Top 10 Books of 2024-- So Far
Honorable Mentions:
The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
I have to admit that I would never have picked up Fourth Wing on my own. Every year for Christmas my best friend and I give each other books, and this was the audiobook that arrived in my email Christmas morning rather than a drugstore paperback in my stocking or hardcover under the tree like I would get as a kid. Violet Sorengail is a self-proclaimed nerd who looked forward to studying to be the equivalent of a librarian in her society, but she is instead being sent to train as a warrior and dragon rider. Of course, there is a boy and part of why this is only honorable mention is because I don’t want to read about weird sex with dragons having to be silenced in your head. But the story is well crafted, and the characters Violet meets are enduring as she manages to stay alive during her first year of dragon riding “college.”
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
I have to admit, I didn’t love this book so much as I loved the speculative ideas that drove the last colony at the end of the world. In the story, there is a mysterious fog that has killed off all humans outside the island, which has a security system on it built by the scientists in charge of the 122 villagers that live there. As long as they are all safe and content working, they are able to survive. Until the security system goes out and the villagers and scientists have to fix it before it is too late. Without giving away how the plot unfolds, beyond loving me a good end of the world story, the other hypothetical issues that are brought up along the way make great discussion pieces for a book club.
10. One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware
I loved this book because I am not a huge fan of reality television, and the plot of the book revolved around a collection of couples that are placed on a tropical island to compete in challenges to show they are the “perfect couple.” Of course, the twist is that rewards are nights with guests who are not their significant other. On the first night there is a massive storm that ravages the survival precautions the show had in place and the islanders are unable to reach the crew of the show stationed on a ship offshore. They are stranded on the island with no communication abilities and things start to go a bit Lord of the Flies. Ultimately the twists did get me and I enjoyed the closed room mystery feel for the modern age.
This book is TWISTY. The basic plot revolves around young Bel Price having to retell the story of her mother’s disappearance when Bel was only a baby for a documentary being made about the story. In an attempt to earn some money her father has agreed to have her appear alongside her father and her aunt, uncle and cousin who live down the street in remembering Rachel Price and the night she disappeared. Her grandfather, who is suffering from dementia, is also part of the close-knit family. Foiling this plan on the onset is the reappearance of her mother, Rachel. From there the case is afoot and Bel teams up with the quirky member of the documentary team to really figure out what happened to her mother when she went missing for more than a decade.
Okay, I am a guilty lover of the twisty mystery genre that is huge right now. I offer no apologies. I was reading Mary Higgins Clark when I was 11 and my favorite book of all time is The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. I also blame the fact that I chose this book on the fact that I am a child of the ‘80’s that anything with a cult instantly piques my interest. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels is just that. It is well known, in the context of the book, that the Alperton Angels convinced a young mother that her child was the anti-Christ and should be killed. When she finally escaped to the police in an effort to save her child, the cult—as a whole-- commits suicide. Enter Amanda Bailey, a true-crime writer trying to make a comeback, and what ensues is an eerie investigation that begins to, seemingly literally, haunt her own life.
Gillian McAllister is really good at weaving twisty backstories and mysteries that are engrossing because of the character as well as the plot. This story stars Julia, a detective with a rocky home life with her husband and a teenage daughter she adores. When a 22-year-old female goes missing down a dead-end alley on CCTV, Julia takes the case knowing the stress it will add to her home life. What unfolds surprisingly calls into question not only the back story of the missing girl, but Julia as well. This story was so intricate I had to reread a few parts to make sure I was catching onto what was unfolding.
This is my pick for the most overlooked book of the year. There is a huge literary movement in the indigenous community at the moment. As an English teacher, it has been a struggle to meet new state standards requiring the written word by our native tribes. They are a community steeped in oral tradition. This story doesn’t focus on the mythology of the Mi’kmaq tribe of Northeastern Canada, and one of my favorite areas in the world, Nova Scotia, however. The plot starts with the disappearance of Ruthie while her family has migrated to the states for berry picking season. The older brother tasked with watching her tells part of the story and the rest of the story is told by Norma – a woman who has never found herself in her sixty’s era white family—spoiler alert--Ruthie. The story is a search for identity and how our roots help to establish our personal identity as we come of age.
