The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 1,593 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Freaks Came out to Write

James Sullivan ❤️ loved this book because...

Raucous oral history about the heyday of the alternative press

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Tricia Romano,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Freaks Came out to Write as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A rollicking history of America's most iconic weekly newspaper told through the voices of its legendary writers, editors, and photographers. 

You either were there or you wanted to be. A defining New York City institution co-founded by Norman Mailer, The Village Voice was the first newspaper to cover hip-hop, the avant-garde art scene, and Off-Broadway with gravitas. It reported on the AIDS crisis with urgency and seriousness when other papers dismissed it as a gay disease. In 1979, the Voice’s Wayne Barrett uncovered Donald Trump as a corrupt con artist before anyone else was paying attention. It invented new forms…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Paradise Bronx

James Sullivan ❤️ loved this book because...

History on foot: a great writer makes 400 years come alive

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Ian Frazier,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Ian Frazier’s magnum opus: a love song to New York City’s most heterogeneous and alive borough.

For the past fifteen years, Ian Frazier has been walking the Bronx. Paradise Bronx reveals the amazingly rich and tumultuous history of this amazingly various piece of our greatest city. From Jonas Bronck, who bought land from the local Native Americans, to the formerly gang-wracked South Bronx that gave birth to hip-hop, Frazier’s loving exploration is a moving tour de force about the polyglot culture that is America today.

During the Revolution, when the Bronx was unclaimed territory known as the Neutral Ground, some…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen-An Authorized Biography

James Sullivan ❤️ loved this book because...

An odd-duck biography that perfectly befits its odd-duck subject

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Originality
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Brendan Greaves,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Drawing on hundreds of interviews with Allen himself, his family members (including actor and poet Jo Harvey Allen, his wife and artistic partner of more than sixty years), and his many notable friends, colleagues, and collaborators (from musicians like David Byrne and Kurt Vile to artists such as Bruce Nauman and Kiki Smith); full access to the artist's home, studio, and voluminous journals and archives; and over twenty years of collaboration and friendship with Allen, author Brendan Greaves limns a revealing portrait, as deeply researched as it is intimate, as provocative as it is poetic, of a singularly multivalent storyteller…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs

By James Sullivan,

Book cover of Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs

What is my book about?

An anecdotal history of the progressive movements that have shaped the growth of the United States and the songs of all genres that have accompanied and defined them

My book recommendation list

Book cover of The Freaks Came out to Write
Book cover of Paradise Bronx
Book cover of Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen-An Authorized Biography

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