The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 1,064 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Once and Future Witches

J.S. Watts ❤️ loved this book because...

Witchcraft, magic, alternative history, feminism and lyrical writing - how could I not love it!

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Originality 🥈 Immersion
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Alix E. Harrow,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked The Once and Future Witches as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'Glorious . . . a tale that will sweep you away' Yangsze Choo, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Tiger

'A gorgeous and thrilling paean to the ferocious power of women' Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author of Strange the Dreamer

In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.

But when…


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

My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Rites of Passage: Death and Mourning in Victorian Britain

J.S. Watts ❤️ loved this book because...

It was about a fascinating subject and was factual, insightful and a good read

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Teach 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Judith Flanders,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Nobody knows more about everyday life in Victorian Britain than Judith Flanders' - Douglas Robert-Fairhurst, author of Metamorphosis and The Turning Point

In Rites of Passage, acclaimed historian Judith Flanders deconstructs the intricate, fascinating, and occasionally - to modern eyes - bizarre customs that grew up around death and mourning in Victorian Britain.

Through stories from the sickbed to the deathbed, from the correct way to grieve and to give comfort to those grieving to funerals and burials and the reaction of those left behind, Flanders illuminates how living in nineteenth-century Britain was, in so many ways, dictated by dying.…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Illustrated Woman

J.S. Watts ❤️ loved this book because...

Beautiful, haunting poetry and an outstanding use of language

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Writing 🥈 Thoughts
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Helen Mort,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION*

'A raw, tender, potent collection' - JESSICA ANDREWS

'Gorgeous poems - profound, exploratory, wild, playful - and completely now' - RUTH PADEL
________

The brilliant new collection from T.S. Eliot Prize and Costa Award shortlisted poet Helen Mort

Let me kneel
before the sky and let me be humble, untidy,
let me be decorated.

Here are women's bodies. Hungry adolescent bodies, fluctuating pregnant bodies, ailing aging bodies. Here are bodies as products to be digitized and consumed. Here is the body in nature, changing and growing stronger. Here are tattooed women…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Witchlight

By J.S. Watts,

Book cover of Witchlight

What is my book about?

"Witchlight", a paranormal novel by J.S.Watts - the first novel in the popular Witchlight series.

Holly has been mortal all her life. Now at thirty-eight, her fairy godfather arrives to tell her she’s a witch, and suddenly she's having to come to terms with the uncertainties of an alarmingly magic-fuelled world. Magic is not like it is in the books and films, and Holly starts to doubt whether her fairy godfather, Partridge Mayflower, is the fey, avuncular charmer he appears.

When appearances are magically deceptive, Holly cannot afford to trust those closest to her, including herself. Accidents start to happen, people die, Old Magic is on the hunt, but in the age-old game of cat and mouse, just who is the feline and who is the rodent?