Specialty Coffee: Top Ten Books of 2024

These are a few of my favourite reads...

I do this top every year since 2020 and you can read them here: 2020 - the year I read my first Sayaka Murata, 2021 - a cookbook made the top (kinda), 2022 - these books made their mark on me the most, 2023 - the one with Sally Rooney and Mary Oliver.

Before we start, please don’t compare your reading to anyone else. I read over 200 books this year, but a quarter were picture books for kids which are 40 pages long or so (because I review a lot of picture books). Anyway, numbers don’t matter. I read a lot because I don’t sleep much and I prioritise reading over mundane tasks like a tidy kitchen (seriously, you don’t want to see my kitchen).

There will be a lot of honourable mentions and I’m also cheating — I made a separate top for Romanian books. It’s only a Top Five for now, but hopefully next year I’ll read more Romanian authors and I’ll have another Top Ten!

PS — these are not reviews. These are just my favourite books read this year and how they made me feel or why they deserve a place on my top.

PPS: The top doesn’t have an order, it’s hard enough to choose ten books I loved.

PPPS: This post is officially too long for email, so… just hit "View entire message" and you’ll unlock the full list!

~ top ten books of 2024

Category is “Introspective Walks”:

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. I started my year with this book and I knew from the moment I finished it that it will make this top. It’s a timeless book about love, society, internalised homophobia, internal struggles, gender-roles, and, of course, Paris.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. And I ended my year with this book and knew it will make the top, next to Giovanni’s Room. My two absolute favourite reads of the year. The minimal prose, the tenderness of it, the images created, the winter, the crows… Already wrote about this book in this coffee letter.

On a funny note, these books were the first and last book of the year for our tiny book club.

Next category is… “Ghosts of Witches”:

When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà. A magical read best enjoyed in one sitting (or as little as possible), with many POVs, some unexpected like the clouds or the mushrooms. The prose is so lyrical and beautiful. A puzzle book worth reading.

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor. Another book where the prose hits you like a literal hurricane as soon as you open the book. At first I was intimidated by the wall of text, but I’m glad I pushed through and got to the heart of this book.

Funny note, but these books were the first books of the two book clubs that started this year in the city.

Category is… “La Fami(g)lia”:

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante. Ferrante is a bloody damn good storyteller and I love dissecting little scenes from her novels because so much is hidden in a tiny moment. I haven’t read The Neapolitan Novels, hence why I really enjoyed this one — I read it for a special book club edition (combined with pasta making) orchestrated by Bogdana and the readers who were familiar with the Neapolitan Novels did not enjoy it as much.

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. Another amazing storyteller and a woman I absolutely adore (I highly recommend you her episode on the podcast Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus). This is a big book, but a fun one — I especially loved it when she alludes to Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Next category is “Worlds I Don’t Want to Live In”:

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. This is set on our planet and due to whatever reason humans are harvesting and eating other humans now. A book about society and social class and our weird ability to rationalise morality and ethical beliefs. It destroyed me a bit.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. This book is set on the planet Winter and while I love snow and Christmas, forever winter is not on my wishlist. The thing about this planet is that its inhabitants don’t have gender. It was brilliant like speculative sci-fi often is!

Category is “But Daddy, I Love Him”:

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Deliciously fun! I do find it amazing when a writer can capture me even though I already know the story and Patricia Highsmith’s prose did just that! It’s dark and disturbing, but damn, Tom Ripley is such a charming character and I couldn’t put this book down!

Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros. I’ve joined the romantasy trend and fallen for yet another shadow daddy. It reads like YA, yes, it has a lot of elements from a lot of other books, yes, but damn it, it was an absolute joy to read — especially to buddy-read with my friend Bianca.

Before we do the RO top, I need to tell you about these two very special honourable mentions who didn’t make the top because they are just too short or too different:

Ariel by Sylvia Plath. This book lived in my handbag for more than a year and I read from it whenever I needed a dose of Sylvia. I also own another copy of Ariel, the restored edition, and I plan to read that one in 2025 because the copy I carried with me is Ted Hughes version of the volume. I don’t know how to talk about poetry, but Plath’s poetry is suffocating and even when I did not understand them, I could feel her… does that make any sense?

Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell. Another goal for 2025 is to read more of Orwell’s non-fiction because this dude was so smart and so well-spoken. I read this short book containing three of his essays on nationalism very recently and sadly they are still bloody relevant in our times too.

