The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 1,190 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Fresh Water for Flowers

Kymberly Dakin-Neal ❤️ loved this book because...

Perrin' creates a world that is lyrical, emotionally taut and surprisingly suspenseful. It gained momentum for me after the first few chapters. One of the best books I've read in a very long time!

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Valérie Perrin, Hildegarde Serle (translator),

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Fresh Water for Flowers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF SUMMER 2021
A 2020 INDIES INTRODUCE & INDIE NEXT LIST PICK

A #1 international best-seller, Fresh Water for Flowers is an intimately told story about a woman who defiantly believes in happiness, despite it all.

Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Her life is lived to the predictable rhythms of the often funny, always moving confidences that casual mourners, regular visitors, and sundry colleagues share with her. Violette’s routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of Julien Sole—local police chief—who has come to scatter…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters

Kymberly Dakin-Neal ❤️ loved this book because...

The stories Parker spools out to exemplify her very compelling concepts!

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Outlook 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Priya Parker,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"Hosts of all kinds, this is a must-read!" --Chris Anderson, owner and curator of TED
 
From the host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart, an exciting new approach to how we gather that will transform the ways we spend our time together—at home, at work, in our communities, and beyond.

In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive--which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

Kymberly Dakin-Neal ❤️ loved this book because...

Brooks is a terrific storyteller - and these stories are filled with compassion and heart. He does not position himself as an expert and shares his own vulnerability and learnings.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Writing 🥈 Thoughts
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By David Brooks,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked How to Know a Person as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A practical, heartfelt guide to the art of truly knowing another person in order to foster deeper connections at home, at work, and throughout our lives—from the author of The Road to Character and The Second Mountain

As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.”

And yet we humans don’t do this well. All around us…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Head, Heart, and Hands Listening in Coach Practice: The Listening Coach

By Kymberly Dakin-Neal,

Book cover of Head, Heart, and Hands Listening in Coach Practice: The Listening Coach

What is my book about?

My award-winning book is about how we listen, what we listen for, why it matters, and how to do it better. Accessible and applicable, it explores the three listening modalities of head, heart, and hands as active, though largely unconscious, lenses that inform the potency of our listening. 

I have filled this book with case studies, compelling true stories, refreshing personal discoveries, and hands-on activities to make the concepts easy and intriguing to apply. If you are a coach, counselor or therapist, salesperson, medical professional, caregiver, or teacher, you Listen for a Living. This book is designed for you. Reading this book might transform your next important conversation.

Book cover of Fresh Water for Flowers
Book cover of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters
Book cover of How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

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