My 10 Favorite Books I Read in 2024 📚
And I still have about 48 hours to hit my reading goal!
The end-of-year list-making continues apace. I set a goal to read 40 books this year (and I’m very liberal with what I consider “reading” — I count graphic novels and audiobooks, which is anathema to Taylor), and I still need to read two more by midnight tomorrow night. Novellas, here I come!
But this was a great reading year for me, with a lot of great surprises. Keep reading to see the best things I read all year, and check out my rankings of everything I read at the end.
#10: “The Living Force,” by John Jackson Miller
With the exception of “Andor,” Clone Wars” or the first season and a half of “The Mandalorian,” I’ve been pretty down on every “Star Wars” release that came after “The Last Jedi.” (That movie is an unimpeachable classic, but I’ve already written about that before.)
“The Living Force,” though, made me feel the Force again: Great characters, exciting locales, space whales, a great message about helping others. What a fun, refreshing read.
#9: “You Like It Darker,” by Stephen King
King’s short stories often stick with me longer than his novels. Case in point: This collection’s “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,” about a man who dreams where to find an abandoned murder victim, reports it, and then is endlessly hounded by the police who think he killed the victim; and “The Answer Man,” a “Twilight Zone” riff in the vein of “Life of Chuck,” King’s other best short story written this decade.
He’s getting more introspective the older he gets, and if you’ve never read any of King’s short stories, this is a great place to start.
#8: “Funny Story,” by Emily Henry
Come for the fun premise — woman’s fiancé leaves her for his lifelong friend, making the woman move in with her fiancé’s friend’s ex in order to have a place to live — stay for the witty banter and great descriptions of Michigan in the summertime. Plus, Julia Whelan’s audiobook narration is great.
#7: “Picnic,” by Dave Thomas
Everything you need to know about Willie Nelson’s annual bash, courtesy of the most Willie Nelson-obsessed journalist I know. A must-have if you’re a fan of music history, Texas history, or both.
#6: “Duma Key,” by Stephen King
One of King’s most underrated books, in my opinion. A construction contractor suffers a terrible accident and loses his right hand below his elbow and experiences some brain injuries. While rehabbing at a beach house down in Florida, he discovers that his injuries have supernaturally blessed (or cursed?) him with the ability to paint events before they happen. Of course all hell breaks loose by the third act.
This thing’s got everything: Haunted beach houses, ghost pirates, and one of my favorite King side characters in Jerome Wireman. This book is also a doorstopper, so I highly recommend the audiobook, narratted by John Slattery.
#5: “Erasure,” by Percival Everett
The novel that the Oscar-winning “American Fiction” was based off of is more acerbic and caustic than its film adaptation, with a more unsparing ending, and an entire section written from the perspective of Monk’s novel. If you liked the movie, seek this out, especially the audiobook, narrated by Sean Crisden.
#4: “The Angel of Indian Lake,” by Stephen Graham Jones
Stephen Graham Jones’ trilogy-capper for the end of horror Final Girl Jade Daniels is gory, hilarious, heartbreaking and hopeful in equal measure. Nobody writes like Jones, and his style forces you to sit up and pay attention as he takes you through each sentence. It’s a beautiful thing.
#3: “Small Things Like These,” by Claire Keegan
At 128 pages, this is the shortest book on this list, but the one that packs the hardest punch. Not a word is wasted in this tale of a man just trying to do the right thing. I’ve thought about this passage ever since I read it:
“He found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?”
#2: “Hell is a World Without You,” by Jason Kirk
A coming-of-age novel for anyone whose first brush with religious trauma was seeing Nicolae Carpathia in the “Left Behind” movie, Jason Kirk’s examination of evangelicalism at the turn of the millenium is hilarious, wise, and graceful, and pulls no punches. I loved it so, so much.
#1: “Shark Heart: A Love Story,” by Emily Habeck
Emily Habeck uses her debut novel’s high-genre premise — a woman’s husband is diagnosed with a form of Alzheimer’s that is slowly turning him into a great white shark — to write an epic triptych about loss, love, generational patterns, loving a partner through change, creation, God, religion, the ways people grow in marriage, and what it means to love. So, in short, it’s about everything.
It’s set in North Texas, so there’s also mention of my beloved Whataburger and White Rock Lake. The third part of the novel is basically a riff on “Finding Nemo.” I read it in one sitting, just swimming in the words. I’m so excited for whatever Habeck does next.
And now, my tier list for everything I’ve read up until this point:
