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Goodreads Staffers Share Their Top Reads of 2024
At the end of each calendar year, as we wrap up our annual Reading Challenge, we like to ask a simple question of Goodreads’ well-read staffers: What were the three best books you read this year?
The books don’t necessarily have to be published in the past year, although they often are. And it’s always interesting to see the range of responses, from brilliant genre classics and Pulitzer Prize–winning blockbusters to brand-new success stories and beloved old standbys.
We’ve gathered the responses from this year below, and there truly is something for everyone: cozy mysteries, Gen X touchstones, historical tragedies, odes to nature, international sensations, inspirational memoirs, award-winning sci-fi, sports classics, ingenious retellings, time-space adventures, and even some existential revelations.
What were your three favorite reads of the year? Feel free to swap recommendations in the comments section. If any of our favorites look like good leads for your future reading endeavors, add them to your own Want to Read shelf.
Cybil Wallace, Managing Editor
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Priscilla S. Guido, Senior Account Manager
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Subi Sundaram, Principal Product Manager-Tech
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Kelli Padis, Senior Account Manager
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Julie De Lorenzo, Senior Software Development Engineer
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Margo Throckmorton, Senior Program Manager
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Sharon Hsu, Senior Editor
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Alexander Reyes, Finance Operations Analyst
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Haley Giangreco, Visual Designer
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Ciara Fogarty, Manager, Ads Account Managers
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Katie Berk, Head of Product
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Suzanne Skyvara, VP, Marketing & Editorial
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Daniel Kessel, Social Media & Editorial Program Manager
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Aditi Sharma, Software Development Engineer
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Jenny Wong, Software Engineer
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Nate Taggart, Senior Risk Manager
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Heather Curran, Senior Technical Account Manager
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Karen Liu, Senior Product Designer
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Garnet Shepherd, Senior Engineer
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Dana Epstein, Senior Account Executive
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Lauren Deyce, Learning Experience Designer
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Stephanie Frey, Senior Engineer
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Lisa Jablonsky, Sales Director
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Chelsie Cooper, Product Manager
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Eric Asuncion, Senior Product Manager
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Yvonne Garton, Account Manager
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Pooja Desai, Software Development Engineer
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Mike van Hardenberg, Senior Product Manager
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Tony Chan, Senior Software Development Engineer
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Meantaek Hwang, Business Intelligence Engineer
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Fiona Lee, Executive Assistant
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Blake Smith, Revenue Account Manager
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Comments Showing 1-50 of 52 (52 new)
message 1:
by
J
(new)
Dec 01, 2024 09:27AM
A lot of good books here!! Have to say I was delighted to see “Tales of the City” by Armistead Maupin on the list. Love that series so much.
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I really like this kind of article! It’s not just the super popular Booktok stuff, there are a lot of new books I’d never heard of.
Now this in an article that should become a monthly/ yearly thing 😂😂
How fun!! I match most closely with Subi Sundaram. Heyyyy!! ✋️
Read 1 from this list, but 10 tbr
Lee Lee wrote: "Read 1 from this list, but 10 tbr"which one have you read? what did you think of it?
A lot of people work for Goodreads. Where's Orbital? The best book I read this year.
My three favs that I read this year are: Remarkably Bright Creatures, Weyward and The Frozen River. I will also add Nettle and Bone as an honorable mention.
“the Covenant of Water”, “The Women” and for something different “Colton Gentry’s Third Act”
I have read 9 books on this list. I have to say my favorite is Kristin Hannah’s The Women.
My 3 favorites:Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ashe
How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Runners Up:
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
Jessie wrote: "A lot of good books here!! Have to say I was delighted to see “Tales of the City” by Armistead Maupin on the list. Love that series so much."I was surprised, too. I had actually forgotten all about that series.
The Women is one of my top 3 too - plus “All the Colors of the Dark” - still have some reading to do before the end of the year & my final choice though!
I have read 6 of these books. I’ve read James, The Women, You made a Fool of Me with your Beauty, A Gentleman in Moscow, The Ministry of Time and The Wedding People. Other books that I have really enjoyed this year include The Measure, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, First Lie Wins, North Woods, The Paris Novel and The Last Thing He Told Me.
Some really good books I have heard of or have already enjoyed . But my favorite book this year was “Lady Tan’s Circle of Women”
Lots of TBR here, also many I have read. What a great list😎❤️🌵
Great list. I have read some and mark some as TBR. My favorites this year are First Ladies by Marie Bennedict, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson, Split Second, by Douglas E. Richards, and The Rom-Commers, by Katherine Center
Agree with “The Women” as best book! Disappointed not to see “All the Colors of the Dark”.
I also loved "Lady Tan's Circle of Women" by Lisa See. Audrey Steuer
I’d have to say Fiona and Ciera have great taste 😉
Lisa and Dana are my "read alike" folks, and The Women was a well done novel from a time I lived through.
This is such a clever and useful article! I loved it and got myself so many new book recs :) thanks!
There’s no way Goodreads has this many software engineers unless they all have to spend half their day packing Amazon orders
HOW did Tom Lake not make it as an audiobook finalist? Meryl Streep’s narration took the book over the top! One of my favorites! Congratulations to the winners!
All great books so I have and a lot I don’t, but that’s cool
Very happy to see Sabriel on this list, I just finished Lirael last week and have started Abhorsen. Yvonne, if this is your first time reading the series, you are in for a fantastic adventure :)
happy to see a fujoshi living their truth in accounting
some of the books are ridiculous and obviously not true.
Your local cryptid wrote: "Julie and Katie are my people 🤌🏻🙏🏻"Right!?!
Priscilla S. Guido and I have the same taste in books and now I want to meet them!
I still might finish one or two books, but as of right now my top three would beBeach Read
Cibola Burn
Words of Radiance
I love looking at this at the end of each year! Quite a few that I was able to read this year :)My top three are:
The Women
Go as a River
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
I LOVE staff picks! Somehow they are always better than the plain ol’ bestseller lists.
It would difficult to pick the top 3 with so many good reads this year. The book that I enjoyed the most was AS1 by Trevor Lewis.
I’ve read a great book called The Secret of the Brighton House by Cathy Howard but I can’t find it on Goodreads. How do we report missing books so they can be uploaded to the system?
Elaine wrote: "I’ve read a great book called The Secret of the Brighton House by Cathy Howard but I can’t find it on Goodreads. How do we report missing books so they can be uploaded to the system?"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
This is the kindle edition. If this wasn't what you read please go to the Librarians Group
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Be aware that almost everything is very behind in this group, with adding new books being the most behind folder of all.
Why no favourites from data scientists on the team?
So funny how I get most matched with someone working in the same field 🙈
As if I needed to add more to my TBR! Glad that a few I already had on my TBR, some I read this year, and some I read in the past were all on the list!
I love that I saw“Binti” on here it is such an underrated book that deserves so much more recognition.
I love looking at the book choices vs job titles and I gotta say, a lot of them complement each other.
Kairos , Booker international winner ,was intriguing and historically fascinating while also an erotic thriller.
My favorites of 37 books I read were Northwoods, Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, Kairos, James, and Crying in H Mart. Also Tell Me Everything. The Women was good but overrated, I think.
My 3 favourites are:Monstrilio, Gerardo Samano Cordova
Collected Works, Lydia Sandgren
Martyr, Kaveh Akbar
