I’m approaching 20 years of tracking what I read each year, an obsession made easier thanks to bookish social media. (I’m a regular GoodReads user though I really favor Storygraph, thanks to its data visualization and lack of Amazon affiliation. Old habits are hard to break.) Quantity is only one indication of how the year of reading has treated me, but it’s always telling. In 2020, when we had nothing but time, I read 150 books for the first time. And in 2024, when time and attention both felt elusive, I clocked in at 44 books.
Each year my dear friend Rachel Burchfield Appling invites me on her podcast, “I’d Rather Be Reading,” to discuss the year in books. Our fourth-annual year in review is live now. And though this was one of my slimmest reading years since I started tracking, we still found plenty to discuss.
I’m linking to my favorite books of 2024 below, but you’ll have to listen to the full episode to learn why I loved them. You’ll also hear Rachel and I discuss orange cats (of course), the books I reread this year and the books we’re looking forward to in 2025. And I’d love to hear from you! What were your favorite books this year? What’s at the top of your TBR?
- Meditation for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman (Listen to Rachel’s interview with Oliver!)
- Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music by Rob Sheffield (I interviewed Sheffield for BookPage, and it was one of the most fun interviews I’ve conducted in my 20-year career.)
- Just Like Glass: A Family Memoir by Amy Wight Chapman
- Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley (OK, you don’t have to listen to the episode to learn why I loved this one. I also reviewed it for BookPage.)
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
- Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Past year in review episodes:
- 2023 in review (My favorite book was The Quickening: Antarctica, Motherhood and Cultivating Hope in a Warming World by Elizabeth Rush, which I reviewed for BookPage.)
- 2022 in review
- 2021 in review
I’ll note that I’ve linked to Bookshop.org whenever possible; they don’t have Just Like Glass. You can select your local store on Bookshop.org and they’ll receive a portion of the proceeds from your purchase. I prefer this to shopping with Amazon, though I recognize that sometimes shopping at a significant discount is the only way buying books is accessible for someone. But my first choice is shopping locally! If you can, do. And don’t forget about your local library!