The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 2,415 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of All Fours

❤️ loved this book because...

The focus Miranda July puts on how our thoughts and expectations of others and ourselves can so easily flip when our circumstances change, or simply when we learn something new about our environment, always reminds me of my own inconstancy, how often I will abandon a preconception and immediately believe a new one with equal certainty. There is no solid ground beneath our feet, but we adapt so easily and unthinkingly that really it's no bother.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Emotions 🥈 Outlook
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Miranda July ,

Why should I read it?

32 authors picked All Fours as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The New York Times bestselling author returns with an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and surprising novel about a woman upending her life

“A frank novel about a midlife awakening, which is funnier and more boldly human than you ever quite expect….the bravery of All Fours is nothing short of riveting.”—Vogue

“A novel that presses into that tender bruise about the anxiety of aging, of what it means to have a female body that is aging, and wanting the freedom to live a fuller life…Deeply funny and achingly true.” —LA Times
 
“All Fours possessed me.…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of We All Want Impossible Things

❤️ loved this book because...

Grief is precious. We can't measure the wonder of our happiness without its opposite. Good to be reminded of those lessons from the safe distance of a book.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Emotions 🥈 Immersion
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Catherine Newman ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked We All Want Impossible Things as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“Catherine Newman sees the heartbreak and comedy of life with wisdom and unflinching compassion. The way she finds the extraordinary in the everyday is nothing short of poetry. She’s a writer’s writer—and a human’s human.”—New York Times bestselling author Katherine Center

“A riotously funny and fiercely loyal love letter to female friendship. The story of Edi and Ash proves that a best friend is a gift from the gods. Newman turns her prodigious talents toward finding joy even in the friendship’s final days. I laughed while crying, and was left revived. Newman is a comic masterhand and a dazzling philosopher…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Language vs. Reality: Why Language Is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists

❤️ loved this book because...

Language and reason were built as tools for social coordination, before they were used to seek truth. Reality exists in the human mind only behind the veils of perception and communication; those levels of abstraction are inherent to our interactions with the world. A reminder of our fallibility and subjectivity.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Teach 🥈 Outlook
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐌 It was slow at times

By N. J. Enfield ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Language vs. Reality as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A fascinating examination of how we are both played by language and made by language: the science underlying the bugs and features of humankind's greatest invention.

Language is said to be humankind's greatest accomplishment. But what is language actually good for? It performs poorly at representing reality. It is a constant source of distraction, misdirection, and overshadowing. In fact, N. J. Enfield notes, language is far better at persuasion than it is at objectively capturing the facts of experience. Language cannot create or change physical reality, but it can do the next best thing: reframe and invert our view of…


Book cover of All Fours
Book cover of We All Want Impossible Things
Book cover of Language vs. Reality: Why Language Is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists

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