The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 1,588 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of James Baldwin: Collected Essays

Richard Goodman ❤️ loved this book because...

Baldwin is, I believe, our best essayist. His work stands the test of time and always will. Here you have a writer who can combines heart and brain gracefully and with great humanity.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Teach 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Toni Morrison

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked James Baldwin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

James Baldwin was a uniquely prophetic voice in American letters. His brilliant and provocative essays made him the literary voice of the Civil Rights Era, and they continue to speak with powerful urgency to us today, whether in the swirling debate over the Black Lives Matter movement or in the words of Raoul Peck's documentary "I Am Not Your Negro." Edited by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, the Library of America's Collected Essays is the most comprehensive gathering of Baldwin's nonfiction ever published.

With burning passion and jabbing, epigrammatic wit, Baldwin fearlessly articulated issues of race and democracy and American identity…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York

Richard Goodman ❤️ loved this book because...

I lived in New York City for thirty-five years. I devour books about what I now consider as my home.--no matter where I live. Sante's book cover the waterfront--literally. It's a delightful compendium of the strange, weird, colorful and somehow beguiling criminals, hucksters, con artists and sundry denizens of New York's underworld.

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    🥇 Teach 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Luc Sante,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Low Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Lucy Sante's Low Life is a portrait of America's greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity.

This is not the familiar saga of mansions, avenues, and robber barons, but the messy, turbulent, often murderous story of the city's slums; the teeming streets--scene of innumerable cons and crimes whose cramped and overcrowded housing is still a prominent feature of the cityscape.

Low Life voyages through Manhattan from four different directions. Part One examines the actual topography of Manhattan from 1840 to 1919; Part Two, the era's opportunities for vice and entertainment--theaters and saloons, opium and cocaine dens, gambling…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago

Richard Goodman ❤️ loved this book because...

My wife and I lived in Chicago this summer, and I wanted to educate myself about its past. You can't say you truly know about Chicago if you don't know a thing or two about one of its most powerful and memorable mayors, Richard J. Daley. You can't get a better guide than Mike Royko to tell that fascinating story.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Mike Royko,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"The best book ever written about an American city, by the best journalist of his time."- Jimmy Breslin

New edition of the classic story of the late Richard J. Daley, politician and self-promoter extraordinaire, from his inauspicious youth on Chicago's South Side through his rapid climb to the seat of power as mayor and boss of the Democratic Party machine. A bare-all account of Daley's cardinal sins as well as his milestone achievements, this scathing work by Chicago journalist Mike Royko brings to life the most powerful political figure of his time: his laissez-faire policy toward corruption, his unique brand…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France

By Richard Goodman,

Book cover of French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France

What is my book about?

A story about dirt - and about sun, water, work, elation, and defeat. And about the sublime pleasure of having a little piece of French land in a small village outside of time in the South of France all to oneself to garden. Most of all, it's about the slow-growing friendship between an outsider and a close-knit community of French farmers.

Book cover of James Baldwin: Collected Essays
Book cover of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York
Book cover of Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago

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