The 10 Best Books of 2024

12/03/24 • 78 min

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Don't let anyone tell you differently — end of year list time is a wonderful time, indeed. And, as we do every December, we are ready to discuss the 10 best books of the year. Host Gilbert Cruz gathers the editors of the New York Times Book Review to discuss the most exciting fiction and nonfiction of the year.

The New York Times Book Review's Top 10 Books of 2024

"James," by Percival Everett

"You Dreamed of Empires," by Álvaro Enrigue; translated by Natasha Wimmer

"Good Material," by Dolly Alderton

"All Fours," by Miranda July

"Martyr!," by Kaveh Akbar

"The Wide Wide Sea," by Hampton Sides

"Everyone Who is Gone is Here," by Jonathan Blitzer

"Reagan," by Max Boot

"I Heard Her Call My Name," by Lucy Sante

"Cold Creamatorium," by József Debreczeni; translated by Paul Olchváry

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The New York Times Book Review's Top 10 Books of 2024

"James," by Percival Everett

"You Dreamed of Empires," by Álvaro Enrigue; translated by Natasha Wimmer

"Good Material," by Dolly Alderton

"All Fours," by Miranda July

"Martyr!," by Kaveh Akbar

"The Wide Wide Sea," by Hampton Sides

"Everyone Who is Gone is Here," by Jonathan Blitzer

"Reagan," by Max Boot

"I Heard Her Call My Name," by Lucy Sante

"Cold Creamatorium," by József Debreczeni; translated by Paul Olchváry

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Previous Episode

Book Club: 'James,' by Percival Everett (Rerun)

The broad outlines of "James" will be immediately familiar to anyone with even a basic knowledge of American literature: A boy named Huckleberry Finn and an enslaved man named Jim are fleeing down the Mississippi River together, each in search of his own kind of freedom.

But where Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” treated Jim as a secondary character, a figure of pity and a target of fun, Percival Everett makes him the star of the show: a dignified, complicated, fully formed man capable of love and wit and rage in equal measure.

In this episode from May, the Book Review’s MJ Franklin discusses the book, which was recently awarded the National Book Award, with his colleagues Joumana Khatib and Gregory Cowles.

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Next Episode

Book Club: Dolly Alderton's 'Good Material' (Rerun)

Following our Top 10 Books of 2024 episode, we are re-running our book club discussion about one of the novels on our year-end list: "Good Material."

How to explain the British writer Dolly Alderton to an American audience? It might be best to let her work speak for itself — it certainly does! — but Alderton is such a cultural phenomenon in her native England that some context is probably helpful: “Like Nora Ephron, With a British Twist” is the way The New York Times Book Review put it when we reviewed her latest novel, “Good Material,” earlier this year.

“Good Material” tells the story of a down-on-his-luck stand-up comic dealing with a broken heart, and it has won Alderton enthusiastic fans in America. In this episode, the Book Review’s MJ Franklin discusses the book with his colleagues Emily Eakin and Leah Greenblatt.

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.