The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 1,355 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Gulag: A History

Edward Greenberg ❤️ loved this book because...

Well paced, exhaustively researched and ought be required reading for anyone with an interest in Russia or the former Soviet Union. The Gulag was a virtually endless supply of forced labor for the USSR. Life in the camps, their detainees and overseers, is depicted in graphic, precise detail. The political and social cover given to the massive system is explained in meticulous fashion. A great read for any history buff.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Writing 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Anne Applebaum,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • This magisterial and acclaimed history offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in the Russian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to its collapse in the era of glasnost.

“A tragic testimony to how evil ideologically inspired dictatorships can be.” –The New York Times

The Gulag—a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal prisoners—was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society, embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism. Applebaum intimately re-creates what life was like in the camps and links them…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy

Edward Greenberg ❤️ loved this book because...

Must read about an underreported murderous episode in the NC of 1898. Must read for Black History and should be required reading for all HS/college American History courses. Written like a novel with each meticulously researched fact harder to believe than the prior one.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Writing 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By David Zucchino,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Wilmington's Lie as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NONFICTION

From Pulitzer Prize-winner David Zucchino comes a searing account of the Wilmington riot and coup of 1898, an extraordinary event unknown to most Americans

By the 1890s, Wilmington was North Carolina’s largest city and a shining example of a mixed-race community. It was a bustling port city with a burgeoning African American middle class and a Fusionist government of Republicans and Populists that included black aldermen, police officers and magistrates. There were successful black-owned businesses and an African American newspaper, The Record. But across the state—and the South—white supremacist Democrats were…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

Edward Greenberg ❤️ loved this book because...

The life and autopsy of Prohibition. Great writing and research. Great historical tid bits and nuggets. No issue or aspect of society affected is untouched by the author. What you think is know is a fraction of what you need to know.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Originality 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Daniel Okrent,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Last Call as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America’s most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the US Constitution was amended to restrict one of America’s favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages.

From its start, America has been awash in drink. The sailing vessel that brought John Winthrop to the shores of the New World in 1630 carried more beer than water. By the 1820s, liquor flowed so plentifully it was cheaper than tea. That Americans would ever agree to relinquish their booze was as improbable as it was astonishing.

Yet we did, and Last Call is Daniel Okrent’s dazzling…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Copyright Zone: A Legal Guide For Photographers and Artists In The Digital Age

By Edward Greenberg, Jack Reznicki,

Book cover of The Copyright Zone: A Legal Guide For Photographers and Artists In The Digital Age

What is my book about?

The nuts and bolts of being a photographer or artist in the 21st Century. Humorous and written with a light touch. Written for artists and creatives and comprehensive enough for lawyers and art directors. Copyright, business forms, negotiating, pricing and all things needed by creative/business people in this comprehensive guide to doing business.

Book cover of Gulag: A History
Book cover of Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
Book cover of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

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