List

The 10 Best Books of 2024

Across all categories and genres, these 10 books are standout selections from an excellent reading year.

Animal Albums from A to Z

Featuring songs with vivid characters, bizarre storylines and plenty of humor, Animal Albums from A to Z is the best kind of weird and wonderful.

American History, History

Challenger

By Adam Higginbotham

Challenger proves Adam Higginbotham is a master chronicler of disasters, piercing through politics, power and bureaucracies with laser-sharp focus.

Mystery

Exposure

By Ramona Emerson

Exposure is equally—if not more—electrifying than Ramona Emerson’s debut, the National Book Award-longlisted Shutter.

Contemporary Romance

How to End a Love Story

By Yulin Kuang

How to End a Love Story is a mature, compelling and relatable romance that resists simplifying its characters at every turn.

YA, YA Fiction

Icarus

By K. Ancrum

In her extraordinary fifth novel, Icarus, K. Ancrum performs a confident high-wire act, balancing the weighty manifestations of connection, desire and contradiction.

Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

Percival Everett’s visionary and necessary reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, James, is a standout in an era of retellings. Everett matches Mark Twain in voice, tale-spinning talent and humor, while deeply engaging with what Twain failed to acknowledge: the reality of life for enslaved people.

Children's, Middle Grade

The Curse of Eelgrass Bog

By Mary Averling

Mary Averling bewitches with her debut middle grade novel, The Curse of Eelgrass Bog, which straddles the line between slimy and sweet, concocting a fantasy world that balances snarky demons, magical bogs, concerned witches and awe-inspiring serpents.

Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

The Empusium

By Olga Tokarczuk, Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk looses her deft, dark satirical wit on the rigid patriarchal world of pre-World War I Europe. The result is an enchanting, unsettling bildungsroman like nothing you’ve read before.

Fantasy, Historical Fantasy

The Warm Hands of Ghosts

By Katherine Arden

The author of the marvelous Winterlight trilogy returns to historical fantasy with this haunting tale set during World War I. Former nurse Laura Iven’s parents recently died in an accident, and her brother, Freddie, was declared MIA. But what actually happened to Freddie is far stranger.

Memoir

There’s Always This Year

By Hanif Abdurraqib

Hanif Abdurraqib’s captivating There’s Always This Year is a powerful meditation on place and community.

Best Books by genre

Previous Best Books lists

Recent starred reviews

Children's, Picture Book

Bearsuit Turtle Makes a Friend

By Bob Shea

Bob Shea understands the power of subversive humor and honest truth. Combining the two, Bearsuit Turtle Makes a Friend is a laugh-out-loud romp that won’t just have kids giggling: It will have them begging for a reread.

Children's, Middle Grade

Whale Eyes

By James Robinson

James Robinson’s Whale Eyes is a superb middle grade memoir that champions empathy and understanding on every level.

Children's, Picture Book

A Book of Maps for You

By Lourdes Heuer, Maxwell Eaton

Readers will delight in the small, often humorous details of Lourdes Heuer and Maxwell Eaton III’s ingenious A Book of Maps for You, which is the kind of story that will follow you wherever you go.

Children's, Picture Book

Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa

By Juana Martinez-Neal, Sara Andrea Fajardo

Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa is not to be missed, and may have readers gazing at potatoes in an entirely new light.

Across all categories and genres, these 10 books are standout selections from an excellent reading year.

Our most anticipated books of the year

List by the editors of BookPage

Our most anticipated books of 2025

A new year has dawned and with it, a whole new slate of incredible books, with titles from Han Kang, Markus Zusak, R.F. Kuang and more.

Available 01/21/2025

Memoir

Three Wild Dogs (and the truth)

By Markus Zusak

Not long before Markus Zusak completed his book tour for his chart-topping novel, The Book Thief, he and his wife decided to adopt a dog languishing at the local pound. Then another. And finally, after the first pair eventually died, a third. All three were so-called “difficult dogs”: “Gangsters, gunmen. Soldiers,” he writes. “ADHD on legs.” In this debut memoir, Zusak tells the story of his writing and family life through these beasts, who were indefatigable perpetrators of lawlessness and intimidation—but still worthy of love.

Available 01/21/2025

Literary Fiction

We Do Not Part

By Han Kang, Translated by e. yaewon, Translated by Paige Aniyah Morris

Han Kang’s novels reflect human nature across what she described—in an interview with BookPage about The Vegetarian—as “a spectrum that stretches from holiness to horror.” Han was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature for the fierceness with which she “confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” Her abilities are at their most undeniable and radiant in We Do Not Part, which tells the story of an author haunted by having written a book about the 1980 massacre in Gwangju, Korea, who braves an overpowering snowstorm to do a favor for her friend.

