My very favorite reads of 2024!
I love looking back over my year to highlight my very favorite reads. Out of the 127 titles I read in 2024, these are the twelve books I loved the most.
Every month I post my favorite reads, and in the spring I posted Six of My Favorite Reads of the Year So Far. Only four of the books from that list made it to my final Favorites list here, which means that in approximately the second half of 2024 I read two-thirds of my favorites of the year. It was a stellar summer and fall of Bossy reading!
If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think!
To check out my favorite reads from prior years, please take a look at My Very Favorite Bossy 2023 Reads, My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads, My Twelve Very Favorite 2021 Reads, and My Twelve Favorite 2020 Books.
What were some of your favorite reads of the year? Let's do some Bossy book talking!
01 Orbital by Samantha Harvey
The luminous novel Orbital tracks six astronauts in the International Space Station for one day as they goggle at the majestic beauty of earth, feel emotional distance from those they've left behind, forge bonds with each other, and reflect on their lives while racing past sixteen sunrises and sunsets.
Samantha Harvey's astronaut-focused novel Orbital traces a single day in the lives of six astronauts orbiting the earth at seventeen thousand miles an hour, clinging to Coordinated Universal Time as they pass through sixteen sunsets and sunrises in twenty-four hours.
Their mission necessitates physical and emotional distance from their typical everyday, earthly concerns, forcing intimacy with their fellow astronauts--their only company, and in close quarters, for many months--and inspiring reflections on life, death, loss, the past, the future, family and loved ones, and purpose.
The story within the space station is emotionally full but quiet plot-wise in contrast to the workings of the typhoon, which the book begins to detail as it unfolds and wreaks destruction across a swath of earth. An occasional omniscient view of the earth, the universe, the past, and the future keeps all in perspective for the reader.
Harvey's language is often luminous and poignant. This is beautiful. For my full review, check out Orbital. You might also like these books set in space.
02 In Memoriam by Alice Winn
Alice Winn's account of the unrelenting slog of World War I and the beautiful young men set against each other in the trenches serves as a backdrop for a tentatively begun, deep love story born in a British boarding school and blossoming amid the cruelties and horrors of battle.
Alice Winn's gorgeous, brutal, captivating historical fiction In Memoriam is set during World War I.
Henry Gaunt, Sydney Ellwood, and their classmates came as young boys to their sometimes claustrophobic, cruel, and lonely English boarding school; now that they're close to the end of their schooling, they are playful, treasuring each other's friendships.
But by 1914, World War I is drawing most of these young boys into a swirl of wartime horrors. They trade their hesitant confidences and youthful search for comfort and affection within an unforgiving school environment for the cruelties of battle.
Characters struggle with vulnerability and to allow feelings to grow, and all is shaped by the constancy of life-and-death danger and the deep-seated fear of destroying a friendship that both young men cling to more deeply than living itself.
In Memoriam is beautiful, frequently painful, and offers a layered, complicated version of happy ever after. I loved this.
I listened to In Memoriam as an audiobook.
For my full review, please see In Memoriam. You might also be interested in these Bossy reviews of books set during World War I.
03 Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
Atul Gawande writes clearly and poignantly about the search to achieve maximum well-being rather than prolonging diminished life at all costs--as well as the many complicating factors that make it difficult to transition to a focus on quality of life.
We've been wrong about what our job is in medicine. We think our job is to ensure health and survival. But really it is larger than that. It is to enable well-being. And well-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive. Those reasons matter not just at the end of life, or when debility comes, but all along the way.
The past century of medical advancements have transformed some grave conditions from death sentences to manageable or curable illnesses.
But the focus on living longer and attempting to move past former limitations of medical solutions sometimes create a difficult dynamic: pursuing additional years of life at any cost sometimes means paying the price by experiencing a dramatically diminished quality of life.
In Being Mortal, surgeon, former Harvard professor, and public health leader (Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID) Atul Gawande explores the successes and failures of the medical field in prolonging a life worth living.
Being Mortal is a beautiful, poignant, clearheaded examination of the intersection of mortality, medicine, dreams, and reality. Gawande emphasizes asking key questions of loved ones to clearly understand their own particular, sometimes surprising lines in the sand regarding quality of life before they are unable to make key decisions for themselves: what are they willing to forgo in order to live?
If you're interested in books about mortality like I am, you might like the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality and Six More Powerful Books about Facing Mortality.
For my full review of this book, please see Being Mortal.
04 Starter Villain by John Scalzi
First: this amazing cover. Second: Starter Villain is playful, darkly funny, big-hearted, and wonderfully weird. I loved it and I can't wait to read more John Scalzi books.
“I can’t tell if you’re joking with me,” I said.
“I’m mostly joking with you.”
“That ‘mostly’ is doing a lot of work in that sentence.”
