suddenly have loads of reading to look forward to? Brilliant, isn’t it? (This is equally applicable to music.)
To Be Taught If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers
And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, by Gwendolyn Kiste
Babel, by R. F. Kuang
Short stories
While I may not have written many short stories (and certainly not any I polished off) this year, I still love reading them across genres, and regardless of age. Again, a little cross-category author duplication here.
The Haunted Tea Set and other stories, by Sarah Jackson
The Art of Space Travel and other stories, by Nina Allan
Intervals of Darkness, by Ray Newman
The Birds and other stories, by Daphne du Maurier
The Hotel, by Daisy Johnson
Not the End of the World, by Kate Atkinson
Non-fiction
I feel like I neglected non-fiction a bit this year. Even so, I came across some creative, enlightening, excellent examples of the genre.
In the Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex, by Angela Chen
So there you have it – my top reads of 2024. If nothing else, I have plenty more books to look forward to in 2025!