The Great Big Book Wrap Up of 2024

What Worked, What Didn't, & My Top 10 Books of the Year

Yes, yes, I know it’s 2025, but I wasn’t quite ready to let 2024 go without recapping what I read this year!

My initial thought was that the last year hadn’t been a stellar one for my reading life. I quit several books that I simply could not get into, struggled to get through a few longer books, and truly hated a few books other people loved.

But when I looked back at the whole (I read 57 books last year), I realized there were more than a handful of books I truly loved, and a few theme that really worked in my reading life.

In the book Stolen Focus, author Johann Hari quotes a researcher who describes reading fiction as going to “an empathy gym",” and I certainly felt that throughout my reading this year.

I love how a novel can instantly situate me in the world of a young, unmarried pregnant woman or a deaf-blind man or a convicted felon. These novels often made me laugh or cry, but they also helped me understand something about what it means to be a human with a different experience than my own. And how valuable is that in today’s hyper-individualistic world?

I hope you find something here that feels like exactly what you need to read today or 6 months from now. I’ve divided the list into general themes that I loved this year.¹ And, if you’re curious, here’s a graph of how my reading life broke down across moods this year.

This was apparently not the year for sad, dark, or challenging books. Take that as you will.

I plan to do more regular reading conversations throughout the year, but if you want to follow along, let’s be friends on Storygraph or GoodReads! Open up that Libby app and get ready to add a few new books to your list!

Things That Worked For Me This Year

Family and Found Family

Give me all the loving dysfunction, the messy and silly and tender stuff that makes up a family. I simply adored these stories about the families we’re given and the families we make.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles²- Margo’s plan to graduate from college and make something of herself is derailed when a short-lived affair with her professor leaves her pregnant and alone. Determined to keep the baby, she starts an OnlyFans account to support them both, eventually gaining help from her estranged ex-pro-wrestler father. Writing this premise sounds absurd even to myself, but I can’t begin to emphasize how compassionate, nuanced, and human this story is. Quirky and funny, but also achingly tender, it’s in my top 5 of the year, easily. This would make a great book club pick, as there are so many things to discuss!

Sandwich- A 50-something woman in the throes of menopause, Rocky’s life is balanced on the seesaw between her two young adult kids and her aging parents. All of them will gather for their annual one week vacation in Cape Cod, where secrets will be revealed and everyone will grapple with how life can be so beautiful and so terrible at the same time. There's a lot of grief in this book, but there's also a lot of joy and silliness and good food and gorgeous sunsets, and gosh, if holding all those things isn't the hardest and best thing we can do, I don't know what is.

This Is How It Always Is- A big, messy family story that centers Penn, Rosie, and their five children, the youngest being Claude, a boy who, at a very young age, realizes he might not be a boy. Loving, hilarious, and just as dysfunctional as everyone else, the story gives us a glimpse into the challenges and joys Penn and Rosie face as they navigate this new reality. This was EXCELLENT on audio.

The Berry Pickers- Quietly devastating and emotionally charged, I was fully engrossed in this story of an indigenous family ripped apart by tragedy, and the long road that eventually leads them back home.

The Sign for Home- Arlo is a young deaf blind man struggling to find agency in a world tightly controlled by his uncle, a strict Jehovah’s Witness and his legal guardian. With a ragtag group of old and new friends, he finds a way to answer burning questions from his past, and write his own happy ending. An inspiring, life-affirming read.

Unusual Premises

Several of my favorites of the year began with a quirky, offbeat premise. This holds true for last year as well when Shark Heart snagged my top spot.

The Husbands- Lauren comes home one night to discover her husband climbing down from the attic. The only problem is she’s single. What follows is a fun romp through the modern dating scene (a swipe-left dating app come to life) as the attic delivers a rotating cast of spouses to Lauren. In a world with seemingly endless choices, how do we find contentment and choose “the one”? I loved the way Lauren gets to explore different paths her life might’ve taken and different people she might’ve been or loved. I HIGHLY recommend the audio narration for this one.

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer- Kathy only has one job as a grim reaper: to escort the recently deceased from earth to their next destination. But when a young teenager insists his death wasn’t natural, Kathy is thrust into a mystery she never asked for. This premise is killer (ha, obviously), but what surprised me the most was how tender I felt towards these characters. If you love unlikely friendships, this is the book for you!

Chain Gang All Stars- In the not so distant future, the U.S. prison system has developed traveling chain gangs of convicted felons, whose daily lives and organized fighting rings are filmed for the nation’s entertainment. Beautiful and brutal in equal measure, the author highlights the humanity of the prisoners while skewering the system that so easily dismisses it. It’s a story about many things, but finding hope, community, and dignity in the most dire of circumstances was the one I found most impactful. Content warnings ABOUND, so be aware.

Non-Fiction

Non-fiction only makes up about 20% of my reading, but I often find it’s the most impactful.

If You Can’t Take the Heat- This book surprised me in the best way. I originally picked it up because of the eye-catching cover, but this memoir from food writer Geraldine DeRuiter turned out to be spectacularly funny, insightful, and moving. My favorite line: “Maybe a recipe is a way of keeping the people you love alive forever.” I aspire to write about the connections between food, justice, and our humanity in a way that is even half as hilarious or thought provoking.

Theologizin’ Bigger- If you’re looking for a gospel theology that is robust, hopeful, liberating, inclusive, and truly good news (for everyone), Trey Ferguson is a worthy guide. Many theology books are stuffy or, honestly, pretentious, but you won’t find any of that here. Trey’s work is extremely accessible, but doesn’t just stick to shallow waters. He has a prophetic voice that both exposes unjust power structures and illuminates a path to living in a way that aligns with the abundant Kingdom of God. I highlighted the heck out of this one, and will be revisiting again, I’m sure.

I would LOVE (love!) to hear about your favorite books of the year (or the ones you hated, too, let’s be honest). What themes or genres did you enjoy the most this year? What book did you want to throw against the wall? Let’s help each other fill up those library holds!

1. As with any reading, trigger warnings apply to some of these books. My favorite place to look at content warnings is Storygraph. Search for any book, scroll to the bottom, and see a full list of potential content warnings, rated from mild to graphic.

2. All the links here are affiliate links to bookshop.org. I’ll always encourage you to support your local book store in person or through Bookshop!