My Top 10 Books of 2024 | Must Read Book Recommendations
This year has been the best year reading-wise for me. Here are the TOP 10 books from my list of 2024 which you must definitely read! Maybe you can add a few of these books on your 2025 TBR list..
These 10 books will make your heart cry, make you feel angry and helpless. These are the books which will make you question society, authorities and sometimes, yourself.
I so badly want to make each and everyone of you read all these books hahahah. Trust me, these books deserve to be read.
Here are my top 10 books I recommend you (in no particular order).
1. Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
There is a war going on in the north of Sri Lanka. In Funny Boy, we follow the life of the family through Arjie’s eyes. This is his coming-of-age story as he comes to terms with two things – 1. His own homosexuality and 2. The racism of the society in which he lives.
Amidst deadly riots, violence and a fight to survive, Funny Boy will rip your heart to pieces because none of us are ready for it.
100% recommended. It is 315 pages long, easy to read but heavy on the heart. Brilliant debut work by Shyam Selvadurai.
2. Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
I have spoken about this book very candidly on my instagram, at book club discussions, or when someone asked me which book do I recommend this year.
Again a historic fiction, 5 countries and 4 generations, from 1940s to 2002, this is how the Israel-Palestine war once began.
Trust me on this, you haven’t read anything like this before. This story needs to be read. In the most heartbreaking way, the book captures the realities of war and displacement through the lens of a Palestinian family.
Read detailed book review of Mornings in Jenin here.
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
After years of procrastination, I finally came around reading The Book Thief this year. And man did I cry my heart out. The idea of Death narrating a story fascinated me.
This is one of those books which will make you want to give a warm tight hug to the protagonist, Liesel, and will stay with you long after you finish reading.
Solid plot, strong emotions, smartly written, brilliant narration, beautiful characters. Liesel deserved better. Everyone did.
Also, by the end of it, I felt bad for Death. How weird is that? Read it so we can discuss it!
4. White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Reading White Nights felt like reading my internal monologue.. Which is a scary thing to say. I wonder how lonely was Dostoyevsky when he wrote White Nights..
One of the best books I’ve read this year and it is only 86 pages long (short?)! This is a story about a man who meets a woman on a night when he finds her crying by herself.
It is rightly said, if you want to read about love, read White Nights by Dostoyevsky. He captures various stages of love within a heartbeat.
5. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Iconic. If I ever happen to write a book, please know that this woman is responsible. What a brilliant lady. I fell in love with her for her wits, courage and brilliance.
In this non-fiction, extended essay version, Virginia Woolf navigated through equality, opportunity, society, money, and most importantly, of having a room of one’s own. And these are not just scribbles or rants. These are facts backed by extensive research and facts.
Please, please go and read this book. Read, understand, contemplate.
She eloquently dissects the patriarchy of her time and makes her point crystal clear.
6. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The more I read war-linked books, the more I believe that words like hope, justice, fairness are nothing but decorative words privileged people can use to get their way in life.
This is a political and cultural evolution story of Iran through the eyes of a young girl. Persepolis is Satrapi’s coming of age memoir/story in Tehran, Iran, during the Islamic Revolution.
100% recommended to each and everyone. It doesn’t matter which genre of books you read. You read this book to educate yourself and to understand the sad state of affairs people continue to live in, and once lived in.
7. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
How can I not talk about this woman!? I fell in love with Plath after reading her work, after learning about her life, the way she thinks and the way she writes. I don’t think I have ever felt so seen or heard as much as Plath’s work makes me feel.
I felt like I was in an asylum while reading this book. The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel. She starts by writing, “I was supposed to be having the time of my life.”
I still don’t understand how to summarise what the book is about. It’s about her life. It’s tragic. It’s about society and how prejudiced the world is.
Also read: Tragedies of Sylvia Plath, Vincent van Gogh and the May-days
8. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
If I could, I’d give this book 10 stars. This book left me speechless. I learned something new. I befriended a new fictional character here.
This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an (not-so) ordinary house at the end of a (not-so) ordinary street.
Take me on my word, you haven’t read anything like this before. If you are in a mood to read a very simple yet confusing mystery story, this book must be on the top of your list.
9. Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
This isn’t a horror book. But trust me, horror books might fail in front of this one. I still get chills all over me when I think about how this book ends, especially the last line. Very unhinged and scary.
Imagine a book dipped in capitalism and cannibalism in a dystopian patriarchal world. Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica is that book. From the first page itself, I felt a heavy sense of air surrounding me.
I picked this book up when my friend told me that one of her friends stopped eating non-veg after reading this book. Now I know and understand why. Would you dare to read this one?
Read full detailed book review of Tender is the Flesh here.
10. Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
If you have a sister, I think you might enjoy this book more than I did.
Blue Sisters is about four sisters. Thress, actually. Because they are dead. And this book takes us through each sister’s and their family’s lives on how each went on to deal with grief with failed relationships, career downfall, addiction, and more.
The relations are very complicatedly tangled among one another. How can this be undone? There is only one way to do this – talk. Have that difficult conversation from which you have been running since the incident.
And these difficult conversations are so so sooo flawlessly written by Coco Mellors that this book holds a place on my top shelf.
So that it was. My list of TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2024 in no particular order. Please give them a try. And once you read them, text me if you want to talk about these books. Because more often than not, you will want to talk about how these books made you feel.
Here’s an overview of the books I read in 2024
Discover more from Kinjal Parekh
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