The 46 Best Books of 2024…So Far
Time flies when you’re having fun. And who can’t have fun when there are so many great books to read? Whether you read in bed, while commuting to work on a train or bus, lie in a hammock with a glass of sweet tea by your side, sit in a coffee house or while waiting for the fish to bite, we’ve got a bunch of great books.
Maybe you are looking for a great book for yourself, the perfect gift or on the lookout for a title you can recommend to your partner or kid or book club or coworker. Relax. We got you. Here are the books we’ve read and loved, the breakout titles, the works that enjoyed the best reviews and the offbeat choices you won’t find anywhere else. It’s the best books of 2024…so far. So let’s get reading. At the head of the Parade are…
The 46 Best Books of 2024…So Far
Courtesy of Doubleday, Fantagraphics
1. James by Percival Everett
2. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris
Percival Everett is enjoying a career year. On March 10, the film American Fiction–based on his novel Erasure–became an Academy Award winner after enjoying box office success and critical acclaim. Nine days later, Everett published James, arguably the best reviewed and certainly best selling book of his career so far. It tackled what some could call the Great American Novel, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It’s also a novel that grapples directly with America’s Original Sin of Slavery. Everett tells the story of the enslaved man Jim, that is James, the person Huck travels down the Mississippi River with on a raft amidst what are for Huck picaresque adventures and for James harrowing ones. He did so to universal praise.
Author Emil Ferris enjoyed one of the sensations of 2017 with her graphic novel (okay, comic book) about a little girl growing up in Chicago in the late 1960s, a kid with a tumultuous home-life and an obsession with horror movies and pop culture. Book Two is certain to make My Favorite Thing Is Monsters one of those rare graphic novels that everyone reads, not just fans of the art form. Read these two books and you can hold your head up high during any discussion of the best books of the year. More importantly, you’ll enjoy some enthralling artistry.
James by Percival Everett ($28; Doubleday) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris ($44.99; Fantagraphics) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Related: An All-Star Break: 8 Baseball Books For Restless Fans
Courtesy of Grove Press, Simon & Schuster, Gallery/Scout Press
3. Fi: A Memoir of My Son by Alexandra Fuller
4. The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters by Susan Page
5. The Wives by Simone Gorrindo
Acclaimed writer Alexandra Fuller is a memoirist for the ages. She shot to fame with her brilliant first book Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight, a memoir both hilarious and harrowing of growing up in war-torn Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe.) Fuller’s parents were larger than life figures, so it’s no surprise that among other novels and memoirs she did her best work writing about them. Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness told her mother’s story and Travel Light, Move Fast focused on her dad. Now Fuller has the unenviable, unnatural task of telling the story of her son, who unexpectedly died in his sleep at the age of 21. She begins a journey of healing, trying anything and everything to figure out how to grapple with a loss that should never have occurred, but determined to make herself whole for her two daughters. Funny–Fuller is always funny–and heartbreaking and memorable.
Barbara Walters changed television and journalism again and again. Writer Susan Page captures it all, from the life-changing suicide attempt of her father to the highs and lows of a woman breaking down barriers every step of her career. It’s also the story of women in media, since Walters progressed from NBC’s Today Girl (covering the weather and light assignments then considered suitable for women) to a headline-making master of the “get” and finally innovator of daytime tv with The View.
Military spouses often hear, “You know what you signed up for.” But debut author Simone Gorrindo wonders in her memoir if anyone ever really knows what they’re signing up for, whether it’s having children, career or marrying a man who then says ever since 9/11 he’s felt drawn to serving in the military. Gorrindo’s husband joins an elite Army unit and finds herself moving from New York City to Columbus, Georgia. Her story of hardship, endurance, family and the fierce friendship of the wives she bonded with is a powerful look at the sacrifices made not just by those who serve but by those in their lives.
Fi: A Memoir Of My Son by Alexandra Fuller ($28; Grove Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters by Susan Page ($30.99; Simon & Schuster) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Wives by Simone Gorrindo ($29.99; Gallery/Scout Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Knopf, AUWA, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster
6. The New York Game by Kevin Baker
7. Hip-Hop Is History by Questlove and Ben Greenman
8. When The Sea Came Alive by Garrett M. Graff
Three works of history that any fan of the genre will enjoy. Kevin Baker is a novelist and historian who tells the intertwined stories of the rise of New York City and baseball. Questlove and co-authpor Ben Greenman tackle hip-hop and who better than Questlove to passionately discuss an art form he helped shape with his band The Roots? And historian Garrett M. Graff proved World War II remains a source of endless fascination with a new oral history that focuses on D-Day, one of the most momentous days of the war and indeed history.
