Episode 34 - Best of 2024 Part 1

On this episode, past guests of Books with Betsy and I share our favorite books of 2024! Listen to hear about lots of great 2024 books and the excellent backlist we got to this year. 

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

Betsy’s Best Categorically (books that…): 

Shocked me: 

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix 

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell 

The Night House by Jo Nesbø

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra 

Made me Cry:

North Woods by Daniel Mason 

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray 

Underrated:

God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer by Joseph Earl Thomas 

Witness by Jamel Brinkley 

Victim by Andrew Boryga 

Fire Exit by Morgan Talty 

Recommend Widely:

Erasure by Percival Everett 

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar 

Hard to Recommend: 

Yr Dead by Sam Sax 

Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina 

Made me Think About my Life Differently:

When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era by Donovan X. Ramsey

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman 

 

Books Highlighted by Guests:

Mawuli Grant Agbefe: 

Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel and Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer 

Having and Being Had by Eula Bliss 

Your Face Belongs to Us: A Tale of AI, a Secretive Startup, and the End of Privacy by Kashmir Hill

Mean Girl Feminism: How White Feminists Gaslight, Gatekeep, and Girlboss by Kim Hong Nguyen

We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson

Mapping the Stars: Celebrity, Metonymy and the Networked Politics of Identity by Claire Sisco King

Sam Wilmes: 

Such Kindness by Andre Dubus III 

We Spread by Iain Read

We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer 

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell  

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

Amie Medley: 

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen 

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 

North Woods by Daniel Mason 

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño

Tanima Kazi: 

The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi 

One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig 

Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig 

Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose 

The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose 

Stacy Jezerowski: 

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman 

Beautiful Villain by Rebecca Kenney

Sarah Sabet: 

Klara & The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 

Atonement by Ian McEwan 

Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler

The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden 

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Anna Deem: 

The Nix by Nathan Hill 

Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna

Cat Shieh: 

Give Me Space But Don’t Go Far: My Unlikely Friendship with Anxiety by Haley Weaver

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber 

Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates 

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee 

Mo Smith: 

The Truth About Melody Browne by Lisa Jewell

The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley 

The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop

All The Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker 

Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Sophie Cousens

Leah @Dishingonbooks: 

Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen 

Grief is For People by Sloane Crosley

Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán 

James by Percival Everett 

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole 

Emily McClanathan: 

Babel by R.F. Kuang 

Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson 

Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan 

A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tia Levings