Describing Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel The Ministry of Time is like throwing together a word salad of mixed genres, tropes, and social issues. Sci-fi time travel. Political intrigue. Romance (forced proximity, slow burn, two worlds collide – they all apply). Fish out of water. Racial identity. Climate change. War. Generational trauma. Then toss all that with a dressing of pitch-perfect wit and incredible writing, and you have what I know will be one of my favorite books of 2024.
Shiner, by Amy Jo Burns, is written in a lovely, lyrical style that reads like magical realism at many points. But gritty topics circling gender roles, poverty, loyalty, and faith root this book – set on an isolated Appalachian mountain – in the very real world.
Fredrick Backman’s Anxious People is every bit as good as people say it is. Though I confess, it took me three different readings to get past page 30, and I can understand how this might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
The cover of Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry makes it look like chic-lit, and some blurbs call the book “laugh-out-loud funny.” But in my opinion, it’s neither of those things. This robust, well-written book IS incredibly quirky, thought-provoking, and a round, deep, fulfilling journey.
In Hester, Laurie Lico Albanese creates a hypnotic world where we’re invited to consider contrasting themes of past and present, desire and pain, hope, disappointment, freedom, and constraint. It’s also a story of creator and muse, as Albanese imagines what might have been the inspiration behind Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter and its heroine Hester Prynne.
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