Katharine E. Smith's 3 favorite reads in 2024

This was the second time I've read this book. I love the very contemporary setting - although, going back to 2016, so much has happened it's also like a history book. Set around the time of the UK Brexit referendum, and before Donald Trump was elected, and of course a few years before Covid, it's interesting reading this book a few years later, knowing what we know now.

But like all of Nick Hornby's books it's funny, with a very good and real-feeling storyline and insight into the main characters and the other people in their world and community. To write it Nick Hornby, a sixty-something white man, put himself in the shoes of a twenty-something Black man and a forty-something white woman. I can only speak for the second of these characters but I think he does it very convincingly. I like his slight cynicism about the world we live in but the underlying warmth always comes through.

Another of my favourite authors - David Nicholls. I am always happy when I see he has a new book coming out, and pre-ordered You are Here so that I would be able to read it as soon as possible. It is a great book - down-to-earth and sad and frustrating as lots of David Nicholls' books can be. He writes a very good slightly hopeless but ultimately loveable male character, I think - and often puts them through situations where they stupidly are not open and honest but if they had been they'd have made things so much easier for themselves.

I also loved the setting of the book, walking the Pennine Way. I think the book would appeal to people who know this area and who love walking, as much as to people who love character-driven fiction.

I have loved Kate Atkinson ever since my mum bought me Behind the Scenes at the Museum. She is another writer from whom I can't wait for a new book. I did enjoy Death at the Sign of the Rook and I love Kate Atkinson's versatility. I can imagine she really enjoyed writing the book too. I have put it as a favourite book because I did enjoy reading it and it was very well plotted, and I always love reading her writing style. But it's probably not one of my favourite books of hers, even though it does feature Jackson Brodie, who is definitely one of my favourite characters).