Another Year of Books! My Best of 2024 List
(And a reminder of our retreat AND a discount on writers' circles)
Friends!
As we wrap up 2024, I’ve been hard at work compiling my second (annual?) list of book recs for you—this year the roundup also includes books YOU wrote and recommended to us. Can you believe how unbelievably talented this community is? And how lucky we are to be a part of it?
Drumroll please…My top list
By my count, I read 96 non-work related books this year (apparently last year I read 114 books — 2023-Kelly evidently should have spent more time writing). Here were my 13 (or so) favorites, in no particular order:
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus—I will never read another book like this, but I’m very glad I read this one. If you get claustrophobic, you should read a summary first. I weirdly loved this book, but I did have to put it down and walk around the block as I read it.
The Turtle House by Amanda Churchill—it sort of surprised me that this one made my best of, but some of the small sweet scenes stuck with me.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries and Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett—I loved these books. Totally charming. Smart Nerdy romance with a faerie twist is a subgenre I didn’t know I needed. Third one is coming out February 11, so get reading!
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn—I also really liked her Veronica Spreewell and Lady Julia Gray series, so it’s no surprise I found this book fun as well—with a sequel coming out in March (and it joins my other new-favorite subgenre of elders kicking ass and solving mysteries. See Vera Wong and also the Richard Osman books I recommended last year. This is just research for my next career move).
In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune—Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea is one of my most-recommended books of all time. I love it (slightly more complicated feelings about its sequel, which came out this year). In the Lives of Puppets, like Cerulean Sea, is so very charming and optimistic about humanity to recreate better version of ourselves. I really love living in the worlds Klune builds for us.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley—Very fun. time traveling book, and I didn’t hate the ending!
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See—This book was just so great. I loved the plot and characters so much I didn’t even notice how much it was enriching my understanding of WWII. I highly recommend it.
Yellowface by RF Kuang—I know a good number of people who hated this book. I will say it’s the most successful first-person antagonist I’ve ever read, and the book sat in my craw for a long time. If you’re looking for a good squirmy hate read, I’d recommend it (I also think RF Kuang is a genius, and recommended Babel as a favorite book of last year).
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. Sally Rooney is the only author who, the moment she has a new novel out, I find my nearest bookstore and buy myself a hard copy. Sometimes I think she might be the best writer in the English language right now. There are some pages at the beginning of this book that made me sit back with my jaw open because the prose was so good. I don’t know if this is my favorite Rooney book, but it might be. Enough fan girling, just read some Sally Rooney.
Dial A for Aunties and Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murders by Jesse Q. Sutanto —These books are from two different series, and both actually made me cry so hard tears were running down my face and I had trouble breathing. Vera Wong is my favorite protagonist of the year. (Yes, they are silly. If you don’t want silliness, keep going.)
The Hunter by Tana French (sequel to the equally lovely The Searcher)—I’m not sure there’s anyone alive writing dialogue better than Tana French. I love her little slices of rural Ireland (and reading murder mysteries that don’t have cops as protagonists).
Non-fiction mention: Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms: The Story of the Animals and Plants That Time Has Left Behind by Richard Fortey. If I’ve spent time with you in person this year, it’s at least possible I’ve talked to you about horseshoe crabs. This book is the most charming thing I’ve ever read. If non-fiction is your thing, spend some time exploring these crevices of the world.
Books we wrote!
Okay, here’s the cool part: these are the books recently written by the larger Epilogue Editing community. I love bragging about you all year long, and I know we have some books coming out in January, so if you’re not on this list, email me and I’ll put you on my next one. These make great stocking stuffers, and also libraries love suggestions of new books to order!
In alphabetical order by author…
In Her Own Name Sarah Chatfield
The Politics of Bathroom Access and Exclusion in the United States Sara Chatfield
Democracy: A Love Letter (and a guide for everyone fighting to save it), Kelly Clancy (that’s me!). If you have anyone feeling hopeless about politics right now, maybe this can help.
How to Raise A Citizen (and why it’s up to you to do it), Lindsey Cormack
The Power of the Badge, Emily Farris and Mirya Holman.
Christian Nationalism, Nation Building, and the Making of the Holocaust in Slovakia, Hana Kubatova
Gender Equality in Conditional Cash Transfer Designs, Nora Nagels.
Project Management for Researchers, Shiri Noy. She says: “I really, truly hope this is helpful for people in organizing their research and I think that getting our data and work organized is so helpful in our thinking and writing process! There are free worksheets posted on the book's companion site and my website, which are filled in as examples in the book itself.”
Prison Capital: Mass Incarceration and Struggles for Abolition Democracy in Louisiana, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs
The Jail Is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, co-edited with Jack Norton and Judah Schept
The Political Logic of Cultural Revival, Amanda Lea Robinson
Prison Recipes and Prison Cookbooks Ami Stearns
And…a bonus article we wrote! A Cosmopolitan Revelation: The Rick Steves Way of Travel, Anne Taylor. (This one wins for being published in The Hedgehog Review, which clearly is the best name ever for a journalistic enterprise) I know we wrote more articles, but this is the only one I was sent!
Books you recommended, fiction and non.
Comments from the recommenders in italics
They Can't Kill Us 'Til They Kill Us, Hanif Abdurraquib
The Daevabad Trilogy (City of Brass), S.A. Chakraborty
Guillotine, Delilah S. Dawson
The Originalism Trap, Madiba K. Dennie
The Lost Gutenberg, Margaret Leslie Davis (about the only woman to own a Gutenberg Bible)
Saving Our Own Lives, Shira Hassan the recommender writes: it's a bit repetitive but it really challenged me, and it gets more and more interesting as it goes on.
Brotherless Night, VV Ganeshanathan
Reconfiguring Racial Capitalism: South Africa in the Chinese Century, Mingwei Huang
From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire, Sarah Jaffe (WAY too timely!)
The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai (I second this! I also loved I Have Some Questions for You).
Death in the Air, Ram Murali
Bellevue by David Oshinsky (history of the fascinating hospital; basically the birth of public health in the US)
Race, Removal, and the Right to Remain, Samantha Seeley
Alright so! I’m making my way through the NPR book guide, and I need your help figuring out what to read in the new year. Tell me what I’ve missed!
I should have one more post for you this year (it’s a good one), and then I am closing my computer until 2025.
Take a break from writing, and go read all the things!
xoxo
Kelly
What’s going on around here
Come write with us! Mirya and I are thrilled to announce the first-ever MEE-Centered Mini-Retreat, at the coziest little bed and breakfast in midtown Houston April 7-9, 2025. We hope you can join us for 48 hours of focused time to do nothing but write. If you’ve wanted to try one of our retreats before, but a week seems like a long time to spend away, this one’s for you! Details are here, and please let me know if you have any questions. Like most of our retreats, we anticipate that this one will fill quickly.
Spring 2025 Writers’ Circles (January-March 2025)
Small groups of no more than eight people focused on creating the conditions to write more, and more effectively. So many people want to join this year that I’ve opened our very first third session! Here are the times. I anticipate that these will fill, so if you’re interested sign up soon!
If you sign up before 2025 and put “newsletter” in the last field of the form, I’ll give you 20 percent off the price of enrollment—a little holiday gift from me to you.
Mondays, 1230-2, Early-career scholars
Tuesdays, 10-1130, Mixed group
Thursdays, 11-1230, Mid-career scholars
So You Want to Write A Book?
A unique hybrid workshop dedicated to supporting writers throughout their book writing journey. Join us in early 2025 for workshops on book proposals and revision, or start with a new cohort in May.
Editing: I’m accepting new projects to edit in 2025! My editing calendar fills up three-to-six months in advance, so if you have something you’re hoping to get edited, this is a great time to chat about it. You can see all of what we’re doing in 2025 here.
January workshop: Book proposals and book marketing
January 7, 2025, 1230-2 pm eastern: Finding a publisher: Book proposals, selecting a publisher, communicating with presses
January 8, 2025, 1-2:30 pm eastern: Finding your readers: Building an audience and getting them excited about your book (in an authentic, not gross, way)
January 10, 2025, 1230-2 pm eastern: Finding your groove: How to create documents that help the book find a home (a hands on workshop).
April workshop: The art (and science?) of revision
May 2025-April 2026: beginning and accelerated (discounted registration through February 1)
Great choices! Looks like I might need to find a quiet place to read over the holidays.