The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 1,187 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir

Amy Makechnie ❤️ loved this book because...

This is an incredible memoir and story of a marriage, family and divorce. It's both devastating and hopeful. Maggie Smith is a phenomenal poet and storyteller who can articulate our feelings and longings in such a beautiful and true way - I love everything she writes!

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Emotions 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Maggie Smith,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked You Could Make This Place Beautiful as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"[Smith]...reminds you that you can...survive deep loss, sink into life's deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new." -Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author

The bestselling poet and author of the "powerful" (People) and "luminous" (Newsweek) Keep Moving offers a lush and heartrending memoir exploring coming of age in your middle age.

"Life, like a poem, is a series of choices."

In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Cutting for Stone

Amy Makechnie ❤️ loved this book because...

This book is on every "best of" list for good reason. It contains some of the most profound, descriptive, and beautiful language I've ever read. What a talent! (a talent which took Verghese ten years to put on the page...hard work trumps talent every time. Verghese has both).

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Abraham Verghese,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Cutting for Stone as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

My brother, Shiva, and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954. We took our first breaths in the thick air of Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia. Bound by birth, we were driven apart by bitter betrayal. No surgeon can heal the would that divides two brothers. Where silk and steel fail, story must succeed. To begin at the beginning...


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Hello, Universe

Amy Makechnie ❤️ loved this book because...

Wonderful middle grade read and winner of the Newbery, I adore Erin Entrada's storytelling. Hello Universe is a profound story told simply through three siblings all struggling to find their way in the universe. I loved it.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Erin Entrada Kelly, Isabel Roxas (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Hello, Universe as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Newbery Medal

"A charming, intriguingly plotted novel."-Washington Post

Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly's Hello, Universe is a funny and poignant neighborhood story about unexpected friendships.

Told from four intertwining points of view-two boys and two girls-the novel celebrates bravery, being different, and finding your inner bayani (hero). "Readers will be instantly engrossed in this relatable neighborhood adventure and its eclectic cast of misfits."-Booklist

In one day, four lives weave together in unexpected ways. Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his crazy-about-sports family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The McNifficents

By Amy Makechnie,

Book cover of The McNifficents

What is my book about?

New Hampshire’s 2024 Great Reads for Kids selection, THE MCNIFFICENTS was featured at the New Hampshire booth at this year’s National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

A senior Miniature Schnauzer employed as a very distinguished nanny has his paws full trying to prove he’s still the dog for the job in this sweet and “chaotically entertaining” ( Kirkus Reviews ) middle grade novel that’s The Secret Life of Pets meets The Vanderbeekers series.

Every day, Lord Tennyson the Miniature Schnauzer does his very best to care for the six McNiff children and keep them from destroying their pink New England farmhouse—and the rest of the town for that matter. But when summer vacation brings the kids home together all day, his chaos-containing skills are put to the ultimate test.

Baby Sweetums is still refusing to walk, nap, or listen to anyone; Ezra is trying to keep a snake as a secret pet; Annie and Mary’s fighting is worse than ever; and Pearl and Tate are scared of just about everything. And when a particularly tempting troop of baby chicks arrives at the house, even Lord Tennyson finds he can’t stay on his best behavior.

As the chaos begin to spiral out of hand, though, something truly awful Mr. and Mrs. McNiff seem to be considering getting “a real nanny” to care for their big brood! Can Lord Tennyson get the McNiffs’ hijinks under control and teach them to behave before the summer’s out? Or will this most unusual nanny find himself out of a job and back in the doghouse?

Book cover of You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir
Book cover of Cutting for Stone
Book cover of Hello, Universe

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