The New York Times’ 100 Notables Books of 2024

The New York Times released its 100 Notable Books of 2024! Let's go over the entire list to talk about what's here, what's not here, and guess what might be on the Book Review's 10 Best Books list. Expand for more information. 👇

Links 💻

Further Viewing 🎥

If you would like to support this channel, please feel free to use Super Thanks or the affiliate links to Bookshop, but please do not feel obligated. I appreciate your presence regardless.

But wait, there's more!

[myreadinglife]

Always fun to look through these book lists with you!

[christinemiller]

I read 11 of the books on this list. I highly recommend God of the Woods and Beautyland. They are both excellent books, and you won’t regret reading them.

[nvccru]

Creation Lake was one of my standout books this year. For me, its exploration of ancient DNA and what it is doing to our creation story was fascinating.

[marciaalbaum]

thank you for your great posts. I feel your pain and send support

[katrianamacmillan]

I was hoping to see a video from you when I saw the NYT list was out!

I loved Good Material! It’s not my favourite book on this list but it’s low stress and, at moments, quite funny! I laughed out loud a few times while reading it and I never laugh out loud when I’m reading

[erica]

I cancelled my subscription to the NYT the first thing on November 6th so I totally understand where you are coming from. I’ll miss the book review though.

[jordana]

I need to read more so I can give you my suggestions! Thanks for going through that list.

[jacquelinemcmenamin]

I’m currently listening to Our Evenings . It’s very cinematic. It’s playing like a movie in my head as I’m listening. I’ve read all his books.

[WesRicketts]

If you like Barbara Kingsolver, read The God of the Woods. The Poisonwood Bible is one of my favorite books of all-time. And while The God of the Woods is no Poisonwood Bible, it's a longer page-turner that had me gripped. Give it a shot!

[kimswhims]

I've read 7- Praiseworthy, James, Martyr, The Safekeep, Wild Houses and Knife. All ones that I'd recommend. Creation Lake didn't work for me but it might for others.
There's about 12 on my TBR. We share about 6 of those. Happy Reading 🙂

[Panagiotireads]

Thanks for the lovely recs.. am definitely adding all of these to my list. I just finished reading this phenomenal collection of fairy tales entitled 'Sillies, Fancies and Trifles' - highly recommend, it's perfect for the season. Keep up the beautiful vids!

[MJ-in-Canada]

I was having withdrawal symptoms from not having a Supposedly Fun post on Tuesday. Thanks to today’s long post, I won’t need to detox.😁

[Ali-AvidReader]

This was fun! Have added far too many to my TBR list!

[yesithat]

I find videos like this very helpful for finding my next read. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t read all the books. Don’t listen to the trolls!

[camillodimaria]

Great video … thanks for updating me to the current books… I’m presently reading Harrow by Joy Williams … & Demons by Dostoevsky …I’m eager to read Rushdie’s Knife…

[marciajohansson]

After a long day it was nice to sit and relax with a Supposedly Fun video. Good Night!!!! Take care and see you again soon

[jacquelinemcmenamin]

I think you’d find Intermezzo very different from Sally Rooneys previous books. Because? It talks about two brothers, grief, anxiety, love and expressing emotions.

[eusaypdx]

Thank you so much Greg❤ I am listening to Lucy Sante audiobook and it is very interesting. He narrated it himself, which is always a plus for me, and very interesting and moving story. I think you would enjoy it.

[Gigi-ncvc]

I’ve started The Bright Sword and one thing that may be a dealbreaker or a green flag depending on your preferences is given that it’s a King Arthur story, there’s a variety of little “side quests” I’d say for lack of a better word that explore different aspects and storylines within the expansive universe of King Arthur lore. So it’s wandering for sure (it’s over 600 pages, so…) so it’ll require a bit of patience and willingness to sit with the story at the pace it chooses to take you on. Additionally, given that it’s fantasy, there are also elements or story lines that are a bit more “fever-dream”-esque as the story goes through varying levels of the fantastical. Again, this will just be more of a personal preference more so than a fault of the book, in my opinion.

One thing I will say is this book in particular focuses mostly on the lesser/minor characters of King Arthur lore (not a spoiler as it’s in the summary on the back of the book, but King Arthur is dead by the time the main plot gets moving). I think this is fun and a little bit different, but if you’re looking for the typical Excalibur or Holy Grail type of story, this is probably not going to be what you’re looking for.

As I said, I’m not done with it yet, but I think Grossman has done a good job of creating compelling, authentic characters that feel fantastical and not of this world, but also like real people with real emotions at the same time. He does explore a little bit of an LGBTQ element with some of the characters (don’t want to spoil too much, so keeping it vague) and I can’t speak to the representation, but it wasn’t something I expected and has also provided additional layers to the story.

Edit: I also wanted to add there is sexual assault in this story, so trigger warning and please proceed with caution if this is something you do not want to read.

[NeilWick]

After you mentioned it in your Washington Post Top 10 video, I started reading "I Heard Her Call My Name" and I'm almost at the end. She said in a YouTube video that the technique of flipping back and forth (she says "weaving") the story of her transition at the age of 67 and the story of the earlier part of her life makes it "compulsive" like a mystery. It was good for my once I got used to it. It reminds me of Netflix's recent release "Will & Harper" but with more depth. I'll refrain from writing a full review here, but I think you'll like it.

I'm also listening to the audio book of "Soldiers and Kings" after first hearing it mentioned on your video (and, of course, the National Book Awards broadcast). It's really well researched and well written by an anthropologist and helps you understand why migrants are moving up through Mexico to the U.S. and how they do it and what conditions are like for them. I recommend it, but I have to warn you that it may make you even angrier about Trump's planned mass deportations.