What was the best thing you read in 2024? It's a question that book lovers ask themselves and each other at this time of year. Finding out what others gush about gives something to excitedly add to book club or to-read lists for 2025.
Some people turn to GoodReads and others turn to BookTok, a TikTok community playing an increasingly important role in the book market, to find out what is worth reading. But, in this writer's opinion, nothing beats getting out into the community and stopping at your local bookshop to see the covers brightly poking out from the shelves and ask a friendly face, 'What's the best thing you read this year?'
With Russell Books just down the street from the Victoria News office, they were our first stop. Here are five favourite books from different people who work at this beloved local shop, and a description of why they loved the book in their own words.
Zoe's pick: Babel, or the Necessity of Violence by R. F. Kuang
Imagine a world in which the industrial revolution was fuelled not by coal, but by language. In R.F. Kuang's unique alternate history, the linguistic tension created by an imperfect translation can be used to propel a train... or detonate a bomb. In this world, the British Empire plunders its colonies not for fossil fuels but for human beings: native speakers of specific languages. Set in an alternate Oxford University in the 1830s, the book follows Robin, an orphan who is plucked from poverty in Canton by a wealthy patron and enrolled in the Royal Institute of Translation (aka Babel). This book is a richly researched, incredibly compelling exploration of colonialism and its devastating effects. I'm still thinking about it months later, and it's my go-to recommendation for anyone who reads either literary fiction or sci-fi/fantasy!"
Jack Knox' pick: The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern Canada by John Ibbitson
This is Canadian history-nerd heaven. The Duel, by Globe and Mail political writer John Ibbitson, not only documents the rise and rivalry of Canadian prime ministers Lester Pearson and John Diefenbaker but also shows how their mid-20th century conflict shaped the Canada we know today. The two clashed in every way, with easy-going Pearson comfortable in the halls of power yet harbouring a hidden ruthlessness, while chip-on-his-shoulder Diefenbaker fought for his fellow outsiders but couldn’t keep out of his own way. Still, from universal health care to no-nukes to immigration and the Canada Pension Plan, the rivals built on each other’s decisions, framing the House we take for granted. The depth of Ibbitson’s research is staggering, his analysis cogent and even-handed, and his use of language both economical and precise.
Molly Kines' pick: Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
“…and maybe no one else felt the ground hardening and summer already dead even as we pretended to bask in it, but that was how it felt to me, and it might as well have snowed, could have snowed, did snow.”
As Joan Didion puts it, whether it snowed one summer in Vermont or it didn't, it doesn't matter. To focus on the snow is to miss the point. To write is to discover your own life, and to feel it how it is meant to be felt by you. Joan finds significance in the every day, in the mundane, and in a possibly fabricated August cold snap — and this is precisely her genius. Read her. She blew my mind in 2023, and she blew my mind just as much this year. You won’t regret it!
Leah Henderson's pick: Noopiming (The Cure for White Ladies) by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
I read this book early in the year and then re-read it to absorb it more fully. It is written in the new-to-me genre of “novel in verse”. The language is beautiful, circular, funny, clever, and compassionate. Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer and is a skilled artist of words. The story follows seven characters – old man, maple tree, old woman, the giant, the cariboo, and two humans, Asin and Lucy, as they attempt to communicate with the urban settler world.
This book made me laugh out loud and sit quietly to let a breathtaking description sink in. It is a creative response by an Indigenous woman to the memoirs of Susannah Moodie, an early Canadian settler. It’s like a dance of understanding between coming to a new land for adventure and conquest, and living with an old land in harmony, and communion with every living thing – lake, trees, animals, rocks – as friends, and not things to be subjugated. I highly recommend this book!
Brian's pick: Held by Canadian author Anne Michaels
My favourite read of 2024 was the Booker-shortlisted, and Giller Prize-winning novel, Held. This exquisitely written book embroiders a multigenerational tale through the 20th century, beginning with the effect of the First World War on a young man and his family. The pivotal moments of one generation are mapped onto the lives of the next, and Michaels explores which echoes are heard and which are not. The characters she creates are transformed by the preceding generation in ways that are often unknown to them, but always penetrate to their core. The novel was particularly poignant for me because the young soldier that begins this tale was stationed near the River Escaut in northern France, just as my grandfather was during the First World War. I was left wondering what part of him I have held onto 100 years after his momentous experiences.
