Top Five Books Of 2024

In 2024, I read many books captivating a plethora of genres, but I have found a common thread of women’s suffrage and placement in our world. These five books I chose to recommend are deeply thought-provoking and imperative to read to better understand womanhood from different perspectives. These are not ranked, but all provide intense intrigue. 

1. Home Is Not A Country By Safia Elhillo

Genre: Poetry, Young Adult, Magical Realism, Diversity, Middle East

Pages: 224

This book is written in verse and follows a teenager named Nima who navigates issues of being a first-generation muslim woman in America through magical realism and the emotional feeling of living as an outsider. She is constantly bullied at school and finds herself torn between her alter ego self named Yamseen who represents confidence and community, and who Nima truly is. This coming-of-age novel demonstrates the need for belonging and trying to find one’s place in the world. 

2. Girl, Interrupted By Susanna Kaysen

Genre: Nonfiction, Mental Illness, Psychology, Mental Health

Pages: 169

This novel depicts the perception of mental hospitals focusing on our definitions of sane and insane. Set in the late 1960s, it follows an eighteen-year-old named Susanna who is taken to a hospital after a session with her psychiatrist. She meets other women with mental issues of their own and they navigate their way to getting better from this interruption in their lives. 

3. The Handmaid’s Tale By Margaret Atwood

Genre: Feminism, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fiction

Pages: 311

This novel follows a handmaid named Offred who can only leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day. Her role as a handmaid involves being subjected to non-consensual sexual acts by the Commander, in order to address the declining birthrate. The only value of handmaids in this society is their ovaries; and even though Offred remembers her past years of freedom, she is brainwashed into this extreme patriarchal society. This book is horrifying and an overall convincing warning to women. 

4. Little Fires Everywhere By Celeste Ng

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Motherhood, Family

Pages: 338

This novel follows a town called Shaker Heights and it opens with the Richardson's family house being burnt down. This town is meticulously planned and everyone is meant to follow the utopian rules. Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl move into Shaker Heights and their mysterious past threatens the perfection of this town. A custody battle of a Chinese-American baby causes a divide between the town and the Warrens and Richardsons. Elena Richardson investigates Mia’s past, but everything comes at a devastating cost. 

5. A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini

Genre: Historical fiction, War, Feminism, Afghanistan, Cultural

Pages: 372

This novel navigates Mariam and Laila’s different lives dealing with oppression as women in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s reign. Mariam is forced to marry an old man at fifteen years old and Laila is forced to leave her home and join Mariam’s family. This book illustrates family dynamics and the power of found family between Mariam and Laila. Despite extensive abuse, rape, war, and brutality, they still find hope in this wounded country and a way to rebuild after the continuous tragedies they endured.