Linda’s Book Bag Favourite Reads of 2024

3 days ago 6

My goodness 2024 has been tough going. Despite the fact that I don’t believe that adding 5 instead of 4 to the end of the year will make any difference, I am so glad to leave 2024 behind from today. I won’t bore you with all the details, but I confess I’ve struggled rather.

However, in amongst all the horrors of the world and the personal difficulties in 2024, one constant has been books and bookish events (even if a bout of Covid prevented me from being part of the local literary festival so that I missed interviewing and introducing Sara-Jade Virtue, Carol Atherton, Anne Fletcher, Julia Jarman, Suk Pannu, Jack Jordan, Fiona Cummins, Clare Mackintosh, Ajay Tegela and Lev Parikian).

Books Read

Goodreads tells me I have achieved my reading goal at the time of writing this post…

… but Goodreads knows nothing! I’ve read books that are not on Goodreads, books I’ve quietly forgotten because I didn’t enjoy them and books that I will be featuring in 2025 here on the blog, on My Weekly and in (or occasionally on) The People’s Friend in my monthly paperback column, that are not out until next year, so I haven’t included them. Indeed, I actually loathe all the various reading challenges as I think reading should be a pleasure, not a challenge. I also really don’t like awarding stars either as it’s such an imprecise science and I ignore those who say my reviews are invalid because I only have positive things to say. Why would I post a negative review? I’m a blogger, not a scalpel sharp critic. I could quite easily eviscerate a book I don’t like or that isn’t well written, but someone else might love it and quite honestly, there’s enough unkindness in the world with me adding to it!

Not on a list?

As ever, I am aware that, as I blog about the books I’ve enjoyed the most this year, there will be authors who never appear on anyone’s lists, feel deflated, unseen and lost. Let me say to you that yours might just be the book I’d enjoy most in my life, but I haven’t discovered it yet, that my list is not of the ‘best books’ out there, but is my personal choice from those I’ve actually got round to reading in the last 12 months. There are many hundreds more on my shelves that would be my favourite reads if only I’d had time to reach for them.

Choosing a ‘Book of the Year’

As ever, an explanation of how I choose the books featured here is that I keep a spreadsheet of the books I read and as soon as I have finished reading a book I award it a ‘gut reaction’ mark out of 100. Anything 95+/100 is a book of the year for me. This means that there might be no books of the year or dozens! You may already have seen my most favourite 7 reads of the year over on My Weekly, and all these achieved 97+/100 on my personal gut-reaction-o-meter.

Previous Years

Previous favourite books can be found by clicking on the year – 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015. Take a look. You might just find a book you love too.

My Favourite Reads of 2024

Today I’m going to feature all the books I enjoyed that I scored 95+/100 in 2024. Books that made me laugh or cry, terrified or entertained me completely or books that simply swept me up in glorious storytelling. They are presented in the order I read them. Click on the titles to read my full reviews and for full book details.

The Memory Library by Kate Storey

The Glass Woman by Alice McIlroy

Frank and Red by Matt Coyne

The Lifeline by Tom Ellen

The Memory of Us by Dani Atkins

I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This by Clare Mackintosh

Make Art With Nature by Pippa Pixley

The Bookshop Affair by Louise Fein

Seven Summers by Paige Toon

Reading Lessons by Carol Atherton

All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker

One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz

The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne by Freya North

The Black Loch by Peter May

Edith Holler by Edward Carey

The Good Liars by Anita Frank

Figgles and Flo by Antonia Blackmore, illustrated by Sarah P. Sharpe

Ice Town by Will Dean

All I Want For Christmas by Karen Swan

A Skye Full of Stars by Sue Moorcroft

So there they are – non-fiction and crime stories, thrillers and children’s books, coming of age stories and romances, historical fiction and even a bit of fantasy and horror woven in. But one book has stood out for me the most and I awarded it 100/100. Those who follow me on social media or here on Linda’s Book Bag will know already that my favourite read of all in 2024, and possibly ever is:

My Favourite Book of 2025

All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker

A missing persons mystery, a serial killer thriller, and an epic love story – with a unique twist on each…

* * * * *

Late one summer, the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of teenager Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley. Nobody more so than Saint Brown, who will risk everything to find her best friend.

But when she does: it will break her heart.

Patch lies alone in a pitch-black room – until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace and, though they cannot see each other, she lights their world with her words.

But when he escapes: there is no sign she ever even existed.

Left with only her voice and her name, he paints her from broken memories – and charts an epic search to find her.

As years turn to decades, and hope becomes obsession, Saint will shadow his journey – on a darker path to hunt down the man who took them – and set free the only boy she ever loved.

Even if finding the truth means losing each other forever…

I’ve loved everything of Chris’s that I’ve read including Tall Oaks , All The Wicked Girls, We Begin At The End, The Forevers, and of course, All The Colours of the Dark.

Although I don’t bother to look much at my blog stats – reading is not a competition – but it gives me great pleasure that, at the time of writing this post, my review of All The Colours Of The Dark has had 14,468 views since I blogged it in July. I hope some of those folk have gone on to love the book just as much as I did.

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So, that was 2024. On 5th February 2025 I will have been blogging for exactly a decade. I wonder what books I’ll discover in my tenth year of Linda’s Book Bag…