The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 796 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Penny Lane ❤️ loved this book because...

I loved learning about Jewish settlers and how they assimilated into American life.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By James McBride,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.” —Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review

“We all need—we all deserve—this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir

Penny Lane ❤️ loved this book because...

I loved this book because as a poet, Ms. Smith could beautifully describe the deep feelings of betrayal, hurt and love in a way that I have never heard before.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Emotions 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Maggie Smith,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked You Could Make This Place Beautiful as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"[Smith]...reminds you that you can...survive deep loss, sink into life's deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new." -Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author

The bestselling poet and author of the "powerful" (People) and "luminous" (Newsweek) Keep Moving offers a lush and heartrending memoir exploring coming of age in your middle age.

"Life, like a poem, is a series of choices."

In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma

Penny Lane ❤️ loved this book because...

I loved this book because it was sobering and very close to home. She is a local author writing about how prevalent, even normal child abuse was growing up in the immigrant population in San Jose, CA in the last twenty years.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Teach 🥈 Thoughts
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Stephanie Foo,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked What My Bones Know as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life

“Achingly exquisite . . . providing real hope for those who long to heal.”—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, NPR, Mashable, She Reads, Publishers Weekly

By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Book cover of Redeemed: A Memoir of a Stolen Childhood

What is my book about?

This book is a rise-from-the-ashes hero’s story of overcoming abuse, trauma, and unbearable odds, of being waylaid by both family and religion’s promise of love, and harnessing the resilience to find the way home.

It offers a rare window into Eastern European immigrant culture and reads like a page-turning thriller. Especially relevant today, a time when marginalized people are finally finding a voice, this memoir will serve as an inspiration to people everywhere, encouraging them to overcome their obstacles and achieve their dreams.