The New York Game by Kevin Baker ($35; Knopf) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Hip-Hop Is History by Questlove and Ben Greenman ($30; AUWA) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
When The Sea Came Alive by Garrett M. Graff ($32.50; Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Berkley, Random House, Avon
9. Funny Story by Emily Henry
10. The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
11. You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian
If you love romance novels, you know all about the enemies-into-lovers idea or the forced-proximity dilemma. With Emily Henry’s latest charmer, you get a double treat. It’s the “we’re just posing as boyfriend and girlfriend” trope crossed with the head-spinning situation of falling in love with your ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex! What was that, again? Anyway, Henry had us at a heroine who is also a children’s librarian.
Cat Sebastian excels at queer romances, this time the unlikely but inevitable (?) sparks flying romance between a closeted baseball player in 1960s New York and the lonely arts reporter somehow assigned to write a profile. You Should Be So Lucky!
And nestled in the middle is Ruth Reichl, the high water mark of food writing, who delivers a light novel that romps through the City of Lights with the delicious ease of Nora Ephron.
Funny Story by Emily Henry ($29; Berkley) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl ($29; Random House) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian ($18.99; Avon) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Scribner, William Morrow
12. Shanghai by Joseph Kanon
13. City In Ruins by Don Winslow
14. Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford
Joseph Kanon (The Good German, Los Alamos) makes Shanghai a Casablanca-worthy setting for World War II-era intrigue. It’s 1938 and some Jews fleeing Nazi Germany’s violence ended up in Shanghai. It’s a Western outpost inside China and all anyone wants to do is get letters of transit–I mean, book passage–on one of the cruise ships by Lloyd that offer a rare way to escape. Start casting the movie version now.
Few people quit at the top of their game. Director Quentin Tarantino insists his next film will be his tenth and final one. Done. Writer Don Winslow insists the same. City In Ruins is the finale to his Danny Ryan trilogy, a retelling of The Iliad that’s been compared to The Sopranos and called The Godfather of our day. Winslow already set a high water mark with his brilliant Border trilogy, not to mention stand-alone epics like The Force. Exceptional praise from critics and fellow writers. Bestseller status. And Winslow insists he’s walking away from it all. Find out why fans of crime fiction and great literature in general are so devastated.
Francis Spufford delivers a hard-edged noir set in an ever-so-slightly altered 1920s America. Better known in the UK, Spufford keeps you on your toes, whether it’s the puzzling whodunit or the recognizable yet not-quite familiar world where Indigenous people have thrived rather than being decimated. Traditional mystery fans will be delighted and those with a taste for alternate histories will savor the tossed-off details that bring the conceit to thrilling life. Uncategorizable, unless the category is “best of the year.”
Shanghai by Joseph Kanon ($28.99; Scribner) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
City In Ruins by Don Winslow ($32; William Morrow) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford ($28; Scribner) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of V&A Publishing
15. Fragile Beauty: Photographs From The Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection
Worldwide fame has its privileges. When Elton John and his husband David Furnish decide to collect photography as a hobby, they immediately become one of the most influential buyers of this art form in the world. They could easily stock an entire museum with the images they’ve gathered in one place. Fragile Beauty is the next best thing: a coffee table book bursting with beautiful works by some of the most talented artists in the world. John and Furnish didn’t specialize much: you’ll find literally every imaginable type of photography by a who’s who of artists from the last 70s years, from Diane Arbus to (of course) Robert Mapplethorpe to Cindy Sherman and on and on. It’s a head-spinning, gorgeous survey of a still-evolving art form.
Fragile Beauty: Photographs From The Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection ($70; V&A Publishing) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of St. Martin’s Press, Riverhead Books, Knopf
16. The Women by Kristin Hannah
17. All Fours by Miranda July
18. Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
Kristin Hannah is a superstar and with The Women, she tackles the nurses of Vietnam and what life is like during and after the conflict is over. It’s the Book Club book of the year, the page-turner of the year, the absorbing war book of the year and another triumph for Hannah.
In All Fours, filmmaker and novelist Miranda July delivers an expectedly offbeat and hilarious work about menopause. Her heroine takes a road trip of the soul by staying put in a hotel room and exploring love in all its forms. George Saunders offers high praise, for one. Who knew this would be her breakout novel?
Author Tommy Orange had the daunting task of following up his Pulitzer Prize-finalist work There There. He does it with Wandering Stars, which both shrugs off and shoulders the burden Orange faces of being the It writer of the moment and a voice for Indigenous peoples by doing what he does: telling stories. In this case, the stories of the ancestors of the people in There There, the survivors of the Sand Creek Massacre who must then survive imprisonment, reeducation and their children being preyed upon again and again. It’s harrowing but alive and exciting and funny and tough and what we already expect from Orange.
The Women by Kristin Hannah ($30; St. Martin’s Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
All Fours by Miranda July ($29; Riverhead Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange ($29; Knopf) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Knopf
19. The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
Beloved author Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club) shared her personal story in Where The Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir. But in a way, she reveals even more of herself with this charming work. Tan delivers a journal of birdwatching that’s filled with sketches, casual observations and the delight of having a hummingbird feed out of your hand. Writers observe and Tan does that beautifully, encouraging you to pause, look around and observe as well. Not just for birders.
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan ($35; Knopf) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Avid Reader Press/S&S, Viking, Atria Books
20. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
21. The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
22. The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
Kaliane Bradley has what might turn into the unclassifiable debut of the year: a time-traveling/workplace comedy/romance between a civil servant in the near future and her unexpected roommate: an Arctic explorer who perished back in 1845…at least until the Ministry of Time got a hold of him. Nutty, surprising and just as easily filed under Romance or Literary Fiction, for the snobs who can’t bear to read sci-fi, even one as acclaimed as this.
Lev Grossman shot to fame with his three novels invariably described as Harry Potter, but filled with cursing and sex. Now he tackles the tales of King Arthur. Anyone expecting a caustic, modern spin on Camelot won’t be disappointed. You’ll find Python-esque humor, transgender knights, queer knights (in the closet or whatever constitutes a closet in those days), a tiresomely perfect Lancelot and at least a hero of the expected sort: an 18 year old kid mostly abandoned, seen as useless but determined to be a knight and, who knows, perhaps of more kingly bearing than he imagines. Frankly, I was not easily won over. But Grossman isn’t here to tear down Arthurian myths or reveal them as far too lacking when it comes to gender and sexual politics. Oh he perhaps does that too. But Grossman isn’t tweaking the story of King Arthur. He’s telling it again in his own way. Each character is given a back story that deepens and impresses on our mind, from the new lesser knights we begin with to Arthur and Lancelot and the whole gang. Ultimately, it becomes quite moving. These tales will be told again and again as long as stories are told. But they won’t always be told well. Here, they are.
Like Kaliane Bradley, author Scott Alexander Howard plays with the concept of time travel. In his case, it’s a head-spinning one played not for fancy but heartbreak. Our hero Odile lives in a town which is bordered by two more versions of the same town: one 20 years in the future and another version 20 years in the past. She wants to sit on the group that has control over who can cross their borders from the past or the future (like people who want to mourn a loved one by skipping back in time to observe the dead person when they were still alive). But she also feels closer and closer to a boy she knows will die too young, a boy who has no idea of his fate. With this initially puzzling setup, Howard illuminates so much about life and destiny and heartbreak that it proves yet again why sci-fi is such a satisfying way of tackling the big ideas we all face.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley ($28.99; Avid Reader Press/S&S) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman ($35; Viking) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard ($27.99; Atria Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Holiday House
23. The Worst Perfect Moment by Shivaun Plozza
The Worst Perfect Moment offers a glimpse of the afterlife when Tegan Masters must work through some issues before moving on from a limbo of sorts. Unfortunately, she has to do so while stuck in a rundown New Jersey hotel where Tegan spent the worst weekend of her life. Back when she was still alive, of course.
The Worst Perfect Moment by Shivaun Plozza ($19.99; Holiday House) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Crown, S&S/Avid Reader Press, Doubleday
24. The Demon Of Unrest by Erik Larson
25. Challenger by Adam Higginbotham
26. The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides
Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the US in November of 1860. Southern states immediately began to secede from the Union. Lincoln didn't even take office until March of 1861. By then, seven states had already broken the nation apart. Five weeks later, the Battle of Fort Sumter took place. Those five months from Lincoln's election to the first military action of what would become the Civil War are among the most tumultuous and decisive in American history. Author Erik Larson of The Devil in the White City fame brings it to life in his latest popular history.
Like the assassination of JFK, an entire generation remembers where they were when the space shuttle Challenger shattered into pieces shortly after liftoff. We all know what happened. But in Challenger, writer Adam Higginbotham captures the drama and despair of the events leading up to that fateful moment.
The Wide Wide Sea is the latest raved-about blockbuster from Hampton Sides. It charts the perilous, disastrous final voyage of Captain James Cook and why a model explorer went so fatally astray.
The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson ($35; Crown) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Challenger by Adam Higginbotham ($35; S&S/Avid Reader Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides ($35; Doubleday) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Scribner, Random House
27. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
28. Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Irish author Colm Tóibín enjoyed much acclaim before his lovely novel Brooklyn. But that stunner about a young woman named Eilis brave enough to take the leap and move from Ireland to America on her own in the 1950s captured the world’s imagination. It enjoyed acclaimed and best-seller status and was even turned into a marvelous film starring Saoirse Ronan in 2015. Now Tóibín returns to Ellis twenty years later in Long Island. She still feels like a newcomer in America and is surrounded by her Italian-American husband’s extended family and their two children. Then she discovers he has cheated on her…. Ronan is only 30, so perhaps they should wait ten years before making the film? Happily, you won’t have to wait to find out the surprising ways Ellis deals with this betrayal.
She had me at “Taffy.” But fans of Brodesser-Akner, okay let’s just be on a first-name basis and call her Taffy have high expectations from the author of the fiercely funny Fleishman in Trouble. The early buzz says she delivers with Long Island Compromise, a family saga that begins in 1980 when a wealthy businessman is kidnapped. It picks things up decades later when everyone in his family–and I do mean everyone–is still reeling from the impact of that event and the money that’s proven a shield and burden ever since. Oh, but the money is dwindling folks. Comfort reading for those who haven’t won the lottery (or the lottery of life) and the sort of social satire Tom Wolfe wanted to write.
Long Island by Colm Tóibín ($28; Scribner) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Aknew ($30; Random House) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Pantheon, Dey Street Books, Random House
29. The Swans of Harlem by Karen Valby
30. Traveling: On The Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers
31. The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum by Margalit Fox
We always have more to learn from the past. The Swans of Harlem is a marvel of history, shining a spotlight on five Black ballerinas who blazed a trail through the dance world while enjoying a 50 year bond of friendship and respect. Not surprisingly, Misty Copeland is a fan.
Ann Powers tackles the life and legacy of artist Joni Mitchell with a wonderfully unorthodox work that’s part travelogue, part biography, part memoir, part critical survey and yes, that’s a lot of parts. How else to tackle the influential career of Mitchell? Finally, the world is catching up to what the creator of Blue and Court and Spark and so many other great albums and so many fine paintings has known all along: Joni Mitchell is a genius.
The latest from acclaimed nonfiction writer Margalit Fox uncovers another fascinating tale from history. In previous books, Fox detailed everything from an engaging account of deciphering hieroglyphics to a daring escape by prisoners of war during WW I to how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made like Sherlock Holmes and helped free a man wrongly imprisoned for murder. Now she has another juicy story to unfold: the story of the most notorious fence of stolen goods in US history, a person who operated in broad daylight (bribing the police certainly helped) and famous enough to make headlines when it all came crashing down. That person? The talented Mrs. Mandelbaum. Fox tells her story and captures an era. We learn everything about Mandelbaum’s operation, from secret passages to safe houses to how she helped plan major heists and protected the men and women under her employ. We also learn why fencing stolen goods became big business just as she rose to power (mass production made individual items harder to trace–they all looked the same!) and how Mandelbaum became one of the most powerful figures in crime despite being a woman. A decade or two later, crime would again be dominated by men but in the late 1800s, she was it. It’s a compelling narrative, to say the least, with a fascinating denouement. Mandelbaum’s story might be a miniseries (turning a book into a film or tv show is the highest compliment in this era.) But if producers want an ongoing series, I suggest they zero in on her lawyers, the colorful and wildly contrasting duo William Howe and Abraham Hummel. Howe was enormous, dressed flashily and made every pronouncement in court (and out) with operatic grandeur. Hummel was rail thin, dressed all in black and modest. Together they represented everyone from actors and circus folk to Mrs. Mandelbaum and the law was just one of many tools at their disposal. Fox brings them to delicious life, just as she does the entire world of this unapologetic crook.
