Happy 2025! I'm kicking off this year with a look back at my favorite fiction of the past year.
The quantity of books I read in 2024 was high, but I also think that was possible because the quality of what I read was also very high. Narrowing down my favorite reads has been hard.
These twelve are great, but there are still so many that I feel almost guilty not sharing.
1. Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe- this is such a unique premise- Margot finds herself pregnant from the brief fling she had with her junior college English professor. Her ex-pro wrestler father, Jinx, shows up, and Margo is left to try to become an adult rather quickly. She takes her dad's wrestling advice to heart, starts and OnlyFans as an experimental way to make money, and navigates the real world with some interesting choices and her fair share of falling down and picking herself back up.
2. Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo - Julia has a chance encounter at the grocery store one day, running into Helen, a woman a few decades older than her who had at one point been her mentor/mother figure as Julia as a young mother. Julia's own children are now young adults - her son has made a shocking announcement of his own, and Julia starts to look back on her life and marriage and begins to reflect on her past decisions. I loved this book. This one, along with one other, is perhaps my very favorite book I read in 2024.
3. Leaving by Roxana Robinson - Sarah and Warren were college sweethearts, but decades have passed and each has moved on with their lives. A chance encounter rekindles their feelings for each other and while Sarah is divorced, Warren is married. The affair the two embark on, and the decision to create a life with each other is not without consequences.
4. Is She Really Going Out With Him? By Sophie Cousens - Anna is a divorced mother of two who is perfectly happy not being a part of the dating scene. But in an effort to keep her job as a columnist and not lose her position to her co-worker, Will (who she can't stand), she agrees to writing up a column on various dates she goes on. This enemies to lovers trope isn't unique, but this book was so much fun.
5. Crow Talk by Eileen Garvin - set in the Pacific Northwest, Frankie is seeking solitude as well as a way to salvage her dissertation on the spotted owl after she and her advisor have a falling out. Anne has arrived with her five year old son, Aidan who has become non-verbal, and the two take up residence in one of the summer homes near where Frankie is staying. The two women seem to have nothing in common, but they are brought together when Aidan discovers and injured crow that needs care.
6. Sandwich by Catherine Newman - this is a book that I didn't give five stars to originally, but that I have continued to think about. The book takes place in Sandwich, Maine, but Rocky has also found herself sandwiched between her aging parents and launching her children into adulthood. I found some of Rocky's disclosures unnecessary (maybe I'm too prudish?),but overall this has been a book I have thought about repeatedly after I finished reading it.
7. The Women by Kristin Hannah - I really debated putting this one on my list of favorites. It has been overhyped, and there are times when I've thought that Hannah's work feels a little like reading a Danielle Steel novel, but I loved that she wrote about women in Vietnam, and she truly knows how to create drama, drama, and more drama. There are many books I forget nearly as soon as I'm done with them, but this book will be one I will be able to recall details about for years.
8. How To Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley - this book worked for me from the first page. Lydia takes over running the Senior Citizens Social Club and it is much more than she bargained for. This group of people isn't ready to sit around and make polite conversation. Instead they use the fact that they are often rarely noticed to have some secrets and deceptiveness of their own.
9. Pearce Oysters by Jocelyn Takacs is a dysfunctional family story set against the backdrop of the 2010 BP oil spill in Louisiana. Jordan Pearce takes over the family's fledgling oyster business after his father's sudden death. They were already struggling after Hurricane Katrina, but it seems that they family just can't catch a break. Jordan's younger brother isn't much help, and his mother seems to be unable to deal with her husband's death. If the family can't come together, there is no way the business can succeed.
10. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore- this is the other book of 2024 vying to be my favorite book I read all year. In 1975 Barbara Van Laar goes missing while at summer camp. Fourteen years prior to that Barbara's brother also went missing, never to be seen again. This story is told by multiple narrators and in different time periods as secrets are uncovered and bits and pieces of the events leading up to both disappearances are revealed. I couldn't put this one down. It's more of a slow burn than a novel of suspense, but I enjoyed every single page.
11. Mercury by Amy Jo Burns - this was a much anticipated 2024 release, and a great dysfunctional family story. Marley is new to Mercury, Pennsylvania a blue collar town and needs to find a place to fit in. She meets the Joseph brothers and quickly finds a place in their family - marrying one of the brothers. There are struggles with the family roofing business, a secret uncovered in the church's attic, and her father-in-law's questionable business practices that keep this novel moving along.
12. Anna Bright Is Hiding Something by Susie Orman Schnall - if you're familiar with the story of Elizabeth Holmes and how she defrauded investors millions of dollars, this book will be right up your alley. Anna Bright is committing fraud, a secret no one yet knows. When Jamie Rowan, a reporter discovers what Bright is up to, she is set on exposing her - especially since the company is just days away from going public. But Anna knows what Jamie is up to and sets out to stop her.
I loved every single one of these. 2025 reading has commenced, but I still have two more shorts lists to share tomorrow: backlist reading from 2024, as well as my five least favorites fiction books.
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