It’s been a great year for books here. our culture — Published 19 interviews, 12 monthly prediction lists, 6 essays, 2 reviews, and covers over 100 books. There will be more books in store in 2025, but in the meantime, here are the top 10 books of 2024 from an incredibly active reading pool.
good materialDolly Alderton
Dolly Alderton is one of the most effortlessly entertaining authors, and this is her second novel. good material It established her as a modern-day Carrie Bradshaw or Nora Ephron. Tracing the dissolution of a relationship from the perspective of a male comic, her clever maneuvering has resulted in a moving book that is both honest and full of romantic empathy. I read anything she writes.
beauty landMarie-Hélène Bertino
I fell in love with Adina, the main character in Marie Hélène-Bertino’s third novel. Adina is a small alien sent to report on human life and communicate with the rulers via fax. beauty land Adina grew up in Philadelphia and found herself in New York City, but this novel has the courage to memorialize the joys and despairs of youth and the lesser-known loneliness of old age. It’s gorgeous and, despite Adina’s foreignness, very human.
Read the interview with Marie-Hélène Bertino here.
Woo woo, Ella Baxter
Melbourne-based Ella Baxter’s satire on the art world is both funny and horrifying. Sabine, a conceptual artist preparing for a new exhibition, is haunted by a terrifying figure when she is visited by the ghost of another artist, Carolee Schneemann. She is self-absorbed and obsessed with the importance of her work, which is in some ways necessary for an artist. Sabine’s crazy view of the world (and herself) was wonderful and ridiculous.
Read the interview with Ella Baxter here.
anxietyAlexandra Tanner
Alexandra Tanner’s seinfeldIan, situation comedy anxiety It will unfold in the tumultuous year of 2019. Two sisters move into a small New York City apartment together, and soon the sisters are at each other’s throats for breathing and leaving paper towels on the floor. It’s both real and absurd, and through its details it taps into something larger and more real that the pseudo-conspiracy theorist mother and right-wing influencer Jules scroll through on her phone. This movie is insanely funny while also revealing truths about modern America.
Read the interview with Alexandra Tanner here.
plasticScott Guild
I’m pretty shocked that Scott Guild’s debut novel has progressed this far. plastic In the first few pages, a small plastic town is hit by a terrorist attack, dolls go flying, and the characters are horrified by what’s about to happen. This is a common occurrence in dystopian ecoterrorism, handled with a satirical wit that never becomes didactic. The townspeople distract themselves with VR headsets, and protagonist Erin explores her town’s dark history while falling in love. plastic is a surprisingly ambitious and imaginative debut novel that never flinches under the weight of its own intellect.
Read the interview with Scott Guild here.
godwinJoseph O’Neill
Joseph O’Neill’s storytelling ability is at its best as he: godwinhis most notable books since 2008. Netherlands. A young soccer prodigy known only as Godwin is discovered somewhere in Africa, and American Mark Wolfe is dragged in by his half-brother to find him and hopefully groom him into the next Lionel Messi. It turns out. A transcontinental epic about white saviors, colonialism, and the horrors of the end of capitalism. godwin is the type of book that always grabs your attention and whose last words remain deeply in your heart.
Read the interview with Joseph O’Neill here.
let’s try againMatthew Davis
Matthew Davis’s ridiculously funny debut novel. The story of a Jewish man in his 20s who lives on despite the premature death of his parents in a helicopter crash over the Turks and Caicos Islands, and his sister’s conversion to Catholicism through microdosing, supplements, weightlifting, and a conspiracy to obtain her. A novel. On His Girlfriend’s Back is full of references, plots, and selfish touches that reveal an interiority that makes it one of the most interesting character studies of the year. It’s a complete riot.
Read the interview with Matthew Davis here.
mood swingsFrankie Barnett
premise of mood swings It’s simple – all the animals in the world are dead, and a billionaire named Roderick Mabe can instantly kill them with the push of a button. He exterminated Earth’s fauna because it annoyed him. In this new world, Jenlena and Daphne navigate it the best they can. The latter through a canceled date with a man who sparked a small cult, the former through writing Instagram poems and dressing up as animals for rich people who miss their pets, and previously Maeve herself. I met him and started dating him. mood swings Hilarious, absurd, and strangely prophetic.
Read the interview with Frankie Barnett here.
rejectionTony Turatimutte
Tony Turatimutte’s rejection It’s disgusting and doesn’t sell well. But the funniest book of the year doesn’t earn that title without a deep dive into online culture, humor, and absurdity. One male feminist claims that his inability to connect with girls is because he is narrow-minded, even though he claims to be a “read more woman.” ” tote bags, biohackers pre-plan their future children by decades, and sexually stunted gay men fill out gruesome details in requests to online porn stars. It’s dangerously addictive and does what modern fiction seems to be afraid of: the pursuit of ruthless honesty. Turatimutte’s imagination is as sharp as it is frightening.
Read the interview with Tony Turatimutte here.
alphabet diarySheila Hetty
On a writing level, Sheila Heti is clearly superior. Different from her previous books (What should people be like?, maternal) question a single concept under the guise of autofiction, alphabet diary The work was written over a period of 10 years, with the author keeping a diary and alphabetizing and editing texts as needed. It sounds a little pathetic, like a small art school, but the finished work was immediately hypnotic by its bold complexity and honesty, which she had already perfected. No one writes like Sheila Hetty. alphabet diary is a book that will make you think deeply about yourself as a writer, artist, and human being. Here is one of many passages in which the texts flow into each other, creating a sense of despair and elation side by side, no matter how many years apart they were actually written.
“All you’ve wanted since you were 25 is to go back to where you were when you were 17, meeting up with friends who lived nearby, having sex, reading books, writing.” All you want to do is go home and curl up and die. Alone in your room. Alone. I feel happy already.”
Source: Our Culture – ourculturemag.com
