The six best books I've read in 2024
A mid-year look at the books that have made a liar out of me and my reading goal
Welcome back to Words on Words, where readers discuss what we love about literature. (Also happy Fourth of July to my American friends!)
I thought coming up with my six favorite books from the first six months of the year would be simple, but I had to do some serious consideration for this. It turns out I have read a ton of great books, and six is such a small number.
The downside to my excellent reading year so far is that I’m not doing a great job of sticking to my reading threshold, which is a twist on a Goodreads goal. (You can read about that here.) How am I doing with my goal? Well, I’m nine books ahead of schedule, so not awesome. But I think that translates to a really good reading year so far.
After much deliberation, here is a list of six books to go read if you want to have as good a reading experience the second half of the year as I did the first half:
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
How fitting to be obsessed with a book about obsession. The narrator of Vladimir is an unnamed 58-year-old professor whose husband, a professor in the same department, is facing allegations for sexual misconduct. The narrator becomes quite fixated on Vladimir Vladinsky, the new professor in town. In the prologue we learn the narrator has captured Vladimir and he is currently asleep. The rest of the book explains how she got herself into this predicament. I adored this gritty book, and I applaud author Julia May Jonas for her spellbinding debut.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
I have never read a book like this before. It is so luscious, so indulgent, I don’t even know how to use my own words to discuss the words inside this book. I listened to it, which is a departure from my normal way to consume fiction. But I am so glad I went the audiobook route because the author Ocean Vuong narrates it and it is exquisite. My heart is aflutter right now as I think about his narration. The book is a letter written from twenty-eight-year-old Little Dog to his mother who cannot read. In the letter, we learn about their Vietnamese descent, Little Dog’s first sexual experience, his being bullied by his peers, and their shared experience as immigrants in the U.S.
“I am writing because they told me to never start a sentence with because,” Little Dog says. “But I wasn't trying to make a sentence—I was trying to break free. Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.”
A one-star reviewer on Goodreads says of this book that the prose is “so purple it is supra-spectral. After a few pages you want to stop and read something less pretentious.”
Yes, the prose is flowery (what many refer to as purpose prose), but Vuong is not flexing his poetic muscles to hide a lack of meaning. I think the real pretension is the reviewer writing a scathing review without having finished the book. But I digress — this book is heart-wrenching, touching, and aptly gorgeous.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
When I heard this book had an octopus narrator, I skipped right over it and chose a different book to read. But I kept hearing about it all over my feeds, thought about how much I adored a different book with an animal narrator, and I decided to give it a go.
I am so glad I did! Marcellus the octopus is one of my favorite narrators ever. This story is about curmudgeonly Marcellus, who is nearing the end of his life in captivity, and 70-year-old Tova, who works the night shift cleaning the aquarium in which Marcellus is held captive. The two — Marcellus and Tova — become friends, and he helps her crack the code about the disappearance of her son thirty years ago.
It’s light-hearted and uplifting; quite the opposite of the first two books on this list.
Self Care by
I absolutely tore through this satirical story of the health wellness influencer culture. Self Care follows the two female founders of an app called Richual, which is a feminist platform that encourages and promotes self-care. Throughout the book, readers are inundated with influencer prompts that are so specific it feels like a real-life scroll through Instagram.
An example from one of the protagonists, Maren: “I held up my ten-dollar coconut water kale celery mango smoothie as evidence of my superiority and newfound devotion to treating my body like a temple.”
Satires are supposed to be funny, and this one pushes the boundaries into hilarity.
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue
Simultaneously hilarious and serious, The Rachel Incident is a breezy book about Rachel and her best friend and roommate, James, who are in their twenties and living in Ireland during a looming financial crisis. Rachel falls in love with her professor (shocker!) and James helps her devise a plan to connect with him, but as they do, the plan falls short and takes Rachel, her professor, and James in unforeseen directions.
I laughed out loud many times while reading this book. The writing is sharp, witty, and completely charming (just like all the Irish people I know).
In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri
It’s my Year of Jhumpa, so naturally I have to share one of her books. I have loved every book of hers I’ve read, but In Other Words resonated with me on a molecular level. It’s Lahiri’s memoir about moving to Italy, abandoning the English language, and finding out who she is in an adopted land. She wrote the book in Italian, and I read the copy with parallel texts, or Italian on one page and English on the left. In the book she says that reading in a foreign language is the most intimate way of reading, and, having read it in the language in which it was conceived, I felt that deeply.
Lahiri’s story is fascinating, her writing is incomparable, and this particular story of her relocating to Italy was one of the most meaningful books I read all year.
What are the best books you’ve read this year? What are you hoping to read in the second half?
What I’m reading: Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo. I am taking my time with this one because I never want it to end. The writing is glorious, and I know if I were to round up my six favorites once I finish it, I’d have to bump one of the above books off.
What are you reading? See you next week!
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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is one of my favorite novels. A paradigm of fearlessness. I teach it every year in my AP Lit class.
The best books I've read so far this year are The Torqued Man by Peter Mann and When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut.