1. “The Best Book I Read in 2024.” “Picking a favorite book — like picking a favorite child — is impossible. Still, if our contributors absolutely, positively, we’re not kidding, had to choose the ONE title that most spoke to them this year, here’s what it would be…”


2. Cara Tallo’s review of The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story by Pagan Kennedy (Vintage). “She sat in on victim-support groups, spoke with hospital supervisors, and interviewed staff at the Chicago Police Department’s Crime Lab. She observed and listened. She discovered that police could choose to throw out evidence or refuse to collect it at all, and that even when there were signs of a violent assault, ‘the opinions of the police officers often mattered far more than the evidence itself.’ This all made Goddard wonder: What would happen ‘if sexual assault could be investigated and prosecuted like a murder or a robbery?’”


3. Anne Cassidy’s review of Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough (W.W. Norton & Company). “The past, like a kenning, is a riddle that needs to be solved, and Barraclough takes us through four centuries and across three continents to ferret out the “hidden histories” of her subject. Here are ice skates made of cow bones (small for most of the feet that wore them), buckles fashioned from walrus ivory (because Greenland was short on metal), and a comb crafted from a deer antler (Vikings were known for their meticulous grooming habits). Through these and other humble items recovered from graves, bogs, and middens, we can learn much about the fascinating people who left a mark on the world with their explorations, language, and warrior legends.”


4. David O. Stewart’s review of Saints and Liars: The Story of Americans Who Saved Refugees from the Nazis by Debórah Dwork (W.W. Norton & Company). “The book offers an interesting narrative structure, focusing on five cities, one supposedly for each key year from 1939 to 1943: Prague in 1939, Vilna (now Vilnius) in 1940, Shanghai in 1941, Marseille in 1942, and finally, Lisbon in 1943. But the tale is a sprawling, unruly one that resists Dwork’s categories. Refugee-aid efforts in each location began earlier and lasted longer than the years assigned to them, while the Americans involved were more numerous than the eight spotlighted (and those eight weren’t always pivotal). The misalignment between structure and facts causes the story to lose focus as it careens among locations, years, refugee groups, and the destinations sought by the would-be emigrants, while supposed leading figures disappear and then reappear.”


5. “A Neverending Journey” by Alice Stephens. “I attempted my first novel in my early 20s. It was terrible. Because I didn’t know who I was, I copied the books I loved. My protagonist was a white man! All the characters were white, except for one, lone Black man. There were no Asians. When it finally sank in that my manuscript was a stinker, I put aside all writing except for letters and my journal. I had two sons and concentrated on family and career. But the itch to write, like the itch to travel, was always there.”

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