What would the end of the year be without another ‘Best Of’ list? Here’s mine — Best Books of 2024! Of the 65+ books I read this year, here are the 5 that stood out. Highly recommend all of them!
(Published 2021) Humans are destroying the planet and Franny Stone is determined to follow the last Arctic terns on their final migration to Antarctica, no matter what it will cost her. A lyrical, magic, haunting song of a story. As beautiful as it is sad, you will be lost at sea with Franny and her shipmates, hoping to see wings on the horizon.
A moment of bravery makes 13-year-old Patch both a hero and a victim, pulling him and everyone around him, into a darkness it will take decades to escape. A story that is both hard and poetic, gentle and unforgiving, about the beauty and sorrow of life’s tiny insignificant moments and greatest life-defining gestures.
Vanessa wants her ex, Austin, to pay. He never told her he was married or that he and his wife had a baby. Austin took back everything her promised her, and she’s prepared to take everything of his. Page-turning, edge-of-your-seat, race-to-the-end psychological thriller.
The week-long 1980 kidnapping of Long Island businessman Carl Fletcher was little more than a small-town news story, to everyone except the Fletchers. The ripple effect of generational trauma extends for so many years, it’s difficult for the Fletchers to remember who they were without it.
(Published 2021) 12-year-old Edward Adler is the only survivor of a major airline crash that included his parents, brother, and 183 others. Instantly a celebrity despite his grief, Edward struggles to move forward, connected with everyone on the plane. A heartbreaking and hopeful story.
Of the 60+ books I read this year, there were so many fantastic ones. It was hard to narrow down the list, but this year I’m going with a top 6. Here they are!
Topping the list is The Change by Kirsten Miller. This book is like hitting a punching bag and letting out all the pent up rage you’ve been holding inside…. Imagine if menopause gave you superpowers. Need I say more? A band of middle-aged women decide enough is enough and put their actual, and even their supernatural, abilities and talents to work to stop the misogynistic and power-hungry men who are raping and murdering women in their small, sea-side town. Empowering and triumphant. Fierce and freeing. Wonderfully ridiculous in the most delicious and satisfying way. Couldn’t love this book more.
I don’t read many young adult books, but this one absolutely gutted me. Carver’s three best friends, Eli, Blake and Mars, were killed in a car accident. Worse, Carver may be at fault since he was texting the driver when the accident happened. Now, along with blaming himself, Carver is hated by everyone at school, hounded by reporters, facing possible criminal charges, and suffering from embarrassing panic attacks. On top of that, Blake’s grandmother wants Carver to join her for a “goodbye day” to celebrate all the things Blake loved, and give him a proper goodbye. It’s such a nice thought, the other families want one too. But they don’t see how these days are tearing Carver apart. If you are ready for a good cry, give this book a read. Soul-affirming and heart-crushing at the same time.
While not necessarily a sequel to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, All the Broken Places picks up the story of Gretel, the daughter of the Nazi commander in charge of the fated concentration camp all those years ago. Gretel, now in her 90’s and living a quiet life in London, never refers to her violent and shameful past. When she meets a young boy who needs her help, she considers revealing all of her secrets in order to protect him–something she has fought against her entire life. A fascinating and suspenseful story that will keep you sprinting to the end, with more twists and surprises than you’d ever think possible.
On a seemingly ordinary day, every person on Earth receives a box with a piece of string inside. The string corresponds to the length of your life. Nothing, it seems, can change what the string foretells. Everyone must decide what to do with this knowledge, if they choose to look in the box at all. Plan for a long future? Make the most of your final days? Or only choose to associate with those who will live as long as you will… A creative and thoughtful look at both the debilitation and freedom of predestination, and a story about deciding what matters, living for the moment, and about whether knowledge actually is power.
Set in dual timelines–in 1629 aboard a Dutch East India ship, and in a fishing village in 1989 on an island off the coast of Western Australia–the lives of two children overlap across history. Mayken, a young passenger aboard the doomed ship, Batavia, is shipwrecked on the same island where Gil, orphaned and mourning the loss of his mother, will end up living with his reclusive grandfather hundreds of years later. Exploring the island and its small community, Gil learns of the shipwreck and the ghosts that supposedly walk the shores. Mysterious, haunting and based on true events, this was a magical story that stayed with me long after I finished reading.
Tova Sullivan, the dedicated night custodian at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, is lonely and a little lost after losing both her husband and her 18-year-old son. In the long hours of the night, Tova finds herself talking to the sea creatures–in particular, Marcellus, the giant Pacific octopus who seems to not only be listening, but responding. What follows is a sweet, sad and ultimately hopeful story, partly told in Marcellus’s dry and strongly opinionated voice. Never would I think a story told from the point of view of an uppity octopus would rank high on my list of favorites but this one somehow manages to be believable, endearing and inspiring.
I review books all year on Instagram @jessicamaffetoreauthor if you are looking for more great books to check out!
I’m very overdue on sharing reviews for the books I’ve recently read. You can check out most of them over on Instagram @jessicamaffetoreauthor. But here is a quick roundup of some that I haven’t had a chance to do a full review on:
Tookie, an Ojibwe Minnesota bookstore clerk and former convict, is haunted by the ghost of Flora, a frequent but annoying bookstore customer. Trying to understand why Flora’s ghost won’t leave the store is only one of the troubling things on Tookie’s mind as the world shuts down with COVID, race riots break out across the country, and she struggles to come to terms with her past.
Harriet and ex-fiance Wyn haven’t told their best friends they broke up months ago. Now they’ve agreed to fake it for one last week for their friends’ sake at their favorite place–the Maine cottage where they’ve all made so many great memories. Neither of them want to admit they didn’t want to break up in the first place. What could go wrong?
Young women who “misbehaved” in the early 1900’s may have found themselves sent to institutions like the House of Mercy in Manhattan. While there, they would have been forced to work, live and learn proper behavior under terrible conditions. Effie Tildon is convinced her older sister Luella has been sent to the House of Mercy after she disappears following an argument with their parents. Effie devises a brave plan to get herself admitted in order to save her sister, but everything goes horribly wrong. Now Effie must find a way to save herself.
Agnes, a mysterious, free-spirited woman, marries and has three children–Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. Her beloved son is taken by illness at the age of eleven and Agnes is overcome with grief. Her husband pulls further and further away from the family, frequently traveling to London to write plays and act on the stage while Agnes remains home caring for the girls and grieving their son. Until one day she hears that her husband has written a play that sounds so much like their son’s name that she must go see what he has written for the world to see…
Former model Lillian Carter leaves everything she has behind after being swept up in a scandal that threatens to ruin her. Lillian takes the first opportunity she accidentally stumbles into–a job working as the private secretary for the daughter of steel tycoon and art collector, Henry Clay Frick. She only plans to stay long enough for the scandal to pass. But Lillian is drawn deep into a life of priceless art, family drama, and the mystery of a missing jewel that is still unsolved decades later.
Read anything good lately? I love suggestions! Let me know what to read next 🙂