The cover of Starter Villain shows a grumpy-seeming cat's head on a human torso clad in a suit with "Meet the new boss" across the top, so obviously this was going to be a Bossy read. And I love that this is my first review of 2024. Bring on the weird and wonderful books!
In Starter Villain, Charlie's a substitute teacher, divorced, struggling emotionally, socially, and financially, and living in a house his half-siblings want to sell. Then he inherits his long-lost uncle's parking-garage empire. Which turns out to be a cover for a vast supervillain business--complete with an evil lair in an island volcano.
Could this be an unexpected new start that will point Charlie in a productive new direction?
The recently deceased Uncle Jake, an old-fashioned villain, made a lot of enemies--and they're ruthless, well-funded, and out for revenge. Charlie will have to quickly get up to speed and figure out friend from foe in order to stay alive. This villain business is more complicated than it seems.
There's crossing, double-crossing, a wonderfully savvy and knowledgeable second-in-command, nefarious plots, sentient cats, and more. This was playful, smart, funny, and weird.
Click here for my full review of Starter Villain. If you like offbeat stories, you might check out my Bossy reviews of these books.
05 Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
In Beautyland, Bertino offers a poignant, funny, strange story full of extraterrestrial observations of humans and their behavior that ring true. This was odd and lovely.
Adina is born on Earth just as Voyager 1 launches into space. Her mother is a street-smart, scrabbling single parent, while Adina is an unusually perceptive child--with knowledge of another planet, a vivid nighttime school she attends in her mind, and faraway extraterrestrial relatives who have asked for her observations about humans and life on earth--which she provides by sending them her reflections through an otherworldly fax machine.
The reader is privy to Adina's many missives to her extraterrestrial family--and their often-terse replies to her. She feels caught between existences, and the book pulls to a powerful but understated end in which this push and pull is resolved.
I found myself torn throughout reading this; was Adina a character struggling with mental illness and imagining her superiors' replies, or was she truly an alien in a human "shell"? I believed in the latter, but establishing the definitive truth of the situation didn't ultimately matter deeply to me: Adina's eyes offered a beautiful, odd, lovely peek at human behavior, and her observations were just wonderful.
For my full review, check out Beautyland. If you like this book, you might also be interested in the books on my Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Robots, Humans and Alien Life, and AI.
06 Funny Story by Emily Henry
Funny Story is the perfect rom-com read. Henry offers funny banter that made me laugh, some steamy moments, and a sweet love story. Reading this one made me happy.
When Peter abruptly breaks up with Daphne, citing his sudden love for his childhood best friend Petra, Daphne is left emotionally reeling--and without a place to live.
Desperate and devastated, she reluctantly moves into a spare room in the apartment of an acquaintance, "pothead" Miles. He has extra space because he was just dumped by his live-in girlfriend Petra. Who left him for Daphne's fiancé, Peter.
This is exxxxcellent Emily Henry. The banter is fantastic, and I laughed many times while reading this one. There's steaminess and affection and character growth. No one is perfect, no one is swooning, and the love in this happy read is immensely satisfying.
The rom-com conflict that prevents an immediate happy resolution was based on a communication fail--a setup I usually detest, because: just talk to each other!--but this one was so well done and understandable from both sides, I was hook, line, and sinker for all of it.
Henry offers up lots of book love, as usual: Daphne is a dedicated children's librarian.
I listened to Funny Story as an audiobook (narrated by the fantastic Julia Whelan).
For my full review of this book, please see Funny Story. And you can check out Bossy reviews of other rom-com novels here.
07 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
This captivating story involves time travel, but it's primarily about deep human connections, complete with fantastic, funny banter; awkward adjustments to the time period; and love and deep heartbreak. The ending is wonderful.
In a world of the near future, a young (unnamed) woman is one of several civil servants offered a mysterious job: she'll be a handler for expats--and paid very handsomely for her work.
But the expats the government is gathering aren't necessarily from another country. They're from other times in history.
The main protagonist's focus in her work is Commander Graham Gore (a character based upon a real figure from history), who has been whisked from a desperately failed expedition in 1847 to the book's future setting.
In order to be a "bridge" for Gore between his past and the present, she'll have to explain why she's showing so much skin, why it's not healthy to smoke all day, and what a washing machine is.
But the bridge and her client are building bonds deeper than either could have imagined; the love story between the bridge and Gore is strange, heartwarming, steamy, fraught, and just lovely.
For my full review, please see The Ministry of Time. For a slew of other novels that play with time, please check out this link.
08 Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Sandwich is beautifully wrought story of complications and familial adoration from Catherine Newman, with the unapologetically contradictory and menopausal Rocky at the heart of the messy, wonderful extended family.
Rocky's family has been vacationing in Cape Cod for twenty years. She's built years of happy memories in their low-key beach house rental.
This year, she's sandwiched between her half-grown children and her aging parents. And the carefree vacations of the past feel light years away, because Rocky's menopausal rage threatens to undo any joy she might gain from spending time in her favorite place.
