5 Books we Liked Best in 2024; 5 Authors we Hope to Read or Re-read in 2025

Who can say no to a mystery, a juicy love story, a meaty biography, historical fiction or a beach book that goes down like a scrumptious lobster roll or piece of runny blueberry pie. Not us, or many of our readers. That’s why we’re sharing our five favorite books of 2024 and five beloved authors we hope to dig into in 2025. Scroll down, consider and read away.

These are our choices. If you don’t agree, feel free to say so. Add in your favorites or those authors you are looking forward to reading and share with us. We welcome all comments and suggestions.

Thanks for reading our blog this past year and a very Happy, Healthy 2025.

5 Favorite Books Read in 2024, from Margaret

Robert Caro, Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. First published in 1973, Caro received a Pulitzer Prize for this biography of Robert Moses, which was re-issued in 2023, half a decade later. This is a big book in all ways. Margaret checked it out of the library and found it such heavy lifting that she returned it and uploaded the kindle version on her iPad. The length of the non-fiction tome—1,300 pages-- almost shut down her 10-year-old iPad with the message, “You are out of space.” Is it worth the heft? Definitely if you want a thorough and fascinating chronicle of how the controversial Moses, the NYC municipal builder, grabbed so much unchecked power, ran roughshod over so many people and changed the landscape of New York City. Other Caro books that we both loved: a five-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, and Working, which details his writing process.

Sonia Purnell, Kingmaker. This novelistically written biography is a wow and so is the “kingmaker,” Pamela Churchill Harriman, who was born into the British upper class. She had no formal schooling but, through marriage, had the right last name as Winston Churchill’s daughter-in-law. He included her in many high-level political meetings during World War II calling her “his secret weapon” where she used her beauty, sexual prowess and street smarts to charm world leaders and celebrities, many of whom she slept with. Most thought her a mere social climber and courtesan, but she was a shrewd self-taught woman. In 1971, she became a United States citizen and married Averell Harriman, a wealthy politician, diplomat and businessman. When he died in 1986, she used her inheritance to back the Democratic party, created a political action committee and hand-picked and backed little-known Bill Clinton. In turn, Clinton named her Ambassador to France. It’s a fascinating peek into a world of high-level politics, sex, money, power, designer clothes, beautifully decorated spaces and so much more. Barbara listened to it as an audiobook and almost didn’t want to get out of the car each time she turned it back on.

James McBride, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. Keeping secrets is a good trait if a good friend asks you not to share, however, there can be a huge downside as author McBride reveals in this well-written book. It’s overriding theme is man’s humanity, the power of community and the struggle to survive. The story is centered on a small town in Pennsylvania, a dilapidated neighborhood where Jewish immigrants and Black people live side by side but tend to hang with their own kind. One day, a skeleton and mezuzah are found at the bottom of a well. Who’s skeleton? That’s the secret, the mystery. When the state comes looking to institutionalize a Black deaf boy, the townspeople come together to hide and protect him. In the end, the truth comes out about the skeleton, the boy and what part the town’s elders played in both cases. Even in dark times, according to a book cover blurb, McBride shows us that it’s love and community—heaven and earth—that sustains and keeps us together.

Jesmyn Ward, Let us Descend. Although fiction, this book is a well-researched look at American slavery before the Civil War. It’s a disturbing tale that pulls the reader into the profound underbelly of the slave trade and the decent of those who were its victims. Despite the dreadful subject, this story is one of rebirth and recovery as told through the eyes of Annis, who was fathered by a white man. She is transported from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave trade of New Orleans where she ends up on a sugar plantation. To survive, Annis uses memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother to cope. It’s a mystical read about people and spirits who give and take.

