The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 325 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024…

Book cover of Life Span: Impressions of a Lifetime Spent Crossing and Recrossing the Golden Gate Bridge

Mark Greenside I ❤️ loved this book because...

The pacing of the story. The author's honesty, bravery. The life lead and imagined and grown into. The story does span a life and does bridge from childhood to 80s. And, as always, Giles is a witty, perceptive, generous--and sometimes nasty--writer.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Thoughts 🥈 Originality
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Molly Giles,

Why should I read it?

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


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024…

Book cover of The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City

Mark Greenside I ❤️ loved this book because...

It's about baseball--from the early days until now and baseball's association with NYC. The characters and history were fascinating and often hilarious.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Kevin Baker,

Why should I read it?

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


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My 3rd favorite read in 2024…

Book cover of The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time; A Memoir

Mark Greenside I ❤️ loved this book because...

Fascinating story about an American woman starting, maintaining, and succeeding with a French cooking school in Paris. Good descriptions of work/working in France and rules and regulations and difficulties of accomplishing anything

  • Loved Most

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

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Book cover of I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do)

What is my book about?

In a story that stands above the throngs of travel memoirs, full of gorgeous descriptions of Brittany and at times hysterical encounters with the locals, Mark Greenside describes his initially reluctant travels in this "heartwarming story" (San Francisco Chronicle) where he discovers a second life.

When Mark Greenside-a native New Yorker living in California, political lefty, writer, and lifelong skeptic-is dragged by his girlfriend to a tiny Celtic village in Brittany at the westernmost edge of France in Finistere, or what he describes as "the end of the world," his life begins to change.