Episode 35 - Best of 2024 Part 2

On this episode, past guests of Books with Betsy and I share our favorite books of 2024! Listen to hear about lots of great 2024 books and the excellent backlist we got to this year.    Books mentioned in this episode:    Betsy’s Top 11 Books (in no particular order):  Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe  The Reformatory by Tananarive Due  Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad  Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe  My Friends by Hisham Matar  Punk Rock Karaoke by Biana Xunise  Headshot by Rita Bullwinkle  Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner  We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer  Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah  James by Percival Everett    Books Highlighted by Guests: Sam Luchsinger The Biography of X by Catherine Lacey The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig Wellness by Nathan Hill  Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice Francesca Musumeci  Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace  One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon  Nestlings by Nat Cassidy Cynthia Okechukwu Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan  Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler  Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe  Rachel Kilthorne The Expanse Series by James S.A. Corey There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with our Wild Neighbors by Erika Howsare The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Annette LaPlaca The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living by Alan Noble Slough House by Mick Herron  Mind’s Eye by Hakan Nesser The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall Allison Yates Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date by Ashley Herring Blake The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell The Color Purple by Alice Walker  Jenn Moland-Kovash Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck Take What You Need by Idra Novey The Husbands by Holly Gramazio  The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer  Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara  Just For the Summer by Abby Jimenez Mike Finucane A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders  The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer Come, Have Breakfast: Meditations on God and the Earth by Elizabeth Johnson  Couldn’t Keep it to Myself: Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters ed. Wally Lamb Carolyn Latshaw The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric That Time I got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf by Kimberly Lemming All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy  Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales by Nathan Hale Monika Janas Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah  When Among Crows by Veronica Roth The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells Elantris by Brandon Sanderson  Tim Mueller The Thirteen Ways we Turned Darryl Datson into a Monster by Kurt Fawver Helliconia Spring by Brian Wilson Aldiss  The Room by Hubert Selby  The Terror by Dan Simmons Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry