Looking for that next great book to read? Here are the editor's 2024 favorites.

I happen to like reading books more than almost anything else; other people don’t, or they have less time, attention, or access than I do for reading. Maybe you have read only one or two books this year; other people have read more than twice as many books as I have.

It’s fine.

Let’s also toss the idea of contests for art, including books. I loved Emma Copley Eisenberg’s year-end book roundup over on her Substack, Frump Feelings. She says picking out “best” books is like writing a list of the 20 best trees she saw this year. Instead, she picks out her “most” books, like Most Innovative Structure or Most Fatphobic for Literally No Reason.

I’m also not going to rate my 2024 reads. I’m offering micro-reviews of my favorites so you can decide for yourself if you’d like to read them, too. Let’s dive in.

Fiction

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

We need more horror set in the big city. This book about a young couple and their baby who move into a mysterious, exclusive New York apartment building deserves the comparisons to Rosemary’s Baby. It’s refreshing for its bold and realistic take on disability (the author clearly consulted deeply with disabled folks). I also loved Cassidy’s dark, surprising, subversive ending, which defies narrative norms of motherhood.

Erasure by Percival Everett

American Fiction, the recent movie based on this 2011 book, got great reviews, but in my opinion it’s a shadow of the novel (and I’m not a knee-jerk “the book was better” person). The depiction of academia at its beginning has hilarious bite, and it goes on to mix deep-hearted family drama with satire.

James by Percival Everett

Philosophical flair mixes seamlessly with irresistible fiction in this book that is both a tribute to Mark Twain and its own American icon. Everett's recent novel reimagines The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. It's devastating, funny, and shockingly hopeful, and I bet it’ll be a great fiction companion to Philly author Tre Johnson’s upcoming Black Genius: Essays on an American Legacy.

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

I’m getting tired of blurbs comparing Due to Stephen King, because she blows him out of the water on almost every count. This isn't just the best horror novel I've read in recent memory: it may be one of the best novels I have ever read (OK, sorry, I am willing to name a best book sometimes). You will breathe along with these characters, afraid to turn the page but unable to quit reading. Set in mid-20th century Florida, it mixes America's darkest historic currents with a supernatural tale and characters who will stay with you for life.

The Good House by Tananarive Due

This contemporary novel about a Hollywood agent who goes back to a family home with a dark history grabbed me right from the start. It’s romantic, scary, and as heartbreaking as it is uplifting.

The Cousins’ War series by Philippa Gregory

The Lady of the Rivers
The White Queen
The Red Queen
The Kingmaker’s Daughter

I’m a longtime fan of Gregory’s historical fiction. She’s written more than a dozen novels that follow compelling royal heroines from the York/Lancaster wars of the 1400s to the end of the Tudor dynasty. These novels follow the “Cousins’ War” from perspectives on all sides, exhaustively portraying the battles and intrigues of the descendants of King Edward III. Some historical events are depicted no less than three times over in the eyes of different protagonists, and it’s a tribute to Gregory’s genius for characterization and historical detail that your interest never flags.

I read these novels in a deliberate attempt to contextualize my modern political angst. They remind me that powerful people have been warring over dumb shit (like who descends from the king’s oldest son and who descends from a younger one) for centuries no matter what the cost to ordinary people. Gregory’s “fortune’s wheel” theme insists that stunning reversals of power are as inevitable as they are unpredictable. If we’re down right now, we’ll be back on top again someday, before the wheel turns again…

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Real-world political trauma and turmoil sends me running for the catharsis of ghost stories. This novel about estranged siblings who must reunite to dispose of their parents’ home after a terrible, mysterious accident pulled me right in. This book is a must-read for anyone who thinks that toys and puppets are terrifying, and there’s even some fabulous satire of self-serious performance-art types.

Liars by Sarah Manguso

I’m still mad about this slim, devastating, un-put-downable book. The protagonist builds a litany of her husband’s wrongs that she fingers like a rosary throughout this infuriatingly ordinary story about American marriage.

Ithaca by Claire North

This novel follows Penelope, queen of Ithaca, as she tries to hold her small kingdom together in the political unrest of her husband’s two-decade absence. The crisis of her entitled, power-hungry suitors plays out against the machinations of flawed and feuding gods, and things really get going when Penelope’s annoying relatives, Electra and Orestes, show up in search of their murderous mother. But omniscient narration by Hera (queen of the gods) blunts the suspense and jumps between too many characters.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

This intensely interior novel follows the family of William Shakespeare, who, in a somewhat pretentious literary flair, is never actually named in the text. The quiet story advances by inches as we spend long chapters buried in the innermost mind of the characters. Those with an abiding interest in the historical era and speculation about Shakespeare will pull through.

My Name Is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

This novel about an aspiring doctor during the American Civil War is notable for the unglamorous stubbornness of its heroine. The story’s realistically gory 19th-century medical scenes are not for the faint of heart. Occasional diversions that spotlight Lincoln and other historical figures are interesting but ultimately distract from the family drama at the narrative’s center.

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

This novel that takes place mostly on a contemporary college campus in the South is a great read, but not as believable or compelling to me as Reid’s Such a Fun Age. Reid mixes the travails of college life with a flagrantly unscrupulous journalist, alongside an interesting exploration of unconventional trauma.

Good In Bed by Jennifer Weiner

I had never read any of Weiner’s novels before picking this up on whim during one of my frequent used-bookstore pilgrimages. It’s a real gap on my shelf, given Weiner’s Philly connection, on full display in her partially autobiographical debut novel about a (barely) plus-size Philly journalist who’s still not over her ex when he begins to write an insufferable romance column that mines their relationship. The ending is too tidy for me, but it’s a fun read.

Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

We at BSR love Philly author Emma Copley Eisenberg, a founder of Blue Stoop and the author of Housemates, a debut novel that ended up on all kinds of prestigious lists. It deserves this acclaim. Eisenberg’s writing is vivid and raw, and her fully embodied characters live in a messy, hopeful space that feels real.

Memoir

Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosley

Crosley is one of my favorite essayists, and this collection does not disappoint. She masters what few memoirists can: a flair for zany yet believable characterization that she’s not afraid to point at herself. She battles teenage neighbors, a poorly equipped mountain expedition, a death in the building, and lots more.

This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life by Lyz Lenz

This memoir is my current favorite among a genre in which white Millennial or Gen X women realize that cis hetero marriage and motherhood under white supremacist patriarchal capitalism is REALLY HARD, ACTUALLY. Lenz is a funny, startling, deep-digging writer who enrages men everywhere. Bonus: you can subscribe to her newsletter, Men Yell at Me, and listen to two seasons of her excellent podcast about marriage and divorce.

A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tia Levings

Levings details her journey to the sinister IBLP church (of Duggar family fame) and into a marriage in which financial, physical, and sexual abuse were not just encouraged but required by her church. Her harrowing but ultimately lyrical and uplifting story is a Klaxon warning about the implications of America’s 21^st-century march into Christian nationalism and what it means for all US women, not just churchgoers. Here’s my full review.

Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire edited by Alice Wong

This follow-up to Wong’s Disability Visibility collection goes beyond the most obvious connotations of disabled “intimacy” to dive deep into many realms of connection, including pregnancy, parenting, foster care, beloved pets, friendship, scholarship, art-making, and activism. Here’s my full review.

Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business by Roxane Gay

Gay’s essays and reviews are thorny, revealing, surprising, and necessary. This compilation of years of her work from many different venues is a treat, and I found myself backing up over and over to savor a turn of phrase or make sure that I was really getting the full weight of her point. To read her is always to remember why we need cultural criticism.

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

This memoir and trenchant political analysis starts off with the fact that the whole world confuses No Label and Shock Doctrine author Naomi Klein with The Beauty Myth author Naomi Wolf, who recently became an anti-vax conspiracy theorist. This is one of the most discomfiting books I read this year. Klein refuses to subscribe to facile cultural binaries and instead shows that even the most maddeningly polarized issues (like vaccine safety) are two sides of the same coin—one we must understand if we hope to overcome our divisions.

Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, and Control by Amanda Montei

This feminist memoir and cultural analysis doesn’t quite have the narrative drive or focus that some similar books do, but it does advance a pretty fresh and worthwhile thesis: that our unfair, impossible expectations of modern mothers are rooted in rape culture just like other forms of abuse.

All Of This: A Memoir of Death and Desire by Rebecca Woolf

Woolf lost her husband, the father of her four young children, to pancreatic cancer. He was 44. He was also a childish jerk, and for her part, she had been cheating on him for years. She grieved hard and was also glad to be rid of him. Woolf dives fearlessly in, arguing that mothers have the right to the full scope of human experience, including anger and desire. I was struck by Woolf’s opinion that between widows and divorced women, the divorced women are braver. Do you think that's true? Bonus: listen to Woolf’s podcast, No Shame.

Nonfiction

Moving Past Marriage: Why We Should Ditch Marital Privilege, End Relationship-Status Discrimination, and Embrace Non-Marital History by Jaclyn Geller

This manifesto takes on the “matrimaniacs” (cheerleaders for marriage; in other words, almost everyone) to reveal how America’s practical, legal, financial, social, professional, and political scales are all tipped in favor of married people, with high costs to everyone else—including people who decide they don’t want to be married anymore. While it contains tons of compelling scholarship, the book sometimes leans too hard on anecdotes or biased interviews. But I welcome anything that counters the prevailing winds on marriage in our culture.

Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia by Kate Manne

Manne’s work joins many recent manifestos on body liberation and fat justice by authors like Aubrey Gordon, Sabrina Strings, Virginia Sole-Smith, and Da’Shaun L. Harrison. She is admittedly new to the field, and the book, while a valuable survey of prevalent anti-fat fallacies, suffers from career philosophers’ tendency to excavate every existing source before introducing one or two new ideas. But Manne does add some fresh commentary on the moral implications of dieting, and I do like her ultimate arrival at the principle of “body reflexivity”—that your body is for you and no-one else. Bonus: you can subscribe to her feminist newsletter, More to Hate.

Larry McMurtry: A Life by Tracy Daugherty

McMurtry is one of my favorite novelists, so I dove into this hefty 2023 biography. Daugherty writes with a richness and flair that does justice to his subject, but I struggled through the many lengthy diversions in the narrative, including celebrity antics on the set of movies based on McMurtry novels and long sections where I started to wonder if I was, in fact, reading a biography of Ken Kesey. Full of excerpts from McMurtry’s prolific letters to the many (many!) women he loved at a distance, this book does illuminate an American giant’s life and work, including his passion for bookstores.

The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Dr. Jen Gunter

Every time I see a social-media thread with people asking for advice about menopause symptoms, I recommend this book. I am grateful for a recent explosion of public figures who are starting to talk openly about menopause (and perimenopause), following generations of silence, shame, and ignorance about something that half the population experiences. But this burgeoning openness is also full of misinformation and grifters. Gunter is a qualified voice you can trust, covering everything from heart health to hormone therapy to cognition. At the very least, this book will arm you for any doctor visit, and it might even save your life. Bonus: You can subscribe to Dr. Gunter’s platform, The Vagenda, for more science-backed health tips.

Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda

This epic yet measured biography of the Renaissance icon who ruled France through her husband and sons for decades despite her mercantile roots is a crash course in 16^th-century Europe. If you love costumes, this book is for you: somehow it constantly describes the full ’fits, down to the individual jewels and accessories, of dozens of people at court events (to me, a miracle of the historical record). Frieda details the many Catholic/Huguenot wars of the era, including the infamous St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre (it’s not quite what we thought) as well as the lives of the wily, resilient queen’s scheming, amorous, murderous children. It’s a tale of endless royal intrigue, assassinations, love, and tuberculosis.

Jane Austen: The Secret Radical by Helena Kelly

If you love Austen’s oeuvre but want a fresh yet faithful take, hurry to this 2018 book offering a whole new window into the beloved novelist's canon. With a chapter dedicated to each of Austen's finished works, Helena Kelly convincingly argues that Austen was tackling radical causes from inside a totalitarian British regime, including abolition, poverty, enclosure, evolutionary science, and the hypocrisy and corruption of the Church.