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I'm going to take this is two parts, the easiest first.
I've read 11 books published in 2024, abandoned two, and have two in process. My favorites were Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde, the long-awaited sequel to Shades of Grey, and A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko, an account of a trip the length of the Grand Canyon, woefully unprepared going into it.
Two books that made the best lists all over I thought overrated were James by Percival Everett and I Heard Her Call My Name by Lucy Sante. I've liked other books by both authors much more.
I'll give honorable mention to the oddly interesting Once a King, a "memoir" by Edward VIII, cobbled out of his interviews with his biographer -- the stuff that didn't make the book. Probably my biggest disappointment was Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes. Neither rigorous enough nor insightful enough, the reality is that Haynes is hit-or-miss with me.
In process, and since both are short I hope to be done by year's end, there's the Booker-winning Orbital by Samantha Harvey. I had a false start last night with the audiobook as I found the narrator irritating; I'll read it instead. So I switched to listening to The Masquerades of Spring by Ben Aaronivitch. To be clear, I'm not a fan of his Rivers of London series, but when I read this was a Jeeves and Wooster pastiche I thought it worth a go, and so far, spot on! Wonderful narration to boot.
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