Well well well, here we are again. Accidentally took a month-long break but we’re back, baby! New Year and all that jazz. And while traditionally, the new year is about looking forward, I like to start the year with a quick reflection. This is when I review the best books I read in the year prior. And I realize, yes, that mostly everyone who writes about books has done this post already and that I am late, but what is time but a social construct, and who am I but a fallible young(ish) person who is just doing her best? I hope you’ll tolerate my tardiness and warmly usher this piece into the ranks of your already-read best-of lists.
So let’s talk best books of 2024! I like to give myself literally until the final day of the year so that all books I read over the holidays have an equal chance of being included in the year’s roundup. Long before starting this substack I’ve been posting my favorite books of the year to Instagram, followed by honorable mentions. I’m not too precious about it, though maybe I should be; I have no formulaic approach to this, except to consider all I’ve read this year and select the books that have affected and stuck with me the most. These are the books that I will recommend often and deeply believe you should read.
In no particular order, here are my favorite reads of the year, followed by honorable mentions:
The Employees by Olga Ravn
This book had me in its clutches from the get-go. It makes sense to learn that Ravn is a poet; her sentences are both ethereal and scorching, invoking a well of emotions you didn’t know you had. Each word feels purposeful and essential to the text.
The story is delivered in short interviews with unnamed employees of the Six-Thousand Ship, a spaceship that contains human and humanoid workers. The interviews are one-sided, and the reader is immediately engrossed in reading between the lines to unveil what might be slowly destroying the harmony of the ship’s workforce. The memos from these anonymous employees reveal colleague relations, reasons for joining the company, and personal feelings of failure, success, fear, loneliness, connection, and heartbreak as they occur in the workplace, albeit one that is rather unorthodox.
The Employees is a subtle and searing read that will put down roots in your mind. It’s a hard one to shake once you’ve finished it, yet when you complete that final page, you’ll immediately want to read it again from the beginning; desperate again for the feelings it gave you, searching for something within its scant pages. I loved this strange little book.
Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black by Cookie Mueller
I’ll always remember 2024 as the year I discovered Cookie Mueller. A goddess, a genius, a writer, a partier, an artist, a mother, a star – Cookie Mueller was a treasure. It comes through in her writing; this book is a collection of her non-fiction work, some fiction pieces, and columns from her time at The Village Voice.
She was dauntless and unflinching about life’s cruel affronts, traipsing her way through casual misogyny, time in a psychiatric ward, rape, and abuse, determinedly, doggedly, enjoying her short but sparkling life. She has an uncanny, admirable quality of being unlike anyone else and yet wholly endearing; she’s someone you’d hope noticed you at a party. I wouldn’t want to live my life like Cookie– I’ve neither the guts nor the gumption– but I would want to be her friend.
Cookie brings a good-natured humor to everything she encounters, making you realize that there’s nothing worth having in your one and only life more than joy and a command of yourself. A gift of a collection. If you want to get off the beaten path, this is the one to read.
Beautyland by Marie Helene Bertino
My heart hurts just thinking about this one. Beautyland is a subtle, gorgeous book about a girl named Adina who feels like an outsider to the human race. She is raised by a single mother struggling to make ends meet in Philadelphia. From Adina’s childhood to adolescence and into her adulthood, we see a life that is not glamorous or sprawling. Adina does not travel much, doesn't go to college, and doesn’t have many friends. But the moments that mark her life with joy, sorrow, confidence, and despair are heartfelt and meaningful. Her life is important, despite its smallness; a departure from the way the internet of it all would have us think about a meaningful way of being.
The close friendships Adina does have, her move from Philadelphia to New York City, her deep, strange belief that she is not of this world, and the audience she eventually amasses through her writing– these are the small but not insignificant things that make her life its own.
This book is a slow burn, but it leaves a mark. It is about the lived experience of one girl, but more than that, it is a book about how we understand ourselves, our relationships with the most important people in our lives, and the exhilaration, devastation, and pure dumb luck of being a person in this brutal, beautiful world.
All Fours by Miranda July
Loving this book is not an original take by any stretch– this title showed up on 21 of this year’s “Best of” book lists from major publications. But sometimes, the masses are right in their assessment of a banger! Unlike in the case of Colleen Hoover novels, sometimes, our collective consciousness is dead-on balls accurate!
This book is…everything. It’s so smart and funny and raw as hell. Miranda July is a true weird art chick and I love her for it. All Fours is about a woman who, at age 45, sets out on a cross-country road trip to New York City, leaving her husband and child home for 3 weeks– the longest she’s been away from them. About 30 minutes into her journey, she ends up at a motel– where she abandons her road trip entirely to pursue a bizarre and intense relationship with a much younger stranger. What follows is an insane, hilarious, razor-sharp foray into a woman’s desperation to live her life on her terms– even if that means stepping outside of “traditional” societal boundaries.
This book will make your breath catch in your throat with its accuracy. There are moments when your jaw will drop in shock, you will laugh out loud, or audibly gasp. It will make you ache with pangs of recognition. Really putting myself on blast here, but this book made so much sense to me. I can’t think of anything like it that I’ve read, and I pride myself on reading books about women, by women. Tangentially related– I am still fiending for an All Fours Group Chat hat…
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
I am loathe to pick a single “best book of the year” but goddamnit, gun to my head, this might be it. I will try to do it justice, but it may be beyond my writing abilities to do so, I’m afraid.