Available 01/28/2025

Black History, History

Black in Blues

By Imani Perry

Imani Perry showed her ability to weave historical research with sharp, sparkling analysis in 2022’s National Book Award-winning South to America. In Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, she explores how the color blue has been intertwined with Black life: in the dyeing of indigo, the religious traditions of various African cultures, the literature of Zora Neale Hurston, the revolutionary politics of Black freedom fighters and much more.

Available 02/04/2025

Children's, Middle Grade

All the Blues in the Sky

By Renée Watson

With her unique propensity for writing about complex emotions and difficult situations for young audiences, Renee Watson might be the queen of middle grade. It’s no wonder that we’re excited for her newest offering, All the Blues in the Sky, which explores grief as it follows its 13-year-old protagonist, Sage, through the aftermath of her best friend’s death.

Available 02/04/2025

Essays

Pure Innocent Fun

By Ira Madison III

Pop culture maven, TV writer and podcaster Ira Madison III serves his cultural critiques with a side of spit take-inducing humor. His debut essay collection is like a brunch date with your sharpest, most hilarious friend—the one who never holds back their opinions. Here, Madison riffs on everything from the bewildering appeal of Tom Cruise to his identification with Daria to boy bands of yesteryear (err . . . the early aughts). Pure Innocent Fun promises to be a worthy romp.

Available 02/11/2025

YA, YA Fiction

(S)Kin

By Ibi Zoboi

Ibi Zoboi racked up accolades with American Street (a National Book Award finalist) and Nigeria Jones (a Coretta Scott King Award winner), among others in the bestselling author’s extensive bibliography. (S)kin sees Zoboi pivot to fantasy as this novel-in-verse follows two girls grappling with the magic they have inherited as soucouyants: fireball witches who, every new moon, shed their skin in order to fly into the night and feed on human blood.

Available 03/04/2025

Literary Fiction

Wild Dark Shore

By Charlotte McConaghy

Bestselling Australian author Charlotte McConaghy does a lot of research for her ecologically informed novels: Her first two books to be published in the U.S., Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, required her to investigate Arctic terns and Scotland’s gray wolves. Her latest, Wild Dark Shore, takes a seed bank on an island near Antarctica as its setting, where rising sea levels have driven away all human caretakers except for one man, Dominic Salt, and his children . . . until a mysterious woman named Rowan washes ashore in a storm.

Available 03/18/2025

YA, YA Fiction

Sunrise on the Reaping

By Suzanne Collins

Suzanne Collins continued the legacy of the Hunger Games series through yet another smash hit with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Sunrise on the Reaping extends this young adult saga, which has received a rare outpouring of both critical and commercial acclaim. This prequel explores the tragic backstory of fan favorite Haymitch Abernathy during his own Hunger Games, years before the original series.

Available 03/18/2025

Medicine, Science

Everything Is Tuberculosis

By John Green

Apart from his literary accomplishments (The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down), John Green is a notable philanthropist, having created a string of nonprofit charity projects and a foundation alongside his brother, Hank. Green is an advocate for health care equality and, most notably, has been using his platform to address policies and regulations regarding tuberculosis, a preventable and curable disease that is nonetheless a leading cause of death in Africa, especially among children. Everything Is Tuberculosis asks readers to join the fight to save them.

Available 04/01/2025

Children's, Middle Grade

The Cartoonists Club

By Raina Telgemeier, Illustrated by Scott McCloud

Raina Telgemeier has captured the hearts of countless readers and critics with her bestselling graphic memoirs, Smile, Sisters and Guts (she won Eisner Awards for the first two). Now she teams up with Scott McCloud, author of the bestselling Understanding Comics and member of the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame, for this new graphic series, which depicts a group of young comics creators as they learn more about the art form that has enthralled so many of Telgemeier and McCloud’s fans.

Available 04/22/2025

Contemporary Romance

Great Big Beautiful Life

By Emily Henry

After the joyfully messy, sexy joys of Funny Story, Emily Henry is returning to the meta, “books about book people” vibe of Book Lovers and Beach Read, featuring a grumpy/sunshine pairing. Great Big Beautiful Life will follow aspiring novelist Alice Scott (our sunshine) and acclaimed author Hayden Anderson (our grump) as they compete for the chance to write the life story of infamous heiress Margaret Ives.

