There's no easy way to winnow a year's worth of books down to the best 10 fiction titles and the best 10 nonfiction titles. Nonetheless, our editors conferred with each other, our colleagues, and our reviewers to compile a list that we think is, in a word, dynamite. Click through to read our reviews of these titles. (And don't miss our Best Children's and YA Books of 2024!)
Fiction
James by Percival Everett (Doubleday)
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Knopf)
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader)
Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho (Hillman Grad/Zando)
Ours by Phillip B. Williams (Viking)
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte (Morrow)
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud (Norton)
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (Knopf)
The Women by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's)
Your Absence Is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson (Biblioasis)
Nonfiction
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan (Knopf)
The Blue Mimes: Poems by Sara Daniele Rivera (Graywolf)
Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir by Zoë Bossiere (Abrams)
The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America by Sara B. Franklin (Atria)
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls (MCD)
Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley (MCD)
Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth by Sönke Johnsen (Princeton University Press)
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Scribner)
Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon with Kim Green (Algonquin)
The Wide, Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides (Doubleday)