12 novels that NPR critics and staff loved in 2024 : NPR

Have you ever wondered what your co-workers are reading in their spare time? Every year, I get to find out as we put together Books We Love — NPR’s annual, year-end books guide. There are always a handful of titles that show up again and again in the nominations list. Here are a dozen novels that our staffers and critics were particularly eager to tell you about in 2024. To see the full list, head over to Books We Love.

All Fours by Miranda July
It’s the novel that blew up a thousand group chats. The unnamed protagonist, a 45-year-old artist, says goodbye to her husband and young child and embarks on a solo road trip. She’s just a half hour from home when she takes a detour that’s geographically unremarkable but yields massive emotional consequences. It is a journey of creative and sexual fulfillment, unhinged interior design, and exploring desire within the liminal space of perimenopausal middle age. Miranda July’s protagonist makes choices that you may find hilarious, relatable, or infuriating, but they are never boring. — Wailin Wong, host, The Indicator from Planet Money

Come & Get It by Kiley Reid
Told through multiple perspectives, I could not put this snappy page-turner down even though I had no idea where it was going until its jaw-dropping crescendo. Set at the University of Arkansas, this story follows several college students and a writing professor over the course of a year, largely through the lens of their relationship with money — how it motivates them, how it gets them into and (for some) out of situations — as well as race, sexuality, power and social status. As a Southerner and the graduate of a Southern university, I found myself nodding along excitedly to Reid’s apt depictions of contemporary Southern culture. — Beck Harlan, visuals editor, Life Kit

Fire Exit by Morgan Talty
Penobscot writer Morgan Talty cuts right to the bone. His non-native narrator, Charles, was raised on the reservation but can no longer live there. In spare language that perfectly matches the rugged Central Maine landscape, Talty explores the ties of blood, culture and personal history. Saying goodbye to these characters was like waving goodbye to a friend after a too-short visit: wistful but grateful for the time together. — Andrea de Leon, Northeast bureau chief

Funny Story by Emily Henry
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé described their meet-cute — until he decided he loved someone else: his childhood best friend, Petra. Scorned and stranded, Daphne moves in with the only person who could understand: Petra’s ex, Miles. The ex of my enemy is my friend, I guess? Emily Henry delivers another sweet and suspenseful romantic comedy, with a slow burn that has you wanting the best for Daphne and Miles, but especially Daphne as she comes out of her shell. Above all, Funny Story is a reminder that the most important relationship you have is the one you have with yourself. — Arielle Retting, growth editor

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Early one morning in 1975, a summer camp counselor finds an empty bunk. A 13-year-old camper has vanished. As the search begins along the banks of a lake in the Adirondacks, this 500-page drama unfolds — and it is worth every page! Liz Moore’s storytelling captures such an authentic picture of youth, young friendship and family secrets. There are thoughtful, well-developed characters, unexpected revelations, a history of a serial killer recently escaped, captivating storylines, shocking connections and surprising answers to every single mystery along the way. The God of the Woods has become a personal favorite of the year! — Lori Lizarraga, host, Code Switch

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
If a ’90s rom-com grew up and went to therapy, this sparkling book would be the result. After penning a popular YA book series, Helen Zhang gets a seat in the writers room where it’s being adapted into a TV show. Unfortunately, Grant Shepard is also one of the writers in that room. Grant was the charming homecoming king at their high school, whereas Helen was awkward and introverted. He’s also the reason Helen’s sister is dead — kind of. It’s been years since the accident, but the writers room reopens old wounds and forces Helen and Grant to be vulnerable with each other. Even as Helen wrestles with their past, the two begin a present-day romance that is sexy and tender. This book is a raised glass to second chances and late bloomers. — Lauren Migaki, senior producer

James by Percival Everett
The jokes in James range from chin scratchers to knee slappers to gut busters, although I’m not sure Percival Everett would even classify them as “jokes.” In his reimagining of the Huckleberry Finn story, Everett mines language, history and irony to showcase brutal truths about America. And yes, it’s often funny. But, like the original source material, things can quickly turn deadly serious depending on how the river flows. The novel is thrilling, hilarious, heartbreaking and a strong argument for Everett as one of the best doing it right now. — Andrew Limbong, correspondent, Culture Desk and host, Book of the Day

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
The simple way to describe this is as a story of a college gal getting knocked up by her English teacher and resorting to starting an OnlyFans to make ends meet. Not sold yet? Well, then let me add that this book opens up far wider and deeper than its premise. You’ll come to care so deeply about Margo, her professional wrestler father, Jinx, and all the relationships she forms as she figures things out. A warm, heartfelt, hilarious novel that I won’t soon forget. — Elise Hu, host, TED Talks Daily podcast, author of Flawless

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a portrait of Cyrus Shams — a man consumed by addiction, depression and spiritual untethering. Full of sadness and righteous anger, especially when it comes to the American tendency to negate the value of certain Middle Eastern lives, it’s also one of the funniest books I’ve read in years. Martyr! is propelled by those kinds of contradictions. It breezes by while knocking you over. It strikes an optimistic note within its fatalism. It suggests death might provide the meaning of life. Ultimately, it could leave you in tears of laughter or of sorrow. Or most likely both. — Dave Blanchard, supervising editor, Wild Card

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
You’d think a novel about the bureaucracy of a time travel government agency might be kinda, boring? But from the moment you meet the book’s enigmatic protagonist — as she starts a new job in the U.K.’s top secret new time travel agency — to the introduction of the dashing Graham Gore, an 1847 Arctic explorer plucked through time, you’ll be hooked. Come for the romance, stay for the unraveling of a mystery, the nuanced, genre-bending treatises on race and identity, and the long-lingering ideas on colonialism, empires and the mutability of history. — Christina Cala, senior producer, Code Switch

Real Americans by Rachel Khong
In the final third of this novel, a Chinese immigrant notes how she and her American-born roommate eat an apple differently. I attuned so closely to this observation as an American-born Chinese that I immediately shared it with my mother, who immigrated to the U.S. around the same time as the character does in the book. There are many such crystalline moments in this intergenerational saga, which also employs subtle science fiction elements in its portrait of one family’s attempts to obviate the pain of the past and set new narratives into motion. — Wailin Wong, host, The Indicator from Planet Money

The Women by Kristin Hannah
“You’re only going to be a nurse until you get married,” her mother said. But Frankie McGrath had other ideas, ones that would lead her away from her wealthy family’s conservative outlook on how daughters should behave. Kristin Hannah’s The Women follows young Frankie’s transformation, when after working as a nurse in California and tending to a wounded soldier, and missing her soldier brother, she joins the Army as a nurse. That takes her from a comfortable life of known expectations to one of the chaos and danger of war, new career opportunities and love. Tangled love. When Frankie returns home, she finds her country still protesting the war and those who served. The Women shines a light on a then-little-known aspect of the war: the women who also served in Vietnam, as nurses. — Jeanine Herbst, news anchor

This is just a fraction of the 350+ titles we included in Books We Love this year. Click here to check out this year’s titles, or browse nearly 4,000 books from the last 12 years.