It’s that magical time of the year when booksellers get to choose our very favorite books from the past year.
“Undercurrents” by Joan Maki is part love letter to the land and part fairytale. When her best friend disappears, Kit knows what happened to him, but the adults around her don’t believe her explanation. Just because most adults can’t see the creatures who live among the roots near the river, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Faced with adulthood and motherhood herself, the medication she’s used to cover the past starts to chafe on her psyche. Will Kit choose the prescribed sanity of normal life, or will she embrace reality, even if it’s unbelievable? Gorgeous prose from a Bitterroot author.
My favorite young adult book of 2024, “Grief in the Fourth Dimension” by Jennifer Yu, really has all the elements of great fiction: grief, hope, speculative physics, cosmic humor, and redemption. Kenny finds himself in an empty white room watching his own funeral and with every request, the space changes and hand-written notes fall from the ceiling with messages like, “Be more specific” and “Death isn’t serious”. A little bit John Green, a little bit Gayle Forman with a sentient being taken straight from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide,” this book will make you laugh, cry and believe in the power of community after tragedy.
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For the historical fiction readers on your list, don’t pass up “By Any Other Name” by Jodi Picoult. Though her reputation for storytelling precedes her, I hadn’t read any of her novels in at least a decade and was surprised how much I liked this book. In the 1500s, Emelia Bassano is doing what women aren’t supposed to be doing…writing plays. When she can’t sell them under her own name, fellow playwrights recommend selling them to an actor named William Shakespeare, and the rest is history. Her modern-day descendant, Melina, is also a playwright and is still hiding her gender to give her play about Emelia a chance at being produced. How far have we really come? Great for theater nerds, feminists and readers who like dual narratives.
New books tend to be hardcovers, but for those of you looking for new paperbacks, I highly recommend “Smothermoss” by Alisa Alering. Not only does it include literature’s best little sister since Amy March, but the murder is loosely based on a true crime. On the edge of the Appalachian Trail, two teenage sisters are growing up with one foot in the 1980s and the other foot in their great-aunt’s mountain lore. Sheila, on the cusp of adulthood, works hard at home, is ostracized at school and carries with her, always, a tightness around her neck — an invisible cord. Younger sister Angie is a fierce blend of Pippi Longstocking and Peter Pan, and she’s obsessed with hunting down a murderer. Delicious and unsettling.
For younger readers, “Spooky Lakes” by Geo Rutherford is very cool. Written for elementary and middle school kids, I read this cover to cover. It’s just what it sounds like, a deep dive into 25 strange and spooky lakes all over the world. What makes a lake spooky? Eerie flora and fauna, mysterious deaths, toxic water, or a history of deadly shipwrecks. Great for kids who have a macabre interest in the wider world, Geo Rutherford started her journey on TikTok with Spooky Lake Month. This book is a culmination of some of the best lakes with Rutherford’s own vibrant artwork. Fascinating and satisfying.
For more nonfiction, check out “Bone of the Bone: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class” by Sarah Smarsh. A collection of Smarsh’s writings, this book is insightful and thought-provoking. A journalist by trade, Smarsh has spent her career illuminating the inequality and hypocrisy separating American policies from the millions of Americans those policies are meant to be serving. She’s also very funny and introspective. These essays range from book and entertainment reviews to playful examinations about language to personal essays about her family relationships. I want everyone to read this, but if you don’t want to give it to everyone on your list, make sure to at least give it to the ranchers and progressives in your life or anyone interested in American culture, or anyone who bemoans the end of newspaper-style journalism, or anyone interested in politics. Just give it to everyone.
For that person who needs something uplifting, “In Praise of Mystery” by Ada Limon and Peter Sis is lovely. Written for NASA’s Europa Clipper, this poem picture book inspires exploration, yes, but also inspires the wonder of the planet we call home. “We are creatures of constant awe, curious at beauty, at leaf and blossom, at grief and pleasure, sun and shadow.” Peter Sis has been a favorite of mine since young adulthood when I saw his artwork on a series of books for young readers. He juxtaposes tiny details with expansive color to create images that you fall into.
Give great books.
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