I collected over 13 lists of the Best Books of 2024 from the Internet, newspapers and magazines and combined them into one meta-list. Here are the results, every book on at least three of the original source lists, organized by rank (that is, with the books on the most lists at the top).
NOTE: These are not my personal opinions and I have not read all these books.
On 13 Lists
Fiction
JAMES. By Percival Everett
On 10 Lists
Fiction
ALL FOURS. By Miranda July
On 8 Lists
Fiction
MARTYR! By Kaveh Akbar
On 7 Lists
Nonfiction
CHALLENGER: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space. By Adam Higginbotham
KNIFE: Meditations after an Attempted Murder. By Salman Rushdie
THERE’S ALWAYS THIS YEAR: On Basketball and Ascension. By Hanif Abdurraqib
On 6 Lists
Fiction
CREATION LAKE. By Rachel Kushner
INTERMEZZO. By Sally Rooney
REJECTION. By Tony Tulathimutte
Nonfiction
THE ANXIOUS GENERATION: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. By Jonathan Haidt
THE BARN: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi. By Wright Thompson
THE LIGHT EATERS: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth. By Zoë Schlanger
On 5 Lists
Fiction
THE COIN. By Yasmin Zaher
THE GOD OF THE WOODS. By Liz Moore
HEADSHOT. By Rita Bullwinkel
LONG ISLAND. By Colm Tóibín
THE MIGHTY RED. By Louise Erdrich
MY FRIENDS. By Hisham Matar
THE SAFEKEEP. By Yael van der Wouden
On 4 Lists
Fiction
THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS. By Aysegul Savas
BEAUTYLAND. By Marie-Helene Bertino
THE BOOK OF LOVE. By Kelly Link
COLORED TELEVISION. By Danzy Senna
LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE. By Taffy Brodesser-Akner
THE MINISTRY OF TIME. By Kaliane Bradley
OUR EVENINGS. By Alan Hollinghurst
SOMEONE LIKE US. By Dinaw Mengestu
WANDERING STARS. By Tommy Orange
Nonfiction
THE BLACK UTOPIANS: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America. By Aaron Robertson
EVERYONE WHO IS GONE IS HERE: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis. By Jonathan Blitzer
FI: A Memoir. By Alexandra Fuller
GRIEF IS FOR PEOPLE. By Sloane Crosley
THE REBEL’S CLINIC: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon. By Adam Shatz
SURVIVAL IS A PROMISE: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde. By Alexis Pauline Gumbs
WHEN THE CLOCK BROKE: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s. By John Ganz
THE WIDE WIDE SEA: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook. By Hampton Sides
Poetry
BLUFF. By Danez Smith
On 3 Lists
Fiction
THE BRIGHT SWORD. By Lev Grossman
CALEDONIAN ROAD. By Andrew O’Hagan
THE EMPUSIUM. By Olga Tokarczuk. Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
GHOSTROOTS: Stories. By ‘Pemi Aguda
GLORIOUS EXPLOITS. By Ferdia Lennon
THE HYPOCRITE. By Jo Hamya
ORBITAL. By Samantha Harvey
PLAYGROUND. By Richard Powers
SMALL RAIN. By Garth Greenwell
THIS STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY. By Claire Messud
YOU DREAMED OF EMPIRES. By Álvaro Enrigue. Translated by Natasha Wimmer.
Nonfiction
THE ACHILLES TRAP: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq. By Steve Coll
ALL THINGS ARE TOO SMALL: Essays in Praise of Excess. By Becca Rothfeld
BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS: A Memoir. By Ina Garten
CIRCLE OF HOPE: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church. By Eliza Griswold
CONNIE: A Memoir. By Connie Chung
DIDION AND BABITZ. By Lili Anolik
THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB: A Family Memoir. By Griffin Dunne
HEALTH AND SAFETY: A Breakdown. By Emily Witt
HIP-HOP IS HISTORY. By Questlove with Ben Greenman
LATINOLAND: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority. By Marie Arana
MADNESS: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum. By Antonia Hylton
THE MESSAGE. By Ta-Nehisi Coates
PATRIOT: A Memoir. By Alexei Navalny. Translated by Arch Tait & Stephen Dalziel.
REAGAN: His Life and Legend. By Max Boot
SOLDIERS AND KINGS: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling. By Jason De León
TRAVELING: On the Path of Joni Mitchell. By Ann Powers
WHISKEY TENDER: A Memoir. By Deborah Jackson Taffa
Poetry
FOREST OF NOISE. By Mosab Abu Toha