The Best (and Worst) Books I Read in 2024

2024 was not a bad year of reading for me. I read 62 books, and of those 62, there were a lot of 4-, 4.25-, 4.5-, and even 4.75-star reads. (According to StoryGraph, my average rating this year was 4.04.)

However, this year brought fewer 5-star reads than usual. (Or maybe I’m becoming more discerning in my old age?) Here were the standouts in a crowded field of “just okay” and “very good but not great” books.

The Best of the Year

Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Rufi Thorpe

Easily my favorite book of the year, and the kind of book I wish I wrote. In a word: Quirky. Margo’s Got Money Troubles is funny but still tender in the way of Schitt’s Creek. The plot is unique—college dropout and new, single mom Margot starts profiting from OnlyFans using wisdom from her dad, a former pro wrestler—but the characters are deeply human and relatable. There was lots of humor, a little drama, some not-too-heavy-handed commentary on sex work and misogyny, and an overall satisfying story.

Boy Parts, Eliza Clark

There is something about a deeply unlikable female narrator having a complete spiral that, when done well, is irresistible to me. Boy Parts is delightfully dark, with something to trigger nearly everyone—seriously. (The Storygraph content warnings include: Rape, sexual assault, sexual violence, eating disorder, adult/minor relationship, animal death, vomit, abortion, self-harm.) Think American Psycho but with reversed gender roles. If you, like me, enjoy sinking deeply into a character’s fucked-up subconscious, check out Boy Parts.

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, Syou Ishida

Maybe it’s because some days the three felines prowling my home and dirtying it with their fur and litter trackings and not-infrequent throw-up feel like the only things worth living for, but I found this book so sweet and gently moving. It’s a little weird, perhaps due in part to it being translated, but also, I think, because it feels so culturally different. Also, I think I need a fourth cat.

…And The Worst

Old Enough, Haley Jakobson

Old Enough was not old enough for me. Perhaps I’m the problem—as a 32-year-old woman, a novel solely centered around a college girl’s dating life was not very riveting. In addition to my complete disinterest in the plot, I thought the book was really Doing a Lot, dare I say even, the Most, to be Very Inclusive in its character depiction. (It seemed like at least a fourth of the book was spent on characters laying out their specific gender identities, sexualities, and romantic situations with a weird self-awareness that most adults, to say nothing of college kids, don’t possess.) A for effort, but it felt forced and weird.

Recollections of My Nonexistence, Rebecca Solnit

2024 was the year I realized that my love of memoir does in fact have bounds. Solnit’s writing in Recollections of my Nonexistence was fine, but I was deeply bored. There was nothing particularly funny or profound. I’m sure this woman lived an interesting life, but reading her book, you wouldn’t know it.

The Repeat Room, Jesse Bell

Pretentious as hell. The first half of the book introduces an interesting, dystopian premise, though it’s written so dryly and emotionlessly even that is hard to get into. The second half of the book, though…well, if you love reading very long paragraphs with no break, all in highly-stylized first-person narrative, this may be the book for you. I, however, could barely finish it. I wish I could repeat the hours I spent reading The Repeat Room doing something else.

Relatedly: I’ve noticed that reading is cool now (obligatory: I liked it before it was cool!), and lots of people are posting their 2024 book recaps. Neat! However…

I Am Once Again Asking You To Stop Using Goodreads

Three reasons you should switch to StoryGraph:

It’s not owned by Amazon. Amazon is the scourge of the book industry and also a general nightmare corporation that harms small businesses, exploits workers, and contributes disproportionately to harming our environment.
The features are better.
It auto-imports all your Goodreads books to its platform.