All of us will face, and have faced, rejection in some form or another. Some of us more frequently, sure, but it’s generally a safe bet that rejection is a universal human experience. But what allows some people to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and keep moving, versus those who are slowly but utterly unraveled by it? Why does rejection seem to mercilessly decimate the psyche of some people, turning their view of themselves and the world into some warped, fun-house mirror nightmare?
In Rejection, Tony Tulathimutte explores the experiences of various people in the latter category; those who are destroyed by rejection. The characters’ lives are loosely connected, and while rejection is their common ground, their individual undoings are their own. If you write this off as a novel about the internet or a novel about incels, you’re missing the point entirely.
Tulathimutte’s writing is vicious, precise, and so goddamn funny you will recoil in disbelief from the smarting shock of it. Each word in every sentence feels purposefully chosen to lacerate your brain, leaving scars of perfect, inimitable sentences across your mind. Tulathimutte is clearly brilliant, though possibly too smart for his own good. I can’t wait to reread Rejection, and I have been recommending it to everyone I can. I imagine it will be a while before I find another book that knocks the wind out of me like this one has. You would be remiss not to read this.
Horse Crazy by Gary Indiana
Long-time Point of Departure readers know I am a big-time Gary-head. He’s a new-to-me author who passed away last year, and I’m going to attempt to read all of his remaining published work this year.
This book was a gift from my dear friend and fellow Gary-head,
It’s Gary Indiana’s first novel, and the main character is based on himself. He is a writer living in New York who has recently come into a semi-famous job at a local publication (mirroring Indiana’s own tenure at The Village Voice from 1985-1988). But the main focus of the book is the main character’s obsessive, non-physical but very much sexual, relationship with a gorgeous younger man named Gregory. The problem being that Gregory is a liar and a flake and an all-around pain in the ass.But who among us hasn’t had an overwrought, idiotic relationship with a terrible person? It’s a young person’s rite of passage. Set against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis, Indiana chronicles this doomed relationship with wry humor, a terribly sharp self-awareness, and tenderness. I laughed out loud and held back tears. Horse Crazy is so much fun to read.
✨Honorable Mentions✨
I also loved these books this year and would recommend them, but they didn’t quite make the top slot for one reason or another, hard to say exactly why. Regardless, these are books you definitely should add to your TBR.
Whorephobia by Lizzie Borden. A collection of pieces from former or current strippers. A smart book that gives texture and nuance to the world of sex work.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. A gripping post-apocalyptic tale that, at times, feels all too real.
Penance by Eliza Clark. A fictionalized true-crime story about the brutal murder of a teenage girl by her friends. Told through interviews, correspondences, and blog posts from the attackers and family members, Penance makes us question who gets to be the arbiter of the truth.
The Borrowed Hills by Scott Preston. Man, this was exceptional, completely its own. This is a dark, violent book about sheep farmers in the rocky hills of England who will do whatever it takes to protect their livelihood. There is crime, devastation, black humor, and stunning writing.
Dancing On My Own by Simon Wu. An art critic, writer, and curator, Wu wields his expertise to beautifully render essays on art, culture, fashion, family, belonging, and identity. If you care about art, inclusion, and nuance, you must read this.
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. With clear, exacting prose, Didion lays her innermost heartbreak and devastation bare, holding it to the light for close inspection. Didion is at times humorous in the starkness of her truths, but most of all, she is exactly that: true.
The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kushner. Rachel Kushner is just so fucking cool. These essays are proof.
I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel. Visceral and intense, this book is about a woman having an affair with a careless man. She social media stalks the other women he’s dating.
Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh. Sophie Mackintosh is a genius at writing dread that feels smothering and sexy. If you think that doesn't make sense, you clearly haven’t read any Mackintosh.
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. Hate to be a bandwagon bitch but I love Sally Rooney and think she is an expert at writing rich, believable inner lives of her characters. Loved this.
Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art by Phoebe Hoban. I’m a wannabe art chick and I looooooove me some Basquiat. This book is a spectacular biography of his struggles and triumphs in life and art.
✨Heads up fam! I’m using my Bookshop affiliate link for all titles recommended in this newsletter. If you buy them through these links, I earn a commission! So help a girl out!✨
📖 Currently reading:
Speedboat by Renata Adler
📚Recently finished:
Lifeform by Jenny Slate; Strange and surprising, I love how her mind works!
Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt; A perfect book, forcing everyone I know to read this.
Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker, good not great, very readable.
Closer by Dennis Cooper, Not nearly as horrifying as The Sluts. Think I’ll have to read the whole trilogy…
Alien Daughters Walk into the Sun by Jackie Wang, Mmmmm lots of thoughts, but not sure I liked this.
👉🏼You should read: The Best (Old) Books We Read in 2024 by Emily Temple for LitHub. Love this list and will be taking a lot of recs from it!!
💌 Email me book recs and other literary thoughts at emilygatesjohnson@gmail.com
🛍 Shop all Point of Departure recs (and more!) from my digital bookstore here.
Haven’t read your top pics but did read, based on your recommendation, The Heart’s Invisible Furies, which I enjoyed immensely, although I don’t really want to visit Ireland now. 😅
the best recommendations 🥹🥹 let’s read more gary this year please