Available 05/13/2025

Literary Fiction

The Emperor of Gladness

By Ocean Vuong

It’s been six years since Ocean Vuong’s fiction debut, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, and although fans drank down his 2022 poetry offering, Time Is a Mother, anticipation for a second novel has been feverish and unrelenting. We can hardly believe it’s almost here! The Emperor of Gladness is set in Connecticut, and partially inspired by Vuong’s time spent working as a fast-food server.

Available 05/13/2025

Mystery, Noir

Fever Beach

By Carl Hiaasen

The iconic writer (and inventor of what we like to call “Florida Guy Noir”) will return with his first novel for adults in four years, Fever Beach, a zany Sunshine State caper that begins with Dale Figgo, a man so stupid he was kicked out of the Proud Boys for being incompetent, picking up a hitchhiker. Things will, of course, soon spiral out of control in classic Hiaasen fashion, pulling in shady billionaires and dark money and skulduggery galore.

Available 05/13/2025

Biography, Literature

Mark Twain

By Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton may have launched him into mainstream fame with the success of Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical adaptation, but the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer (for George Washington) is not resting on his laurels. Mark Twain is sure to illuminate the eponymous author’s life and times with delightfully excessive research and a brisk narrative pace. Fans of Twain and Chernow best set aside their TBR piles to indulge in this 1,200-page whopper from one of the eminent historians of our time.

Available 05/27/2025

Literary Fiction

Disappoint Me

By Nicola Dinan

One of BookPage’s Best Books of 2023, Nicola Dinan’s debut, Bellies, was the real deal—a story of first love and heartbreak written with the exhilarating vulnerability of a Sally Rooney novel. We can’t wait to see what she does with the premise of her sophomore effort: A millennial trans woman begins dating a corporate lawyer in the hope that his highly traditional take on romance will fill the emotional void of her 30s.

Available 06/03/2025

Fantasy, Historical Fantasy

The Listeners

By Maggie Stiefvater

The adored author of YA classics The Raven Cycle, The Scorpio Races and the Shiver Trilogy will finally make her adult debut with The Listeners, which seems of a piece with the dreamy, fabulist fantasy of The Raven Cycle. The Listeners will follow a midcentury hotel owner who is the only person who can “manage” the possibly/probably magical hot springs that have made the West Virginia hotel a luxury destination. However, it’s also 1942, and when the hotel owners make a deal with the State Department to house captured Axis diplomats, the beautiful environs are soon crawling with Nazis.

Available 06/10/2025

Noir, Thriller

King of Ashes

By S.A. Cosby

The lauded author of All the Sinners Bleed (our Best Mystery of 2023), S.A. Cosby has become one of the kings of Southern noir thanks to his fusion of genre thrills with matter-of-fact social commentary. His next novel, King of Ashes, is reportedly inspired by The Godfather, and there are few people better suited to provide a new take on that classic saga than Cosby, who understands that there are few things more American than crime.

Available 06/24/2025

Family Saga, Literary Fiction

I’ll Be Right Here

By Amy Bloom

Amy Bloom’s books have always been deeply felt, and her 2022 memoir, In Love, plunged readers deeper than ever, relating her husband’s treatment for early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and the end of his life. Her new novel, I’ll Be Right Here, sounds exceptional: a book that spans decades, celebrating “the lawlessness of love” through the story of four friends living in New York City who forge an enduring bond that transforms them into family.

Available 08/26/2025

Fantasy

Katabasis

By R.F. Kuang

After a quick little detour telling the publishing industry about itself (2023’s ferocious satire, Yellowface), R.F. Kuang is back to fantasy and working in the mode that she, as an accomplished scholar, absolutely dominates: dark academia. And this time, it’s a dark academia love story. Between two scholars who have to go to hell to save their adviser’s soul. We do not deserve her.

Available 10/21/2025

European History, History

Motherland

By Julia Ioffe

U.S. national security, foreign policy and politics reporter Julia Ioffe makes her literary debut with Motherland, a book that seeks to show how Russia’s history is inextricably linked to its women. Ioffe, whose family escaped the Soviet Union and migrated to New York City when she was 7, puts her formidable journalism skills to use as she braids family memoir with history, illuminating how the country’s treatment of women paved the way to the rise of today’s authoritarian government.

Most anticipated by genre

Previous most anticipated coverage