The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 736 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Pomegranate

Leigh Goodmark ❤️ loved this book because...

Ranita (the main character) reminded me of the women that I represent. Despite the many, many barriers created for them by addiction and incarceration, these women are strong, resilient, empathetic, and funny. I loved being able to root for Ranita the way I root for my own clients.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Helen Elaine Lee,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"A remarkable feat of literary conjuration." -Jennifer Haigh, nationally bestselling author of Mercy Street

The acclaimed author of The Serpent's Gift returns with this gripping and powerful novel of healing, redemption, and love, following a queer Black woman who works to stay clean, pull her life together, and heal after being released from prison.

Ranita Atwater is "getting short."

She is almost done with her four-year sentence for opiate possession at Oak Hills Correctional Center. With three years of sobriety, she is determined to stay clean and regain custody of her two children.

My name is Ranita, and I'm an…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Starter Villain

Leigh Goodmark ❤️ loved this book because...

Sardonic humor, reminiscent of Douglas Adams, a plot you can lose yourself in entirely--Starter Villain ticked so many boxes for me. It's a fantastically fun read.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Originality
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By John Scalzi,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Locus and Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi brings us a turbo-charged tale of a family business with a difference - as Charlie discovers when he inherits it. This one comes with a hidden headquarters, minions, talking cats and James Bond-like supervillain rivals.

'Starter Villain establishes Scalzi as SF's leading humourist' - SFX

Warning: supervillain in training. Risk of world domination.

Inheriting his late uncle's business proves complicated. It's also way more dangerous than Charlie could ever have imagined. Because his uncle had kept his supervillain status a secret - until now.

Divorced and emotionally dependent on his cat, Charlie wasn't…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Be My Baby: A Memoir

Leigh Goodmark ❤️ loved this book because...

Every Christmas, I get a huge stack of celebrity memoirs as a gift. Between Christmas and New Year's, all I read is celebrity memoirs. This one is fantastic. Ronnie Spector's voice is so clear and engaging that you feel like you're experiencing her rise with her. The book is undeniably wrenching but even in her worst moments, Ronnie Spector's spirit shines so brightly through. Her story is a window into any number of topics--girl group dynamics, domestic violence, the music of 60s, even the Beatles--and it's a wonderful read.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Emotions 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Ronnie Spector, Vince Waldron,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Be My Baby as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the greatest rock memoirs of all time, Be My Baby is the true story of how Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Ronnie Spector carved out a space for herself against tremendous odds amid the chaos of the 1960s music scene and beyond.

With an introduction by Keith Richards and a new epilogue from Ronnie.

Ronnie Spector's first collaboration with producer Phil Spector, 'Be My Baby', stunned the world and shot girl group The Ronettes to stardom. No one could sing as clearly, as emotively as Ronnie. But her voice was soon…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism

By Leigh Goodmark,

Book cover of Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism

What is my book about?

Since the 1970s, anti-violence advocates have worked to make the legal system more responsive to gender-based violence. But greater state intervention in cases of intimate partner violence, rape, sexual assault, and trafficking has led to the arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration of victims, particularly women of color and trans and gender-nonconforming people. Imperfect Victims argues that only dismantling the system will bring that punishment to an end.

Amplifying the voices of survivors, including her own clients, abolitionist law professor Leigh Goodmark deftly guides readers on a step-by-step journey through the criminalization of survival. Abolition feminism reveals the possibility of a just world beyond the carceral state, which is fundamentally unable to respond to, let alone remedy, harm. As Imperfect Victims shows, abolition feminism is the only politics and practice that can undo the indescribable damage inflicted on survivors by the very system purporting to protect them.