My Favorite Books of 2024

And Happy New Year's to Timothée and Kylie.

It’s here — the last day of 2024.

Everything I know about writing for the internet tells me that an end-of-year post should include some kind of poignant reflection on personal growth or an examination of all the significant cultural happenings from the past 365 days. I mean, I’ve written dozens of these things over my 10 years spent working for the content hamster wheel — end-of-year round-ups, in-and-out lists, ya know the drill. I even once wrote a summary of the year through the lens of the Kardashians. (This was the year Kourtney wore a crop top to meet politicians on Capitol Hill. Some good shit!)

But it’s New Year’s Eve and you’ve probably already read a billion of those things by now, so I’m not going to do that — even though I have a perhaps concerning abundance of thoughts about Timothée-Kylie. Or should I say Timolie? Kylothée? (That last one sounds like a Star Wars character.)

Instead, I’ll get right to telling you all about my fave books of 2024, because we are short on time, people! We’ve got pigs in a blanket to eat, drunken Anderson Coopers to watch, and crippling year-end existential crises to undergo that we’ll attempt to silence by listening to a Glennon Doyle podcast on 2.5 speed. …That last one just me? Okay!

❤️ Here are my favorite books of 2024 ❤️

📚 Good Material by Dolly Alderton: Could kind of be summed up as “British dude gets dumped, doesn’t take it well, hilarity and self-discovery ensue.” Damn, I love Dolly, even though she makes me want to get bangs, which I most certainly should not.

📚 The Husbands by Holly Gramazio: A single woman realizes her attic magically spits out a never-ending stream of husbands and alternate lives. Funny, thought provoking, fresh.

📚 Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe: Young woman gets impregnated by her college professor, then becomes roomies with her former pro-wrestler dad and starts an OnlyFans account. Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, and Nick Offerman will star in the TV adaptation. Need I say more?

📚 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley: Our protagonist is a civil servant tasked with looking after time travelers the British government has captured and brought into the present day — and she ends up falling in love with her ward, an Arctic explorer from the 1800s. But danger is afoot!

📚 The God of the Woods by Liz Moore: Summer camp. 1970s. Murder. Rich people. *chefs kiss*

📚 All Fours by Miranda July: Woman tells husband and child she’s going on a road trip, doesn’t actually go, has an emotional affair that leads to a journey of sexual and emotional exploration, and off we go!

📚 The Wedding People by Alison Espach: Our protagonist goes to a hotel to end her life, then realizes she’s the only person staying there who isn’t a guest at an upcoming wedding — oh, and the bride is miserable and befriends her.

📚 Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker: Everything is seemingly perfect for a mother with two young children, until her mother sends her a letter from jail, and we learn that our protagonist has been running from a very violent past.

📚 Honey by Isabel Banta: A look at early 2000s pop star-dom and all its toxic machinations. Think a fictional take on B. Spear’s memoir, with a literary twist.

📚 Sandwich by Catherine Newman: A woman in her “sandwich” years — aka, the period of life where she’s no longer caring for her adult children, but is caring for her aging parents — heads to the beach for a family vacation, which prompts reflections on her life and relationships.

📚 Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino: An alien posing as a young girl on Earth sends dispatches back to her home planet about the tender, silly heartbreak that is being a human.

And that’s a wrap on 2024! I’m off to eat some blankie pigs, y’all.

xoxo: Mimi