Books I Loved in 2024

I'm all about sharing my favorite reads of the year

Things that Make me Happy! Is a newsletter with recommendations and links for the cozy introvert. If you liked this issue, click on the heart button! That’s the biggest praise you can give me. You can also buy me coffee here if you’d like.

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Hi there, friends! I want to share with you my reading highlights of the year, a wrapped report, if you will (how original of me!!)

If I had to choose a word to describe my reading in 2024, it would be obsessive. I’ve never read (and savored) so many books in a calendar year.

Since deleting most of my social media, I have had so much time to read. I’m also coupling reading with things that give me joy, so I’m lighting that expensive candle, making that fancy tea, and eating the yummy Trader Joe’s cookies. It's a LITERAL RELAXING DREAM.

I want to share the books that I enjoyed the most this year. I’m a mood reader, save this note and grab one of these when the right mood strikes.

Ok, let’s go

1. If you are interested in dipping your toes in fantasy but you don’t want a full-fledged world-building situation.

Magical realism is a genre I enjoy (reflected in how many of these books I read and loved this year). This genre is rooted in reality, but the story has some fantastical elements.

• My absolute favorite read of this genre this year was The Seventh Veil of Salome, a retelling of the Salome story in the Bible and a story about the making of the Salome movie adaptation in 1950s Hollywood.

• The Husbands, where a narrator keeps getting new husbands from the attic.

• Zero Stars Do not Recommend is about several people on a resort in the Caribbean finding out that the sun has disappeared and the world is ending.

• Expiration Dates a book that tells the story of a woman who receives a note every time she starts dating someone with the expiration date of the relationship.

• Anita de Monte Laughs Last is another banger based on Ana Mendieta's true crime story, with a twist.

2. When you want to participate in the social discourse, but you also want to enjoy your read.

These are lit girl books that got a lot of buzz. This curation is perfect for when you want to dive into something with “substance”, but it’s also highly readable and enjoyable.

• The star of this section was, without a doubt, Big Swiss, in which a transcriber for a sex therapist in a small town recognizes a patient's voice she’s been obsessed with and engages with them in real life.

• Miranda July’s All Fours - enough has been said about this book.

• Long Island Compromise is about a wealthy Jewish-American family in Long Island whose lives are impacted by the kidnapping of their patriarch.

• The Winner was such a delight: a self-made lawyer in training gets a job as a Tennis instructor in a wealthy coastal town.

• Green Dot is a coming-of-age novel about a 24-year-old woman who has an affair with her married boss.

• My Husband tells the story of a woman who becomes obsessed with her husband and is convinced he is having an affair.

• Piglet eats and eats while her life unravels after her fiancé betrays her two weeks before their wedding.

3. When you love mysteries, but you want to be high-brow about it.

A good, masterful mystery is a rare occurrence these days, but these delivered and more!

• The Spy Coast was my unexpected pick. The novel is about a former CIA agent who retires to a small town in Maine where other ex-operatives live. Naturally, the past comes knocking.

• The God of the Woods, the Book of the Summer, and, to be quite frank, 2024. This is how you write a mystery.

• All the Colors of the Dark was outstanding. The novel follows two children, Saint and Patch, whose lives forever change when Patch intervenes to save a young woman from an act of violence.

• I Have Some Questions for You - Rebecca Makkai writes about a film professor and podcaster who returns to her former boarding school to teach a course and becomes drawn into a 1995 murder case.

• For Nordic Noir fans, Blaze Me a Sun is an almost perfect crime novel about a serial killer in a small Swedish town.

• Village in the Dark is the second book in this series, set in the frigid and dark Alaska Winter. It is top-tier, and I can’t wait to see what the author writes next.

4. When you don’t really enjoy romance novels, but you appreciate well-told stories.

I’m not a committed romance reader, but I have my must-read rose-colored authors who always hit the spot.

• Funny Story: Emily Henry is nothing but consistent, and this novel is, in my opinion, her best.

• This Summer Will Be Different is an ode to PEI. Her descriptions of summer living and small-town life are excellent.

• I think Yulin Kuang will become a household romance name in the years to come. How to End a Love Story is mostly about forgiveness and will pull you at your heartstrings, but it also has sexy parts. What else can we look forward to in a romance read?

• Just for the Summer - This has been one of my top 5 romance reads ever. That’s how much I loved it.

5. When you are not afraid to give a weird book a chance.

Most of my favorite horror this year were more about weirdness than scare jumps. And I’m more than ok with that.

• Our Share of Night was the book that made me fall in love with Mariana Enriquez and encouraged me to read her full collection (she has a good number of books that have not been translated). She’s top.

• We Used to Live Here has the most original origin story of the bunch. It was a Reddit serial turned into a book about strangers visiting your house and never leaving.

• Hell Bent is the second instalment of the Alex Stern series, which is more “Dark Academia Fantasy” than horror, so I’m well aware that I’m cheating in including it here.

• Woodworm is a short novel about a house that never lets you leave and the witches that inhabit it.

• Bunny is bizarre and beautiful. You never know what you are really really reading between lines. I’m sure everyone interpreted it in different ways, and I’m here for all the Reddit threads about it.

6. When You need to get out of a reading slump, STAT

I will not tell you what these books are about because you know. They are bestsellers for a reason. I’m sure that if you are on a reading slump, these will help you get out of it. All of these books are like chocolate, if you don’t like it, you might be a psycho.

7. When you are in the mood to read a long book

Every time I read one of these, I feel like her. These are long books, but they are worth the time.

Nathan Hill’s Wellness is a witty (full of social commentary goodness) novel about the marriage of Jack and Elizabeth. They come of age in the bohemian art scene of mid-1990s Chicago but are now middle-aged and seeking meaning.

Wolf At the Table is what I consider a bummer. It’s bleak but so beautiful.

Small World is my epic read of 2024. It follows four families on a journey from the 1850s to 2019. These families—including immigrants, Native Americans, and an enslaved man—collide in unexpected ways.

8. When you want an unputdownable fast-paced book with questionable writing but excellent twists

In a sea of hundreds of so-so books of this genre, these fast-paced novels have all the unexpected twists and turns we seek. They are quite perfect for unwinding and putting your mind at ease about the other stuff clogging your mind. Yes, really! A good thriller puts your mind at ease.

Listen for the Lie about a woman who might or might not have murdered her best friend.

Missing White Women - A black woman wakes up and finds a white woman dead in her Airbnb. She’ll do everything to prove she is not the killer.

The Lagos Wife follows a woman to Nigeria to uncover what happened to her missing estranged niece.

Darling Girls is set in Australia and tells the story of three foster sisters who are forced to relive the past when a body is discovered under the home they grew up in.

Alperton Angels is certified impossible to put down, and it’s cleverly written only in texts, emails and WhatsApp messages

One of This is True: Written in a true crime documentary style, this novel is about a podcast host who interviews her birthday twin, only to discover that the woman has left a terrible legacy behind.

What about you? How many of these did you read? What was your favorite book of 2024? Comment below!!