January 5, 2025 · 4:34 pm
It’s that time of year again… here are my favourite books I read in 2024.
I usually read more non-fiction these days and 2024 was an excellent year for memoirs. My Family: The Memoir by David Baddiel is a pretty much perfect blend of comedy and empathy about his dysfunctional parents. Knife by Salman Rushdie is a frank account of the near-fatal attack the author suffered in 2022 at a literary event and My Good Bright Wolf by Sarah Moss is about the author’s eating disorder which saw her relapse during the pandemic.
From 2022, Original Sins by Matt Rowland Hill is an extremely candid memoir about his evangelical Baptist upbringing in south Wales and substance abuse as an adult. Ruskin Park by Rory Cellan Jones is a very affecting book about how his parents met in the 1950s while working at the BBC and Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart is an astutely observed political memoir about the nine years he spent as an MP and government minister.
In other non-fiction, I enjoyed two excellent books by Peter Ross: A Tomb With a View and Steeple Chasing are about graveyards and churches across Britain and Ireland. I also recommend Q: A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown – a funny and finely balanced book about Queen Elizabeth II which is neither fawning or scathing. Vines In a Cold Climate by Henry Jeffreys is a fascinating look at the English wine industry, very much aimed at the general reader rather than the pretentious expert.
In fiction, I enjoyed Christ on a Bike by Orla Owen, a dark tale about a woman who unexpectedly receives a life-changing inheritance as a result of a spontaneous act of unselfishness. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney is a novel about two brothers in messy relationships, written in precise and coolly perceptive prose.
A Case of Matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet concluded the exceptionally clever Inspector Gorski trilogy of novels set in France while Butter by Asako Yuzuki has been a hugely successful piece of translated Japanese fiction based on a true story about a talented cook who murdered three men.
I also enjoyed The Bee Sting by Paul Murray which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023 and Prophet Song by Paul Lynch which deservedly won the Prize that year.
Which books did you enjoy reading in 2024?
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