My friend Carla Jean Whitley has been writing about books for 20-ish years. Every Decemeber she does a best-of roundup with Rachel Burchfield on her podcast I’d Rather Be Reading.

I listened to the 2024 version of this episode and added some of the books she mentioned to my to-read pile (a few of them were already on my list, but I bumped them up.) I’ll let Carla Jean recommend these reads to you, too.

You can listen to the episode (and hear about even more books!) here.

And below are some of the books she mentioned as standouts for the past year:

Nonfiction
Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman

Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music by Rob Sheffield

Memoir
Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

Fiction
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Sandwich by Catherine Newman

The Best Books She’s Reread This Year
Looking for Alaska by John Green (This one would be a reread for me too.)
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

The Books She Is Anticipating for 2025
Mothers and Other Fictional Characters: A Memoir in Essays by Nicole Graev Lipson (coming March 4, 2025)
The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue: A Story of Climate and Hope on One American Street by Mike Tidwell (coming March 25, 2025)