I had read about this book and was curious but not overly excited. When it became available in my queue at the library, I was at a break in books so I started it and was glad that I had added it. I love a story with a group of girlfriends. I think it is because I have a love/hate relationship with the relationships themselves. Unless I mesh with a whole group, I am a relative one to one relationship person. (Tri Delta Love though, ladies). This particular group is an equestrian team in college. (This is about as far from my college experience as possible). Amidst all the girl drama, one of them dies in a riding “accident” with the rest of the group present, except for the protagonist Rosie. Rosie lived in the groups home in the same room with Annelise, the girl who died. Annelise had been a free spirit who read Tarot cards to earn money for riding and school. Interspersed through the well plotted mystery surrounding Annelise’s life and death, are explanations of some of the Tarot cards’ meanings. I found these epigrams to be enlightening as well as aptly fitting for each part of the tale. In between all the moving pieces, Kapelke-Dale wrote a tight narrative that won’t fail to surprise you.
There are several authors that when their next books are announced I get practically giddy. Tana French is one of them. I will say, it was my least favorite of her books—but that doesn’t knock this story any the less. This book is actually a second in the tales of Cal Hooper. He is an American cop who left behind the grizzly streets of Chicago for a seemingly sleepy Western Ireland village. In the first book, which you do not have to read in order understand this book, he helps a young Irish girl investigate her brother’s disappearance. All you need to know for this book is Trey, the teenager, has beef with the townspeople. Cal’s seemingly peaceful world of carpentry, Trey, his girl Lena and a few pints at the pub is disrupted when Trey’s no-good, smarmy father returns with a British man looking for gold. What unfolds looks into the dark sides of the town, Trey’s father and the Irish traditions that are less endearing than those of St. Patty’s Day lore.
If you read Nita Prose’s The Maid you know that Molly the Maid is on the spectrum and her portrayal of a maid in an upper class hotel in England is quirky and an apt depiction of how a very concrete-sequential autistic person would react to situations in a social world. In The Mystery Guest the delightful Molly is back and along with the characters who inhabited the world of the Regency Grand Hotel. However, this time around a mystery writer who hasn’t written in years is set to make an announcement at the hotel. Fans and media are teeming at the hotel when it is discovered the writer is dead. Molly is on the case and what she finds ultimately becomes part of the Molly the Maid origin story.
Despite my Irish and German ancestry, outside of Ireland I have never felt more at home in my travels than in Greece. As The Fury is set in the Greek islands, that would be reason enough for me to read the book and bask in the glow of secondary Greek island life. But I also love twisted relationship stories and suspense stories. At the center of The Fury is the death, rather murder, of Lana Ferrar a famous movie star. Each year she grabs her posse and travels to the sun of her private Greek island. Of course, with old friends there are old stories, old memories and old grudges. I would not have guessed the depth of the dysfunction of these relationships as the truth begins to come out. Although I didn’t feel satisfied with the ending, it did leave me wondering and thinking as well…a good way to make sure your reader doesn’t forget the book!
Katherine Arden is by far the least acknowledged gifted writer of our time. Her Winternight Trilogy was a beautiful saga set in Russia and involves lore and magical realism—I never wanted that trilogy to end I was so encompassed by the world created. That magical realism plays into The Warm Hands of Ghosts as well the juxtaposition of two different true historical occurrences in the book – World War I and the explosion of a tanker in Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Another Nova Scotia book—my friend Lisa and I were so 24 years ahead of our time in our obsession to take a road trip there). Laura Iven is a nurse who served overseas in the war. While home in Halifax, she lost her parents and homes in the devastating fire that followed the ship’s explosion. She herself also suffered injuries while she tried to nurse other victims. She has not been able to locate her brother Freddie in his battles over sea – he has been reported missing but she swears he is alive. Given the opportunity to return to France, she undergoes a search for her brother. Among the cast of characters that are met on the journey is a hotelier that is more than he appears, and he symbolizes a truly haunting take on how “shell shock” truly affected all those involved in The Great War.
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