I can’t believe it’s only a month until Christmas! Where did 2024 go? For me, it disappeared in a rush of words: words for THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE, words for a brand new book for 2026, and words in books written by other authors that I’ve read and enjoyed.
Speaking of THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE, if you’re looking forward to it being published in April, then you might like to know that we’re organising a special chapter sampler for my paid subscribers here on Substack. I’ll be sending out a post to you guys, my number one supporters, in mid-January with the first chapter in a pretty pdf, so look out for that!
Onto today’s post!
It’s tradition for me to do a Best Books of the Year post, so that’s what today is all about. As in previous years, I don’t limit myself only to books that were published in the past year. I compile my list from books I’ve read over the past twelve months.
I thought I’d expand this year’s list to encompass a few more “Best Of” moments. So you’ll also find the television shows I liked the most, as well as my top choice of podcasts, Substacks, movies, theatre etc. at the very end. Make sure you jump into the comments and let me know your “bests” too.
We’ll start with the most important things—the books!
Best Books I Read in 2024
While I didn’t read anything as mind-blowingly good and destined to end up on my favourite books of all time list as I did last year in Demon Copperhead, I still read some wonderful books. Probably my two overall faves are the first two in the list below, and the rest aren’t in any particular order. So if you’re looking for something to buy someone as a Christmas gift, I would absolutely recommend any of these books.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
I wrote about this book here, but suffice to say Bradley has a brilliant and slightly wicked (in the best possible way!) imagination. It’s the story of a group of people brought back from history into the present by the British government. They each have a handler assigned to them to help them learn the ways of contemporary life.
Our two main characters, a repressed Victorian polar explorer and his conflicted handler, crackle from the pages as Bradley explores themes of race, colonialism, identity, history and desire. In case I’ve made that sound very serious, there are also plenty of laugh out loud moments and a plot that races along towards a perfect ending. I listened to this one on audio, and the narrator was great.
I’d buy this for someone who likes a book that does a bit of everything: makes you think, laugh, yearn for two characters to finally please-God get together and that also makes you do some work as a reader to piece the puzzle together.