Rereads: Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables Series. These books transported Margaret back to her childhood with one of her favorite series featuring a beloved and formidable character, Anne Shirley, an orphan with red hair who comes to live at Green Gables on Prince Edward Island, Canada. She is adopted by Marilla and Mathew Cuthbert who were expecting a boy. Although Anne is talkative and dramatic, she is also bright and well-read and shortly gains the love and respect of everyone she meets. Each book contains some great stories of Anne’s ingenuity, creativity and imagination. There is a Netflix series, Anne with an E, that many have watched which led them to read these absorbing novels with beautifully described details. Suggested by Margaret, Barbara concurs and considered Anne her role model for bravery and gumption and loved the different relationships shared in the book and film.

Winter 2025 inspirational reading, from Barbara

Curl up with a hot cup of coffee, tea or cocoa (with a marshmallow or two or a dollop of whipped cream) and with a good book from new authors or seasoned ones we never got to read or read a few years or decades ago. Here’s what she plans to tackle and has suggested Margaret follow suit. There are no deadlines to deal with or need to read a book club choice. This is just leisurely literary delight to warm our hearts and souls. And when finished she loves the idea of sharing discussions with friends.

MFK Fisher. Anybody who knows Barbara knows how much she loves to read about food and has devoured books by Paul Prudhomme, who is a great-nephew of Julia Child, about her adventures such as My Life in France, Ruth Reichl and her first and in her view best tome, Tender at the Bone, Marcus Samuelson’s Yes, Chef, Jacques Pepin’s The Apprentice, Eric Ripert’s 32 Yokes (owner of Le Bernardin, rated recently as best restaurant in the world!), Danny Meyers The Art of Hospitality and the wonderful book about cookbook editor Judith Jones, The Editor. Barbara is tired of Ina Garten’s many books and her ubiquitous presence so she’s going to pass on her recent memoir, which goes into her mean surgeon father and brief separation from husband Jeffrey (lover of her chocolate cake). But she knows many are huge fans and Barbara does like her podcast. Instead, Barbara is going back to her favorite MFK Fisher, or Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, who became a serious food writer in the 1940s. She never read The Gastronomical Me but now seems the right time.

Doris Kearns Goodwin. Barbara has read most of her books since she interviewed her in person for a newspaper article at the time of her outstanding book, Eleanor and Franklin. She went back to read about her love of baseball and go forward with Team of Rivals and most others. But she never read Leadership in Turbulent Times, which seems apt for these now VERY turbulent times. So that’s on the list. Barbara recently listened to An Unfinished Love Story and loved every single detail about her marriage to Richard N. Goodwin and highly recommend audio books like this. She has gotten over her one-time belief that listening to a book isn’t reading but it really is, she now feels, and is especially good when books are very long and heavy such as Ron Chernow’s great book about the late President Ulysses S. Grant, which is 1,104 pages.

Cormac McCarthy. An article in Vanity Fair magazine about the muse who inspired him reminded Barbara that she had never read any of his books. She doesn’t know why, but maybe intimidated by what she always heard--his difficult prose. Now is a good time to try one. She’s been debating between All the Pretty Horses and The Road (which Margaret read and loved) and probably will take both out from her library and give each a try. And she’s now of the belief that if she doesn’t like a book she can put it down, in the same way she turns off a TV show that doesn’t appeal or even walked out of a movie or Broadway show.

Edna O’Brien. A friend who reads a lot loves O’Brien’s work. She was an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer. Barbara plans to start with her first novel, The Country Girl, and see what she thinks. The Country Girl is also a wonderful old movie starring Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, for which she received an Oscar for best actress. Margaret also loves her work.

Edith Wharton. Always a favorite and someone whose home Barbara has visited in the Berkshires, dubbed The Mount, which seems like an old friend she’s not finished with. Barbara plans to make time to read and reread some more of her works, including The Age of Innocence and a first read of House of Mirth (both were made into movies too), which she never got to. She also hopes to read A Writer’s Reflections to understand Wharton’s thought processes better. It also seems the perfect time after she watched The Gilded Age on TV, an HBO original series set in the 1880s.