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 The Wedding People

Kim Culbertson ❤️ loved this book because...

The Wedding People ticks all the boxes I love in a novel: messy families, humor, sense of place, academia, and a wedding week (I love books that give us a compressed timeline with high stakes). I've been recommending this to so many people.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Immersion
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Alison Espach ,

Why should I read it?

27 authors picked The Wedding People as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Fissures: One Hundred 100-Word Stories

Kim Culbertson ❤️ loved this book because...

I'm enough of a 100-word story junkie now to appreciate what Grant is doing in this book. Brilliant, evocative prose.

Also, Grant is the reason I ended up writing my part-anthology, part-teaching guide 100-WORD STORIES: A SHORT FORM FOR EXPANSIVE WRITING (that he wrote the introduction for) so I'm also such a Grant Faulkner fan that he needed a spot on this list. :)

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Originality 🥈 Emotions
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Grant Faulkner ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Fissures as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Fissures, a collection of one hundred 100-word stories, Grant Faulkner uses the hard borders of the 100-word story form to evocatively capture the drama of the lacunae we live in, whether it's the gulf between a loved one, the natural world, or God.

"I've always thought life is more about what is unsaid than what is said," he says. "We live in odd gaps of silence, irremediable interstices that sometimes last forever. A lingering glance averted. The lover who slams the door and runs away. Unsent letters."

Faulkner, the executive director of National Novel Writing Month and the co-founder…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of This Is How It Always Is

Kim Culbertson ❤️ loved this book because...

Laurie Frankel is a magician who balances so many different bits of magic in this book -- from fairy tales to messy families (yes, yes, I have a type), to essential social issues -- while mostly just making us cry and laugh at regular intervals. Like I said, a magician.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Laurie Frankel ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked This Is How It Always Is as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A very special book about a family with a secret. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think.' Liane Moriarty, No. 1 bestselling author of THE HUSBAND'S SECRET

Laurie Frankel's THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS the 'fascinating story of a thoroughly modern family and the giant, multifaceted love that binds them... Sparkles with wit and wisdom' (Maria Semple). Perfect for readers of WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES and THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY.

This is how a family keeps a secret...and how that secret ends up keeping them.

This is how a family…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

100-Word Stories: A Short Form for Expansive Writing

By Grant Faulkner , Kim Culbertson ,

Book cover of 100-Word Stories: A Short Form for Expansive Writing

What is my book about?

What can 100-word stories help your students understand about writing? The short answer is -- everything! This flash-fiction form has become a popular structure for efficiently teaching a wide variety of literary devices, term, and processes in a targeted way. Part teaching guide, part anthology, written and edited by veteran high school teacher and YA author Kim Culbertson (Catch a Falling Star), with 100 Word Story co-creator Grant Faulkner, this book is a dynamic guide complete with lessons and prompts to help young writers learn and practice certain literary elements, narrative skill, and personal voice.

Book cover of The Wedding People
Book cover of Fissures: One Hundred 100-Word Stories
Book cover of This Is How It Always Is

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