Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books of 2024

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. You can check out other Top Tuesday blog posts here. 

I have listed twelve books here because it was impossible to cut my list down more. As it was, there were still many other books that I read in 2024 that were strongly considered for the list.

This time I put the book in order by date published. Here is the list...

My Antonia (1918) by Willa Cather

The story, which is narrated by Jim Burden, focuses primarily on Ántonia Shimerda, the daughter of Bohemian immigrant parents who have settled on a farm on the Nebraska prairies. Jim and Ántonia were both children when they arrived in Nebraska, on the same train. The story begins in the 1890s, at a period when immigrant families were settling on homesteads on the prairies.

The Lady in the Lake (1943) by Raymond Chandler

Philip Marlowe is hired to find a missing wife, but soon he discovers that the case involves two missing wives. The dead body of one of them is found in a private lake in the mountains near San Bernardino, California. This book was written after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. There are mentions of US involvement in World War II throughout the book. This book also seemed to have more humor than other books in the series.

The Quiet American (1955) by Graham Greene

This book was published in 1955 and the events in this book took place in the early 1950s. The story is set in Saigon, Vietnam and surrounding areas when the French Army and the Viet Minh guerrillas are fighting each other. It has elements of spy fiction and political intrigue, but the picture of Vietnam and the combat that was going on there was more interesting for me. The story is pretty dark.

Birdcage (1978) by Victor Canning

This is the fifth book in a very loose espionage series about the Birdcage group, a covert British intelligence agency. I love this series, even though the books are often very dark. I enjoy the glimpses of nature, and especially birds, running through all the stories. The sense of place is very prominent. This story is set in Portugal and the UK.

A Darker Domain (2008) by Val McDermid

This is the second book in the Karen Pirie series. Detective Inspector Karen Pirie is in charge of the Cold Case department in Fife, Scotland. First, a woman reports that her father has been missing for over 20 years, from the time of the Miner’s Strike of 1984.  Shortly after that, new information shows up in Italy related to a kidnapping that also took place in 1984 in Fife, and that case is added to Karen's workload.

Elegy for April (2010) by Benjamin Black

This is the third book in the Quirke series; I read the second book, The Silver Swan, earlier this year. The series is set in Ireland in the 1950s; Quirke is a pathologist in a hospital and gets involves with crimes or possible crimes often. I like the slow pace of the writing and the emphasis on the characters as much or more than the crime investigation. 

My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016) by Elizabeth Strout 

While Lucy Barton is in a hospital in New York City for many weeks due to complications following an appendectomy, her mother visits her and they have some strained conversations about the past. The story is set in the 1980s, and Lucy narrates it, years after it happened. This is first book in the Amgash series.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) by Gabrielle Zevin

This book is about two young people who create video games. The story starts when Sam Mazur and Sadie Green are about 12 years old and covers the next 30 years in their lives. It does focus on video gaming and the process of creating them, but it is about many other things: relationships, families, judgement and misunderstandings, and ambition. I liked the writing, and I was caught up in the story. 

Winter Work (2022) by Dan Fesperman

This is the last book in a spy fiction trilogy. The series features Claire Saylor, an agent for the CIA. Safe Houses was the first book in the series, set in 1979 (Berlin)and 2014 (US), and it was fantastic. The second book, The Cover Wife, is set in 1999. This book goes back to 1990; it is set in Berlin after the fall of Berlin Wall. The trilogy features strong female characters and intelligent plots.

The Mayors of New York (2023) by S.J. Rozan

This is the latest book in the Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series. Lydia is an American-born Chinese private investigator in her late twenties who lives in New York’s Chinatown; Bill is a white private investigator in his forties who lives in Manhattan. The narrator of the books alternates between Lydia and Bill. The first book was narrated by Lydia; the second book was narrated by Bill; and so on. I love the New York setting. In this book, the mayor's son is missing and her assistant has asked Bill to find him.

Tom Lake (2023) by Ann Patchett

This was a very good book and an enjoyable read. Basically it is the story of a woman telling her daughters about a summer love affair she had with a famous actor before she married their father. I like books about families and relationships. From beginning to end I was absorbed in this story.

Orbital (2023) by Samantha Harvey

This novel depicts one day in the life of six astronauts on the space station, watching the sunrises and sunsets and monitoring a typhoon threatening inhabited islands. The reader is privy to their thoughts, and watches their activities and their regimen. It is short, about 200 pages, and very meditative. It inspired me to read more about the space station, and I wish it had been longer.