~ top five books by Romanian authors

Thanks to friends and book clubs I read a lot more Romanian authors than in any other year and I bought even more — now I have a full shelf just with Romanian authors (and soon I’ll need a second one). The plan for 2025 is to read even more.

It’s a Top Five so it will be harder to have funky categories — they are not a must, it’s just a thing that happened naturally in the previous tops and it stuck — but I’m still going to try...

Category is “I Wish I Could Read These Again for the First Time” or “The Books I Recommend the Most”:

Muzeul convorbirilor întrerupte by Anda Docea. While we were at FILIT, Bogdana introduced me to contemporary Romanian poetry and there’s no going back now. I was browsing Anda’s book at the Cărturești corner at FILIT and at the first poem read I fell instantly in love with her writing, I bought the book and went to a cafe to read it cover to cover. Her poetry is powerful and vulnerable at the same time.

And since we are talking poetry, I need to mention two other volumes I read and loved: Cât mai departe de tot ce cunosc by Cristina Alexandrescu and Spune-mi unde să apăs mai tare by Ramona Boldizsar (Ramona also has a substack).

Cât de aproape sunt ploile reci by Bogdan Coşa. This novel broke my heart in the most beautiful way. I really enjoyed his writing and all the little details that made me so nostalgic. It’s a very realistic novel about family, poverty, alcoholism, the countryside and many other things that in one way or another are part of our generational trauma and history.

Teo de la 16 la 18 by Raluca Nagy. Teo is in a category of it’s own because nothing else compares to it. It’s a bloody smart read, a touch surrealistic, definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but it was mine. It’s a beautiful puzzle.

Category is “Because the Night”:

Între zi şi noapte by Henriette Yvonne Stahl. This is a novel from 1968 that I still can’t believe we don’t study it in high school — its themes are much closer to teens than anything else deemed :”worthy” to be studied. Olga is researching and writing about other Romanian women writers that we did not even hear about in school.

Noaptea nu uită by Silvia Dumitru. An amazing debut novel about identity, exploring toxic relationships and comfort zones. Silvia’s writing is intense, but tender at the same time.

~ the honourable mentions

As always, there is a Top Ten, but there are more books worth talking about as I look back on my reading year.

Category is “The Fever Dream” — these books are the closest to the Top, but they just didn’t make it:

Time Shelter by Georgy Gospodiov. A fun experimental novel about memories, time and nostalgia.

Bunny by Mona Awad. Oh, Bunny, you are literally a fever dream! I also read it while I was hospitalised and on a lot of drugs, so double the fever dream fun. I call this one pink academia.

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix. A horror comedy that takes place in an Ikea-like furniture store. I loved the writing a lot!

Next category is focused on picture books for kids — “The Illustrations Made Me Do It”.

Do you know how hard it was to narrow this one down? I managed by forcing myself to focus only on 2024 releases (because I review picture books for kids) yet I still need to mention Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, illustrated by Anita Jeram (the sweetest book) and Snow by Walter de la Mare, illustrated by Caroline Rabei (the illustrations are amazing) — these two are older books that I read because of friends.

Also worth mentioning, from the books published this year that I got for review: The Most Perfect Persimmon by Hannah Chung (so cute and wholesome), In Time by Marina Ruiz (great lessons on time) and Have You Seen an Elephant? by Elina Ellis (it made me laugh out loud) — I also just received for review her newest book in the same series, Is This a Tiger?, and I’m sure I’ll laugh just as much.

A Star Shines Through by Anna Desnitskaya. This is here because I adore the illustration style. The story could use some polish, but the illustrations are doing a great job narrating the story anyway.

Wacky Witches and Their Peculiar Familiars by April Suddendorf. This is a book of poetry for the little ones about witches and their weird familiars. I giggled a lot while reading it and I loved the illustrations too.

A Crocodile Should Never Skip Breakfast by Colleen Larmour. This was hilarious! The illustrations were stunning and the story was a lot of fun — our croc might be lactose-intolerant or vegan and all the capybaras scenes!

World of Rot: Learn All about the Wriggly, Slimy, Super-Cool Decomposers We Couldn’t Live Without by Britt Crow-Miller. This is a non-fiction picture book, and the longest picture book from this list. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the illustrations were great and different and you learn so much from it even as an adult!

