This year I read 100 books. The real number is slightly lower (I think around 98), but I sometimes include short fiction on my spreadsheet if it’s especially memorable and I don’t want to lose track of it, like A Good Man Is Hard to Find, The Roads Must Roll, or El Eclipse.

This isn’t a fully comprehensive list — that would take far too long, just go check out my Goodreads — but here are my top 20 books from 2024.

Pierce Brown

The Society is divided by a color-based caste system, with Golds at the top and Reds at the bottom. Darrow, a young Red working in the mines of Mars, believes his people are helping to terraform the planet for future generations. But he soon discovers that Mars has been habitable for centuries and that the Golds have been exploiting his people all along. Determined to fight back, Darrow infiltrates the Institute, a brutal school where Golds are trained to rule.

Cormac McCarthy

Walking in an ash-covered America, a father and his son push their few possessions in a battered cart. Starvation and the threat of cannibalism define their journey, yet the father insists they are “carrying the fire,” clinging to a fragile code of goodness. As illness overtakes him and the world grows colder, he must prepare the boy to survive alone, trusting that somewhere, the “good guys” still endure.

Timothy Tyson

In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till traveled from Chicago to Mississippi, where a brief encounter with Carolyn Bryant led her husband and half-brother to abduct, torture, and murder him. His mutilated body, disfigured almost beyond recognition, was shown in an open-casket funeral and shocked the nation, fueling the Civil Rights Movement. An all-white jury acquitted the killers. Months later, protected by double jeopardy, the two men openly confessed their crime.

Gabriel García Márquez

The novel follows the Buendía family across multiple generations in the isolated town of Macondo, tracing their rise, decline, and repeated patterns of love, violence, and obsession. As the town grows from a remote settlement into a place shaped by outside influence, magical and mundane events intertwine, revealing how history continually repeats itself.

Michael Patrick MacDonald

In South Boston’s Old Colony housing project, MacDonald’s life unfolds amid poverty, drug epidemics, and gang violence that tear families and neighborhoods apart. Children grow up surrounded by loss, crime, and limited opportunity. This firsthand account is both a condemnation of systemic neglect and a testament to the resilience of those who endured it.

Joe Abercrombie

War is approaching as three lives converge: a vain noble forced into military training, a barbarian dragged south after a failed quest, and a crippled inquisitor investigating political corruption. Each becomes entangled in a larger conflict involving invasion, betrayal, and shifting power in the Union.

 Cormac McCarthy

When young Billy Parham traps a pregnant wolf preying on his family’s cattle, he chooses to lead her south toward the mountains of Mexico. The journey draws him into a landscape of wanderers, philosophers, and revolutionaries. After travelling through borderlands, deserts, and villages, Billy returns, no longer believing in the mercy he once offered so freely.

Óscar Martínez

Martinez joins Central American migrants who risk their lives riding La Bestia, a network of freight trains heading toward the U.S. border. Through interconnected stories, he documents extreme dangers of the journey, while also highlighting the desperation driving people north. It offers a book’s-eye view of survival along one of the world’s most perilous routes.

V. E. Schwab

In 1714 France, Addie makes a deal to escape an unwanted marriage, gaining immortality but being forgotten the moment she leaves anyone’s sight. She learns to survive across centuries by leaving subtle marks on art and people’s lives. Everything changes when she meets someone who remembers her.

M.L. Wang

In a secluded mountain village trained in elemental water magic, a mother and son struggle to meet expectations of honor. When foreign forces invade, the village’s isolation is shattered and its warriors are forced into real combat. The family is pushed to confront both personal and political truths about their way of life.

Azar Nafisi

In post-revolutionary Iran, strict religious laws reshape everyday life, controlling dress, behavior, and speech. Nafisi, a professor dismissed for refusing to wear the veil, gathers a secret group of women to study forbidden Western literature. Through discussions of novels, they confront censorship, gender oppression, and ideological control. Part memoir, part cultural history, Nafisi’s story reveals the power of imagination in a society determined to silence it.

Mark Lawrence

Jorg Ancrath leads a violent outlaw band across a fractured kingdom after fleeing his royal past. Driven by revenge for the murder of his mother and brother, he begins reclaiming castles and power. His rise is shaped by brutality and increasingly dark choices about what kind of ruler he will become.

Stuart Turton

Aiden Bishop wakes in a decaying manor where a lavish party ends in murder — one he must solve to escape. Trapped in a looping day, inhabiting a different guest’s body each morning, he uncovers hidden motives, buried scandals, and a killer determined to evade him. As timelines twist, Aiden races to unravel the mansion’s deadly secret.

Tahir Shah

Tahir Shah and his family moved from London to Casablanca, driven by fond childhood memories of Morocco. Acquiring a rundown mansion once belonging to a caliph, Shah embarks on an adventure full of lively portrayals of Moroccan personalities. From grappling with jinns to navigating cultural differences, Shah’s tale captures the joys and trials of pursuing a dream in a foreign country.

Tara Sim

The heirs of four magical realms are bound to dying gods whose power once held the world together. When the gods withdraw, the realms begin collapsing into war. The heirs are forced into an uneasy alliance while uncovering why the gods disappeared and what might replace them.

Kim Stanley Robinson

In 2026, a team of scientists, engineers, and visionaries sets out on a mission to make Mars habitable for humanity’s first colony. Led by John Boone, they establish the initial base and expand to Phobos, Mars’ hollowed-out moon, wrestling with the ethical questions of terraforming and their fragile connection to Earth.

Eduardo Galeano

The history of Latin America can be seen through centuries of exploitation, beginning with colonization and continuing through modern imperialism. Natural resources like gold, silver, oil, and land were systematically extracted to benefit foreign powers while leaving local populations impoverished. Blending history, economics, and politics, Galeano argues that underdevelopment was not accidental but the direct result of ongoing systems of domination.

Brent Weeks

Azoth, a street orphan, becomes apprentice to Durzo Blint, the most feared assassin in the city. Trained in killing, he is renamed Kylar and pulled into political assassinations tied to the kingdom’s power struggle. As he grows stronger, he struggles to escape the identity he is being shaped into.

Jeff Olson

Olson demonstrates that small, consistent daily actions can build long-term success. By focusing on simple disciplines, positive habits, and incremental improvements, the novel shows that meaningful change doesn’t come from sudden breakthroughs but from steady progress over time. Using practical examples, it highlights how everyday choices shape the trajectory of one’s life, for better or for worse.

Peter Mancall

A collection of firsthand accounts from European explorers traveling through Africa, Asia, and the Americas during the Age of Discovery. The letters describe unfamiliar lands, peoples, and cultures, often shaped by curiosity, fear, and imperial ambition. The texts reveal how exploration, trade, and conquest are deeply intertwined, and how early travel writing constructed Europe’s understanding of the wider world.