When it came time to compile the possible contenders for the 2024 Biblioracle Book Awards for fiction, I came up with 20 titles, more than one-third of all the new fiction I read this year.
This is an unwieldy list for even the two installments I have planned, so please know some worthy books will be left out through no fault of their own. The firm word count on this column is a cruel taskmaster.
I also realized that I’ve not previously had a chance to write about a good number of the books that deserve Biblioracle laurels, so that’s going to be the focus of next week’s column. This week is a round-up of the best fiction from 2024 I’ve previously covered in this space.
Book That Would Make the Most Satisfying Limited Series in the Vein of “Reacher”
The “Reacher” Amazon Prime series based on the Jack Reacher books is a near-perfect distillation of what’s compelling about the novels. I would love to see someone do the same with Rob Hart’s “Assassins Anonymous,” a smart and witty thriller about hired killers in a 12-step group trying to keep themselves from slipping back to the dark side.
Book That Makes Me Choke Up a Little Just Thinking About It Again
The narrator of Garth Greenwell’s “Small Rain” is stricken with illness and finds himself suddenly isolated in an ICU during the COVID-19 period when hospitals were overwhelmed and loved ones could only visit for short periods per day. The narrator is left with only his thoughts, and his ruminations on love, disaster, poetry, sex and other human connections establish a kind of intimacy only on offer through the experience of reading.
Book That Takes a Big Swing and Results in a Grand Slam
How audacious is it to write a companion narrative to what is perhaps the first fully “American” novel? Very. But with “James,” his retelling of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of Huck’s enslaved companion, Percival Everett manages to unfurl not only a story that works on its own, but one that also sheds new light on Twain’s classic text.
Book That I Read Twice, Which Almost Never Happens
Ben Shattuck’s braided collection of short stories “The History of Sound” so impressed me on my initial reading that I went back and immediately read it again with equal, maybe even greater pleasure. I honestly think it’s a masterpiece.
I Like My Wit Bone Dry Books of the Year
This is a tie between Camille Bordas’ “The Material” and Charles Baxter’s “Blood Test.” The Chicago-set “The Material” spans no more than a day in the lives of the students and professors in a graduate program for stand-up comedy but manages to bring all these people to life with great good humor. “Blood Test” is the story of an everyman who has perhaps been given permission to go off the rails. Both will put a sly smile on your face.
Best Book to Recommend to the Most People Book of the Year
The opening premise of Alison Espach’s “The Wedding People” — a woman (Phoebe Stone) checks into a luxury coastal Rhode Island hotel to have one glorious night before killing herself — may seem dark, but Espach deftly brings both Phoebe and the reader around via a journey through a multi-day wedding party that Phoebe somehow becomes integral to. Both Jenna Bush Hager (it was a Read with Jenna pick) and I think lots of people will enjoy this book, and based on the dozen people I’ve recommended it to, we’re right.
Next week, the books I should’ve talked about but haven’t yet gotten their flowers.
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “The Birds That Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness” by Kenn Kaufman
2. “Henry and Clara” by Thomas Mallon
3. “Middle of the Night” by Riley Sager
4. “A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon” by Kevin Fedarko
5. “The Lager Queen of Minnesota” by J. Ryan Stradal
— Jeff R., Glen Ellyn
A mix of nonfiction and different fiction genres. If this means Jeff is a wide reader, it’s a piece of cake. I just have to give him a good book: “Billy Bathgate” by E.L. Doctorow.
1. “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr
2. “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut
3. “Ball Four” by Jim Bouton
4. “The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics” by Daniel James Brown
5. “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn
— Jim P., Naperville
Jim says he gets his books exclusively from the library, so he wants a selection that’s likely to be not checked out. This is sort of impossible to predict, but I think that means steering away from newer stuff that might be in hot demand. I’m going with “Saints at the River” by Ron Rash.
1. “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach
2. “All Fours” by Miranda July
3. “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Ottessa Moshfegh
4. “Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net” by Jessica Calarco
5. “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara
— Julia M., Chicago
I feel like the work of Mieko Kawakami fits in well with this mix. The specific recommendation is “Breasts and Eggs.”
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to [email protected].
This post was originally published on here
