BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

Best Books by Genre 2024

By Cindy Burnett, Staff writer | December 12, 2024

Click the Buzz Me button to receive email notifications when this writer publishes a new article or a new article in this column is published.

Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin is a delightful tale centering around nonagenarian Eddie Winston, who's never been kissed.
In Under Your Spell by Laura Wood, the daughter of a self-absorbed older rock star finds herself unexpectedly “babysitting” the most popular (and handsome) musician in the world and is unsettled when their relationship becomes more personal – especially since she swore she’d never date someone famous.
In Rental House, Weike Wang focuses on marriage and what people owe or don’t owe their parents, when issues may cross the line and how that should be handled, and what happens in a relationship when someone may not really understand their significant other.

December is such a fun month for me because a plethora of best book lists release – I love comparing my lists with others and discovering some titles I missed along the way.

I recently wrote a feature entitled Best Books of the Year: Reflecting on 2024 Reads highlighting my favorite books that published in 2024 in the historical fiction, fiction and mystery/thriller genres as well as some favorites from Buzz resident readers. These are the three genres I read the most. It was incredibly hard to narrow down my list, so I am listing all of my standouts in those three genres here. I also recently released a podcast episode where I highlight my favorites of 2024 if you prefer to listen or learn more about some of these titles.

Within each genre, I list the books alphabetically.

Mysteries and thrillers:

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
The Family Experiment by John Marrs
The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh
Long Time Gone by Charlie Donlea
The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan
What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris

Historical fiction:

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Maria by Michelle Moran
The Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate
The Turtle House by Amanda Churchill
The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan
The Women by Kristin Hannah

Fiction:

Crow Talk by Eileen Garvin
Dixon, Descending by Karen Outen
Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin
Every Moment Since by MaryBeth Whalen
The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu
Family Family by Laurie Frankel
How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley
How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi
The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley
Rental House by Weike Wang
Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy
Under Your Spell by Laura Wood
The Wedding People by Alison Espach

I hope you enjoy perusing this list and finding some books that you have not yet read but now want to. Feel free to share your favorite lists with me!

For more book recommendations and bookish thoughts, see Cindy’s monthly Buzz Reads column, her award-winning Thoughts from a Page Podcast or follow @ThoughtsFromaPage on Instagram.

Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin is a delightful tale centering around nonagenarian Eddie Winston, who's never been kissed.

In Under Your Spell by Laura Wood, the daughter of a self-absorbed older rock star finds herself unexpectedly “babysitting” the most popular (and handsome) musician in the world and is unsettled when their relationship becomes more personal – especially since she swore she’d never date someone famous.

In Rental House, Weike Wang focuses on marriage and what people owe or don’t owe their parents, when issues may cross the line and how that should be handled, and what happens in a relationship when someone may not really understand their significant other.