The best fiction of 2024
Our faves, plus thoughts on the upcoming end of year round ups
If you’ve been with us over the last few weeks, we’ve finally made it to 2024. We’ve been sharing our fave reads from the last 5 years, starting with 2019-2021 and then following up with 2022-2023.
On a very rainy drive back into London this afternoon, I listened to Book Riot’s predictions of the NYT’s 100 most notable books list. The list is expected to be published this Tuesday, and the show ran through their predictions starting with their dead certs and then moving into what they’d love to see. I’m really looking forward to seeing the list come out as there were some great books they didn’t include in their predictions that I’m hoping make it on. Lots of great books they did cover though, here’s what I added to my ‘Want to Read’ list based on their picks:
All Fours by Miranda July. I think I’m going to love this book but the amount of hype it received when published put me off rushing into it. I have no good reason for this, but I hate carrying the same book as everyone else. I’m now convinced it’s time (Intermezzo by Sally Rooney is also in this category).
Playground by Richard Powers. Beautiful cover, Booker longlisted, about the sea.
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten. Described as really going there in terms of reflecting on her life, choices, trauma, unpicking the mess and being all round surprisingly intimate.
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino. Sci-fi, great reviews, hits a lot of ‘all rounder’ notes.
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. I’ve never read any of Orange’s work, it’s time to start.
Last year’s NYT 100 most notable books list contains some great books I’ve loved reading (Hello Beautiful, The Bee Sting, Pineapple Street, Tom Lake, The Wager…). Looking forward to Tuesday.
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The best fiction of 2024
Ok, our selection is a round up of the best ones we read this year. They didn’t necessarily come out this year, in fact a lot didn’t. But hey, it’s our newsletter, we make the rules.
Jen’s picks
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (published 2024). This is such a brilliant, fast paced, sad, fun look at the powerful bond of sisters. I laughed, I cried, I was totally absorbed.
All The Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (published 2024). This book!! Could not put it down. The pace at which this churns through plot lines is like nothing else. This would make a brilliant Christmas gift.
Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan (published 2024). Super slick, smart, gripping novel with an interwoven plot set in and around North London. Liberal hypocrisy, inter-generational politics and feuds, intellectual elitism & criminal underworlds.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (published 2022). A heavy but brilliant read and a rightful winner of the Women’s Prize.
Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard (published 1990). I love these books so much, they are my best discovery of the year. I started book one on holiday in January and I’ve been eking them out, with the final book waiting for me to read at Christmas.
Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott (published 1929). Totally hilarious and captivating, with the best first page I’ve read in a while. Witty, dark, brilliant, sad, funny. Truly excellent writing.
Tom’s picks
Meantime by Frankie Boyle (published 2022). Full of Boyle’s trademark humour but so much more. A compelling and deeply dark noir thriller.
Ness by Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood (published 2018). Prose, poetry and image are combined to deliver this mysterious and sometimes outright weird narrative. You can easily finish this in one sitting and I suggest that you do.
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (published 1950). It was in these collection of short stories that Asimov first explored his Three Laws of Robotics. With the current AI boom this feels more relevant than ever.
This post follows on from our previous round ups:
Part 1: Our fave reads of 2019-2021 including top 5 tips for Black Friday. Read here
Part 2: Our fave reads of 2022-2023. Read here.
Part 3: Our fave fiction of 2024. This post.
Books lists! 2019-2021, 2022-2023, 2024 fiction.
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