At the end of each year we go through the books we read and select our favorites. The books we could not put down, raved about and left littered with tags.
Combing through our archives always fills us with a little amazement at how many books kept us company over the year; and a lot of gratitude to the publishers who trust us with their sample copies and give us the opportunities to discover new books, genres and authors. To the teams at Pan MacMillan, Penguin Random House and Jonathan Ball Publishers we are endlessly grateful for your partnership, making our color coded bookshelf dreams come true, and allowing us to pick the brains of authors behind some of our favorite books.
Looking back on 2024, we’ve been a little pickier, choosing only 10 books to sit in our best books of 2024 pile. Below (in the order we read them) are our top picks.
1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner was published 20 years ago and has proven itself to be not just a bestseller in its heyday but a timeless classic of a novel. It follows the story of two friends Amir and Hassan who grow up together like brothers despite being from two different classes. That brotherhood is broken first by a kite running competition and then again when the Taliban takes over Afghanistan. Decades later, Amir will return to Afghanistan to try and right the wrong against Hassan.
Read the full review here
2. Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg
Charles Duhigg is one of the best storytelling authors in the learning books category. My introduction to him was reading The Power of Habit and that book still sticks with me more than a decade later. In supercommunicators, he provides a guide on how to communicate with anyone at home, work and in life. Not only will this book teach you how to communicate better, but it also covers how to really listen.
Read the full review here
3. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
The Covenant of Water is hands down one of the best novels I have ever read. Set in 1900 Kerala, South India, a 12-year-old girl is sent by boat to her wedding where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. It’s a breathtaking read with a rich and layered storyline. It is powerful, heart wrenching, in places shocking and the writing is phenomenal.
Read the full review here
4. Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish
Clear thinking is a New York Times bestseller by Shane Parrish. It is a practical guide to mastering clear thinking, which enables you to turn ordinary moments into extraordinary results. It’s an exceptionally good book that is well written and will teach you a lot. If you enjoy the Knowledge Project podcast, you will undoubtedly enjoy this book.
Read the full review here
5. Private Equity by Carrie Sun
A heart wrenching memoir written by Carrie Sun, Private Equity documents her life as the assistant to the founder of one of the most successful private equity firms on Wall Street. While her situation may have been extreme, elements of her story and struggle are relatable to nearly everyone working to earn a living – you don’t just empathise with her, you relate. It highlights the push-pull of wanting to achieve in your career while still maintaining a life outside of work. It’s a cautionary tale of hustle culture and one that will make you ask yourself how much you’d be willing to sacrifice for a bigger paycheck and impressive line item on your CV.
Read the full review here
6. How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
A delicious murder mystery with an original time-bending plot, How to Solve Your Own Murder is one of those page turning books that you lose yourself in. It begins in 1965 when 17 year old Francis Adams is told by a fortune teller that her ending will be murder. She spends her entire life trying to solve her own murder, making everyone around her dismiss her as crazy until she is murdered.
Read the full review here
7. Saltblood by Francesca de Tores
I used to joke with Feige every time I saw a historical novel that that book was for her. Until I got into historical fiction and started placing dibs on those novels. Mostly the ones written by women about women that history has overlooked. They take you into a bygone time and give you a taste of what life may have been like for women. Saltblood is based on the incredible life of Mary Read, one of history’s most remarkable figures who made her way in a man’s world by pretending to be a man. It is captivating, thrilling and a lesson in history.
Read the full review here
8. Magic Pill by John Hari
If 2024 was defined by a drug it would be Ozempic. What was a drug for diabetics became the most popular and seemingly successful weight loss drug. In Magic Pill, John Hari brilliantly combines investigative journalism with personal storytelling to uncover hard to swallow truths about Ozempic, weight loss and a food industry that has changed our appetites and waistlines.
Read the full review here
9. Unreasonable hospitality by Will Guidara
The best learning book I read in 2024, Unreasonable Hospitality questions everything you’ve learnt about customer service and the hospitality industry. By the end of this book, you will have been convinced that hospitality is not something limited to the service industry but rather something that can be applied to every business.
Read the full review here
10. The Bone Series by Samantha Shannon
The first novel in The Bone Series was published a decade ago and I was introduced to it only because Samantha Shannon happened to be on tour in South Africa celebrating the revised 10th Anniversary edition. This novel and the subsequent 3 others in the series changed my mind about fantasy fiction. Following Paige Mahoney, an unnatural who is imprisoned, escapes, becomes Queen of the underworld and then sent to exile, the Bone Series masterfully creates a universe so entrancing that I finished the fourth book desperate to read the fifth, which is only being released this year.
Read the reviews for The Bone Season here, The Mime Order here, The Song Rising here and the Mask Falling here.
