5 Books from 2024 that Deserve More Love

I Loved The Fertile Earth! Beautiful writing. Look forward to reading Clean based on your description. Happy Holidays dear Eric📚😍

ken berry's book was terrific till the end. he rushed it, stopped writing an ending and summed it up in minimum pages. that ruined a lovely book.

lublin is a good book but a tough read. although lightly written, we know what happens to all of them. read but be prepared.

I've already bought The Fertile Earth and The Heart In Winter, but haven't read them yet.
I'd add three books myself: Beautyland by Marie-Hélène Bertino, Clear by Carys Davies and Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright.

Richard Flanagan's Question 7 was definitely one of my best books of the year. It received a lot of "most anticipated" attention and then disappeared from view. It's a highly compelling philosophical hybrid of memoir, history, and fiction. But it wasn't even listed on the NYT's list of 100 notables, and i haven't seen any online reactions.
Thanks for reminding me to get around to Lublin!😅

I've got Clean on my summer reading pile.

I plan to read Hagstone and The Heart in Winter early 2025. I have The Fertile Earth out from the library and hope to get to it soon. I just finished Clear by Carys Davies and loved it.

I can't wait to read Lublin! I just bought it a few weeks ago. I believe it was nominated for the North American Republic of Consciousness Prize. Hoping to see it on the longlist even though I haven't even read it yet! Also, a book I haven't seen get enough love is Hot Springs Drive by Lindsay Hunter. It's SO good and propulsive and steamy.

read bear by julia phillips. beautifully written, socially relevent, suspenseful and a pleasure to read. gripping to the last page. my favorite book of the year.

This is a great idea for a video. There are so many amazingly good books which get lost in among the big titles, names and prizes. I’m currently reading Dusk by Robbie Arnott. Set in Tasmania and just delightful. I’ve taken note of those titles you have mentioned so thanks Eric.🤗

'Clean' sounds really interesting, thanks.

I purchased Lublin recently and plan to read it for my 2025 reading goal of reading at least one Polish content book per month.
Clean sounds really good as well as Hagstone. I will be adding those to my TBR. Thanks for the suggestions.

I'm glad of the reminder to read Hagstone, I bought for my birthday back in May and need to ge round to reading it. Lublin is also on my list, since I heard you praising it, sounds like a really great book 😊

I’m part of a Translated Fiction book group starting in January and Clean is our first book. Really looking forward to it!

I'll be reading Clean in January and I'm now adding The Heart in Winter to my TBR. I would add Clear by Carys Davies and The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck to the list.

Clean is actually the first book in my Reading The Globe project for 2025, which I'm co-hosting with Ros from Scallydandling About the Books. We've selected 12 contemporary novels for the year, so it's incredibly exciting to see our January pick featured in your recommendations! The project also includes 7 translated classics and 6 translated YA books—I'm co-hosting the YA portion with Jack from Spread Book Joy. It’s such a thrill to see enthusiasm for these books; I can’t help but think, 'This bodes well!' 😆

I have Hagstone and Heart in Winter on the shelf but not got to them yet - same old story! Might have to get Clean too.

I just finished Andrew Boryga’s novel Victim that was a debut released this year in the US. And it absolutely blew me away. It’s like a much higher-quality Yellowface. The social critiques it makes are very nuanced and the characters all felt so real! I loved it and don’t see it being talked about much at all

Thanks!

Great video! I really loved I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger, but I haven't heard anyone talk about it. I feel like the cover alone should have gotten it more prominent bookshop placement! 😍

Clean was one of my favourite novels of 2024, along with North Woods and the latest by Olga Ravn (not yet translated into English).

Alia Trabuco is so good!

The Heart Winter is so good , so funny and so sad . I loved it .

i absolutely loved the heart in winter!! such a hidden gem

Wait..Did you go to Goddard College in Vermont? And my oh my, am I in love with The Heart in Winter

I would add The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey. She’s always good in my opinion, but this one is really wild. It did win at least one prize and got good reviews, but I haven’t seen it on anybody’s list of year’s best. Definitely worth checking out!