The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 734 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Days Without End

Bonnie Stanard 👍 liked this book because...

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Writing 🥈 Immersion
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Sebastian Barry,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Days Without End as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNER

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 MAN BOOKER PRIZE

"A true leftfield wonder: Days Without End is a violent, superbly lyrical western offering a sweeping vision of America in the making."—Kazuo Ishiguro, Booker Prize winning author of The Remains of the Day and The Buried Giant

From the two-time Man Booker Prize finalist Sebastian Barry, “a master storyteller” (Wall Street Journal), comes a powerful new novel of duty and family set against the American Indian and Civil Wars

Thomas McNulty, aged barely seventeen and having fled the Great Famine in Ireland, signs up for the…


Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Bonnie Stanard ❤️ loved this book because...

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Writing 🥈 Originality
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Anthony Marra,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Constellation of Vital Phenomena as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

New York Times Notable Book of the Year * Washington Post Top Ten Book of the Year

In a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as Russian soldiers abduct her father in the middle of the night and then set fire to her home. When their lifelong neighbor Akhmed finds Havaa hiding in the forest with a strange blue suitcase, he makes a decision that will forever change their lives. He will seek refuge at the abandoned hospital where the sole remaining doctor, Sonja Rabina, treats the wounded.

For Sonja, the arrival of Akhmed and…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa

Bonnie Stanard ❤️ loved this book because...

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Outlook 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Peter Godwin,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Mukiwa as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Mukiwa opens with Peter Godwin, six years old, describing the murder of his neighbor by African guerillas, in 1964, pre-war Rhodesia. Godwin's parents are liberal whites, his mother a governement-employed doctor, his father an engineer. Through his innocent, young eyes, the story of the beginning of the end of white rule in Africa unfolds. The memoir follows Godwin's personal journey from the eve of war in Rhodesia to his experience fighting in the civil war that he detests to his adventures as a journalist in the new state of Zimbabwe, covering the bloody return to Black rule. With each transition…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Béjart's Caravan

By Bonnie Stanard,

Book cover of Béjart's Caravan

What is my book about?

In 1672 a troupe of borderline rogues who call themselves actors have to scramble to avoid being driven asunder by the Catholic Church as they travel about French provinces. To complicate matters, an actor is accused of being a witch; another one goes to Paris to dig up a relic from Molière’s grave; and the leading star deserts the troupe for a lover.