my favorite books I read in 2024

and my most anticipated books of 2025

from pinterest

I just realized I think I’ve had Goodreads for 10 years. My earliest reading challenge on the app is from 2014, which makes me feel a little emotional for all the things we’ve been through together, Goodreads’ terrible UX/UI and I.

It’s recorded some really bad reading years of mine (7 books in 2014?), and some really good ones (60 books in 2016—the day I manage that again, I promise you’ll hear about it).

2024 felt like a great year for reading. It’s the year that the podcast my friend and I started to talk about books over coffee, Espresso Epilogues, went viral and it became a vessel for our love for literature and philosophy, and the way it’s always strengthened our friendship. So far this year I’ve read 25 books, and while it’s not all that much, it’s honest work. I’m happy about it because it’s the first time that I went about reading very much based on instinct.

Instead of prioritizing only books that had great reviews, which I always used to do out of a fear of wasting my time, I started choosing what to read solely based on my instinct of what I would enjoy, rather than what other people recommended to me or online. It’s a very intuitive approach to reading, and it served me so well. I ended up with some books on my list that I had never heard of before, and some became new favorites.

I’ll give you the round-up of my 5 most memorable books from this year, so hopefully you’ll find some that spark your curiosity. I’d urge you to follow my approach so if one instinctively makes your brain light up, take it as a sign to read it—maybe it has an element that’s especially appealing to you at this point in time.

Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov

I don’t know how the literary girls feel about Nabokov, and no I haven’t read Lolita. This is the first Nabokov book I read and it quite genuinely blew my mind. I’ve never seen anyone use language in this way. Nabokov’s talent with words is unlike any I’ve ever encountered; the plot of this book doesn’t matter, and you won’t care much for it—but you will care about the way every single sentence has been intentionally and meticulously crafted. Every page has sentences you’ll want to highlight. I have no words to describe it further than that; Nabokov’s linguistic talent is genius.

Essays in Love by Alain de Botton

Imagine my surprise when I realized after finishing the book and discussing it with my co-host on our podcast episode, that Alain de Botton is the guy behind School of Life. His philosophy videos on YouTube have accompanied me for years, and I’d recognize his voice anywhere—I knew his name was Alain but never made the connection.

Anyway, this book is quite incredible. De Botton’s first book that he wrote at age 20 (!),examines being a human and being in a relationship, through fiction-based fragments of philosophy. This book is a few things: it is extremely true, and impressively insightful. It is very accessible in its explorations of the philosophy of love, and it is also, in my opinion, extremely smart. The thing with this book is that if you just read it as a fiction story, you’ll probably hate it. My friend read it and was appalled by “how annoying the characters can be” and some of the moments in their relationship that are particularly frustrating. But it’s not meant to be a fiction story with likeable characters. It’s meant to be a very real portrait of human relationships and their various stages, their happiness and frustrations, and it does such an excellent job of it. De Botton somehow had such accurate insight, so young. I love, love, love this book.

How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely

I saw this book as one of the staff picks at Harvard Book Store that has a little paper praising it on the shelves. So, naturally, consider me intrigued. The blurb said something about it being the funniest book the person had read in a decade, and the premise of a main character that’s a writer always gets me…

This is a book about a guy who decides to write a bestselling airport-type book, the type that gets a movie deal and a sequel and merch, and that you get tired of hearing about, mainly because he wants to make a whole lot of fame and success. He’s a gifted writer, so he has that part down, and he tries to ‘hack’ what makes a bestselling book. He defines maybe 20 elements that the book needs to include: all the clichés you can imagine, from making sure it’s a road trip story, to including a veteran and stories of war, to a love interest that’s a country singer, and a lot more. He packs it with every cliché in the world, wraps it in a coat of metaphors and intricate sentences that make you feel smart as a reader for relating to them, and ta-dah, you’ve got yourself a bestselling novel.

The story is about his process of putting it together, and what happens after it’s published—I won’t spoil it for you. I absolutely loved it. So entertaining, so real, so good that I had to DM Steve Hely on Twitter when I finished it just to say “hey, genius book”. (He replied! He said “thanks!”)

Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

Yeah, okay, you’ve heard this one before and maybe too many times, but I’m here to remind you once again. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Dolly Alderton and felt like I was listening to a looooong podcast of a lifelong friend teaching me lessons and telling me stories. I love Dolly’s writing style, and her perspective. She’s a very smart woman and I appreciate how real she is; I also really love memoir writing, because it feels and reads like fiction but it’s real. I love knowing that all these characters are real and I can just see them featured on the author’s Instagram, you know? Very immersive. I also read Dolly’s novel Good Material after finishing this one, and loved it just as much! She’s one of the most relatable, real, funny, and insightful modern writers.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

What an eerie and strange little book, one that I think has achieved classic status over the years. It tells the story of two sisters who live in a big house isolated from the people in their town, who fear them because of an incident years prior where their family was killed and the older sister was publicly blamed for the murder. It’s told from the perspective of the younger sister, who’s a very peculiar character with a really unique narration style that is unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s a short book and flows very easily, and I really loved the element of mystery in it, and the relationships between the characters. It’s one of those rare books that I would probably read again, just to go through that experience once more.

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So this is the top 5, in no particular order. I’m finding it so important to read based on our intuition and make it a priority to only give our time to books we genuinely enjoy and don’t want to put down, what a life hack.

I have many books at the top of my list for 2025, and with our new ambitious schedule for Espresso Epilogues (publishing 2 episodes per month, rather than 1 whenever we felt like it), I want to make reading a big priority again, just like my 16 year-old self did so unapologetically. I know reading brings me joy, and since I’ve been moving away from spending time on social media in the past months, this is a big change I’m carrying into the new year and (hopefully!!!!!) sticking to. Here are the books I’m most excited to read in 2025:

Babel by R.F. Kuang

How haven’t I read this yet? I don’t know. I have a fear of facing long popular books. It’s been sitting on my shelf for over a year, and now it’s in my bag, so that’s progress I’d say. A few people whose taste I really trust have recommended this, the author seems incredibly smart and impressive, and I love the synopsis of it, so I have high expectations. Can’t wait.

Living Biography by Deborah Levy

This started off because I wanted to read Real Estate by Deborah Levy, an autobiographical book about the concept of a home and what it means to women. I then found out it’s actually the third instalment in Levy’s trilogy, along with Things I Don’t Want to Know and The Cost of Living, and as fate would have it, every one of them sounds great. So I impulse-bought all three, and their pretty, pretty covers in beautiful primary colours, and I can’t wait to read them.

Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

I’ve never read anything by Lispector but her writing keeps coming up everywhere I look so I think it’s a sign! I don’t know much about this book but just feel like I would like it. Also shoutout to Tatiana, a girl I met at an event recently who recommended both Levy’s book and this one, just as I had been seeing both of them pop up a lot.

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

I’m late on the Ishiguro train. I’m a huge fan of Japanese literature so I have high expectations and think I will enjoy this one a lot considering its setting in the Japanese countryside. I love being transported to places I want to be when I read—I found that Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore did this so well, by transporting me to magical and mystical places in Japan like a mysterious and cozy library, and a strange cabin in an enchanted forest. The only bad side-effect is that I cannot escape the constant urge to really really want to visit Japan again, one of my favorite places I’ve ever been to. So until I’m there physically again, it’s A Pale View of Hills.

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That’s all for now, thank you for tuning in, lovely people, and I hope you found something on this list that you’ll read and love.

Please let me know your favorite book(s) you read this year in the comments. Something about hearing which books left the biggest impression on others, is so interesting. Let me know how your 2024 went reading-wise and the comment section is a safe space for all your highlights 💙