108 | Compelling, subversive, beautiful: the books we loved most in 2024

It's that time of year again - the annual Bed on a Plinth Awards, in which James and Ashley discuss the best books they've read in the last twelve months! Use this particularly eclectic list to gather Christmas gift ideas, or simply top up your own 'to be read' pile. Books & authors discussed in this episode (spoilers below!): Red River Road by Anna Downes  The Last Trace by Petronella McGovern An Ambush of Widows by R.W.R. McDonald (audiobook) Seventeen Years Later by JP Pomare Girl Falling by Hayley Scrivenor The Pulling by Adele Dumont (interviewed in episode 93) Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen  Not Everything Counts but Everything Matters by Ivan Cleary & Andrew Webster  Fragile Creatures by Khin Myint (interviewed in episode 101) Ghost Cities by Siang Lu (interviewed in episode 99) Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra Sociopath by Patric Gagn The Writer's Room by Charlotte Wood  Tyranny of the Minority by Daniel Ziblatt & Steven Levitsky  Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy  Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver  Upcoming events  Ashley is teaching Year of the Novel for Writing NSW beginning on Wednesday evenings starting 26 February 2025  The Cold Truth tour is happening in February! Sign up for Ashley's newsletter here for full details  Learn more about Ashley's thrillers, Dark Mode and Cold Truth, and get your copies from your local bookshop or your library.  Learn more about James' award-winning novel Denizen and get your copy from your local bookshop or your library. Get in touch! ashleykalagianblunt.com jamesmckenziewatson.com Instagram: @akalagianblunt + @jamesmcwatson