Best Books of the Year 2023-2024
Mirror & the Lamp asked students and faculty, what is the best book you read this year?
Marjorie Allison A perhaps odd choice for me, but David Joy’s When These Mountains Burn. It is a more digestible story of drug addiction in rural Appalachia.
David Banash Bret Easton Ellis’s The Shards will become known as one of the great Los Angeles novels, a haunting evocation of memory, cinema, violence, and loss. Late Ellis at his absolute best.
Rebekah Buchanan Bettina L. Love’s Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal. Love’s critique of education policies over the past 40 years—both conservative and progressive—examines the extensive failures of our education system for Black students. A must read for anyone in education, Love is an abolitionist teacher who calls for educational justice and an important voice for education reform.
Everett Hamner Samantha Harvey’s Orbital is a highly meditative, unglamorous vision of life aboard the international space station. A kind of literary answer to the best IMAX treatments of the overview effect — consider it a powerful invitation to awe.
Taylor Holan. Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility. The way the story unfolds is so unique, and I admire the way it all comes together at the end.
Bill Knox Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility. Every good writer exposes a new dimension of truth through imagination. SoT expands not only our sense of scientific and human possibility but also of the conflict of emotions and relationships when science and humanity extend their limits.
Katya Kozhukhova In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado: a narrative experiment and a survival memoir. Our society often pretends that queer couples are invisible. That’s awful at the best of times, but what if the relationship is abusive?
Carter Myers Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures. A sentient, deeply human octopus, an old woman gripping with greif, and a setup for one of the best love stories of the century. Remarkably Bright Creatures is truly is remarkable.
Natoya Raymond Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human. I wish I could give the protagonist a big hug.
Ajayla Ries Sara Gruen’s Like Water for Elephants is a beautiful book with an intruiging plot and an incredible narrative voice that makes the story flow effortlessly.
A. J. Rocca Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore – Hebrews and Macedonians, Romans and Byzantines, Caliphs and Crusaders, Malmuks and Ottomans, Brits and Israelis: this book is a rollercoaster ride through 4000 years of conquest and Jerusalem syndrome.
Nick Rush S. A Chakraborty, The City of Brass. It allows me to enjoy all of the adventure and myths of Rick Riordan’s novels, but in a more mature way.
Bill Thompson Leaving by Roxana Robinson. This is an exquisitely written story of middle-aged love and loss, and also of vengeance.
Alisha White Sarah J. Maas’ newest House of Flame and Shadow. It is the third in the Crescent City series, an epic urban fantasy series with faeries, werewolves, dragons, and angels.