Next category is “I’m a Hopeless Romantic”:

Tis the Season for Revenge by Morgan Elizabeth. I had a blast with this rom-com. It has the perfect balance of humour, good plot, heart-wrenching anxiety, and, of course, spice! Heavily inspired by Legally Blonde.

Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto. It’s official, I’m a sucker for Reylo fanfictions turned rom-com novels. The musical and sexual tension in this one was delicious!

Other rom-coms that I enjoyed this year: Debugging Love by Erin Lucy — a clean romance, but a lot of fun nonetheless, Not in My Book by Katie Holt — an amazing debut novel with great banter between our leads, and this list would not be complete without mentioning the queens of rom-coms: Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood (very different from your usual Hazelwood, but still just as good) and Funny Story by Emily Henry.

Category is “Let’s Get Serial, Serial”:

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins. The only thing serial in this domestic thriller is the number of husbands Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore had. Although they did died so who knows? This was a page-turner.

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka. This one is also very very close to the actual top. I loved that it creates suspense even though you obviously know where the story goes.

The Killer’s Daughter by Kate Wiley. This is a classic detective story that I received for review and I ended up loving — mostly because I missed procedural crime dramas and this one offers complex characters and multiple plot lines. It was really good and I’m excited to read the other books featuring detective Margot Phalen.

Category is “I Love Data” — I didn’t read that much non-fiction, but I really enjoyed these two:

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez. It literally is only data here. Good soup.

Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You're Too Scared to Watch by Emily C. Hughes. Not only is this book giving you the full plot of films you couldn’t watch (if you are a scaredy-cat like moi), but it discusses tropes and why these films are relevant too — on top of that it makes you a reading list in case you can read horror but not watch it (like yours truly).

Category is “Cookbooks I Received for Review But Now I Want to Buy Them”:

Misarana by Eddie Scott. I love people, especially foodies, that have a vast knowledge of different cuisines and Scott is Indian, but raised in England and spent each summer vacationing in France with his family. In his debut cookbook he recreates classic British and French foods with an Indian kick.

The Complete Cheese Pairing Cookbook by Morgan McGlynn Carr. Carr really really really loves cheese and you can feel that while reading this book. I obviously loved it for Carr’s knowledge, but also because of how well this book is structured — from pairing cheese with food groups, then regional pairings and then seasonal pairings.

And that’s all, folks… but before I end this post, I must mention the following books too.

Category is “Books I Don’t Regret Reading”. These books may not be my favourites, maybe I didn’t even enjoy them, but still made their marks on my reading journey.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The way Emily plays with the structure of this book was innovative at its time, the unreliable narrators and the frame narration overall was nice, and personally, I really really loved the poems of Emily I found in the annotations of this book. It wasn’t as gothic as I imagined it would be but it made me want to learn more about Emily and read her poetry.

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh. This would’ve worked better for me as a short story, but I’m still happy I read it because I enjoyed Moshfegh’s writing style.

Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar. Gave me a headache and annoyed me, but I feel proud that I mastered this absurd stream-of-consciousness somewhat existentialist somewhat surrealist novel the “hopscotch” way.

Last but not least, the books I reread — because I’m a rereader and it’s important to showcase the books one always returns to:

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. I don’t remember why I decided to reread this one but I enjoyed it more than the first time I read it. Told you I’m a sucker for Reylo fanfictions.

Vara în care mama a avut ochii verzi by Tatiana Țîbuleac. This is one of my favourite books ever.

Annihilation by Jeff Vandemeer. I reread the entire Southern Reach series in anticipation of the final surprise volume which I received for review and then Santa brought me a physical copy too. Annihilation is still my favourite in the series (I have yet to read Absolution, the last one), but this reread made me change my opinion on the second book in the series, Authority — I enjoyed it a lot more the second time.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I buddy-read it with some colleagues at work. It’s one of my favourite books so I obviously enjoyed rereading it — this time around I listened to the audiobook narrated by Tartt herself.

Overall this was a great reading year — with a lot of book clubs and book events and new bookish friends. It feels good to find your tribe.

My husband is of the opinion that I wrote this top too soon as there’s still time for a new favourite to emerge, but from all the books I’m currently reading, I think only The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk stands a chance. Yet I know myself and I usually spend the last week of the year watching films. But I’ll let you know if something changes.

Thank you for reading!