The 10 Best Books I Read In 2024
And I read A LOT!
For me, reading is about more than just books. It’s a way of life. And this year, I’ve needed good books more than ever. I estimate that I read between 40 and 50 books a year and I have one rule: if I don’t like a book I can put it down without feeling guilty. So, if I finish a book that’s really says something. And these books not only caught my attention, but my heart too. Some people might say my reading tastes run dark, but to me these winners are about every facet of life: love, death, grief, divorce, middle age, sex, motherhood, mental illness, good intentions—and bad.
Without further ado and in no particular order, here are the 10 best books I read in 2024, with links to shop on my Bookshop.org account (which supports me and local bookstores!):
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1. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
This book has it all: alternative family structures, trans love and a hold-on-to-the-edge-of-your-seat story. I know I’m late to this party, but I’m so glad I didn’t miss it.
2. Reproduction by Louisa Hall
A novel that braids together Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with the narrator’s own experience of motherhood. Here’s an example of a novel that really hits the emotional core of motherhood without feeling cliche.
3. Carrie Carolyn Coco by Sarah Gerard
If you like dark academia and true crime this is the book for you. Gerard takes down not only the man that killed her friend, but the individuals and systems that propped him up, including Bard University.
4. The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen
I said this earlier in the year when I originally read this book, but I’ll say it again. This may be one of my top 10 favorite books ever. It’s hard for me to read any book let alone one that is over 500 pages. But Jonathan Rosen makes this book about friendship, mental illness and two lives that veered in very different direction unputdownable.
5. Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison
As I read Leslie Jamison’s words, I found myself shouting YES YES YES to the page, scribbling feverish notes in the margins. Leslie writes about how it felt dangerous to let herself want things because what if she didn’t get what she desired? She writes about living every moment with a sense that it had to be “good enough for someone else.” Everyone knows our most precious resource is time. So, what does it mean that women’s time (whether we’re mothers or not) is never our own? It’s spent caretaking, beautifying, watching our calories/weight, waiting to be chosen, waiting for our menses, waiting for ovulation, and scrutinized by the male gaze. Women are always watching the clock because we haven’t been allowed to be carefree, to wander, to zig instead of zag. We haven’t been allowed to be ourselves. And Leslie brings this truth to life in the most beautiful ways.
6. Grief Is For People by Sloane Crosley
This book is about grief and friendship and the passage of time. It’s about what could have been, but never was. And it’s also about objects and people and what happens when we lose both.
7. All Fours by
While we definitely need more writing about perimenopause and bodies and the mess and muck inside us all, Miranda July has a much more radical message: that the gift of truly being alive is about the little acts of rebellion we allow ourselves. July shows us that predictability is the death knell for desire and desire is the engine of life. Not just sexual desire (although there’s that too) but the ravenous urge to devour everything. I finished her book wanting more, from my work, from my marriage, from motherhood, from my day to day. And that is the gift of a great book, the chance to see ourselves in a new light. The chance to see a different life is possible.
8. Committed by
Suzanne Scanlon takes us back to the 90s when she spent three years in a mental institution. But this book is about so much more than her Girl, Interrupted narrative. It’s about the long history of women being labelled crazy or mad— and about reclaiming our own identities.
9. Worry by Alexandra Tanner
Limits create the tension necessary to make great work and Alexandra Tanner’s book proves that once and for all. Two sisters spend five weeks together in a small NYC apartment after one of them attempts suicide. What could go wrong? The best part is being inside the heads of these two women and watching the utter hilarity ensure.
10. Margo’s Got Money Troubles: A Novel by Rufi Thorpe
I’ve been telling so many of my clients to read this book. That’s because it’s wacky and smart and it’s a commentary on womanhood and motherhood without being preachy. Why would I want to read about a mom who opens an OnlyFans account? You’ll just have to trust me on this one.
That’s it for my list, but I’d love to hear from you in the comments - which books kept you afloat this year?
Ruthie
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I LOVED Detransition, Baby so much that I read it twice (and I hardly ever reread books). Thanks for the recs, I just added several to my to-read list. I recommend Liars by Sarah Manguso - it transfixed me like a 90s-era Apple desktop screensaver.
I listed to a podcast interview with Rufi Thorpe after reading her novel - such a fascinating and curious thinker!