18 of Alicia's favourite books in 2024
Books that made me feel deeply and taught me about the world
With that, we’re in the final days of 2024, and I’m so excited to share my 18 favourite books of the year with you.
I read 51 books this year, which averages to 4.25 books a month. In reality, I inhaled some books in two days while others took months to finish. Of these 51, 18 have made it to my favourite books of 2024. 16 are fiction (one ‘thinly disguised’), and two are non-fiction.
Interesting themes from my favourites:
two books on sisterhood
two books on divorce
two books on ‘woman quits job to work in bookshop’ (if you count a sequel, it’s three)
two dystopian books
In curating my favourites, I considered the following:
has this book made me feel something deeply?
has this book taught me something, whether about complex humanity or the world around us?
regardless of my initial impressions, has this book lingered with me?
I’m pleased that many books I read this year have met this criteria. Here they are for you, in alphabetical order.
NOTE: This post is a little long and may get cut off in emails. Please ‘view in browser’ or ‘read full story’ at the end.
Fiction
1. Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
A collection of short stories that are all so different and abstract, yet so real and beautiful. Watch out for Los Angeles (a woman lives with her husband and a hundred ex-boyfriends) and Yeti Lovemaking (I won’t spoil it for you).
2. Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
I hesitated adding this as Hello Beautiful (below) has a near-monopoly on my heart for books about sisters. But read objectively, Blue Sisters is a good read and Coco, whom I first discovered via Cleopatra and Frankenstein is a talented writer (side note: she has also written for the New York Times’s Modern Love column like me—you can read my piece here if you’d like). I suspect I would have loved it more if I had read it before Hello Beautiful.
3. Butter by Asako Yuzuki
A literary 7-course fine dining feast. Or perhaps I should call it a kaiseki, because Butter and its characters are both uncompromising and invigorating. It’s a slightly off-kilter book that is somehow a murder mystery even though we know who the killer is, a very detailed food memoir that makes me salivate, and also a magnum opus in investigative journalism. You might enjoy it if you liked The Brothers Sun on Netflix. Read my full review here.
4. Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan
One of my last reads for the year, chronicled in my very chaotic reading log. It is an ambitious state-of-the-nation novel set in a part of London very familiar to me inhabited by very different parts of English society, and Andrew delivers. I will post my full review in a couple of weeks. [EDIT: You can now read my review here.]
5. Conversations About Love by Natasha Lunn
This book came on my radar while I was dating someone, and I think I subconsciously saved it for later so that, if things worked out between us, I could learn more about love and if they didn’t, I could also learn more about love. I read it in the latter situation, and admit it took me a bit of courage to pick it up. It’s a beautiful book with so many gems and like Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton, wonderfully decentres romantic love, though there is plenty of it here too.
6. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
I loved this and it goes right into my merry collection of ‘woman quits job to work in bookshop’ books. The setting quickly becomes familiar and comforting as we follow Takako as she heals from heartbreak with the help of books and gentle people. Read my full review here.
7. Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi
Subversive of society; you will likely like this if Butter sounds good to you. It’s a short read and feels like living out a secret fantasy of living life as you please.
8. Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Nora is an icon and I’m fully onboard the train with all of her stans. She is witty, insightful, so wise, doesn’t take herself seriously, casually delivers the most cutting truths about life. Heartburn is technically fiction, but we all know it is not—a ‘thinly disguised’ book about her divorce.
9. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
I hate to pick favourites, but… Hello Beautiful might be my favourite book of the year. I have waxed lyrical about it in person and online, including in my review of it. It’s a modern retelling of Little Women, and its depiction of family and love in all its forms is so, so wonderful. Read my full review here.
10. Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
Dystopian, yet with a hard flavour of hope. It has been months and I still think about this book, where a young chef strives to keep cooking in the midst of a smog that kills most of the world’s food supply. She ends up on a white mountain in the excesses of society. Read my full review here.
11. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
Any book of Richard’s will probably end up on my favourites list and his latest instalment of his The Thursday Murder Club series is no exception. It is entertaining, a safe read, and funny to boot, with a fabulous cast of characters.
12. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
How much can be taken from us before we’re no longer who we are? A thought-provoking dystopian book about things that disappear from an island.
13. Mongrel by Hanako Footman
I squeezed Mongrel in right before Christmas and I’m so glad I did. It follows three very different Asian women with different backgrounds, seemingly unconnected, but with a palpable thread between them. When the link was revealed, my goodness—I inhaled the remainder of this book. [EDIT: You can now read my review here.]
14. Real Americans by Rachel Khong
The start didn’t appeal much to me, as it read like any other romance between a rich man and working-class woman, but it picked up about a third in. From then, I was riveted by this family epic about belonging, migration, and identity. As someone with many immigrant and second-generation immigrant friends in my book club, it’s interesting to see how we each relate to the different characters. There’s also a fascinating lotus seed.
15. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt
Before I read Hello Beautiful, I was hopelessly in love with Remarkably Bright Creatures. It has a witty, snarky, loveable octopus named Marcellus who clearly knows what all the humans should be doing—what more could you ask for? You will like it if you’re a fan of The Thursday Murder Club books. Read my full review here.
16. Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum
This Korean bestseller started my category of ‘woman quits job to work in bookshop’ books, which mainstream media now calls ‘healing fiction’. I prefer my moniker. It is gentle and I understand how Yeongju feels everything is wrong and even though she doesn’t know how to make it right, she must do something. Read my full review here.
Non-fiction
17. What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
My friends and I read this for book club, and it’s a great, more personal companion to The Body Keeps Score by Bessel ven der Kolk. I so appreciate the lengths to which Stephanie goes to heal—how despite everything she went through, she was able to recognise the necessity of breaking the pattern, breaking the bonds. She is also a journalist, which I think readers benefit from. She approaches searching for healing with the same investigative tenacity, and shares her learnings along the way. There are gems on how to regulate oneself, how to communicate with others, and so much more.
18. You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
This was one of the most soothing, comforting, healing book I’d read in ages. It doesn’t purport to be anything at all (though topically it’s about the painful undergoings of divorce), and Maggie is at pains to tell us she doesn’t fully know either. And that’s perfectly fine—whatever it is, it’s beautiful and perfect. Read my full review here.
That’s it—my 18 books this year that made me feel deeply, taught me something about the world, and that I think still think about. We do still have a few days before the year ends, so I might uncover more gems yet. If you’re looking for a short read to keep you company, I have compiled 45 books under 250 pages.
Until then, fellow book-lovers and friends. We’ll meet in the new year where more books, possibly with chaotic accompanying reading logs, await.
One day I hope to live my “women quits job to open bookstore” dreams🤩
Some of these books were on my tops lists the past two years and a few still on my TBR! Agree that women quitting job to work in bookstore is about the most healing and splendid genre there is :)