Ok. Fine. I like being an iconoclast but it’s hard to deny that Percival Everett’s James was one of 2024’s best books. The National Book Award for fiction, the Kirkus Prize for fiction, finalist for the Booker Prize—safe to say, Everett had a great year.
But James was worthy of the accolades. A retelling of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of that book’s main Black character, Huck’s companion, Jim, the novel turns the story inside out and still manages to make it about America.
The book hits all the expected beats but throws in wry observations, not only on the cruelty of slavery in the South, but also on language, code-switching and minstrel shows. And there are some unexpected surprises along the way, all with Everett’s characteristic humor.
So I’ll throw my hat in the ring for James as well, even though, as I noted, any of my top 3 could have made #1 on the 2024 Best Reads list. The full recap is below along with some other super reads from the year.
#2 – Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
#3 – The Known World by Edward P. Jones
#4 – Zero at the Bone by Christian Wiman
#5 – The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
#6 – The Ninety-Third Name of God by Anya Krugovoy Silver
#7 – Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
#8 – The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
#9 – Larry McMurty: A Life by Tracy Daugherty
#10 – Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson
Other good reads:
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
American Visions by Edward Ayers
The Wager by David Grann
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Walt Whitman’s America by David S. Reynolds
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
The Good Brother by Chris Offut
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
Heartlands 
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