The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 765 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Tomás Nevinson

Stephen Amidon ❤️ loved this book because...

A spy story with a heart. A secret agent is sent to a small city to assassinate a woman who was once a terrorist, but there's one snag - he must choose the right one among three different suspects. (The other two are innocent). His mission gets increasingly complicated when he develops relationships with each of his potential targets while performing his due diligence. The last novel by the great Spanish novelist Javier Marías.

  • Loved Most

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

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Javier Marías, Margaret Jull Costa (translator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The final novel from Spain's most acclaimed writer, a novel about a charismatic half-Spanish, half-English man who is recruited by British intelligence • “Marías’s best work.” —El País

“Compelling, hypnotic, and exciting at the same time.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

Retired spy Tomás Nevinson—once an agent for the British Secret Service, now living a quiet life in his hometown, Madrid—is approached by his former handler, Bertram Tupra, with an offer to bring him back in from the cold for one last assignment.

The mission: to go undercover again, in a small Spanish town, to find out which of three…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Vernon Subutex 1

Stephen Amidon ❤️ loved this book because...

The trilogy by Parisian novelist Virginie Despentes seems to have an unpromising premise - a record shop owner loses his business and his home and is forced to wander the streets of Paris in search of redemption. But through an accumulation of comic detail, varied characters, and a mesmerizingly acerbic style, the three novels blossom into an Homeric epic than threatens to capture all of contemporary France.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Virginie Despentes, Frank Wynne (translator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From the provocative writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes comes volume one of her acclaimed trilogy of novels, Vernon Subutex―short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize and the basis for the TV series of the same name. But who is Vernon Subutex?

Vernon Subutex was once the proprietor of Revolver, an infamous music shop in Paris, where his name was legend throughout Paris. By the 2000s, however, with the arrival of the internet and the decline in CD and vinyl sales, his shop is struggling, like so many others. When it closes, Subutex finds himself with nowhere to go and nothing…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of The Ghost

Stephen Amidon ❤️ loved this book because...

Angleton, the long-serving director of counterespionage for the CIA, may not be a household name, but he is one of the pivotal characters of the Cold War. A Yale-educated poet who rubbed shoulders with Pound and Elliot, be joined the agency in its early days, rising through the ranks to become its most powerful figure. His incessant search for moles eventually drove him into a state of paranoia verging on insanity, but not before he had done untold damage to countless suspects. A brilliant and disturbing study of the corrupting ability of power.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Jefferson Morley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Ghost 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 the strangest CIA chief who ever lived." - Tim Weiner, National Book Award-winning author of Legacy of Ashes

A revelatory new biography of the sinister, powerful, and paranoid man at the heart of the CIA for more than three tumultuous decades.

CIA spymaster James Jesus Angleton was one of the most powerful unelected officials in the United States government in the mid-20th century, a ghost of American power. From World War II to the Cold War, Angleton operated beyond the view of the public, Congress, and even the president. He unwittingly shared intelligence secrets…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Locust Lane: A Novel

By Stephen Amidon,

Book cover of Locust Lane: A Novel

What is my book about?

On the surface, Emerson, Massachusetts, is just like any other affluent New England suburb. But when a young woman is found dead in the nicest part of town, the powerful neighbors close ranks to keep their families safe. In this searing novel, Eden Perry’s death kicks off an investigation into the three teenagers who were partying with her that night, each a suspect. Hannah, a sweet girl with an unstable history. Jack, the popular kid with a mean streak. Christopher, an outsider desperate to fit in. Their parents, each with motivations of their own, only complicate the picture: they will do anything to protect their children, even at the others’ expense.