The ultimate best-of-2024 books list

It is always good to take advantage of the slow rhythm of the holidays and read. That is why most relevant international outlets publish a list of the year's best books.

The problem is the number of lists with different suggestions. If you don't have a go-to, we will make that path easier by looking at five significant catalogs.

We dove into The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Economist, and The Financial Times to bring you the ultimate list: all books that appear in at least three of them.

Each outlet has its own book classification system. We decided to simplify and divide the items into fiction and nonfiction. We are saving the best for last.

The New York Times describes 'All Fours' by Miranda July (pictured) as "the year's literary conversation piece," it follows the story of an artist who derails a road trip to have an affair with a younger man.

In 'Our Evenings', Hollinghurs (pictured) explores the vote and aftermath of the Brexit vote in the UK through several lenses. The Guardian said it is "tender, elegiac and gorgeously attentive to detail."

'Intermezzo' appears in four of the lists, not three. It is the story of a fraternal bond. The Economist believes it is the best novel the Irish writer has published.

The classification for nonfiction selection varies greatly between outlets. Some choose to go by subject, while others use the broad category.

It is one of the most common books on the top of the nonfiction lists. The biography of the American president explores his ideas from the lens of his responsibility in the GOP as it is today.

The Russian opposition leader started writing his memoir while recovering from a poisoning in 2020 and kept writing a diary while he was imprisoned until his death.

The Financial Times called 'The Genetic Book of the Dead' a dive into what a creature's genes and shape can tell about the environment with "fresh enthusiasm."

The best book on our list is the only one that appears in all five lists, and it is a fiction entry. It is a fresh take on a literature classic.

The book retells Mark Twain's 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' from the perspective of Jim, the protagonist's enslaved companion. The New Yorker called it a "searching account of a man's manifold liberation."

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