To save their treasured family time together, Rocky may have to share secrets she never intended to reveal.
Sandwich made me laugh, twisted my heart, and kept me interested throughout. I just adored all of the heart and humor in Sandwich.
Catherine Newman is also the author of other books I love: We All Want Impossible Things, Waiting for Birdy, and How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn Before You're Grown Up.
For my full review of this book, please see Sandwich.
09 You Are Here by David Nicholls
David Nicholls's characters, some of whom are strangers to each other, meander through the English countryside on a days-long jaunt--and along the way allow long-held vulnerabilities to fall away in this beautiful, heartbreaking, heartwarming story.
In David Nicholls's You Are Here, a small group of Sophie's friends, along with her teenage son, assemble to "walk" (hike) through the hills and moors of northern England for several days.
After meeting for the first time, Michael, a recently divorced teacher, studious and thoughtful, and Marnie, a playful copy editor who prefers solitude after her own divorce, fall into a companionable rhythm and, to their surprise, begin to seek out each other's company in an extended hike toward the coast.
We see the disconnect between Marnie and Michael's inner selves and their unsure, sometimes awkward acts and words, and it's deliciously heartbreaking to be privy to their insecurities and fears as well as their soaring hopes--and their crushing attempts to reign them in, in case their feelings aren't reciprocated and their fragile hearts can't take another round of loss.
I loved this literary fiction--the increasing vulnerability and search for connection after heartache, the vivid descriptions of English countryside, and the small moments that mean everything.
Click here for my full review of You Are Here.
10 The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
I loved this summer-camp setting, the slow build of mystery in two timelines, the privilege and working class disparities, the eventual revelations concerning the disappearances of both Van Lear children, and the beautifully wrought tragedy and redemption.
In August 1975, a teenage girl disappears from her Adirondack summer camp.
But the girl isn't just any camper. She's Barbara Van Lear, the daughter of the owners of the camp where many local residents work.
Oddly, her brother Bear, beloved by all who knew him, disappeared fourteen years earlier. He was never found.
A frantic search takes place, and as the locals look for Barbara, various Van Lear secrets come to light. The split between the largely blue-collar area and the privileged Van Lear family is shown to be stark and significant.
I love love love a summer-camp story, and I loved The God of the Woods.
I was intrigued by the mysteries and their layers, which are continually revealed, and while I usually feel more invested in one timeline over another, with The God of the Woods, I was equally interested in both timelines.
Liz Moore is also the author of Long Bright River as well as Heft and The Unseen World. For my full review of this book, please see The God of the Woods.
11 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Intermezzo is one of my favorite Rooney novels yet, exploring complicated families, grief, unconventional relationships, forgiveness, and possibilities that once seemed impossible.
In the wake of their father's death, two brothers reel from the loss in his own way. They clash, hurt each other deeply, and wonder if they can ever reconcile.
The men's methods of coping with their grief often test the line between hopelessness and possibility. Each of their romantic relationships is unconventional, and various players involved struggle to let go of societal expectations in favor or what feels real and meaningful and what makes them happy.
Through it all, both Ivan and Peter are repeatedly forced to consider their place in the world and what the future might hold.
I'm such a greedy reader, it's been a while since I've slowed down to savor a book the way I felt compelled to do while reading Intermezzo. I was invested in the characters and their messy methods of coming to terms with death and with seizing control of their own lives.
The prose in Intermezzo is gorgeous and often feels poetic--in fact, many of the notes in the back matter credit poems as the source of some of the references on these pages.
Rooney is also the author of Normal People, Conversations with Friends, and Beautiful World, Where Are You.
Please click here to see my full review of Intermezzo.
12 Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
Ina's memoir is personal and thoughtful. Her charm comes through in candid reflections about her fascinating life, and her young life's adventures and missteps are as intriguing as the accounts of her eventual success.
Ina Garten, often called by the name of her former specialty food shop in the Hamptons (and television show), Barefoot Contessa, offers a personal, charming memoir in Be Ready When the Luck Happens.
Ina shares her life story, beginning with a difficult, abusive childhood, continuing to her marriage to Jeffrey while she was still in college, to her government job writing the nuclear energy budget and policy papers under President Ford and President Carter, then a flight of fancy that changed everything when she bought and learned to run the Hamptons store Barefoot Contessa--necessitating extended time apart from Jeffrey and, eventually, a very real scare that the relationship wouldn't survive.
I looked forward to getting back to this book each time I could, and I was as charmed by Ina's guileless storytelling as by her blend of delightful spontaneity, creativity, practicality, and stubbornness.
I listened to Be Ready When the Luck Happens as an audiobook. Click here for my full review of Be Ready When the Luck Happens.
And for a bajillion other Bossy memoir reviews, check out the titles at this link.
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