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 The Sea, the Sea

T.R. Napper ❤️ loved this book because...

The Sea, The Sea won the Booker Prize in 1978 and I can see why. It is a compelling, uncomfortable book about a narcistic playwright (Charles Arrowby) who is both obsessive and self-destructive. It’s an uncomfortable read, as well. One of those very rare books that I wanted to put down, not because it was bad, but because the protagonist kept making horrible deluded decisions and I couldn’t stand it anymore.

An absorbing novel.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Emotions
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Iris Murdoch,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Winner of the prestigious Booker Prize-a tale of the strange obsessions that haunt a playwright as he composes his memoirs

Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. None of his plans work out, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of the strange events and unexpected visitors-some real, some spectral-that disrupt his world…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Cold Mountain

T.R. Napper ❤️ loved this book because...

An American Civil War novel that follows Inman, a deserter from the Confederate Army, and Ada, a minister’s daughter who he knew briefly before going to war.

Historical fiction is one of my least favourite genres, but this really blew me away. Perfect prose, descriptions of the wilderness, and character depth. Frazier details the transformative brutality and pointlessness of war, and the desperate longing of love denied.

The final few chapters are both inevitable and breathtaking.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Emotions
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Charles Frazier,

Why should I read it?

13 authors picked Cold Mountain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1997, Charles Frazier’s debut novel Cold Mountain made publishing history when it sailed to the top of The New York Times best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and went on to sell over three million copies. Now, the beloved American epic returns, reissued by Grove Press to coincide with the publication of Frazier’s eagerly-anticipated second novel, Thirteen Moons. Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves.…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Dissolution

T.R. Napper ❤️ loved this book because...

A taut techno-thriller written with compassion and intelligence. This is an intricately plotted and - from a craft perspective - a technically difficult novel to write. And yet, Binge creates a compelling narrative that takes the reader on a page-turning journey through both time and memory.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Story/Plot 🥈 Originality
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Nicholas Binge,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A woman dives into her husband's memories to uncover a decades-old feud threatening reality itself in this staggering technothriller from the bestselling author of Ascension
 
Maggie Webb has lived the last decade caring for elderly husband, Stanley, as memory loss gradually erases all the beautiful moments they created together. It's the loneliest she's ever felt in her life. 
 
When a mysterious stranger named Hassan appears at her door, he reveals a shocking truth: Stanley isn't losing his memories. Someone is actively removing them to hide a long-buried secret from coming to light. If Maggie does what she's told, she can…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Escher Man

By T.R. Napper,

Book cover of The Escher Man

What is my book about?

A cartel enforcer must escape a world of paranoia and violence to save his family in this cerebral and multi-layered cyberpunk science fiction novel. Perfect for fans of William Gibson's The Peripheral, Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon and Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

‘Endgame’ is a violent man, the perfect enforcer. But Endel is also a father and husband, haunted by the memories of his estranged family, and the life they once had. Endel wants them back, and he wants out. But life in the syndicate isn’t one you can simply leave.

Endgame is a violent man. Or is he? In a world where memory manipulation is the weapon of choice for the powerful, Endel can’t tell friends and enemies apart anymore, can’t be sure if he’s a person or a tool.

Trapped in a taut, twisting nightmare, Endel must find a way to escape the labyrinth they’ve made of his mind, and take revenge.

My book recommendation list

Book cover of The Sea, the Sea
Book cover of Cold Mountain
Book cover of Dissolution

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