The Swans of Harlem by Karen Valby ($29; Pantheon) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Traveling: On The Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers ($35; Dey Street Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum by Margalit Fox ($32; Random House) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Related: Author Roshani Chokshi’s Favorite Books Updating Fairy Tales
Courtesy of Flatiron Books, Scribner, Simon & Schuster/Saga Press
32. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
33. You Like It Darker by Stephen King
34. The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones
Best-selling author Leigh Bardugo outdoes herself with this fantasy novel set during Spain’s Golden Age. A kitchen maid uses bits of magic to make her dull work easier. But when her talent is discovered, she becomes a pawn in the hands of her social-climbing mistress and then an aide to the King desperate to get back in good graces after a disastrous defeat to England. Our heroine enters a high stakes world of intrigue and plotting and deception. As the Inquisition looms she wonders what is more dangerous: her Jewish blood or the immortal “familiar” she depends on that strikes an ever-harder bargain.
Stephen King is an acclaimed, best-selling novelist. But I think his best work comes in short stories. Check out his latest collection, You Like It Darker (and then check out his masterpiece, the four novellas that comprise Different Seasons).
The finale of a spookily scary trilogy, The Angel Of Indian Lake is an ode to slasher movies that goes much deeper than jump cuts and cheap thrills. It's an audacious reimagining of the American West, a look at small town America worthy of Stephen King and -- yes -- so frightening that reviews compare it to a chainsaw. And not just because the first book is titled My Heart Is A Chainsaw. It's time to face down the Lake Witch and why wait for the movies or miniseries? At least you can read with the lights on.
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo ($29.99; Flatiron Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
You Like It Darker by Stephen King ($30; Scribner) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones; $28.99, Simon & Schuster/Saga Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Doubleday, HarperVia
35. Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan
36. The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
37. Nearly All The Men in Lagos Are Mad by Damilare Kuku
Kevin Kwan! Author of Crazy Rich Asians! His new comic romance/caper/beach read extraordinaire! You need details? A bankrupt–but handsome–future Earl of Greshambury (and son of a Hong Kong supermodel, hence the handsomeness) must go to a wedding attended by the super rich and snag a woman of means before his fancy life implodes for good. Problems ensue, like a secret liaison that comes to light, a volcanic eruption and worst of all, falling in love with the relatively penniless girl next door. Amusement guaranteed.
In The Husbands, Holly Gramazio takes a clever spin on the swipe-right dating world by letting a woman discover a wonderful attic. Down comes a man and her life is transformed. And if she tires of him, he can be sent away and another very different man comes out of the attic so she can see what life with him has to offer. And on and on, in a parade of husbands and instant gratification and a sneaking realization that always being able to try something else might just be its own trap.
The twelve stories of Damilare Kuku’s debut collection Nearly All The Men In Lagos Are Mad cover the length and breadth of society in the vibrant city of Lagos: from rich to struggling poor, from a preacher’s wife to a musician ready for a night of sexual fun. But of course the stories are universal. Couldn’t you substitute the city you’re living in and have the title still ring true?
Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan ($29; Doubleday) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio ($29; Doubleday) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Nearly All The Men in Lagos Are Mad by Damilare Kuku ($26; HarperVia) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Grand Central Publishing, Riverhead Books, Viking
38. A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci
39. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
40. The Hunter by Tana French
Does best-selling author David Baldacci have something to prove? If my math is right, this is his 50th novel for adults and Baldacci spent a decade working on it. Set in 1968 as the Civil Rights era facing an increasing backlash, a male white attorney takes on the case of a Black man wrongfully accused of a brutal murder. In over his head, he soon pairs up the a female Black attorney determined to see justice done. Together they might just beat the best prosecutor in the state of Virginia. That is, if powerful forces weren't arrayed against them and just as determined to see justice denied. The dependably entertaining Baldacci clearly dug deep on this one.
