The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 1,070 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture

Cassandra Arnold ❤️ loved this book because...

Dark Emu is the history of Aboriginal Australia, before the white people came. As a settler here myself, I was astounded as chapter after chapter demolished the myth of Terra nullius and showed how comprehensively the landscape had been managed before invasion. The descriptions of the early colonialists had recorded the truth, and then it had ben buried.

I know some people who have had strong negative reactions to this work as well so it is controversial.

So you know, the author Bruce Pascoe is a Bunurong man and an award-winning Australian writer and editor. Dark Emu won the 2016 NSW Book of the Year and was a joint winner of the 2016 Indigenous Writer’s Prize.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Outlook 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Bruce Pascoe,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dark Emu as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

History has portrayed Australia's First Peoples, the Aboriginals, as hunter-gatherers who lived on an empty, uncultivated land. History is wrong.

In this seminal book, Bruce Pascoe uncovers evidence that long before the arrival of white men, Aboriginal people across the continent were building dams and wells; planting, irrigating, and harvesting seeds, and then preserving the surplus and storing it in houses, sheds, or secure vessels; and creating elaborate cemeteries and manipulating the landscape. All of these behaviours were inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag, which turns out to have been a convenient lie that worked to justify dispossession.

Using compelling evidence…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Navajo Code Talkers

Cassandra Arnold ❤️ loved this book because...

This was a tiny ebook I borrowed from my library on a whim. It popped up in a different search and I am so glad I took a chance on it. While looking for the author to add here, iI realize it is probably a well-known story, with famous novels and a movie, but it was all news to me. In a nutshell, native american language speakers were used to transmit unbreakable codes during World War II.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Teach 🥈 Outlook
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Bruce Watson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Navajo Code Talkers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A top-secret military code helped the Allies win World War II in the Pacific. The unbroken code was not based on numbers or symbols but on birds and whales and fish. This is the story of the Navajo Code Talkers, who left high desert country to storm tropical jungles, armed only with their language and a rare courage in the face of fire. Author Bruce Watson tells the story in this short-form book, which is based on interviews and oral histories by the last living Code Talkers.


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of How the Penguins Saved Veronica

Cassandra Arnold ❤️ loved this book because...

Characters I loved the hate, especially the grandson. Enough said. No spoilers. Just read it.
(PS, I suppose being British helped me relate!)

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Immersion
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Hazel Prior,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How the Penguins Saved Veronica as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A curmudgeonly but charming old woman, her estranged grandson, and a colony of penguins proves it's never too late to be the person you want to be in this rich, heartwarming story from the acclaimed author of Ellie and the Harpmaker.

Eighty-five-year-old Veronica McCreedy is estranged from her family and wants to find a worthwhile cause to leave her fortune to. When she sees a documentary about penguins being studied in Antarctica, she tells the scientists she’s coming to visit—and won’t take no for an answer. Shortly after arriving, she convinces the reluctant team to rescue an orphaned baby penguin.…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Winter Fae Anthology

By Cassandra Arnold,

Book cover of The Winter Fae Anthology

What is my book about?

A kaleidoscope of folktales and wonder.

Fairies, elves, demons... Secrets and desire... Dark humour, magic, wonder...

Twelve stories that will transport you into other worlds, or twisted versions of our own.

If you had magic, what would you do with it?

If you loved someone, how far would you go?