Episode 34 - Best of 2024 Part 1

Books with Betsy

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