Best Reads of 2024

The end of the year is a time for looking forward. After all, the tradition is to wish each other a Happy New Year, rather than saying we hope you had a good one. Nevertheless, it’s useful to look back on highlights, so this blog is about a few of the books I’ve read this year which have impressed me. I hope readers will share theirs. Message me, and if there are enough responses to make it worthwhile I’ll publish the results in January.

Just one thing - well two, actually. To begin with, I’ve read some great books by indie authors I know. I’ve not included these, and have concentrated on titles that most bookshops are likely to have in stock. The second thing is the test I’ve applied. To qualify, a book must have stayed with me for some time after finishing it, and made me think.

OK, so let’s go.

At the top of my list is Playground, by Richard Powers. This is an amazing work, encompassing technology, the environment, mankind’s casual approach to nature and natural resources, class, race prejudice, the capacity of big corporations to trample on everything in the quest for profit, parenting, friendship - I could go on. It’s not an enormously long work by some standards (380 or so pages), but it’s a colossal book, and one of the few which I’ll probably read again. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and I think should have won, although to be fair I haven’t yet read Orbital.

Totally different, but also highly rated by me, is Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. I enjoyed Normal People, and this has a similar feel. The thing that intrigued me about it was the symmetry of the main plot line, which features two brothers. It takes a refreshing look sibling relationships, family responsibilities, age differences in romance, and is one of those books where you want to grab hold of some of the characters and yell at them!

Number three is The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling). As I write I see that this will soon appear as a tv series on BBC, so I won’t say too much about it. I’ve enjoyed the previous Cormoran Strike books and this is among the best. Today’s teens have grown up with internet communities and messaging, and are familiar with both the fulfilment and the dangers in both. I’m an older SM user and there’s a lot I don’t know, so as well as being an absorbing story, this book taught me a lot. JK Rowling has personal experience at the receiving end of online sniping and cruelty and it’s therefore not surprising that she writes with such knowledge and conviction, as well as with a deep understanding of the damage unchecked online posts can do. Alongside this is an intriguing mystery. It’s a very long book but it repays a reader’s commitment. I found it fascinating and was sorry when I got to the end.

As always, at the end of the year there’s still plenty on my TBR pile, and there’ll be more to add in 2025. That’s the great thing about books: they keep on coming. Enjoy your reading, and have a great New Year.