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 Berry Pickers

Rebecca M. Pritchard ❤️ loved this book because...

A work of art. Emotionally complex. The story pulls you in. For me, it was all the more poignant that this beautifully written story about a terrible event and its aftermath is set against the backdrop of the blueberry barrens on Maine.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Emotions 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Amanda Peters ,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked The Berry Pickers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Winner
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly fifty years

"A stunning debut about love, race, brutality, and the balm of forgiveness." —People, A Best New Book

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother,…


When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

Rebecca M. Pritchard ❤️ loved this book because...

Who would have thought that one of the best books of the year would be about moss. Yes, moss, the spongy stuff on the ground. Robin Wall Kimmerer is the best kind of nature writer, making her subject come alive and using it as a springboard to talk about other things. Part science, part history, part natural history, part memoir, this book defies categorization. Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of moss with this surprising page-turner.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Originality 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Robin Wall Kimmerer ,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked Gathering Moss as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.

In this series of linked personal essays, Robin Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating…


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Rebecca M. Pritchard ❤️ loved this book because...

Timothy Snyder is the historian we need right now. As he says in the introduction to his book, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does instruct." I read this late in 2024 knowing full well that this hyper-focused short read was full of lessons from history that we can all use right now: an instruction book for what lies ahead.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Thoughts 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Timothy Snyder ,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked On Tyranny as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**

'A sort of survival book, a sort of symptom-diagnosis manual in terms of losing your democracy and what tyranny and authoritarianism look like up close' Rachel Maddow

'These 128 pages are a brief primer in every important thing we might have learned from the history of the last century, and all that we appear to have forgotten' Observer

History does not repeat, but it does instruct.

In the twentieth century, European democracies collapsed into fascism, Nazism and communism. These were movements in which a leader or a party claimed to give voice to the people, promised…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Jeremiah Hacker

By Rebecca M. Pritchard ,

Book cover of Jeremiah Hacker

What is my book about?

​"We had much rather be all alone in the right than with the whole world in the wrong.”

So wrote Jeremiah Hacker in 1862. He was the main writer and editor of The Pleasure Boat, which may have the distinction of being Portland, Maine’s most controversial newspaper. Inspired by his Quaker background, Hacker worked to end slavery, poverty, and inequality of women through his writing. He spoke out against prisons, advocating instead for reform and education. He broke with all forms of organized religion and urged people to leave their churches and find moral direction from within. He promoted no political party, believing people would be better off without government. He was in favor of land for all. The most controversial of Hacker’s radical ideas, however—and the one that lost him the most readers—was his advocacy for peace as the country headed toward Civil War.​

​Hacker’s life spanned the nineteenth century (1801-1895). His work was widely read and he himself was well-known in his lifetime. But both he and his ideas have largely been forgotten—until now. This book explores the life and writings of Jeremiah Hacker, returning him to his rightful place in history, and showing how his words were an important part of what helped to forge that history.

{from publisher description: https://www.frayededgepress.com/jeremiah-hacker.html}

Book cover of The Berry Pickers
Book cover of Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
Book cover of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,210

readers submitted
so far, will you?