Best Reads of 2024
Tell me what you loved reading this year
This year, I’ve read 43 books, almost 16,000 pages, and I’ve lined up all my favorites of the year in this post. Let me know if you’ve read any of these gems:
I’m also creating my TBR for 2025, so PLEASE tell me what you’ve loved reading in the comments below.
Non-Fiction
Knock at the Sky: Seeking God in Genesis After Losing Faith in the Bible by
For me, Genesis has been the side of town you don’t visit alone or after dark. I’ve tucked myself away inside the Red Letters for a long time and left Genesis (and most of the Old Testament) alone.
Liz Charlotte Grant’s Knock at the Sky is thoroughly, refreshingly researched and artfully imagined. She facilitates a reintroduction (a truce?) between my spirit and the stories in early Genesis. She reminds us that these stories do not belong exclusively to those who misuse, misinterpret, and wield them like weapons.
“While some of my formerly evangelical peers prefer to ditch [Genesis] this often-troubling book altogether, I refuse to. These stories are mine, too.”
I have at least one highlight on every. single. page. And the only time I was disappointed was when I reached the last page. I never wanted it to end.
The Mystics Would Like a Word: Six Women Who Met God and Found a Spirituality for Today by
My evangelical upbringing never endowed me with a special connection to the saints. So, I did not consider adopting one as my own until Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project suggested the important role that spiritual master(s) play in our lives. Even then, I’ve not taken the time to dig into that “cloud of witnesses.”
Evan’s book introduced me to six female saints and mystics who lived inspiring and challenging stories that still have incredible relevance:
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)
Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
Margery Kempe (1373-1438)
Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582)
Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897)
I didn’t even know Christianity had mystics if I’m honest. It was awe-inspiring to get up close and personal with mystics (WOMEN mystics) who risked a great deal to live their truth during their lifetimes.
The Understory: An Invitation to Rootedness and Resilience from the Forest Floor by
Reading this feels like sitting with Lore by a campfire under the trees with a hot cuppasomething, and gently unpacking the last few maddening years together. If you find yourself feeling more and more “outside” the conservative, hyper-religious circles that used to feel safe, you’ll have an instant kinship with Lore through this book. It is well worth your time.
I love how Lore brings so many other voices into the conversation, too. With frequent chime-ins from Wendall Berry, St. Francis, Anne Lamott, and a host of other poets, environmentalists, experts, writers, and (it feels like) the trees themselves, it’s hard not to leave underlines on every single page.
Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
This book is medicine.
I’m late to the party here, but this book really is worth the hype. A blending of cutting-edge science, touching personal stories, and more, Rooted invites a new way of life with a deeper sense of belonging, responsibility, and surrender. It’s a call to consider our whole selves and the world around us.
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kichimi and Fumitake Koga
I read this at exactly the right time in my life: after finishing the final draft of my memoir. It was/is an actual piece of my heart that was/is suddenly beginning to crawl out into the world, and I quickly learned that it might give people reasons to dislike me.
Like all the classic philosophy lessons, this is a conversation between student and master. It spans so much of the human experience and touches many unexpected aspects. But, by the end, you’re left reeling from an only beneficial paradigm shift.
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
Haidt is a researcher who studies the psychology of morality. He explores why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such differing opinions about right and wrong.
Haidt’s findings helped me understand other people better than they probably understand themselves. It's well worth your time if you find yourself constantly wondering, “How can they believe/vote/talk/think that way??”
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
Stoicism has been an anchor for me in recent years. Holiday’s short daily meditations have helped me grow in my understanding and application of stoic principles.
Special Mentions:
The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle
This is a very human-centric look at the ways that climate change is already changing the ways that Americans live, specifically.
From half-drowned coastal areas in Louisiana, Carolina, and Virginia, to dried-up, fire-scorched California and Arizona, people are increasingly forced to abandon once-inhabitable lands. It estimates that millions of Americans will be forced inland and northward in what will be the largest migration in our country’s history.
And it’s expected to take place in the next fifty years.
The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff
I read this 500+ page tome searching for my great (x11) grandma. I wrote about what I found here: My Grandma, The Witch.
Poetry
The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine edited by Kaveh Akbar
This might be my favorite book of the year. It ignited such a renewed love for poetry and inspired me to start publishing my own poetic works.
Special Mentions:
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World by Ada Limón
A beautiful chaser to Rooted.
Theophanies by
I’ll let the Amazon product page speak here:
“Moving between the scriptures of the Qur’an and the Bible, the poems of Theophanies arise from the speaker’s tenuous grip on her own faith while navigating the colonial legacy of Partition and inherited patriarchal expectations of womanhood.”
Need I say more?
Fiction
The Caring House by
I can't stop thinking about this book.
