The Best Books I Read in the Final Months of 2024

Look, this year had its many ups and downs. But one thing that’s kept me sane is reading nearly every night instead of — or, when I did slip up, in addition to — scrolling on my phone. I also attended a friend’s monthly book club, which provided an opportunity to connect with other 20-somethings in San Francisco who have similar interests (and see their apartments, which is a nice bonus for my Architectural Digest-loving heart).

These four books I’ve read recently are not from that book club, but I devoured them the same nonetheless, bringing up my tally to 20 books this year. I will try my best to get to 25 over the month and you can, too, join my hustle by adding a book or two from this list to your TBR pile.

Intermezzo

By Sally Rooney
2024

In September, Irish author Sally Rooney released her highly anticipated fourth novel Intermezzo to nearly universal acclaim, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Rooney, whose past characters have been criticized as insufferable and lacking growth, created her most alive and dynamic set of characters yet. Intermezzo is a glimpse into the lives of two brothers, a 32-year-old lawyer, Peter, and his 22-year-old chess player brother, Ivan, in the aftermath of their father’s death. Rooney skillfully examines how these men deal with grief and how that reflects in their relationship, and, separately, their relationships with the women in their lives.

Peter thinks of his relationship with his younger girlfriend, Naomi, as a casual one, until she loses her apartment and moves in with him. Ivan, on the other hand, starts seeing Margaret, a woman 14 years his senior that he met at a chess event outside of Dublin — and begins to travel every weekend to see her. Both of Rooney’s antiheroes contain multitudes, as they go from being unlikeable and villainous from one moment to their pure and pitiful selves the next. It also doesn’t help that the rift in their relationship causes the two to view each other in harsher light. All of this makes for a fast-paced, reflective read. However, if you are not a fan of Sally Rooney’s underutilization of punctuation, especially quotation marks, beware that her stylistic choice persists in this novel.

Following the success and discourse created by TV adaptations of Rooney’s first two novels, Normal People and Conversations With Friends, the author stated that she has “decided not to accept any offers to option the rights” of her books and step away from the visual medium. It might be a long while before an Intermezzo series becomes a reality, so picking up the book is your best bet to enjoy the novel.

Honey

By Isabel Banta
2024

Any pop music fan has fantasized about the lives of their favorite pop icons. I specifically wonder about the psychological impacts of having an army of fans, and finding enough success to sell out arenas, when you’re at the age when Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Justin Bieber and other child stars rose to fame. Isabel Banta’s debut novel Honey is a wonderful deep dive into the making of a teen pop star in the late ’90s and early 2000s — more of a Beyoncé or Britney Spears narrative. The novel follows Amber Young (perhaps too on the nose with that last name), whose life changes in the blink of an eye when she is given the opportunity to join a girl group, called Cloud9, and move to Los Angeles to chase her dreams. The author goes on to examine the inner workings of the music industry, the friendly competition between young women starting their solo careers, and how tabloids paint an entirely different picture of them.

Honey is a refreshing, if a little revisionist, tale of the typical pop idol biography. I found it to be a quick, lighthearted read, compared to the horrendous stories Britney Spears detailed in her autobiography, The Woman in Me. If the thought of engulfing yourself in a mostly uplifting pop girl fantasy during these gloomy, gray days sounds appealing to you, Honey won’t disappoint.

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism

By Amanda Montell
2021

Cultish is a book I’ve had on my radar for years. On election night, as I found myself in despair looking for my next read, I reached for it, hoping there would be some good takeaways. Unsurprisingly, president-elect Donald Trump’s name pops up in the discussion of modern day cult behavior, alongside other examples like Taylor Swift’s fandom and, of course, Scientology. Montell’s exploration of how populist leaders rely on linguistic tools to rope their followers into their bubble really put things into perspective for me. Montell also interviews survivors of some lethal cults, like Heaven’s Gate, which resulted in the leader and his 38 followers taking their own lives in a San Diego house, and Jonestown, the pseudo-revolutionary settlement where 909 people “drank the Kool Aid” in a mass suicide. (The Peoples Temple, which eventually evolved into the Jonestown settlement in Guyana, operated out of Redwood City and San Francisco in the ’60s and ’70s.)

Montell’s deep dive into multi-level marketing schemes is perhaps a more relatable topic. Most people know at least one person, often stay-at-home mothers, trying to sell some product on their Facebook page — whether it’s a miracle weight loss pill, leggings or Tupperware. She perfectly lays out the circumstances that may cause someone to join one of these trickle-down companies, and what it takes to get out. If you’re interested in emotional manipulation and the role language plays in the unfortunate success of cults, this book is for you.

Master of Me

By Keke Palmer
2024

Actor, singer and internet icon Keke Palmer’s memoir was the latest addition to my celebrity memoir audiobook journey, voiced by Palmer herself. In it, she talks about being a child star and carving out her own multi-hyphenate lane in the industry, sharing her wisdom on understanding one’s own self worth and navigating prickly interactions with the powerful men running Hollywood. Palmer’s sense of humor is evident from her many meme-able moments over the years, but it’s apparent that there is a lot of thought and life experience behind her jokes, even though she’s only 31 years old. Keke Palmer has lived many lives — including when, in 2015, she played a college student from Oakland in Ryan Murphy’s campy slasher series Scream Queens. Palmer’s story about a colleague on the show calling her “Martin Luther King” recently made some headlines, highlighting the casual racism she has encountered over the years and leading to fan speculation about which co-star made that remark. (My money is on Lea Michele.)