The Must-Read Books of 2024 (So Far)

Named one of Barnes & Noble’s Best Books of the Year (So Far). A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey. The New York Times bestselling author returns with an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious, and surprising novel about a woman upending her life.

A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voice of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction. Named an Amazon Editors’ and The New York Times’ Best Book of 2024 (So Far).

The Husbands delights in asking: How do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options? This “bottomless champagne flute of a novel” (The Washington Post) has also been named a Best Book of the Year (So Far) by Barnes & Noble.

Named a Best Book of the Year (So Far) by The New York Times and Barnes & Noble. From the bestselling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: A story of heartbreak and friendship and how to survive both. In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.

From the celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age comes a fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a professor and three unruly students.

A “powerful” (The Guardian) reflection on basketball, life, and home — from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America. Named a Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far).

There’s a fine line between bending the truth and telling bold-faced lies, and Javier Perez is willing to cross it. Named a BBC Best Book of 2024, Victim is a fearless satire about a hustler from the Bronx who sees through the veneer of diversity initiatives and decides to cash in on the odd currency of identity.

From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that “hits like a sledgehammer … an absolutely must-read novel” (Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl). Named an Amazon Editors’ Best Books of the Year So Far.

A Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far). A gorgeous, witty account of birding, nature, and the beauty around us that hides in plain sight, written and illustrated by the bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club. With a foreword by David Allen Sibley.

It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die. From the writer who is “in a class by herself” (The New York Times), a nuanced, atmospheric tale that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide. Named a New York Times’ Best Book of 2024 (So Far).

Memory is far more than a record of the past. In this groundbreaking tour of the mind and brain — named one of Barnes & Noble’s Best Books of the Year (So Far) — one of the world’s top memory researchers reveals the powerful role memory plays in nearly every aspect of our lives, from recalling faces and names, to learning, decision-making, trauma, and healing.

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures?

One of the Amazon Editors’ Best Books of the Year So Far. From the iconic internationally bestselling author of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy: A forbidden affair erupts volcanically amid a decadent tropical wedding in this outrageous comedy of manners.

In twenty-six essays — one for each letter of the alphabet — the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction takes us on a hauntingly illustrated journey through the history of climate change and the uncertainties of our future. Listed as one of the Barnes & Noble Best Books of the Year (So Far).

Named a Best Book of the Year So Far for 2024 by The New York Times and Barnes & Noble as well as longlisted for the Booker Prize. The Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of the breakout bestseller There There delivers a masterful follow-up to his already classic first novel. Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of a family in a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous.

The noted inventor and futurist’s successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will transform the human race in the decades to come. The culmination of six decades of research on artificial intelligence, The Singularity Is Nearer is Ray Kurzweil’s crowning contribution to the story of this science and the revolution that is to come. A Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far).

Discover this Amazon Editors’ and Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far) selection. The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in this “riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult” (Los Angeles Times).

From the nine-time women’s basketball icon and two-time Olympic gold medalist — a raw, revelatory account of her unfathomable detainment in Russia and her journey home.

Named a Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far). Infused with magic and romance, this sweeping fantasy adventure inspired by the legend of Mulan follows a young woman determined to choose her own destiny — even if that means going against everyone she loves.

Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitors’ pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win. Named a Best Book of 2024 (So Far) by The New York Times and longlisted for the Booker Prize.

A shield maiden blessed by the gods battles to unite a nation under a power-hungry king — while fighting her growing desire for his fiery son — in the first book of a Norse-inspired fantasy romance duology from the author of The Bridge Kingdom series. A Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far).

In this Amazon Editors’ Best Books of the Year So Far pick, Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

Selected as a Best Book of the Year by Barnes & Noble, a hockey player and a baker shoot their shot in this steamy new romance by Lana Ferguson, USA Today bestselling author of The Nanny.

In the long-awaited first novel from short story virtuoso and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle.

From Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring — and surviving — an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him. Named a Best Book of 2024 (So Far) by The New York Times and Barnes & Noble.

A professional baseball player and his heckler prove that true love is worth going to bat for in the next swoony romance by USA Today bestselling author Alicia Thompson. A Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far) pick.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores the ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency. Named an Amazon Editors’ Best Book of Year So Far.

This Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far) is a shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common – from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

An epic, heartbreaking, and deeply reported history of the disastrous humanitarian crisis at the southern border told through the lives of the migrants forced to risk everything and the policymakers who determine their fate, by New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer. A New York Times Best Book of 2024 (So Far) selection.

The award-winning author of The Leavers offers a visionary novel of friendship, art, and ambition that asks: What is the value of a meaningful life? Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.

From the author of the multimillion-copy bestselling A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series and Five Survive — a Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far) pick — comes a gripping mystery thriller following one teen’s search for the truth about her mother’s shocking disappearance — and even more shocking reappearance — during the filming of a true crime documentary.

Named an Amazon Editors’ Best Book of the Year So Far. From the bestselling author of Rules of Civility, A Gentleman in Moscow, and The Lincoln Highway, a richly detailed and sharply drawn collection of stories, including a novella featuring one of his most beloved characters.

From the author of How to Survive Your Murder comes a propulsive thriller about two teens who return to Camp Lost Lake, site of the cold case that sealed their fates. Named a Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far).

Named a Best Book of the Year (So Far) by The New York Times. A “thrilling and superbly crafted” (The Wall Street Journal) account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.

In this new pulse-pounding thriller — named a Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year (So Far) — from the author of The Black Queen, two brothers must come together to solve the murder of the most popular girl in school after one of them is caught fleeing the scene of her death.

A story full of passion and revenge, following one family living on the Texas Mexico border and a curse that reverberates across generations — “Fuentes has achieved something rare and indelible with this story of complex women” (Erika L. Sánchez). An Amazon Editors’ Best Book of the Year So Far pick.

Set in the glossy world of New York City media, this sharp and witty debut novel follows a young woman caught in a toxic mentorship with an older, powerful executive as she grapples with career, belonging, and the complexities of modern relationships in the digital age.

Longlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, My Friends is a “masterly” (The New York Times, Editors’ Choice), “riveting” (The Atlantic) novel of friendship, family, and the unthinkable realities of exile. A devastating meditation on friendship and family, and the ways in which time tests — and frays — those bonds, My Friends is an achingly beautiful work of literature by an author working at the peak of his powers.

A breathtaking and ineffable novel of love and loyalty across four generations, at once sweeping and intimate. Longlisted for the Booker Prize, Held is affecting and intensely beautiful, full of mystery, wisdom, and compassion.

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances.

From New Yorker and Paris Review contributor Zach Williams comes a striking and savage debut story collection that confronts parenthood, mortality, and life’s broken promises. With exquisite prose and a lacerating wit, Beautiful Days holds a mirror to the many absurdities of being human and refuses to let us look away.