Welcome to The Best of Book Riot, our daily round-up of what’s on offer across our site, newsletters, podcasts, and social channels. Not everything is for everyone, but there is something for everyone.
Amazon has announced its picks for the Best Books of 2024, chosen by its Books Editors. There is an overall #1 pick, a top 100 list, and a list of 20 titles in a range of categories—including mystery and thrillers, romance, literature and fiction, cookbooks, children’s books, and more.
Let’s get right into the new releases. May we be reading them with relief, rather than out of a need to dissociate.
Barnes & Noble was first out of the gate with this year’s Best of Books lists, and I have a lot of questions about The Best Mystery & Thrillers of 2024 — all stemming from the list’s one giant problem. To be clear, I don’t have issues with the actual books on the list, I do have all the side eye for what is missing from this list: out of 21 books there is only one author of color. (Not sure why that page has 21 books and their announcement page has 20 but my point stands either way.)
Since the 1990s, November in the United States has been designated as a time to commemorate the history and contributions of Native Americans under the banner of Native American Heritage Month (or similar variations on that name). Especially considering the troubled history of Thanksgiving, a holiday celebrated in November in the United States and often centered around problematic depictions of colonization, it’s an important time to reflect and acknowledge everything done by and done to Native Americans.
Even though I’m not the biggest horror fan, this book has inexplicably become one of my comfort reads. I adore it for so many reasons. First of all, while Cal definitely has an older soul, as reflected in his narration and actions, there are enough characters to show the range of typical teenage personalities throughout the plot. This, juxtaposed against the few adults who play main roles, makes the world feel real without the snappy dialogue that often accompanies teens written by adults. Additionally, there is a perfectly balanced mix of legitimate horrific suspense and gentle rising action. The book is never boring but rarely makes you scream.
I’ve disagreed with Alan Moore’s perspective on superhero fandom in the past, but he makes some very good and important points in this piece for The Guardian.
Book cover design is interesting because it’s got to play to some trends, got to play to some conventions of genre and age category, and because it’s got to play to consumer tastes. We need book covers to sell a book — it’s the number one marketing opportunity for any title. But we need those covers to also give insight into the story and to be nice to look at and to be easy to render on mobile.
