2024 Best Books So Far – Mid Year Wrap Up!
The first half of 2024 has already flown by, so it is time to do one of our favorite posts – our Mid Year Wrap Up of our favorite books of the year so far.
This post is a wrap up of the favorite books we have read in the first half of 2024. The books included are not necessarily ones that were released in 2024, just that we read them in 2024.
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Best Books Wrap Up Schedule
We really love it when book reviewers post “best books” lists to see what we might want to add to our TBR.
Not every month is a winner, (either in having books we recommend, or in the amount of reading we do!) so we are going to do quarterly wrap ups, then our year long wrap up in December!
Book Wrap Up Caveat
Its probably obvious, but our book reading wrap ups are going to be based on books that we read during the designated time period. They will not necessarily be of new books or a new novel.
Whether you’re searching for the perfect summer reading guide or must-read books for your teenage daughter, this list has something for everyone. We even have a good beach read on this list!
For more options to take to the beach, we have several other posts listing the best non-romance beach reads, plus a list of authors who write summer books like Elin Hilderbrand, because she is retiring now that her final book has been published this year.
We do have a few reads that were recent releases, while others were released years ago.
Mid Year 2024 – Reading Recap
So far this year we have read a total of 22 books. Reading = physical books & audiobooks. We are not at all about that debate as to whether audiobooks are considered reading! We love them – especially thriller books. They are perfect for that book aesthetic.
We have 12 books that we put on this list. All of these books we would definitely give as book recommendations. Not to say these will all make it to our “best of the year” wrap up come New Years Day, but we shall see!
9 of the books listed were included in our quarterly wrap up. We read 9 more books in the second quarter of the year. Only three made it onto this list.
That’s not to say the other books we read were terrible – they were essentially all 3 stars – but we try to shoot for 4 star and, of course, 5 star books to put on our lists.
The best book we read this quarter is a strong contender for being best book of the year. We will see if it keeps the top spot. It was a happy find because I had put a bunch of books on hold and saw that it was available while I waited for the others.
Turned out, it was fantastic!
2024 Best Books So Far – Genres Included
We always try to keep some variety in our reads, so hopefully we will have recommendations in several different genres in each of our book wrap ups.
In the second quarter of this year we read a poetry book, a romance, a few sci-fi books, a crime drama, a thriller, apocalyptic, and historical fiction. Wow! Until I wrote it down, I didn’t realize the variety!
This adds to the books read in the first quarter – which also included horror, magical realism, a memoir & a fantasy book.
Although romance novels are not usually books we tend to pick up, we even have one on our list this quarter.
We will put our little blurb after each book description below, and will link our full review if we have that up on the blog book review section.
[Side note – we struggle to do book reviews of books we didn’t really like. We need to get better at that. But if it is a book we liked we immediately want to do a review so we can talk about it.]
Best Books 2024 – Our Mid Year List of the Favorites So Far
These three books were the best of our reading in the second quarter of 2024:
In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart. One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched—asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business.
Easily the best book we read this quarter, and so far this year, is Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane. It is listed as a crime drama, but it is soooooo much more than that.
This knocked our socks off. It was a “slam the cover and hug it” kind of book (you can see our very professional book rating system here).
Right now, this is the book to beat in terms of best books we have read this year.
Check out our full review in this blog post.
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
Certainly not a new release, we have seen people talk about Cormac McCarthy books for years and have always wanted to check them out.
The Road was a book that kind of settled into my bones and stayed there. It wasn’t a book I immediately knew I was going to love. In fact, often times I felt it was a bit repetitive and slow.
It continued to grow on me as the story evolved and the ending absolutely sold me on this book.
Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it. So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it. And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again. Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future. Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.
This might be considered an odd choice to make this list, but it did make it because this book delivered the vibes I was hoping for.
It was a sweet, lighthearted, little romance book with some supernatural elements added to it to make it interesting. It was the summertime read I was hoping for, and for that reason, it makes the list!
Check out our full review here!
Best books 2024 – First Quarter Reads:
The following were our top reads in the first quarter of this year, so they get included in this next round as well. To see our full thoughts on them, check out our quarterly wrap up post.
Simon and Vicky couldn’t seem more normal: a wealthy Chicago couple, he a respected law professor, she an advocate for domestic violence victims. A stable, if unexciting marriage. But one thing’s for sure … absolutely nothing is what it seems. The pair are far from normal, and one of them just may be a killer. When the body of a beautiful socialite is found hanging in a mansion in a nearby suburb, Simon and Vicky’s secrets begin to unravel. A secret whirlwind affair. A twenty-million-dollar trust fund about to come due. A decades-long grudge and obsession with revenge. These are just a few of the lies that make up the complex web...and they will have devastating consequences. And while both Vicky and Simon are liars, just who exactly is conning who?
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband. I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late. But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am. They don’t know what I’m capable of…
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone. Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims? Lost texts must be found, secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous. The beauty of the House is immeasurable; its kindness infinite.
After four and a half years in a coma, Johnny Smith awakens with a knowledge of the death zone and an ability to see the future, a horrible power that he does not want and cannot escape.
No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world. For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she’s starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her―and he’s still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there. The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named Scotland, and Cooper's old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn't show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred―and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding―or finally face the sins of his past.
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.
Aidan Thomas is a hard-working family man and a somewhat beloved figure in the small upstate New York town where he lives. He’s the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone. But Aidan has a dark secret he’s been keeping from everyone in town and those closest to him. He’s a kidnapper and serial killer. Aidan has murdered eight women and there’s a ninth he has earmarked for death: Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed, fearing for her life. When Aidan’s wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter Cecilia are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a “family friend” who needs a place to stay. Aidan is betting on Rachel, after five years of captivity, being too brainwashed and fearful to attempt to escape. But Rachel is a fighter and survivor, and recognizes Cecilia might just be the lifeline she has waited for all these years. As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia’s orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan’s secret.
Widowed Nessa lives alone in her house near the ocean. In the quiet hours, she hears voices belonging to the dead – who will only speak to her.On the cusp of fifty Harriett’s marriage and career imploded, but her life is far from over – in fact, she’s undergone a stunning metamorphosis.Jo spent years at war with her body. The rage that arrived with menopause felt like the last straw – until she discovers she’s able to channel it.Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio discover the abandoned body of a teenage girl. The police have written off the victim. But the women have not. Their own investigations lead to more bodies, and a world of wealth where the rules don’t apply – and the realisation that laws are designed to protect villains, not the vulnerable.Now three women will avenge the innocent and punish the guilty. IT’S TIME.
After calling off her engagement in the wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old child, Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation. But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a diabolical plot for revenge.
Best Books 2024 – Our Mid Year List of the Favorites So Far
We hope you enjoyed this mid year wrap up, and hope you found some books that interested you! If you are looking for more book recommendations, check out our book section of the blog.
We also have posts for Stephen King Fans, Sarah J. Maas fans, YA books for adults, book reviews and more!
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Please also let us know what your top books are so far this year. We love to get book recommendations from our fellow bibliophiles!
Happy Reading!
Slowprose, book division of Slowestuff
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