The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 1,098 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Playground

Nancy Raines Day ❤️ loved this book because...

The descriptions of the underwater diving scenes were so vivid I felt like I was there--without having to don a wetsuit or scuba gear.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Thoughts
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Richard Powers,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A magisterial new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory and Bewilderment.

Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Frozen River

Nancy Raines Day ❤️ loved this book because...

So interesting to read about times before the USA was a country. Not a good time to be a woman!

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Ariel Lawhon,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked The Frozen River as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • AN NPR BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

"Fans of Outlander’s Claire Fraser will enjoy Lawhon’s Martha, who is brave and outspoken when it comes to protecting the innocent. . . impressive."—The Washington Post

"Once again, Lawhon works storytelling magic with a real-life heroine." —People Magazine

Maine, 1789: When…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of North Woods

Nancy Raines Day ❤️ loved this book because...

Such an interesting approach to tell about the same plot of land from first settlers to the future. Loved the way he wove earlier characters into the plot after their demise.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Originality 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Daniel Mason,

Why should I read it?

21 authors picked North Woods as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries—“a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic” (The Washington Post) from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier.

“With the expansiveness and immersive feeling of two-time Booker Prize nominee David Mitchell’s fiction (Cloud Atlas), the wicked creepiness of Edgar Allan Poe, and Mason’s bone-deep knowledge of and appreciation for the natural world that’s on par with that of Thoreau, North Woods fires on all cylinders.”—San Francisco Chronicle

New York…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Piecing Earth and Sky Together

By Nancy Raines Day, Genna Panzarella (illustrator),

Book cover of Piecing Earth and Sky Together

What is my book about?

Like the detailed Mien embroidery in the story, Nancy Raines Day's retelling of this traditional Mien tale and Genna Panzarella's striking illustrations complete each other like the earth and sky. Together, they create a book that is alive with the richness and beauty of the Mien culture and of the earth itself. An author's explanation of the tradition and significance of Mien embroidery follows the story.