Every year my reading experiences get better and better. I read some truly fantastic books last year. Let’s not doddle. I’ll get right to it!
Best Debut Novels
Grown Women by Sarai Johnson
Victim by Andrew Boryga
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Blue Light Hours by Bruna Dantas Lobato




Best Literary Fiction
Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin
The Rich People Have Gone Away by Regina Porter
Godwin by Joseph O’Neill
Erasure by Percival Everett
Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin
Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee






Best Historical Fiction
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
James by Percival Everett
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang
Jazz by Toni Morrison





Best Short Story Collections
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
The Sunny Side of Shady People by Mariana Enriquez, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte




Best Non-Fiction
How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir by Shayla Lawson
Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen
Consent: A Memoir by Jill Ciment
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
A Tale of Two Omars: A Memoir of Family, Revolution, and Coming Out During the Arab Spring by Omar Sharif Jr.
Profiles in Mental Health Courage by Patrick J. Kennedy and Stephen Fried
Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson
Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson
High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez









Best Fantasy Books
Dreams of the Dying by Nicolas Lietzau
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin





Best Sci-Fi Books
The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon


Best Translated Fiction
A Little Luck by Claudia Piñeiro, translated from the Spanish by Francis Riddle
Time of the Flies by Claudia Piñeiro, translated from the Spanish by Francis Riddle
The Dark Side of Skin by Jeferson Tenório, translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato
Miss Iceland by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, translated from the Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon
Frantumaglia: A Writer's Journey by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, translated from the French by Sophie Mackintosh
Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside
Share your Best of 2024 posts! I’d love to know what tickled your fancy last year.