Seattle Times staff share their favorite reads of 2024

Each year brings a bounty of new books into the world, but with so many releases and so little time (sigh), sometimes we find ourselves reading titles that are a few, or many, years old.

That’s why we asked our staff what their favorite reads of the year were rather than their favorite books of 2024. We hope this list, in alphabetical order, helps present some options for your to-be-read shelf and prompts you to ponder your favorite reads of the year as well.

“Don’t Let the Forest In” by CG Drews

Once upon a time, there was a fairy tale about two boys — a writer, quiet and anxious; and an artist, loud in every sense of the word — whose macabre stories and phantasmagorical drawings became more than just scratches of ink on a page. In CG Drews’ “Don’t Let the Forest In,” their tale — of young love, paralyzing grief and things that go bump in the night — is both familiar and refreshingly not.

Andrew, who writes dazzlingly horrifying short stories, and Thomas, who draws whimsically nightmarish monsters, have returned to their prestigious boarding school for their senior year. But instead of dealing with a budding romance and horrible professors, the two find themselves trapped in a graphically violent horror story of their own making, as their wicked creations become real — and very, very dangerous.

More Brothers Grimm than Disney, Drews’ modern-day fairy tale artfully tackles heavy topics, including homophobia, bullying and eating disorders, while skillfully weaving in the dark fantasy elements that anchor the story. Drews’ words feel like poetry, almost lyrical in their grotesque execution, and you can’t help but keep reading. The story opens with a boy cutting out his heart for love; by the time you reach the final, gripping page, you may feel like doing the same.

— Dominic Baez, features desk editor 

“The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah

The greatest challenge faced by any historical fiction writer is to transport the modern-day reader to an earlier time in a tangible way that makes you appreciate the trials and tribulations the characters are going through without ever having lived in that era or that world. This book made me ugly cry in bed after I’d devoured all 469 pages in one night while trying (and failing) to fall asleep due to jet lag from an international trip.

Author Kristin Hannah — who’s local! Bainbridge-based! — masterfully drops you into Dust Bowl storm-stricken middle America circa the Great Depression era, and depicts in heartbreaking detail the desperation of the average person’s struggle to survive. You get a front-row seat to some of the toughest years of U.S. history through unforgettable characters in the form of strong women fighting for their families.

The heroine, Elsa Martinelli, is forced to make one impossible choice after another as she tries to carve out a better life for her children: stay in a small town in Texas tending a farm that’s yielded no crops for years, or strike out West to the unknown, with little money, no resources, no specific destination and no familiar faces to help her. It’s a conundrum rooted in the age-old motivation of a mother’s love for her children, and Hannah makes you feel every single heart-wrenching decision Elsa is forced to make.

— Stefanie Loh, assistant managing editor 

“Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame” by Rebecca Yarros

Since becoming the books coverage coordinator at The Seattle Times in 2023, I’ve consistently noticed two books, “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame” by Rebecca Yarros, on the bestseller lists week after week. I didn’t know what all the fuss was about until my cousin gave me her copies this past spring. Reader, I totally get it now.

These books, which follow Violet Sorrengail, a 20-year-old daughter of a general sent to fight for her life as she learns to become a dragon rider, are an emotional roller coaster. I will admit, the writing itself isn’t my favorite ever, but the exciting and, at times gut-wrenching, plot is what I’m really invested in.

These books take me back to my days of reading fantasy series like “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” and I’m grateful for them because they got me back into reading consistently, a goal I’ve had for a long time. (Do note that, unlike those previously mentioned series, these are not for young readers as they do feature explicit scenes of sex and violence. Check the content warning at the beginning of the book before deciding to read.) Needless to say, I’m so glad I don’t have to wait long for the third book in the series, “Onyx Storm,” which comes out next month!

— Yasmeen Wafai, features multiplatform editor

“Harlem Shuffle” by Colson Whitehead

Are you looking for a hard-boiled crime story or a family saga that stretches through generations? In “Harlem Shuffle” you get both. It’s the late 1950s and Ray Carney owns a furniture store on 125th Street in New York’s Harlem neighborhood and fences the occasional stolen radio or wristwatch on the side. As Colson Whitehead puts it, “Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked …” His business and side hustle earn him enough to staff an employee or two while he saves up to move out of an apartment that’s struggling to hold his growing family. He’s also forever trying to prove to his in-laws that he’s good enough for their daughter.

Then cousin Freddie comes along with a job. Carney is dragged into a world of heists and characters who grew up pulling capers with his dad. Whitehead’s writing is electric and tight but he never spares us the details of a scene. He’s so perfectly re-created New York for the reader that by the end, you feel you’ve never ventured outside of Manhattan in your life.

— Alex Halverson, business reporter 

“How to Solve Your Own Murder” by Kristen Perrin

This cozy British mystery opens with a girl receiving an ominous prediction from a fortuneteller at the county fair. The prediction is her murder and with it a vague set of clues that she spends the next 60 years of her life trying to figure out. There are two POVs in the book: one of the girl, Frances, and her life after the prediction, and the other, her niece Annie as she races to figure out just whodunit. There’s a sequel on the horizon, too — also set in the same quaint village with Annie back for another mystery. 

