best books 2024 | Clare L. Deming

I’m a bit late with this post, but I still wanted to write up my annual look back at what I read for the year. First off, here is a nice graphic from Goodreads to summarize:

A few other stats that Goodreads provided were that the shortest book I read was The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente at 155 pages, while the longest was Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time #6) by Robert Jordan at 1,011 pages.

The average book length that I read was 481 pages, although I think this is not a terribly accurate statistic, because I don’t always put the correct edition of what I’ve read into Goodreads.

My total number of books read in 2024 is down a little compared to recent years as you can see below:

2023 = 48
2022 = 39
2021 = 43
2020 = 39
2019 = 43

So what did I read in 2024? Here is a graphic of all 36 books (not quite in reverse chronological order that I read them):

Here are a few more interesting statistics about what I read in 2024:

Science fiction or fantasy genre = 28
Historical fiction = 4
Mainstream = 2
Genre fiction with some romance = 14
Non-fiction = 2
Classics = none
Audiobooks = 6
Graphic novels = 1
Part of a series = 25*
Stand-alones (or could be read as one) = 13
Completed reading of a series OR kept up with the series as each book was published = 5*

* I counted individual books here.

I’m counting The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo as fantasy and NOT historical fiction, because magic is a significant component of the story. The Outlander series fills out the historical fiction because although these books contain time travel, the plot mostly concerns other aspects.

I made a note that some of these books contained an element of romance, but none were pure romance novels. I often make an effort to read something considered a classic, but I think that the closest I came in 2024 was God Emperor of Dune, and that only fits under classic science fiction by its proximity to the original Dune novel.

What were the BEST books I read in 2024? Here are my top three:

You can find my reviews of each of these, as well as (paid) links if you want to pick up your own copy:

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang: review here, link to purchase here
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune: review here, link to purchase here
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: review here, link to purchase here

Some of my other favorites from the year are below, also with links where applicable:

Starter Villain by John Scalzi: review here, link to purchase here
Outlander (series) by Diana Gabaldon: reviews (Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn), link to purchase (series) here
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow: review here, link to purchase here
The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten: review here, link to purchase here
The Core by Peter V. Brett: review here, link to purchase (series) here
Dawn by Octavia E. Butler: review coming soon, link to purchase here
Ever the Night Road by Michael Breen: review here, link to purchase here