This week’s topic is, “Top 5 books of 2024… so far!…What does your top 5 list look like at our halfway point??” I haven’t done one of these in a minute, this seemed like a good time to get back to it. Whittling down my list to a Top 10 was a piece of cake at this point (a pleasant surprise)–but trimming that to a Top 5 took some work. I think I’m satisfied with the result. Although beyond that this post could’ve been easier, if I’d only finished my posts on three of these by now.
In alphabetical order by author:
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 The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett This Fantasy-Mystery hybrid (with a decent amount of other-worldly science thrown in) was my first five-star read of the year, and it’s one I’m still thinking about. The world was great, the characters were complex and well-executed, the story and atmosphere were stunning. I could go on and on about this one, but am going to force myself to be pithy here. |
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 The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher Yes, part of the appeal of this novel was that we finally got something new in this series after years of silence. But I’d have had a blast with this no matter when it was released. Butcher very carefully gave his fans more of just about everything they enjoyed in the first book without duplicating it in any sense. He also deepened and expanded our knowledge and understanding of this world, its magic and politics, and all of the major characters (white hats, gray hats, and black hats). At least two of the new characters had better be back. There’s a character death that I’ll eventually forgive Butcher for, but I’m not there yet. This one just ticked every box for me. |
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 The Mercy Chair by M.W. Craven This is the darkest M.W. Craven novel–well, I haven’t read his second book yet, so I should qualify this as the darkest Poe and Tilly novel. And that’s no mean feat. The two are called in to help investigate the death of a cult leader and end up discovering much more–murders that no one realized had happened, torture sessions disguised as education/treatment, some twisted emotional and spiritual abuse–and more. Both Poe and Tilly are at there best here–and the rest of regular characters are as well. This will stick with readers for a while. |
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 Smoke Kings by Jahmal Mayfield Speaking of dark…Smoke Kings tells the story of a group of friends who decide to take social justice into their own hands and become vigilantes acting out against those who’ve benefited from lynchings or other racially-motivated crimes their families participated in decades ago. Internal and external pressures start to overwhelm the group and then things get deadly. There’s a whole lot of evil done in the name of righteousness here (by people that others would deny were anything but righteous). The number of heroes–or at least people who were actually accomplishing good things–are far outweighed by those using others. If you’re not disturbed as you’re gripped by this, you’ve missed something. |
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 Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman The first 87 pages of this book might have been my favorite 87 pages this year. The rest of them were pretty good, too. The central premise was a little out there, but Waxman pulled it off–and the rest of the book was so good you didn’t mind anyway. I laughed, I was moved, my heart was warmed—all the typical reactions to Abbi Waxman. I loved being in this world, surrounded by Waxman’s words and I cannot wait for the next excuse I have to do it again. |