Swirling in the aftermath of his father’s suicide, 7-year-old Gabe meets 7-year-old Jenny at The Caring House, a grief counseling center for children. Her father died the same way, and the two kids bond and heal together. Years later, they’re happily married and have seemingly left the tragedy of their childhoods behind. But the sudden loss of another family member sends Gabe reeling. The illusion of their papered-over peace turns to ash when Jenny finds a gun that Gabe has hidden in their closet.
These characters felt so real. I missed them when the pages ran out. The subject matter is obviously very heavy, putting us right next to baby Gabe as he’s forced through the unthinkable. But this story is worth it.
You can’t help but be a more empathetic person when you reach the last page.
Longbourn by Jo Baker
Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of the household staff.
It is an immersive, lyrical reimagining for fans of the original and of upstairs-downstairs dramas like Downton Abbey. It dishes up a memorable look at class in Regency England, and I promise you won’t be able to see Donald Sutherland’s character the same way again.
The character of James gives us a vivid and mesmerizing glimpse of the Napoleonic Wars, the conflict that put Mr. Wickam (and so many others) in uniform. Honestly, he was my favorite part of this book.
The Monk and Robot Series by Becky Chambers
Somehow, these manage to be the coziest little novellas WHILE ALSO looking some of humanity’s most challenging questions directly in the eye.
Centuries after robots walked away from the world of humans to exist alone in the wild, a tea monk named Dex happens upon one, Mosscap, who has a question: “What do people need?”
It’s harder to answer than either of them expects.
The Last Devil To Die (Thursday Murder Club #4) by Richard Osman
The Thursday Murder Club series has all the coziness of your favorite comical BCC murder mystery.
Each book follows a group of 80-year-old “pensioners” living in an adult community who band together to solve local and sometimes not-so-local crimes while navigating the weird, complicated, difficult, wonderful privilege of growing old.
Somehow, Osman manages to address heavy senior topics, like dementia and death, in a heartfelt way framed against fun (and often funny) who-dun-its.
Babel by R. F. Kuang
Some books, the exceptional ones, are mirrors made of paper and ink. This book somehow made me feel both safe and convicted at the same time. Both comforted and challenged. I read it during a national movement of students occupying school buildings to protest evil an ocean away, and it shattered me in the best way.
It’s an important, beautiful book…to say nothing of the incredible magic system (that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about, if I’m honest), lovable characters, and superb pacing.
Read this book.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
My hubs and I both independently read this classic for the first time this year, and it was transformative. At its heart, it’s a parable, and it’s been fascinating to discuss with other readers. The gem-like takeaways they glean are as unique as the readers themselves.
Tim and I had so many takeaways, but one of our favorites came from Coelho’s introduction:
“Even if my neighbor doesn’t understand my religion or understand my politics, he can understand my story. If he can understand my story, then he’s never too far from me. It is always within my power to build a bridge. There is always a chance for reconciliation, a chance that one day he and I will sit around a table together and put an end to our history of clashes. And on this day, he will tell me his story and I will tell him mine.”
Special Mention:
The Red Rising Series by Pierce Brown
I re-read most of the Red Rising series this year.
It’s my favorite sci-fi series (book 4, pictured, being my favorite of the series), and I only enjoyed it more this go ‘round. Smart, thrilling, and endlessly compelling…
I love these books.
Rednecks by Taylor Brown
I have deep family ties to the West Virginia mining world, but I had never heard about the wars between the miners and the mine owners.
Rednecks is a historical drama (floating somewhere between fiction and non-fiction) that centers on the Battle of Blair Moutain in the early 1920s. It was the largest armed conflict on American soil since the Civil War, with more than one million rounds fired and bombs dropped on American citizens by government-backed corporations.
This conflict birthed the term ‘redneck,’ and that’s the least interesting thing about the story.
Final Girl Support Club by Grady Hendrix
I didn’t realize how much I’ve been craving dark, grown-up humor. Like, Lemony Snicket turned up to eleven. Grady Hendrix is the closest thing I’ve found to exactly that.
I read three of his most popular books, and Final Girl Support Group was my favorite (sorry, Southern Vampire fans). It plays on the “final girl” cliché in slasher genres, giving those final girls a pretty sweet chance at revenge and redemption while also making valid observations about a world that’s used to watching innocent women suffer…even going so far as to make it a genre convention.
Again - pleeeease tell me about your best reads from this year. I’m building out my TBR (to be read) list for next year, and I’d love your recommendations for any genre.
I'm in the middle of reading Knock at the Sky right now and loving it! I love book lists and I found several to check out based on yours :). A few I read and loved this year: "Get the Picture" by Bianca Bosker, "The Way of Belonging" by Sarah E. Westfall, "Good night, Irene" by Luis Alberto Urrea, and "The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley.
Late to the game catching up to this, but I'm so glad you're getting to know the women mystics through my book! That is super exciting to me. =)