It’s that time of year again. I read 73 books in 2024, 7 of these were not-yet-ready for publication titles to provide authors with feedback on their drafts so couldn’t count them towards my Good Reads goal of 70. So, although Good Reads thinks I didn’t make my goal I actually did and that is the first time ever I’ve done so. There’s an exact same number of five star ratings as last year – 15, but with 12 more books read than in 2022 it is even harder for a title to make the Top 10. As always, if I’ve read it this year it is included even if published in a previous year. This year the titles span from 1944-2023 with a pretty impressive 50% being books published in 2023.

73 books -that’s fifteen 5 star ratings (around 20% of titles read), 46 at 4*, 11 at 3* and just the one 2* for Tobias Smollett who won’t worry about it too much seeing as he died 252 years ago. 65 of these books have been reviewed on the site and they can be found by scrolling through or using one of the two indexes. I’ve let you know when they first appeared on here. I haven’t reviewed the incomplete titles I have been giving feedback on and there is another title which I am waiting to closer to the publication date in January (which hasn’t made it into the list) . There is only one non-fiction title in my Top 10 this year representing the 15 non-fiction titles I read. There’s a 60-40 gender split in favour of the men this time round, 50% were debut novels and just two authors have been on my end of year list before. It’s also been a great year for the Irish, which seems to mirror what has happened in the publishing world anyway this year with many top-rated titles coming from Irish authors and Paul Lynch winning the Booker Prize with a book I haven’t yet read. 

Here is the first part of the list 10-6. If you would like to read the full reviews (and I hope you do as these are the books I most want to point out to you) just click on the title

10. Luther: The Life and Longing Of Luther Vandross- Craig Seymour (Independently published 2014)

(Read in October, reviewed in November)

I’m starting off with the non-fiction pick of the year and this is the first time ever an independently published book has made my list. This is a revised edition of a book which Harper Collins put out in 2004 when the subject was still alive. The author fully reworked things ten years later to reflect the loss and legacy of one of the finest ever song stylists and R&B legend. This is the version I’m recommending. I found it as an e-book on Amazon. Luther Vandross (1951-2005) was notoriously private and there is a lot about him which we will probably never know but the author has an impressive go at bringing what made him special to life. I said of this title, that; “on sheer readability, thoroughness (while keeping to the facts) and entertainment value alone merits my top rating (a view shared by an impressive 73% of 682 ratings on Amazon.)” So, not the easiest book to find on the list but one that readers have certainly found rewarding. I did think long and hard as there were at least another three titles I could have put in this number 10 slot but after much reflection this is the most deserving. I do know people who have read this because of my recommendation and I think it’s important to not always to seek out the books with the big promotional budgets behind them.

9. Water- John Boyne (Doubleday 2023)

(Read and reviewed in October). 

Certainly no stranger to my end of year list is former Book Of The Year winner John Boyne. This is his fifth appearance, he was at the very top in 2017 with “The Heart’s Invisible Furies“, 2nd in 2018 with his 2015 modern classic “The Boy With The Striped Pyjamas” at number 4 the same year with “A Ladder To The Sky” and 5th in 2021 with “The Echo Chamber“. I’ve now read 9 of his books and rated 6 of them five stars so definitely up there amongst my all-time favourite authors. This is a 176 page short novel and is probably the shortest book to make it into my Top 10 ever. It’s the first of a projected quartet which will contain “Earth” (out in May), “Air” & “Fire”. It challenged everything I seem to always gripe on about when I’m reading short fiction and is “packed with character development, plot twists and a delight in story-telling“. It’s a tale of a woman in her 50s arriving on a sparsely populated Irish island and changing her identity.  With still a number of his back catalogue and these projected titles to read I am sure that this will not be this Irish writer’s last appearance on these lists.

8. Death Under A Little Sky- Stig Abell (Harper Collins 2023)

(Read in March, reviewed in April)

This was the best contemporary crime novel I read this year. A debut from a writer who has excelled in other literary forms and whose love of the genre persuaded him to have a go. In doing so, he’s written his own little crime classic which clearly demonstrates his awareness and devotion to such fiction. Like the main character in John Boyne’s “Water” Stig Abell’s protagonist Jake Jackson is going it alone to an isolated house in the middle of nowhere inherited from an uncle where he will eschew his former career and modern technology in favour of a library full of detective fiction. But events dictate otherwise. I said of this “Stig Abell knows exactly what he is doing here- his love and absorption of crime novels and his years of professional analysis of literary works is so evident and has resulted in this first-class example“. This book will appear in paperback at the end of February and the second in the series “Death In A Lonely Place” is published in April 2024.

7. Fire Rush – Jacqueline Crooks (Jonathan Cape 2023)

Read and reviewed in February

Another debut and one which arrived with a bang ending up with shortlist nods for Waterstone’s Best Debut and Women’s Prize for Fiction. It has appeared on many end of year lists and although it may not be for everyone I fell in love with the authors confidence, lyricism and the rhythms of dub reggae. Written in three sections beginning in late 1970s South London moving to Bristol and then Jamaica with main character Yamaye trying to find her place in the world. It has an involving plot and strong characterisation with a language which is “rich and rooted in Black British Caribbean which feels poetic and powerful and often mystical and elusive.” Due out in paperback in February this will continue to win plaudits and attract readers.

6. North Woods – Daniel Mason (John Murray 2023)

Read and reviewed in September

On the surface a tale of a yellow house in Massachusetts woodlands and those who lived there over generations, this intriguing American author with his fifth novel incorporates “songs and ballads, letters, speeches, a true crime column from a pulp magazine, medical case notes, and estate agents details” amongst other forms to support an unpredictable work which is also so rich in the workings of the natural world. It’s original and will certainly stay with me. I said of it “The history and ecology of a location go side by side within this vividly told literary novel.” Lit-Hub’s review of American publications found it on 11 end-of-year best of lists with the Washington Post describing it “a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic.“

In my next post I will reveal the Top 5.