My Favorite Books of 2024: Less Books Read but More 5-Stars

Here is my annual list of my BEST books of the year. I read 50 this year and LOVED 25. That’s a pretty good “hit rate”. I’m still trolling the Daily Deals list on Kindle but also springing for full priced books when I get a great recommendation.

Note: I read less books this year than usual for one reason. The purchase of a sound machine! We’ve seen increased heavy truck traffic on the road north of San Pedro this year – especially in the early morning hours (as early as 3am)

About 6 months ago, I bought a sound machine to try to avoid getting up at 3am when the first truck rattles and shifts at the curve behind our house. I was unsure about the $40US investment but THEY TOTALLY WORK. I now have a home sound machine and a traveling sound machine. And they put both of us to sleep FAST. Total game changers.

Note: My ideal book is a gripping novel, usually with a female lead character, that takes place in another part of the world and/or time period (I seem to be drawn to the Middle East – Iran in particular – or Asia – India or China). So, while I’m reading a great story, I also learn a bit about a period or culture that I know little about – like the Japanese occupation of Korea in the early 1900s or the binding of women’s feet in China or the Iranian revolution in 1979.

After a dense, long novel, I also love a thriller/good, snappy crime mystery novel: Daniel Silva, Dennis Lehane and sometimes Harlan Coben are favorites.

Here are my 5-Star Books of 2024. I’ll list my VERY favorite DOZEN first and in more detail but I loved them all.

And if you are interested, here are my previous years lists: 2023, 2022, 2021 (forgotten for some reason?) and 2020

Please please please comment below with books you loved this year…I buy many of these because you guys (or other friends) recommend them. I love book shares.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

The British government is working on time travel. And they are testing their new technology with a handful of folks who died in past centuries. The main character is tasked with living with and orienting an Arctic explorer and sea captain from 1847. It’s a bit of romance and science fiction and a thriller…and I loved it.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

I found this one hard to put down. A teenager, the daughter of a wealthy and mysterious family, disappears at a summer camp deep in the Adirondacks of Upstate New York. We find out that her brother disappeared 14 years earlier on the same property. This book takes you into the woods and the lives of the counselors and the young, female local junior police investigator trying to figure out very deeply-hidden family secrets. It’s fantastic.

This Motherless Land by Nikki May

Funke lives in Lagos. Her mom is British and fun and artsy, and her dad is a Nigerian professor. After a horrible accident, she is sent to England to live with her cold British aunt and grandmother. Thankfully, she has her cousin Liv…

You follow her and Liv, growing up the closest of friends…sisters…it’s such a great read.

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

This book reminded me of one of my all-time favorites, The Kite Runner. It’s THAT emotional. Two friends, young girls from “different sides of the track”, growing up in Iran before the revolution and after. It’s an unlikely friendship that changes drastically as the country changes from one of freedom and beauty to oppression and terror. One wants to fit in…one wants to fight the severe oppression and war against women.

Real Americans by Rachel Khong

This book is broken up into three parts following a mother and Chinese immigrant to the US, her daughter (Lily, the main character) and Lily’s son her rich, WASP-y husband(in 2030). Each section is better than the last as they are woven together to reveal the larger story about family secrets and misunderstandings, race and culture. I really loved this book.

The Woman by Kristin Hannah

Frankie is a San Diego debutante who wants more from life. She’s inspired to sign as a nurse-trainee for the army and is shipped to the Vietnam War. She has no clue what she is getting into. I didn’t either. I’ve seen the Born on the 4th of July and Platoon movies about this era, but from a young woman’s point of view in this very, very readable novel and really interesting…I was totally hooked. There are a few slower bits but man…catastrophe after tragedy…I got very invested in these characters.

How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair

This is a beautiful memoir about a young girl growing up in Jamaica in a strict, very conservative Rastafarian-sect household where the father is all-powerful, and the woman cooks clean, tends to the kids, and keeps their mouths shut. It’s so beautifully written and eye opening and a very different look at Jamaica (and it could be any Caribbean island or even Belize) from the one seen in tourism brochures. Made me dig deeper into the history and tenets of Rastafarianism.

We all Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

This is the most beautiful book about friendship I’ve ever read (or at least think of right now) Edith and Ashley have been BEST friends for over 40 years and now Edi is dying from ovarian cancer. This is a funny, beautiful, heartbreaking and really funny (I said that, right?) novel about her final weeks in hospice. THAT DOESN’T SOUND GOOD! But it’s such a beautiful story of loving your friend when everything seems to be falling apart.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez

I got really invested in the art world, class, and a main character. There are lots of serious themes, but on top of that, it’s a great novel about a young, funky Cuban-American artist figuring out her way in the art world (while trying to sort through a forgotten murder) with all its older-European-man-centric snobbiness.

Embassy Wife by Katie Crouch: Persephone kinda gets dragged along to Namibia as the wife of a junior diplomat. There is a TON to figure out about her new home…servants, eating strange foods and animals, the heat, the odd diplomat life. (I love “expat life” books) She also suspects that her husband is a CIA operative…though he’s up to something even more interesting…

A Northern Light in Provence by Elizabeth Birkelund: A woman leaves her life in coastal Greenland to translate for an older poet in a village in France. I felt like I visited both places and I love that. I’ll use the words charming and enchanting. Corny but true.

The Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar

This was my last book of the year – I grabbed it last minute when recommended by my bestie from high school. In early 1990s, in this part of Southern India, a daughter is a curse. This book jumps back and forth from this time to modern day Sydney, Australia and if you loved Abraham Verghese’s books like I did…especially Cutting for Stone, I think you’ll love this powerful, beautiful book. (And if you haven’t read Cutting for Stone, I’m jealous!)

• Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (fantastic thriller set in 1970s South Boston as they are trying to integrate schools)
• also by Dennis Lehane, Shutter Island: It’s the 1950s and two US Marshalls arrive on a tiny island off the coast of Mass to investigate a Federal Prison for the Criminally insane. I keep meaning to watch the movie with DiCaprio (I’m too busy reading!)
• We Are Water by Wally Lamb.Wally Lamb wrote one of my favorite books of all time: She’s Come Undone. This one is not that,but it’s pretty f-ing great.
• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters: A native family comes to rural Maine in the 1960s to pick blueberries and their 6-year old daughter disappears. Her older brother is the last one to see her…
• The Collector by Daniel Silva: This is from a series (this book is #23!) about a legendary art restorer and Israeli spy…I’ve read about 5 so far and they are great political thrillers that take me all over the world…and deep into the world of fine art. Travel and art! Two of my favorite things.
• The Kingdom of Prep: The Inside Story of the Rise and (Near) Fall of J.Crew by Maggie Bullock: I’ve been a big fan of JCrew since getting their beloved catalogs in the mail. I found this SUPER interesting. It’s also my only Non-Fiction book on the list.
• And the Mountains Echoed by Khalid Hosseini All of his books, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid suns…rip your heart out…in the best way. Love.
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys: This short book was written in 1966, and I had to order it in hard copy (not on Kindle). It’s a precursor to one of my favorite books ever—one I’ve read about 10 times—Jane Eyre. It’s the story of the woman in the attic. It’s very moody and satisfying.
• After Annie by Anna Quindlen: Annie Brown dies suddenly leaving her 4 kids, her best friend and her husband reeling. This is a beautiful story about Annie and…her family and bestie trying to figure it out.
• I LOVED these two books about very relatable young women in their early 20s trying to figure it out -and all the modern challenges that get in the way. From working on OnlyFans while having a newborn baby in Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rupi Thrope…to getting a job as a comments moderator on a news site and having an affair with a married man in Green Dot By Madeline Gray