The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 1,206 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation

Judith Cutler ❤️ loved this book because...

Despite the charming squirrels cavorting on the cover, this is not a cosy book about cuddly animals. It's a clear-eyed look at what we need to do to preserve our endangered species from the dangers caused by more successful ones.

It's a scholarly investigation of if and when it's necessary to kill some animals in the interest of others' survival. Warwick himself clearly found some of his extensive research hard to stomach. It is a challenging, compelling book written in language any layperson can understand. It's a must-read.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Thoughts 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Hugh Warwick,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cull of the Wild as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Investigating the ethical and practical challenges of one of the greatest threats to biodiversity: invasive species. Across the world, invasive species pose a danger to ecosystems. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity ranks them as a major threat to biodiversity on par with habitat loss, climate change and pollution. Tackling this isn't easy, and no one knows this better than Hugh Warwick, a conservationist who loathes the idea of killing, harming or even eating animals. Yet as an ecologist, he is acutely aware of the need, at times, to kill invasive species whose presence harms the wider environment. Hugh explores…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Silence of the Girls

Judith Cutler ❤️ loved this book because...

It turns the notion of heroism during the Trojan wars on its head - because it's seen through the eyes of a woman, Queen Briseis. It's got two wonderful follow-ups,. The Women of Troy and The Voyage Home. What a writer!

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Originality
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Pat Barker,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked The Silence of the Girls as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY

'Chilling, powerful, audacious' The Times

'Magnificent. You are in the hands of a writer at the height of her powers' Evening Standard

There was a woman at the heart of the Trojan War whose voice has been silent - until now. Discover the greatest Greek myth of all - retold by the witness that history forgot . . .

Briseis was a queen until her city was destroyed. Now she is a slave to the man who butchered her husband and brothers. Trapped in a world defined by men, can she survive…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Murder in Transit

Judith Cutler ❤️ loved this book because...

I'm sure you all know that famous line from "Jane Eyre": reader I married him. Well, I happen to be married too, Not a man who kept his mad wife in the attic. I'm married to another novelist, Edward Marston, the crime writer. He describes himself as the Dickens to my George Eliot - now, what a household those two would have made! I love his Railway Detective series, which takes his protagonists all over England.

Here they are in Hampshire. Guess who is in residence in Osborne House, just across the Solent on the Isle of White? In a house designed by none other than Prince Albert?

Spoiler alert: Detective Inspector Colbeck gets his man!

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Story/Plot
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Edward Marston,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Murder in Transit as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

1866. On a train bound for Portsmouth, an elegant woman shares a first-class compartment with a gentleman in a celebratory mood. Giles Blanchard reveals his lecherous side as the journey gets underway, but he will never reach his home on the Isle of Wight alive. This chance encounter is to prove fortuitous for the woman and her partner-in-crime. They find themselves not only the richer for picking the dead man's pocket, they also now possess the material for an extremely lucrative blackmail.

Detective Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are swiftly dispatched to sift through the evidence. They are all too…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Come To Harm

By Judith Cutler,

Book cover of Come To Harm

What is my book about?

The first in a series featuring Detective Chief Superintendent Fran Harman - not your average senior officer. She's given everything to rise to the top. She's menopausal, overworked - and the only one who can crack a seemingly insoluble case.

Book cover of Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation
Book cover of The Silence of the Girls
Book cover of Murder in Transit

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