The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 2,007 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Light of All That Falls

Jacqueline Fellows ๐Ÿ‘ liked this book because...

The book's (and trilogy's) greatest strength is also an important weakness: the intricacy of the plot. Different characters bear different names in different scenes, making it all a little tricky to keep track of (not to mention the relatively minor characters you're likely to forget about if you haven't seen them for 400 pages). The shifting of the timeline is also liable to scramble a reader's brain. At the same time, this complexity allows for great originality, some fun plot twists and late revelations, and sensitive character development. I do particularly like the sustained questions about which side is ultimately "right" or "wrong," and how this is difficult for any one character to know (or to accept) given his/her beliefs and past history. There's a combination of tragedy and victory that appeals strongly to me.

I think the trilogy as a whole will bear up well under rereading, which I consider a significant achievement.

  • Loved Most

    ๐Ÿฅ‡ Story/Plot ๐Ÿฅˆ Originality
  • Writing style

    ๐Ÿ‘ Liked it
  • Pace

    ๐Ÿ• Good, steady pace

By James Islington,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Light of All That Falls as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Light of All That Falls is the spectacular conclusion to James Islington's Licanius trilogy - a modern fantasy blockbuster packed with magic, prophecy and adventure.

James Islington's bestselling debut, The Shadow of What Was Lost, began an epic tale of three heroes who embraced forbidden powers to confront a rising evil. The adventure continued in An Echo of Things to Come as armies clashed and magic collided. Now the final battle - and the fate of the world - is at hand in The Light of All That Falls, the enthralling final volume in the Licanius trilogy.

Praise forโ€ฆ


When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Red Badge of Courage

Jacqueline Fellows ๐Ÿ‘ liked this book because...

This is one of those books I haven't read since high school and am in a better position to appreciate now, particularly as I've been thinking a lot for my own purposes about the nature of trauma and how battlefield (and similar) experiences can affect different kinds of people. The way the protagonist and others change over the course of the story says less about them as individuals, I think, than it does about inherent human fears and drives that can be triggered equally easily, given the right circumstances.

  • Loved Most

    ๐Ÿฅ‡ Thoughts ๐Ÿฅˆ Character(s)
  • Writing style

    ๐Ÿ‘ Liked it
  • Pace

    ๐Ÿ• Good, steady pace

By Stephen Crane,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked The Red Badge of Courage as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

Here is Stephen Crane's masterpiece, The Red Badge of Courage, together with four of his most famous short stories. Outstanding in their portrayal of violent emotion and quiet tension, these texts led the way for great American writers such as Ernest Hemingway.


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Anathem

Jacqueline Fellows ๐Ÿ‘ liked this book because...

On the whole, I found the world-building and plot construction to be careful and very clever; if you've read some Plato or any of a number of philosophers, you'll have plenty of "aha!" moments. To an extent, that actually frustrated me: why bother creating a parallel universe if you're going to populate it with figures and events from our world (but with different names)? It turns out that there is a reason for that, and you just don't find out until about 800 pages in. Maybe a more sensitive or attentive reader would have anticipated that reason sooner than I did.

The core cast of characters is small, distinctive, and likeable, and the writing flows easily even when the subject is something like quantum mechanics. The plot expands far beyond what you might be expecting at the outset; perhaps for that reason, I found the ending abrupt and disappointing. The problems that the characters were facing seem suddenly to evaporate, and I was left wondering if I missed something.

  • Loved Most

    ๐Ÿฅ‡ Originality ๐Ÿฅˆ Character(s)
  • Writing style

    โค๏ธ Loved it
  • Pace

    ๐Ÿ• Good, steady pace

By Neal Stephenson,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Since childhood, Raz has lived behind the walls of a 3,400-year-old monastery, a sanctuary for scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians. There, he and his cohorts are sealed off from the illiterate, irrational, unpredictable "saecular" world, an endless landscape of casinos and megastores that is plagued by recurring cycles of booms and busts, dark ages and renaissances, world wars and climate change. Until the day that a higher power, driven by fear, decides it is only these cloistered scholars who have the abilities to avert an impending catastrophe. And, one by one, Raz and his friends, mentors, and teachers are summoned forthโ€ฆ


Donโ€˜t forget about my book ๐Ÿ˜€

The Sherangivan

By Jacqueline Fellows,

Book cover of The Sherangivan

What is my book about?

Caleb Tholstan wakes up in the forest one afternoon with a dead man's blood dripping on him, a headache, and no memory of what happened. He is soon caught up in a war between his home country and an invasive, migrating nation of raiders, but even amid these fast-moving developments, he is continually tormented by dreams that tickle at the edges of that lost memory. He must find out why that day in the woods is so troubling to him - before the nightmares unhinge him altogether.

Book cover of The Light of All That Falls
Book cover of The Red Badge of Courage
Book cover of Anathem

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

2,007

readers submitted
so far, will you?