The God of the Woods is already one of the most acclaimed books of the year. It’s 1975 and a 13 year old girl goes missing from a summer camp. Tragic, until you discover her brother disappeared from the same place some 14 years earlier. And they’re both children of the family that owns the camp and rules the blue collar townsfolk with an iron fist. So tragic and…suspicious? Author Liz Moore’s biggest book yet and one being compared to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, which is about the highest praise a book like this can receive.
The Irish countryside. A retired member of the Chicago PD. An almost feral abandoned teen named Trey. A returned father looking for gold. An English millionaire. It could be and is the stuff of a thriller. But in the hands of Irish writer Tana French it’s also rich material for a novel of psychological insight, complexity and the sort of tension that only arises when the characters you’re reading about feel real and so their fates really matter.
A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci ($30; Grand Central Publishing) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore ($30; Riverhead Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Hunter by Tana French ($32; Viking) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of William Morrow, The Dial Press, David R. Godine, Publisher
41. Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller
42. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson
43. Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy
Book banning gets a comic comeuppance with Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. Beverly is on the school board, crossing swords with her nemesis Lula, who loves the attention when she denounces “filthy” books Lula hasn’t even read. Lula’s front yard contains one of those adorable lending libraries filled with “wholesome” books. But someone–don’t ask me, I don’t know!–yes, someone replaced all her spotless titles with books by Judy Blume and gay romances and black history…and everyone who borrows them absolutely loves them and has their lives changed. It’s a witty celebration of the power of reading, even naughty Judy Blume.
Surely you’re already a fan of Helen Simonson. She takes her time, but over the past 14 years she’s delivered three gems. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is a contemporary story about a stiff upper lip Brit falling in love with the Pakistani woman running his local food shop. It has old-fashioned written all over it. So it was no surprise when Simonson explored earlier eras. In the delightful The Summer Before The War, she captures romance in East Sussex just as World War I is about to break out. Simonson knows a good era when she sees one, so Hazelbourne is set in a seaside town just after World War I, with romance and women chafing under the constraints of society since war showed them what is possible when they’re given the chance.
Sipsworth finds an elderly woman named Helen who has lost both her husband and her son returning home to die. She just wants to slip away, but somehow a tiny mouse intrudes on Helen’s waiting-for-death routine and reawakens her desire to live. Think Fredrik Backman.
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller ($30; William Morrow) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson ($29; The Dial Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy ($26.95; David R. Godine, Publisher) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Neal Porter Books, Calkins Creek, Atheneum Books for Young Readers
44. Big Bear and Little Bear Go Fishing by Amy Hest; illustrated by Erin Stead
45. Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem by Gary Golio; art by E.B. Lewis
46. The First Week of School by Drew Beckmeyer
Here are three delightful picture books. Oh sure, you can buy them for the kid in your life (or the parents in your life who will appreciate them no end). But don’t cheat yourself out of the pleasure reading them. Yes, having a kid around helps, but you’ll want to read them to yourself, and out loud. And if there’s any chance you don’t have a small child around but one might visit some day? Why you’ve got the perfect excuse for keeping some picture books handy. Big Bear and Little Bear Go Fishing already feels like a classic. Its gentle rhythms and perfect pairing of text and illustrations (each of which stand easily on their own) is pitch perfect. Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem is a quietly bold work, since the art work of E.B. Lewis must stand alongside the photography of Roy DeCarava, the brilliant artist this book celebrates. Lewis succeeds brilliantly. And The First Week of School features an awesome crayon-inspired look (the book title is also cleverly done), along with pages jam-packed with dialogue and incident. A treat.
Big Bear and Little Bear Go Fishing by Amy Hest; illustrated by Erin E. Stead ($18.99; Neal Porter Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem by Gary Golio; art by E.B. Lewis ($18.99; Calkins Creek) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The First Week of School by Drew Beckmeyer ($18.99; Atheneum Books for Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