— Jackie Varriano, food writer

“Knife” by Salman Rushdie

My favorite book of 2024 was Salman Rushdie’s recount of his attempted murder in 2022. The graceful way he works through the trauma can be applied to anyone who has dealt with traumatic events. The perseverance in how he came back from a near-death experience by writing about the event helped the author own the incident. The memoir is filled with life advice that can help people with acceptance of reality and forward movement after such drastic change in a person’s life.

— Brandon Garcia, photo desk editor 

“Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders

I found this 2017 experimental novel on the bookshelf of a rental cabin in the Methow Valley last winter. I’d heard the title bandied about and once listened to an interview with George Saunders on “The Ezra Klein Show,” but had never read his work. The unconventional format took some getting used to — it’s written essentially like a play, minus the stage directions, in the voice of spirits in an 1860s Washington, D.C., cemetery who inhabit a liminal space after death but before the permanent afterlife (what in Buddhism is called the “bardo”).

The 19th-century language can be a bit baroque, but the scenes of President Abraham Lincoln mourning the death of his son Willie at the height of the Civil War are moving historical fiction. Once I pieced together the narrative concept, I was riveted and tore through the book in record time. 

— Gregory Scruggs, outdoors reporter

“One Dark Window” and “Two Twisted Crowns” by Rachel Gillig 

Listen, I love signing up for a multibook series — especially something with fantasy elements. But a tightly written duology that manages to build a dark, twisty world, unique magic system and well-written characters? Swoon.

The first half of the first book is rich and fast-paced. We meet our heroine, Elspeth Spindle, who is possessed by a demon she calls Nightmare. There’s a magical deck of cards, a mad prince intent on ruling by any means necessary and a race against the clock to unite the deck and save the world. You know, low stakes. “One Dark Window” ends on a cliffhanger, but “Two Twisted Crowns” picks up and continues the pacing in a breathless race to the finish line.  

— Jackie Varriano, food writer

“One Way Back” by Christine Blasey Ford

A searing read about what it’s like to be thrust onto the national stage from a seemingly ordinary and private existence. Christine Blasey Ford describes her life before, during and after she testified that (then-nominated Supreme Court Justice) Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in high school.

Her courage and willingness to step out is inspiring and frightening, too, as she faces threats and disruption to her career and passion for surfing(!), and her family must move and change their lives. It’s the story behind the headlines that we don’t often get a chance to hear.

— Elouise Schumacher, news desk editor

“Shark Heart” by Emily Habeck

“Shark Heart” was my favorite read of this year, with the wackiest premise. Soon after getting married, Lewis goes to the doctor with some odd symptoms and finds out his body is gradually transforming into that of a great white shark. He and his wife, Wren, have to navigate what the diagnosis means for their relationship and grieve the short time they have left together. It’s a quick, engaging read that I could not put down. This book is about a man turning into a shark, but it’s really about grappling with a life-changing diagnosis that shapes the way you view past, present and future.

— Taylor Blatchford, mental health engagement reporter

“Six of Crows” by Leigh Bardugo

“Six of Crows” is the first novel in a stylish fantasy duology that surprised me with every page and kept me hooked with every word. As a fan of adult fantasy series, I didn’t expect the same level of world-building or in-depth character writing from a young adult novel. But “Six of Crows” proved me astoundingly wrong. Bardugo’s descriptions render the main characters and their world of gang violence in immediate, vivid detail. But she never falls into the easy, hackneyed clichés of the fantasy genre.

Over the course of the book, a motley crew of characters takes on a heist job of monumental proportions, tackling questions of bigotry, addiction, greed and trauma. But none of these have a simple, straightforward storybook ending. It feels like “Six of Crows” itself has pulled off a near-impossible mission: a novel that pulls together a found family with complicated, painfully realistic interpersonal dynamics, a setting that is practically its own character, and dazzling prose that ties it all together. (And yes, the sequel is just as good as the first book.)

— Ryan Nguyen, news producer

“Why Fathers Cry at Night” by Kwame Alexander

I don’t normally seek out poetry, but this summer, I gave 2023’s “Why Fathers Cry at Night” a chance and really enjoyed the change of pace. When people ask me for a book recommendation this is my go-to because it’s so unique. It will turn on the waterworks, like a warm hug from a loved one.

In simple terms, the book is about a guy learning how to be a man through the joys of love, loss and fatherhood. “When you fall hard (and you will) in love like a shooting star, I will be the soft ground you remember, the sky full of memories you look to, I will be the old man sitting by the fire picking you up with a lifetime of lessons, tender stories of longing and loss that will never leave you long after I have.”

This book reminded me of the power of sharing our experiences with others. Being vulnerable allows each of us to learn from one another and realize we are not alone. Words can be a lifeline when all else feels lost.

— Brandon Garcia, photo desk editor