Murder mysteries. True crime. New works by Sally Rooney, Percival Everett, and Kristin Hannah. Romantasy, YA romance, and frankly all around too much romance to read. 2024 provided so many amazing and enticing books that there’s no way any of us could possibly read them all in one year. But just in case your to-read pile isn’t high enough yet, we polled the MAYDAY staff to see who had favorite reads from the year they wanted to share. They’re not necessarily new releases—just new books to us. Here are some of our editors’ favourite reads from 2024.
Xander Gershberg, Poetry Editor
Forest of Noise: Poems by Mosab Abu Toha (2024, poetry, 96 p, published by HarperCollins Publishers)
These poems serve as testimony of Mosab Abu Toha’s survival in Gaza amidst the first months of Israel’s siege, including his wrongful abduction by the Israeli Defence Forces, as well as a rendering of the wonder and dreams Palestinians hold onto in the face of devastation. We each ought to read and be compelled into action by this collection’s unflinching and furious account of Palestinian suffering under the unfolding genocide. This collection is a humbling reminder of what poetry can and must hold, and what we as readers must hold, as Abu Toha writes in the closing poem: “This is not a poem. / This is a grave.” –Xander Gershberg
Clement Obropta, Culture Editor
Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall (2022, historical fiction, 400 p, Atria Books)
In 2023, my wife and I launched the raddest feminist book club ever, hoping to meet great people, read some tremendous literature, and have really insightful conversations. Every month, the book club grew and grew and the conversations got deeper, more introspective, more open and thoughtful. We’ve read a lot this year, from The Bell Jar to Nightbitch, but the book that stuck with me the most from 2024 was Looking for Jane.
Looking for Jane is sort of like Cloud Atlas told through the prism of abortion rights: We follow three characters in three different periods and see them each fighting for their bodily autonomy. Women separated by cities and time but united in their common conflict. The book is not a treatise on how to start an abortion network, but rather a social tapestry of how anti-abortion policies in Canada affected countless generations of women and robbed them of their agency. It’s angry, it’s thorough, and it’s educational. Sometimes, the novel’s events try to shock you, but the most alarming aspect of the story is how little of it actually does. We’ve become—I’ve become—so numb to the battle for reproductive rights and the sweat, tears, and literal blood that’s shed in that fight that much of Looking for Jane is sobering but, in a macabre, sad way, not surprising. –Clement Obropta
Jenn Sisko, Director of Operations
Freedom Is a Feast by Alejandro Puyana (2024, historical fiction, 448 p, published by Little, Brown and Company)
The best book I read from 2024 is, hands down, Freedom Is a Feast by Alejandro Puyana. Set in Venezuela, it focuses on the difficult choices that shape multiple generations of the Rodriguez family. Each character is full and vibrant; each choice is realistic. The engaging writing and quick-paced action make this book, even at 400+ pages, a quick read.
An honorable mention goes to Ann Dávila Cardinal for We Need No Wings, a beautiful story that draws upon magic realism as professor Tere Sanchez works through grief and self-discovery after her husband’s death. –Jenn Sisko
Mina Victoria, Fiction Editor
Libertad by Bessie Flores Zaldívar (2024, contemporary YA, 432 p, published by Dial Books)
Honorable mention: Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison
This book, Libertad—Libi—reached down inside me with one hand wide open and the other curled deep into the Earth, to the silenced queer kid I didn’t know I’d lost between organ and rib. The ferocity with which Libertad loves her siblings, her mother and grandmother, and her friends vibrates on every page. Flores Zaldívar holds hope and despair, violence and tenderness, and all the roiling emotions of a teenage girl fighting to survive her girlhood amid Honduras’ 2017 rigged election and its incumbent protests and unrest. Libertad’s survival, so intertwined with her family and her poetry, reminds us that all of our survival is intertwined; that art is the rope that binds us all together; that resistance is also an act of love. –Mina Victoria
Kelsey Wallace, Non-Fiction Editor
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery (2022, short stories, 260 p, published by MCD)
The cover of If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery shows the I in “survive” burning the I in “I” from below. It’s a clever cover because it plays on a couple of the main themes in this book, which are identity and struggle – more specifically, how struggle shapes identity. This is a book of linked stories involving Trelawny, the youngest son of two to a family of Jamaican immigrants. Trelawny, being the only one born in America, is “In flux” as the title of the first short story, the origin story, shows. His struggle is, first, one of labels and, second, one of racism and how others perceive him and how that goes on to affect every aspect of his life: education, dating, work, housing. The narrators vary from one linked story to the next, but each takes place a little further down the timeline of this family’s life, filling in blanks related to the characters’ relationships (mainly between fathers and sons), tensions, and purpose. Not only does Escoffery masterfully stack one standalone story after another to build a strong overarching storyline, but also his sense of setting (Miami and its suburbs) and place-based similes and metaphors fill the pages with Atlantic and Caribbean influence from hurricanes and fisherman to cocaine-smuggling and colorful city settings. All in all, it’s the best book I read in 2024. –Kelsey Wallace
Eleanor Whitney, Non-Fiction Editor
Choose This Now by Nicole Haroutunian (2024, fiction, 254 p, published by Noemi Press)
Choose This Now is a novel-in-short-stories that paints an intimate portrait of women’s lives, from the end of their teenage years to the beginning of middle age. The linked stories follow best friends Valerie and Taline (aka Val and Tal) through the questions, heartbreaks and intensity of possibilities in college to the surprising triumphs, set backs, and turning points in their lives in their late 30s and early 40s. It’s an honest portrayal of how friendships ebb and flow throughout our lives as we navigate finding our purpose and building our adult lives. Set in and around New York City, the book also captures the epiphanies, frustrations, and absurdity of city life. The characters are so stunningly and tenderly rendered, I felt that they were my best friends. They lingered with me and I wanted to keep talking with them, and finding out what comes next for them, long after I finished the book. –Eleanor Whitney
Lisa Ströhm Winberg, Culture Editor
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1952, fiction, 96 p, published by Charles Scribner’s Sons)
“Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her? I would take some though in any form and pay what they asked.” –Santiago, The Old Man and the Sea
Santiago is down on his luck. The old, seasoned fisherman has ventured out to sea for 84 consecutive days, only to return empty-handed. His lack of luck has forced his apprentice, Manolin, to join a more fortunate fishing crew. Yet the young Manolin remains loyal and visits Santiago every morning and evening, providing him with food and bait. With a relationship rooted in mentorship, Santiago shares his invaluable life lessons with Manolin, lessons which the boy deeply respects and cherishes. Despite being considered unlucky by his fellow fishermen, Santiago is driven by a sense of hope.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is a timeless story of perseverance and dignity. The novella centers around the aged Cuban fisherman Santiago and his heroic battle with the greatest catch of his life, a giant marlin. The story is the perfect read for someone who is looking to read a short yet must-read classic that’s filled with depth and meaning. –Lisa Ströhm Winberg
CLEMENT TYLER OBROPTA is a Culture editor at MAYDAY. He studied film and English at Ithaca College, has a master’s degree in film studies from the University of St Andrews, and his work can also be found with Film Inquiry, Film Daze, and Gen Z Critics. He lives in Scotland with his wife and cat.
