The New York Times has come out with its list of the 100 Notable Books of 2024. How many have you read so far?
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From October to December, we report on the Best Books of 2024 lists from across the internet. Most of them are already out, from Publishers Weekly to Amazon to Barnes and Noble and more. One of the biggest lists, though, is the New York Times picks for the best books of the year. That’s still not out: they’ll announce their 10 best books of 2024 later. Until then, the New York Times has shared its long list of the 100 notable books of 2024.
The 100 Notable Books of 2024 is split into Fiction and Nonfiction and alphabetical by title within those. Each is also labelled with a genre, which range from the usual—Poetry, Literary Fiction, Biography—to the more more…bespoke, like Sexy Perimenopause Fiction (All Fours by Miranda July), Sad Irish Millenial Fiction (Intermezzo by Sally Rooney), and Mixed-Race Dramedy (Colored Television by Danzy Senna).
Here are ten of the NYT’s notable books that Book Riot writers also recommend.
Bluff: Poems by Danez Smith
Award-winning poet Danez Smith has written brilliantly crafted collections likeHomieandDon’t Call Us Dead. If you’re looking for queer poetry to watch in 2024,Bluffshould absolutely be on your list. Their newest collection is an exploration of racial justice, violence, and healing in Smith’s hometown, the Twin Cities, as well as a call for poetry and the arts to help build a path toward a collective future. From rage and grief to inspiration and hope, these poems are an emotionally powerful call to action. —Susie Dumond
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
Kelly Link has been astonishing readers with her brilliant speculative short stories for over two decades, so of course, her debut novel was one of 2024’s most anticipated books!The Book of Loveis a spectacular story of magic, love, family, and loss. It’s set in a small Massachusetts seaside town, where three teens are brought back from the dead by their music teacher (although they don’t remember dying.) Agreeing to complete a series of magical tasks, the teens will face supernatural dangers and all the complications that accompany being alive. It’s a heart-squeezing tale of wonder and life that hugs your brain in the best way. —Liberty Hardy
Colored Television by Danzy Senna
Award-winning author Danzy Senna is back with a biting story of ambition, middle age, and identity. Jane is an author desperate to finish her second novel while she is on sabbatical with her family in Los Angeles. Instead, she falls for the siren’s call of Hollywood and finds herself working with a hotshot producer on a comedy, what he assures her will be a huge hit. Jane has high hopes that the show will impart important views on race while delivering laughs. But nothing turns out how she expects it to go. Senna delivers a darkly funny novel about the Hollywood machine rolling over another writer who dared to stand in front of it with their dreams. (Related: today I learned that Senna is married to author Percival Everett. That is a lot of talent under one roof!) —Liberty Hardy
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The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Young Mieczyslaw comes to this health resort in what is now western Poland to recover from the lung issues he’s struggled with for far too long. His days are full of getting to know the strange residents of the guesthouse and being exposed to their philosophical and political debates. But as all these questions of gender, humanity, and money circulate, Mieczyslaw begins to wonder if something is profoundly wrong with the town and their surroundings — and if there’s actually a chance of getting better here. This greenery/herbology-filled, historical fiction/mystery/thought-provoking novel mixes all sorts of things together and comes out fascinating thanks to Tokarczuk’s Nobel Prize-winning writing. —Leah Rachel von Essen
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
This is a bestseller and one of the biggest books of the year that comes highly recommended by authors like Tommy Orange, Lauren Groff, John Green, Clint Smith, and more. It follows Cyrus, a twenty-something queer poet who has been numbing his pain with drugs and alcohol. His mother was killed when her plane was shot down over Tehran in a senseless act of violence by the U.S. military. His father recently died of a heart attack. As he becomes sober, Cyrus goes looking for meaning, and he finds it by researching martyrs. When he hears about an artist dying of cancer in an exhibition at a museum, he is determined to meet her. —Danika Ellis
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
Multi-award-winning Erdrich’s latest follows messy lives against a backdrop of resources being sucked dry through climate changes and the 2008 recession. Gary is a young man about to inherit two farms and is set on marrying lapsed Goth Kismet Poe, while Hugo’s messy, red-headed behind wants to steal her for himself. Amidst the drama, the people of the Red River Valley try their best to survive, while things like visions of angels and drastic changes complicate things. —Erica Ezeifedi
My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Book 2 by Emil Ferris
We finally have the sequel to this celebrated graphic novel, and it was worth the wait. Intricately etched with full, exciting pages and a bold story, it picks up where the last left off: Karen, a young monster, is investigating her neighbor’s murder in the Uptown apartment where she’s grown up. But the secrets she’s discovered aren’t the ones she was looking for, and in this book, she’ll have to fight hard to avoid coming apart at the seams. This bold coming-of-age tale about queerness, difference, family, and the city of Chicago is impactful, emotional, and bold, and I was both overjoyed and very sad to see the story of Karen Reyes come to its conclusion. —Leah Rachel von Essen
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
Theo and Kit were childhood best friends who fell in love and were inseparable into their twenties…until a fight on the way to their dream vacation changed everything. Now, it’s four years later, and the voucher for this food and wine-tasting tour across Europe is about to expire, so Theo books the trip solo at the last possible moment—only to find that Kit had the same idea. Stuck on the same trip for weeks, they hesitantly begin to rebuild their friendship. Along the way, they make a bet about who can sleep with someone first in each of the cities they visit.
This may be my new favorite romance novel. The descriptions of food and drink, plus the beautiful locales, make this feel so decadent. It’s steamy and sweet at the same time, with a heavy dose of yearning. —Danika Ellis
There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif Abdurraqib hails from Ohio, the same state as basketball legend LeBron James. This book explores how their lives have mirrored each other in fascinating ways that reveal deep truths about success, home, identity, and hope. It’s also brilliantly structured like an actual basketball game. Abdurraqib’s writing always pairs personal narrative with astute cultural critique. And I believe this is his most vulnerable work to date. I’ve only read it once, but I know it is a book so rich with layers that new and brilliant gems will continue to fall from its pages on every successive reread. —Isabelle Popp
Splinters by Leslie Jamison
In this memoir of early motherhood and divorce, the author examines why her marriage fell apart before her daughter turned one and how to chart a very different path forward than the one she imagined. It’s a story about how Jamison learned to balance the push and pull of being both an artist and a mother (but not a wife). It’s a story, more broadly, about self-romanization versus self-discovery. It felt like a strange book to become completely engrossed in when I was newly married and pregnant this winter. But from page one I was completely captivated by both the storytelling and the beautiful prose. —Alison Doherty
Find the whole list of 100 Notable Books of 2024 at the New York Times.
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